I'm pretty sure I know the answer but may as well post here before getting started since I've never really seen a system like this before or since. Here's the history:
Some years ago I posted this pic of some sort of large blower assembly deep within the bowels of a corner of my attic. Its never worked when I bought the house 18yrs ago (which was built in 1950). There is a switch that presumbly would operate it and it's never successfully activated anything (I think I did some switch testing/etc. some years ago too). It would be a real job to crawl around in there and extract this assembly with the goal of just running a plain vent pipe in its place. It does ultimately exit a roof vent.
I'm thinking I can probably just put in a conventional range fan and use the existing airway to vent- it will probably be just fine flowing through the pipes, the (stalled?) fan assembly and out the roof vent. Wouldn't you think?
I believe the whole original idea (maybe this was popular in the 50's?) was to have a fan operating remotely far from the range- I guess just for noise? You then get that vacuum flow with only a distant motor hum. I can't really think of another great reason for this. Also, it seems much larger than it needs to be- I dunno why. Maybe Tim Allen was the previous owner.

How do you improve your vocabulary? Traditional way of writing them down, making a list of them and repeating every day is not working for me. It is not only boring but also ineffective as far as I am concerned. Even if I tried it many times, feels like I can't remember non of them.
My current band is 7/9. I am a person who tries to get 9/9 eventually. It is one of my life goals (feels like climbing the mountain Everest 🤣🤣) So whenever I read an advanced level book like Eragon, Lord of the Rings, History of Modern Science etc I find myself looking at the dictionary a few times each page and it is disturbing. I want my English to be just like my native language that I can internalize deeply intelligent contents.
How did I get to this level (in vocabulary) was... I just played tons of video games and watched tons of sitcoms and funny videos since I was a kid. But in this progress of reaching to C2 from C1 it is not improving me anymore. I feel like I am at a plateau. I read and listen everyday at least 5 hours. Live abroad and my workplace is a place that we speak English only. I would be so happy if you give me a solution. I guess that it is going to make me the happiest person in the world if I can be a person who doesn't need dictionary to read a legendary fiction book with thousands of pages 🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗

Very wet conditions at times today, so a little bit scrappy.
Weideman - Did a pretty good job again in defence. Took some decent marks and defended reasonably well. With Reid and now Ridley back, It's tough to see him getting another shot with the seniors, but good to see him hit some kind of form, regardless.
Ridley - Feels so weird writing about him in a VFL report... He was exactly what you'd expect. Looked like he was going at about 75%, but was miles ahead of pretty much anyone else on the field. Had 19 disposals, a few marks and a couple of tackles, which is pretty incredible, considering he only played the first half on managed minutes. Worth noting was that he seemed to almost be playing the Martin role, running off half back and delivering through the midfield. Might play one more in the VFL to make sure his match fitness is all good, but signs are very positive.
Hayes - Appeared to play more of a lockdown defensive game, with Ridley and Reid doing a lot of the intercept work. Was as solid as ever and I couldn't really fault him on anything. He's just so consistently good down there.
Bryan - BOG by a country mile. Dominated the ruck contest, got involved around the ground, kicked 2 goals and had 15 clearances. If he's not in the AFL side soon, it won't be due to form.
Caddy - Another nice outing. Had 2 goals, but it was his competitiveness that really stood out to me today. Just throws himself into every contest. Had a couple of great moments where he dove into packs to shovel a handball out to a teammate. His pressure was up, too, and did well to take some strong marks in tricky conditions. He's been building some good form over the last couple of games.
Reid - Classy as ever. Had the ball slip through his hands going for marks when the conditions were pretty slippery, but was otherwise very good both defensively and offensively. His kicking is such a sight to see. For those checking the stat sheet, yes, he had 10 marks, but 3 or 4 of those were from us chipping the ball around in the backline at the end of the game. Still did really well in the air for most of the game, though.
Lual - I thought he had a really strong first half running the ball out of defence, but faded out after the long break. He might just need to build his fitness up to have that full game consistency.
Davey - Probably his quietest game so far. Just couldn't find his way into the game at all. It's a shame after his great performance last time around. Hopefully he'll bounce back next week.
Roberts - He was one of our best today. Did some good work in the contests and on the outside, where his ball use was nice and tidy. For a player with his class, he's not afraid to do some dirty work, which is fantastic to see.
Visentini - Every game he does some little things that impress me. He competes hard and has a happy knack for hitting the scoreboard. He's doing alright as Bryan's backup, and it will be interesting to see how he goes if he gets a chance to be the number 1 ruckman in the side.
Wanganeen - Fairly quiet again. His pressure was quite good, but just isn't doing enough right now. I'm not writing him off quite yet, but I'd hope that he lifts fairly significantly in the second half of the season.
Menzie - Like our other small forwards, he just struggled to get into the game. We ended up moving him onto the wing, in what I assume was an attempt to get him more involved. He did ok there, and pushed back to help the defenders out a few times, which was nice, but was still pretty quiet.
As far as the VFL guys go, Hately was arguably the pick of the bunch with his strong contested work and a couple of goals. Peris wouldn't be far behind, though, as a speedy, classier sort of midfielder (his 12 tackles really stood out). Scott and O'Neill were both solid contributors, too.

Straight out, I don’t even feel like doing these. That was heartbreaking, I know we went into that game expecting to get belted, we were far from being the favourites but when your 40 points up, you are not suppose to lose a game.
I just feel like if we had Sicily and Scrimshaw, that fourth quarter would have gone differently. Having the experience of those 2 in those dying minutes really could have changed things.
Regardless, there were a few really good performances today that deserve some appreciation so here we go. Before I do them I just want to say, today’s game made it very hard to rate the boys because of the way it ended. I’m sure you guys won’t agree with everything, would love to hear your thoughts.
Will Day : 8.5/10
Would have loved to give him the 10 but needed him in that last quarter and he didn’t quite show up enough. Now I don’t blame that entirely on him, the coaching decisions weren’t great but an overall dominant performance from Day.
Blake Hardwick : 9/10
Can’t really fault him today, did his best today. 5 goals straight then went down back and did well down there. 4 intercepts and 22 touches.
Sam Frost : 8.5/10
Just been unreal this season. Some of those efforts were just mesmerising. 7 interceptions possessions frosty had and they were very important ones. He’s really been a rock in that defence and it’s just a shame that it wasn’t enough to get us over the line.
Massimo : 8/10
I thought he was exceptional today, had an outstanding game and his accuracy when kicking is unreal. Yes he had 5 turnovers but some of the kicks that he pulls off just makes you think how good is this kid gonna be. 28 touches, 4 interceptions and 22 pressure acts.
Amon : 7/10
Maybe it is just me but I don’t think he was as good as some other people think. Yes he gets a lot of the ball, but he had 10 kick ins today, along with his 719 metres gained, it was nearly all from kick ins like I don’t think he is that dominant. But you can’t expect him to do much more when he’s playing very defensively, I have always believed Amon would be much better on the wing because we have a lot more players that can play half back. I am not saying he played bad but he just was not anything special, only the 2 score involvements so his ball use isn’t exactly leading to our score increasing, defensively he is not reliable, he literally gave the freekick away to Rioli who kicked there second last goal.
Jai Newcombe : 7.5/10
Had an unreal first quarter then dropped off slowly each quarter. Saw the ball a lot more in the fourth but had terrible efficiency with it, he kicked 2 out on the full. He had 4 turnovers all game and 3 of them were in the 4th which was just another thing that lead to us choking that. Other than that he had a solid game, 23 touches, 5 score involvements and 5 tackles.
James Worpel : 7.5/10
I thought Worpel had a pretty underrated game today. I feel like he was very consistent and played a solid 4 quarters with maybe a slight drop off in the 4th but that was probably all of our players bar Frost. 19 touches running at 90% disposal efficiency is very impressive considering his ball use was a huge downside in his game overall game last year. He got 5 centre clearances and also had 21 pressure acts which was a huge factor in how we played so well for those 3 quarters.
Connor Nash : 7/10
Him and Worpel have sort of been just doing the exact same thing the last couple weeks. Low touch, high impact type games. 17 touches and 5 clearances for Nash, along with 7 tackles which was a huge upside in his game today. Thought his pressure was unreal.
Meek : 6.5/10
Definitely wasn’t his best game today. Yes in the ruck contests he was absolutely dominant but as he should be, he’s versing an unbelievably inexperienced ruckman. What I was disappointed in was his involvement around the ground, particularly his ability to impact marking contests. He was our tallest player on the field and he only took 1 mark that was uncontested. I love Meek and I think he’s been phenomenal this season but that was definitely a drop off from previous weeks.
Dylan Moore : 7/10
Whilst he didn’t impact the scoreboard as much as usual today with only the 4 score involvements and 0 goals. He was quite involved in the game. 16 touches and 6 tackles for Moore which i thought was definitely passable but not quite up to his standards.
Mabior Chol : 7/10
I thought Chol’s first half was very impressive today. His ability to find the goals, lay pressure and his overall effort for majority of the game was great. 2 goals and 4 score involvements, pretty good return game against some very good backman.
Ethan Phillips : 7/10
I don’t think he really done anything wrong today, had some pretty good individual moments aswell. Played on Marshall for majority of the game who only kicked one then shared the load on Finlayson who didn’t get a goal. I think he should keep his spot regardless if Sicily comes back in next week.
Cam Mackenzie : 7/10
I have always backed this bloke, been really getting better these last few weeks. Only the 12 touches but 2 goals, 4 clearances, 4 score involvements and 4 tackles. I think it’s time to give him some more midfield minutes to really help him develop. I can see him really improving. I know Josh Ward is unnecessarily always catching strays from me but I feel like when Ward plays even though he gets more of the ball than Mackenzie, he’s less damaging, Mackenzie is a much more smart user of the ball and can impact the score board hence why we should invest more into him.
Jack Ginnivian : 5.5/10
I’ll be honest, I did not like how Ginni played at all today. Yes he had his moments, scored a nice goal but besides that I felt like he made very poor decisions. There was one too many times he would ride the tackle when he had the opportunity to progress the ball forward. I’m not gonna be too harsh on him however because he is still very young and has heaps of time to learn.
Connor Macdonald : 5.5/10
Very average game from MacDonald, struggled to get involved on the ball but off the ball I can’t fault him. 8 tackles and 22 pressure acts.
Calsher Dear : 6.5/10
Besides his terrible accuracy he was decent. A very raw player so when he missed the first couple set shots, his confidence was going to take a hit and it was bound to impact the rest of his game. Couldn’t quite hold some marks but impacted a few contests and tried his best.
Nick Watson : 6/10
Thought watto was not bad today. Not as good as last week but had a decent game. 1 direct goal assist and 3 score involvements, not bad.
Jarman Impey : 6/10
Not as good as the past few weeks for Jars. Only the 13 touches today, on top of that was only running at 50% disposal efficiency which is really poor from one of our best ball users. However he did have 5 interceptions which was good but just was a shame he couldn’t impact the game more.
Serong : 5/10
Very fumbly today, to be fair a lot of our players were which was fair considering the rain but I feel like even in previous games, Serong just tends to fumble the ball a lot more. I don’t think he was that good, I think he was playing on Georgiades but im not 100% sure but if so, he didn’t get a goal so that is impressive.
CJ : 4/10
Couldn’t really get too involved CJ. Fair enough though considering it’s his first AFL game in 12 months, we gave Day time to get back into things and he’s looking much better now so it’s only fair we let CJ do the same thing.
Josh Weddle : 4/10
Just feel like he wasn’t him self today, couldn’t quite express his speed and rebound off the half back flank. Only the 8 touches which is disappointing.
Seamus Mitchell : 6/10
If the game ended at half time, I would have gave him an 8 because he absolutely pocketed Rioli but in the end Rioli got the better of him and practically won them the game.
Breust
Not fair to give him a proper rating. Don’t think he was amazing when he came on. I feel like our sub should be a more energetic and high impact player.

Full Time: Luton Town 2 - 4 Fulham

Luton Town	2‑4 HT: 1‑2	Fulham
Carlton Morris (45'+1' pen), Alfie Doughty (55')	⚽️	Adama Traoré (43'), Raúl Jiménez (45'+3', 49'), Harry Wilson (68')
	🅰️	Harry Wilson (43', 45'+3'), Harrison Reed (49'), Adama Traoré (68')

Post-Match Discussion Thread: https://www.reddit.com/COYH/comments/1cvsw0k/postmatch_thread_luton_town_vs_fulham/

Match Info

Competition:	2023-24 English Premier League
Date:	May 19, 2024 (Sunday)
Time:	4:00pm BST
Venue:	Kenilworth Road
Attendance:	12,027
Match Official:	Matt Donohue

Lineups

Luton Town

Starting XI: 🧤Thomas Kaminski (🔁 James Shea 76'), Teden Mengi (🔁 Joseph Johnson 17'), Gabriel Osho, Daiki Hashioka, Jordan Clark🟨 (🔁 Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu 70'), Albert Lokonga🟨, Alfie Doughty🟨, Chiedozie Ogbene (🔁 Andros Townsend 76'), Elijah Adebayo (🔁 Cauley Woodrow 76'), Tahith Chong, Carlton Morris🟨
Substitutes: Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu, Axel Piesold, Luke Berry, Andros Townsend, Cauley Woodrow, Joseph Johnson🟨, Fred Onyedinma, Tim Krul, James Shea
Formation: 3-4-3

Fulham

Starting XI: 🧤Bernd Leno, Calvin Bassey, Tim Ream, Antonee Robinson🟨 (🔁 Fodé Ballo‑Touré 78'), Kenny Tete, Alex Iwobi, João Palhinha (🔁 Timothy Castagne 90'+1'), Harrison Reed🟨 (🔁 Tom Cairney 75'), Raúl Jiménez (🔁 Rodrigo Muniz 90'+1'), Adama Traoré🟨 (🔁 Bobby De Cordova‑Reid 79'), Harry Wilson
Substitutes: Willian, Timothy Castagne, Tom Cairney🟨, Andreas Pereira, Armando Broja, Rodrigo Muniz, Bobby De Cordova‑Reid, Fodé Ballo‑Touré, Marek Rodak
Formation: 4-2-3-1

Match Stats

Luton Town	2-4	Fulham
39.8%	Possession:	60.2%
15	Total Shots:	15
6	Shots on Target:	7
5	Blocked Shots:	2
4	Corners:	4
291	Total Passes:	454
234 (80%)	Accurate Passes:	387 (85%)
17	Crosses:	15
5 (29%)	Accurate Crosses:	5 (33%)
46	Long Balls:	44
23 (50%)	Accurate Long Balls:	24 (55%)
9	Tackles:	18
5 (56%)	Effective Tackles:	7 (39%)
5	Interceptions:	4
8	Clearances:	16
8	Offsides:	1
15	Fouls:	20
5	Yellow Cards:	4
0	Red Cards:	0
3	Saves:	4

Match Commentary

--	Lineups are announced and players are warming up.
--	First Half begins.
3'	Foul by Elijah Adebayo (Luton Town).
3'	Tim Ream (Fulham) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
7'	Attempt blocked. João Palhinha (Fulham) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Alex Iwobi.
8'	Corner, Fulham. Conceded by Daiki Hashioka.
12'	Foul by Alfie Doughty (Luton Town).
12'	Kenny Tete (Fulham) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
13'	Offside, Luton Town. Jordan Clark is caught offside.
15'	Attempt blocked. Jordan Clark (Luton Town) right footed shot from the centre of the box is blocked. Assisted by Alfie Doughty with a cross.
15'	Attempt saved. Carlton Morris (Luton Town) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Daiki Hashioka with a cross.
16'	Foul by Harrison Reed (Fulham).
16'	Tahith Chong (Luton Town) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
16'	Delay in match because of an injury Teden Mengi (Luton Town).
17'	Substitution, Luton Town. Joe Johnson replaces Teden Mengi because of an injury.
18'	Delay over. They are ready to continue.
19'	Attempt missed. Harry Wilson (Fulham) left footed shot from the right side of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Alex Iwobi.
22'	Foul by Harrison Reed (Fulham).
22'	Tahith Chong (Luton Town) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
22'	Harrison Reed (Fulham) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
23'	Attempt blocked. Jordan Clark (Luton Town) right footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
23'	Corner, Luton Town. Conceded by Calvin Bassey.
23'	Offside, Luton Town. Alfie Doughty is caught offside.
24'	Chiedozie Ogbene (Luton Town) wins a free kick on the right wing.
24'	Foul by João Palhinha (Fulham).
25'	Corner, Luton Town. Conceded by Bernd Leno.
27'	Adama Traoré (Fulham) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
27'	Foul by Tahith Chong (Luton Town).
29'	Offside, Luton Town. Elijah Adebayo is caught offside.
30'	Attempt saved. Chiedozie Ogbene (Luton Town) left footed shot from the right side of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Carlton Morris.
30'	Offside, Luton Town. Tahith Chong is caught offside.
32'	Attempt saved. Elijah Adebayo (Luton Town) left footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the bottom left corner. Assisted by Jordan Clark.
32'	Hand ball by Carlton Morris (Luton Town).
33'	Attempt missed. Raúl Jiménez (Fulham) header from the right side of the six yard box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Adama Traoré with a cross.
34'	Alex Iwobi (Fulham) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
34'	Foul by Albert Sambi Lokonga (Luton Town).
34'	Albert Sambi Lokonga (Luton Town) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
35'	Elijah Adebayo (Luton Town) wins a free kick on the right wing.
35'	Foul by Calvin Bassey (Fulham).
36'	Attempt missed. Jordan Clark (Luton Town) right footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the right following a set piece situation.
37'	Foul by Harry Wilson (Fulham).
37'	Thomas Kaminski (Luton Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
38'	Albert Sambi Lokonga (Luton Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
38'	Foul by Harrison Reed (Fulham).
40'	Attempt missed. Carlton Morris (Luton Town) left footed shot from outside the box misses to the right. Assisted by Albert Sambi Lokonga.
41'	Corner, Luton Town. Conceded by Bernd Leno.
42'	Attempt missed. Gabriel Osho (Luton Town) right footed shot from outside the box is too high. Assisted by Chiedozie Ogbene.
43'	Goal! Luton Town 0, Fulham 1. Adama Traoré (Fulham) right footed shot from outside the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Harry Wilson.
44'	Attempt blocked. Chiedozie Ogbene (Luton Town) right footed shot from a difficult angle on the right is blocked. Assisted by Thomas Kaminski.
45'	Penalty Luton Town. Chiedozie Ogbene draws a foul in the penalty area.
45'	Penalty conceded by Calvin Bassey (Fulham) after a foul in the penalty area.
45'+1'	Goal! Luton Town 1, Fulham 1. Carlton Morris (Luton Town) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner.
45'+3'	Goal! Luton Town 1, Fulham 2. Raúl Jiménez (Fulham) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Harry Wilson.
45'+4'	Foul by Gabriel Osho (Luton Town).
45'+4'	Harry Wilson (Fulham) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
45'+5'	First Half ends, Luton Town 1, Fulham 2.
45'	Second Half begins Luton Town 1, Fulham 2.
46'	Carlton Morris (Luton Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
46'	Foul by Calvin Bassey (Fulham).
47'	Daiki Hashioka (Luton Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
47'	Foul by João Palhinha (Fulham).
47'	Foul by Elijah Adebayo (Luton Town).
47'	Tim Ream (Fulham) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
48'	Foul by Jordan Clark (Luton Town).
48'	Kenny Tete (Fulham) wins a free kick on the right wing.
48'	Jordan Clark (Luton Town) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
49'	Goal! Luton Town 1, Fulham 3. Raúl Jiménez (Fulham) header from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Harrison Reed with a cross following a set piece situation.
51'	Offside, Luton Town. Chiedozie Ogbene is caught offside.
51'	Daiki Hashioka (Luton Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
51'	Foul by Adama Traoré (Fulham).
53'	Attempt blocked. Adama Traoré (Fulham) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Alex Iwobi.
53'	Carlton Morris (Luton Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
53'	Foul by Antonee Robinson (Fulham).
54'	Foul by Kenny Tete (Fulham).
54'	Gabriel Osho (Luton Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
54'	Chiedozie Ogbene (Luton Town) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
54'	Foul by Antonee Robinson (Fulham).
54'	Antonee Robinson (Fulham) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
55'	Goal! Luton Town 2, Fulham 3. Alfie Doughty (Luton Town) from a free kick with a left footed shot to the bottom left corner.
56'	Foul by Alfie Doughty (Luton Town).
56'	Raúl Jiménez (Fulham) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
57'	Attempt saved. Harrison Reed (Fulham) right footed shot from long range on the right is saved in the top centre of the goal.
59'	Foul by Alfie Doughty (Luton Town).
59'	Harry Wilson (Fulham) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
59'	Alfie Doughty (Luton Town) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
60'	Harry Wilson (Fulham) hits the bar with a left footed shot from outside the box. Assisted by Harrison Reed following a set piece situation.
62'	Corner, Fulham. Conceded by Jordan Clark.
63'	Foul by Harrison Reed (Fulham).
63'	Jordan Clark (Luton Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
64'	Corner, Luton Town. Conceded by Calvin Bassey.
64'	Offside, Luton Town. Elijah Adebayo is caught offside.
67'	Attempt blocked. Chiedozie Ogbene (Luton Town) left footed shot from the right side of the box is blocked. Assisted by Jordan Clark.
67'	Elijah Adebayo (Luton Town) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
67'	Foul by Kenny Tete (Fulham).
68'	Goal! Luton Town 2, Fulham 4. Harry Wilson (Fulham) left footed shot from outside the box to the top left corner. Assisted by Adama Traoré.
70'	Substitution, Luton Town. Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu replaces Jordan Clark.
71'	Foul by Tahith Chong (Luton Town).
71'	Kenny Tete (Fulham) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
72'	Carlton Morris (Luton Town) wins a free kick on the right wing.
72'	Foul by Adama Traoré (Fulham).
73'	Adama Traoré (Fulham) is shown the yellow card.
73'	Carlton Morris (Luton Town) is shown the yellow card.
74'	Offside, Luton Town. Gabriel Osho is caught offside.
75'	Substitution, Fulham. Tom Cairney replaces Harrison Reed.
75'	Foul by Joe Johnson (Luton Town).
75'	Harry Wilson (Fulham) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
75'	Joe Johnson (Luton Town) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
76'	Substitution, Luton Town. Andros Townsend replaces Chiedozie Ogbene.
76'	Substitution, Luton Town. Cauley Woodrow replaces Elijah Adebayo.
76'	Substitution, Luton Town. James Shea replaces Thomas Kaminski.
77'	Foul by Alfie Doughty (Luton Town).
77'	Kenny Tete (Fulham) wins a free kick on the right wing.
78'	Offside, Fulham. Alex Iwobi is caught offside.
78'	Substitution, Fulham. Fodé Ballo-Touré replaces Antonee Robinson.
79'	Substitution, Fulham. Bobby De Cordova-Reid replaces Adama Traoré.
79'	Offside, Luton Town. Cauley Woodrow is caught offside.
80'	Cauley Woodrow (Luton Town) wins a free kick on the left wing.
80'	Foul by Kenny Tete (Fulham).
81'	Attempt blocked. Tahith Chong (Luton Town) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
81'	Attempt missed. Carlton Morris (Luton Town) header from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Alfie Doughty with a cross.
82'	Attempt saved. Tom Cairney (Fulham) left footed shot from outside the box is saved in the top centre of the goal. Assisted by João Palhinha.
82'	Corner, Fulham. Conceded by James Shea.
83'	Corner, Fulham. Conceded by Albert Sambi Lokonga.
84'	Attempt missed. Bobby De Cordova-Reid (Fulham) right footed shot from the left side of the six yard box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Harry Wilson with a cross following a corner.
84'	Bobby De Cordova-Reid (Fulham) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
84'	Foul by Daiki Hashioka (Luton Town).
86'	Attempt missed. Bobby De Cordova-Reid (Fulham) left footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Raúl Jiménez with a cross.
86'	Attempt saved. Alex Iwobi (Fulham) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Bobby De Cordova-Reid.
88'	Foul by Tom Cairney (Fulham).
88'	Tahith Chong (Luton Town) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
88'	Tom Cairney (Fulham) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
89'	Attempt saved. Cauley Woodrow (Luton Town) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the bottom right corner.
90'+1'	Substitution, Fulham. Rodrigo Muniz replaces Raúl Jiménez.
90'+1'	Substitution, Fulham. Timothy Castagne replaces João Palhinha.
90'+1'	Foul by Fodé Ballo-Touré (Fulham).
90'+1'	Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu (Luton Town) wins a free kick on the right wing.
90'+2'	Bobby De Cordova-Reid (Fulham) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
90'+2'	Foul by Daiki Hashioka (Luton Town).
90'+3'	Andros Townsend (Luton Town) wins a free kick on the right wing.
90'+3'	Foul by Fodé Ballo-Touré (Fulham).
90'+4'	Attempt missed. Bobby De Cordova-Reid (Fulham) right footed shot from the left side of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Tom Cairney.
90'+6'	Second Half ends, Luton Town 2, Fulham 4.

Reposting here for posterity
Summary: Greens hits out at policies tailored for the wealthy, not the people; saying they are devoid of care and evidence. They said if they were delivering this year's budget, they would deliver the following by taxing wealth:

• An income guarantee for everyone
• Lift every family out of poverty
• More support for students or people out of work
• Extra help if you're sick or disabled
• Payments for families so kids can thrive
• More resourcing for the public service
• Free dental care
• Cheaper power bills
• Solar panels and batteries for homes
• Climate pollution reduction

Mā te oranga o te taiao, ka ora ai te iwi. Mō te takitini, kāore mo te torutoru anake. Ki te mana whenua o tēnei rohe, tū mai rā Ngāti Whātua, tēnā koutou. Ki a tātou e huihui mai nei, ko ngā moemoeā o te Pāti Kākāriki te take, nau mai, haere mai, whakatau mai.
Tenā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā tātou katoa.
Sixteen million dollars.
That’s how much the coalition parties raised to win last year’s election.
Ten million for National.
Four million for Act.
Just under two million for New Zealand First.
Sixteen million dollars.
From property developers and business tycoons who have built their wealth by exploiting our natural environment.
To companies who profit from digging up our whenua and overfishing our oceans - activities that cause significant harm to our precious ecosystems.
Sixteen million dollars helped to put this government into power.
And in a little less than two weeks, the coalition government will unveil its first budget.
It has clearly been difficult for them to put it together.
To the right, Act is trying to fire all the people who make our public services work, while in their own cooker corner New Zealand First hoards 1.2 billion dollars for hand-chosen pet projects.
The Coalition has found half a billion dollars for new defence spending, but cancelled projects to improve buses and trains in Auckland and Wellington.
They’re borrowing billions to cover the cost of cutting taxes for wealthy property investors, because they’ve realised that the promises they made during the election campaign were slapdash and expensive.
Meanwhile, people with the least face ever higher costs.
Bus fares have already gone up.
Rents continue to rise, while the government is giving tax breaks to landlords instead of investing in more public housing.
So on Budget Day, when we see what the coalition has been able to cobble together, I want you to remember: sixteen million dollars.
What’s in the Budget for the people who paid for National’s election campaign?
And what could have been in the budget instead if Aotearoa had a Government that prioritised people and planet?
Because I am not here for the relative few who donated those sixteen million dollars.
I am here for the many, including the 330,000 people who trusted the Green Party with their votes last year.
And I want to thank you all once again.
Your voices will continue to be heard.
You told us you wanted us to fight for an Aotearoa where everyone can get by, where our native wildlife and oceans thrive, where we take bold climate action, and where we honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
That is what we are doing. And we will be loud. And we will be staunch as always.
I am here for those who cannot sit by while the government tries to take the country backwards on the issues that matter most.
While the goal of a smoke-free generation goes up in smoke.
While new coal mines are dug into our precious conservation land, even as the Prime Minister claims to want to achieve climate change targets.
While the few with extraordinary wealth get what they want, at the expense of everyone else.
The Greens have always been, and will always be, the voice for a different kind of politics.
A politics centred in justice through honouring te Tiriti o Waitangi, not using it to drive a wedge in our communities.
A politics that celebrates the potential our country could live up to if it was grounded in manaakitanga and equity.
That acknowledges the richness of generations of tangata whenua and tangata tiriti working together to care for our whenua and collectively enjoying the fruits of mahitahi.
Where we protect Papatūānuku out of aroha for her, and respect that her wellbeing is also what keeps us alive.
Where we share what we have so everyone in Aotearoa can live a good life.
Everything the Greens won over the last two terms in government with Labour was hard fought. Governments must make tradeoffs. But Governments are defined by their choices.
And right now, the coalition is making theirs clear.
If the Greens were delivering this year’s budget, I’ll tell you what would be in it.
An income guarantee, so no matter what, everyone has what they need to live a decent life.
We could lift every family in Aotearoa out of poverty, and give people the peace of mind that they’ll be supported if they fall on tough times.
More support for students and people out of work, extra help if you’re sick or disabled, and simple payments for families so all kids can thrive.
Free dental care.
Successive governments have let basic dental healthcare get so expensive, that forty percent - forty percent! - of people avoid going to the dentist.
It’s just too expensive.
In Aotearoa, we could choose to resource our public health services - funded by taxes on wealth, so that everyone can be looked after when they need it.
And if the Greens were putting together the Budget, it would fund our plan to make your homes warmer while cutting down your power bills AND climate pollution.
Solar panels and batteries for homes to store the sun’s free energy, taking pressure off the power grid.
But this year, with the help of sixteen million dollars from some of the wealthiest people in Aotearoa, National, Act, and New Zealand First have the privilege of making those decisions.
And I say to them, what are you going to do with it?
You have the choice to end poverty.
Or to give tax breaks to landlords.
To give back more to people who earn their living, instead of tax breaks for people who own more houses than they need, and who already get untaxed capital gains.
You have the choice to invest in solar power, or open up new coal mines.
The choices people make when they have power show us what they are motivated by. These choices define the world they want to create.
So today I want to talk with you about what motivates the Green Party.
Ko te mana o Te Tiriti.
Ko te oranga o te Taiao.
Ko ngā tūmanako mō ngā tamariki.
We are motivated by generations of movements and leaders who have pushed for the sovereignty of tangata whenua guaranteed by te Tiriti o Waitangi.
A partnership on which this country was built, despite the continuous breaches by the Crown partner.
The Green Party is a Tiriti party.
Our leadership is a partnership between tangata whenua and tangata tiriti.
Our work seeks to honour the commitments made generations ago, to prosper together.
Our commitment to Tiriti justice is absolutely integral to everything the Greens do - just as it is integral to the future of Aotearoa.
Tino rangatiratanga is at the heart of healing relationships across communities and reconnecting all of us with our seas, our rivers, our bush, our mountains, and our whenua.
And central to our vision for a Tiriti-based future, is our commitment to restoring and protecting nature.
Because nature is in crisis.
Just out these doors, and below our feet, in the Hauraki Gulf, the impacts of commercial overfishing and the pollution washing into the water from the land, has brought the ecosystem to the brink.
North and west of here, great kauri are critically threatened.
To the south, unique animals found in no other country, are at risk from the bulldozers of mining companies, unless we protect them.
Four thousand different native species are at risk of extinction in Aotearoa.
Four thousand.
We can turn that around, but it takes commitment. It takes effort. It takes mahitahi. And it takes choices. Choices that put people and planet first, instead of a cynical politics that serves the short-term interests of wealthy donors.
If the government chooses not to prioritise restoring the health of the natural world in its first budget, that shows what they are motivated by, and it shows what kind of world they are prepared to leave to our tamariki.
It is our tamariki and mokopuna that motivate the Greens.
Not just the ones born tomorrow, but those after that, for seven generations down the line.
Sustainability doesn’t just mean sustainability for nature, but for people too. This planet is our home. We need it to thrive.
The Greens have always been deeply motivated by care for other people, for communities, for those with us today and for those who will come after us.
We are motivated by every single child who goes to bed hungry tonight.
We are motivated by every single adult who isn’t sure how they’ll pay the rent or mortgage next week.
As winter hits, we are motivated by every person who sits in the cold, staring at the heater, knowing they can’t afford to turn it on.
Our challenge to the coalition government is to prove that you are motivated by this too.
Choose to do something about it.
The solutions to many of the problems we face in Aotearoa are clear. This week I had the privilege of meeting with rangatahi, and hearing about the solutions they want to see in their communities. They are THE experts in their own experience - and they know they need to be empowered and given better opportunities; not marginalised, patronised, ignored, and punished.
But the coalition government doesn’t like those solutions, because they don’t fit its agenda. They prefer catch phrases like “social investment”, to real data and lived experience.
A Government which says it is motivated by evidence-based solutions has cut funding to the world class Growing up in New Zealand study, and continues to ignore the evidence it provides. Like the evidence that 40% of children live in the most deprived areas.
If this government was truly invested in improving social outcomes, it would affirm and resource the experts who know best and have proven the most.
And that includes empowering the people with the lived experience of the systems failing them and their whānau. It requires removing all the barriers to wellbeing such as poverty and homelessness. We need to support whole whānau, instead of focusing on ‘fixing’ an individual after they’ve already been broken by poverty and neglect, and expecting them to rise above circumstances of deprivation that we should have all worked together to prevent in the first place. We need the solutions to be grounded in community knowledge and care. I hope this government is open to sitting with kai rangahau Māori and families to learn more about what really needs to change.
When the Crown has repeatedly failed to be accountable for the harm it has caused to whānau Māori, it is clear that we need an authentic transfer of power and resources - with a partnership of a strong public and social services sector working together, with communities, hapū and iwi, and whānau.
I have seen what works to support people off a destructive path in life. To instead become the best of themselves. There is a mountain of evidence about approaches that work where all other attempts have failed - particularly where there is deep trauma.
These approaches, like Kaupapa Māori interventions, build the strength of whānau and community.
Now for far too long, successive governments have been stuck on catch phrase politics, devoid of evidence or genuine care.
Policies like bootcamps for the young, benefit sanctions for the already struggling, higher criminal penalties - a punitive, petty politics that makes life harder for those already
excluded, and does nothing to keep communities safe and well. This is divisive, stale, cruel and ineffective.
When I have met and listened to the very people at the forefront of this cruelty, the impact has been clear.
Such punitive and dehumanising measures have instead caused even further disconnection and hopelessness. The Greens know that meeting trauma with punishment isn’t going to work. I want rangatahi to hear us loud and clear. You matter. Your whānau matters. You deserve dignity, a community and a country that sees your strength.
At a basic level, I think we all agree that identifying the causes of persistent hardship, and supporting people to get out of those situations, is a good idea.
And we all agree that the measure of a government’s success is whether it achieves outcomes, not how much money it spends on trying.
But the Government isn’t actually doing this.
Two weeks ago the Minister of Finance said her government will “use hard evidence to invest in what works.”
On that same day, the Minister of Social Development announced that people on a benefit will face financial sanctions if they don’t attend work seminars.
Let me be clear, work seminars don’t help people find jobs they’re suited for - let alone create meaningful work with decent pay and conditions. The Ministry of Social Development has told the Minister there is no evidence for the government’s cruel approach. Sanctions do not make a difference for the number of people moving into paid work.
And the evidence against sanctions is extremely clear.
Financial sanctions for beneficiaries, who already don’t have enough income to pay for life’s essentials, simply push people into further hardship.
That affects their children, their whānau, and their whole communities.
Instead, people need tailored support into work that matches their skills and interests, with a guaranteed income while retraining.
At the same time, the Government needs to invest in creating sustainable jobs that transition our economy away from fossil fuels.
Jobs with decent pay, secure hours and support for people to balance caregiving responsibilities. Jobs that support wellbeing for whānau, instead of seeing workers as just a cog in a labour machine.
When the Government rolls out policies like benefit sanctions, they are making a choice to ignore the evidence about the effect of their actions.
And it is our job to expose that.
I cannot say it enough: we have everything we need in Aotearoa for everyone to live a decent life.
We know what people need to rise up out of persistent hardship.
A warm, dry, affordable, and accessible home.
Healthy kai on the table.
The freedom to go to the doctor or the dentist when they need to, without having to worry about the cost.
And next week, the Government has a choice whether to put people at the heart of the budget - or not. If they don’t, they are holding back the potential of our people and our communities to thrive.
And we will ask, exactly who are they governing for?
The Greens are here for the many, not just the few.
We carry decades of political leadership with us, starting from the late Jeanette Fitzsimons and Rod Donald, through to our newest co-leader Chloe Swarbrick.
We are here thanks to the thousands upon thousands of volunteers over the last three decades.
The many grassroots-led movements who we are honoured to have worked with for the kaupapa.
We draw our strength from knowing we are powered by the many. This gives us the strength to oppose a government whose sixteen million dollars of political donations got them where they are today.
Thanks to our people-powered campaign, we have our largest Caucus ever.
And it represents Aotearoa more than it ever has before.
Green politics is the alternative to this cynical, cruel coalition government.
And we are only just getting started.

Quick Links
Discord: https://discord.gg/8EgWdQC
Website: https://www.moddedminecraft.club/
Wiki: https://wiki.moddedminecraft.club/index.php?title=Main_Page
Forums: https://forum.moddedminecraft.club/
Server IPs
Up to date version information is available on our wiki. Versions in this post are updated with each new post.

Pack	IP	Pack Versions
Feed the Factory	ftf.moddedminecraft.club	1.0
All the Mods 9	atm9.moddedminecraft.club	0.2.58
TNP Limitless 7	tnp7.moddedminecraft.club	1.4.0
Gregtech: New Horizons	gtnh.moddedminecraft.club	2.5.1
Gregtech: New Horizons (no teleportation)	gtnh-im.moddedminecraft.club	2.5.1

Overview
Modded Minecraft Club is a community driven network of multiple modded Minecraft servers. These servers are run by our excellent staff, some of whom have run Minecraft servers since Beta 1.6. Our goal with MMCC is to establish a mid-sized, healthy, community around Modded Minecraft. To accomplish this goal, all griefing is forbidden, griefed or bugged items will be refunded, there is no tolerance for disrespect among community members, and there are written and enforced moderator guidelines to protect against power-tripping staff.
Whitelist
In general, a whitelist is ineffective at preventing bad guys from joining the server, creates unnecessary administrative work, and creates a barrier to legitimate players. Since launch, we have assumed everyone is a legitimate community member from the beginning while also keeping strong anti-grief controls in place. This has been very successful, with very few occurrences of grief because, almost all because the player did not claim their build. If you want to join, come right in!
Rules & Moderator Guidelines
To ensure that we can easily change rules and let players know about the changes, we do not keep the server rules in our advertising posts. Instead, you can view this page on our website that serves as the one true source for the server’s rules. In addition to server rules like most servers have, we also have written and enforced moderator guidelines that are in place to prevent both ineffective moderation and power tripping moderators. If you feel that a moderator has violated these guidelines, you can contact the owners (john01dav@gmail.com, 132ikl@gmail.com) for a swift resolution.
Minimal Server Lag
The servers are located in a professional datacenter in Falkenstein, Germany. They run on a dedicated server with an i9-9900k CPU, 64 GBs of RAM, and a 1000 mbps guaranteed internet speed (both up and down). For full server specifications, see the Hetnzer EX62-NVMe. Many servers make outlandish claims about their complete lack of lag, and many don't have any lag at that moment. What they lack is a future commitment to quickly and effectively solve any and all lag problems that may arise, to the greatest extent that is possible given the realities of modded Minecraft. Extra Notes
We aim for 24/7/365 uptime, although, there are occasional automatic restarts ensure stability and to make modifications along with crashes that come with modded Minecraft. If you have any other questions, feel free to join our Discord server!

What exactly are Dharāṇī?
Dharāṇī, also known as Parittas, are Buddhist chants, mnemonic codes, incantations, or recitations, usually the mantras consisting of Sanskrit or Pāli phrases. Believed to be protective and with powers to generate merit for the Buddhist devotee, they constitute a major part of historic Buddhist literature. Many of these chants are in Sanskrit and Pāli, written in scripts such as Siddhaṃ, as well as transliterated into Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Sinhala, Thai and other regional scripts. Dharāṇī are found in the ancient texts of all major traditions of Buddhism. They are a major part of the Pāli canon preserved by the Theravāda tradition. Mahāyāna Sūtras such as the Lotus Sūtra and the Heart Sūtra include or conclude with Dharāṇī. Dharāṇī are a part of the regular ritual prayers as well as considered to be an amulet and charm in themselves, whose recitation believed to allay bad luck, diseases or other calamity. In some Buddhist regions, they served as texts upon which the Buddhist witness would swear to tell the truth. Dharāṇī recitation for the purposes of healing and protection is referred to as Paritta in some Buddhist regions, such as Laos, Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka. Paritta is generally translated as ‘Safeguard’ or ‘Protection’ in the Pāli language.
Historical Context:
The word Dharāṇī derives from a Sanskrit root √dhṛ meaning "to hold or maintain". Some Buddhist communities outside India sometimes refer to Dharāṇī with alternate terms such as "Mantra, Hṛdaya (Hridiya), Paritrana (Paritta), Raksha (Pali: Rakkha), Gutti, or Vidyā" though these terms also have other contextual meanings in Buddhism. The Buddhist Dharāṇī invocations are the earliest mass printed texts that have survived. The earliest extant example of printing on paper is a fragment of a Dhāraṇī miniature scroll in Sanskrit unearthed in a tomb in Xi'an, called the Great spell of unsullied pure light (Wúgòu jìng guāngdà tuóluóní jīng; 無垢淨光大陀羅尼經). It was printed using woodblock during the Tang dynasty, c. 650–670 AD. The Hyakumantō Darani found as charms in wooden pagodas of Japan were broadly accepted as having been printed between 764 and 770 CE. In 1966, similarly printed Dharāṇī were discovered in stone pagoda of Pulguksa temple in Gyeongju, Korea. These are dated to the first half of the 8th century.
How to start the practice:
As stated, Dharāṇī, are used as a sort of mnemonic code, specifically curated to help a practitioner remember the text in which the teaching and incantation comes from, such a practice is a good starting point in exploring the genre of Buddhist text that have the ability to generate positive karma, and dedication of merit to other sentient beings. Remembering and reciting a Dharāṇī is useful, and is a good recommendation for beginners, linked here is also a guide on how to pronounce Sanskrit if you happen to have some linguistic difficulties:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnFLN_eBOBMVEWX7pGJMGJNr_HK75VL_9&si=wSLN1Pz95q9bTcNA
Please note as some Dharāṇī/Paritta are esoteric and passed down by lineage of teacher to student, it is highly recommended for beginners to receive oral transmissions of such text. However, in this short list, all listed text are Sūtric and are free to recite without need of oral transmission.
Here is a good beginners list:
(Sanskrit works) Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtraṁ (White Lotus Sūtra, used for praising the White Lotus Sūtra, and its benefits.)
Nīlakaṇṭha Dharāṇī (Blue-Necked One Dharāṇī, used for honoring, venerating, and requesting Avalokiteśvara protection, and clearance of obstacles.)
Śūraṅgama Mantraḥ/Sitātapatroṣṇīṣa Dhāraṇī* (Śūraṅgama Sūtra Mantraḥ, and the Dharāṇī associated in the Śūraṅgama Sūtra; White Parosal Dharāṇī of Sitātapatra Dharmapāla. Used for honoring, and venerating, the Śūraṅgama Sūtra, as well as requesting the help of Sitātapatra Dharmapāla to combat negative spiritual forces, magic, and beings.)
Bhaiṣajya-Guru-Vaiḍūrya-Prabhā-Rāja Dharāṇī (Used for honoring, and venerating, the Medicine Buddha Sūtra, as well as requesting his spiritual powers to heal and help sentient beings.)
Prajñāpāramitā-Hṛdaya (Sūtra) (Used for honoring, and venerating, the essence of Mahāyāna teachings on Śūnyatā, beneficial at warding off ill calamities, and dispelling negative forces.)
Munīndra-Hṛdaya-Mantraḥ (Shakyamuni Heart Mantraḥ, used for honoring, venerating, and establishing a connection to the Buddha Dharma.)
Śyāmatārā-Mantraḥ (Green Tārā Mantraḥ, used for requesting assistance from Green Tārā Bodhisattva.)
Amitāyus Dharāṇī (Amitāyus Buddha Dharāṇī used for honoring, venerating, and establishing a connection to the Amitabha Buddha Dharma, and for requesting longevity.)
Sarva-Tathāgatāyur-Vajra-Hṛdaya-Dharāṇī (All Thus Come One Life Diamond Heart Dharāṇī, used as an aspiration prayer towards Sukhāvatī, as well as praising, and venerating Amitābha Buddha.)
*Disclaimer, although this is an open mantraḥ, it is highly recommended to follow a teachers instructions on the usage of such a powerful mantraḥ. The Śuraṅgama Mantraḥ request the help of Vajrapaṇi Dharmapāla and is an extremely wrathful mantraḥ, often used at the most extreme of cases. Repeated usage is to advised by a qualified teacher.
For a more general overlook on Paritta works, which are often more peaceful in nature, and have a heavy emphasis on Mettā and merit dedication, here are a few open protective Parittas:
(Pāli linguistic works) Mettā Sutta/Karaṇīyamettā Sutta (The Discourse on Goodwill, used for spreading Mettā Pāramī to other sentient beings.)
Uddissanādhiṭṭhāna Gāthā (Verses for dedication of merit, used for dedicating merit to sentient beings, as well as multitudes of spiritual beings.)
Tiro-kuḍḍa-kaṇḍa-sutta Gāthā (Hungry Shades outside the walls verses, used for dedicating merit and food for ancestors and Pretā spiritual beings.)
Āmantana-Devatā Gāthā (Invitation to the Devās, used to invite the Buddhist and local deities protect those listening and preaching the Dhamma.)
Namakāra-siddhi Gāthā (Verses on success through homage, used as the beginning Paritta of ceremonies to venerate Buddhas and to bring success to rituals.)
Cha Ratana Paritta Gāthā (The Six Protective Verses from the Discourse on Treasures, derived from the larger Ratana Sutta, used for dispelling evil and negative forces, and proclaiming the truth [Saccakiriyā] of the triple gems.)
Khandha Paritta (The Group Protection, used for calming down and venerating the Nāga families, as well as dispelling harmful two footed, four footed, poisonous, and crawling creatures.)
Dhajagga Paritta (Top of the banner staff Protection, used for dispelling fear, and negative forces.)
Buddha-jaya-maṅgala Gāthā (The Verses of the Buddha’s Victory Blessings, used for proclaiming the eight auspicious victories of Shakyamuni Buddha in his life.)
It is recommended before the start of any Dharāṇī or Paritta chanting that one is to take refuge in the triple gems, and make aspiration prayers towards one’s goal, an example, as seen in the Theravāda Nikāya:
Namo tassa bhagavato arahato sammā-sambuddhassa. (Recite three times.)
Homage to the Blessed One, the Worthy One, the Rightly Self-awakened One.
Tisaraṇa (Triple Gem Refuge.)
Buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi. Dhammaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi. Saṅghaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi.
I go to the Buddha for refuge. I go to the Dhamma for refuge. I go to the Saṅgha for refuge.
Dutiyampi Buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi. Dutiyampi Dhammaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi. Dutiyampi Saṅghaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi.
Twice, I go to the Buddha for refuge. Twice, I go to the Dhamma for refuge. Twice, I go to the Saṅgha for refuge.
Tatiyampi Buddhaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi. Tatiyampi Dhammaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi. Tatiyampi Saṅghaṁ saraṇaṁ gacchāmi.
Thrice, I go to the Buddha for refuge. Thrice, I go to the Dhamma for refuge. Thrice, I go to the Saṅgha for refuge.
[Āmantana-Devatā Gāthā is said here.]
[Namakāra-siddhi Gāthā Paritta Chant, and so on…..]
Please feel free to ask questions, I don’t even know if you’re still reading, but…. Feel free to add suggestions too I guess. Have a nice day, and thank you for coming to my Ted-talk.

My son is just now showing interest in RC mods. He has picked the TRX-4m Bronco 1/18 scale as his first vehicle. He said for now his goal is to have the Bronco drive up steep grades and have really good grip. His first upgrades he wants to make are shocks, flex, wheels, tires, and high clearance links. I, myself, don’t know much about this. His question is…….. What size tire, rims, and silicone rubber inserts should he get without rubbing? What are some other basic upgrades he can do that doesn’t break budget? This is for hobby, education, and fun. He wants to upgrade just enough to notice some difference but not too intricate. (One more question he just asked, “Can i drive it in the water?” He is a 10yr old. Thank you all for your time and help.

[FIRST][LAST]
Atlantis Commission
Officer Report - Lieutenant Colonel John Shepard
CLEARANCE LEVEL 5
Well this had definitely been a very interesting couple of hours. This dimension and its people had very odd opinions and ideas. Apparently the prey species of this dimension were all obligate cowards, whose instincts compelled them to be non-violent and run from threats. At least according to themselves. There were apparently some of them who were “predator diseased” as they called it, a disease which often resulted in increased violence, aggression, lack of empathy, and unheard like behavior. It sounded to me like some form of infectious psychopathy, but the venlil assured us it shouldn't affect us since we were predators, which didn’t really ease my fears, but hopefully it was something we could figure out when we got home if it ever became a problem.
Gotta love mandatory quarantine periods woo hoo!
As scary as this odd disease sounded, my main concern at the moment was to try and turn a professed coward into someone who could at the very least defend themselves.
I looked down to the table of gear ahead of me and then over to the mostly naked Venlil to my side, and then even farther to Tiel’c who thought It would be a good idea to help oversee Farva’s rapid fire training course. I fiddled with the bluetooth earpiece which was rigged up to one of our handhelds to run a translation program to speak directly with the captain. A big step up from our unknowingly one sided communications earlier.
I stepped on the other side of the plastic table and placed my hands down upon it and looked on at my new student..
“Welcome Captain Farva to our very impromptu accelerated course on Human arms armor and basic infantry tactics.” I said gesturing to the hodge podge gear we had managed to assemble for the good captain. “Are we ready to begin?”.
She flicked her ears, somewhat nervously by the looks.
“I’d take it that's a yes then?”
“Oh yes sorry”
“Alright then, well given that most of our crew is human and the only other alien struts around naked all the time, the only gear we have on hand is for humans, So you're going to be running size smalls and it's all going to fit all a bit big” I say as I toss her the tactical vest. ”Here try this on, we can try to tighten it up if it's a bit loose anywhere”. The captain wrestles with the buckles a bit, and Teal'c helps her tighten up some of the top straps, as the Venil’s shoulders weren't as broad as humans. Farva gave Teal’c an odd look, but seemed appreciative none the less.Once finished, she grasped the vest in her paws with interest. “This armor seems quite lightweight, which is nice, weight is often an issue that causes us to forgo armor, since heavy armor would hurt our running ability.” Farva remarks. “Also the sheer amount of pockets seems quite excessive, what do you need all these for?”
“Well for starters it's currently missing these '' I hand Farva one of the armor plates which she looks over. “That is a depleted Naquadria ceramic composite plate. It’s designed to stop bullet impacts and dissipate energy weapon blasts. It slots into that chest compartment in the front and back of your armor.”
“This isn't quite what Id imagine for the armor of your kind”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well judging by your ships I would have imagined you would put more emphasis on defense Your predatory nature would make you less likely to run away from conflict allowing for more encompassing armor to cover more than just your chest, since you have less need to run.”
She would put it like that.
“Well there are a number of reasons for that, a lot to do with those excess pockets you mentioned. For starters you will not be carrying the same amount of gear that the standard infantry unit would normally be carrying, we are preparing you for a quick in and out op. Normally us expedition teams need to be deployed into unknown territory for extended periods of time, we need to carry everything we might need with us from food, bullets, weapons, to comms gear, sensors, repelling equipment etc. The weight from all that gear adds up fast; In order to stay sufficiently mobile and combat effective; we only carry enough armor to protect our vitals, head and torso, anything else can hopefully be patched up by a field medic.”
Tielc gave his piece as well. “It is important to know when to run both towards and aways from one's foes, not every battle can be won through strength alone, but by strategy and cunning. Being able to reposition oneself quickly is therefore highly advantageous”
Farva seemed to freeze at Teal'c's statement, not out of fear I think, she instead had a distant look in her eye. To snap her out of her slump I handed her a standard ballistic helmet.
Seeming to get the idea she looked at it oddly and tried it on. It confirmed to her head shape decently well but depressed her ears to either side of her head, kind of resembling what one might imagine a sad bunny rabbit to look like “I don't think this will be something I can bring with me” she said ” I can't use ear signals and this will muffle my hearing.”
“Why don’t you keep it on for the time being, I think any extra hearing protection might be useful considering what we are about to try next.” I hand Farva some ballistic ear protectors, slightly modified and somewhat ramshackle. “One of the corporals worked closely with Nurse Fila to get an idea for safe decibels levels for your kind, we were also able to get these earbuds molded to fit into your ear canal better”
Farva took them and slipped them in. “These are a bit uncomfortable, what do I need these for?”
“You'll need them for this” I say as I unsnap the clasps on the weapons case revealing its contents.
The content seems to capture Farva’s interest, getting a slight tail wave.
“Okay So this here is a p90, It carries a 50 round top loading magazine of teflon coated armor piercing ordnance. With a cyclical rate of fire of 900 rounds per minute.”
Farvas ears perk up at this. “This seems like an efficient design, I take it these are a flashlight and laser sight for accuracy?” She asked, pointing to the top of the weapon.
“Yes we also have holographic and acog optics which will help line up targets from farther away.” I look on as Farva picks up the weapon and inspects it, testing the weight as I note that it will weigh a fair bit more once loaded. But she doesn't seem to be struggling with the weight. I can't help but notice good firearm safety as well, she keeps her finger well off the trigger and takes care to keep her weapon pointed aways from anyone else.
“This seems like a solid design but I'm not sure how useful those weapon optics would be, as they are not designed for my side facing eyes”
“I'm sure our master at arms can figure something out, why don't we give it a test fire first tho, before we send it off to make adjustments.” I instruct her on how to load the weapon and turn the safety off. I warn her of the sound it makes. And while definitely taken aback by the recoil and sound at first, she quickly gets the hang of it, she has some respectable shot groupings in both single fire and in short bursts. And keeps the rounds reasonably centered while firing in full auto.
She did a whole lot better than I would have initially suspected given her performance in the hanger bay a day before.
“The rate of fire seems useful” Farva spoke “This would be useful for our soldiers, our accuracy falters when we are panicked, and the increased shot count should guarantee some hits based on volume of fire alone” she finished with a dejected expression.
She quickly places the weapon back in its case, as if it burned to touch.” I don't know if I should be armed for this mission, at least not with that weapon, I don't want to miss and hit one of you in the back!”
“What? Nonsense, you are a great shot, and this is just a precaution in case we get separated or flanked and need some covering fire. If our guys are doing their job right you shouldn't need to fire a single round anyways.”
Captain Farva’s breathing started to hasten, earlier I might have thought it was fear, but I was starting to get an idea of what the captain's issues were. I’ve seen this before.
“I.. I can’t be trusted with this responsibility, every time I am left in charge of something, every time people put their lives in my paws I ....”
“Farva, don’t you start with me now you hear.” I said sternly, swiftly capping off her inevitable spiral of self doubt.
“But.. no.. you don’t understand”
Stopping her again I spoke. “But nothing, what happened before on that ship, and back at that colony is in the past. I don’t know your whole situation, but from what I have gathered from the crew It was nothing good. You feel responsible and it's eating away at you, and frankly it doesn’t matter if that's true or not. Accidents happen, people make mistakes, and when that happens we need to learn, take those lessons to heart, and don't let it stop us from helping people in the present. If you let guilt, or fear of mistakes stop you, then bad guys have already won, all without having to have fired a shot”
Farva is quiet for a short time, I was hoping I got through to her, I'm not the best and pep talks and this certainly wasn’t your typical weapons demo, if only everyones could go as smoothly as Ronan’s.
Farva spoke quietly, arms pressed up against her chest, she looked so sad, defeated, and small. Well more than usual anyways. “We can't be strong like you humans, we are too emotional and when we are scared we run away or we lock up and...”
“And that is clearly not the case with you captain Farva” Teal’c finally reentered the conversation having heard enough. “You have shown courage with every action you have taken so far, your actions have saved the lives of many of your crew, every time you have been threatened you acted not just to protect yourself but others as well. You attempted to contend with beings many times your size without even thinking about it, all in the effort to protect others, and this is only in the time we have known you, this speaks nothing of your actions over the colony. You are a warrior of admirable courage Captain Farva, your self doubt is unearned.”
A single tear rolled down Farva’s eyes which she quickly wiped away. “That was very nice of you to say, but I'm not brave like you say, I was terrified out of my mind the whole time.”
Teal’c looked puzzled. “I did not call you brave, I said you were courageous.”
Farva shot back with the little venlil one up one down ear flick I had very quickly learned was confusion.” I'm confused you just said brave twice”
“Hmm it appears your language does not contain the word I am using, I apologize I am not used to speaking through a translator” Teal’c relented “ There are two words I am using admittedly in slightly different forms, bravery and courage. Bravery or to be brave is to lack fear, to not be afraid to begin with. Courage tho, Is a trait far more admirable. Courage is to be afraid, to have fear, to worry about one's own mortality and personal safety. It is to acknowledge risk, danger, to feel fear, but to act in spite of it.”
“Had I not met your kind before I would have thought predators don't feel fear.”
“Everyone fears feel Farva, It is how we overcome it that determines our worth as warriors”
Teal’c picks up the p90 and returns it to Farvas hands.
“Your people need a warrior Farva, a warrior who protects the innocent and guides the lost to safety. You have shown how collected you can be in the heat of battle, You have already proven your worth in our eyes Farva, now you must do the same in your own. The greatest enemy lies not without” Teal’c places his hand firmly on the venlil’s chest “But within”.
After Action Report - Venlil Colonial Defense Force
Subject : Chief Engineer Donu
I fiddled with my holopad, Its small surface area proving to be a consistent source of annoyance in my current endeavor. Gone was the large workspace afforded to me by my holotable back in my office. Instead I had to work with the scaled down portable holotablet I was just fortunate enough to have strapped to my person when I was beamed away from our last ship. I was stuck with its smaller keyboard and slower rendering speeds.
An annoyed smooth skin alien looked over my shoulder at my device, attached to it was a jury rigged fiber optic cable, slotted into a terran silicon to crystal patch cable, which would convert the electrical signals broadcasted by my tablet into a bandwidth that the terrans crystalline based computers; which they used for highly complex tasks like hyperdrive and transporter systems; could use, and then It was patched again in a even stranger connector to patch into the odd asgard computer stones.
All in all it looked like someone tried to plug a regular computer into some crystal construct like you would find in a fantasy holonovel, and again plugged that into a harchen heat rock sauna lounge. Finally branching out from this conglomeration was a simple copper based wire that connects to a computer terminal at which currently sat the late Doctor Rodney Mckay. A title upon initially hearing led me to believe he was a medical doctor, which led to a flurry of medical questions that he had absolutely no means of answering.
While this odd alien nomenclature was interesting, what intrigued me more was his actual area of expertise, theoretical astrophysics, as well as a number of other diverse specialties and fields. Not to mention not only was he a great scientist who had he been raised in the more civilized portion of this galaxy, would have knowledge and aptitude that would put him alongside some of Aafas greatest minds, but he was also an engineer without peer, at least in this galaxy. His interactions with general Samantha Carter hinted at her possibly being his match if not more. For a species that was supposed to glorify violence the decision to have a scientist be arguably the most senior member of what was by their admission a military vessel spoke to their commitment to knowledge and understanding, a very noble prey-like goal.
I looked warily at the lines of code at my screen, the asguard translation program had earlier scanned our ship and was able to parse written languages, but complex files, like images and 3d design schematics were harder to encode and decode from our perspective systems. As is stands we have 3 completely separate computer architectures, the asguard can talk to human computers and the venlil computers can talk to the asguard computers, It sounds like we would have everything we need to get a human C.A.D schematic into a venlil holotablet right? Wrong! And you're stupid for entertaining such a idiotic notion! Parsing text from raw binary is relatively straight forward, you're just looking for patterns, repeating bit combinations that might infer letters and then iterating them over millions of times looking for patterns, letters, words, and then with a bit of help from some undecoded analog audio transmission, spoken language. This is a far cry from actual procedural communication protocols,the ones that allow for file transfers, exactly what we needed if we were to get Rodney's redesigned part schematics into a format and medium that can be plugged into a suitable fabricator. Assuming one still exists, which I can reasonably assume it does.
Speaking of which, I have just made something of a breakthrough. For upon my screen appears a simple geometric hydrogen cube, we’re talking vertices, planes, material data, everything we need for a usable design file.
I let out an excited pent up yip, the culmination of hours of frustrating software integration work. Unfortunately I startled Rodney, who lets out a panicked gasp and clutches his chest pelts with one of his paws.
“Oh god…..” He gasps, pointing at me “Please.. don’t do that”
“Sorry!” I say a bit meekly. I slowly approach him so as to not make him unnecessarily uncomfortable and show him my work.
“I got the file exchange set up, all we need from you is to finish any modifications to your part, upload them to my holopad, and then we can print away at any class 3 or above fabricator we can scrounge up on Brayga colony.”
“Ok.. um.. got it, I'm almost done i’m just you know” He points a lone grasping appendage at his screen,”Running some simulations, making sure everything is up to spec.” keeping his response kurt. “Sorry for freaking out there.”
I nod my head in the human display of affirmation and return to my workstation to further bug check my work, to test potentially problematic edge cases for when he finishes. Tho Rodney's continued odd behavior intruded on my thoughts.
I should have felt empowered, being able to intimidate this ‘massive beast’, but I didn't. I didn't like being feared, his people have been nice to me, Rodney himself courteous to a fault and desperate for positive attention.
I thought I could expect predators to be fearless but that clearly wasn't the case, rodney was fearful, nervous, had I not known better I would say defective, and while it annoyed his crew, they didn't berate him for it, or attempt to assert dominance, they encouraged it even with placating words and tried to help him through it, they encouraged and supported him like a proper herd, even if sometimes it took the form of what the human would call a playful ribbing. I supposed I could help him as well.
I approached him again, careful to make my approach known to him, making sure to approach from within his limited field of vision. He looks up at me with a wide eyed glare, had I not known him I might have assumed it was hunger, but I did and knew it to be concern.
“Uh high Donu.. um whats up?”
“Why are you afraid of us rodney?”
“Wa-What, me afraid?” he gives out a panicked laugh ”uh no no, I'm not afraid, you know just a bit weirded out I'm just getting used to you all, it's not a fear thing it's a a…. Just getting used to new aliens thing, ask Hermirod we went through this whole song and dance right buddy”
Hermirod furrowed his brow and gave an irritated sigh from across the room.
I reached out to take Rodney by the paw.
His whole body flinched at my mere touch, I quickly withdrew my paw.
“Oh.. um.. I didn't…”
“Rodney! It's okay, your crew doesn’t seem to care when you show fear, and neither do I. Why are you afraid of us? You are almost twice our size and surely double our strength, most venlil would scream and run in terror at the mere sight of you. What's wrong?”
Rodney let out a sigh. “Oh its, we don't have to talk about this, I can deal with this, I deal with scary situations all the time, it's fine, I'll be fine.”
“Rodney, my people are a very emotional, empathic people, we are open with our feelings and with our fear, and the fear of the one can affect the herd, please let me help you. I don’t know what to expect from your society but I promise I wont judge you for your fear or emotions, I mean look at many of my crew mates, we are no one to judge”
Rodney shot back “You didn't seem to be so bothered”
“I’m too old to care, I was about to retire, hell I was about to die as far as I knew, Brayga colony was supposed to be a quiet place to lay back, work on some hobbies, plant a garden and pester the young men of my colony until I either dropped dead of boredom or got lucky” I joked.
That seemed to raise Rodney's mood somewhat. He sighed and seemingly relented.
“It’s… a dumb story, I don't even know why it affected me so much, I come from a place on earth called Canada, people don't usually believe me when I say I am from there, us Canadians are notoriously friendly and I guess I haven’t exactly filled that mold for a lot of my life, but hey I'm working on it, people like me, I have lots of friends back at Atlantis” He says the last sentence in a way as if it isn't me he's trying to convince.
“I'm sure you do, Rodney, You seem like quite the charming individual when you're not cowering!”
“Ha ha thanks, maybe you could come and visit sometime. Tell that to doctor Becket, really nice guy, smart man, he would love to meet you, he loves investigating new species. But back on topic, oh boy, so me and my sister Jeannie were on a family trip to rural Vancouver to visit my grandpa's farm, he kept a lot of goats, not for eating or anything, they were essentially pets that he would use for milk”
“Wait hold on? You drink milk from other animals! Do your females not produce enough milk for their young?”
“Oh um no, we just sort of drink it or ferment it into cheese!”
“Ferment? You mean spoil?
“Yeh”
I reeled from this plasma blast of a statement, I like any right minded venlil had a number of nightmares about being an arxur’s cattle before, especially when I first learned about those things in primary school, but never once had it crossed my mind that we could be used for something so weird. What the speh was I supposed to do with that information?
“Maybe you should get back on topic”
“Yeh sorry about that uh.. Anyways the momma goat had just had a litter of babies, and their real cute when their little, so late in the day when my grandpa was asleep we snuck out to the pens so we can play with the little baby goats, our grandpa told us not to but you now how kids are.”
At this I think back to a young Nyan, as I teach him the inner working of the hyperdrive, I tell him he’s not cleared yet to operate in this engine compartment alone, but I could tell from the occasional caught black hairs and dropped writing implements, there had been a number of curious unauthorized expeditions into its inner workings, he didn't really listen either.
“My sister as always was trying to be the voice of reason, wanting to take it slow. If I was paying attention I might have noticed the angry moma goat who didn’t appreciate the strange human messing with her children.”
The color seemed to drain from his face.
“I uh…” He began to stutter again ”I screamed, a lot, it was rather undignified, she ran right at me, thank god it wasn't a male goat, one with horns, I tired to run but I was hit in the back and knocked over and kicked real good in the head, like wake up in the vet clinic a quarter mile down the road kind of bad”
“This goat was a prey animal?”
“That would be what your kind focuses on”
“Oh sorry”
“Anyways It seems dumb but I have just never been good with animals since then, especially ones that look like you; no offense; I'm getting better but when I first saw you guys in the hangar bay, I was just that dumb kid again, getting in way over my head, scared for my life. I guess there is something to be said about childhood trauma. I really should be over this, I'm getting better with it I swear it’s just”
I take his paw again, he doesn't flinch this time.
“I'm a venlil, a prey animal, I know fear, I know what it is to live in fear, It rattles your brain, it turns your paws to wet grains. It takes great strength to overcome it, to push it aside just long enough to protect the herd. Your herd relies on you Rodney and you are doing a great job in spite of your fear, in spite of having to work with those you fear. You have achieved intellectual feats that rival the greatest minds of the federation and all that while struggling with a traumatic experience. Fear isn’t dumb and there is nothing wrong with you for feeling it.”
“Thank you” Rodney says “That means a lot, I won't be like forever I promise, I just need some time.”
“We will laugh about this someday,” I assured. “Nothing as big and intelligent as you should be afraid of anything”
“Are you calling me fat?” Rodney exclaimed with fake offense.
We both chuckled.
My kind words had resulted in a more upright posture, and a more cheerful demeanor from the human, almost like when I congratulated Nyan on his work, and it got me a look at that happy snarl of his, that I was starting to grow quite fond of.
After Action Report - Venlil Colonial Defense Force
Subject : Apprentice Engineer Nyan
Oh wow! I get to write a report for this mission! I never get to write reports, Donu says they're too boring, but there’s so many interesting things going on all the time. Sometimes I sneakily write my own! Just for fun of course, nobody sees them, which is probably for the best as I sometimes get excited and embellish them slightly. One of the reports I wrote was about the time Donu used nothing but a wad of electrical tape, a bottle of high grain venlil alcohol and a pocket knife to repair a venlil medical ship just in time to get out of the way of a big scary space predator, with glowing red eyes and a million tentacles!
Anyways Im not sure If im suppose to write these In present tense first person or past tense. I asked the captain and she said it's whatever so long as I make sure any pertinent dialogues are properly quoted(“”).
“Nobody usually reads these things anyways.” She said, but this one is surely going to be so exciting, who could look away!
I mean who's gonna scoff at a chance to read about friendly predators from another dimension! A dimension of friendly predators who give warm head scratches and hand out yummy strayu not strayu treats called donuts, that are somehow fluffier than strayu, and have a nice moisture to them. I asked for the recipe but Samantha said we wouldn't have the ingredients back on Venili prime to make them, and Teal'c said the recipe is an old family secret. Its weird predators would be so protective of their plant snacks.
There are so many weird things about these predators, they have nurturing instincts that make them find us cute. They stay perfectly balanced even if they don’t have tails, swinging their arms and body all over the place to keep upright like a lopsided gyroscope, it's pretty funny looking!
They also wear artificial pelts all the time, which I thought was weird, I thought maybe the ships temperature was set by the angry gray alien since he’s the only crew member beside the venlil who walks around naked all the time, maybe he had a fit when it was to warm, and the humans obliged him cause they were worried they would make him even angrier, and wore clothes to make up for the cold. I thought this made sense, a lot of their technology does seem to come from the Asguard, maybe he has more say in the goings on of the ship because of that. But apparently humans just like wearing pelts all the time. They feel uncomfortable without them and don’t like it if you try to remove them or look up their upper artificial pelts they call shirts.
The humans are so weird, I don’t even have to embellish my reports to make it more interesting. Like that time with the big tentacled space predator. That may sound real compared to this stuff but it Isn't, Ha! I bet you fell for it at first, hook line and sinker! Like the humans would say. I think I used that saying right, I'm not sure what it means, but Shepard brought it up when he was telling a story about the wraith.
The humans are so nice, instead of exterminating their predators they try to cure them! Their doctors are working to modify the wraith so they don't have to eat humans anymore, so they can be friendly predators too.
Anyways I should probably get to the actual report part of this report. Farva says I should start after I went off with Samantha to work on some special astrophysics equations she said I would be good at. I kind of wanted to go with Donu to help Rodney get the new parts they needed, or Farva to help rescue our people, but the humans and even the angry gray alien got really weird when Farva mentioned taking me on the mission. Samantha seemed to want me to help her really badly so I didn’t mind. Samantha says I have the most important part to our mission. She's teaching me about how humans communicate through subspace, and about stellar drift equations. We are working on what she calls the exit strategy.

A/N: yeah I changed up the Alliance admiral's name from Shepard Adama to Sheparda Dama (so creative i know) because the old one was going to fuck me over badly at some point. It would be like trying to make a legitimate, serious fantasy novel with a wizard named Albus Gandalf. I was NOT cooking when I came up with that shit.
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It was said that no plan ever survived contact with the enemy. That, at least in the case of Marcus Wayne’s infiltration of Neldia, was proven entirely true.
His ship, the Peacemaker, had undergone an extensive refit before its jump to Neldia to both modify its sensor signature and repair its failing Aegis barrier. The first objective succeeded. The second did not.
One day later, leaving the derelict Ultimate Vigil behind in deep space, the United Human Alliance courier ship Winged Deliverance logged a real space entry at the edge of the Neldia system. Its crew, having spent their waking hours plagued by hallucinations and enduring horrible nightmares as they slept, found this shift very welcome. The worst, though they could hardly believe it, was still yet to come.
“The Neldian fleet is mustering for war,” rumbled the man who had once held the title and security codes of an Alliance sector admiral. Now, he was a traitor to his homeland. “Security will be high.”
“No need to worry, Admiral,” said Marcus Wayne. “Your code will get us through.” It would not.
It took two hours for the Peacemaker, disguised as the Winged Deliverance, to be challenged by the Neldian Armada. “Transmit clearance code,” said an automated voice. Marcus took out a data disc with the admiral's clearance code on it.
“Hold,” said Terris. She was clad in black, her active camouflage offline to save battery, and she had been sitting at the passive sensor console for the past three hours. “Look at this.” A news broadcast popped up in front of Marcus Wayne and his officers. Sector Admiral Sheparda Dama, or at least he was once a sector admiral, had been tried and convicted of high treason.
“It was a secret trial,” Dama said, still in shock at the revelation. “I had no knowledge of this.”
“Well, that tracks, but what do we do now? What code gets us through?”
“Transmit clearance code,” the voice said again, “or adjust course.”
Dama thought for a moment. “Change course,” he said. “We’re not getting through.”
They did. A great sense of defeat took hold in the hearts of the crew. They would never reach the Neldian hypercom. Sheparda Dama, who would have gladly given his life in defense of humankind, would never get the chance to be the man who broke their chains.
The Peacemaker was halfway out of the Neldia system before Terris spoke again. “Hold it,” she said. “I have an idea.”
That was why she had been placed where she was. Clad in an airtight stealth suit. Inside a hollowed-out asteroid. On a ballistic journey to the heart of Neldian space. It was the most insane idea that Marcus Wayne had ever seen.
But, sometimes, insanity was a symptom of genius.
Terris flew past the Neldian Armada undetected. Many asteroids entered the inner system this way, flung by outer-system prospecting ships to the foundries and shipyards in Neldian orbit, and they were thrown and caught so frequently that only the most cursory of inspections was put upon each one. Terris passed the Alliance fleet entirely undetected.
Terris’ chameleon suit could mimic the sensor return of the precious metals it was buried in, at least enough to fool a probing scan, and the cuts made by Protectoral engineers had been so precise that Terris had fit inside there with barely a centimeter of space to spare. She was effectively entombed inside sixty meters of solid rock.
Interstellar espionage was not a job for the claustrophobic.
Finally, after days of waiting, the signal came. She was in range. A mental command triggered a series of shaped charges in the rock above her, if such directions existed in microgravity, and forty pea-sized explosives blasted a circular tunnel all the way to the asteroid surface. If just one of them had failed, that rock might have been her tomb.
Terris tried not to think about that as she began climbing her way out. A brief burst from her suit’s EVA thrusters was enough to start her on her way, and the tunnel out was wide enough for her to use her arms and legs to speed things up. Finally, after too long a wait, Terris saw the Neldian sun for the very first time.
There was fire in the distance. Comm chatter on every band. Warships burning hard for the outer system. The Coalition fleet was here.
She zoomed in, far more than she had ever had to before, and she could pick out the faintest flashes of blue as warships exploded in the black. A brief crawl around the asteroid, which also helped to warm up her muscles after days of inactivity, let her discern an attack force engaging the Alliance fleet. After a moment’s hesitation, weighing the risks, Terris activated her passive sensor suite to try and decrypt Alliance military chatter.
Instantly, her sensors were flooded with noise from the defensive bastions. The fleet base at the L5 point was loudest, its comm operators screaming indecipherably at fellow Alliance elements fighting in the black. Neldian orbit, where the hypercom station was, seemed to be the centerpiece of all the communications traffic. The hypercom, unsurprisingly, was being used as a relay for comm traffic all across the system. Terris made a note to hack its server banks for intelligence, and perhaps leave a timed virus or two to shut down the system after she was gone.
Her suit bleeped, alerting her that she was in optimum position to make the leap to the hypercom. She zoomed in on it, a red and spiked thing just like everything else the Alliance made, and calculated the right trajectory to land right on its metal surface.
Trying to jump from a moving asteroid out past Neldia’s rings and hit a hypercom station barely three hundred meters in diameter was like shooting a rifle from a jumbo jet in hopes of hitting a mosquito down on Earth. A nearly impossible shot, even with Coalition computers to help make the jump, and anyone lucky enough to make it would have been better served bankrupting their local casino at the slot machines.
Terris gave a command to her suit, activating a set of ion thrusters to boost her off the asteroid and adjust her course mid-flight. She’d never believed in luck.
She coasted silent and graceful past the particle guns in high orbit, like a majestic swan flying on a summer wind. Their sensor arrays were directed out, past her, to the far distant parts of space where a trillion tons of steel were locked in deadly battle. Terris really did wish she could smile at the moment. She was about to have unrestricted access to the biggest communications relay in the star system, able to send out viruses and receive vital intelligence that could cripple the Alliance fleet if placed in the right hands. Terris, confident as ever, knew they would be.
They had no idea she was even coming.
She reached the hypercom station in just under a day, agonizingly slow for a woman like her, hovering just above its surface to avoid triggering pressure sensors. After that, it was simple enough to get inside. Terris found it almost trivial to bypass the airlock sensor grid and trigger the outer bulkhead to open unnoticed, its report to the command room destroyed before it ever arrived. Entering the station itself was easy after that.
Here, there was gravity. She could not hover like she had on the outside of the station. But here, there were no pressure sensors. She really had no need to hover.
The corridor she found herself in was large enough, though nothing like the expansive halls of a dreadnought, and a patrol of marines in powered suits trundled towards her obliviously. Terris had made the right call not to wear a Phantom powered suit. She ducked into an alcove, the chameleon suit concealing her from even their impressive sensor batteries, and they passed by with no clue at all.
Terris made it to the server banks with ease. Most of the hypercom’s security measures took the form of warships in orbit, clustered tightly around the planet to prevent exactly this scenario from happening, but those warships were off waging war. The station defenses were hopeless now that she was actually inside.
The data was encrypted, and she could neither access it nor copy it without potentially fatal consequences, but she wasn’t there to steal data. A brief, milliseconds-long connection to the primary server was all it took to riddle the entire system with custom-tailored computer viruses. The viruses were self-replicating, rather like an electronic version of the biological ones on Earth. They worked similarly, too, meant to latch onto outgoing communications signals and remain inert for a certain amount of time before activating and wreaking havoc across cyberspace.
The program would be scoured from the net in seconds once it began its assault, but it would cause plenty of chaos before then. And, with another critical transmission being scheduled to send at around that time, Terris knew her mostly-ineffective virus attack would be just enough of a distraction to make sure its message was heard.
Terris planned to leave the station in approximately thirty minutes. Shortly after that, the fireworks would begin. It was going to be beautiful.
She heard footsteps. A maintenance worker, no doubt. It was time for her to go. She disconnected from the server, taking pains to hide her involvement, and snuck out of the server room like a ghost in the night.
Next was the transmission array. This room was better-guarded, its door being flanked by marines, but Terris slipped inside by trailing behind an officer as he entered on some unknown pretext. After that, her daring and sleight of hand made sure Admiral Dama’s pre-recorded propaganda transmission was uploaded to the hypercom transmitter. It came with a set of instructions bearing the Admiralty’s seal, changed to be anonymous, to ensure as many people as possible heard his message.
In just under one standard hour, the United Human Alliance would be shaken to its very core. Terris had just made sure of it.
It took longer than she had expected for the door to open again and give her a chance to slip out. Terris had spent that time quite productively, downloading as many incoming and outgoing messages as she could to the internal hard drive just by her spinal cord. Even if they were encrypted, they’d be useful intelligence once Coalition codebreakers took a crack at them.
After that, it was trivial to slip past marine patrols and escape to the hull of the hypercom station. Terris found her ride, an Alliance warship by the name of Brightest Thunder, holding orbit just near the hypercom station. Admiral Dama, even if he was no longer an admiral, still had connections.
She charged her ion thrusters by tapping into the station reactor, an act which did not go unnoticed, but by then it was too late to respond. She had completed her incursion. The damage had been done. Perhaps if the Alliance acted swiftly and accurately, they could undo it, but Terris was a careful woman. She had covered her tracks well.
Waving one final goodbye to the crew of the hypercom station, Terris triggered her thrust pack and shot off into the ink.
“You must be my passenger.” A handsome man in an Alliance captain’s uniform was waiting for her in the Brightest Thunder’s airlock. He wore a helmet and gloves, hermetically sealed to his airtight outfit, so he felt no effects from the vacuum of space. “I was sent by Sector Admiral Sheparda Dama,” he announced after a period of silence, “To transport you and whatever you may have safely to the Coalition fleet.” Nothing. Apart from the dull thudding of the ship’s railgun batteries, firing missiles at range to ward off a strike force of Coalition ships, the airlock was quiet as a ghost.
“You cannot expect me to endanger my life and the lives of my crew without at least some identification that you are who you claim to be!” Silence. Captain Senar Trevy had been standing in that airlock for three and a half hours, while his ship was tasked with screening Neldia and her eighteen billion inhabitants from harm, and he was just now wondering if he had been talking to a ghost.
“I am,” came a voice. Cold. Sterile. Inhuman. Exactly the kind Trevy expected from the secret spies of his former admiral.
“So you are.” Captain Trevy thought for a moment. He cycled the airlock. If his guest held hostile intent, one steel bulkhead would make no difference. “I’ve been stocking the crew with handpicked men and women since I received word of the operation,” he explained as they walked through the ship’s corridors. The crewmen he passed thought him insane. “I can’t vouch for them all, but the ship as a whole will obey me.” No response. Sometimes, Captain Trevy thought himself insane as well.
“This is my personal quarters,” he told the specter, stepping inside and sealing the door behind him. “I must warn you, for your own safety, it would be best not to leave it. The crew are mostly still Alliance loyalists.” He looked around, paying no heed to the decorated furniture or artificial sky, and finally shrugged and sighed. “Are you even here, still?”
Terris decloaked. She stood between him and the door, winged and cloaked in black like a demon of ancient myth. “I am.”
“You’re a black angel.” Senar Trevy, to his credit, kept his composure well. “A spy for the Ierad Republic.” He questioned her purpose here. They both knew it.
“You weren’t told?”
“I was told an alien would be coming aboard, but…” Trevy shrugged again, as if to say ‘what am I supposed to do?’ “The admiral vouched for you. That much is enough for me.” He also knew he had no choice in the matter. From what he knew about black angels, his ship had been lost the moment she boarded.
“I could have impersonated him,” said Terris, voice a perfect replica of Captain Trevy’s own. Even his own mother could not have told the difference. “And I’m trained to lie.” She was testing him, gauging his reaction to assess his personality. She was good at that.
“I could have you screened for deception,” Trevy countered, pointing up at a pearl-sized camera in the ceiling. Terris made a note that it was disabled. “And I could have had the technology officers vet your transmission.”
“I’m trained to lie well.” Terris sat down on Captain Trevy’s bed, a spartan thing compared to the sleeping quarters of most officers. There were no chairs in the room, so her options were few. She took off her helmet and tried to at least appear relaxed. In reality, she was anything but. “It comes with the job, really.”
“Fair,” Trevy chuckled, feigning calm. “I suppose the question now becomes whether or not you can trust me.”
“It’s a safe gamble.” Terris made a mental calculation. It would take her between thirty and fifty seconds to kill Captain Trevy, take the bridge, and vent the ship. That was a very safe gamble. “Besides, that’s what a peace treaty is.” Trevy looked confused. “A leap of faith. You trust your enemy to back their word, and you trust them to trust you as well. If we can’t get along here, can’t put aside our differences to work toward a common goal, then the Alliance will be right. And I hate it when they’re right.”
“I’m speaking to you now because I know they are wrong.” That came as no surprise to either of them. “You know, I was once a foreman of a labor crew in the munitions factories. The most productive unit in my sector.” That one did come as a surprise. “As a foreman, you get leeway to make certain decisions regarding the… well, I suppose they are slaves, under your command. Food intake and the like.” Captain Trevy looked pained when he brought up such memories. Terris wasn’t convinced that was how he really felt. “They use it to weed out any potential xeno sympathizers from the populace. Of course, at the time, I wasn’t so empathetic.”
“So you were a slave driver, and you beat your slaves to make them work. I hope every one of those shells was sabotaged.” Terris’ voice dripped with disdain. She had almost forgotten the Alliance captain was her enemy.
“No, I showed mercy,” Trevy defended himself. “I was generous.” This made Terris reconsider. Perhaps Senar Trevy could be an ally, if not a friend. “I won’t say I was a good man, but I wasn’t cruel. I was practical. Strong, healthy, well-treated workers are more productive than the beaten sacks of flesh in the other factories. My crew’s output was unmatched.”
“And?” Terris cocked her head inquisitively. For a high-ranking officer in the space navy of a genocidal regime, Senar Trevy really did not seem so bad. To be fair, however, she had set the bar pretty low.
“I was investigated for anti-human activity.” Terris could have predicted that. She almost did, too. “They sent me to the fleet, and my labor crew was reacquainted with the energy whips and pain beams.” There was no carrot for an Alliance labor slave. Only the stick. “Their productivity fell thirty percent in the first two weeks alone.” He sounded almost mournful as he said that. He was not lamenting the loss in productivity.
“You see,” said Trevy, “Hatred is not natural. It has to be caused, sustained, nurtured from the day a man is born until the day he dies.” With that, at least, Terris agreed. “And, as you’re about to see, a nation built around cruelty or prejudice cannot sustain itself. It will have to apply pressure to maintain its flawed status quo, like it did with me, and the pressure will build and build until it cannot build anymore.” He tapped a few buttons on the data disc in his hand. It began projecting an image of the battle for Neldia. He placed it on the bed next to Terris. “Now it’s breaking.”
“I wonder if they’ll find themselves in need of more shells.” Terris knew it wasn’t just shells. Every time a slave driver prioritized hatred over hard work, put cruelty over their quota, or even just bowed their head and obeyed the traditional dogma, they hurt the Alliance. Across nine worlds, with billions of slaves not working as they could have, things started to add up. “You know, for a superior species, your fleet is really getting its ass kicked right now. Might want to work on that.”
Captain Trevy nodded. His data disc beeped. He was needed on the bridge. “Agreed,” he said. “I hope this war ends soon, and to our mutual benefit. I’d hate to face you on the battlefield.” He picked up the data disc and turned to leave.
“Oh, forgot to mention, there’s a virus embedded in the transmissions you’ve received. Self-replicating. Nasty piece of work.” Terris shifted a bit in her seat. “Almost forgot about that.”
“Well, better to know now than when it’s activated,” Trevy smiled. “I’ll have Technology Officer Galdir investigate it.” With that, he left. His duty to the Alliance was nonexistent, but the men and women under his command still needed him. He had waited too long in the stateroom.
Terris, with nothing better to do, got to work on cracking the encryption in the transmissions she had copied. She failed. A transmission from deep in unknown space, sent from a dreadnought at the head of a task force known only as the Deep Expedition Fleet, was the only message she could read. Its contents, while troubling, mattered little at the moment. What was far more crucial, however, was the message Terris could not decipher. The military battle plan of Janus Ora’s personal armada.
The battle plan that, when analyzed on a Republic starship, would reveal its terrible secret too late.
The Coalition fleet was walking into a trap.
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Hi, long time lurker, Patreon subscriber, first time poster. I was really surprised by Canadalands 'coverage' of the Loblaws boycott in the recent shortcuts episode. I'm used to disagreeing with Jesse but it was astonishing how 'unnuanced' their discussion was. Here's a bit of what surprised me most: 1) Jesse mentions the 'Steal from Loblaws Day' but doesn't point out it's unrelated to the boycott and that the subreddit had spoken out against it. Do not tie that day to the boycott. 2) Jesse saying they can only cover a boycott once, and trying to paint it as weak, ineffective, or simply 'boring'. this surprised me because I don't remember the last time the Canadian consumers banded together for such a huge boycott. If this 'isn't news' then what did I miss? When was the last time the Canadian consumers organized something like this? 3) I hate the Strawman argument that this "won't achieve the results" Jesse and his guest painted as the end goal, as if the boycott is meant to be the be all and end all solution to our grocery price woes. It isn't. It's to raise awareness, to pressure politicians to do something, to signal to Loblaws that the consumer is willing to shop elsewhere if they don't behave, to pressure them to sign the Code of Conduct (which they did, though claiming it wasn't due to the boycott), etc. The boycott has already been hugely successful in my eyes for it's listed goals. Jesse/His Guest downplaying the role of a boycott is weird. 4) They suggest that the boycott DISRUPTS or HURTS their fellow customer??? It's a boycott, not a protest with a picket line. No one is preventing Loblaws customers from entering the store. Like what are you even talking about? 5) The LACK OF NUANCE. It felt like they did no digging into the story. The criticisms of Loblaws Jesse DOES raise relate to their previous reporting (ex. bread price fixing scandal, Cayman islands, etc.) and there's no details really dug into about what's been going on recently (ex. the backlash against loblaws from going from 50% off to 30% off, the collusion of grocery oligopoly in introducing/ending "hero pay" during covid at the same time, etc. 6) The bizarre unfunny examples of how the boycott could be less boring if they did things like stage a murder mystery party in the dairy aisle (???) which would have much less of an actual effect on Loblaws, and if Jesse's point was then they'd get more media attention, the boycott DOESNT NEED IT. The boycott has been plastered all over the news for weeks now! The boycott organizer has met with Loblaws execs to discuss! Loblaws has issued responses to the boycott! In terms of getting attention, media and from the populace, IT HAS ALREADY SUCCEEDED. 7) Jesse sounded like he's only covering this, and begrudgingly, because he just wanted to segue way into shitting on the Canadaland subreddit for hating on Canadaland so much, and because there was a thread suggesting Canadaland's silence on the boycott meant Jesse must be holding Loblaws stock. Yeah, that's a dumb conclusion to make, but what a bizarre response from Jesse.
The entire conversation sounded like two out of touch people having a surface level discussion tut-tutting about how a boycott doesn't solve EVERYTHING. That's not the point of the boycott. No one is expecting Loblaws to declare bankruptcy or that they're halving their prices at the end of May. Everything about their coverage here was disappointing and surprising.
The only point raised that I thought was good was that you could have a better result protesting outside the Competition Bureau (which also suggested Jesse's guest doesn't know the difference between a boycott and a protest).
Was I the only one surprised by this coverage?
Edit: please read the comments as they've raised other great points more eloquently than I. The guest not even being familiar with Loblaws owning Shoppers was another surprise.

OK, we are going to try to piece it together yet again. As I've stated in the past, all is conjecture but some of the things which I said in the past need realigning given the new direction the Company is taking. For a long time we've searched, but it all started in the beginning, so therefore, by definition, there must be an end. Many thanks to you my friend u/psasoffice for your help in piecing this puzzle together.
So, the time frame begins when it began, until the time it is realized or when the money runs out. Let's go back again to the summer of 2022, when share price went to $1.26, what caused that? Well to answer that, we need to go back even further.
Back in 2019, CytoDyn put out this PR CytoDyn Announces FDA Clearance to Proceed with Phase 2 Study of Leronlimab (PRO 140) and Regorafenib as a Combination Therapy for Metastatic Colorectal Cancer. Regorafenib is a small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor with minimal efficacy and high toxicity. As u/perrenialloser pointed out, it has plenty of side effects and really is not that functional. However, the drug manufacturer Bayer was prepared to do this Phase II Clinical Trial in patients with metastatic CRC with CytoDyn.

"The study will be conducted by lead principal investigator, John L. Marshall, M.D., Director, The Ruesch Center for the Cure of GI Cancers Frederick P. Smith Endowed Chair, Chief, Hematology and Oncology Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, D.C."

I wasn't around at the time to know for sure, but I believe this trial was set up by Nader. Eventually, this study would be withdrawn for reasons which I am about to disclose.
In October 2021, the MD Anderson Study with Keytruda is announced.

"Nader Pourhassan, Ph.D., CytoDyn’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “We anticipate this study will further evaluate the immunomodulatory effects of leronlimab in the tumor microenvironment. We are excited about the possibilities for leronlimab to offer a potential new treatment option for breast cancer patients. This could be an additional indication for which we are pursuing approval for leronlimab. We are also very grateful to Dr. Scott Kelly for arranging for this study to be conducted by Dr. Jangsoon Lee, assistant professor of Breast Medical Oncology Research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center."

Cyrus Arman comes onboard as President effective July 9, 2022. During that summer of 2022, the CYDY share price ran up as high as $1.26 per share for some unknown reason. In the past, I attributed it to NASH. I give a breakdown of my thinking here in I Tell You A Mystery. In the commotion of Cyrus' hiring and the mass fluctuations of the share price, the MD Anderson Study had already been completed and the results were looking good to those privileged enough to have been granted rights to actually see the data. Coincidentally, it was about this time that the CRC with Regorafenib was withdrawn. Hmmm, Why was this trial withdrawn? Just because the MD Anderson results looked great or because there was something even more profound and substantial built upon those results?

"We can apply the same logic in the Oncology study being run by MD Anderson using Merck's Keytruda in combination with Leronlimab. We had all been waiting to find out what had happened with the results of the MD Anderson study, and Cyrus threw us this line: "Leronlimab is currently being trialed in combination with Keytruda (pembrolizumab) in a breast cancer xenograft model in partnership with MD Anderson Cancer Center." From here, he gave us a hint of what is to come."

In his infamous 12/7/22 R&D Update: Future Development, Cyrus presented his Vision & Plan for the Company:

"17:09: And we're also still committed to HIV, but we're really looking at it more through the lens of developing longer-acting agents. And Dr. Sacha will be talking about that at the end of our discussion today.
17:21: So, within oncology, we're interested in studying what would be referred to as immunologically colder tumors. And Dr. Glück will present on what those -- what we mean by that later. But we think that these are areas where more recent advancements from checkpoint inhibitors have yet to really have a large impact in those markets. And so, we think that there's a unique opportunity based on the data we already have in some of these colder tumors to make an impact.
17:51: Within NASH, we're particularly excited about the data that we have there, and NASH will be our primary focus going forward. We'll also talk a little bit about a unique opportunity to study and look for the treatment effect of leronlimab in people living with HIV who also have NASH. And we think that we might be in a unique position to address that population."
"18:22: So, going forward, we're focusing on NASH, oncology and earlier-line HIV indications through longer-acting agents that inhibit CCR5. Again, we've already generated promising clinical signals in both NASH and oncology. And within NASH, we're exploring the opportunity to study a segment of patients of those NASH patients who are also living with HIV.
18:50: Within oncology, we want to pursue colorectal cancer and breast cancer specifically. Within the colorectal cancer population, we want to focus on a micro-satellite stable group, which represents about 85% of all diagnosed colorectal cancers. And within breast cancer, we want to focus on the hormone receptor positive HER2-negative population, which is about 70% of all diagnosed breast cancers, and the TNBC population since we have data in that space. All of these are quite large markets."

The FDA made it truly tough for Cyrus to meet his goals as the Company's main devotion was to get the hold lifted, so Rules had to be followed. Also, Cyrus unfortunately made NASH a focus and then subsequently became sick and then found himself taking a demotion. His focus really should have been on Oncology as #1 target as it finally is today. Here though is a revealing statement he made:

"...these are areas where more recent advancements from checkpoint inhibitors have yet to really have a large impact in those markets. And so, we think that there's a unique opportunity based on the data we already have in some of these colder tumors to make an impact."

Keeping that escalation in share price to $1.26 in mind, when did CA know about this data? He got the data on the MD Anderson results either before or shortly after his hire. Remember, shortly after NP was terminated, Cyrus was at CytoDyn working at least for a few months prior to his hire giving opportunity to the BOD to assess his work ethic and ways about him. In this time, CA saw the MD Anderson results and they were looking mighty good. Where are these results today? They still reside with MD Anderson. Why don't we have them right now? Too many $millions to buy it, but we saw the results and those results are the impetus for the change in gears of the Company's priorities. Surely Scott Kelly, who was responsible for securing the MD Anderson study has seen them as well.
Speculation: So, what did Cyrus do immediately once he saw those results? He negotiated a cancer play in mCRC with MD Anderson. We can try to piece this together using parts of this post.

"What also happened in August? Only the removal of the first management player who’s experience was in Negotiation and Partnerships, Brendan P. Rae. No longer any necessity for Negotiation? I guess not. As time went quickly by, without any word of what was taking place, the share price began to fall. It became uncomfortably obvious that by mid November, Recknor had been let go. He was CytoDyn's most experienced scientific, medical and managerial player for NASH, but in the game of a collaboration, anyone and everyone is a commodity and all are replaceable. On the same topic, a significant stock bonus was paid to the president in September of last year after only two months on the job. Was a deal struck? Also, our very own CMO, Scott Kelly who coined the phrase: “There are many ways to structure a partnership.“ himself gets terminated in December 2022."

Just like that bonus, (which was based on his obtaining a partnership), the short-lived share price rise also assumed that a deal had been struck. Scott Kelly was privy to the MD Anderson results just as Cyrus was. Why didn't Kelly put a deal together like Cyrus did? I don't want to diminish the fact that Kelly was wholly responsible originally for getting the MD Anderson murine study going. The fact is that a deal had been made and justifies Cyrus' bonus payment.
Proof came a year later, in October 2023 in a few posts by biloxiblues which together with everything else, in my eyes, solidifies this new theory. The price went to $1.26 because of this 100% fully funded, 200 patient Phase II mCRC combination Keytruda Clinical Trial Cyrus Arman had arranged with MD Anderson, based on the spectacular results of the MD Anderson murine study. But, as discussed in the posts by biloxi above, the BOD got in the way. This can also explain why the Regorafenib Bayer trial was withdrawn, when it became clear as day that the results of the MD Anderson study were great and a massive combination Keytruda trial was struck, but pending, unfortunately, taking second fiddle to the work of getting the hold lifted.
Through his discussions with Cyrus, biloxiblues indicates that Tanya would not compromise. She and the others on the BOD were too intently focused on following the mandates of the FDA. The FDA wasn't fooling around with the hold and CytoDyn could not make any more mistakes. Tanya was dead set on following the "Rules". The number one priority was to get off clinical hold and the FDA made it damn near impossible for CytoDyn and Cyrus. It damn near killed him. So, the BOD made the incredulous decision to walk away from Cyrus' baby, which was a fully funded mCRC combination trial with Keytruda and we learned all of that in October 2023 thanks to biloxiblues.
But this was Cyrus' Baby, and he wasn't about to let her go. Could this be why CA is still with us? After all, aren't we back to mCRC again?
Dr. Lalezari comes on board in November of 2023 and puts forth the Inflammation and Immune Activation within a very small sub-set of HIV patients. Share price bumped up and pulled back. Damn, this trial with 90 patients could cost CytoDyn near $10 million. Where does that money come from? Share price is lower after the announcement. Can't raise money with a low share price. That would consume boat loads of shares. Inflammation/Immune Activation was not working. People weren't buying it.
Cyrus Arman is witnessing everything going on, that there is no money and that it is not advancing, and it occurs to him that his baby, may not be completely abandoned altogether. No, he realizes that the hope he once had lost due to circumstance could now be found again, so he advocates in earnest for her.
He recalls Scott Kelly discussing the 12/14/21 CC with Scott Kelly Basket Trials:

"25: 25 Kelly: We are excited about the Basket Trials. I'll start by saying I just presented at San Antonio Conference December 10th. That was in results wrt mTNBC in combination with carboplatin, CCR5 positive, mTNBC and I tell you, the reason why we are excited about the Basket Trial is that they think that there is a growing acceptance that the Tumor Micro Environment is the next Frontier for Immunotherapy. And I mean this amongst practicing physicians, the academic world, probably as well as big pharma, and I think we are more advanced than this. We've been looking at the mechanism of action in the tumor micro environment and see Leronlimabs impact across multiple different oncologic indications and we also think that we can pair this with a check point inhibitor, chemo, radiation, antibody zero conjugates, as well as maybe even a potential monotherapy in certain patients that don't qualify for other treatments. We think the MOA, with T-Regs. When T-Regs come in, they turn off the immune system. We know that they have a high prevalence of CCR5. We can block that. We can actually maybe leverage the immune system. If we look at macrophage re-polarization, that's another potential opportunity. Our animal studies showed a significant reduction in angiogenesis. I think it was 62% in total vessillary and 80% reduction in small vessel area. But, we know that tumors need a blood supply to grow and if we can help limit that, then we think we can have benefit for patients. And last, we know that normal cells, CCR5 is only present on an immune cell, but we know that when cells under go malignant transformation, that they start sprouting up CCR5, and we believe that is a contributor to metastasis. So, we have multiple different mechanisms of action and we continue to find more as we go along that we will be evaluating."

He remembers Dr. Gluck's discussion in the 12/7/22 R&D Update Dr. Stefan Gluck; MicroEnvironment.

"So, as you saw, very small studies, but extremely promising, and the signal for an oncologist like myself is so strong that I'm enthusiastic about it. We, as oncologists, need to be positive because otherwise, we cannot treat patients and tell them something better is coming. The leronlimab decrease of these tumor cells actually did relate both in mTNBC and in colorectal with improved survival. That's amazing."

Cyrus turns to our 3rd party AI collaborator and requests an assessment on the effect of a CCR5/L5 axis blockade in mCRC. Their AI engines get to work and compile all that is known and understood regarding the pertinent Biomarkers in combination with all the pertinent journal articles on the blockade of the CCR5/L5 axis in the disease to finally determine that it works like a charm, like no other.
He reflects upon these statements made in this Regorafenib study which supports the fight against the MSS cold tumors. Thank you u/perrenialloser for this journal article.

"The majority of patients with CRC exhibit a microsatellite stable (MSS) or mismatch repair proficient (pMMR) status, which is known as the “cold tumor” with less mutated oncogenes and less inflamed tumor immune microenvironment, resulting in a limited efficacy of ICIs (2). The inadequate recruitment and activization of immune cells to the tumor microenvironment were considered to be fundamental mechanisms underlying the inefficacy of ICIs in MSS mCRC (4). Combination strategies to enhance the immunogenicity of the tumor microenvironment and exploit the benefit of ICIs in patients with MSS are urgently needed."

He becomes even more convicted. Given all that I presented here in addition to the proven results of the MD Anderson, Keytruda study which Cyrus has laid his own eyes upon, he becomes whole heartedly supportive of the Priority switch to the mCRC Oncology Indication. I'm sure Richard Pestell was also 100% behind Cyrus in this decision to switch priorities. Also, by switching to Oncology, share price has a better chance of increasing as Oncology is favored by the public. Fund raising could happen much quicker with a higher share price resulting from a better indication. From the recent May 2024 Letter to Shareholders:

"Over the next six months, we expect to commence at least one, and potentially two clinical trials. The prospective clinical trials, in order of priority, are: (i) a Phase II study of leronlimab in patients with relapsed/refractory microsatellite stable colorectal cancer; and (ii) a Phase II study exploring leronlimab’s effects on inflammation. The Company’s priority will be the oncology trial which, if successful, will put us on track towards a commercial approval of leronlimab in that indication. The inflammation study is aimed at clarifying certain provocative observations related to leronlimab, and to help define the dose and underlying mechanism of anti-inflammatory action. It is imperative that the Company generate unassailable results in the clinic and I believe the above trials can accomplish this. Starting the oncology study and related fundraising is the top priority of the Company at this time, but our current hope is that we can initiate both studies before the end of this calendar year."

So straight from the CEO's mouth, related fundraising is the top priority of the Company at this time. Cyrus remains here at CytoDyn because of the need to pump up the value by switching to a more attractive Indication Priority. I repeat all of this, because with all of the peer reviewed and published Journal Articles that discuss the CCR5/L5 axis in the context of Colo-Rectal Cancer and given Keytruda's exceptional performance as a PD 1 blockade in only 15% of these CRC MSI tumors, leronlimab can open the door wide open to the remaining 85% MSS tumors. The trial starts this year. Also from the recent Shareholder Letter:

"Research and development partnership opportunities are important to the Company as we search for cost-effective ways to further build out our product development portfolio. We have identified several such opportunities that we believe are intriguing and anticipate finalizing agreements with these partners in the very near future. Such potential partnerships include an investigator-initiated pilot study of leronlimab in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease, and a project that will evaluate the use of leronlimab in patients living with HIV who are undergoing stem cell transplantation in a proof of cure study. Following lifting of the clinical hold, we have observed a significant increase in third parties that are interested in partnering with the Company. We will continue to review opportunities as they arise, given the potential for significant value return at little or no cost to the Company."

The question I now have is with whom? Partners are incoming, but did leronlimab make it easier for the PD-1 blocker Keytruda to work in MSS mCRC tumors? If it did, (and Cyrus knows if it did or did not), then Merck certainly remains there in the bidding. If leronlimab did it all by itself and Keytruda was superfluous, then the partner might be someone like u/i__OBSERVER points to entities such as the NIH as the source of that funding.
Personally, I am very much thankful to anyone involved that pushed for the change in priority as mCRC is a much better recognized Indication, and one that is easier to understand and bring to the public.

Hi, forgive my ignorance with this question… We’re looking at some slightly taller teardrop campers like the Bean Mean Bean and we only do minimal off-roading and nothing like what those things are designed to handle. Is there any reason we couldn’t use tires that are a few inches smaller to get the extra couple of inches we need for our rather low garage door height? Assuming the tires are rated for the weight of course. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!
The Bean Trailers Mean Bean runs on large off-road tires and has a ton of ground clearance, neither of which are things we require. It’s not like a typical teardrop with small wheels and tires. (Side note, If there was another camper that had the build quality and interior height of the Mean Bean, we’d be looking at it but I can’t seem to find anything comparable. The Colorado Teardrops Mt. Massive would have been a good option but they are out of business)
The goal is to have a convenient way to store the trailer each week without having to change wheels or deflate and pump up the tires, which takes away from some of the quick convenience of a small trailer.

Dropped back to the VFL for a second time this season Jhye Clark has responded well with a standout performance in Geelong's 22-point win over Coburg on Saturday.
The 19-year-old picked up 27 disposals, six tackles, six clearances and two goals, almost mirrored by rookie Mitch Hardie with 28 touches, six tackles, seven clearances and two goals.
Mature-age recruit Shaun Mannagh slotted three goals from 19 disposals.
Lawson Humphries was busy with 23 touches and one goal, while 2023 draftee George Stevens also got plenty of ball with 24 disposals and a team-high seven tackles.

Hi, forgive my ignorance with this question… Is there a reason I couldn’t use smaller wheels/tires on a camper to get it to fit in my garage? We’re looking at some slightly taller campers like the Bean Mean Bean and we only do minimal off-roading and nothing like what those things are designed to handle. Is there any reason we couldn’t use tires that are a few inches smaller to get the extra couple of inches we need for our rather low garage door height? Assuming the tires are rated for the weight of course. Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!
EDIT - The Bean Trailers Mean Bean runs on large off-road tires and has a ton of ground clearance, neither of which are things we require. It’s not like a typical teardrop with small wheels and tires. (Side note, If there was another camper that had the build quality and interior height of the Mean Bean, we’d be looking at it but I can’t seem to find anything comparable. The Colorado Teardrops Mt. Massive would have been a good option but they are out of business)
EDIT - The goal is to have a convenient way to store the trailer each week without having to change wheels or deflate and pump up the tires, which takes away from some of the quick convenience of a small trailer.

Please read this entire post.
A new poll by Axios from May 3rd to May 6th shows that college students rank the Israel-Hamas war at the bottom of 9 options as issues that are important to them. They surveyed 1,250 college students on campuses and it showed that only 13% cared about the war, far behind other issues like healthcare reform, racial justice & civil rights, and climate change.
This number isn't really surprising at all. The movement is a mess. Part of what is causing the problem is that the movement is surprisingly ineffective at using Social Media. Instead of using it to raise sympathy for their cause, it's mainly being used to give the movement itself a false impression of how popular the movement is, and then to bully people who question the movement itself. In this kind of echo chamber, you can maintain the belief that it's everyone else who is failing, when really, its the movement itself that is failing on every level.
But rather than dwell on the failures, let's talk about solutions. The goal of any movement like this is to raise awareness and sympathy for your cause, and to turn that sympathy into action. The problem with taking direct action like encampments, destroying property, disrupting civic life, and then making hostage-like demands to get you to stop, is you push more people away then you pull in. The actions themselves create fear and anger, which are both antithetical to sympathy, and can inadvertedly create sympathy for the opposing cause.
There is another approach called a dilemma action, which is an indirect, non-aggressive form of protest, where the goal is to provoke a dilemma for the opposition where they look absurd no matter how they respond.
For example in 1982, in response to Soviet propaganda, Polish citizens started taking their televisions for walks in wheelbarrows and strollers during the Soviet news hours. This created a situation where the government would have to arrest people for walking their television, which would then be covered in the news itself, creating the dilemma. Not only would it look absurd, but they'd have to explain why people were walking their televisions, exposing their own propaganda, and spreading the protestors message for them. Because of that dilemma, the government didn't do anything, which conceded ground to the Polish resistance movement, enabling them to broaden support for resisting the Soviet system.
George Washington University recently used this technique against the protestors when they hung a huge American flag in the backdrop of the protests. The contrast put the protestors in a really negative light, while maintaining the integrity of the university as standing up for the rights of all, which increased their support to resist the protestors (and sadly, that story didn't end well for the protestors).
The reason this worked is because if the movement is only focusing on what they are going to do and how they can express their anguish to their audience, it becomes self absorbed. And I think we're seeing a lot of that, which is why they become blind to how antisocial the movement has become.
If you're thinking in terms of a dilemma action, you're thinking of your social movement as a social action, between you, your opposition, and most importantly, the rest of society. Society is the audience. They are the people you are trying to convince they are the ones holding the sympathy that you need.
The reason I made the post yesterday and this new one today was to educate people. I do hope that the encampment organizers takes my words to heart. However, if the reaction to my post yesterday was anything to go by, probably not.

I am currently in my first year teaching ELA. I’m at a middle school. I did very well (for a first year) on my formal. My boss gave me some great advice and actual action steps for the domains that I was given “developing” on. Not a single ineffective. This was December. Cut to April, a new AP has been hired and they do not have any ELA experience. I was observed for my first informal with this new AP and the lesson wasn’t great. It was ELA state test prep and the kids were in different spots in the lesson (because I had been DIFFERENTIATING). I knew it wasn’t my best but this was also what I was given when it comes to ELA test prep. Instead of giving me actual action steps to take to actively make it better, I was told to “plan better”. He also did not say a single nice thing about my classroom, the lesson, or how I conduct myself in front of my students. I totally understand I’m new at this, but I know that admin are supposed to say AT LEAST one nice thing. I was given two “ineffectives”. All the problems I was told my lesson had were ALL because it was test prep. I had to use a specific book and teach lessons that only had ONE answer and this, apparently, means I’m ineffective. I asked for a meeting to show the new AP an ACTUAL lesson I wrote, not a test prep one. Meeting went well. He was encouraging and actually gave me decent advice. He came in to observe the ICT teacher I work with. Our lesson had been planned out and he came in while the kids were working, and I thought it went well. Apparently, my Co-teacher and I “don’t plan together” and the kids “walked out of the classroom not knowing what happened in class”. I was teaching irony in a personal essay. The author was using irony to tell a rather upsetting story, it wasn’t a funny story—and apparently the irony lesson was missing humor—THERE WAS NO HUMOR IN THE ESSAY. Now apparently he is going to come to my planning meetings and coming into my classroom more often. He wasn’t even there to observe me that time. I haven’t had my last informal yet. I just feel like the goal posts keep moving. I do as I’m told and then I’m told it’s not good enough. What’s the best way to play this game?

Reading GT10, we're led to believe that Alice didn't have a plan due to her mental state at the time and also due to her inherently childish nature.
“Hold on!! You’re not making sense. Alice means no harm. For better or for worse, what you see is what you get with her. Wasn’t that our initial assumption here? She can’t set people up, plot out some grand plan, or any other intellectual stuff like that!!”
But after reading GT10 again, I noticed that's in fact not true. Even in her mental state, Alice did in fact have a plan to save Kamijou Touma. even if it was kinda insane and might have distorted the world in the process.
Kamijou Touma's death was set in stone, no matter what he did, no matter how much he struggled, he would die. Even someone like Anna Kingsford decided it would be easier to go to hell to revive him, which says a lot.
In chapter 3, Alice was hell-bent on convincing Touma that he was going to die no matter what.

It could be the geocentric theory, phlogiston, an ancient nuclear war, or that dinosaur farts caused the ice age. Of course, it could also be something accurate like universal gravitation or quantum theory. Accurate or not, if a theory had ever been proposed – if someone had thought it up and put together the logic behind it – she could build a bridge to it. She could choose whichever theories she wanted and link to them to wholly change the world. She was the ultimate conversion device. She could place Yamatai anywhere she liked, she could invent a perpetual motion machine of the first kind to produce unlimited energy, or she could remake the spherical Earth into a flat disk.
So there just had to be a single section in the more than 10 thousand grimoires.
Just one passage.
Even a single line would do.
No matter how absurd or difficult to achieve it was.
Alice could easily activate it and save Kamijou.
But.
Even then.
Index did not give a yes or no answer.
She kept her silence.
That was enough of an answer. If she wasn’t willing to say it out loud, she didn’t need to.
Her attempt at kindness was ineffective.
The verdict had been given.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Death.

She would have succeeded had it not been for Anna Sprengel.

“Anna…?”
“You might die, fool.”
Kamijou’s breath caught in his throat.
The thick invisible wall once more intruded on the ordinary scene around him.
Death.
The end.
It was approaching second by second, yet he felt no pain. Like a cruel time bomb with the LCD screen omitted.
What was wrong with feeling fear?
But Anna wasn’t done talking.
“I said ‘might’. None of this is set in stone, but Alice is acting like it’s 100% going to happen. Why?”

Something to note is that there was a way to save Touma. Which was [Live Adventures in Wonderland] (LAIW for short). Even though Chapter 3 implied that she cannot, that was a lie made by Alice. She even contradicts herself in Chapter 4 (when she's sober).

“You can’t defeat the girl, teacher. If everything had gone as planned and the girl had used her full power, you might have been spared this death coming from the outside.” - Alice

Why was she so hell-bent on convincing him that he was going to die? you may ask...
Cause she needed to.
Something I noticed about LAIW (this is speculation btw), is that in order to go on an adventure in the selected person's mind, you would need their consent / approval. Similar to how Othinus needed Kamijou Touma's for IB in NT9.

“It doesn’t matter if your real-world theories have broken down. Even if there is no direct connection between two ideas, a bridge can always be built if the girl goes on an adventure and creates a new path.”
“A bridge?”
“Burning something requires phlogiston, observing one of a pair of separated particles determines the spin of the other one no matter the distance between them, neutrinos can travel faster than light. It might sound ridiculous, but if the girl links together the surrounding theories to build up a solid basis and makes it convincing enough, she can create an actual functioning theory. Even if the idea she started with was flawed and even if the values she started with came from faulty measurements.”
“You mean…?”
“It works even if the theory is how to resurrect the dead. After all, magic is meant to give people joyous hopes and fun dreams.”
By forcibly connecting entirely separate theories, she had created a single path to this destination.
Even if she hadn’t created anything herself and was journeying around by peering into someone else’s mind. - GT5

At the end of the day, even though she's the one activating the magic, she's only peering into someone else's mind to build a bridge to their destination. if the person themselves denies her power (like Touma in GT5), it won't work out, no matter what.
Alice's plan was simple, since she knew Touma would reject using LAIW under normal circumstances (cause that's just how he is), similar to what Othinus did to Touma in NT9, break his mind enough so he would let his guard down, so that he would make a choice that he wouldn't under normal circumstances, so he would allow the use of LAIW on him, changing his fate, altering his branch, no matter the consequence.
Half the world getting nuked, WHO CARES. The world turns into CHAOS, WHO CARES.
I know that's kinda giving extreme examples, but we wouldn't know what would have happened since LAIW builds a bridge to literally anything.

“I said ‘might’. None of this is set in stone, but Alice is acting like it’s 100% going to happen. Why?”
Othinus caught on first.
Almost like the thought had been unnaturally blocked until now.
“Oh, I get it. Everyone would prefer the opposite outcome, but she was enjoying telling everyone that he was definitely going to die.”
“It’s simple really. What did a certain monster need to do for him to drop his guard and let her in? What about showing him a greater threat so she doesn’t seem so bad? Just like I came off as a harmless companion when faced with the greater threats of CRC and Alice. But there is no threat greater at present than the Anotherbible. So a certain someone suggested the fool’s death.

She wanted Kamijou Touma to live, no matter what. Even if it disregarded his own wishes.

“Shut up, you gloomy butler. And, fool, remind me who you came here to save?”
Anna sounded exasperated.
That was their initial assumption.
Kamijou had said that himself, but he had somehow forgotten it.
“I thought that issue had nothing to do with whether or not you will survive.”
“…”
He wanted to rescue Index and save Alice too.
That was why he had decided to fight Alice. That had been his initial objective.
And yet.
Why was he now seeking salvation from Alice?
Alice was the same as always. She was alive and well. It didn’t matter that her head had been crushed by Rosencreutz.
So shouldn’t he be rejoicing?
Shouldn’t he be weeping and laughing while hugging Alice?
Why was he being driven into a dead end?
When had his objective been replaced?
Who had caused that switch?
No.
…But…
It couldn’t be? Could it?

By diverting Kamijou Touma from his original goal. By convincing him that he would die no matter what, she subtly changed his path. Since Alice knew under normal circumstances, even if Kamijou Touma knew he would die, he would have prioritised those around him (like her) rather than himself. Somewhat similar to when he prioritized himself over the happiness of the entire world in NT9, she had wanted Kamijou Touma for once in his goddamm life to prioritize himself, even if the way she did it seemed unfair, even if she had to dirty her hands in blood to save him. Even if by chance, the world is distorted beyond repair in the process.

“The girl wants...to make up...with you.”
Everything froze.
Inside Kamijou Touma, time ground to a halt.
Was that it.
Was that really and truly all there was to it?
At the Bridge Builders Cabal consulate in District 12, Kamijou and Alice had disagreed over her attempted punishment of H.T. Trismegistus, who had tried to kill him, and Good, Old Mary, who had failed to protect him.
CRC had killed her and she had regained her lost head.
She had driven the world mad and might destroy it as soon as tomorrow.
But this had never changed.
She only wanted to mend that broken bond.
No matter what it took.
Even if her methods were seen as unfair.
That little girl didn’t care. Kamijou should have bowed his head and apologized, but he had completely forgotten after learning about his imminent death.
Nevertheless, she was trying to achieve it on her own, even if it meant dirtying her hands.
So they could smile together again.

In the end, Alice never got her wish, her teacher died smiling, doing what he normally does, to tell that lonely yet foolish girl that everything would be alright.
“Tea…cher?”