My little guy had his 18 month check up today and I’m a bit confused by the outcome. Apparently he’s down 1 kg since he was in 1.5 months ago (checked weight while at doc for HFM).
He’s weighing 9.55 kgs, putting him at 11th percentile. Since he was 2 months old he’s followed the 14-15th percentile growth curve. He was sick last week and barely ate, so a 3 percentile drop doesn’t seem crazy to me. But apparently their records show he weighed 10.4 kg 1.5 months ago, which would’ve been 33rd percentile at that time. Basically doubling his normal growth curve.
My doctor saw the 1 kg decrease and was visibly concerned, order him a ton of urgent blood work, stool sample and referral to a paediatrician. It wasn’t until I got home and looked up the growth charts did I wonder if they could’ve just made an error in the last weigh in.
We’re getting all the tests done tomorrow, but I’m curious what my fellow redditors think. Do doctors offices make those types of mistakes? Am I just trying to be too optimistic? Is an apparent sudden doubling of growth curve and subsequent decline possible?

So I'm pretty new to perfume. I own a few things, my favorite being Hermes Un Jardin Sur le Nil. I also own Bvlgari Au the Rouge, Eau de gaga, and Miss Dior which was a gift back in like 2011. I was at Ulta and Sephora determined to try some new scents. After dodging the sales associates attempts at conversation and sniffing around, here was what I settled on trying on my skin. I just based what I sprayed on if I liked the opening or not.
Marc Jacob Daisy Wild: At first sniff, it was kind of boring but inoffensive. Now it just smells like this awful synthetic vanilla that gives me a headache. But the bottle is really cute. It sucks because the paper retains the freshness and on my skin none of that freshness remains.
YSL Libre: Again, I thought the opening was fine and now on my skin it again takes on this cloying vanilla powder scent. It's just as headache inducing as the Marc Jacob but in a different direction. Same family, different sharpness. The testing paper now smells like laundry detergent and my hand smells like baby powder.
Replica Matcha Meditation: It really smells like a sweet matcha latte at first spray and then... the white chocolate comes to play. It gets more and more cloying over time and just smells like a creamy nut butter. I get it, some people like the nut butters. It is giving me a headache still. Less offensive than Libre and Daisy Wild, but I think that's just because it fades much faster
Replica When the Rain Stops: There's something mossy and earthy in the dry down. It's fine, but I'm not in love with it. I might continue testing this one though. It smells fine. Good even, but doesn't make me feel like I smell good if that makes sense? This and From the Garden were my favorites of the bunch.
Replica From the Garden: A close second to When the Rain Stops. If I got it for free, I would use it, but I'd rather get Un Jardin en Mediterranae to rotate with Sur le Nil. than get From the Garden. I was just trying to get a perfume that wasn't from the same Jardin line next.
Not from this trip but multiple previous trips Ellis Brooklyn Myth: I LOVED the opening. Tested it for a while but each time after a while, it would just turn so creamy/powdery and I couldn't stand it.
I also smelled and was okay with Jo Malone Sakura Cherry Blossom, Nest Indigo, Nest Lychee Rose, but I didn't try them on skin because I was pretty meh about them. Jo Malone just felt like.. so basic and didn't seem worth the price they charge for it. I found Valentino Donna born in Roma Green Stravaganza just... far too sugary and boring. With a name like Green Stravaganza, it just smells like candy. I was excited because the top note was listed as Lapsang Souchong. As someone who drinks this tea regularly, it had none of that rich smokiness.
It seems like so many of what I tried have this powdevanilla dry down that I personally cannot stand. I don't know what it is about it that makes me feel so sick. I don't burn vanilla candles in the house the same reason: headaches.
I was trying to branch out from Sur le Nil and get some variety in my collection but not sure where to move forward to. I really want to get I was thinking of getting some Diptyque samples for L'ombre dans l'eau, L'eau papier, and Philosykos purely because I smelled a bunch at an airport once and I have zero recollection of what they were called, but reading the description it seems like these would be things up my alley. I was also considering Arielle Shoshana Monday for the earl gray vibes, but now I see the milk and amber and I'm unsure.
I know I don't like things that are tropical or coconut-y or beachy like Sol de Janeiro. I see a pattern that I'm drawn to tea scents, but most of the ones I try are just either floor-cleaner citrus or are tea at first and then turn into my arch nemesis creamy vanilla.
I would love to find something that is wet-forest scented. I also wanted something fruity but every fruity one I smelled leaned sugary/sweet or tropical.
I also wanted something this past winter to add to the rotation. I was looking for something smoky, but a lot of the ones I tried (can't remember) went very oud heavy. Something that actually smelled like a lapsang souchong tea (aromatic, smoky, but transparent? I don't know)
But also, any recommendations would be much appreciated in general because I don't know how to avoid the powdery/vanilla. I feel like those first top notes are baiting me into spraying :(

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Is there an AP Statistics exam?
The AP Statistics Exam is a college-level exam administered every year in May upon the completion of an Advanced Placement Statistics course taken at your high school. If you score high enough, your AP Stats score could earn you college credit !
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Perhaps the most important benefit of taking the AP® Statistics exam is the financial benefit. Since you get college credit for passing the AP® Statistics exam, this means you won't have to pay for college credit hours to take the course. You can use your AP® credits to graduate early or explore a minor.
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For students in introductory statistics, the concept of a Sampling Distribution and the logic of Hypothesis Testing are extremely difficult to understand and apply. For example, Hypothesis Testing is so nonintuitive that every year or so a student will see a high probability level for a test (like p = .
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It's important to consider your own strengths, interests, and academic goals when deciding on which courses to take. If you're not particularly strong in math but still want to challenge yourself, AP Stats might be a good option for you.
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Prep Course Practice Problems for GED and HiSET Candidates

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GED Practice Problems

At Study.com, there are practice tests you can try out for the four GED sections:

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My 4-year-old female tuxedo cat recently had some routine blood work done. The results showed her calcium levels were high and the veterinarian recommended we do further testing to confirm and check for a specific type of calcium.
I just received the results from the second test and her calcium levels were at 1.46 when the reference range is 1.13 - 1.38 mmol/L.
I am extremely concerned and heartbroken at the mere idea of losing my baby so young to kidney disease or cancer. The vet is now recommending a urine sample as well as an abdominal ultrasound.
I’ve done some research on my own and saw prednisone could prevent additional calcium absorption and help expel some of the excess, but really, I’m clueless and overwhelmed.
I could use some advice- what is the best course of action here and has anyone ever heard of a cat recovering from hypercalcemia at that level?
Thank you!!!

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Welcome to our second discussion of Thinking, Fast and Slow! The Marginalia post is here. You can find the Schedule here.
This week, we will discuss Chapters 5-10. If you're feeling a little overwhelmed or frustrated by the content, just hold a pencil in your mouth pointing left to right and you'll be primed to feel better in no time! You can also read through the chapter summaries below for a refresher.
This is a nonfiction text so it's obviously not plot-driven, but we still want to be respectful of the experiences of other readers. So, if you've read ahead or made connections between the concepts in this book and other media, please mark spoilers using the format > ! Spoiler text here ! < (without any spaces between the characters themselves or between the characters and the first and last words).
Chapter Summaries:
CHAPTER 5 - Cognitive Ease: Kahneman shows us how System 1 and System 2 work together to create states of cognitive ease or cognitive strain when we are presented with information or other stimuli. Cognitive ease is a state of comfort where things are going well, while cognitive strain is the opposite end of the spectrum where there is a problem which causes discomfort.
Our brains constantly assess how things are going, using automatic System 1 processes, and monitoring whether the extra effort of lazy System 2 is needed. When experiencing familiar inputs and in a good mood, our brains are in a state of cognitive ease, which leads to positive feelings and trust of the situation or information. When System 2 needs to get involved, we experience cognitive strain and can develop negative feelings and skepticism. Kahneman asserts that these states can be “both a cause and a consequence” of how we feel about things and relate to them.
On the “cause” side, cognitive ease can make you notice and believe things more readily because your brain is already used to them. (Cognitive strain can make you reject unfamiliar messages.)

• An illusion of memory is caused by more easily noticing things that we have recently been exposed to. An example would be picking out a few names as minor celebrities from a long list just because you recently saw those names in a different context.
• Similarly, an illusion of truth is experienced as more readily believing something just because you've heard a certain phrase or sentence often. System 2 will sometimes slow this down a bit to comb through relevant background information that could verify or refute the statement, but cognitive ease will result in belief if it can't be quickly confirmed. (Remember, System 2 is lazy AF.)
• Our brains default to the good vibes of cognitive ease, and Kahneman points to the career of Robert Zajonc whose research on the mere exposure effect drives this point home. Zajonc proved that just by exposing people repeatedly to a word or object, they would develop a more positive association with it. The more exposure, the more likely people are to favor something. This is true of a random word on a newspaper cover, a pronounceable stock market symbol, or even stimuli provided unconsciously. It is also true for nonhumans, as tones played for chicken embryos will get a more positive response from the chicks after they hatch. This is because, evolutionarily speaking, it is safer for animals to be initially skeptical of novel stimuli, and also to learn to trust repeated stimuli as safe. Darwin would be proud!

On the “consequence” side, cognitive ease can be induced if we are presented with things that feel easy and familiar, or if we are put into a good mood first. (Cognitive strain can be induced in the opposite ways.)

• When psychologists ask their subjects to think of happy or sad experiences first, it affects how intuitive they are and whether they experience cognitive ease or strain in the tasks that follow.
• Experiments have also shown that no matter the content of a message, people will intuit it as more or less believable depending on how much cognitive ease or strain results from the presentation of said information.
• Kahneman points out that the effects of cognitive ease on people's beliefs might have been proven by psychologists, but authoritarian regimes have always known it works. (Gulp!) Let's assume you are not a dictator and you have a truthful, impactful message that you want people to pay attention to. If you keep in mind that System 2 is lazy and people will avoid things that cause cognitive strain, you can bolster the efficacy of your message with the following tips: use an easy-to-read font, high-quality paper, simple phrasing, bright colors, and sources with easily pronounceable names. Yes, System 2 will balk at your report if your sentences are too fancy and your font is too small or squiggly. You can also add rhymes. Apparently it is proven true if rhyming's what you choose to do! (Please enjoy this relevant sitcom clip.)

Now here's where things get surprising. Cognitive ease and strain are not binary good/bad things. Sure, cognitive ease makes you feel happier and more confident, but you're also more likely to be duped and rely on your automatic System 1 impressions. Cognitive strain feels uncomfortable and makes you work harder, but it also boosts your creativity and gets you to think more analytically, so it can lead to better decisions and outcomes. You would probably do better on a test printed in a challenging font because your brain would be forced to pay more attention! Maybe I should've written this summary in a smaller font…
CHAPTER 6 - Norms, Surprises, and Causes: System 1 is compared to a powerful computer in this section, because it can quickly make links between networks of ideas. System 2 is our ability to set search parameters and program the computer to detect certain bits of data more easily. Let’s check out how awesome - and limited - System 1 is!
Surprise is the spice of life, and System 1 works with surprising events to help explain what we observe and decide if it is “normal”. Surprises come in two kinds: consciously expected events that will surprise you if they don’t happen (eg, your kid coming home from school), and passively expected events that are normal in a given scenario but it won’t surprise us if they don’t happen (eg, when I give my students a test someone will probably groan). System 1 helps us adjust our expectations: an event may seem normal if we’ve been exposed to it before (such as bumping into the same friend unexpectedly on two vacations) or become an expected occurrence (such as looking for an accident in the same stretch of road where you saw a big one earlier). Linking up events is another talent of System 1. Kahneman and his colleague Dale Miller worked on norm theory together: when observing two events, the first may be surprising but when a second event occurs your System 1 thinking will work out a connection between the two, making a narrative of sorts that diminishes how surprising the second event seems. This also makes it hard to pick out small errors, but easy to pick out glaring ones, such as the difference between reading “Moses put animals on the ark” and “George Bush put animals on the ark”.
System 1 likes to create narratives with these linked events. It helps us understand stories in a common way across the culture, and it allows us to make sense of the events in our daily lives and in the world.

1. Associative coherence creates links between events to help make an understandable story about what is going on. If a friend tells you they had fun sightseeing in a crowded city but later discovered their wallet was missing, you would probably jump to a conclusion about pickpockets (rather than assuming your friend absent-mindedly left it at a restaurant) because of the associations between crowds, cities, and crime.
2. The illusion of causality occurs when we “see” physical causation in scenarios even if there isn’t an actual cause-and-effect relationship. Having seen that an object will move when something bumps into it, psychologist Albert Michotte explains that we will transfer this assumption even to pictures of objects. We know there was no real physical contact, but if picture A moves immediately after picture B “touches” it, our System 1 thinking still explains picture B as causing the movement.
3. We assume intentional causality because humans are excellent at personifying nonhuman subjects. Heider and Simmel demonstrated that people do this by assigning things feelings and personality traits, forming a narrative around what might be happening. Here is a video of their animation of the bullying triangle. Considering it is a bunch of shapes, I think it is quite harrowing!
4. We separate physical and intentional causality, and this may be an explanation for how humans are wired to easily accept religious beliefs. According to Paul Bloom in The Atlantic, we are born with the capacity to conceive of “soulless bodies and bodiless souls” which allows us to accept religious explanations of God and the immortal soul. Religious belief may be baked into System 1 thinking!

Unfortunately, relying on causal intuitions like these can cause misconceptions, especially where statistical thinking is necessary to draw appropriate conclusions. Guess who we need for statistical thinking? System 2! Too bad for us that it’s easier and more pleasant to just go with the narrative of System 1.
CHAPTER 7 - A Machine for Jumping to Conclusions: System 1 is that machine, and it does this without our awareness. This works out just fine when making a mistake wouldn’t be a big deal and our assumptions are probably going to be correct (such as hearing “Anne approached the bank” and thinking of an institution of finance rather than a river’s edge). It gets more serious - and needs the help of System 2’s analysis - if it would be risky to make a mistake and the situation is unfamiliar or vague. We rely on System 1 to draw conclusions about ambiguous information without ever having to ponder the uncertainties, and most of the time this works out just fine! But it can also lead to biases.
Confirmation bias occurs when we fall back on our associative memories to evaluate information. System 1 likes to confirm things and will rely on examples related to the wording of a statement or question. It is gullible and will try to believe things if it can. Fortunately, System 2 is deliberate and skeptical; it can step in to help us interpret things more correctly or “unbelieve” things that are false. The bad news is that, if System 2 is already busy or feeling lazy (eg, if you are experiencing cognitive strain) then System 2 might not kick in and you might be duped. Don’t watch those influencer marketing posts while exhausted, kids!
Even when not under strain, System 2 will still default to searching for evidence that proves a statement or question rather than seeing if it can be disproved. This is contrary to the science and philosophy rules for testing hypotheses, but hey, Systems 1 and 2 are gonna do what they’re gonna do. If someone asks if a person is friendly, you’re going to think of times they did nice things; but if someone asks if they're unfriendly, all their jerky behaviors will come to mind.
The Halo Effect is another bias to watch out for. We are prone to make assumptions based on our initial experiences and observations. For instance, a fun conversation at a party might lead you to assume your new friend is generous, even though you have no knowledge of their charitable behaviors (or lack thereof), and in turn their assumed generosity will make you like them even more! This is the halo effect, where we generalize about something based on initial impressions: if you like a person, you tend to like everything about them (and vice versa). Your mom was right: first impressions are important!
You can avoid the halo effect by decorrelating errors. This essentially means you should crowdsource information and opinions from a lot of independent sources who aren’t allowed to collaborate before sharing their thinking, and the average of this information will provide a clear understanding. It is the reason police don’t allow multiple witnesses to “get their stories straight” and why Kahneman believes everyone should write a short summary of their opinions before engaging in open discussion at a meeting. It is also a great way to cheat at those guessing jar challenges: just wait for everyone else to write down a number, then sneak a peek at the guesses and take the average as your own guess! (You can also use math if you’re a goody-two-shoes.) You’re welcome!
The principle of “What You See Is All There Is” (WYSIATI) leads to many other biases. Sure, it’s beneficial to think quickly and make sense out of complex situations using System 1 and the evidence at hand. It’s not always prudent or possible to stop and mull over whether we have all the information, so usually we rely on WYSIATI. The downside to this is that, when System 1 jumps to conclusions, it doesn’t care about the quantity or quality of the information it has to go on; it simply wants a coherent narrative. Since we almost always have incomplete information when making decisions or judgements, we rely on System 1 to put together the best possible conclusion based on what we see. We never stop to ask what we don’t know. This creates biases that can lead to incorrect assumptions. These include:

• overconfidence: we love a good story and will stand by it even if we don’t know very much at all
• framing effects: we will feel different ways about the same scenario based on how it is presented to us
• base-rate neglect: we disregard statistical facts that can’t be readily brought to mind in favor of vivid details we already know

Detecting errors like these is the job of System 2, but you may have heard that it is LAZY! This means that even System 2 is often relying on the evidence at hand without considering what else we don’t yet know. This reminds me of a silly-sounding statement by a certain American politician from the early 2000s.
CHAPTER 8 - How Judgments Happen: Like a curious toddler, there is no limit to the number of questions System 2 can ask. And like a teenager, there is a good chance that System 1 will make a snap judgment in place of the real question being asked. System 2 is good at both generating questions and searching memory to answer them, while System 1 is good at continuously and effortlessly making quick decisions, literally without giving it another thought. System 1 has features that support these basic assessments of intuitive decision-making, and they lead us to substitute one judgment for another.
Basic assessments are the immediate judgments that human brains have evolved to make constantly to ensure safety. Whether you are dodging taxis while crossing a city street or avoiding lions while trekking through the savannah, your brain can immediately judge a situation as threat (to avoid) or opportunity (to approach). We do the same with other people’s faces, immediately deciding whether they are friend or foe based on face shape and facial expression. While this can be great for deciding whether to talk to that intimidating guy on the subway, it’s not so great that voters tend to fall back on these System 1 assessments when picking a candidate. Basic assessments of candidates’ photos showed that politicians with faces rated more competent than their opponent (strong jaw + pleasant smile) were likely to be the winner of their elections. Apparently we could save a lot of time and money with campaigning and just hand out headshots. Yuck.
Here are some other examples of basic assessments that System 1 uses to answer an easier question in place of System 2’s more complex query:

• Sum-like variables: finding the total (sum) of a set is a slow process, so System 1 will use the average or think of a prototype (representative image) to get an immediate idea
• Intensity matching: System 1 is great at matching where things fall on different scales such as describing how smart someone is by relating it to a person’s height (reading at 4 years old would be like an impressive but not outrageous 6’7” man while reading at 15 months old would be like an extraordinary 7’8” man). In an experiment straight out of Dante’s Inferno, participants match the loudness of tones to a crime or its punishment and increase them based on severity (murder is louder than unpaid parking tickets), and they report feeling a sense of injustice when the tones for a crime and its punishment do not match in volume!
• The mental shotgun: Just as you can’t aim at a single target with a shotgun because of the spray of pellets, so your System 1 is constantly making basic assessments that it wasn’t asked to and should probably have minded its own beeswax about. It’ll slow you down when identifying rhyming words that are spelled differently (vote/goat) and it’ll make you pause in looking for true sentences when a false statement could have a metaphorical meaning. You weren’t asked to think about spelling the rhyming words or making metaphors out of comparative statements, but System 1 just can’t help itself! Thinking about one aspect of the question triggers System 1 to think about a bunch of other connected associations.

CHAPTER 9 - Answering an Easier Question: You are almost always right, and you know it. Admit it, your System 1 keeps you pretty sure that you know what to think about most people and situations. Kahneman points out that we rarely experience moments when we are completely stumped and can’t come up with an answer or a judgment. You know which people to trust, which colleagues are most likable, and which initiatives are likely to succeed or fail. You haven’t collected detailed research and statistics or swiped anyone’s diary; your System 1 just knows. That’s because it answered an easier question!
Let’s talk heuristics. According to George Pólya, a heuristic is a simpler problem that can be solved as a strategy for tackling a more difficult problem. Kahneman borrows the term to describe the substitutions made by System 1 instead of answering a tricky System 2 question. If you don’t get an answer to a question pretty quickly, System 1 will make some associations and use those to come up with a related and easier question. You won’t even notice that your brain has pulled a switcheroo, and you’ll feel confident in your answer to that tricky question (even though you did not in fact answer it). Here’s how System 1 pulls it off:
Brain: Hmm, I don’t know the answer to this complex question. It requires some deep analysis!
System 2: Hard pass. You may have heard I’m hella lazy.
System 1: I got you, bro! That deep question reminds me of this super fun fact I know, so I’ll throw this out there instead. Does your fancy schmancy query make sense now?
System 2: Umm, probably? It’s good enough for me. I’m gonna go back to my nap.
System 1: Eureka! We’ve got an answer!
Brain: I am so smart! I totally answered this really complex question thoughtfully and reasonably.
Here are some example heuristics:

• 3-D Heuristic: This is an optical illusion. When you are shown a drawing that appears to give a three dimensional perspective, your brain will automatically interpret it as if you were looking at objects in a 3-D setting. You didn’t forget that the paper and drawing are 2-D and you aren’t confused about the questions asked. You just automatically substitute 3-D interpretations because that is how your brain is used to seeing the world and it’s easier to continue that way.
• Mood Heuristic: It would take a lot of consideration to give an accurate answer to how happy you have been feeling lately, because there are so many factors to evaluate. When asked about happiness and then about dating, there is no correlation between the two answers: overall happiness is not really influenced by how many dates people have recently had. However, if someone primes you by asking about your dating life first, your answer about happiness will be very strongly correlated to your love life because System 1 is actually using the easy dating question to easily answer the more complex happiness question. This also works with other topics like family relationships and finances.
• Affect Heuristic: Your opinions or feelings about a certain topic will affect how you judge its strengths and positives as well as its weaknesses and negatives. Things you view favorably will seem to have many benefits and few risks, while things you are averse to will appear riskier and less beneficial. Your political preferences will influence your attitude towards policies and other countries even if there is evidence to the contrary. This doesn’t mean that we can’t learn or be convinced by new information, and that we will never change our minds. It’s just that lazy System 2 is also not very demanding; it tends to apologize for System 1’s snap judgments and emphasize the information that backs it up, rather than seeking out and examining the evidence to the contrary.

We end Part I with a chart listing the characteristics of System 1. This is a good review of how System 1 tends to operate. Then, we embark on Part II: Heuristics and Biases.
CHAPTER 10 - The Law of Small Numbers: People are bad at statistics - we struggle to draw intuitive conclusions based on a statistical fact. Even statisticians are bad at intuitive interpretations of statistics! This is because of the law of large numbers. Keep in mind that large samples are more precise than small samples. When randomly sampling a group, a large sample will yield more predictable results (less extremes) than a small sample would. Kahneman gives us two examples: rates of kidney cancer could seem unusually high or low if the populations of the counties sampled are small, and getting all of the same color marble instead of half and half will occur more often if you’re pulling just a few marbles from an equally mixed jar instead of pulling a big handful. (Your System 2 is really working hard right now, isn’t it? I had to bite a pencil just to make myself feel better in the statistics section. I’m not crazy; please refer to Chapter 4!)
The law of small numbers is the belief that the law of large numbers applies to small numbers, too. (It doesn’t.) Not only do average people fall for the law of small numbers, so do researchers and statisticians. There is a mathematical way to compute the number of participants that researchers need to sample in order to avoid statistical anomalies and ruin their results. Instead, researchers trust their intuition and go with traditional sample sizes, never stopping to calculate the number of participants actually needed for a safe sample size. Even authors of statistical textbooks couldn’t manage to avoid falling for the law of small numbers. This explains why my math-teacher-husband always pops a blood vessel when I quote him statistics from a newspaper article.
We are biased towards confidence rather than doubt. System 1 is not wired for doubt because it looks for coherent messaging. System 2 is wired for doubt, but not very good at it because it’s hard work. When we analyze and draw conclusions, we tend to put too much emphasis on coherent explanations. We are “not adequately sensitive to sample size” and end up believing that even a very small group matches up with the truth about the entire population. Essentially, it’s us saying “Kids these days…” because one random toddler was being obnoxious at the grocery store.
Statistics do not indicate the cause of an event; they only describe it in relation to what could have happened instead. But people are predisposed to make associations and creative coherent narratives, so we look for patterns and assume causality where none exist. Many events in life are random chance and this is true whether you consider the sequence of the sex of babies born in a single day, the bombing locations in a city or fatality rates of air squadrons during war, or the “hot hands” of a basketball player who appears to have a streak of success. The problem is that we fall for the law of small numbers in our small samples, we create associative narratives to explain what we see, and we are biased towards believing our own conclusions because they ring true. Even really smart and successful people like Bill Gates make these mistakes, and sometimes this results in millions or billions of dollars wasted and national educational policies shifted on the basis of random chance. Oops! WYSIATI, even in statistics!

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First Previous
Captain Semnik sat in the electrocart as it whirred down the paved pathway to the rocket launch site in the distance. He pulled at his environmental suit, disliking how the fabric would catch on his fur when it shifted over his body. He took a deep breath, trying to calm his heartbeat that fluttered from the nerves.

“Nervous, Sir?” Navigator Fasili said. “It’s hard to imagine that the first Meer in space has anything to fear.”

Semnik frowned. He didn’t like the smarmy grin on Fasili’s face. Sure, he had been the first Meer in space. He was, in fact, the only Meer to ever be in space. His only mission involved circling the planet a few times before instructing his conical capsule to crash through the atmosphere and parachute into the ocean.

The entire ordeal was terrifying. The gravitational pressure as the rocket shoved him back in his chair on the ascent felt like he was going to be squeezed into jelly. The odd feeling as the blue sky vanished into a field of black, only the stars and Skyfire above along with Meeria below to keep him company. The worry that his equipment wouldn’t work and he would be stuck up there. The fear he would burn up in the atmosphere upon reentry. The terror that the parachute would fail and he would pancake in the ocean. The unease at wondering if the recovery ship would even find him.

He didn’t want to ever go through that again. Yet here he was, enjoying a chauffer service to something that could spell his doom.

In that moment, Semnik decided to get a little revenge on the arrogant Navigator. “Six out of ten of these things have exploded going up. I have good reason to be nervous.”

Fasili’s ears folded down as her eyes went wide and her whiskers pulled back against her snout. Her realization of how dangerous this task was plastered all over her face.

“It’s not that bad, Captain,” Engineer Zandis rejoined, his finger wagging. “Remember, most of those explosions were early in the program before we sent anything valuable up. We’re a lot better at it now.”

Fasili let out a breath she was holding in relief. “See, sir? Nothing to worry about. We’ll be fine.”

“That’s right,” Zandis replied. Then a wry grin came over his face. “After all, we improved the safety to only one in five exploding.”

Of course, all three were perfectly aware of the risks they were taking. They shared a laugh from the black humor, a brief moment of mirth before they had to get down to business.

The last few decades had been rough on Meerkind. Now 20 years removed from a massive war that devastated the planet and pushed the Meers nearly to extinction, they had come together in the aftermath. There was something about nearly seeing your civilization end that snapped everyone out of their old grudges.

After the end of the war, only the Northern Alliance remained as a functional state. Their efforts had switched to consolidating the few remaining refugees from the other three continents, which had suffered catastrophic damage.

The Northern Alliance, in a bid to improve morale, decided to turn to the stars. The Meer people needed something positive, a small victory to hold onto. They needed to know that their civilization was more than conflict and strife, that it had capacity to do something better.

It started with the rocket program. Repurposing the old weapons that had devastated the world, they removed the warheads and aimed them to the heavens. Realizing sending a rocket into space was much harder than lobbing them across an ocean, the Meer imagination kicked into gear.

After a few years of effort, and a number of lost rockets, they finally managed to get one to successfully leave the planet. The next step was sending up an artificial satellite. They intended to send up a small sphere, put it into orbit and have it transmit a simple radio signal down to the world below.

After three more lost rockets, the newly established Meer Aeronautics and Space Agency, MASA, put one up there.

Scheduled to make a full circumnavigation of Meeria, the small metal sphere was released and on the planned trajectory. Then something peculiar happened. About halfway through its journey, the orbit suddenly shifted 30 degrees south at a sharp angle, slowed and eventually burnt up in the atmosphere.

MASA engineers were perplexed. The capsule was little more than a radio beacon and a battery, so it didn’t have a propulsion system. It was a well-known principle that nothing spontaneously changed momentum. Something had to act upon the satellite.

It took some time to prepare an observation telescope. The satellite was deflected over a region of the Eastern Continent, which had bad pockets of radioactivity from the war. MASA struggled to get approval from the Northern Alliance to redirect funding to the construction of a new telescope, commandeering a vessel that was still used for refugee relief and the associated funding and personnel to command the expedition.

MASA was able to get over one hurdle when it pointed out that they could get a ride on one of the ships already bound for the continent to ferry more refugees. Then the funding was provided by a series of small fundraising efforts. MASA created merchandise, requested donations and the MASA Director even sold his personal luxury conveyance to finance the expedition.

It wasn’t looking good until a wealthy industrialist, someone working on a global communication network to link all the computers together, something today know as the Interburrow, provided a substantial donation.

The expedition was on and Semnik was one of the young interns that received the honor of joining. Setting up the telescope, they scanned the skies in the region the satellite had changed course. After a few weeks of painstakingly scanning every inch of the heavens, they found it.

And no one could believe their eyes. There, hovering over Meeria, was a metal tube with blue rectangular protrusions coming from each side. This caused a massive stir in the scientific community. Then it got out and a few odd conspiracy theorists, taking old religious texts, started claiming the Meers were visited by prehistoric extrameerestrials. There was even a Meer with shifty eyes and wild hair that managed to get a viewscreen program where he claimed that most, of not all, Meer achievements were a result of these old aliens.

Semnik scoffed at the idea. It was absurd to think that some alien species decided to orbit Meeria just to watch them. If they did, they’d be disgusted at the violent, warlike behavior. No, Semnik was convinced this was some secret device the Eastern Imperials had concocted and the information was lost with the collapse of their government.

Weeks went by studying the object. The only thing breaking up the solid shining metal exterior were small black squares that engineers decided were viewports. Whatever might be behind the windows was a mystery.

They also determined that the shining blue material was some kind of power generation device. There were some working hypotheses that the energy produced by Skyfire could be harnessed for the benefit of Meerkind. The problem is, no one knew how to go about doing it. It was when the blue material would pivot to maintain maximum exposure to Skyfirelight did they realize it wasn’t some fictional dream.

There was no an ongoing battle between the engineers wanting to explore capturing Skyfirelight for power and the ones focused on converting the energy from their weapons warheads to useful power. They posited that if they can control the energy released by the yellow death rock, it could be used to generate limitless power. There was even a faction saying that if they created a small explosion with the yellow death rock, they’d be able to fuse the first gas element and produce even greater power.

Semnik didn’t particularly care one way or the other. That was for the engineers to fight over. What interested him was that not only was this satellite up there, it was also in a perfect Meersynchronous orbit over the planet. He was proud to be the one to identify this peculiarity, since it would have taken a tremendous amount of precision and mathematical calculation to get an object to sit perfectly over one spot on a rotating planet.

Semnik posited whatever it was orbiting over must be important and was permitted a small research team to explore the area. After some calculations, Semnik discovered the object was orbiting over the most unassuming chunk of land on all of Meeria.

Arriving at the location, the team found a small valley nestled between a ring of mountains. At the edge of the valley was a forest and, at its center, was a grassland that measured approximately 2 kilos long and 1 kilo wide. Down the center of the valley, a small river flowed. It reminded him of a Northern Alliance Gleekball. The proper kind of Gleekball, in Semnik’s opinion.

Guessing the center of the meadow was the best place to start, the team transitioned there. There, under a small copse of trees, Semnik’s team made a discovery that would rock all of Meerkind. Under the ground were the remains of burrows.

The burrows were supported by ancient, rudimentary stone work and were just large enough for an adult Meer to squeeze through. Many of the tunnels had collapsed since their construction and they discovered primitive stone tools spread in the various rooms. According to an archaeologist on the team, they had a high likelihood of discovering the origin of the Meer species.

This was confirmed when they found ancient fossilized remains of a species that looked Meer-like yet were old enough to be considered a precursor species. It sparked off interesting discussions on evolution.

This alone was a monumental discovery. Yet it was overshadowed by something even more incredible. In one of the rooms, in a small hole covered by a rock, the team discovered something that shouldn’t belong there.

In the hole was a black box. Five of the box sides were made of a black polymer while the sixth was made of glass and had the appearance of a viewscreen. Polymers were only recently invented during the war, meaning this object didn’t belong here.

Assuming it was some forgotten prank, Semnik had the box sent in for the new radiation dating process that scientists had come up with. They’d test the half-life of the materials in the box to determine roughly how old it was.

The results were troubling. The material was old. Very old. Over 200,000 years old. The interior, unfortunately, was so corroded by time that no one could determine what the device was used for. All anyone could ascertain was the glass screen would present visual information.

MASA determined to keep the discovery of the box secret. The authorities had successfully contained the prehistoric alien conspiracy nuts by explaining the orbiting structure was a forgotten Eastern Imperial test. They were happy to let the public enjoy the discovery of their origins.

The box remained under wraps and was what led to this mission. Semnik became obsessed with the orbiting station and the box so much that he worked his way to becoming the first Spacemeer. It had taken two decades to reach the point where they knew enough about the hostile conditions of the region beyond the planet and how to protect from them.

Now, they were ready to send a Meered expedition to the floating object. Semnik would finally find out what was hovering over the world and if it had any relation to the black box discovered in a long forgotten prehistoric burrow.

The three brave explorers ascended the lift onto the walkway and entered the rocket. They took their seats in the cockpit and strapped themselves in.

Even with the training and doing this once before, Semnik found it disorienting. He was sitting with his back facing toward the ground many meets below. Everything was oriented correctly in his vision but his body was screaming things were wrong as he stared out into the vast blue sky.

“All ready for liftoff, Captain,” Zandis announced.

“Good,” Semnik replied. “Fasili? Prelaunch check.”

The Navigator checked her station and flipped various switches. “Ready for launch.”

This mission was, formally, to test the new navigation systems. The rocket that Semnik previously flew on was little more than a jumped-up missile. It flew up into space, spit him into orbit and fell down again. It was just there to see if a Meer could survive going up and coming back.

This rocket had multiple stages. The third stage would allow for maneuvering in orbit and a more controlled return. Of course, that was cover for their other mission – explore the floating station. MASA needed to know if it was a threat or not.

“Ready for launch,” Semnik announced. A voice over the radio announced it was go. Semnik flipped some switches on his console and a loud roar rose up around the rocket.

There was something fundamentally insane about the Meers in the rocket. They were sitting upon a tremendous amount of controlled liquid explosives and using it to overcome their planetary gravity. Semnik vowed to press for research into a method a little less ridiculous to go into space in the future. Even if they could reduce the risk, he didn’t like the idea of taking the chance of turning into a glowing fireball in the sky.

The rocket began to shake as it slowly lifted off the pad. A plume of smoke rose around them, which the rocket quickly left behind as it gained speed. Semnik could hear the tandem pressured breathing of his Navigator and Engineer over the open radio. It was a combination of the growing pressure pushing them into their seats and the fear generated from the roar and shudder.

Semnik couldn’t blame them. Even though he knew this was normal and experienced it before, he was also terrified. If Meer was meant to move this fast, the Ancestors would have constructed fuel ports in place of their bums.

The roar and shaking only lasted a few minutes. Even then, it felt like an eternity. Soon, the shaking began to subside and the roar quieted as the air thinned. Then, like a switch, the roaring ceased along with the rumble. They had entered the boundaries of space. Fasili and Zandis now entered the tiny population of Meers who had the pleasure of leaving their home.

“Stage 1 release,” Fasili announced as she flipped a few switches. Semnik was proud the Navigator. She had overcome her initial fears and professionally handled her duties.

The pressure briefly let up before returning once more, signifying the start of the next phase of their journey. This stage would put them into the same orbital distance as the object before they used the third stage to navigate toward it.

Using her instrumentation, Fasili adjusted the trajectory of the rocket. Without an atmosphere to hinder it, the rocket would move at tremendous speeds. It would take nearly a day of travel from the MASA launch center to the site of the first Meers. In space, it would take them around 30 minutes to reach the object.

The time went by quickly. Semnik reported back to MASA Ground Control as scheduled to report the data on the navigation system. The results bode well for their satellite communication plans. It would be relatively simple to maneuver satellites into their proper position with manned crews.

As they approached the floating object, they took in its size. From the ground, observers had no point of reference to determine how big the object was. In orbit, the object was massive. It was easily longer than two full size rockets and many times wider.

Fasili carefully matched the orbit of the object. To Semnik, it looked like they weren’t moving at all. The object remained still and he could see the forgotten valley down below, sitting perfectly still underneath. Of course, he knew they were moving at incredible speeds since they had to match the rotation of Meeria to be able to remain still.

Semnik radioed back to MASA with an update and added some babbling about how beautiful the world was from above. At least the part he saw. The sections he could see elsewhere that were ravaged by war were left out of the comment. Everyone below knew how bad the war was, they didn’t need reminding it was visible from space.

Little did Semnik know, his embarrassing ramblings were recorded and released. They’d be taught in schools for generations to come.

Carefully maneuvering around the exterior of the station, they took images of it for later study.

“Sir, I see something. It looks like a portal,” Zandis said, pointing a gloved finger out of the window. Ahead, in the otherwise perfectly smooth exterior, was a line in the shape of a circle.

Maneuvering close to it, Semnik ordered they extend the tube to allow entry to the object. The engineers designing the capsule had anticipated the potential need to board the object and created an extending metallic sheet tube. The hope was the object was magnetic and they could connect the ship and crawl over.

Using a camera mounted to the center of the exterior hatch, Zandis maneuvered the extended tube toward the object.

“This is strange,” Zandis commented as he peered through the viewfinder. “The outer hatch is huge. It’s easily triple the diameter of our boarding tube. There is a clear handle that looks like a means of entry inside and it has symbols painted on it. I’ve never seen symbols like those before.”

Semnik hummed. He wanted into that object and he was wondering if it would be safe to exit the rocket without the tube. Maybe walk in space. “Is this going to be a problem?”

“No, sir,” Zandis continued. “What’s stranger is there is a smaller hatch with another handle dead center in the larger one. And I can read the writing. It’s in an archaic dialect, yet the words are clearly instructions on how to open the hatch.”

All three occupants sat in stunned silence. Semnik didn’t quite believe Zandis and took a look for himself. Sure enough, the scene was exactly as Zandis described. A large hatch with a smaller hatch built in and ancient Meeran text stamped on the surface.

Fasili was the first to break the long silence. “Are you sure this is wise, sir? Everything about this feels wrong.”

Semnik peered out of the window at the large orbiting structure. While it was indeed strange to have an object in orbit labeled in ancient Meeran text along with indecipherable runes, nothing about the object triggered his instincts. It didn’t feel hostile. In fact, he thought it was more inviting.

Taking a breath, Semnik announced, “I’m going over. Neither of you are obligated to take this risk if you don’t wish to go.”

Fasili and Zandis looked at each other. They then nodded in tandem, both agreeing to go.

Zandis maneuvered the passage across the distance. Luckily, the surface was magnetic and allowed the tube to connect. Oddly, whoever or whatever had built the object planned on this since the tube subtly shifted to align perfectly with the hatch. The creators had anticipated a magnetic docking mechanism and created magnetic seat points.

Semnik took the lead and, after cycling the airlock, moved slowly through the opening. It was eerily quiet, the only sound his breathing in his helmet and the breathing over the radio from his two companions. Space was frighteningly silent.

Reaching over, he read the proto-language instructions. Make Turn. Right Tight. Left Loose.

Turning the handle leftward, the door silently released a puff of gas before opening. A white light from a strange bulb that looked like it was made of plastic turned on and led the three Meers into a much larger space. Instructions near what they thought of was the floor told them which buttons to hit in what order after closing the outer door.

Following the instructions, Semnik heard the growing hiss of air as the space filled with gas.

Floating lazily in the middle, Zandis looked at some gages on his wrist. “Seems like the air is breathable. The mixture and pressure is a perfect copy of Meeria.”

“Are you certain about those readings?” Semnik asked, secretly wishing to remove his helmet and get the first taste of the object’s air.

“Yes, sir. Unless there’s a catastrophic failure in the device that just happened to perfectly match Meeria, it’s fine,” Zandis replied.

Reaching up, Semnik released the seals around his neck. His Navigator and Engineer shouted in horror. Yet nothing happened. There wasn’t a telltale hiss from a differential in pressure. Semnik took a deep breath and took in the cleanest air he had ever experienced. Not clean like in the remote valley. Clean like the air had nothing but its component gases.

When Semnik didn’t pass out after a few minutes, Fasili took her helmet off followed by Zandis.

“This is incredible,” Fasili said. “I’m starting to think that weird guy on the Prehistoric Extrameerestrials show is correct.”

Semnik didn’t want to admit that and replied, “There’s still the possibility that this is an Eastern Imperial project.”

Zandis looked like he wanted to argue yet decided to keep his mouth shut. He knew that Semnik didn’t believe his own words and didn’t need to state the obvious.

Opening a Meer size hatch cut into a larger one, the trio were led to a huge central shaft as more lights came on to illuminate the space. A ladder with rungs too far apart to make sense moved from the bottom to the top. At various landings, which were odd given the lack of gravity, were a series of doors opposite the ladder. There were 20 of these doors in all.

As they ascended, they found each of the doors, also three times too large than necessary, closed and locked. None of the doors had a convenient set of instructions on how to open them nor did they have Meer size portals cut into them.

Reaching the top, they found another hatch with a Meer sized entryway and opening instructions.

Entering, they found a small hallway with a number of side rooms in them, also illuminating as they entered. The rooms, save for one that looked like the remains of an immense kitchen, were bare. The kitchen only had a sink that didn’t operate. Zandis commented why anyone would put a sink up here when the water would float all over the room in this setup.

The final door opened up to a bizarre room. In the room was a single gigantic viewscreen on a desk. In front of it was a chair. The desk and chair, like everything else, was about three times bigger than it needed to be.

The three Meers propelled themselves up to float waist high to the top of the desk. On the bottom corner of the giant viewscreen was a big red button.

The three stared at it for a long while. They weren’t sure what it would do if pressed.

“Should we press it?” Semnik asked.

The other two shrugged.

“Zandis, what do you think?” Semnik requested, hoping his Engineer had some insight.

Zandis looked over the object. “Strangely, the device seems remarkably simple. Apart from the panel being as flat as paper, it looks like a basic viewscreen. Nothing unusual is connected to it. I think we can turn it on.”

Semnik slowly reached his finger out and gingerly touched it to the surface of the red button. He still had his gloves on, so he didn’t know what it felt like. It looked like a sort of polymer material.

Taking a deep breath, Semnik applied pressure. With a soft click, the button pressed into the screen and it activated.

On the screen was an ugly face. With the exception of a tuft on the top of the round head, it was completely bald. The face had a nub for a nose and eyes had a green ring around the central black pupil. The skin was pale like a Methis flower.

Semnik noted that the figure sat in the gigantic chair behind the three Meers and made it look normal. The creature, the alien Semnik finally realized, was positively gigantic.

“You sure this thing’s on?” the figure said in a deep, booming voice. The Meeran it spoke was just as old as the text written on the portals.

Out of view, a different voice shouted. “Why are you asking me? Is the light on?”

“I’m just the anthropologist. You’re the engineer,” the figure shouted back.

The other voice off-screen yelled back. “Figures a Hillbilly can’t figure out this new-fangled technothingy.”

“That’s Redneck, ya pencil neck!” the pale figure yelled. Semnik didn’t comprehend the odd behavior yet, somehow, knew that there was no hostility in the words.

“Sorry about that,” the pale figure commented. “Heya little buddies. If you’re seeing this, that means you managed to get past one of the big civilization filters. Congratulations! My name is Frank Martin and I’m what is called a Human.”

The three Meers looked at each other. Unless the Eastern Imperials decided to play a giant prank, it was becoming more and more obvious that the Meer with the weird hair and crazy eyes was right.

The face on the screen suddenly put on an expression that Semnik took as dark. “Before I get to it, I have a warning. All that warring you guys are doing? I suggest you find peace with yourselves. When you start getting up into space, it means weapons are getting real bad. You’ll end up killing yourselves off if you don’t. We lost count of how many other civilizations out there ended themselves over it.”

Sadness entered Semnik’s features. The kindly species observing the Meers had predicted the big war and the Meers were too late to get the warning.

The thought was mirrored in the figure on the screen. “And if you’re here after that? Sorry that you had to go through it. We know what that’s like. The upside is, if you learned your lesson, things will get better.”

Frank leaned back in his chair and crossed his appendages over his chest area. “As for what we’re doing up here and why you’re hearing this? Well, it’s a long story. We, Darryl and I, are researchers. We discovered your people a while back and decided to study your development.”

“We found your people in an early part of their evolutionary period. Their lifespans were roughly 1/5^th of what they were when we headed off, more on that later, and we watched you grow and evolve over a long period of time.”

Frank took a deep breath of air and slowly released it. “Normally, civilizations like yours never even leave their point of origin. It’s a concept called the Dark Forest Hypothesis. To put it simply, the unknown is dangerous so it’s safer not to go there. My people went in there and ended up in space. Yours, at least until something happened, was perfectly content hiding out in their burrows.”

“Unfortunately, something happened that upended your development. A species, extinct at the time of this recording, was in its early space development phase. They discovered your planet and, for reasons we don’t know, decided to send a weaponized predator to destroy your world. We didn’t know it was coming and, by the time we figured out something was there, it had already landed.”

“We did our best to kill it off, but not before we were witnessed by one of the locals. We have a rule not to interfere, yet we made exceptions if something off-world showed up and threatened you. If that happened, we had protocols to try and scare your people back into their old ways. It also doubled as an emergency in-case that off-world threat came around again.”

“You see, directly below us is the origin of your people. If you haven’t found it by now, you should find the remains of your ancient ancestors. Along with it will be a black box. It ran out of power ages ago, so it should be an inert brick. Still, it’ll be obvious since it’s made out of materials not possible from the era.”

Semnik found his mouth starting to hang open in surprise. Everything this Frank alien was saying continued to be prophetic.

“A while after our first encounter, we discovered that the critter that we thought we exterminated had already multiplied. It then threatened to wipe out your ancestors. One of your ancestors, a guy called a Storyteller, called for help. We showed up and took care of business. While we didn’t get them all that day, Darryl did come up with a scanner and we ended up wiping out the rest of the buggers over the next year or so.”

Frank leaned in close to the screen. “Unfortunately, we opened up something we like to refer to as a Pandora’s Box. There’s more details behind it, but the common usage is for something that, once done, can’t be undone. While your Storyteller wished to keep what happened a secret, just too many of your ancestors had witness what happened. It changed behaviors.”

“Emboldened by the assumption that we would show up and protect them from any threats, your people started to venture into the forest for the first time. Once this behavior was cemented and we were forgotten, your ancestors started to develop tools to help deal with the threats of your world. Time passed, you evolved and became more sophisticated.”

The figure let out a deep gust of air once again. “I have a bit of an apology to make. While it is protocol to leave you alone, and we did a good job of that, some things did make their way into your society. The big ones are a number of your units of measurements as well as your names. I’m the one that called you Meers. You guys just referred to yourselves as People before.”

“This happened because I kinda forgot to turn off the transponder signal after giving it down to the scout. It took a while for me to figure out it was on.”

“You?” the other voice shouted with what sounded like indignity. “I’m the one who found it. After you put your damned boots up on the console again and got dirt in the board.”

The figure let out what sounded like a cough. “Yup. With my judicious use of your planet’s surface, I had discovered my error. In any case, I turned it off and at least stopped polluting your culture. For the most part, everything you came up you did so on your own. So if you have any weird fellas down there claiming we helped you build giant triangles out of stone, you have it from my authority that we didn’t.”

Semnik smirked. If this image was ever recorded, returned and declassified, this section would be the very first he would want aired.

“In any case, you’re probably wondering why we’re doing this at all after telling you how careful we have been about interfering. Well, think of this is as a big gift. In addition to the warning, we have 20 floors of data and archives to give you.”

Semnik notice the sudden wave of excitement emanating from Zandis. Which was immediately quashed with the next words.

“No, we aren’t gifting you technology. Sorry, you gotta figure that out for yourselves. Anything left here to keep the station functioning isn’t at a level that you probably already haven’t figured out or won’t soon. If you’re seeing this, and haven’t blown yourselves up, you’ll figure it out the rest eventually. No, it’s an even bigger gift. Something that not even we Humans have at our disposal. It’s your history.”

Semnik blinked. A sudden wave of euphoria rose in his chest. Was it what he was thinking?

“Yup, all those locked doors down below? Archives. In both digital and printed form, you’ll find the history of your people dating back to the very moments we arrived. Your proto-Meer ancestors and on. One of the big sadness of Humanity is we really don’t know much about anything before we started writing stuff down. Even when we did, we didn’t always have the best storage methods. Art, culture, language, everything prior to the written word is lost forever to us.”

Frank lifted up the corners of his mouth. Semnik assumed it must be happiness, something he was now feeling full-blast. This was an incredible gift, far more valuable than technology.

“Before I unlock the doors, I need to give you a small warning. Within each archive cabinet you’ll find a lead box. This is to protect you from the contents. If you’re up here, I’m assuming you know what radioactivity is. The reason for this is, since we don’t know how you guys use your calendars or how long it’s been since when we left, I can’t use things like years to communicate with you. To get around that problem, we put a sample of a dozen different radioactive isotopes in each box. At the time of the archive, the isotopes were fresh. All you gotta do is measure how much is left and you’ll know when the events in that cabinet happened.”

When the sentence ended, Semnik heard a series of clicks echo from down the hall. Twenty of them.

“So, anyway, enjoy the gift. We’re gonna head out now. There’s another interesting species on a different planet we’re going to study for a while. You guys have just developed simple telescopes and we really don’t want to be up here flashing lights when one of ya’ll looks up. Humanity will pull back a few star systems. When you figure out how to travel to the next one, you’ll be certain to get the welcome wagon. We’re really looking forward to the second race to figure out faster than light travel. I really hope it’s you guys.”

“Anyway, good luck. We’ll be out here waiting for you. And when you do make your way outside of your system? Ask for the Prees named Frank and Darryl. They’ll know who you’re talking about. And don’t worry, we’ll probably still be around. We live a really long time. I’d like to get some drinks, formally welcome you to the galaxy and have a nice chat with the people I got to know for a good part of my life.”

The vision gave out and the three Meers stared at the blank screen in stunned silence. Then a smile crept over Semnik’s mouth. Here was a hyper-advanced species that came across the galaxy, studied them and gave them the most precious gift imaginable. Their history.

In that moment, Semnik knew he liked these Humans. He couldn’t wait until the Meers figured out how to go meet them. He would gladly have a drink with the ones named Frank and Darryl.
Once again, thanks for reading. While this story didn't pop off as much as Intragalactic Pet and Garden Show, I think I needed a little exercise in writing something a bit more serious. I hope the introspection and hopeful end worked well.
That said, the stories are coming to an end for a while. I procrastinated enough with what I should be writing at the moment. That said, like I mentioned in IPGS, I plan on coming back with something more novel length that I think everyone will enjoy.
Take care!

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Hello, dedicated learners and aspiring achievers! Are you grappling with the weight of upcoming academic tasks and coursework? Fret not, because I'm here to provide unwavering support. With an impressive 6.5 years of experience in academic writing and tutoring, I'm your dependable freelance writing tutor.
Get in Touch:
📧 Email: [cammij93@gmail.com](mailto:cammij93@gmail.com)
💬 Discord: Camilla#0817
What I Offer:
🔹 Essay Writing: Crafting well-researched and structured essays that stand out.
🔹 Speech Writing: Delivering impactful speeches that resonate.
🔹 Assignments: Tackling assignments of varying complexities.
🔹 Research Papers: Thoroughly researched papers showcasing expertise.
🔹 Case Studies: Analyzing and presenting case studies with precision.
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👥 Client Vouches: I can provide vouches from satisfied previous clients for your assurance.
📜 Sample Work: Samples of my previous work available upon request.
🔥 Quality Guarantee: Not satisfied with the quality? I offer a full refund.
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Hello, dedicated learners and aspiring achievers! Are you grappling with the weight of upcoming academic tasks and coursework? Fret not, because I'm here to provide unwavering support. With an impressive 6.5 years of experience in academic writing and tutoring, I'm your dependable freelance writing tutor.
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🔹 Speech Writing: Delivering impactful speeches that resonate.
🔹 Assignments: Tackling assignments of varying complexities.
🔹 Research Papers: Thoroughly researched papers showcasing expertise.
🔹 Case Studies: Analyzing and presenting case studies with precision.
🔹 Dissertations: Comprehensive and insightful dissertations that leave an impression.
🔹 Mastery Exercises: Assisting in mastering crucial concepts.
🔹 Discussions/Peer Responses: Engaging in insightful academic dialogues.
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📚 Coursework Assistance: Navigating through coursework requirements seamlessly.
📚 Study Guides: Crafting comprehensive study guides to facilitate understanding.
📚 Test Preparation: Equipping you with the knowledge to excel in assessments.
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Hello, I’m hoping maybe someone here has ENT knowledge and can help? Based in the UK.
My sister (24F, 49kg, 5’3’’) has had tonsillitis symptoms for six weeks now and has had three separate courses of antibiotics (Phenoxymethylpenicillin, two taken four times a day before a meal). The symptoms are: swollen tonsils, swollen glands, inflamed tonsils, white pus on tonsils, pain when swallowing, little bit of a cough, burning sensation in chest.
The first two courses of antibiotics were for seven days each. With the first course, her throat really improved, but a day or two after finishing, her throat returned to the same swollen and pus-ridden state. Visited the same GP a second time and repeated the whole process.
After completing the second course of antibiotics, and the symptoms reappearing, she went to a different GP, who stated that the recommended antibiotics course of throat infection treatment is ten days, not seven. So a third round of antibiotics was prescribed.
It has been five days since she finished the third course, and all symptoms have returned and are even worse. Her tonsils are very swollen, she is having a lot of difficulty swallowing, and is now suffering from pain in her lower back / pelvis which I’m worried might be due to too many antibiotics?
She returned to the GP this morning who literally told her that she has no idea why she isn’t better. The GP didn’t want to prescribe any more antibiotics because of how many she has already had, and said she had no symptoms of oral thrush and it didn’t have the characteristics of glandular fever either.
As the day progressed, she has worsened and has a fever (38.5°C) and phoned NHS 111 this evening and saw another doctor. Both handlers at NHS 111 did not recommend any more antibiotics. However, the (unfriendly) doctor at the hospital has given her a prescription for Clarithromycin and has suggested that she has oral thrush, despite the GP this morning saying that she had no symptoms of it. However, he also said he did not know what could be wrong. He didn’t bother with her lower back / pelvic pain.
I think she needs her tonsils removed at this point? What else can be done?
A bit of history too: She has been on the NHS waiting list for almost three years for ENT as she has two nasal polyps, after already having had a large one removed privately three years ago. She takes fexofenadine for this. She has chronic migraines for which she takes Aimovig and bedranol + propranolol.

will attach photo as a comment

Edit: the 111 doctor at the hospital took a urine sample tonight which he described as “unconvincing” (???? what does that mean) and she has an appointment for a blood test tomorrow

We saw the kind of first half a cynic would expect from the Suns. Every line failed at their job and let Brisbane play entirely their sort of game. Pressure was low, D showed no composure in defence and in exits. Forwards couldn’t slow Brisbane exits and failed to bring the ball to ground. The midfield lost the clearance battle and failed to defend the middle of the field without the ball. And by the end of the game Brisbane missed seven shots by my count they should have scored, really they should have won by at least 50 and the Suns couldn’t even put up that many.
It was a serious disappointment and reality check on Sunday to get confirmation that the Suns haven’t tangibly improved on last year in a scoreboard sense whatsoever. We remain a team that can handle the worst teams in the league but look very much off the pace against finals-bound squads. I think we have all been clinging to the first three quarters of the GWS game as proof that things were on the mend but Sydney, the Doggies and Brisbane showed that was an outlier.
I was sort of comforted by Hardwick’s comments post-game where he admitted they were trying to bridge a gap to the best teams. Expressing that awareness while caveating it with the fact it’s only his eighth game was probably the right move. They have already announced Lukosius is moving back into the forward line for the Darwin trip.
This doesn’t necessarily fix anything but it shows Hardwick is still trying to find the right balance of talls. Read looked out of his depth as did Walter against Brisbane but unless Casboult is fully fit and ready I would keep giving them games. The long-term experience benefit is worth it for a less immediately reliable side while Hardwick is getting the jigsaw together. I still think the answer is one tall less to allow for another pressure player to shore up the defence of ball movement and force turnovers. But I don’t see anyone in the VFL screaming for a spot at the moment. The North Melbourne game would be a good chance to try some more things out against weaker opposition.
The midfield performance was concerning to me because Hardwick didn’t try tagging Neale again. It clearly worked last time and instead the Lions managed to completely lock down Rowell. Flanders going in there helped stem the tide a bit but only marginally. Post-clearance is where the Lions really looked in another league, they picked through the corridor without having to hit lasers like the Swans did. Our game without the footy was apparently good previous to this, but it surely can’t be at this point. Maybe the man 2 man stuff is too basic for the best teams and Hardwick has to be more selective about deploying it situationally? But I don’t really know what I’m talking about.
The Darwin trip has both come at the best time and the worst time for the Suns. It is a good time because the Suns are comfortable up there and should at least get an easy win against the Kangas and get their best shot at beating Geelong in a unique environment to them. The problem is we can’t say how much of what works in Darwin can work elsewhere, so as a sample it may be useless. Really Carlton at Marvel is the next litmus test where we will be able to see what progress has been made. In the meantime go and nab two wins in the Top End and make sure the ladder looks much better for us than it should.

Is statistics harder than calculus?
Some students might find Calculus harder, while others might struggle more with Statistics. It's highly personal, so talk to your teachers and peers to help you make the best decision.
What are the classes of statistics?
Descriptive and Inferential Statistics The two major areas of statistics are known as descriptive statistics, which describes the properties of sample and population data, and inferential statistics, which uses those properties to test hypotheses and draw conclusions.
Is statistics harder than math?
It depends completely on your strength ,focus ,interest ,grip of the subject,etc. Some may like mathematics,some statistics,some may like both also. Statistics is a science somewhat in which collection of data is done ,than arranging it in desired way ,manipulating data ,etc.
What is the easiest math Class to take in college?
Easiest Math Class in College?

1. College Algebra: This class covers basic algebra topics and mainly reviews concepts you've likely learned in high school algebra courses. ...
2. Statistics: Introductory statistics courses usually don't require much advanced math, and they focus on concepts that apply to various disciplines.

Do colleges prefer calculus or statistics?
Elite colleges often filter applications by a single high school course: calculus. Standardized tests like the SAT and ACT have lost importance, making calculus even more important for some admission officers. Acing calculus gives your college app a competitive edge, but colleges' reliance on calc is problematic.
What math is needed for statistics?
Statistics is a specialized study relating to the interpretation, collection, translation, and analysis of data. Differential and integral calculus, linear algebra, and probability theory are used in statistics' mathematical ideas.
How can I learn statistics easily?
The most effective way to learn statistics on your own is through hands-on practice. Rather than relying solely on theoretical concepts, actively engage in real-world problems and data analysis. Apply statistical methods to datasets, interpret results, and explore various scenarios.

So this is something of a repost as my original on this got buried during the recent PSN situation, but it still got good feedback and I wanted to share it again to see if it gets more traction.
With the new Polar themed Warbond, a lot of people were hoping to see more thematic and unique armour passives, and we are all getting a little frustrated with the current repetition. I know Arrowhead doesn't want to do Transmog, so I'm not even going to talk about that. Instead I just want to suggest other armour variations based on my own thoughts or have compiled from the things I've seen in the community. I've attempted to use the existing passives already in the game as much as possible to avoid making something massively unbalanced, instead putting them together in new combinations. I have also used the current armours as a precedent. At the end I will put some of the more out-there ideas I've got/seen though, just because some are cool at it would be nice if Arrowhead could at least test them out. I've separated these into three categories, environmental specific kits, non-environmental kits, and wild idea territory. I've also got ideas for visors/helmets that I'll stick down at the bottom. If you have any ideas that you want to recommend to Arrowhead, please share them below as I'm trying to collate all our suggestions into one place. I think we all want the game to be as good as possible, so this is just a way of gathering good ideas.
Environmental kits:
Arctic Adapted

• 30% reduction to detection radius on snow planets
• snow boots prevent slow and slide effects from snow drifts and ice

Dune Walker

• 30% reduction to detection radius on desert planets
• prevents slow from walking on sand dunes

Jungle Raider

• 30% reduction to detection radius on jungle planets
• prevents slow from walking through foliage

The idea with these is they function a bit like environment specific scout armour, which give advantages to our movement, freeing up the need for the Muscle Enhancement booster slot, and so that you and your buddies have a real reason to dress in matching/thematic drip. I left off Blizzard/Sandstorm/Rainstorm resistance, but personally I think that would be cool as hell, and would be a seriously good reason to take them. Just worried about AH thinking it would make them too OP, however without it you'd still benefit from Muscle Enhancer, so I'm not sure. Let me know if you think that would be too much.
Non-environmental Kits
Grenadier Kit

• +2 grenades
• +30% throwing distance

Demolitions Kit

• 50% explosion damage resistance
• +2 grenades

Marksman Kit

• +2 primary magazines
• further recoil reduction when crouched or prone

+2 Primary mags doesn't strike me as more OP than 2 grenades or 2 stims. Some have suggested it cover secondaries as well, but having 2 extra grenade pistol rounds strikes me as too much benefit. Again, please let me know your thoughts.
Ghillie/Sniper Kit

• 30% reduction to detection radius
• further recoil reduction when crouched or prone

Fireproof Lining

• 95% reduction to Fire damage (based on cutting edge arc resistance armours, so no double passive here. You could argue this is Hellmire/Menkent environmental armour too)

The Ministry of Truth assures you that this fireproof Asbestos Lining is 100% safe for use and definitely doesn't cause breathing issues. Report anyone that says otherwise to your local Democracy Officer.
More Unusual ideas:
(These don't use existing passives or follow the precedents currently set by AH)
Braced Kit

• +30% Stun resistance
• +30% Ragdoll resistance

Drone Master

• Guard dogs reacharge/rearm faster
• Guard dogs will prioritise the targets you ping.

More Radical Version:

• Grants First Person Control of an equipped Guard Dog up to a range of 50m, after which it will lose signal and return. During this time, the Hell Diver is Vulnerable, and the drone can be destroyed.
• Grants the ability to set your guard dog to hold ground. It will hold position until it runs out of ammo at which point it will return to your backpack. (I know these two are ridiculously OP, but I can still dream, right?)

Heavy Support Kit

• Doubles backpack (ammo?) capacity

This could just make spears/recoilless/autocannons have more ammo, but it'd be cool if it could make your jump pack have two charges per recharge as well. Idk how this would work with shield generator BP though. I've made it a standalone as it may already be OP, and definitely would be if combined with another passive. This could be further balanced that you have 2 call in a second identical backpack, to be able to use the full expanded capacity. Just spit balling here.
Helmet Ideas:
I know we aren't likely to see helmet passives any time soon, but we can still think about what they might be. Obviously not the main focus of this discussion though.
Night Vision Goggles
Thermal Sights - see enemies through smoke/fog (probably OP)
Binocular Zoom - basically a telescopic zoom lens
Sample/Supply Scanner - Highlights all samples/Ammo boxes on the floor in a different colour
Vulnerability Scanner - Pinging an enemy highlights its weak spot(s) in red
Gas Mask - Grants immunity to gas damage and slows.
Let me know what you guys think and please share any ideas you have too! I'll try to edit them in and give credit.
Tl;DR AH don't want transmog, but there are still plenty of cool armour kits we could have, many of which could just be new combinations of existing passives

So I recently went off birth control after being on it for 8 years and had a lot of sudden symptoms so my doctor suggested I have an laparoscopy/cystoscopy surgery to check for endo and cystitis. Since a lot of my symptoms had to do with bladder and urine pain. Endo came back positive. He said he’d classify it as stage 2-3. He removed what he could. But no cystitis. So i saw a urologist who said that my 5 year struggle with “chronic UTIs” was hardly ever UTIs. Because I never tested positive for Nitrates/infection (maybe 3-5 times out of 30+) just blood or often nothing and the doctors would just treat it with antibiotics since i had the symptoms. Which is extremely frustrating that I was taking so many antibiotics for nothing. And they concluded blood in my urine was normal for females and “extra” normal for endo girls. They said from now on unless they take my urine sample and do a culture for specific bacteria I do not have a UTI and shouldn’t be treated. Which is fine! Yay no more antibiotics but….
My question for you all is do you often have UTI like symptoms and test positive for blood in your urine (I self test at home now) bc of your endometriosis? It’s often excruciating and uncomfortable. I think I’ve narrowed it down to being the direct result of sex. Bc i get endo belly flare ups from high FODMAP foods sometimes but these UTI like flare ups are almost always a day or two after sex.
My husband and I are trying for a baby so this makes things extremely difficult and miserable.
I’ll take any suggestions but I mostly don’t want to feel alone in my suffering. It’s debilitating and so frustrating. Cant a girl get laid without days of discomfort and pain ????

Hi all, I want to start by thanking everyone in this community for posting their stories and being so supportive of one another. This is my first post, but I've read many posts here and its helped me a lot.
My father was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer that metastasized to the liver. He was diagnosed in late February and started chemo the first week of March. He's taking a pretty aggressive treatment of oxalplatin, irenotecan, and 5fu every two weeks. (I mightve gotten those names wrong so pardon me) We don't know if he has a genetic marker as the test result came back inconclusive because the sample taken wasn't sufficient. (How could the doctor mess that up so bad? I'm so angry about that)
When he started the chemo, he was in a bad place. His liver numbers were terrible, and at least one bile duct was blocked and causing liver issues. He lost a lot of weight and wasn't eating at all. Eight treatments in, he's feeling so much better, all his numbers are normal or close to normal, and he's even starting to exercise again. Unfortunately, he had a CT scan yesterday and we were told since his mri in early February his tumors had grown and they found a new one on his liver. The doctor is even confused by this result because my dad's improvement has been vast and he's almost a completely different person than he was back then. The doctor mentioned that there were many weeks between the scan and his first treatment and he's suspicious that these results may have been similar from the time he started treatment.
I say all this to ask you all if you have seen similar experiences of someone feeling better and their blood tests even getting better results however the tumors are still growing. At this point we're considering getting a second opinion at John Hopkins and are looking at what trials may be available. My father currently goes to Sloan Kettering. We've talked to pancan and they've presented some options too. I'm just looking for people's experiences and looking for some advice. Also any promising trials that you may know of would be great.
Thank you all for reading and for any responses!