I am specifically referring to National Bolshevism as the term was originally coined, rather than any group of people who may have labelled themselves "National Boshelviks" since. The term predates even the establishment of the Soviet Union in 1922, let alone any other 20th century regime. The term was originally used by Karl Radek to describe two member he was expelling as "National Boshelviks". What these people wanted to do was align the revolutionary movement in Germany with that in Russia in mutual opposition to both the treaty of Versailles and the treaty of Brest-Litovsk.
I am specifically defending the prospect of this strategy in particular rather than specifically any person who might have been or could have been advocating for it and any ideas they might have had otherwise, not because it is national, or even bolshevik, but rather because I think it conforms with the idea in the Communist Manifesto of the role of Communists in relation to Proletarians where the Communists do not form separate political programs of their own and instead are supposed to align various proletarians movements together across nationality with respect to the current stage than any of those movements may find themselves in.

In what relation do the Communists stand to the proletarians as a whole?
The Communists do not form a separate party opposed to the other working-class parties.
They have no interests separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole.
They do not set up any sectarian principles of their own, by which to shape and mould the proletarian movement.
The Communists are distinguished from the other working-class parties by this only: 1. In the national struggles of the proletarians of the different countries, they point out and bring to the front the common interests of the entire proletariat, independently of all nationality. 2. In the various stages of development which the struggle of the working class against the bourgeoisie has to pass through, they always and everywhere represent the interests of the movement as a whole.

Therefore the irony of this position I am defending is that it was the one advocated for by people labelled National, which would clearly seem to be contrary to being independent of nationality, and Bolshevik who would seem to be sectarians seeking to mold to proletarian movement. The other irony is that for it to have been possible it would have required overcoming proletarian movements in different nationalities operating independent of one another, in addition to overcoming the sectarianism emerging between all the differing "Communist" movements. In other words this is another call in an endless stream of "stop infighting!" coupled with "everyone except for me is wrong" which just contributes to the infighting by creating a new sectarian divergence but there is very little that can be done about that. Mostly this is just an excuse to discuss a particular moment I find interesting and inner contrarian in me just wants to make the seemingly most insane position seem the most reasonable as a challenge.
Lenin was not in favour of this so it was a bit of a non-starter. In "Left-Wing" Communism: An Infantile Disorder he criticizes people who refuse to recognize the treaties, but in addition to the tendencies of so-called National Bolsheviks, he also criticized the Left-Communists that Karl Radek and the other German Revolutionaries were often members. Here we can start to see a problem emerging as you clearly have two different revolutionary movements in two different countries who are having difficulty working with each other (with the problem of the treaties between these countries not even being the main issue they were squabbling over). Indeed while not around long enough to have become officially a Left-Communist herself, Luxembourg is associated with them as her writings are cited as a major influence on the tendency, and she is notable for criticizing Lenin's Bolshevism.
There was a lot of confusion in this period and numerous tendencies diverging from one another, the reason being is that in the wake of the Russian Revolution and the end of the First World War there was a period of revolutionary activity across the entire world. While Russia and Germany are often the most focused upon due to the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany being our core 20th century players and many seeing these revolutions as the origin points of these things with a compare and contrast analysis being done to understand while one failed and the other succeeded, in the light of understanding the world revolution as a wave, looking at just these two revolutions becomes parochial, as there was clearly one singular revolution going on across the world in the same way as during the Revolutions of 1848 where the Communist Manifesto was published.
Indeed Marx and Engels viewed that as a singular revolution and would have viewed the similar wave of revolutions that peaked in 1919 but spanned from 1917-1923 as a singular revolution. While differing in severity there was revolutionary activity in numerous countries ranging from the Two Red Years in Italy to the much less impressive sounding Red Week) in the Netherlands. Even as far away as Canada, Australia, and South Africa there were labour revolts in this period. The case of Canada is a bit emblematic of the obscurity of the scale of these events, as while the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919 is well known, much like with only Russia and Germany beings discussed, the strike wave nature of the events in Canada just as in the world tends to fall out of discussion, as for instance this wave actually started with a general strike in Vancouver that was crushed by the military.
In the Preface to the 1882 Russian Edition of the Communist Manifesto, Marx and Engels even suggested in the wake of the assassination of the Tsar Liberator that the impending Russian (bourgeois) Revolution would serve as a signal for the Western proletariat to have their Revolution, and that the Russian Revolution could end up being communist alongside the West.

And now Russia! During the Revolution of 1848-9, not only the European princes, but the European bourgeois as well, found their only salvation from the proletariat just beginning to awaken in Russian intervention. The Tsar was proclaimed the chief of European reaction. Today, he is a prisoner of war of the revolution in Gatchina, and Russia forms the vanguard of revolutionary action in Europe.
The Communist Manifesto had, as its object, the proclamation of the inevitable impending dissolution of modern bourgeois property. But in Russia we find, face-to-face with the rapidly flowering capitalist swindle and bourgeois property, just beginning to develop, more than half the land owned in common by the peasants. Now the question is: can the Russian obshchina, though greatly undermined, yet a form of primeval common ownership of land, pass directly to the higher form of Communist common ownership? Or, on the contrary, must it first pass through the same process of dissolution such as constitutes the historical evolution of the West?
The only answer to that possible today is this: If the Russian Revolution becomes the signal for a proletarian revolution in the West, so that both complement each other, the present Russian common ownership of land may serve as the starting point for a communist development.

Now 1882 didn't turn into a revolution in Russia and there were several false starts like in 1905, but eventually it did finally happen. However seemingly with Lenin's New Economic Policy, both scenarios discussed ended up needing to happen. The Russian Revolution was both Communist and they felt it impossible to transition straight into Communism and thus had to allow some kind of bourgeois property relation to develop, and then later on had to eliminate this thing they created themselves in a rather unfortunate series of events. Additionally while the Russian Revolution did prove to be a signal for the Western proletariat to have their revolution, the proletariat revolution failed. In the spirit of this discussion I'm going to be argue that these were not separate incidents but rather the failure of the western proletariat's revolution is why Lenin implemented the NEP in 1922, in part because of internal rebellions calling for these things and because the international revolution seemingly failed resulting in a loss of hope that the western proletariat would in some way save them, which had to result in some kind of proletarian vanguard party lead bourgeois state emerging on the fly. Stalin would later have to undo this both these consequences in the events he is most criticized for, as in addition to reversing the NEP with collectivization, he undid the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk when as Molotov said "One kick from the German army and another from the Soviet Army put an end to this ugly product of Versailles" in regards to Poland. Polish independence being quite the unfortunate sacrifice here considering how supportive of it Engels was in the 1892 Polish Preface the the Communist Manifesto.

But the rapid development of Polish industry, outstripping that of Russia, is in its turn a new proof of the inexhaustible vitality of the Polish people and a new guarantee of its impending national restoration. And the restoration of an independent and strong Poland is a matter which concerns not only the Poles but all of us. A sincere international collaboration of the European nations is possible only if each of these nations is fully autonomous in its own house. The Revolution of 1848, which under the banner of the proletariat, after all, merely let the proletarian fighters do the work of the bourgeoisie, also secured the independence of Italy, Germany and Hungary through its testamentary executors, Louis Bonaparte and Bismarck; but Poland, which since 1792 had done more for the Revolution than all these three together, was left to its own resources when it succumbed in 1863 to a tenfold greater Russian force. The nobility could neither maintain nor regain Polish independence; today, to the bourgeoisie, this independence is, to say the last, immaterial. Nevertheless, it is a necessity for the harmonious collaboration of the European nations. It can be gained only by the young Polish proletariat, and in its hands it is secure. For the workers of all the rest of Europe need the independence of Poland just as much as the Polish workers themselves.

(The call for "full autonomy in a nations own house" is probably worth explaining. Nations that should be autonomous are nations which can be autonomous all on their own without international meddling. Engels was notoriously against all the south slavs for their pan-slavism because their independence was necessitated by interference from Imperial Russia, in part because he was still mad about the revolutions of 1848 not working out. He was even still mad at them 34 years later when he reaffirmed Polish independence alongside Irish independence as the most crucial national struggles to support. The reason being that Poland rejected pan-Slavism and was instead independently nationalist. That Poland could stand alone (and more importantly that Polish agitation threatened three reactionary imperial monarchies in Germany, Austria, and Russia at the same time. Ireland being important to screw around with the bourgeois British Empire as Marx and Engels increasingly saw the absentee revenues the British ruling class generated for themselves in Ireland as being the key to their parliamentary political dominance in England against both lower class and anti-imperialist challenges which were often the same thing) is why Polish independence was so supported. Standing alone is important because autonomous nations can switch between the rule of various classes without the risk of foreign interference on the part of imperialist reactionaries putting things back the way they were to protect their sphere of influence. The issue is that Polish independence ended up being a thorn in the side of the revolution when Polish independence was granted through Wilsonian liberal internationalism and during the Russian Civil War the Red Army tried and failed to retaliate against Poland when they joined forces with the Entente Liberal Imperialists in the Soviet-Poland War.
For NATO fans the opposition to NATO comes from this concept of being against spheres of influence, with a preference for complete independence. The Soviets or even Russia joining NATO however transform the institution from an American sphere of influence into just some vague "nobody invade anybody else okay guys thanks" treaty which is what it is sold as. So long as Russia is not included in NATO it fails to fulfill its stated purpose, and it must be opposed because it does not protect the independence of the nations within it, rather it makes them subservient to the United States, and the counter-balance of Russia inside the block is sufficient that the nations within it could seamlessly transfer between spheres of influence, or more importantly, not be in anyone's sphere of influence by successfully playing the US and Russia off each other, which puts each nation in a position to pursue development with little risk of the alliance being used to punish them. In fact if say Luxembourg decided to go rogue it could even use the NATO treaty to argue that anyone infringing upon them should be subjected to retaliation by all the other members, and now they have a socialist Luxembourg in the middle of Europe and they can't do anything about it because the treaty guarantees their independence with multiple dozen moving parts so long as Luxembourg doesn't militarily invade anybody. However if the organization is nothing more that an American political block with US bases every where, clearly the US would be able to pressure people into recognizing the socialist Luxembourg as illegitimate in some way and argue it can be invaded without requiring everyone come to its defense. So NATO good if Russia included and US bases removed, an in NATO Russia still isn't a threat to even Estonia if dozens of European countries are required to defend it, and that isn't even considering a late arrival of the US and Canada when they finally cross the Atlantic. The problem with NATO is that it is clearly an unofficial loosely held US empire, it stops being a problem when it is no longer this)
This whole confused mess could have been avoided had the world revolution not failed. This circles back to the Russian and German revolutions and how they were not united. Therefore the position of those labelled Nazbol is attractive merely for the sake that it would have united these two disparate revolutions. The success of either was reliant on the success of the other. The prior Bolshevik position of Peace Without Annexations or Indemnities would permanently lock in the Russian and German revolutions together in a mutual opposition to the bourgeois treaties, a pact of blood to oppose the pacts signed in ink.
Additionally opposition to the indemnity aspect of the treaty of Versailles would have been in fidelity to the revolutionary history of the Paris Commune which inspired the notion of the dictatorship of the proletariat in 1871, which was prompted in part by opposition to the burden of the reparation payments imposed on France by Bismark in response to Napolean III's failed invasion being placed on the people of France by the bourgeois government that signed that treaty. On a global scale while the opportunity for revolution by the proletariat refusing to enter World War One was squandered by the Social Democrats granting their permission, the proletariat could instead refuse to exit World War One by not granting their permission for acceptance of the bourgeois treaties just as the Paris Commune refused to accept Bismark's treaty.
Indeed opposition to the bourgeois Treaty of Trianon served as the basis for cooperation between the Nationalists and the Communists in Hungary, who unlike the Luxembourgists in Germany, were internationally aligned with the Boshelviks in Russia with the establishment of the Hungarian Soviet Republic. The alliance however broke down with the establishment of the Slovak Soviet Republic as the Hungarian nationalists questioned why they were participating in the Hungarian Red Army if they were just going to be liberating other countries, this ended up not even being that relevant of a dispute seeing as Slovakia was never fully captured and the Czechoslovak army ended up recapturing it in a month and so the issue only lasted from June 1919 to July 1919. However it exposed the core obvious problem with the alliance between nationalists and communists, as the full Petrograd formula was "peace without annexations or indemnities, on the basis of self-determination of the peoples" so the nationalists opposed to treaties were not going to like it when the second part got implemented later.
Lenin and Stalin ran into a similar issue when Stalin opposed Georgian self-determination in 1922 and wanted them to instead join Russia, with the comical situation of Stalin calling the Georgian Mensheviks "nationalist-socialists" and the Russian Lenin accusing the Georgian Stalin of being a Russian nationalist-socialist in response. We can clearly see that there are vastly differing views on the questions of nationality all over the place and there was no one line being taken, with Hungary and Germany taking vastly different views in regards to the treaties and cooperation with nationalists, to their own unique sets of problems later on with them.
The vastly different ways everyone was handling these issues is why I argue that the best principle would have been to have no principles at all. The only communist principle in regards to nationality is international cooperation. Indeed while you had Communist revolutions in German, Hungary, and Russia, the common thread uniting them of opposition to the bourgeois treaties would have also united them with the liberal Kemalist revolution in Turkey, thus completing the alignment of all revolutionaries in the central powers and Imperial Russia against the rest of the entente attempting to impose the bourgeois treaties, in effect adding Russia to the central powers after the imperialist war had turned into a civil war in all four imperial monarchies. That Turkey was in a vastly different stage of revolution than the other three would be irrelevant as these revolutions would still be mutually supporting of each other, and the Communists could rest assured safely knowing that while differing countries might be in different stages of revolution, they had the advantage over all others in knowing the ultimate end result of all their revolutions even if the people operating in them might not know it themselves.

The Communists, therefore, are on the one hand, practically, the most advanced and resolute section of the working-class parties of every country, that section which pushes forward all others; on the other hand, theoretically, they have over the great mass of the proletariat the advantage of clearly understanding the line of march, the conditions, and the ultimate general results of the proletarian movement.

As such the notion that one needs to be politically Communist to participate in the revolution is false. So long as a state of revolution remained the stages of the revolution could continue moving forward. If Turkey was not materially ready for it, that need not matter so long as the Kemalists were willing to join in an anti-imperialist block in the mean time, which they were willing to do until the Soviets later started looking at the straights with desire which eventually pushed Turkey into the arms of NATO where it remains to this day. However at the time the Soviets and Turkey were quite friendly despite their obvious ideological differences merely based on this mutual geopolitical interest in so-called anti-imperialism. This anti-imperialism was selective however, with the "Mountain Turks" and "Mountain Russians" being sacrificed for it, but the benefits of not having principles means you don't exactly have to care about that. Ataturk can make poutine out of the Kurds all he wants if he remains staunchly anti-imperialist on an international level. This gross cynical realism while obviously questionable is still consistent with Revolutionary History as all prior revolutions do not stand up to moral scrutiny when they are viewed in this way. In fact at the twilight of the 1848 revolutions Engels himself called for the Hungarians to wipeout the "counter-revolutionary" Slavs, while this is obviously not something we should want to have happened, and we definitely should not ever do this if we ever find ourselves in a position to make those decisions, it is important to understand the reasoning behind why he was saying those things, that it is the continuance of the revolution itself is both the most important thing, and something that is largely out of anyone's control in the Hegelian sense of Historicism.

The Magyar cause is not in such a bad way as mercenary black-and-yellow [colours of the Austrian flag] enthusiasm would have us believe. The Magyars are not yet defeated. But if they fall, they will fall gloriously, as the last heroes of the 1848 revolution, and only for a short time. Then for a time the Slav counter-revolution will sweep down on the Austrian monarchy with all its barbarity, and the camarilla will see what sort of allies it has. But at the first victorious uprising of the French proletariat, which Louis Napoleon is striving with all his might to conjure up, the Austrian Germans and Magyars will be set free and wreak a bloody revenge on the Slav barbarians. The general war which will then break out will smash this Slav Sonderbund and wipe out all these petty hidebound nations, down to their very names.
The next world war will result in the disappearance from the face of the earth not only of reactionary classes and dynasties, but also of entire reactionary peoples. And that, too, is a step forward.

A key fact you will observe is that they are often quite over eager in announcing the impending revolution. For instance The Magyar Struggle was published in January of 1849 in Marx's Newspaper, and Louis Napoleon was elected President of France in December of 1848. It seems as if they might have thought that this would have been more significant than it actually turned out to be. This kind of made sense though because Louis Napoleon's main opponent in the election was Louis-Eugene Cavagnac who lead the army to suppress a worker's uprising in Paris back in the "June Days" of 1848. Additionally the Hungarians did not do this, instead they adopted cultural assimilation policies called Magyarization, and late in the revolution into 1849 while the Russian and Austria Imperial armies were barring down on them they adopted minority right protections to try to win them back. However they were ultimately unsuccessful in repelling the Russian invasion regardless of any attempts at outreach.
What I find notable about this is that Engels essentially predicted the sides of the "next world war" (albeit there was a world war in between) that would wipeout entire peoples, but somehow ended up reversing the reactionary and revolutionary sides, as an Austrian German and the Hungarians did engage in a war against the Slavs, but because somehow the "poles of revolution" did somehow invert and head outwards from Russia like Engels said the Slavs supposedly wanted, that war was against the revolution instead of for it.

There is no country in Europe which does not have in some corner or other one or several ruined fragments of peoples, the remnant of a former population that was suppressed and held in bondage by the nation which later became the main vehicle of historical development. These relics of a nation mercilessly trampled under foot in the course of history, as Hegel says, these residual fragments of peoples always become fanatical standard-bearers of counter-revolution and remain so until their complete extirpation or loss of their national character, just as their whole existence in general is itself a protest against a great historical revolution.
Such, in Scotland, are the Gaels, the supporters of the Stuarts from 1640 to 1745.
Such, in France, are the Bretons, the supporters of the Bourbons from 1792 to 1800.
Such, in Spain, are the Basques, the supporters of Don Carlos.
Such, in Austria, are the pan-Slavist Southern Slavs, who are nothing but the residual fragment of peoples, resulting from an extremely confused thousand years of development. That this residual fragment, which is likewise extremely confused, sees its salvation only in a reversal of the whole European movement, which in its view ought to go not from west to east, but from east to west, and that for it the instrument of liberation and the bond of unity is the Russian knout — that is the most natural thing in the world.

However a lot can apparently change in almost 100 years. Russia was once seen as the bastion of reaction celebrated by the reactionaries everywhere for having invaded Hungary to put down the 1848-9 revolution, but then became the center of revolution, taking that spot from France which didn't really participate in the Revolutions despite the 1917 mutinies defused in June by Philip Petain by reassuring the soldiers by calling off the offensives that were intended to try to reassure the Provision Russian Government from the February Revolution to stay in the war and who launched the "Kerensky Offensive" in July which prompted the unsuccessful "July Days" Bolshevik uprising before the later successful October Revolution.
The absence of French participation beyond this is remarkable given how much they played a role in other revolutions and also remarkable how it was later Vichy leader Petain himself who basically defused the situation by giving the soldiers what they wanted and ending the suicidal offensives. The difference between Petain and Kerensky here and that the Russian revolution had not yet gone proletariat at this point while France was dealing with its own situation coming up from the soldiers and that the Russian version of this happened only a month afterwards should probably be focused on more here, in addition to how the differing approaches countries took on simultaneous and similar events from 1917-1923 should be analyzed like how I am suggesting (Comprehensive Revolutionary History of World War One when? Honestly I might write it at this point, issue is wikipedia as sources is probably not the greatest, and wikipedia article bouncing is how I'm formulating these connections as it requires an extremely shallow understanding of a lot of things that people with deep understandings of those things would all reject because I'm ignoring intricacies, despite ignoring intricacies being the entire point as intricacies are caused by random eddies and chaotic currents, and so must be ignored if you want to get a sense of the overall direction things are going, although admittedly I feel myself getting a bit schizo when I assert random concepts whole cloth that nobody has ever used by anyone besides me as you will see with the term "global political magnetic field collapse")
Since the Russian Revolution the apparent "pole of reaction" where global reactionaries collect as their refuge that Russia represented seemingly shifted to the United States for the Cold War after the pole reversal and global political magnetic field collapse manifesting in the out of place auroral borealis of the inter-war period and world war 2. It would be reasonable to assume that it would be just as possible for the United States to become a new center of revolution in the way Russia took that position from France despite Russia being the most reactionary power of anyone before that happened.

A recent poll (PDF) shows that 50% of Americans support the continued provision of weapons to Ukraine, while 23% oppose it. This support represents a slight increase from the 48% back in January, but a notable decline from the 60% of a year ago. Even for those who do support continued military aid, some feel that the US is providing too much.
Since the Russian invasion of February 2022, lawmakers have approved the disbursement of $48.9 billion in military aid to Ukraine. That works out to $3.26 billion per month or $39.12 billion per year.
The total expenditures of the US government for fiscal year 2022 were $6.272 trillion, so the country is spending about 0.6% of its budget to help Ukraine defend itself. As a means of comparison, the US spent an estimated $2.261 trillion on its 20-year war in Afghanistan, which works out to $113 billion per year, or roughly triple its rate of spending in Ukraine (not counting, of course, the incalculable value of the troops lost).
Of the roughly 40 countries that have sent military aid to Ukraine since the invasion, the US share is about 70%, but as a percentage of GDP, US contributions fall somewhere in the middle of the pack.
Some lawmakers believe this conflict is not be the responsibility of US taxpayers and that the money would be better spent elsewhere. They have introduced legislation to cut off all aid to Ukraine.
Since we're over a year into this conflict and the US is preparing to announce another package of aid soon, it's worth asking some questions:

• How does the US determine what is enough or too much military aid to Ukraine?
• What are Ukraine's final goals worth to the US?
• Aside from supporting Ukraine's goals, what other advantages, if any, does the US get out of providing this aid and what's the value of those advantages?

So,
I've never played any of these games. But I have 3 and 4 for some reason. I doubt I bought them, probably some giveaway. I apparently installed it and played a little bit in 2016 according to the ubisoft app. I did not remember a thing.
I figured I would give 3 a fair shake. Being it is the lowest number of the 2 I have.
I've been playing for 8 hours or so, not straight, and I'm only 8% complete. I've spent all this time wandering around Boston, visiting climbing spots, found the doors in the underground, 2 chests. Delivered some letters. Swam out until the simulation almost broke. Talked to overly sexually explicit for a videogame Ben Franklin. Found 2 of his papers.
Raged at Morris. Saved an incredibly obvious Native American love interest who just 'hates' me. We are about to murderhobo a guy I let go earlier.
I discovered a chest in Boston and the game let me know it was 1/2 of chests in Central Boston. Thanks, I guess. Looked everywhere but could not find the next. Wondered what liberations and other things in the game menu meant...and finally caved and google searched some chests and got spoiled on something:
THERE IS A WHOLE OTHER CHARACTER!
So, my question is: Have I spent all this time as Saucy Murder Brit just wasting my time? Some things like chests and fast travel are only available for the actual main character, yes?
I should just move the plot along instead of explore Concord/Lexington? Right? There is no benefit to dragging my time with Stabby Cloak Man?
You'll also probably find it amusing that it took me 6 hours before I realized you can leave the simulation and that is how you check your email. Which seemed like a worthless venture, btw. Argued with Dad, apologized to lady, tried not to talk to edgy brit IT person. (The database is awful because of this nitwit)
Is there something I am supposed to be exploring in the ruins? Or do I wait for a plot device to put me there?
TL:DR: Should I stop wandering and move the plot along to the actual main assassin?
Is there any reason to explore the ruins as Desmond? I am assuming the plot will make me at some point, but before that. Is there anything worth exploring there before that point?

To multicultural, mixed, and bilingual families. Kudos.
My wife (35f) is from Mexico and I (35m) am from the USA. We have 3 beautiful children, live in the suburbs of Philadelphia, USA, and have been married for almost 9 years. It’s been a helluva journey. After dating for 18 months, we were married legally (within 3 weeks of engagement) and then did the full wedding/reception 6 months later.
My wife is brown and I am white. Our kids are white. There are a lot of things I wasn’t prepared for and I wanted to share because I wish someone would have told me. While I am not an immigrant - I live with/am in love with one. It’s been a long journey with a lot of listening, changes, and sacrifice. Here are some things I wish I was told.

1. Holidays are not the same in other countries...and they can be tough. Why would this be important?? Because so many good memories come from holidays. Who knew that Children’s Day, Grandparents Day, Day of the Dead, Mexican Independence Day (not Cinco de Mayo), and Las Posadas (early-late Dec) were such a big deal?? Just like July 4th or other American holidays - these are cultural staples! Not being able to celebrate a holiday fully can be difficult for someone from another country. They also don’t have an attachment to our holidays so they don’t know the nuances of each holiday like we do. This can be overwhelming because most people want to “get it right” with their in-laws, especially at the beginning of a marriage.
2. Being an immigrant takes a toll on mental health. It can be lonely. I wish I would have known how helpful therapy could have been for both of us in that transition. Mental health is a pretty taboo topic in Mexico. The “machismo” culture is strong but is slowly beginning to change. My wife has no family living in the states but we see her parents at least every 3-6 months (whether we travel or they travel). It’s harder to see friends because it is expensive to travel so often. Maintaining relationships can be very challenging especially with 3 kids and both of us running our own businesses. Also, traveling with 3 kids is both draining and expensive!
3. Co-Parenting with two different cultures and languages is humbling. We all have cultural and family baggage. But man…I was not ready for this! Juggling both cultures/languages in a family can be challenging. My Spanish is ok (allllllways working on it). My wife’s English is fantastic. She speaks mostly Spanish to our kids regardless of where we are. I’ve seen first hand how much more of an effort she has to put into her culture than I do. Our kids are learning my culture without me saying a thing. My wife has to try and teach our kids about her culture at every moment she gets (I help too!).
4. Racism is a constant reality. My wife is native looking and has 3 white children. She is often thought to be the nanny/au pair and has to worry about way more than I do when navigating normal life. Speaking Spanish to 3 white children in public is also something that makes them stick out, especially in a white area. My dad asked me if my wife was legal when we first started dating. At the time it didn’t really register with me as potentially racist (over 10 years ago) but now I realize how ignorant a question like that can be. Sure, if someone is undocumented there can be some difficulties. But is that really important enough to be one of the first things discussed? Does that change how you would treat them?
5. I hear the phrase, “It’s so great that you’re teaching your kids another language! I wish I spoke another language.” My Spanish is not that great but I have been able to help Spanish speakers who are having trouble communicating with others (in supermarkets, CVS…etc). I’ve also been to Mexico at least 15 times and not in touristy areas. I guess the biggest part is actually trying to communicate and learn. Language learning is a part of American culture that we have not prioritized. Many children from other countries are learning two languages at an early age and yet this has not changed in the US. The data is pretty conclusive that learning multiple languages is amazing for our brains.
6. Extended families may not understand what you’re going through. All marriages have their difficulties and extended families can be tough regardless. But a different culture and language can add different challenges. I’ve also come to realize that Americans don’t know much about other cultures unless they’ve experienced them. My wife knew surprisingly more about the US than I did about Mexico (shocker). The most difficult part has been a broken relationship with my parents, mainly my mother. My wife and my mother do not have a great relationship. It has been a very long 4-5 years of getting to a point of stability and it affected my entire extended family. While the door is open for my mother to be a part of our lives, she doesn’t try. I had a very close relationship with my mother and I had hoped that her desire to be near her grandkids would help her to change. But that hasn’t happened and we don’t see my parents nearly as frequently as most would expect. Religion also plays a role in this (my mother is very Catholic and my wife/nuclear family are not). There is definitely some negative bias from this even though most of my siblings are no longer Catholic.

I know that I can only speak to what I’ve experienced and others may have not had these issues in a mixed family. My biggest hope is to find a way to bring others together and not separate. Learning about others/cultures can only help to build bridges (even if we are constantly seeing the opposite in politics/media). Thanks for letting me rant, Reddit. I hope this helps at least one person who is considering a mixed/multicultural/bilingual marriage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mews
Absolutely no disrespect to the British, but to this American who's a crazy cat lady, this name for the royal stables is absolute perfection.
So. Many. Applications.

I’d like to treat my dad with some, but I don’t know anywhere in Nottingham that stocks them. Does anyone have any suggestions?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staffordshire_oatcake

Demographics

• Gender: female
• Race/Ethnicity: Asian-American (Chinese)
• Residence: DMV area
• Income Bracket: ~100k?
• Type of School: public, mid overall in county but top quartile in state maybe?
• Hooks (Recruited Athlete, URM, First-Gen, Geographic, Legacy, etc.): none lol

Intended Major(s): Chemical Engineering/Chemistry (basically applied ChemE to colleges with strong engineering schools and Chem to the rest)
Academics

• GPA (UW/W): 4.0/4.93
• Rank (or percentile): N/A (confirmed that I was part of the top 5% but didn't put it in my app since my school doesn't rank)
• # of Honors/AP/IB/Dual Enrollment/etc.: 13 AP classes, 3 honors (French)
• Senior Year Course Load: Wind Ensemble (band), AP Eng Lit, Science Lab Assistant, AP Bio, AP Psych, Linear Algebra (online), AP Physics C: E&M

Standardized Testing

• SAT (took once): 1560 (790 RW, 770 M)
• ACT (took once): 35 (36E, 33M, 35R, 34S)
• AP scores:
  • 10th grade: AP Gov (4), AP Chinese (5), AP Calc AB (4), AP Stats (5)
  • 11th grade: AP Chem (4), AP Physics C: Mech (4), AP English Lang (5), AP World History: Modern (5), AP Calc BC (5; AB subscore 5)
  • 12th grade (pending): AP Eng Lit, AP Bio, AP Psych, AP Physics C: E&M

Extracurriculars/Activities

1. Science Olympiad (9th-12th, officer since 11th) - spent an insane number of hours a week even though I only put 5 hwk on the Common App; led meetings, made presentations on upcoming comps and how to prepare for them (i.e. how to take notes), chose comps to compete at, placed top 6 at regionals and states individually and as a team
2. School Marching Band (9th-12th, section leader since 11th) - mentored new members, instructed on marching basics and led sectionals, also organized section bonding time (like we painted our nails and stuff hehe); played piccolo for the season
3. Intern @ CUA (summer 2022) - fabricated polymer membranes on microfluidics device via flow-assembly, conducted membrane strength testing, analyzed data for strength enhancement
4. Tutor for various honor societies and music (10th-12th) - tutored everything from high-school level math to AP Chem to flute, most of it was basically getting hours for different honor societies but I think it was pretty productive and meaningful
5. Cross country (9th-11th) - quit before senior year to focus on college apps ;-; I wasn't that fast, just average, but I led a small running group and ran 300+ miles each summer to prepare for the season
6. Various community service projects (10th-12th) - made face shields for healthcare workers (was reported by a local news network so I linked that in the Additional Info section of my Common App), crocheted/knitted rectangles to assemble into a blanket for the homeless
7. Policy Review Committee Chair (12th) - basically 2 or 3 other high schoolers and I (along with other adults) reviewed some curriculum policy that needed to be updated in terms of language and terms, didn't really do much but it was cool seeing the process of how it actually worked
8. Teen Leader for Christian youth fellowship (11th/12th) - kinda fell off of it senior year but I led meetings along with a couple other peers, I created slides and we facilitated intergenerational discussion
9. First Chair in Wind Ensemble (11th/12th) - yeah that's basically it T_T I played solos and stuff
10. Household Obligations (9th-12th) - cared for siblings, helped with their school assignments, did chores, translated for parents from English to Mandarin

Awards/Honors

1. State Science Olympiad Competition (1st - Ornithology, 8th - Environmental Chemistry) - 11th grade
2. Regional Science Olympiad Competition (2nd: Chemistry Lab, 2nd: Ornithology, 3rd: Environmental Chemistry) - 11th grade
3. County STEM Award - 11th grade (idrk how significant this was tbh it seemed like a throwaway kinda thing; it was for my performance in Science Olympiad but they got the competition name wrong on my certificate T_T)
4. Governor's Volunteer Service Award - 10th grade
5. State Seal of Biliteracy Recipient in English and Chinese - 11th grade

Essays

1. Common App essay - had 2 versions, one for EA and another for RD. I would rate my first version (basically I compared my identity to a sandwich and made it a love story it was kinda weird T_T) like a 7/10 if I'm being generous and a solid 9/10 for my second version (I talked about how my being officer of Science Olympiad challenged me and made me grow as a person; it sounds cliche but I used a unique format that I'm pretty proud of)
2. Supplemental essays - my EA supps were probably on average like a 6 or 7 out of 10, and my RD supps were an 8 to a 9. I tried to make them more creative/unique since I knew my ECs were on the weaker side when it came to the higher ranked schools and I knew that I was going to get in, my essays would play a major role in my acceptance. I spent so much time and so many rounds of editing with my dad asdfkljasd;lfkj

Letters of Recommendation

1. AP Chem teacheScience Olympiad coach (11/10) - She really liked me and she's honestly my mom atp... I'm also an aide for her this year so I help set up labs for her and the entire science dept. She also assigns me other labs to prepare just for funsies and bc she trusts me apparently ???? Hopefully she can speak to the diligence and time I put in as a Scioly officer and my performance in the AP Chem class. Might also be worth mentioning that I tutored one of her current AP Chem kids?
2. Wind Ensemble/Marching Band director (7.5/10) - I didn't have other STEM teachers as strong as my AP Chem teacher but my logic was that I would ask teachers who knew what I was like outside of school past the academic/stats/grades kind of thing; hopefully they could give some insight into my personality (ig that logic worked? idk) Since I was a section leader in marching band for 2 years I had some leadership in terms of that but I would often come in a couple minutes late to class tired asf cause we had band first period... Overall I still think he has a decent impression of me
3. Internship advisoprof (9/10) - He is a family friend of my parents and that's honestly how I got the internship T_T But he has a pretty good impression of me during the time I was there; I picked up things pretty quickly so I think that helped. Only submitted this to some schools I was applying to RD and some schools late in the EA cycle
4. (only submitted after waitlist) Science Lab Assistant Manager (8.5/10) - Set up labs for the science department, had an overall good impression of me since I volunteered to complete other tasks and extra things outside of the labs I had to set up
5. (only submitted after waitlist) School Principal (6.5/10) - Our class is ~650 people and he only became the principal my sophomore year so I doubt he knew me that well; I sent my resume to him so hopefully he did something with that T_T

Results (woohooo!!)
Catholic University of America (accepted)
CMU (accepted!!!)
Cornell (waitlisted -> accepted -> committed!!!!)
Duke (rejected rip)
Duke Kunshan (accepted somehow???)
Northwestern (rejected, lol this one kinda made me a bit sad)
Rice (waitlisted)
UD (accepted)
UIUC (accepted)
UMBC (accepted)
UMD (accepted)
UNC Chapel Hill (rejected ;-;)
UT Austin (accepted)
UVA (accepted)
Vandy (waitlisted)
Takeaways

• Start your essays early (preferably before senior year!) It helps to get ahead of the game and brainstorm, plus I find that I am dissatisfied with some part of an essay that i think needs editing a week or two after I finish
• Familiarize yourself with the ins and outs of the Common App layout, like what each section entails (you might be surprised to find that it's a lot of info to fill out)
• Look at examples of everything related to your application, whether it be the Common App, supplemental essays, and how to word your activities list
• Don't downplay your achievements, but don't overly embellish them, either!
• Think about your application as a whole. I cannot stress this enough! Is there an activity that is overly mentioned in your application? Try to balance your application out. Is there an aspect of yourself that you want to include but haven't yet? Try to touch on it in your supplemental essays. I go more in depth in this post here

loading 05.001.SCP.archive@ diarc/mainlist/SCP-001.rtf…Item #: SCP-001 Object Class: Netzach Special Containment Procedures: N/A7 Description: SCP-001 is the designation for the planetary body known as Earth. Given that SCP-001 has existed for the entirety of human memory and written history, the anomalous improbability of Earth's nature as compared to all other planets in the observable universe investigated by the Foundation's TELLUS8 Program is widely regarded as "normal" within public perception. Personnel are to remind themselves daily of the anomalous nature of the planet, especially during times of perceived ennui in regards to their participation within the Foundation or when engaging in dissenting thought patterns. Personnel are to encourage one another to persevere through difficult workplace situations with the knowledge that the planet we inhabit is anomalous in its entirety, and actively resists the order of civilization with chaos and aberration. Doing so has increased both productivity and containment success rates, the latter of which by over 12% in the last five years. SCP-001-E1 is the designation for the remains of a spacecraft recovered during an archeological expedition in the Atacama Desert of Chile in 1946, led by American Paleontologist Dr. Hubert ███████. ███████ immediately reported his findings to the Society for American Archaeology, piquing the interest of a number of different parties.9 The remaining components of the ship's outer hull were excavated and found to be comprised of highly durable exotic polymers that appeared unaffected by time or exposure to the elements. Various dating methods have analyzed the material and yielded inconsistent results. Despite this, recovered information suggests the vessel was several billion years old. Large areas of SCP-001-E1 appeared to have been converted into makeshift livingspace, implying the vehicle was intact when it landed and did not crash upon its arrival. Additionally, remnants of effects such as clothing, electronics and furniture were recovered as well, all possessing anomalous materials and abilities that resisted normal wear to varying degrees. The full size of the vessel is unknown but considered to be large enough to contain a moderate population of humans, the remains of which presumably decomposed naturally, aside from POI-001, who was recovered from within SCP-001-E2. SCP-001-E2 is a set of 32 36 highly advanced cryogenic stasis pods that were discovered among the wreckage in a partially powered 'hibernation' mode when SCP-001-E2 was excavated. Of all the pods discovered, only one was still functional and contained [DATA PURGED PER O5 REQUEST], whose core tenets and general distrust of anomalous artifacts10 would establish the Foundation's presence on Earth as a force to contain aberrant objects, locations, and phenomena- beginning with those found inside SCP-001-E1. Also found among the rubble were several anomalous data storage devices that appeared effectively destroyed, despite being comprised of similarly resistant exotic materials as other items found inside SCP-001-E1, implying they may have been damaged intentionally. Analysis revealed the only salvageable information, recovered from a 2 cm2 fragment composed of an extremely compressed form of multilayered information medium, presented as a set of thin layers of vertically stacked sets of data. The documents recovered from the interpreted data were then translated from their original language, which was comprised entirely of Class I cognito hazardous glyphs that appear similar to the engravings found on SCP-093.11 These glyphs seem to cause a subjective "Rosetta Stone" effect in readers, allowing for full comprehension of the material regardless of previously known languages and/or reading level. Analysis of the language is ongoing. Recovered excerpts can be found in the attached file SCP-001 Recovered Materials Log.

Joseph Eugene Stiglitz is an American New Keynesian economist, a public policy analyst, and a full professor at Columbia University. He is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences and the John Bates Clark Medal. He is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank.

Hi! I’m trying to figure out a way to parent that’s a little different from what I’m seeing in my suburb. I would like to get advice from other free range/independence-minded parents here, but without negative judgment toward any style of parenting. I’m worried this may be misread as disrespect to others, so please bear with me as I fumble with words.
We are European/rural America parents now living in a suburb close to a big American city. We have an only child who is 2yo. Growing up, we had freedom to independently explore our European city and rural Vermont-type hills, respectively, from the age of 10.
I want to give my stubborn toddler as much room to grow in this way as possible. But we’ve gotten a lot of judgment for letting him walk barefoot (in grass or sidewalks, with us scanning the ground for danger) and letting him run maybe 30 ft away (in a fenced-in botanical garden with no dogs allowed). We were playing in a clean splash pad-type fountain yesterday, and a dad dragged his kid away from us. There seem to be a lot of “no”s from other parents toward their toddlers without a rationale behind the denial.
I’m not advocating for parents to be just like us. Most parents parent in the way that works for their kids and family. The cautious attitude absolutely makes sense to me if the parent has mobility issues or is also taking care of a newborn, for example. What I’m shocked by is how much of a disconnect there seems to be between how we parent and how the rest of our community parents. I want to keep parenting in line with my values, but am not seeing examples around me as my toddler grows older.
I guess my ask is: Free-range parents, how do you do it? How do you parent a toddler, giving them as much freedom as possible while remaining somewhat within the bounds of a suburban society? Or do I just need to move to Finland?

Probably the last critical event in bringing Adolf Hitler to absolute power, was the Reichstag Fire of 1933. It was almost certainly the work of a lone, Dutch, lapsed communist agitator -- Marinus van der Lubbe. It was attributed to the Nazis themselves by the Left, and most of the world, and to an organized attempt at overthrowing the government by the German communists, backed by the Soviet Union, in the Nazi controlled media. In any case, the Nazis took full advantage of this incident to cement their power, and to fully install a total Nazi dictatorship under the absolute power of Adolf Hitler, by a series of brilliant political maneuvers over the next year or so.
Actually, the Nazis had been having rather a difficult time of actually taking over Germany, up until this point. The Beer Hall Putsch, in 1923, had been a disastrous failure, despite the horrific hyperinflation in Germany, at the time. Although it might well have led to the takeover of Bavaria, in any case, there had been virtually no possibility of a successful takeover of Germany as a whole, and a mere Nazi dictatorship in Bavaria alone would likely have been a dead end for Hitler, and would have led to the breakup of Germany. Following the failed Beer Hall Putsch, some clever financial manipulations by the German government in Berlin effectively ended hyperinflation, and led to years of prosperity in Germany as a whole. As a result, the Nazis had no leverage, and only attracted moderate levels of support. it was only with the Great Depression that the Nazis finally obtained enough support to look credible as a governing party, because of massive unemployment and public destitution, particularly with the election of July 1932:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/July\_1932\_German\_federal\_election
However, neither the population as a whole, nor President Hindenburg, particularly trusted the Nazis to run the government. Quite rightly, they saw Hitler as an unpredictable, and a potentially very dangerous man. Really, Hitler's long term agenda had always been something of a throwback to the Mongols, Tamerlane the Great, the Roman Republic, and the Greek City States -- pillage your neighbors to acquire wealth, through military conquest. This particular agenda still is rather attractive to American "conservatives" on the far right, and many of them still credit Adolf Hitler with having "saved" the world from "socialism" by initiating World War II. They see chronic warfare as preferable to centralized social control. Arguably, on an overpopulated planet, we may only have the choice between one, or the other, I suppose. Of course, we always have the option of simply reducing population by adequate birth control, but, that's just me, I suppose.
So, despite the Nazis' increased popularity, it was impossible for them, or anyone else, to form a government. In the resulting election of November 1932, the Nazis actually lost some support, and some seats in the Reichstag:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/November\_1932\_German\_federal\_election
However, by this time, it was clear that it would be necessary to accommodate Hitler's ambitions to achieve some level of political stability. It was assumed that as Chancellor of a coalition, fully dependent on non-Nazi party members to run the government, and with the limitations imposed by the Weimar Republic constitution, which could only be overthrown by a 2/3 vote in the Reichstag, Hitler would be forced to be "reasonable".
All this changed with the Reichstag Fire, just four weeks after Hitler became Chancellor. Hitler used his oratory and his army of Brownshirts to intimidate and control and electorate, the media, and the wealthy, on the basis of the presumed "communist revolution". He acquired great wealth to invest in the coming election from the rich, he achieved restrictions on media access to the other political parties, he terrorized the opposition, and he replaced opposition supporters at all levels of government with Nazis. As a result, the Nazis did do quite well in the elections of March 1933:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March\_1933\_German\_federal\_election
However, they still didn't have an absolute majority in the Reichstag, so they still had to work with a limited coalition. However, by intimidation and manipulation, they were now able to terrorize a sufficient number of opposition members of the Reichstag to vote for the abolition of the Weimar Constitution, the 2/3 majority was achieved, and Germany became a dictatorship under Adolf Hitler.
So, what happens if their is no Reichstag Fire?
I would say that Hitler is forced to try to muddle along in a coalition government and work effectively with socialists and communists. And, despite all his oratory and all his Brownshirts, he really won't be able to do it. If Hitler himself tries to arrange an incident like the Reichstag fire, the German police will call him on it, and he will be removed from power, and imprisoned. If he doesn't, his government will fail, and his entire Nazi movement will become a laughingstock. Germany will use social democratic means to stabilize the economy, as was currently the case in Britain, France and the U.S., and there probably won't be any World War II, at all.
In other words, it took a very unusual incident from a lone agitator, to ever bring a madman like Hitler to power, in the first place.

For decades the US government has been working on technology to allow them to beam thoughts into people’s heads.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_harassment
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/10/AR2007011001399_pf.html
There’s even concern that the technology exists and has been used against Americans.
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/jun/02/microwave-weapons-havana-syndrome-experts
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/all/havana-syndrome-likely-caused-microwave-energy-government-study-finds-n1250094
Some of the research into Havana Syndrome showed that the symptoms ultimately overlapped with anomalous structures inside the brains of people who report “anomalous intuition” (psi):

Although Nolan is quick to say that he isn’t a brain expert by training, occasionally his biological research does involve such studies. Several years ago, at the request of members of the intelligence community, he began looking into unusual health conditions afflicting several military and other government personnel. This led Nolan to the discovery of unique features in a particular region of the brain—the caudate putamen—that appeared in the MRI scans of some of these individuals.
It had been the caudate putamen connection, Nolan says, that led to some of the earliest detections of anomalous health incidents that are now popularly known as Havana Syndrome. However, that hadn’t been all that interested Nolan about this research.
“It’s actually a perfect example of the unexpected finding leading to something interesting, even if it wasn’t necessarily where you were headed in the first place,” Nolan says.
“Yet it still circles back to things like remote viewing and perception, consciousness, all of these things,” Nolan says, adding that he hopes to gather enough data to be able to apply it toward furthering our understanding of such purported phenomena.

https://thedebrief.org/garry-nolan-a-stanford-professors-quest-to-resolve-unidentified-anomalous-phenomena/
https://nypost.com/2021/12/12/the-brains-of-people-who-say-theyve-had-a-ufo-encounte
Here’s a paper co-written by one of the more respected UAP researchers, Dr. Jacques Vallée, co-written by Dr. Eric Davis: https://www.jacquesvallee.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Incommensurability_Orthodoxy_and_the_Phy.pdf

Science fiction has familiarized us with the concept of machines (or beings) projecting an image of themselves that systematically confuses observers. One could imagine that UAP represent physical craft equipped with the means to interact both with the surrounding atmosphere and with the senses of observers in such a way as to convey a false image of their real nature. One could argue that such an object could use microwave devices to create perceptual hallucinations in the witnesses (including messages that are heard by a single individual in a group).

Here once again we see the idea of microwaves being used to alter people’s thoughts. Now it’s important to keep in mind that both Vallée and Davis have held security clearances in the past and have been heavily involved in doing UAP research for the USG for decades.
So, we have many different sources that support the idea that UAP can make people see things that aren’t real. This goes from a simple UAP sighting all the way up to people claiming they’ve been abducted by mantis beings (yours truly).
But that doesn’t account for the physical component of UAP, and we know there is one. The objects have been photographed and caught on video. There are physical traces after purported landings. The same Eric Davis that co-wrote the paper with Vallée is acknowledged by many to be one of the recent whistleblowers to testify before Congress about UAP crash retrievals. It’s not the first time he’s done so: https://www.nationalreview.com/news/pentagon-consultant-briefed-senators-on-discovery-of-off-world-vehicles-not-made-on-this-earth/
You can’t retrieve craft that don’t exist. So they have the ability to make people see things that aren’t there, changing the way the real objects may appear. Their true nature can be masked. But what if it’s more complicated than that?
Here’s an excerpt from the conclusion from “Passport to Magonia,” Vallée’s seminal work:

There exists a natural phenomenon whose manifestations border on both the physical and the mental. There is a medium in which human dreams can be implemented, and this is the mechanism by which UFO events are generated, needing no superior intelligence to trigger them. This would explain the fugitivity of UFO manifestations, the alleged contact with friendly occupants, and the fact that the objects appear to keep pace with human technology and to use current symbols. The theory explains the behavior of the “visitors”: aggressive in Latin America, “Cartesian” in France, “alien monsters” in the United States, etc. It also, naturally, explains the totality of religious miracles as well as ghosts and other so-called supernatural phenomena.

It’s very well-known among contact/abduction researchers that there’s a very strong link between the subconscious of the experiencer and the things they report experiencing during these encounters. The concept of “manifesting dreams” is apt, but keep in mind that many cases happen while the person is wide awake, sometimes with co-witnesses who share the experience.
This is one reason why Vallée and Davis proposed in their paper that our reality may not be structured the way we think it is. That there exists an ability to physically manifest psychical objects. In other words, the beings behind the UAP phenomenon may not just have the ability to project visions into people’s heads, or read their thoughts, but to then take that information and generate real, physical experiences with it.
There’s a well-known case of a farmer, Joseph Simonton, who claimed he had contact with aliens and they gave him three pancakes, one of which he ate: https://chasingufosblog.com/2020/02/19/joe-simonton-and-the-pancakes-from-another-planet/
His case was heavily investigated and everyone agreed that Simonton was sincere in his report—he believed what he experienced. The ludicrous nature of it is perfectly in keeping with what Experiencers frequently report. And yet there was physical evidence of the encounter, although it didn’t show anything exotic (and this kind of trace evidence almost never does).
There is a well-known list of people who have been involved in UAP research for the government, a few being Jacques Vallée, Eric Davis, Garry Nolan, Hal Puthoff, Lue Elizondo, Jay Stratton, and Colm Kelleher. Many of them have given interviews on these subjects and they are unanimous in their beliefs that there is something to “the woo.” The idea that our understanding of the physical world as defined by materialism is wrong, or at least incomplete.
There’s also what’s called the “Invisible College,” which is a group of influential thinkers who meet in private to discuss these ideas and related topics. Many of them claim to be Experiencers themselves, according to Diana Pasulka in her book “American Cosmic”:

There are public ufologists who are known for their work, there are a few academics who write about the topic, and then there is an “Invisible College,” as Allen Hynek called it and of which Jacques Vallee wrote—a group of scientists, academics, and others who will never make their work public, or at least not for a long time, although the results of their investigations impact society in many ways.

She goes into great detail about the views of these members, many of which are completely outside of the materialist paradigm. In other words, 100% “woo.”
In Lue Elizondo's redacted IG complaint he alleged that during a meeting within the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense and Intelligence back in 2009 it was said to him that all investigations and research into the phenomenon should end immediately because UAP have "supernatural origins not consistent with certain religious views of specific senior leadership."
Note that: Senior Leadership in government believe that UAP are supernatural. It’s not a fringe position, it’s a primary position. It’s been stated over and over again by nearly all the people involved involved.
The argument the skeptics propose against this is that there’s “no evidence” for it. It’s patently untrue. There’s hundreds of thousands of pages of UAP reports that support it. The best scientists working on the subject have effectively unanimously agreed on it, and scientists work entirely off evidence. The argument is primarily specious because it is based on the false belief that the public would have access to any of the evidence on UAP, ignoring the well-accepted fact that the government collects any such evidence and threatens or intimidates eyewitnesses.
The projects are also so highly classified that even the government oversight committees don’t know what’s going on: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11996773/amp/Six-whistleblowers-spill-UFO-secrets-congress.html
(It’s true that the Daily Mail has a bad reputation for journalism, but in this article they are simply quoting people who have gone on the record publicly with these statements elsewhere, so those concerns don’t apply.)
So the idea that the general public will have access to any of this is information is ridiculous. But there is a group of people in the public who do have knowledge—the same group that was studied to obtain much of the information the government had been working off of, namely Experiencers themselves.
A single account from a random person is an anecdote. It has little evidentiary value. An account from someone with higher credibility or expertise is considered testimony, and it has higher evidentiary value. When you get many such accounts they become data used to form a scientific hypothesis. This is well accepted in scientific circles, but is once again being erroneously used by the skeptics to dismiss the evidence.
The data from Experiencers supports the claims of the experts. That’s not surprising because they’re fundamentally working from the same data set, although the experts also have access to the best (classified) evidence. So when people say “we have no knowledge of the truth regarding UAP” it’s another specious claim. The collated reports from Experiencers give a pretty strong picture of the phenomenon. This is why they are being invited to participate in research being done both inside and outside the government.
https://silvarecord.com/2019/01/09/experiencers-unique-intuition-and-biomarkers/
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/grant-cameron5/episodes/A-Hint-at-What-the-government-might-know-about-UFOs-and-UFO-experiencers-etri40
The non-materialist aspects (the woo) of UAP are not a subset, a side branch, a false lead, or anything other than the primary data surrounding UAP. Arthur C. Clarke famously stated “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” That’s all the woo is—future science.
It’s time for people to let go of their biases and start actually listening to the experts on these subjects. Start with the scientists who have been studying it and had access to the classified data. Then research the concepts they are discussing, many of which have empirical evidence to support them. If you want to peek behind the curtain at what might be going on beyond just the nuts and bolts, read the books by scientists like John Mack who studied the firsthand accounts. What you shouldn’t waste your time on is the anti-intellectuals who believe that they consistently know better than the experts.
The nuts and bolts of UAP is just the starting line, but the finish line is in sight, and there’s no good reason to not move forward with our discussions and expectations of what’s to come.

MM Romance

Kindle Unlimited

• Hunter's Descent (Mischief and Monsters #2) by Alice Winters - https://a.co/d/cK7Wy9b - (series must be read in order, established relationship, paranormal/fantasy, action, humor, monster x monster hunter)
  
• Wolfgang (Vampire's Mate #5) by Grae Bryan - https://a.co/d/dfYNPC7 - (series must be read in order, paranormal, fated mates, vampire mc, 'psychopath' mc, turned without consent)
  
• Out of The Wild Night (Coven Ties #2) by Marina Vivancos - https://a.co/d/4V6ssHx - (fantasy, biokink, D/s, check CWs)
  
• Full Throttle (Lights Out) by Lisa Henry - https://a.co/d/iY74qHb - (multi-author series, contemporary, F1, hidden relationship, pining)
  
• Mr. Frisky: An MM Age Play Romance (Playhouse Daddies #2) by Joe Satoria - https://a.co/d/3tISJZp - (contemporary, dad's best friend, Daddy kink, age play)
  
• Guarding Axel (Dark Forest Pack #3) by Annabelle Jacobs - https://a.co/d/5y7k9Zn - (paranormal, fae mc, wolf shifter, second chance)
  
• Model (The Club Oxygen Series #9) by Cole Denton - https://a.co/d/bYU7hRn - (contemporary, dark?, BDSM?, very cryptic blurb)
  
• Crimes of Passion by Jack Harbon - https://a.co/d/aIuJmZs - (contemporary, BIPOC, rivals-to-lovers, forced proximity)
  
• Deadly Desire: An MM Dragon-shifter Romance (The Last Mortals #3) by Silvana Falcon - https://a.co/d/iB4fmjn - (paranormal, dragon shifter mc, assassin mc, assassin/target, fated mates, hurt/comfort)
  
• Protecting His Pack (North American Wolves #1) by Morgan Elektra - https://a.co/d/3qUNc8Y - (paranormal, widower mc, single parent mc, wolf shifters)
  
• A Bridge in the Desert by S.A. Sommers - https://a.co/d/9NihOuo - (contemporary, mystery, suspense, missing daughter, man who raised her x biological father)
  
• His Mafia Captor (Dark M/M Mafia Romance) (Toscano Doms #3) by Leo Rivers - https://a.co/d/j3YDo8R - (contemporary, dark, mafia, captocaptive, BDSM, dubcon-noncon)
  
• Man On: A Celebration of Love on the Pitch (The Black Jacks of Detroit #3) by Liz Crowe - https://a.co/d/dOhyRxe - (contemporary, soccer, rivals-to-lovers, teammates-to-lovers)
  
• Don't Look Back in Anger (Two Tribes #3) by Kristian Parker - https://a.co/d/j2V9hSZ - (contemporary, mafia, back from the dead, second chance)
  
• Reuben's Hot and Cold (Clover Hill Romance #9) by M. Arbon - https://a.co/d/07xfDzG - (contemporary, accidentally ended up in a relationship, workaholic mcs, relationship trouble)
  
• The Hero In Me: MM Superhero Enemies to Lovers Romance by Kaylee Kane - https://a.co/d/5kqoQSR - (superhero x supervillain, hidden identity, aliens, D/s, the superhero is an asshole, the supervillain is an au pair for a dog)
  
• Day Break (The Vampire Defense Agency #4) by Katherine Diane - https://a.co/d/isghyPG - (paranormal, vampires, forced proximity, antagonism-to-lovers, action, suspense)
  
• Fallen Fire: The Complete Series (Fallen Fire #1-4) by Richard Amos - https://a.co/d/evg8fCo - (collection, urban fantasy, action, adventure, mystery, slowburn, paranormal beings)
  
• Scorching Submission (Master, May I?) by Candace Lark - https://a.co/d/1xJewXO - (contemporary, antagonism-to-lovers, fake relationship, BDSM)
  

Kobo Plus

• Against the Rush (Philadelphia Power) by Susan Scott Shelley & Chantal Mer - Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/against-the-rush & Scribd: https://www.scribd.com/book/646488297/Against-the-Rush-Philadelphia-Power-1 - (contemporary, hockey, daughter's coach, busy schedules / long-distance-relationship)
  
• Make Like Mountains (Liquid Onyx #2) by BL Jones - https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/make-like-mountains - (series must be read in order, superheroes, love triangle or MMM, mc with anxiety, humor)
  

Other

• Off The Ice: Young Adult Gay Romance (Chesterford Coyotes #1) by RJ Scott & V.L. Locey - https://a.co/d/5hqVSTC - (YA, contemporary, hockey, coming-of-age, high school, rivals-to-lovers, teammates-to-lovers)
  
• The Gay Best Friend by Nicolas DiDomizio - https://a.co/d/2GSabu9 - (contemporary, romcom, forced proximity, jock/nerd, famous golfer mc, mc with anxiety)
  
• Elf Shot (Monster Dads) by TA Moore, illustrated by Emily Y Chan - https://a.co/d/b6N4OQq - (illustrated edition, paranormal, mystery, agent x suspect, single parent mc)
  
• Monster Hall Pass (Monster Dads) by Bru Baker, illustrated by Emily Y Chan - https://a.co/d/31vDrMW - (illustrated edition, paranormal, vampire mc, fae prince mc, enemies-to-lovers, single parent mc)
  
• Wolf at First Sight (Monster Dads) by Rhys Ford, illustrated by Emily Y Chan - https://a.co/d/8w22YLp - (illustrated edition, paranormal, wolf shifter x unaware human, cop mc, single parent mc)
  
• Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 6 (Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu #6) by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu - https://a.co/d/in3e9Ge - (series must be read in order, fantasy, gods)
  
• Big Gay Wedding: A Novel by Byron Lane - https://a.co/d/0E2g66N - (contemporary, established relationship, small town isn't ready for all the glitter)
  

Other Queer Romance

Kindle Unlimited

• Choose Us (CHOOSE ME & CHOOSE US #2) by Nicole Spencer-Skillen - https://a.co/d/3gikfKC - (FF, series must be read in order, contemporary, second chance, set in Japan)
  
• Covetousness: A Sensual Pride and Prejudice Sequel (Unconventional Love) by Rosemarie Thorson - https://a.co/d/3ipBk2Y - (MMF, historical, Pride and Prejudice retelling/sequel, Mr Darcy x Mrs Darcy x Colonel Fitzwilliam, infertility or trouble conceiving, blurb emphasizes how extremely erotic this story is)
  
• When Ivy Met Adam : A second chance, forced proximity, sexy, queer love-triangle romance by Jennifer J. Coldwater - https://a.co/d/giJUiLM - (MF, contemporary, second chance, love triangle, forced proximity, bisexual/pansexual mc, based on biblical story of Eve)
  
• Girl Gets Ghosted: A Lesbian Romance Novella by Waverly Decker - https://a.co/d/2uZQKvv - (FF, paranormal, ghost mc, amnesia)
  
• Broken Women Fight Back (Tales of the Undead & Depraved #3) by Adrian J. Smith - https://a.co/d/1WMm5Mj - (FF, series must be read in order, fantasy/sci-fi, established relationship(?), zombie-shifting pirate captain mc (!!!))
  

Kobo Plus

• Santa's Sacking: an M/Enby sweet with heat Christmas romance by Jaxon Knight - https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/santa-s-sacking - (MX, contemporary, helping with the Christmas pageant, holidays)

Scribd

• Stiletto: A Novel by Brenda Peterson - https://www.scribd.com/book/635084908/Stiletto-A-Novel - (FF, contemporary, thriller, mystery, detective x suspect, unclear whether this has a HEA since one mc could be the murderer)

Other

• An Island Princess Starts a Scandal (Las Leonas #2) by Adriana Herrera - https://a.co/d/b6rxicq - (FF, historical, nobility, forbidden relationship, scandal, set in Paris)
  
• That Summer Feeling by Bridget Morrissey - https://a.co/d/j6XDqze - (FF, contemporary, divorced mc, summer camp)
  
• The Professor by Elia Johnson - https://a.co/d/caCaVC7 - (FF, contemporary, professostudent, college, forbidden relationship)
  
• Not Too Old (A Mountain to Coast Romance #2) by Ann Tonnell - https://a.co/d/7VbNQZB - (FF, contemporary, 60+ mcs, protesting a parking ticket)
  
• Chef's Choice by TJ Alexander - https://a.co/d/0efeJpw - (MF, contemporary, romcom, two trans mcs, fake relationship)
  
• House of Longing by Tara Calaby - https://a.co/d/5054GNO - (FF, historical, forbidden relationship, admitted to asylum)
  

Audiobooks

MM Romance

• Wyn (Monstrous #3.5) by Lily Mayne, narrated by Michael Lesley - https://a.co/d/1DgnG2G - (post-apocalyptic, monsters, alternate dimension, established relationship, grumpy/sunshine, only soft for his mate)
  
• The Gay Best Friend by Nicolas DiDomizio, narrated by Daniel Henning - https://a.co/d/cGmquaL - (contemporary, romcom, forced proximity, jock/nerd, famous golfer mc, mc with anxiety)
  
• Big Gay Wedding: A Novel by Byron Lane, narrated by Noah Galvin - https://a.co/d/fXBsXsc - (contemporary, established relationship, small town isn't ready for all the glitter)
  

Other Queer Romance

• Chef's Choice by TJ Alexander, narrated by Nicky Endres - https://a.co/d/cGmquaL - (MF, contemporary, romcom, two trans mcs, fake relationship)
  
• Silver Moon (Wolves of Wolf's Point #1) by Catherine Lundoff, narrated by Em Eldridge - https://a.co/d/2pBQ1p0 - (FF, paranormal, romantic subplot, sexuality awakening, menopause triggers lycanthropy, lots of middle-aged werewolves, action, suspense)
  
• An Island Princess Starts a Scandal (Las Leonas #2) by Adriana Herrera, narrated by Nneka Okoye - https://a.co/d/0wffVrT - (FF, historical, nobility, forbidden relationship, scandal, set in Paris)
  
• That Summer Feeling by Bridget Morrissey, narrated by Jeremy Carlisle Parker - https://a.co/d/aJZ5ClH - (FF, contemporary, divorced mc, summer camp)
  

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First of all, I'm not a native English speaker, so I apologize for any mistake.
It's quite long because I want you to know the difference in cultural contexts, sorry.
I SWEAR I do not make this thing up. It's 100% real even though it sounds so fake. It happened 24 hours ago and I still couldn't believe this chaos(?) actually happened to me.
For context, I [25F] live in a country where being LGBTQ is considered quite normal by pretty much everyone. Even plenty of the far-right wings are OK with LGBTQ. (My uncle once said to me that our country should be like North Korea, and he is still okay if his son is LGBTQ. The last time I visited them, my straight male cousin had Hello Kitty nail on his thumb, and my uncle proudly presented his son's nail to me.) LGBTQ-phobic still pretty much exists, but not in the form of direct hatred. It's more like calling a slur (We are super ignorant about why a slur is bad, so many people who said a slur word don't even know that saying this word is bad.), stereotyping, making fun, etc.
There is a say in my country. "I'm okay with people being LGBTQ, except when that person is my son/daughter." I never believe this say, until it actually happened to me 24 hours ago, when I decided to come out to my mom that I am bisexual.
I never thought my mom [50ish] would be biphobic, although she is super-conservative, like pro coup d'état type of conservative. She absolutely LOVES one TV program about gay choosing another gay among 30 of them to date. (pretty much like Grindr in TV show form) I live and sleep in the same room as her, and I heard she watches this show a lot. She said that trans women who already cut their peepee are real women. (We have a specific word for 'trans woman', and she uses this word to call the one who hasn't cut her peepee yet. She won't call them women, but not men either.) She also supports same-sex marriage. (Yes, our country has a quite positive view of gay compared to other countries, yet same-sex marriage is still illegal.)
I never came out to her, not because I was afraid she won't accept, but because I studied abroad, and I didn't want my mom to worry that I would date someone that will hurt me 3720 km (2311.5 miles for Americans) away where I can't speak the language fluently yet. (It's the country where all doctors I had visited, all police officers I had visited, and my landlady do not speak English. Even fucking officers in a fucking immigration office did not speak fucking English.) I also did not even have an interest in dating at that time, so I did not even tell my mom that I like men, let alone women.
Yesterday, I talked with my mom, and a topic about love interests just come up, so I told my mom that I used to have a big crush on one guy in uni. And then I said that I used to have a small crush on a girl as well.
My mom just... wouldn't accept it.
I told my mom that I never thought you wouldn't accept it. You seem to support gay. She said male-male is okay but female-female is not. I asked why. She said females are not trustworthy. (She is the 'I'm not like the other girls' type.)
And then, she said if you are a lesbian, I have no other choice but to accept the truth, but you are bi, so you can choose to date a guy. Why not just date a guy then?
So, I told my mom that men are much more 'not trustworthy' in my opinion. A lot of crimes are committed by men. My mom said she wants a son to help her do some household maintenance that required a strong person to do. (She has a point tho. Since my dad passed away 5 years ago, we (mom, me, my sis) just won't be able to open a bottle of water or change the light bulb. I think there are like 3 working light bulbs left in our house. We live in darkness. The lightbulbs in my room and my mom's room are not working, so we have to live and sleep together in the living room. I was able to change the light bulb with no problem when I studied abroad, but the light bulbs in my house are much harder to change.)
Okay. You want a son. I see. So, I asked if my sister wants to be a trans man, will you be able to accept it then? You want a son, aren't you?
She answered, "I want a strong son, not a weak daughter-become-son."
I told her, "If she takes testosterone, she will be definitely stronger."
I will let you guys guess what my mom said after this for a bit.
3
2
1
This is what my mom said.
She said, "Really? Guess I should become a trans man and take the hormones myself."
WHAT THE HECK?????????
I did not expect that. No one would EVER expect that.
I said if you took the hormones, you will be bald then, and she said that's what she will happily trade.
WHATTTTT????????????
I am pretty sure it's a joke, but what kind of biphobic super-conservative mom jokes like that?
TL;DR: I tried to justify being bisexual to my biphobic mom and ended up with my mom saying she wants to become a trans man.

Hello,
My apologies if this is covered in a Wiki here, if so please send my way, but here is what I am looking for.
I am not trying to hit it big, I'd just like a way to connect with my Dad who now lives states away from me, we call eachother and talk about Sports often and I'd like to do something more formal with him, maybe invite our friends and families on and just have recording I can look back on.
I am wondering if anyone is aware of what software, I don't mind paying, that would allow to show both of our webcams, plus whatever I am doing on one of my screens as a background. I'd like to show clips from sports games, threads with interesting statistics and discuss them with my Dad.
Thank you in advance!

Can anyone give me financial advice regarding my situation with my lifetime isa savings please?
For the past 4 years I have been saving into a Moneybox Lifetime ISA account and have around enough for a deposit for my first home. However, last year I met my now fiancée who is American. She currently has a UK visa but our long term plan is to move and live in the US, probably in 2025.
What would my best option be, to buy a home for ourselves this year to live in for the next year or so and try to sell before moving, or to keep that money and withdraw it before moving to the US and buy our first home there?
One thing that may be worth mentioning, a potential home we could buy is our grandparents old home that my Dad currently owns. So I’m not sure how many fees etc we could save on buying it from family, if I allowed to do that with my LISA?
I don't particularly want to rush into buying a home right now with current house prices and mortgage rates but also if I was to withdraw that money when not purchasing a first house I'd lose 25%. I'd really love to hear some alternative options that you think may be better too.

I'm doing three today because due to holiday/weekend things I missed Sunday and Monday
​
Counting down to the beginning of the season - I'm going to attempt to do one player per day for the next 99. The players will be random. Use this thread to celebrate and Talk About Some Guys^TM
#89 was an impossible choice. You have the incredible Ross Browner, Mike Ditka (who was a great player before he ever coached a game), Ted Hendricks who was a 3 time all-american and namesake of the Hendricks trophy amongst others. I had to choose a wild one with an incredible history (partly) thanks to WWII.
Barney Poole played SEVEN seasons of varsity college football. In 1942 he suited up for Ole Miss. In 1943 enlisted in the Marine V-12 unit based at the University of North Carolina and played there for a season. From 1944-1946 he played at Army where he won national championships in 1945 and 1946 (and an international championship in 1945 amirite?) and was named an All-American in '44 and '46. He then went back to Ole Miss for the '47 and '48 seasons where he was, again, an All-American. He also set the (still standing) single game receptions record at Ole Miss with 13. In addition to his seven varsity letters for football - he earned another seven in basketball and eight in baseball - totaling up to 22 total varsity letters over his career. He was elected to the college football hall of fame in 1974. He also shared a locker room with two other College Football Hall of Famers: Charlie Conerly and E. Douglas Kenna. He also played for two College Football Hall of Fame Coaches: Earl 'Red' Blaik and John Vaught.
An incredible man with a great story and photo deserved a great anecdote.
From teammate and NFL Hall of Famer Art Donovan: "Early in my career—the Colts' first year back in Baltimore, as a matter of fact—I played with a defensive lineman named Barney Poole. He was a tough guy, but by 1953 he was pretty much over the hill. And he was doing anything he could to hang on. In one game he tore up his hand. He caught his fingers in someone's face mask and it nearly yanked a couple of the digits out. That hand was a mess. This happened sometime early in the second quarter, and Barney was led off the field and into the locker room and soon thereafter an ambulance carried him off to Union Memorial. He got his fingers stitched up. I swear to God, he got out on Thirty-third Street and hitchhiked right back up to Memorial Stadium. Damned if he didn't return in time to play the fourth quarter. And he did play, too, with a big wrapping on those twisted and mangled fingers. He was one tough player, and the Colts rewarded him the following season by cutting his ass."