M24 - have a thinning crown despite no other family members having hair loss, which has worried me for a few months since I started to notice it this January. Still not sure if this is actually androgenic alopecia or telogen effluvium, a dermatologist told me she “wasn’t sure” but thought given the region it probably was. I’ve been applying minoxidil to it ever since and in March started taking pumpkin seed oil and hair vitamin supplements. Does this look materially better and has anyone else achieved full regrowth? Or is this just “damage control”?

I AM NOT A TIPSTER. I AM NEVER A TIPSTER. NOTHING I WRITE IS EVER A TIP. THIS CONTENT IS SOLELY INTENDED TO INFORM, NEVER ADVISE

HEXHAM 3RD JUNE – PREVIEW NOTES

Unless stated, all figures relate to British and Irish juvenile hurdlers since 2004/05
For context, the average strike rate (SR) across all juveniles is 9.54%, winner-runner (WR) 19.55%, improvement rate (IMP) 36.90%, clear round (CR) 96.07%, prize money per race (PMPR) £1107.31

Race History/Stats

Traditional curtain raiser, held each year since 2008 apart from 2020
Average winning Dis 0.89 median, 1.14 mean. Figures lower only at Chepstow and Cheltenham.
Average winners’ seasonal RPR of 103.43 over a stone lower than standard juvenile hurdle.
Four graduates have gone on to contest the Triumph; Simarian (1st 2008, 7th Triumph), Lindenhurst (2nd 2013, 9th Triumph), Koi Dodville (1st 2021, 11th Triumph), Rupestrian (1st 2009, PU Triumph).
Dinarius (5th 2008), Ocean Transit (4th 2008) and Linger (UR 2016) eventually earned RPRs exceeding 130

Course Info

Undulating, galloping, left-handed track.
Average winning Dis of 0.89 median, 1.11 mean are 0.46 lower than average runner; greatest discrepancy of all racecourses.
Clear round 97.24% (+1.17 cf. standard), completion rate 77.91% (-9.36 cf. standard) lower only at Southwell.
Odds-on SR of 40% is lowest of all British courses with 10 or more qualifiers.
No discernible pace advantage

Ground & Pace

Good. Dry weather forecast, watering to maintain.
Three have made running in past. Solid pace anticipated.

City Of Ruins bg Donald McCain Unraced

Nathaniel (New Approach){7-f}(0.53) 2/1 Devilment 150 2nd Anniversary Hurdle (G1), Aintree 2015

Breeding

Nathaniel 27.5% WR, including Zanahiyr, Burning Victory and Navajo Pass. Won this race in 2019 with Green Etoile.
Full-brother Tuddenham Green won two Juveniles last term and finsihed second in Wensleydale.
Nephew of Devilment (2nd Anniversary) and Nasee (minor staying hurdle winner)

Source

Cost 7,000gns as yearling at Tatts October Sale.
Donald McCain one win from five with racecourse debutants (Sacre Pierre a three-time winner in 2021/22).

Trainer

38.89% WR since 2018/19.
12 runners without a win at Hexam, 2nd in 2018 running with Weinberg.

Summary

Outside of Junior NH Hurdles, previously unraced juvenile hurdling debutants have a first-time-out strike-rate of just 2.35%. Nevertheless, one such winner was trained by Donald McCain and this pedigree is an especially strong one for the time of year.

Hourless bg Alan King f5-1-0 (49) 57

Time Test (Green Desert){14-c}(1.36) 3/1 Blue Bit 107 1st 2m Handicap Hurdle, Tramore 1997

Breeding

Time Test second season, one juvenile to date; Never No Trouble r9w1 RPR91
Green Desert below average influence in juvenile hurdles (15.79% WR damsire, 15.38% WR sire)
Family of Kutub, Blue Bit (3/1) only winning jumper of ten+ relatives from 3rd dam.

Source

Cost 70,000gns at last year’s Tatts Guineas Sale.
Self-trained Alan King juveniles 51.06% WR.
Those rated 61 or below have 15% first time strike rate. However, those rated 56 or below are only one winner from thirteen, with Proprioception’s sole win from six coming in a Southwell mares’ handicap off 92.

Trainer

Most winners of any trainer since 2004/05, 47.13% WR, 48.57% IMP
Three runs in this race, one win (Green Etoile 2019), one second (City Dreamer 2017)

Flat Profile

No show on first three outings, but won handicap debut off 47 at Wolverhampton over 1m1½f.
Raced keenly in rear off modest tempo, green under pressure but led inside final furlong winning with bit to spare.
Raised two pounds, still green when one paced 5th last time at Bath

Summary

Represents most successful trainer in the sphere and does have a win to his name. However, that came at a decidedly modest level and there is also a concern that he could find himself unbalanced around Hexham.

Indication Rocket bg Rebecca Menzies f9-1-2 (61) 64

Dandy Man (Rip Van Winkle){14-c}(0.71) 3/1 Rocky Wednesday 140 3rd Winning Fair Juvenile Hurdle (G2), Fairyhouse 2011

Breeding

Dandy Man 7.14%WR, 0-12 IMP. Chatez (Alan King rated 96 on flat) only winner.
Rip Van Winkle 0-3 as damsire, 7.69% WR as sire.
Third dam produced useful winners Bohemian Spirit and Rocky Wednesday

Source

16,000gns as 2yo at Tatts Guineas Sale.
Sole self-trained flat recruit beaten only hurdles start.

Trainer

62.50% Improvement rate since 2018/19 is highest in GB.
26.67% First time strike rate, including three such winners last term. First juvenile at Hexham.

Flat Profile

Most experienced runner in the field courtesy of nine outings. Modest on first three starts over 6f, but has steadily improved for switch to handicaps and step up in trip.
Runner-up in slowly run 10f Newcastle Nursery in September, off the mark penultimate outing in mile handicap off 55 at same track in early May.
Had run of race up front, but pulled clear again when caught inside distance to win by 2½l. No subsequent winners but those out since have run to form.
Last seen ten days later finishing third at Wolverhampton over a further furlong-and-a-half off 61. Travelled strongly but no extra when headed turning for home.

Summary

*Rebecca Menzies is a very capable trainer of juveniles who finds improvement from her charges more often than not; which is very much a positive for a horse who is only a few pounds from the top rated. However, while the damline is sound, the sire and damsire have poor records and stamina around Hexham is not assured.

Uncle Matthew bg Evan Williams f6-1-0 (65) 69

Fast Company (Manduro){13-c}(0.78) 3/1 Scriptwriter 134 5th Holloway’s Handicap Hurdle (G2,133), Ascot 2009

Breeding

Fast Company since 2018/19; 41.18% WR, 22.73% SR (2nd highest) 64.29% IMP (5th highest)
Manduro 3-12 WR, 62.50% IMP as damsire, 32.14% WR as sire
Half-brother pulled up sole jumps start. Nephew of Hunter’s Light. Fourth dam produced Darshaan, along with useful jumpers Daraydan and Darialann.

Source

£16,000 Tatts Ascot March
ex-John Gosden’s have below-average record in juveniles; WR 18.35%, IMP 22.97%
First to join Evan Williams from Gosden’s
Williams 31.75% WR with those bought at public auction. 29.79% for those costing £20,000 or less. Ex-Gosdens 18.60% WR <= £20,000

Trainer

27.97% WR, although only 9.52% since 2017/18
22.03% Strike rate during summer.
Two runners in this contest; Simarian (1st 2008 – strongest juvenile graduate from contest; 1st Prestbury, 7th Triumph) Quickdrawmcgraw (2nd 2022)

Flat Profile

Five-race 2yo campaign starting in Autumn saw him finish no closer than fourth with a BHA mark of 62.
Made winning return in 1m3f Southwell handicap off 62; starting slowly, prominent halfway and stayed on dourly to prevail by head. Third, fourth and fifth all placed next time.

Summary

Trainer not as prolific as he was previously, but still managed a second in this contest last year with 52 rated Quickdrawmcgraw. Pedigree is very solid, neither stamina nor attitude would be a concern, and the his Southwell win is as strong as any British form in this line-up. However, those leaving John Gosden’s often underperform when switched to hurdles.

Max Of Stars bf Ollie Pears f4-0-0 (55) 57

Cloth Of Stars (Rock Of Gibraltar){31}(0.67) 3/2 Tiger Roll 174 1st Triumph Hurdle (G1), Cheltenham 2014

Breeding

Cloth Of Stars first crop. 1st Ganay, 2nd and 3rd in Arc. 2/3 Elgin 3/2 Dodging Bullets, 1.62m
Sea The Stars 35% WR as juvenile grandsire, 33.33% WR as sire.
Two juveniles to date in France, each placing at moderate level.
Rock of Gibraltar 13.95% WR as damsire.
Third dam, On Air, 4th in Kennel Gate. Produced useful Khachaturian and dam of Tiger Roll

Source

€8,500 as yearling from Arqana
Sole placed juvenile My Brother Jack, trained on flat by Pears

Trainer

0-6 WR. No runners at Hexham. 100% IMP courtesy of My Brother Jack (sole qualifier)

Jockey

Sean Quinlan won 2017 running with 8/1 shot Costa Percy

Flat Profile

Made debut in February. Beaten at least eleven lengths first three outings in maidens at Southwell and Doncaster.
Handicap debut off 56 at Southwell over 1m4f. Raced keenly with uncontested lead, headed final furlong, flashed tail under pressure. Finished 2¼l fourth of six.

Summary

Distant relative of Tiger Roll and first-season sire not without potential. However, while best form on flat came last time out, it still leaves enough to find and her attitude was not massively encouraging.

Waitara chf David Pipe f6-2-1 (30.0/66) TF68

Recoletos (Hernando){1-t}(0.54) 1/2 Theamoi 62.5 1st 3550m 3yo Handicap Hurdle (59.0), Fontainebleau 2022
https://www.equidia.fchevaux/waitara

Breeding

Recoletos first juvenile runner. Won Moulin and d’Ispahan, 3rd French Derby. Half-brother to winning hurdler Pedregalejo. 1.63m
Whipper’s sole juvenile stallion Very Nice Name 14.29% WR. Whipper himself 20% WR
Hernando 29.27% WR as damsire inc. Punjabi, Adagio and Gaelic Warrior. 60.71% IMP
Nephew of Timos. 0.5 Thea (1st 4yo Hurdle, Auteuil), 0.5 Ticinello (3rd 4yo Hurdle Enghien). 2/1 Trillion Stars, 3/1 Thagus (both winners)

Source

David Pipe 7-22 first time ex-French Claimers; including last two winners of this race, Koi Dodville and Free Chakarte (both bought off Flat).
Waitara second least expensive of such horses, only Jilaijone lower at €10,806; won first time at Fontwell last term for same owner.
First export of Thierry & Gaël Lemer.

Trainer

David Pipe 46.67% WR since 2018/19 (5th highest) 38.46% SR during June.
Last four runners in this race; Free Chakarte (1st 2022), Koi Dodville (1st 2021), Bathwick Scanno (2nd 2011), Lucky Quay (1st 2010)

Flat Profile

Beaten by at least 12l on both outings at two, but began 3yo campaign with win in Pau 2000m claimer (retained for €11,001)
Forgiven sixth place finish next time having missed break. Second penultimate outing; winner (2kg lighter) had run of race, stayed on well from remainder.
Last seen winning 2100m Toulouse claimer in mid March. Broke slowly but soon in lead racing keenly. Caught at distance but responded generously for pressure; winning decisively by length and a half.
Fifth placed finisher only subsequent winner. Nevertheless, runner-up has since been consistent in handicaps off 62. Mark in mid-high 60s would be appropriate.

Summary

Last two runnings have gone to David Pipe trained ex-French claimers, and while Free Chakarte and Koi Dodville had slightly higher ratings, Waitara still emerges on top at these weights. Moreover, she has shown consistent form throughout 2023 and a good attitude to complement same. First-season sire yet to be tested but has perfectly reasonable credentials and the damsire and damlines are encouraging. Only concern would be a lack of form shown on ground better than soft.

Strong Prospects

Waitara

Reasonable Prospects

Uncle Matthew
Indication Rocket

Feasible Prospects

City Of Ruins

Moderate Prospects

Hourless
Max Of Stars

Negligible Prospects

.

Thirty-four years have passed since the June 4th anniversary. Although the Chinese Communist Party authorities have kept their secrets and prohibited discussion, there are still people commemorating it every year outside the wall.
But I want to say that the June 4th student movement was not "spontaneous by the masses", but a political movement initiated by politicians. Just like the Cultural Revolution was initiated by Mao Zedong, and the Fourth Five Movement was initiated by Deng Xiaoping, the June Fourth Movement was initiated by Zhao Ziyang to seek justice for Hu Yaobang and attack Li Peng, Chen Yun, and even Deng Xiaoping.
June Fourth was inspired by Deng Xiaoping's April Five Movement. Deng Xiaoping's inspiration for launching the April 5th Movement came from Mao Zedong's multiple student movements in 1966-68, or the Cultural Revolution.
Mao Zedong's inspiration for launching the 66-68 Student Movement came from the May 4th Movement. The May 4th Movement was actually a campaign initiated by Liang Qichao, Wang Daxie, and Lin Changmin against the then President Xu Shichang, the then Minister to Japan Zhang Zongxiang, and the then Minister of Communications Cao Rulin.
Liang Qichao launched the May Fourth Movement, which was inspired by the Boxers around 1900.
The reason why it is said that from the Boxer Rebellion to the June 4th Movement was manipulation by politicians rather than "spontaneity of the masses". These movements all have an essence. They are not opposed to the regime and strongly support the regime. They are only dissatisfied with certain specific issues. Issues are really just a matter for politicians.
Expressing support for the regime in the parade has a very heavy operational color. For example, the Boxer Rebellion’s slogan of “supporting the Qing Dynasty and destroying the foreigners,” June 4th’s actions of “supporting the party’s leadership” and “swiping away the counter-revolutionaries who stained Chairman Mao’s portrait with ink” all clearly showed that these movements supported the government.
This strange parade movement has been passed down. In ancient China, there was no concept of democracy, but it also paid attention to public opinion. That is what Confucianism calls "the people are the most important, the society is second, and the monarch is the least". "Whoever wins the hearts of the people wins the world." Theory.
So in an authoritarian era where there is no concept of voting, how do we reflect the hearts of the people? Of course, adjectives such as "auspiciousness" appearing in various places, common people "eat pots of pulp", "loyal to the emperor and patriotism" and "swear allegiance to the emperor to the death".
Of course, language is pale, in addition to adjectives, but also action. For example, the common people offered their most precious local specialties as tribute, and the officials wrote a persuasion form to express their loyalty with the sincerity of the tribute.
At least in the Han Dynasty, there were records of politicians forging public opinion to achieve their own goals. For example, when Wang Mang usurped the throne, people all over the world expressed their support, and there were various auspicious signs. These are obviously forged.
After understanding the tradition of falsifying public opinion, it is relatively easy to understand that the Qing Dynasty organized the Boxer Rebellion, Liang Qichao initiated the May Fourth Movement, Mao Zedong initiated the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping initiated the April 5th Movement, Hu Yaobang initiated the 1986 Student Movement, and Zhao Ziyang organized the 1989 Student Movement.
This is all in a place where there is no voting right, inciting the masses to create momentum.
Similar to this is the North Korean masses, who march against the United States at every turn, "spontaneously" for Kim Il Sung, and cry to death after Kim Jong Il's death.
In authoritarian countries without the right to vote, these masses incited by politicians are seen as "voting with action."
What is the real public opinion? In a democratic country, in addition to using polls to understand public opinion, of course there are parades to reflect public opinion.
It's just that in unmanaged democracies, people usually only march because of their own interests. For example, the North American truck driver parade is because of the vaccination mandate for the truck driver group and so on. The French demonstrations are mostly due to rising prices.
"Pro-government" marches occur only in authoritarian countries. The Boxers, the May Fourth Movement, the Cultural Revolution, August 6th, and 1989 were actually demonstrations in favor of the government. Because these demonstrations support a certain policy of the government and are controlled opposition groups. The Boxer Movement supported the government’s confrontation with foreigners, the May 4th movement supported the government’s external toughness, the Cultural Revolution supported the government’s (Mao Zedong) overthrow of Liu Shaoqi, the August 6th movement supported the government’s (Hu Yaobang) reform of the electoral system for people’s congresses, and the 1989 student movement supported the government’s (Zhao Ziyang) Discussing for Hu Yaobang is a step closer to suppressing "conservatives".
A truly uncontrolled demonstration will not be under the banner of "supporting a certain decision of a certain person in the government". Take Qing as an example:
In the Qing Dynasty, there were countless uncontrolled opposition groups before the Boxers. The early anti-Qing Fuming Triad Organization and the White Lotus Sect, Wu Sangui and other forces did not count. In the late Qing Dynasty, there were also Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Xiaodaohui, Nian Army, Xinjiang Uncontrolled opposition forces such as the 70% khanate of Aquba and the so-called "Sun Party", that is, Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary party.
At this time, the Qing Dynasty needs to launch a mass movement so that the masses can find something to do and someone to vent their anger on. Otherwise, they might join some anti-government organization.
So the government took advantage of the desire of the masses to vent, organized a group of gangsters who practice martial arts, and made up some slogans to let these gangsters beat foreigners.
This trick was actually used before in Sanyuanli when fighting against the British. Mobilizing the masses to resist foreigners is an old routine of the Qing Dynasty. You can see the jingle compiled by the Qing Dynasty for the Boxers, "Red light shines, the world laughs. Kill foreigners first, then kill foreign religions" "God helps fist, boxers... demolish railways, pull wire poles, and urgently destroy steamers. Foreign devils, kill all Slogans such as "The Great Qing Dynasty will be able to unify the rivers and mountains" can be seen to be made up by educated people. At that time, the generation of farmers in the Yellow River Flooding Area in Northeast China, what kind of foreign religion did they know, what about steamships?
What foreigners endanger is the rule of the Qing Dynasty, not the peasants. You must know that farmers in normal countries protest, usually to protest against low food prices or land mergers and environmental pollution. In ancient China, it was fleeing famine and peasant uprising. The peasant movement, which took the initiative to support the government and help the government defeat its opponents, was the first of its kind in the Qing Dynasty during the two thousand years of imperial rule.
Farmers are farming in the fields every day, and they suddenly want to help the government against foreigners. Naturally, someone instigates and writes songs.
Nineteen years after the end of the Boxer Movement, when Liang Qichao was facing his political opponents, he suddenly remembered the Boxer's move to mobilize the masses. Therefore, students were mobilized to protest the Paris Peace Conference, and the May 4th Movement was launched.
In fact, students usually only protest the high price of food in the cafeteria and the bad food. Does the Twenty-One of the Paris Peace Conference have anything to do with students? Obviously someone provoked. If the students really cared so much about the territory, then Mongolia became independent, Manchukuo was established, and the Chinese Soviet was established, why didn’t there be large-scale demonstrations by students?
The May 4th Movement was quite a big mess, which left a deep impression on Mao Zedong, who was 26 years old at the time. He was addicted to rebellion and wanted to find an opportunity to engage in a movement like the May Fourth Movement all his life. So in order to defeat Liu Shaoqi, he finally imitated the May 4th Movement and instigated the 66-year student movement. It also has a nice name, the Cultural Revolution.
It was created by combining the New Culture Movement of the year and the creativity of the revolutionaries. The purpose, of course, is to defeat Liu Shaoqi. In fact, among those students who rose up to protest against Liu Shaoqi, how many of them could get in touch with Liu Shaoqi, why did they hate Liu Shaoqi so much? Of course it was Mao Zedong who did it.
While criticizing Liu Shaoqi, a Soviet cadre, he incidentally criticized Deng Xiaoping who carried out Liu Shaoqi's line. The students criticized Deng Xiaoping's younger brother, Deng Shuping, and committed suicide. His son jumped off a building and became disabled.
The student movement launched by Mao Zedong undoubtedly left a deep impression on Deng Xiaoping, so he also learned the technique of organizing the masses to "express public opinion", so he first wrote to Mao Zedong to show his weakness, and secretly cooperated with Ye Jianying, Chen Yun and others to try to launch a mass movement for revenge. The two political allies Chen Yun and Ye Jianying were carefully selected by Deng: Chen Yun offended Mao in the late 1950s when he launched an anti-adventurous movement, and his home was ransacked twice after the Cultural Revolution. Ye Jianying was criticized thoroughly because of the February countercurrent incident.
It can be said that Deng, Chen, and Ye belonged to the people who had been criticized by Mao Zedong and then came back to "make meritorious service". The three hit it off and imitated Mao Zedong's way of mobilizing the masses to launch the Fourth and Fifth Movement, trying to use public opinion to oppose Mao Zedong and the "Gang of Four". ".
As a result, the April 5th Movement in 1976 was broken up by Jiang Qing's mobilization of Beijing military police and workers with wooden sticks in just two days. Deng Xiaoping was defeated again. It's a pity that Jiang Qing and the others didn't see that Chen Yun and Ye Jianying belonged to Deng Xiaoping, which laid the groundwork for the subsequent crushing of the Gang of Four.
Next came the 86 Student Movement. In fact, Hu Yaobang Wanli thought that Deng Xiaoping was about to fight the conservatives to seize power, so he created a wave of "public opinion" to support Deng Xiaoping. Due to the huge momentum of the 86 student movement, Deng Xiaoping, who was unwilling to make a democratic transition in his heart, launched an action to criticize bourgeois liberalization without hesitation. In fact, it was criticizing Hu Yaobang.
The depressed Hu Yaobang died of massive myocardial infarction in 1989, so Zhao Ziyang organized a commemorative event for Hu Yaobang, imitating Deng Xiaoping's 1976 drama of using the dead to overwhelm the living. That is, the 89 student movement.
This time it was even bigger than the 86 student movement, so that in the end Deng Xiaoping had no troops to transfer in Beijing, so he could only put down his old face and send troops from other places to suppress it.
From the Boxers to the May 4th, from the May 4th to the June 4th, politicians manipulated public opinion time and time again, using the blood of the masses to achieve their political goals, which has to be thought-provoking.
The government's methods of inciting public opinion are also very similar: pulling one faction against another, compiling songs, leaflets, and big-character posters. Open one opening and close the others. The masses are limited to certain slogans and cannot oppose the government or someone in the government.
For example, the Boxers allowed you to kill foreigners but not to oppose the government, the Cultural Revolution allowed you to criticize Liu Shaoqi but not the party to criticize Mao Zedong, June Fourth allowed you to commemorate Hu Yaobang and even called for democracy, but you were not allowed to attack Chairman Mao or oppose the Communist Party, etc. You just have to think about it, whoever wrote the texts about helping the Qing Dynasty and exterminating the foreigners and distributed them among the people, and whoever wrote the texts commemorating Hu Yaobang took the lead in posting big-character posters in universities, you will know who is behind the scenes
We can say that most of the mass movements after the establishment of the Communist Party of China were not spontaneous, but belonged to the "controllable opposition".
The truly uncontrolled mass movements are the exile of the Dalai Lama in India, the repeated armed protests of the Uighurs, the armed protests in Shadian, Yunnan, the appeal of Falun Gong, the 315 incident in Lhasa in 2008, the July 5 incident in Xinjiang and a series of ethnic conflicts after that, To the recent Tonghaina family camp incident and so on.
It can be seen that these mass movements not controlled by the Communist Party are fundamentally different from controlled movements such as the Boxer Rebellion, the Cultural Revolution, and June 4th. The uncontrolled mass movement is more like a traditional peasant uprising, the Hui uprising.
With this understanding, when the next "mass movement" comes, you can simply judge whether it is led by some politicians or a movement not controlled by the government, and then decide whether to participate and how to participate.
It is not to say that the mass movement led by the government can only be used as a pawn. If you have a clear understanding, you can use it in reverse. The mass gathering of 100,000 people organized by Ceausescu is a good example.
And the recent mass movement to overthrow the government in Sri Lanka also illustrates the great potential of the power of the masses. If the millions of students and citizens had walked into Zhongnanhai instead of going on a hunger strike in the square on June 4th, perhaps the political situation would have changed long ago.

Many Hongkongers had been infected for the first or second time in recent weeks amid a surge in coronavirus cases, Chinese University respiratory medicine expert Professor David Hui Shu-cheong on Saturday said.
Hong Kong downgraded its response level for the pandemic from “emergency” to “alert” on Tuesday, the lowest in the government’s three-tier system, and will continue to treat Covid as a common respiratory disease.
The change indicates the government considers the disease’s immediate health impact on the population to be minimal.
Speaking on another radio programme, Kwok Kin-on, an assistant professor at Chinese University’s medical faculty, said there was a survey conducted in March on 611 people, and over half of them said they would still wear a mask in the workplace or at outdoor venues in the next month. About 60% said they would undergo a rapid antigen test if they had coronavirus symptoms.
But among the 76% who had received 3 doses, only 10% indicated they would get another booster shot.
📆 03 Jun 2023 📰 Hong Kong: sixth wave has peaked, caseloads to drop in ‘few more weeks’, government adviser says 🗞️ South China Morning Post
Tumblr
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3222830/coronavirus-hong-kong-sixth-infection-wave-city-peaks-case-numbers-drop-after-few-more-weeks

Thirty-four years have passed since the June 4th anniversary. Although the Chinese Communist Party authorities have kept their secrets and prohibited discussion, there are still people commemorating it every year outside the wall.
But I want to say that the June 4th student movement was not "spontaneous by the masses", but a political movement initiated by politicians. Just like the Cultural Revolution was initiated by Mao Zedong, and the Fourth Five Movement was initiated by Deng Xiaoping, the June Fourth Movement was initiated by Zhao Ziyang to seek justice for Hu Yaobang and attack Li Peng, Chen Yun, and even Deng Xiaoping.
June Fourth was inspired by Deng Xiaoping's April Five Movement. Deng Xiaoping's inspiration for launching the April 5th Movement came from Mao Zedong's multiple student movements in 1966-68, or the Cultural Revolution.
Mao Zedong's inspiration for launching the 66-68 Student Movement came from the May 4th Movement. The May 4th Movement was actually a campaign initiated by Liang Qichao, Wang Daxie, and Lin Changmin against the then President Xu Shichang, the then Minister to Japan Zhang Zongxiang, and the then Minister of Communications Cao Rulin.
Liang Qichao launched the May Fourth Movement, which was inspired by the Boxers around 1900.
The reason why it is said that from the Boxer Rebellion to the June 4th Movement was manipulation by politicians rather than "spontaneity of the masses". These movements all have an essence. They are not opposed to the regime and strongly support the regime. They are only dissatisfied with certain specific issues. Issues are really just a matter for politicians.
Expressing support for the regime in the parade has a very heavy operational color. For example, the Boxer Rebellion’s slogan of “supporting the Qing Dynasty and destroying the foreigners,” June 4th’s actions of “supporting the party’s leadership” and “swiping away the counter-revolutionaries who stained Chairman Mao’s portrait with ink” all clearly showed that these movements supported the government.
This strange parade movement has been passed down. In ancient China, there was no concept of democracy, but it also paid attention to public opinion. That is what Confucianism calls "the people are the most important, the society is second, and the monarch is the least". "Whoever wins the hearts of the people wins the world." Theory.
So in an authoritarian era where there is no concept of voting, how do we reflect the hearts of the people? Of course, adjectives such as "auspiciousness" appearing in various places, common people "eat pots of pulp", "loyal to the emperor and patriotism" and "swear allegiance to the emperor to the death".
Of course, language is pale, in addition to adjectives, but also action. For example, the common people offered their most precious local specialties as tribute, and the officials wrote a persuasion form to express their loyalty with the sincerity of the tribute.
At least in the Han Dynasty, there were records of politicians forging public opinion to achieve their own goals. For example, when Wang Mang usurped the throne, people all over the world expressed their support, and there were various auspicious signs. These are obviously forged.
After understanding the tradition of falsifying public opinion, it is relatively easy to understand that the Qing Dynasty organized the Boxer Rebellion, Liang Qichao initiated the May Fourth Movement, Mao Zedong initiated the Cultural Revolution, Deng Xiaoping initiated the April 5th Movement, Hu Yaobang initiated the 1986 Student Movement, and Zhao Ziyang organized the 1989 Student Movement.
This is all in a place where there is no voting right, inciting the masses to create momentum.
Similar to this is the North Korean masses, who march against the United States at every turn, "spontaneously" for Kim Il Sung, and cry to death after Kim Jong Il's death.
In authoritarian countries without the right to vote, these masses incited by politicians are seen as "voting with action."
What is the real public opinion? In a democratic country, in addition to using polls to understand public opinion, of course there are parades to reflect public opinion.
It's just that in unmanaged democracies, people usually only march because of their own interests. For example, the North American truck driver parade is because of the vaccination mandate for the truck driver group and so on. The French demonstrations are mostly due to rising prices.
"Pro-government" marches occur only in authoritarian countries. The Boxers, the May Fourth Movement, the Cultural Revolution, August 6th, and 1989 were actually demonstrations in favor of the government. Because these demonstrations support a certain policy of the government and are controlled opposition groups. The Boxer Movement supported the government’s confrontation with foreigners, the May 4th movement supported the government’s external toughness, the Cultural Revolution supported the government’s (Mao Zedong) overthrow of Liu Shaoqi, the August 6th movement supported the government’s (Hu Yaobang) reform of the electoral system for people’s congresses, and the 1989 student movement supported the government’s (Zhao Ziyang) Discussing for Hu Yaobang is a step closer to suppressing "conservatives".
A truly uncontrolled demonstration will not be under the banner of "supporting a certain decision of a certain person in the government". Take Qing as an example:
In the Qing Dynasty, there were countless uncontrolled opposition groups before the Boxers. The early anti-Qing Fuming Triad Organization and the White Lotus Sect, Wu Sangui and other forces did not count. In the late Qing Dynasty, there were also Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Xiaodaohui, Nian Army, Xinjiang Uncontrolled opposition forces such as the 70% khanate of Aquba and the so-called "Sun Party", that is, Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary party.
At this time, the Qing Dynasty needs to launch a mass movement so that the masses can find something to do and someone to vent their anger on. Otherwise, they might join some anti-government organization.
So the government took advantage of the desire of the masses to vent, organized a group of gangsters who practice martial arts, and made up some slogans to let these gangsters beat foreigners.
This trick was actually used before in Sanyuanli when fighting against the British. Mobilizing the masses to resist foreigners is an old routine of the Qing Dynasty. You can see the jingle compiled by the Qing Dynasty for the Boxers, "Red light shines, the world laughs. Kill foreigners first, then kill foreign religions" "God helps fist, boxers... demolish railways, pull wire poles, and urgently destroy steamers. Foreign devils, kill all Slogans such as "The Great Qing Dynasty will be able to unify the rivers and mountains" can be seen to be made up by educated people. At that time, the generation of farmers in the Yellow River Flooding Area in Northeast China, what kind of foreign religion did they know, what about steamships?
What foreigners endanger is the rule of the Qing Dynasty, not the peasants. You must know that farmers in normal countries protest, usually to protest against low food prices or land mergers and environmental pollution. In ancient China, it was fleeing famine and peasant uprising. The peasant movement, which took the initiative to support the government and help the government defeat its opponents, was the first of its kind in the Qing Dynasty during the two thousand years of imperial rule.
Farmers are farming in the fields every day, and they suddenly want to help the government against foreigners. Naturally, someone instigates and writes songs.
Nineteen years after the end of the Boxer Movement, when Liang Qichao was facing his political opponents, he suddenly remembered the Boxer's move to mobilize the masses. Therefore, students were mobilized to protest the Paris Peace Conference, and the May 4th Movement was launched.
In fact, students usually only protest the high price of food in the cafeteria and the bad food. Does the Twenty-One of the Paris Peace Conference have anything to do with students? Obviously someone provoked. If the students really cared so much about the territory, then Mongolia became independent, Manchukuo was established, and the Chinese Soviet was established, why didn’t there be large-scale demonstrations by students?
The May 4th Movement was quite a big mess, which left a deep impression on Mao Zedong, who was 26 years old at the time. He was addicted to rebellion and wanted to find an opportunity to engage in a movement like the May Fourth Movement all his life. So in order to defeat Liu Shaoqi, he finally imitated the May 4th Movement and instigated the 66-year student movement. It also has a nice name, the Cultural Revolution.
It was created by combining the New Culture Movement of the year and the creativity of the revolutionaries. The purpose, of course, is to defeat Liu Shaoqi. In fact, among those students who rose up to protest against Liu Shaoqi, how many of them could get in touch with Liu Shaoqi, why did they hate Liu Shaoqi so much? Of course it was Mao Zedong who did it.
While criticizing Liu Shaoqi, a Soviet cadre, he incidentally criticized Deng Xiaoping who carried out Liu Shaoqi's line. The students criticized Deng Xiaoping's younger brother, Deng Shuping, and committed suicide. His son jumped off a building and became disabled.
The student movement launched by Mao Zedong undoubtedly left a deep impression on Deng Xiaoping, so he also learned the technique of organizing the masses to "express public opinion", so he first wrote to Mao Zedong to show his weakness, and secretly cooperated with Ye Jianying, Chen Yun and others to try to launch a mass movement for revenge. The two political allies Chen Yun and Ye Jianying were carefully selected by Deng: Chen Yun offended Mao in the late 1950s when he launched an anti-adventurous movement, and his home was ransacked twice after the Cultural Revolution. Ye Jianying was criticized thoroughly because of the February countercurrent incident.
It can be said that Deng, Chen, and Ye belonged to the people who had been criticized by Mao Zedong and then came back to "make meritorious service". The three hit it off and imitated Mao Zedong's way of mobilizing the masses to launch the Fourth and Fifth Movement, trying to use public opinion to oppose Mao Zedong and the "Gang of Four". ".
As a result, the April 5th Movement in 1976 was broken up by Jiang Qing's mobilization of Beijing military police and workers with wooden sticks in just two days. Deng Xiaoping was defeated again. It's a pity that Jiang Qing and the others didn't see that Chen Yun and Ye Jianying belonged to Deng Xiaoping, which laid the groundwork for the subsequent crushing of the Gang of Four.
Next came the 86 Student Movement. In fact, Hu Yaobang Wanli thought that Deng Xiaoping was about to fight the conservatives to seize power, so he created a wave of "public opinion" to support Deng Xiaoping. Due to the huge momentum of the 86 student movement, Deng Xiaoping, who was unwilling to make a democratic transition in his heart, launched an action to criticize bourgeois liberalization without hesitation. In fact, it was criticizing Hu Yaobang.
The depressed Hu Yaobang died of massive myocardial infarction in 1989, so Zhao Ziyang organized a commemorative event for Hu Yaobang, imitating Deng Xiaoping's 1976 drama of using the dead to overwhelm the living. That is, the 89 student movement.
This time it was even bigger than the 86 student movement, so that in the end Deng Xiaoping had no troops to transfer in Beijing, so he could only put down his old face and send troops from other places to suppress it.
From the Boxers to the May 4th, from the May 4th to the June 4th, politicians manipulated public opinion time and time again, using the blood of the masses to achieve their political goals, which has to be thought-provoking.
The government's methods of inciting public opinion are also very similar: pulling one faction against another, compiling songs, leaflets, and big-character posters. Open one opening and close the others. The masses are limited to certain slogans and cannot oppose the government or someone in the government.
For example, the Boxers allowed you to kill foreigners but not to oppose the government, the Cultural Revolution allowed you to criticize Liu Shaoqi but not the party to criticize Mao Zedong, June Fourth allowed you to commemorate Hu Yaobang and even called for democracy, but you were not allowed to attack Chairman Mao or oppose the Communist Party, etc. You just have to think about it, whoever wrote the texts about helping the Qing Dynasty and exterminating the foreigners and distributed them among the people, and whoever wrote the texts commemorating Hu Yaobang took the lead in posting big-character posters in universities, you will know who is behind the scenes
We can say that most of the mass movements after the establishment of the Communist Party of China were not spontaneous, but belonged to the "controllable opposition".
The truly uncontrolled mass movements are the exile of the Dalai Lama in India, the repeated armed protests of the Uighurs, the armed protests in Shadian, Yunnan, the appeal of Falun Gong, the 315 incident in Lhasa in 2008, the July 5 incident in Xinjiang and a series of ethnic conflicts after that, To the recent Tonghaina family camp incident and so on.
It can be seen that these mass movements not controlled by the Communist Party are fundamentally different from controlled movements such as the Boxer Rebellion, the Cultural Revolution, and June 4th. The uncontrolled mass movement is more like a traditional peasant uprising, the Hui uprising.
With this understanding, when the next "mass movement" comes, you can simply judge whether it is led by some politicians or a movement not controlled by the government, and then decide whether to participate and how to participate.
It is not to say that the mass movement led by the government can only be used as a pawn. If you have a clear understanding, you can use it in reverse. The mass gathering of 100,000 people organized by Ceausescu is a good example.
And the recent mass movement to overthrow the government in Sri Lanka also illustrates the great potential of the power of the masses. If the millions of students and citizens had walked into Zhongnanhai instead of going on a hunger strike in the square on June 4th, perhaps the political situation would have changed long ago.

Omg LA Knight won the MITB qualifier, this definitely means he's winning the whole thing, there's no way he's just there to take bumps and fill the match with wrestlers that the fans care about, no he's straight up winning the briefcase and then cashing it on RR, and if this doesn't happen I'm gonna be so ANGREEEEE

What if its just.. people. Like all these flying things that have occupants just have people in them. Other Humans. Not people from our military. Not people from alphabet agencies. Not a secret space program. Not people from other countries (that we know about). UFOs contain OTHER Humans.
And what if the government(s) can't figure out where they are coming from. All they know is they have the same DNA, same biology as us. They are not from the future, not from the past, not from another dimension. They are from another, hidden country/nation/continent on Earth.
They don't fly in from outer space. They don't come out of the ocean. They don't come from anywhere specific. They just arrive and leave with impunity. And the governments and militaries of our world JUST. CANT. FIGURE. OUT. WHERE. THEY. COME. FROM. and they can't figure out what they are doing.
I think that's one of the few truly plausible reasons they've kept all this shit a secret. How do you tell the public about THAT? People will go nuts looking for them, or hiding from them. It will be madness and it will terrify people. It would destabilize civilization in ways that discovering off-world extra-terrestrials never could. And why go through that if you don't know... anything?
Imagine finding out about some ancient human empire, suddenly, back in the early days of humanity. You are just out farming and one day a legion of Roman soldiers marches through. Where do they come from? Who are they? They look like you, but you've never heard of Rome or even Italy. Madness. You would either hide, or you would need to know more. You certainly would wonder if you could seek their help or support the next time your dinky local leadership council refused to build a needed irrigation canal, or began wrongly imprisoning people. Or if a neighboring settlement was preparing for war. You wouldn't be able to ignore knowing about it.
So back to the Other Humans. I bet they initially thought they would figure out where They come from with relative ease. But it's been decades and decades, and they still haven't figured out the answer. It has driven them CRAZY. I think that's why they sent Admiral Byrd to Antarctica. But they still could NOT figure out where they were coming from, and they never have in all this time.
The longer I've looked into UFOlogy (30+ years), this is one of the few remaining, plausible scenarios that would justify the magnitude of the coverup of UFOs and related phenomena, in my opinion. True alien life wouldn't have caused such a fuss for so long. I'm certain of it. Look at the history of human technological development. Submarines, satellites, spacecraft - tell me they aren't looking for something - for someone, beyond spying on countries we already know about. Tell me democratizing satellite imagery isn't a desperate attempt to crowd-source the problem. Tell me they didn't yolo AI in the last 10 years to help them figure it out.
So, to summarize:
Why cover everything about UFOs up and confuse everyone? Because it's people. It's humans of some hidden nation (if it helps, think Wakanda) on our planet. They are exactly like us, but they aren't involved in our politics. They don't meet with our governments. And they are doing... things. A Cryptohumanity. Located here, with us, somewhere.
P.S. I'm up late and this post is a bit rambly. I'm not drunk but it might help if you pretend I was when I wrote it.

So I loved my job. I CRUSHED quota every month. We secured seed round funding in March so our FoundeCEO told us we could breathe, no layoffs were to come. He promised we were "safe" unless performance reasons occurred. Well. Yesterday a few of us got laid off for "strategic" reasons. So here I am, searching for a job. I am looking for a Senior SDR positions but will consider a great SDR opportunities also. My title was Sr. SDR Lead, I've built out teams from the ground up as the founding SDR. I have written sales playbooks, coached teams to 200% quota attainment, and am a unique SDR myself. Please let me know of any opportunities out there, please. I'm ready to roll! LFGGGGGGGGG!!!

Thanks to "Sithking Zero" on the NoP Discord for editing help.
Memory transcription subject: Tellek , Farmer
Date [standardized human time]: January 19th, 2137
Has it really come to this, am I really this desperate?
I was, for all intents and purposes, broke. The last harvest had been terrible, in addition to the one before that, which was practically a deathblow for my new farmstead. The debts and missed payments had started to pile up, and I was one more bad harvest away from going completely bankrupt.
Like so many farmers before me, I was becoming another victim of the 5 harvest curse.
I told you that starting a new farm was a bad idea.
What was I supposed to do, brain, keep working in the office until I died?
I sat on my chair, surrounded by other farmers who were presumably in similar states of desperation, the room we were in akin to the schoolrooms I had been in as a pup; a desk and whiteboard up front sitting in front of the rows of chairs. Most of the twenty or so figures around me were fellow Venlil, except for a handful of Gojid and even a single Yotul who was sitting in the back, all of us awaiting the start of the ‘lesson’.
They claimed they had a solution to our problem, that they knew how to increase our yields. How could a predator know how to fix our farming issues?.
Human. Human Human Human Human. Not a predator.
Yes yes I know, I’m trying to be better about that.
I stopped my train of thought and corrected myself. Ever since the revelations about many of our allies being former predators, I had been making an effort to stop thinking of the world in terms of predator and prey. It was difficult at times, but given that I was working against a lifetimes worth of lies, I thought I was making good progress..
But even if “Predator” wasn’t the curse it used to be, how could a human claim to know how to fix our farming issues? Even if we ignored the differences between our diets, for all their advantages, humans were still far below our technological advancements.
Almost on cue, the door to the room opened up, and the figure of the human who had invited us here entered with an enthusiastic bounce, caring two large cases covered with black cloth
Unlike most, this human was unmasked, its piercing eyes and beaming teeth filled smile visible for all to see. I could feel the room start to fill with panic. Sure, logically I knew I was probably safe, but seeing the unmasked features of an apex predator caused fear to grip the edge of my heart.
I could proudly say I can walk past and interact with masked humans without wanting to flee anymore, but seeing those forward-facing eyes boring a hole into my soul was another task altogether.
Come on, you should be better than this.
I’m trying, ok!
"Hello everyone. My name is Joseph. I'm an ecology student, and I'm here to provide a solution to your farming yields." The human spoke with an unbridled joy, seeming to wait a moment while our translators attempted to explain what Ecology was, stopping half way through and seemingly giving up.
“You might be wondering why I’m unmasked, well we’re going to be covering a lot of ‘predatory’ concepts today, so if you can’t handle this? We’re gonna have bigger problems.” Joseph took a moment to broadly gesture to himself, leaving a feeling of dread to start in the pit of my stomach.
If this was just the start, what exactly was going to happen here?
Silence! Wait and see, knowing humans it’s probably interesting at the very least.
“I’ve finally been given authorization to start a trial of this program. Both the UN and Venlil governments are very interested in increasing food supply for both our people. As you might know we’re kinda at war, and logistics wins wars.”
The human paused for a moment, a shiver running around most of the room as he gave a large beaming smile.
“So to start: paws, claws, or tails up if you know about the ‘5 harvest curse.’”
The room immediately was filled with Federation species all raising their prospective limbs in affirmation. Of course we all knew what it was, that was why most of us were here.
How would the human know about that?
Basic research, simple reading, asking literally any farmer?
“Fantastic! I’m still going to explain it so we’re all on the same page. The ‘5 harvest curse’ is a phenomenon where new farms on Venlil prime often fail within the first five harvests. On a side note, the coincidental fact that five has a religious contention in Venlil culture is neat.”
I could feel an annoyance start to course through me, that the affliction currently driving me to destitution was being described as ‘neat’ by the callous predator. I mean human.
Stupid human.
Joseph either didn’t pick up or ignored my annoyance as he pressed a button, a graph appearing on the whiteboard showing expected yields over time, continuing on in his seemingly endless enthusiasm.
“So in general the five harvest curse follows a standard pattern of yields, with the first two harvests being up to 52% larger than even more established farms, plummeting after that until the business is non-viable and collapses. Officially the reason for this is unknown, with some vague religious stupidity about new farms being too far away from the center of the habitable strip.”
This was nothing new to me, I remembered feeling the joy of the sheer output from my first harvest, of wondering if I could finally make something of myself, a joy that had been whittled down as my last two harvests had been pitiful.
“However there’s an interesting thing, if you also plot the number of predator sightings during this time against the yields, you can see a direct correlation between number of predators and the success of each harvest.”
Wait, what? Is this human trying to say that predators… increase harvest? That can’t be right, that can’t be right at all. That would be insanity.
The data is literally there in front of you.
Yet it was there on the screen, a second graph had appeared on the whiteboard, tracking predator sightings over time in each of the farms afflicted by the curse.
“This tracks with most farms' general lifecycle. You buy a plot of untamed land on the edge of the habitable zone but you don’t have enough money to go full anti-predator. As the harvests come in you end up spending more and inadvertently messing it up.”
This caused a small amount of murmuring and energetic rejection by myself and the other members of the room, wiping away the previous undercurrent of fear. It was insanity, it went against everything I had ever known or been taught about farming and how the world worked. How could a predator of all things be beneficial?
Didn’t the introduction of humans also go against everything I had ever known or been taught about?
“If this effect is so obvious, how has nobody found this before?”
The sound of a Venlil challenging Joseph was greeted by murmurs of agreement from the group, causing the human to give a different kind of smile. Not a smile of joy or excitement as had been seen before, but the smile of someone who had something for this.
“Because you have. 150 years ago, a Venlil named Slavek wrote a paper regarding this. 119 years ago, Vicktal did the same. As well as Traval, Stralan, and Vilkin in between then and now. Those are just the ones I’ve found. Who can guess what happened to them?”
There was a pause, before the uplift in the back spoke up for the first time, a surety in the Yotul’s voice.
“They were diagnosed with predator disease.”
Joseph pointed at the Yotul in the back with both hands, the joy radiating from him.
“Based Space Kangaroo gets 10 points for being correct! Yep the federation has been actively suppressing anything that suggests that predators are more than some kind of eldritch evil, that and your surprising lack of hydroponics causes most planets to be dependent on the core worlds for food imports. Probably by design for control.”
Wait… that’s a good point, why aren’t we using hydroponics?
The human took a moment to switch to the next slide, showing a simple three part cycle.
“Most healthy ecological systems are made up of three parts: Plants, which are eaten by herbivores, which are in turn eaten by carnivores. In reality actual systems are far more complex than these, but as a basic understanding this will suffice. These three parts keep each other in check, each part dependent on the other, which-”
“Are you trying to say that predator attacks are a good thing? Are you suffering from predator disease?! ”
The Venlil interrupted once again to more murmured agreement, causing Joseph to give a sigh of clear annoyance in response. I wished the Venlil would shut up and just let the human talk.
“No, I’m not suggesting we airdrop a bunch of Nissa into the Capital, I'm explaining how natural systems work. Sapience obviously breaks this cycle, which if you deviate too far, you end up with something called trophic cascade."
The human seemed to wait a moment for the translator to once again fail to explain the meaning of the phrase.
I wonder how many basic concepts the federation lacks words for…
"Rather simply, the removal of one of these pieces has wider effects, reducing biodiversity and in many cases causing a complete ecological collapse. An example of this is the dust bowl effect, something the federation is well acquainted with."
There was a moment before the whiteboard changed before showing pictures of desolate barren worlds. Without any explanation I knew exactly what I was looking at. It was one of the… lesser talked about aspects of the federation.
"The Skivit grand herd are a species who go from planet to planet stripping ecosystems bare, devouring everything down to the smallest sapling. This removes important root systems that act as drainage, causing flooding and deserts to form as new plantlife lacks the structure to grow. In many cases these ecosystems are permanently destroyed, turning once lush planets into lifeless husks”.
I couldn’t help but feel sorrow for those planets. It was well known the impact the Skivit had on planets, once thriving planets of beauty. Although if I was following this human’s logic correctly did that mean…
“Now I’m not suggesting that the Skivit need a predator, that would be immoral.” Joseph cut off the thought I was about to have, seemingly understanding the logical thought many of us had picked up on. “But instead this is a real life example of damage an unchecked herbivore can have on ecosystems. If the Skivit didn’t have FTL travel they would have long ago driven themselves to starvation under their current society. It’s also not the only form of this trophic cascade.”
“Surely this doesn’t just apply to prey? Or are you saying prey are somehow inferior?”
The sound of the Gojid cutting in was filled with an unspoken challenge against the idea, inciting general sounds of agreement from those around him. Surprisingly however, Joseph seemed to respond positively.
“That is entirely correct, an overabundance of carnivorous species can also cause their own issues. Keep in mind what I’m describing here is an extremely simplified version, just the addition or removal of a single species can cause untold damage and harm to the diversity of ecological systems as the impacts are felt in the most seemingly unlikely cases.”
With that the human reached under the desk, taking one of the two covered containers he had brought with him and placing it into view.
“In Venlil Prime’s case, while the impact of Federation thinking has been reduced due to the day and night sides being mostly untouched, you still have the problem of overpopulation of certain species, and a lack of reasonable fear response from certain prey species. This has accumulated into the problem you all face.”
With that he removed the cover, causing a surge of fear to ripple through the participants around me until we all calmed down at what was underneath: A small cage, containing a single red bird busily eating seeds.
All farmer’s arch nemesis.
“This is a Flowerbird, a seed eating avian often coming in solid red, blue, or green. They are adorable, dumb as a sack of bricks and food motivated to a fault. They are also one of the biggest causes of farm yield destruction, with these birds alone being responsible for around about 41% of all losses. If we include Voidpins and other similar wildlife, farms can have up to 94% of their yield destroyed before they even get to harvest.”
Everyone in this room was familiar with the cursed avians. While your average city dweller would enjoy the sight of a flock of Flowerbirds, the farming community knew of them as a blight that devastated crops.
Joseph took a moment to open the cage, reaching inside and grabbing the bird. A small part of me wondered if he was about to devour it in front of us, before I tamped down on such an illogical idea. Of course the humans wouldn’t, we knew they didn’t do that. The Flowerbird also seemed completely unfazed about being in the meaty grasp of a predator, simply continuing to eat.
“Even worse, these things have basically zero fear response to noises and large beasts, probably due to all major predators having been removed. As you can see this specimen doesn’t mind a ‘scary predator’ grabbing it. As long as it has food, it couldn’t care less. This makes pest control tricky, as scaring them away is no longer an option. Poisons would be used in such a case, but they can have wider ranging effects, and poisoning prey is considered ‘Predatory’, not that many of you haven’t tried ‘accidentally’ leaving potential pesticides out.”
This caused a sway of discomfort to sweep through the room, tails switching in guilty movements as everyone tried to hide the truth of this human’s words. I knew I personally had considered such actions in desperation.
I mean, would ‘accidently’ leaving out a known poisonous chemical really be a sign of predator disease?
“Ha! I know enough tail language to know I’m right, that’s guilt isn’t it? I’ve read your internet, I know your discussions on loopholes about what is and isn’t predatory!” Joseph cried out in triumph as many of the Venlil of the room reached out to grab their traitorous appendages. “Now normally I would just tell people to stop being idiots, but in this case we can’t do that. Ironically because predators are actually dangerous. Because of your slaughter the only species left are ones aggressive and smart enough to survive. Shadestalkers are legitimately dangerous and can’t be left to interact with the farming community because people will die.”
The words from Joseph all sounded so… reasonable at this point. However, I, along with the rest of the room, were all desperately waiting for the other paw to drop. Because there would be, humans always had something they were about to do.
Almost in response to our thoughts the human placed the second container on the desk, covering up the first in response.
“Humans have dealt with this problem in a simple way, a way that our Yotul friend over there will know of. I need all of you to please remain calm and orderly, and to remember that you’re perfectly safe and there’s no need to overreact or panic. Humans dealt with this pest problem, through the use of safe predators.”
Before anyone could properly react to those words, the cover of the second container was removed, showing… a predator. An actual one, not a human but an actual real threat. Small piercing front facing yellow eyes attached to a brown feline form, sulking from the cage it was being held in.
Speh speh speh speh that’s a PREDATOR, A FERAL PREDATOR
If it was a danger the human wouldn't have-
NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO DO NOT LIKE NO NO NO NO NO NO NO.
The panic in the room was immediate. Sapient human predators we had gotten used to, but none sapient ones were another deal entirely. Chaos started to spread as the 7 in the front row got up, pushing themselves up against the back wall as everyone else in the room did the same. Three Venlil made the choice to bolt out of the room, rushing past the human and his tiny devourer, while another clean fainted, hitting the floor with a thud. One even decided to take things further, jumping out of the singular window attached to the far wall in a frantic motion.
I could feel fear overwhelm me, desperately staring at the feline and waiting for it to make its move. What was the human thinking, it was going to attack at any moment, it was going to-
“STOP, Stop this stupidity. Right. NOW!”
The stern commanding voice of Joseph caused everyone in the room to freeze. The calm enthusiastic demeanor of the predator was gone, replaced with an emotion I’d never actually seen a human show before: anger.
“It has been six months! Do you really still believe that the UN or the Venlil government would put you in actual danger? You’re still thinking based on your stupid fascist Federation propaganda. Thinking that tells you that the Yotul are primitive, or the Venlil are weak. Propaganda that says genetically modifying people against their will is morally OK”
I knew that humans normally bared their teeth in joy, as a sign of happiness and friendship. This wasn’t the case right now, as everything in Joseph’s body language screamed of rage, of pain, of words spoken through gritted teeth. Nobody in the room was focused on the predator in the cage at this point, instead all eyes staring at the human. Suddenly the feline mattered a lot less than the anger of the human.
“That sort of thinking leads to the belief that killing over a billion innocent people is somehow the right thing to do. You are all presumably intelligent sapient adults able to think things through logically. Could you all please act that way?”
I could see the swishes of shame from the other Venlil’s tails, everyone in the room avoiding eye contact guiltily. Well, apart from the Yotul, who had remained seated and calm this entire time, staring almost joyfully at the feline predator. The human, of course, was completely right. Taking a moment to force myself to think, the predator was safely behind metal bars and was making no move to attack, seemingly content to stare lazily at us.
You finished overreacting?
Shut up, brain.
“Also, at the risk of ruining the angry vibe I’m giving off, is the guy who jumped out the window OK? Jesus Christ, we are two stories up, do we have to call someone or….”
Joseph had relaxed a little in response to the group calming down, allowing the normal empathetic nature of humans to come through once more. Slowly I made my way to the window, looking down to see a singular Venlil running off into the distance.
“I-I think he’s fine.” I responded, causing the human to give a sigh of relief in response.
“Good. Note to self, do this in a room without windows next time… or maybe just the ground floor. So, to continue where I left off, humans have used tame predators as a natural non-invasive form of pest control since we started farming. This is a cat, completely harmless unless you’re a small rodent or bird. They also have this effect.”
With a flourish Joseph removed the covering for the cage containing the Flowerbird once more, the red little avian had been busily eating during the entire presentation so far. However upon spotting the Feline predator did something none of us had ever seen before.
It stopped eating. Wait, the human managed to get a Flowerbird to stop eating! I didn’t even know that was possible…
Giving repeated alarmed chirps it moved as far away as it could from the predator, still trapped inside the small cage, a frantic fear obvious on the poor little thing. Joseph let this go on for a few moments more, before dropping the cover back on and silencing the Flowerbird once more.
Everyone in the room was shocked. You could literally scream and shout all you wanted at the dumb little birds and they would ignore you and continue to devour crops. The fact that the feral predator had managed to stop the bird from doing that simply with its presence… was huge. Was more than huge.
“As you can see, the instincts of the ‘prey’ animal still remain. Presumably, whatever predator used to hunt these Flowerbirds has a resemblance to our cats. Normally it would be sacrilege to suggest introducing cats to an ecosystem, but in this case your ecosystems are so messed up that’s exactly what we want to do: Provide any farmer who wants one with a kitten, in order to quickly reduce yield lost to pests.”
I would be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t interested. On the one hand having a vicious predator in my house, where my pups would visit seemed like something a predator diseased individual would only consider. On the other hand, nothing else I had ever tried had even come close to the simple effectiveness shown here.
Would I be this desperate and in debt if I had one of these “cats” already?
“So I can see you’re all still a little worried, so we’re going to have a little discussion, for which I need a volunteer-'' The Yotul in the back practically fell over with excitement, with his arm raised immediately as he interrupted, causing Joseph to give a small smile. “One who isn’t a Yotul. I know your history with similar pets, and we are totally going to hook you up with a cat, but for this I could do with a Venlil please.”
The Yotul sat back down, a look of disappointment plastered over his face as the rest of the room shifted uncomfortably. Nobody wanted to be the person to step up and presumably get closer to the predator. Until I found myself raising my hand.
Brain, what the hell are you doing?
You said you wanted to be better, and we’re desperate.
NOT LIKE THIS BRAIN!
In a blur I found myself being introduced to the room and being told to sit at a chair next to the desk in front of the rest of the members here. Then, to my horror, Joseph opened the cage and took the feline predator out of its holding cell. The human took a few moments to fuss over the beast before turning to the rest of us.
“So now that we have our volunteer, let's logically look at our ‘dangerous predator’. The first thing to notice is simply the size. Regardless of anything else, size matters, size matters a lot. It’s hard to feel threatened by something that you can literally throw across the room.”
Joseph took a moment to hold the small creature next to me for context, highlighting just how small the predator actually was: barely the size of a Skivit, like a furry little pup. Logically if it wasn't for the forward facing eyes, I might consider it… cute?
“But what about its teeth and claws? It’s a predator that will tear people apart!”
The voice of the Gojid sounded out, a shrill fearful voice filled with barely contained panic and fear, the source of the sound looking ready to flee even though they weren’t the one sitting next to the predator
“Let's compare these. Tellek can you please extend your paws and show your claws to the group.”
I did as asked, my four black claws visible for all to see as Joseph moved the predator close. He stretched out one of its paws and pressed on a knuckle, a singular sharp claw protruding as he did so, causing a fresh burst of fear to erupt in my heart from being so close to such a thing.
Although if I was to be fully honest, if I was comparing the two, the predator’s claw were…
“As you can see, the cat’s claw, while sharper, is far smaller and more brittle. A Venlil can do some serious damage with their claws, while the worst this cat’s claw could do is break the skin. The teeth are similar, if you could show the group your pearly whites please.”
I again did as asked, feeling embarrassed and weird just having my mouth wide open in front of everyone. I hoped that there was nothing stuck in my teeth. While I did Joseph manhandled the cat again, taking a moment to move the lips and display the sharp needle point teeth, doing so for a moment before the small predator gave a small lazy growl of annoyance, clearly reaching the end of its acceptability.
“Once again we have similar results: Notice the small size of the cat's teeth compared with the Venlil’s. These would pierce skin, the Venlil’s would pulverize bone. Gojid aren’t much better with your literal claws and a back full of knives. Ironically enough the two ‘predators’ in the room are probably the least physically imposing.”
There was a moment as the room seemed to ponder this statement, allowing Joseph enough time to place the cat on the desk next to me, the predator promptly giving a stretch then curling up into a ball. The human was right, even humans themselves were physically… underwhelming, apart from their endurance. No claws, small teeth, no defensive armor or spines.
It’s kinda sad to think the only reason we’re all so scared of humans is their eye placement.
“Now the UN and Venlil government are looking for people to use cats as pest control to increase farming yield, with an initial trial size of about 100 participants. We’re offering a stipend for food, instructional care of your kitten, and as much support as needed. There are risks, for instance you’re going to need warning signs near your property and a containment system, as cats are actually dangerous to the Dossur.”
I could hardly hear Joseph speak, my entire concentration focused on the predator right next to me. I knew logically that the human wouldn’t do something to bring me to harm, but it was difficult to think that with a potentially feral predator right next to me. I saw its eyes fixate onto mine and I quickly looked away.
Maybe if I don’t look at it, it won’t take it as a challenge.
However much to both mine and the rest of the room's shock, slowly and carefully the cat stood up, stretched once before walking purposefully towards me, the room erupting into cries of worry as it leapt off the desk and onto my lap, curling into a ball with me trapped underneath.
“H-h-help…. Help…..!”
The human turned to look at me, breaking into a smile seemingly at my misfortune and giving a small chuckle.
“Awwww, she likes you. As you all can see cats share a lot of characteristics with ‘prey’. They will often seek companionship from others, and have a lot of prey characteristics, being at times skittish due to having many natural predators.”
That was good and all, but didn’t stop me from being trapped under the beast.
I don’t want to think about what could cause a predator to become prey.
“W-What d-do I do?”
Joseph gave a small shrug in response, clearly amused by my reaction.
“You could try petting her. Her name is Sprinkles and I can confirm she likes pets.”
You see brain, this is what happens when I let you do things! Now I'm trapped by a predator and I'm gonna die!
Stop being such a pup, the thing is tiny. Besides, don't humans claim petting stuff is nice?
Slowly I reached out a paw, gingerly approaching the predator, those yellow slitted eyes regarding my exposed arm as I gently placed it on the "cat", running my paw across its back.
I felt my held breath release as the predator did nothing, some of the tension of the room releasing in the instant.
"So interesting thing about cats: they 'chose' to be domesticated."
Joseph had gone back to talking, seemingly happy that I wasn't about to be torn apart. I had stopped listening, entirely focused on keeping the predator satisfied by running my paws across its fur.
Isn't this nice? I gotta admit I understand why humans like doing this.
Fine. I'll admit that this isn't unpleasant, the cat is rather soft.
"When humans originally started farming, that also attracted pests. Cats just turned up, following their food source. They stuck around because humans would feed them and provide companionship."
I was entirely focused on the cat at this point, running my claws through the fur, feeling the predator press itself against my paw, seeming to be enjoying itself. Gently I moved my claw to the back of one of its tiny little ears, scratching behind it like you might do to comfort a young pup. It started to emanate a low vibrating noise in response, causing another wave of tension to emit from the rest of the room.
For some reason, even though this feral predator was sitting on my lap, the sound seemed to vibrate through my heart in a calming motion.
Maybe this is some kind of predatory hypnosis?
Really? Just shush and enjoy this. Being scared of everything all the time is so tiring.
"Nobody needs to worry. That is just the sound a happy cat makes, it's called purring. Although I do need to take Sprinkles back now."
Joseph motioned towards the cat on my lap, a motion I decided to ignore, enjoying petting the purring cat for a few moments more. Eventually the human reached down and removed Sprinkles from my grasp as I momentarily resisted before letting the feline go.
See, that wasn't so bad.
Brain, I will admit- reluctantly- that I would have preferred to keep doing that.
With a small amount of resentment I watched as Joseph placed the cat back inside the cage, before turning back to the rest of the room.
"So anyone who is interested, stick around and we can get the paperwork completed."
—-------------
In the end eight of us remained, 5 Venlil, 2 Gojid, and obviously the Yotul. We had spent the last half a claw having instructions and paper work thrust upon us. Many of the group had immediately left, with others dropping out as various facts of cat ownership became apparent.
Still, those of us who were left behind were now heading to our respective farms, each with a single carry case. Mine was currently containing a gray and black “kitten,” which had been “meowing” loudly during the entire journey.
I looked simply at the little bundle of fur and eyes that peered out from inside the cage I had been given. Part of my mind still screamed danger, but it was a part that was getting quieter and quieter as I continued to look at what was a small fragile bundle of fur that I was now ultimately in charge of.
How could you look at something that’s hardly bigger than your paw, and think it’s a danger?
As I reached my farm, I finally opened up the container and pulled out the tiny predator. My tiny predator. There would be work to do, fences to erect and warning signs to place, but for now I just held the tiny thing in my paws, supporting it in the way I’d been told to. I now knew why humans spent all their time trying to pet things: with the troubles on the farm I hadn’t felt this calm in several cycles.
He was more energetic then Sprinkles had been, but in a way the more skittish nature pulled at my heartstrings, as if it was a small innocent Venlil pup. I sat there stroking it, realizing I still needed to give him a name. He was fluffy, Tiny, innocent, fragile. Yet with an underlying spice as it continued to meow loudly as I held in my paws
“I will call you Fireberry. My little predator.”

Skinwalkers in Rural Michigan
I recently purchased a 10,000 lumen flashlight to illuminate the surrounding woods as I walk my dog in the evenings. I have been hearing some strange noises at night, and I figured it would be nice to see everything that boxes me in as I walk Max, my dog. But boy was I wrong. I should have been afraid of what can't be seen outside the veils of my iphone flashlight. What was to be exhumed by my flashlight terrified me to my core. This happened a week or so ago, November, 2nd 2022, Harrison Michigan. The evenings were approaching abruptly now. It was only 8:30pm when I decided to take my golden retriever on one last shit walk before I got settled in for the night. At this time, in rural Michigan at least, it’s pitch black. I cursed underneath my breath as I opened the door and peered out. Fuck, chilly and dark. God, why haven’t I moved south yet? Max was timid this evening, which was so really unlike him. Very strange. The darkness emanating from outside my house poured in like a disease. It was void of any color. Upset about not replacing my porch light, I pulled out my new amazon special, this week it was a 10,000 lumen flashlight. Feeling its expensive metallic body in my hands felt exonerating, and the excitement to use it overthrew any bad vibes Max was giving. He whimpered as soon as the door opened, he then put his tail between his legs and shivered. I scoffed at his weak tendencies here, this was so unlike him. I turned this ungodly bright flashlight on and showed it forward. “For fuck sake look Max, nothing to be afraid of y-” I was cut off. My mouth gaped at what was in front of me. Shown in the powerful beam of the flashlight was a contorted lanky humanoid figure. It slumped down from a standing position and got on all fours like a person miming a frog. Then it jerked its head up and sniffed the air. Animistically. It turned its head and bored its stare right into my eyes. Then it darted into a bush on the edge of the woods. The edge of the woods that surround my entire house. I heard leaves crackle and watched the skin colored creature dissipate into them. I focused the beam of my light directly onto that bush. It was incredibly bright and the bush appeared like high definition from the immense light, especially in contrast to the oily blackness that surrounded me. The bush shaked ominously, like a predator was inside, shifting around. A familiar feminine voice came from that bush. “Please help me… oh god please help… help… help mee…” And the leaves rustled again. Max whimpered in terror and got between my legs. I grabbed the baseball bat that I kept beside the front door for just such occasions and held it beside my head in a “ready to whoop” gesture, the other hand on my flashlight. I shakily started towards the bush from my door. Max bolted inside, leaving me completely alone. “Helllppppp meee” the voice cooed. The soft feminine coo of the voice crackled a little this time. Yeah, almost as if something was masquerading as a female, and luring me in. I was about 6 feet away by now, I could feel the blood pulsating in my temples. Goosh flesh ran down my body. “Helllpp,” deeper voice “Meeee!” An elongated ashy white arm flung towards me at ankle height. I instinctively stomped down on it. I heard cracking and sloshing from underneath my shoe. I stepped directly onto its wrist. I heard a shriek from inside the depths of that bush and the hand sprung up like a trap being set off. The strength possessed by this creature was unreal, it slung me to the ground and began to reel me into its bush where it resided. I screamed, smacked the arm with the bat as hard as I could and then lost control of the bat. It fell next to me as I was dragged closer to the bush, now my feet were inside the leafy abyss. The voice turned into my mothers voice. The clawed hands grasp on me tightened with tremendous strength and the nails dug into my skin through my pants. “Help me Nathaniel. Your mother needs help. I can't walk.” Yeah alright. I shined my light into the bush. What I saw still makes me tremble. It was my dead mothers face there alright, but atop an ashy white skinned humanoid skeleton with backward joints. The arms bent unnaturally opposite of how they should, the legs were bent like a frogs ready to pounce. The eyes were milky white, but were extremely intelligent and they gazed into my consciousness. With all of my force, I horse kicked my deceased mothers face and heard a massive crunch as my heel connected with her masqueraded nose. A profane yelp of pain blasted into the darkness of this B.F.E. where I lived. The grip on my leg loosened just enough from the blow for me to break free. I shot upright and turned to the door. I dropped my flashlight in this madness and couldn’t give a shit less. It could keep it for all I fucking cared. I bolted towards the door, and as I reached the halfway point I was Illuminated by a blinding bright light from behind. Almost like a spotlight beamed right onto me. My. Fucking. God. That thing had my flashlight and was pointing it directly at me. “Helpp… Nathaniel. Help me son.” The light started to bob up and down. Whatever was holding it was lurking closer and closer to me, and was gaining on me much faster than I was to the door. So much for not being able to walk. I ended up winning the foot race miraculously. I jumped inside my door and slammed it behind me. I heard a loud thump into the door immediately following its closure. My mothers late voice came again, beckoning me. “Son. You know your mother has taught you better than this. Let me in. Please, my son.” The light shone through the window at me, blinding me. Seeing spots and now disoriented, I fumbled myself up and managed to lock the door. Max was at the furthest point possible from the door, glaring at the door trembling in fear. Three solid knocks from the top of the door frame. Then the light was gone and I heard a metallic clunk, the thing must have dropped the flashlight on its retreat. The light now was gleaming off a huge tree. I watched a tall skinny humanoid creature with long contorted ligaments jerkily run towards that tree. His legs bent opposite of how our legs do, and same with the arms. Then it bent down in the same erratic way that it moved, and got onto all fours as it approached the tree. It paused a second and peered up the trunk. His head swiftly snapped to my face. Its now black and sunken eyes stared into my soul. I froze in terror as it climbed that trunk, with its face directly bored into me mind you, like squirrel. Scurrying right up it, never leaving contact with my eyes. The light undoubtedly should be blinding his vision, but the sense of intelligence of it knowing my existence was uncanny. Light didnt hurt it. As it ascended it smiled at me, a predatory grin. It disappeared into a purple dot that was still in my vision from when I was blinded by the flashlight. As I moved my head to try to see the creature, I watched tree leaves russell and saw no more of it. Yet. I locked the doors that night and cleaned up Max’s accidents from not going out. At night as I was asleep, I was awoken by my mothers soft voice from right outside the bedroom window. “Let me in Nathaniel..” Then directly following this motherly imitation came a 10,000 lumen flashlight beamed into my face. I heard the window slowly open, but I was blinded by the light.

A lot of people obviously get mad at the matchmaker, and I find it bizaare how few people seem to actually try to understand why it is so messed up or are willing to acknowledge the human factor that screws matchmaking up so badly.
Every game you play is decided by 1-3 players on each team. Watch any reply of previous games, or take note in the next game you play. Even when you end a game and all 5 players score well, it will always come down to a couple of players creating the gap necessary for the entire team to do well.
The other day I ended something like 13-4-18 on Selena. I could have played that game on ANY hero or gone afk and my team would have still won because my teams Martis played like an absolute psychopatch and just massacred the enemy team.
There will always be a 1-3 players making key plays at certain points in the match that result in the win and the reason this makes creating a good matchmaker impossible is because it means at least 2-4 players on your team may as well have been AI.
Yesterday my team got absolutely dominated and I was on Silvana. I was keeping track of minions and decided rather than join a big team fight I would backdoor. As all my team died, I ulted the enemy base and managed to clutch the match.
How is that the matchmakers fault?
My entire team, including myself did not deserve to win that match. We played like trash, yet I got 5 players a star, and cost 5 players a star in a single moment. The enemy JungleRoameMage were dominating my team and all deserved to win yet didn't.
People don't seem to be willing to acknowledge that things like this happen constantly, and result in players being in ranks they shouldn't be in. Those players that just lost get pushed down to fight players weaker than them despite being strong, and the players that win get pushed up to fight players better than them despite being weaker.
Every time you carry a match, you potentially elevate 4 players that don't deserve to win, and lower the ranks of 5 players that may have been better than them. This process happens EVERY game.
The problem entirely comes down to the randomness of solo queue.
The matchmaker cannot factor in:
- Players trolling in the draft
This is a MASSIVE issue for creating a balanced matchmaker that is basically impossible to remove in solo queue. In 5v5 you are comitted to your team so are highly unlikely to troll. In solo queue players troll all the time.
To be generous and say games are trolled 1/10 of the time, that still means that 10% of matches result in 5 players getting a free star and 5 players losing a star because one of them decided to be a dick.
- Snowballing
A snowball can occur for all sorts of reason.
I won a game the other day on Selena with a Jawhead Jungle. At the start of the match I always get vision of the enemy Jungle. My Jawhead decided to utilise this and invaded. We managed to get both the enemies Red/Blue at the start, as well as Jawheads Red/Blue and he was on 7 kills in like 3 minutes.
There is literally no way for a matchmaker to factor in stuff like that. Its was 90% luck and 20% skill, but we basically removed the enemy Jungler form the entire game within 3 minutes, and he never came back from it. It wasn't even the Junglers fault, it was his Roamers. Their entire team lost because 2 players on our team (Me and Jawhead) made a key play at the start of the match that resulted in a snowball. The other 3 players on my team could have picked any other heroes, or been completely different players. The key moment that decided that match was the initial invasion, and we got a surrender within something like 8 minutes out of the enemy team because Jawhead could just turret dive everyone with no consequences.
Overall, my point is that although I agree the matchmaking sucks a lot of the time, there's not a tremendous amount that can be done about it. The nature of 5v5 with random people makes it incredibly difficult to accurately gauge individual player skills. The fact that we acknowledge "carrying" is a thing, means we must also acknowledge "being carried" is a thing.
The only realistic way to fix the matchmaker based on this is to award/remove different points based on player performance. For example winning as MvP should give a player more points for winning than a Bronze. This would require reworking the medal system though, as it heavily favors Mage/Support/MM.
They can add or remove whatever rank names they want, change it to stars or squares and it just won't matter.
Solo queue is chaos, and always will be. You can't make chaos fair and balanced.

It’s hiliarious to me that people want the next Warriors or Next Lebron to happen so quickly. They forget that these things rarely happen. According to this SubReddit the Nuggets will become the best dynasty of all time, win the next 5 Titles in a row, and Jokic becomes the GOAT. I don’t want to take anything away from Jokic and the Nuggets, and truly if they win it all + a Jokic finals MVP, he’s lookin at top 25 of All Time. But let’s hold our horses. Y’all literally said the Same Exact thing in 2021 with Giannis and the Bucks. “Nobody is as good as the Bucks” “Dynasty in the making” “Giannis top 10 All Time by the end of next season”. All of these things were said and The bucks haven’t won anything since. I mean the damn 8 seed Heat made the finals this year. It’s the NBA, anything can happen. You can’t predict Injuries or breakout performances, and trust me they happen every season. I know y’all hate Lebron and the Warriors, but let’s just let these new guys actually build they’re legacies before pre-maturely adding them to the All Timers.

Hey there, fellow cacti enthusiasts! I'm doing a giveaway for 3 packs of seeds. There will be roughly 30+ crosses to choose from. Each pack contains 50+ seeds.
How to enter:
Just leave a comment about what got you into collecting cacti!
Winner selection:
There will be 1 winner and to ensure fairness I'll be using a random selection app to pick the winner. Once the giveaway period ends, I'll run the app, and the selected winner will be notified via reply to their comment on the post. I’ll also direct message the winner to get shipping info and the 3 choices of seed packs you’d like.
Will be shipped to the winner free of charge.
End Time: June 7, 2023 @ 12 am Pacific Daylight Time
Restrictions: US Only, Sorry everyone else still have love for yall <3
If you’d like to look at the crosses that are available to win you can check them out on my site here =)
Thanks everyone and Goodluck!

https://ftw.usatoday.com/lists/nba-mock-draft-amen-thompson-scoot-bilal-coulibaly
"Bleacher Report‘s Jonathan Wasserman reported that France’s Bilal Coulibaly 'has a promise' in the first round before No. 14. NBA Big Board’s Rafael Barlowe reported that 'several scouts and agents' believe the Thunder are targeting Coulibaly at No. 12 overall."
Looks like it's OKC who promised Bilal to be drafted with 12th pick. Not Magic or Raptors.
Additional tidbits from the article:
-Whitmore scored 0.76 points per touch on drives, per Stats Perform, which ranked as the best among projected first-rounders
-Ausar had the highest defensive statistical impact (DSI) among players with more than 10 games in Cerebro-certified events in the league, per Cerebro Sports
-Michigan outscored opponents by 10.3 points per 100 possessions when Bufkin was on the floor, According to CBB Analytics. They were outscored by 14.0 points per 100 when he was not featured. That swing ranked fourth-best among all high-major players (minimum: 1,000 minutes) in 2022-23
-According to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo, Whitehead has been “unable to conduct workouts” after his recent foot surgery
-Prosper contributed positively to winning considering Marquette outscored opponents by 26.8 points per 100 possessions when Prosper was on the court relative to when he was not, per CBB Analytics, which ranked second-best among players at all top-tier Division I programs
-Opponents were just 14-for-38 (36.8 percent) when Lively defended them in the restricted area, per Stats Perform. Meanwhile, via CBB Analytics, the other team was held to shoot just 29.8 percent in the paint during minutes when Lively was on the floor
-According to ESPN’s Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo, some believe Klintman “could have a promise” in the 20s. HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto added that “there was a belief circulating” that the Pacers are high on Klintman
-One concern for Howard is that although he is 6-foot-8, he only boxed out his opponent on just 14.0 percent of his opportunities. According to Stats Perform, regardless of position, that ranked as the lowest among all of our projected first-round draft picks

So. Where to begin? I've been in a pretty decent relationship with a hot medal winning wrestler for about 6 months. I love him so much. It pains me to say... that I found that he cheated on me.
I got a text from someone, and I'm not mad at them. They claim that they didn't know that my boyfriend was in a relationship and I believe them. Anyways they told me that in the past few weeks, they've been talking to my boyfriend. They sent some screenshots of their texts with my boyfriend, that they said they were comfortable sharing.
Yeah. I'm not the only one he loves.
So, now I'm waiting to figure out what to do. I was thinking about texting my boyfriend to ask about this, but I'm not sure if that's a good plan. What should I do?
(Also, I am literally gonna go insane if I get any weird thirsty people in my dms. Please be respectful and show some decency, please.)

I'm a bit puzzled as to how to predict which half reactiosn will happen in the electrolysis of water.
From what I can tell, these are the possible half reactions involved in the electrolysis of water
Electrolysis of water

Cathode (reduction): 2 H2O(l) + 2e− → H2(g) + 2 OH−(aq) E=-0.83
Anode (oxidation) 2 H2O(l) → O2(g) + 4 H+(aq) + 4e− E=1.23
Cathode(reduction) 2H+(aq) + 2e− → H2(g) E=0
Anode(oxidation) 4 OH- (aq) → O2(g) + 2H2O(l) + 4e- E=0.4

And those E values are the "standard electrode potentials".. which are "standard reduction potentials". E(red)
And to see what will happen at the cathode, a relevant thing is the highest E(red) value.
And to predict what will happen at the anode, a relevant thing is the lowest E(red) value. (I understand that E(ox) is -E(red). So the lowest E(red) is the highest E(ox)
And from what I understand, another complexity is that another relevant factor besides the E(red) value, is the activity or concentration level.. And there are three cases.
Acidic - So among the H2O molecules, there's more H+ than OH-
Basic - So among the H2O molecules, there's more OH- than H+
Neutral - So among the H2O molecules, there's equal H+ and OH-
I'm not quite sure which is predicted for each of these and why.
For the Acidic case, Looking at the Cathode The H+ vs the H2O. H+ wins on E value, but on concentration i'd have thought that the H2O still far outnumber the H+.
But from what I understand for some reason there's always either an H+ reduction or an OH+ oxidation going to happen.. So, therefore based on that rule, it has to be the H+ reduction that happens. (Since the OH- is too low in concentration as we are talking about the acidic case).
And for the acidic case looking at the anode. Thet OH- does win on the E. Since 0.4<1.23 But, OH- is very low concentration especially in the acidic case, so won't happen. So we get H2O oxidation at the anode.
So for the acidic case we get H+ reduction at the cathode, and H2O oxidation at the anode.
For the neutral case I understand that for some reason we get the same as in the acidic case?
For the basic case. Looking at the cathode, the H+ wins on the E(red) but is very low concentration. So we go with the reduction of H2O. And at the anode the OH- while low concentration relative to the H2O, is high concentration relative to the H+. And it also has a lower E(red). So, higher E(ox), so the OH- wins on the E. So OH- wins on the anode.
And the short way to work it out seems to be to know that the H+ half reaction, and OH- half reaction won't both happen.. So, in the basic case the OH- will. And only one reaction happens at each electrode. So it has to be oxidation of OH- at the anode. And reduction of H2O at the cathode. For the basic water case.
So it's (2,3) for the acidic case. (2,3) for the neutral case. (1,4) for the basic case.
I'm wondering where my understand is right/wrong?
I'm also thinking that it's probably a bit wrong to say that only one half reaction occurs at the electrode, 'cos at the moment it looks like half of one reaction occurs, and half of the other.
From what I understand there's two redox reactions going on.. One being (1,2) the other being (3,4). So to say that only the half reactions of (2,3) occur or only the half reactions of (1,4) occur, means half of one redox reaction, and half of another redoc reaction, which doesn't look right.
So i'm thinking all half reactions occur. And you get multiple half reactions , reacting at each electrode. But not all happening as much. Though there's still questions about my understanding and predicting the products.
Thanks

Lowest seed to win march madness

Palaye Royale

HEXHAM 3RD JUNE – PREVIEW NOTES

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City Of Ruins bg Donald McCain Unraced

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Hourless bg Alan King f5-1-0 (49) 57

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Indication Rocket bg Rebecca Menzies f9-1-2 (61) 64

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Uncle Matthew bg Evan Williams f6-1-0 (65) 69

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Max Of Stars bf Ollie Pears f4-0-0 (55) 57

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Jockey

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Waitara chf David Pipe f6-2-1 (30.0/66) TF68

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