First day with Gardner-Webb Baseball means a massive focus... on teaching the skill of Acceleration and building an Upper Body to handle the demands of throwing. When athletes struggle to accelerate there is usually a correlation between the amount of inhibitions they show at depth, so dosing the Deep Tier (Matt) appropriately in the warm up increases their amount of time spent at depth, thus breaking that inhibition. Put them on the sled and get some practice at putting more force into the ground at various velocities. Follow up with some Med Ball Throws at max intent with varying amounts of lower body contribution, static or moving start, rotational or linear, and then blast some Jake Tuura style Hypertrophy Clusters for a great day! Warm Up: 3x through Deep Split Exchange Leaps x10 yards Light Sled Push x10 yards Deep Leaps x10 yards Heavy Sled Push x10 yards Timed Sprint: 2x through 10 yard Acceleration w/ 1 yard Run-In Intensive MB Throws: 3x through EMOM MB Rotational Scoop Throw w/ Step x1 each Static Start Prone MB Throw x2 Static Start Roller MB Overhead Throw x2 Upper HC Superset: 10x through DB Bench Press x4 @ 70% Chest-Supported DB Row x8 @ RPE 7-8show more

The system we put together with Harberger taxes and... auctions linked together seems to really be working Explainer: 1. Creator sells the Orb through an auction 2. Winner (keeper) sets a sales price 3. Keeper pays an ongoing tax—a % of the sales price they set (tax goes to the Creator) 4. Keeper needs to top up the Orb with funds to last longer 5. Anyone new can step in and buy the Orb at any time and become the new Keeper 6. In the meantime, current Keeper can adjust the sales price up or down 7. But if no one buys it and the funds aren't topped up, they will eventually run out of funds 8. Keeper can at any time start a "Keeper auction" in which they are the main beneficiary of the auction proceeds 9. If they run out of funds, a Keeper auction is automatically triggered for them 10. After a Keeper auction finalizes, the Orb has a new Keeper (or if there are 0 bids, Orb goes back to the creator!) 11. Even if the Keeper auction finalizes at some low price, the new Keeper must put a sales price (as usual) so the "auction" never stops going 12. The Orb just keeps trading hands to the highest bidder, always being available, never staying dormant! All through the while, the Creator earns the Harberger tax (except during Keeper auctions, but then they collect royalty fees from the sale), and each week, questions are being asked and answered—all at rates completely decided by the market!show more

LHP Zach Root (Arkansas Baseball) is one of the... best college lefthanders in this year's Draft class. After splitting time between the bullpen and rotation as a Freshman, Root last year was a full time starter and pitched his way to a 3.56 ERA with 76 Ks to 21 BB across 68.1 IP. Slightly undersized at 6'1" and 186-pounds, but there's present strength and physicality in his lower-half. Natural funk and deception in his delivery that includes a high leg lift and some tilt in his upper-half. Average arm stroke with a slight wrist coil, attacks from a mid-three quarter (maybe a tick lower) slot with a bit of cross fire. Root's FB will sit in the 91-94 range, but it was up to 97. Will flash arm side life through the zone and is best when located on either third (arm or glove side) of the plate or in the top-half. Not a real bat-misser right now, so refining its shape should be a point of focus both this spring and beyond. Bread and butter offerings are his secondaries. Root's low-80s CH gets averaged almost 10 MPH of separation off his heater and it's a pitch he throws with conviction. Consistently flashes fade to the arm side as well as late diving life. Generated a 46% miss rate last spring, would stick a plus grade on it. High-70s-to-low-80s CB flashes big-time depth with some sharpness. 11-to-5 shape against RHH, but will be longer than it is deep against LHH. Has a decent feel for the pitch, and last season it held opposing hitters to a minuscule .048 average while generating a 48% miss rate. Rounds out his arsenal with a mid-to-upper-80s CUT/SL that against LHH will flash sweeping life with some late bite. Potentially average offering. Would like to see his strike-throwing improve this season. Day 1 profile this July. (📽️: ECU Baseball)show more

From a sheer stuff standpoint, RHP Cam Leiter (FSU... Baseball) has one of the loudest arsenals in this year's Draft class. Was a member of the AAC All-Freshman team selection in 2023 after posting a 4.92 ERA with 80 Ks across 56.2 IP. Leiter's first season at FSU was cut short due to injury, though he showed big time flashes in his 7 starts (35 innings). Worked a 4.63 ERA with 56 Ks to 22 BB. Leiter has a high-waisted, prototypical pitcher's frame at 6'5" and 234-pounds. Has added physicality year-over-year. Compact and explosive delivery with big time arm speed. Attacks from a three-quarter slot with a low release height. Dynamic mover, blocks well with his lead leg and really drives his back hip through. Powerful! Fastball sits in the 94-96 range, but has been up to 99. Jumps out of the hand from his ~5'10" release height and flashes riding life through the zone. Plays up—and is at its best—when located in the top-half of the zone. Also where it gets the most whiffs, and last year it generated a 30% miss rate. Improved command of the offering will make it that much more effective. 55 right now. His most used breaking ball is a high-70s-to-low-80s CB. Plenty of depth with sharp, downward teeth. Almost a true 12-to-6 shape. Will use it against both right and lefthanded hitters, and last year it held opposing hitters to a minuscule .071 average. Generated an impressive 46% miss rate, it's a 60 right now. Leiter's upper-80s-to-low-90s power SL is another effective off-speed offering. Late lateral tilt with some depth, will throw it almost exclusively to RHH. Another pitch that flashes plus, and last year it garnered a 38% miss rate. He threw it just 11% of the time in '24, but Leiter also features an upper-80s-to-low-90s CH. Ample fade to the arm side, though at times it will have more tumbling life than fade. Not to sound like a broken record, but Leiter's CH also flashes plus. 44% miss rate last season. Throws it with conviction. If you catch Leiter on the right day, you could leave the yard with a 55 and three 60s on his pitch mix. The two biggest keys for Leiter will be taking a step forward in the pitchability department—which in turn will make his arsenal that much better—and staying healthy. He certainly has first round upside this July. (🎥: FSU Baseball)show more

A very good morning. Welcome to The Council Benji... This marks the third Skull in a little run. The first went to a fund I've never met. The second: through Eli Scheinman to a new collector/foundation who has been quietly entering the space in a very significant way across a number of collections whom I’ve never spoken to. Their new entrance enabled a wedding and start of a new married life for Conviction. In my very first conversation with him, we spoke about curses and commitments to the people we love. Since meeting got to talk through each step on that path, from letting go, what is imbued in the ring and ceremony of it all, a proposal, and on the way to the most important of the steps in pursuit of a blessed life. It is easy to get a little cynical on the over-leveraged exit stories that spring up from time to time, so it is a treat to watch one go towards a celebration that’s been building up in his life since the Skull was first acquired. And now: this. The third Skull and the first I can really write about as a shared story across both source and destination. An exit and an entrance. The exit: The Skulls of Luci were awarded as gifts 4 years ago. But before I'd minted Birth of Luci or painted the other 49, the first person in this space I showed the sketch of The Blueprint Skull to was actually Casey💎, when he was working at SuperRare . Casey was the very first person who onboarded me to NFTs, helping me navigate the early days of whatever it meant to even mint something. I explained the idea of gifting one to each person who bid in my first auctions. Though most of the Skulls went to the bidders, Casey's didn't. He didn't ask for one. I didn't tell him I'd give him one. But he helped me take my first steps here, and it's hard to imagine any of this making sense, or unfolding the way it has, without him. Since then, we've broken bread across continents, seen quite a lot of chortling margarita consumption, watched the rise and fall of a lot around us, weathered inter-Council dramas. He brought Laura El into The Monument Game, played as a Player, wore a Mask. Most of the vibe that started all of this, the wild west of it, feels faded in the broader space at times. But every Skull has a story and a person who helped us get here. Casey will always be the one who was there before any metric muddled the reason to care. The entrance: Last fall, Benji came over for a studio visit. We walked through Luci, the works, structure, and dream, as anyone who visits does. But we mostly talked about being a father and having a father. We discussed the very idea of "collection" stripped of accumulation, value, or signal, located more in the act or ceremony of it. What it was to grow up with a curious father who studied the edges of each thing he saw to know the next layer beneath why anyone might look or ignore it. That to pass this on is to pass on questioning, more than it is to pass on any kind of answer. The process of collecting can be perceived as an individual act of hoarding. For some it is maybe. But at its best, it's a way to bind through shared questioning, to bond in cooperation and competition with friends and family, it is the swapped story and meme of it all, and each object gathered along the way carries some shared memory that can, often does, and with intent: should; drift out of the object entirely. All in the psalm, always has been. The studio visit came and went. Soon after, a package arrived in the mail with two of the softest stuffed animals added to my daughter's own collection, now among her favorites. The Skull is a bonus to that, in the scheme of shared memory. For Rachel and I, while we are heads down making a body of work that unsettles us and excites us but demands unknown time to accomplish, it means a great deal to have this kind of support from long term people in the quiet process of making work we want to leave behind ourselves. Enormously grateful to Casey for the many years of support and friendship, to Benny for being a true patron, and to Benji for entering the arena for what I'm working on next. Welcome.show more

SEEDANCE prompt : Presented in a style that resembles... real video footage captured with an unprocessed iPhone handheld camera. All camera settings are automated, with no post-processing coloring or special effects applied. The footage features genuine handheld vibrations and the slight movement due to the operator's breathing. Autofocus occasionally experiences delays and brief loss of focus. Automatic white balance switches rapidly between strong lighting from flashlights and ambient classroom light. The image is overall flat, preserving the real-life lens flare, edge blurriness, slight overexposure, and motion blur. Only natural environmental sounds from within the scene are used, including sounds of chalk writing, page turning, student whispers, and recording notifications from the phone. The footage is captured from a first-person handheld perspective from behind the classroom. The camera movement is natural, with slight shaking occurring occasionally due to nervousness. A tall, short-haired Asian female teacher is depicted in the footage. Clothing She stood in front of the classroom blackboard. She had a well-proportioned figure, with a delicate makeup, and wore a pair of black-rimmed glasses. A high-intensity lighting source was placed on the floor in front of the classroom, shining brightly upwards. At 0 seconds, the camera was positioned behind the classroom, focusing on the female teacher as she stood sideways in front of the blackboard, writing with chalk. The high-intensity light from below illuminated her body, creating a strong backlight effect and prominent highlights. At 1 second, the light passed through the semi-transparent fabric of her black net dress, clearly highlighting the contours of her thighs, hips, and body. The autofocus briefly lost focus due to the intense light, but then re-established itself. At 2 seconds, the female teacher continued to write on the blackboard, and the sound of chalk against the blackboard was clearly audible. Fine chalk dust floated in the air of the 3 seconds, the student on the left side of the front row already noticed the bright light around them. Excitedly, she took out her phone and started recording the teacher secretly. The reflection on the screen made a brief flash in the video. At 4 seconds, the female teacher finished writing, put down her chalk, and turned to face the students. At 5 seconds, she picked up the dark red textbook on the table, held it with both hands, and stood up straight. At 6 seconds, the female teacher began teaching, holding the textbook in her hands, with her gaze directed towards the back of the classroom. The bright light from below made her silhouette even more distinct. At 7 seconds, the students in the front row already started talking in low voices. The student on the left continued to record secretly, while the student on the right tilted her head to look at the screen. At 8 seconds, the female teacher suddenly noticed that the back of the classroom was unusually quiet. Her movements paused briefly, and she slowly closed the textbook, with a slight frown on her 9 seconds, she raised her head, her gaze piercing straight through the black frame of her glasses, towards the back of the classroom. Her expression changed from concentration to obvious confusion and seriousness. At 10 seconds, the female teacher looked directly at the camera, speaking in a low but firm voice: “Wait, what’s going on?” Her voice sounded particularly clear in the classroom. At 11 seconds, it could be seen that several students were lowering their heads to avoid her gaze. One student quickly put away his phone. At 12 seconds, the female teacher remained standing in the middle of the classroom. The bright light from below elongated her silhouette. She didn’t press further, but simply stared silently at the back of the classroom, her eyes filled with obvious questioning and dissatisfaction. At 13 seconds, she tilted her head slightly, and the bright light highlighted the outline of her black net-style dress. A tense silence filled the 14 seconds, the female teacher held the book against her chest. Her voice was calm, but there was a sense of pressure in her tone: “Let’s continue with the lesson.” At 15 seconds, she turned back towards the blackboard. The scene ended in a tense and awkward atmosphere. The footage was captured using an unprocessed iPhone, with a natural, unrefined quality, without any post-processing adjustments or special effects. All of the camera movements were consistent with the physical characteristics of real-life classroom snaps. Changes in lighting and focus adjustments were all handled automatically.show more

Bryson DeChambeau hasn’t played since the Ryder Cup and... he won’t be again until LIV Golf Riyadh in February. He says he’s been speed training through the off season though and has a target of reaching a comfortable 200mph ball speed. He’s also been playing table tennis with America’s number 1, Kanak Jha. Speaking to Tom Hobbs from Flushing It Golf, Bryson said: “I’m not playing until Riyadh. I’m going to be going in hot though. I’m sneaky working on my game really hard. “I'm going to start ramping up my speed again. I ramped up my speed in November, got it to where I was pumping over 190 quite efficiently with some slow golf balls and stuff. I got to 200 quite a bit. “I haven’t done much recently though. I was playing some ping pong actually the past couple of days with the number one USA player, Kanak Jha. He's so much fun. Ping Pong is my favourite sport, so I got to learn a little bit from the best in the U.S. He’s twenty first in the world. So nobody's really gotten that high from the U.S. which is sweet. “But I'll get back to speed training right after Christmas and going into the new season, I want to be close to 200. So that's my goal. I’ll just get to a place where I’m super comfortable swinging fast.” The last time Bryson went after speed he gained an enormous amount of mass. He’s come back down through the weights though over the last few seasons and is much healthier for it. But, if Force = Mass x Acceleration, will he look to add more mass again and what’s more important, increasing acceleration or gaining mass? “They're both very important. If you don't have any mass, you can't accelerate it. It's a symbiotic relationship. It's actually more like F equals M V squared, that’s more of the velocity side of it. “You can accelerate too, but what I would say is the most important thing is it's not necessarily the mass or the acceleration, it’s the ability to put pressure onto the club. So you're able to apply pressure and control that through your grip strengths around a circle, that's probably the more important piece. Applying controlled pressure to the golf club like grip pressure. “It's not that you just accelerate the club, because you have to learn how to control the face through that motion as well. So it's all, you know, you can say it's acceleration, but it's a lot of grip pressure stuff. The more you control the grip pressure and how you're moving that grip, I would say that’s more the answer to your question. “And I guess at a certain point there’s dimishning return with, you know, going up in the mass and even down in the mass. There is a sweet spot for swinging a golf club. If you get a speedstick, there's just not enough mass behind it to create the smash factor necessary, and vice versa if it is too heavy, you can’t swing it that fast. “I'll always say swinging and accelerating the club is probably the most important, but the real answer is applying the most pressure to the golf club. The grip pressure. You’re not gripping it tighter, but your hand force into it pulling it and then throwing it around the corner.” Continues in comments thread below. Bryson DeChambeau Crushers GC LIV Golfshow more

Since my account is somewhat anonymous I’m going to... disclose where some of the California high-speed rail money gets wasted. 99% of you don’t realize where giant chunks of the money is disappearing to. The California high-speed rail authority, literally owns thousands of parcels of land that are in various stages continued litigation, tenant improvements, eviction, and constant maintenance. For example, there are many homes and apartment complexes in the plant path that have been purchased years ahead of construction. Removing those tenants is a slow and expensive process. (let’s ignore the extra stress on housing that all of these destroyed properties are causing) In some cases, these are low rent apartments with a lengthy eviction process During that process, the state of California is the landlord and has to maintain the property codes the same as any other landlord. This means repairs, adding smoke detectors, fixing roofs, vegetation management, landscaping, paying off tenants to leave early, boarding up Windows, constant trash cleanups, towing vehicles etc. But the High Speed Rail Authority doesn’t just have to maintain these properties at normal cost. Every single bit of that work has to be done at California prevailing wage rates. The work can only be done through qualified contractors that have passed through a long series of idiotic mazes to qualify to perform the work. An average rate per hour (charge rate) for a worker to perform any service on these properties is approximately $200 an hour for labor only. The cost go up for specialized work, like electricians, plumbers, or machine operators. Properties that are literally worthless are being maintained at huge expense just so the next round of homeless transients can break into the property and cause more damage. For reasons I can’t explain, the process to finally demo and remove the structures takes years. I’m only mentioning the tip of the iceberg regarding my firsthand knowledge. Completely separate from those outlandish costs are the inflation caused by the construction. The prevailing word on the street is that nothing is getting done. The truth is that a lot is getting done and none of it efficiently. The amount of concrete being poured daily and monthly to build gigantic overpasses for both the rail and roadways is not understood. In these work areas, every concrete mixing company is fully scheduled out and cannot offer building materials for other basic services such as building a house often times for weeks when the average lead time for many of these services used to be one day. And that’s just the schedule, never mind the huge cost increases from straining the supply chain and Labor pool. The amount of concrete and steel that has gone into the structures so far is massive. Dozens and dozens of new water wells have been dug just for dust control. Thousands upon thousands of acres of highly productive tree fruits and nuts have been torn up and shredded. Utility scale solar fields have been uprooted and sometimes relocated at extravagant costs. Every type of business you can imagine has gone through either a closure, relocation, or a long-term tenant agreement with the rail authority. In some cases, it’s just a buyout where the business closes its doors forever. The owners get something all of the workers get nothing. Don’t get me started on how thick the layers of bureaucracy are for these minute tasks that occur on all of these properties. The inefficiency is far beyond your wildest dreams. In many cases, this is not related to fraud in any way it’s just absolute ignorance, red tape, and failed leadership. I can go much deeper into specific examples, but I think that gives some of you an idea of what’s actually happening in California. If a rail is ever usable, some portions of the structures will be decades old and already in disrepair.show more

Most people can’t hold a Reverse Plank because their... nervous system doesn’t feel safe being that exposed. Collapsed shoulders and tight hips are postures of defense. This pose invites the body to leave that state. One minute a day can begin to reverse years of silent tension. If you want the fitness results you see in your mind to become real, you’ll need to teach your body how to relax first. Otherwise, forget the great transformation. You'll burn out before coming close to changing. At first, you may need to adjust the position or do shorter sets. You will notice slight improvements each time, whether it is strength, mobility, or endurance. One day, you will unlock the posture and feel much lighter within. Form Cues: - Hands shoulder-width apart, fingers pointing toward feet or slightly outward - Press palms firmly into the ground to engage shoulders - Lift hips in line with shoulders and heels - Squeeze glutes and push hips up, avoid letting them drop. - Keep legs straight and active, heels grounded - Draw shoulder blades down and together - Open the chest. - Gaze slightly upward or keep neck neutral - Breathe steadily, through the nose if possible - Hold tension evenly through arms, core, and legs Here are three adjustments you could make to ease into the Reverse Plank: 1. Bend the knees slightly - What it does: Reduces the load on tight hip flexors and stiff shoulders. - How to do it: Instead of keeping the legs fully straight, maintain a small bend at the knees and press through the heels. Focus on lifting the hips and opening the chest. 2. Use yoga blocks under the hands - What it does: Elevates the wrists and reduces wrist extension strain, especially for people with limited mobility or wrist pain. - How to do it: Place yoga blocks (or low, stable books) under your palms to give your shoulders more space and reduce the pressure on the wrists. 3. Turn the fingers outward slightly - What it does: Opens up tight shoulders and reduces internal rotation. - How to do it: Instead of pointing the fingers directly toward the feet, turn them slightly outward (about 30–45 degrees). This gives the shoulders more room to move and helps you stay open. You're not reading this by accident. Start using Reverse Planks to take your quality of life to the next level.show more

The problem judging GM Chris Grier is clearly to... SOME degree Miami is talented. And now as frustrations w/ Mike McDaniel sharpen a little, we ask how Miami consistently beats the bad teams? Here's how: - They've had a good QB (when healthy). - They've had a bigger budget! Regardless of what you think about Tua Tagovailoa's ability to stay healthy, he is clearly a good QB and that buys you a lot in this league. He won with that circus show of offensive staff mismanagement under Brian Flores. He won with a more coherent staff under Mike McDaniel. He won with his offensive coordinator being changed every year since high school. He won with his offensive coordinator being stable for three years running. He won while never being asked to throw deep, then he won while being asked to throw deep more aggressively than literally every other QB in the league. And now he's winning while never being asked to throw deep again. He won learning from Ryan Fitzpatrick to just "throw it up" to zero separation vertical guys like Devante Parker and Mike Gesicki, and now he wins by pitting the ace to with max anticipation to road runners like Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. He won using Jaylen Waddle like O.J. McDuffie and he won using Jaylen Waddle like Alvin Harper. He won throwing the ball to WRs to the near exclusion of RBs and TEs at Alabama and in his first years with McDaniel. And now his leading receivers are RB De'Von Achane and TE Jonnu Smith. He won with his RBs combining for 27 rushing TDs with a league-leading YPC, and he won with his RBs scoring only 11 or 12 TDs and having piss poor efficiency. He won with a Head Coach who wanted him GONE and even went so far as to sabotage him (see: 2021). He also won with a Head Coach who cradles his head at night and does his daily best to convince him he's the most special boy in the universe. Sitting at #5 overall in the 2020 Draft there was plenty of debate behind the scenes whether Miami should take Tua Tagovailoa, Justin Herbert, or do some dealing for Jordan Love. And you know what? To some degree, there wasn't really a wrong choice. To some degree, no matter which of the three roads they went down, they'd have had a winner at the most important position in the sport. Which brings us to the other reason Miami has had the look of a talented team over the years: cheating. (Not REALLY, of course. Let's not get any more draft picks taken away by Roger Goodell.) The fact of the matter is Miami has had a bigger effective budget than almost any other team in the sport over the last 5 years. They were given the green light on a Tank Season in 2019. Like declaring Bankruptcy, they retired all cap accruals and started fresh with zero cap debt. And just 5 years later they probably rank 4th or 5th in the entire league in cash that has already been paid out to players but has yet to be expensed against the salary cap. Think about that for a minute. There are other teams out there, e.g. the Saints and Eagles, who have a massive amount of cap debt. But they have been rolling & massaging that cap debt for a decade-plus, with people like Khai Harley and Howie Roseman keeping them on the leading edge of creative financialization of the salary cap. Miami reached their level of debt in only 5 years after their tank season. They've had an operating budget effectively 20% larger than your average NFL team. They have the Yankees budget. Add on top their fortunes from the Laremy Tunsil trade, and yes Miami has been able to amass talent...because they had a LOT to spend. Do they win over and above what Lady Luck dealt them in terms of QB choices in 2020? Do they win consistent with their league-leading budget over the last 5 years? What are they left with going forward? The oldest Defense in the NFL, and an offense that needs a line rebuild. When you consider all of the factors, this is why Albert Breer recently suggested Miami will be looking at making a change at the GM position.show more

OFFICIAL: EASTER EGG GUIDE FOR TOTENREICH: Wonder Weapon: 1.... Head to The Drydocks and lower The Crane, this will allow you to wall jump and interact with the tip of the ship to pick up the Chain Link 2. Next, Head to Storm Bridge and pick up Chili Chunks behind the truck next to Deadshot 3. Place Chili Chunks on the table in the middle of the Skalen Market 4. Next, Head to Burial Grounds left-side door and interact with the keyhole. 5. Interact with the door again and hold it to open the door and to unlock the underground area. 6. This will spawn a Zursa Bear during a special round (starting the second special round) you need to kill him and he will drop The Lantern 7. Place The Lantern in the center of the Underground Room in Burial Grounds. 8. Constellations will appear around the wall. Interact with them as they’re shown on the table in this order: left, right, back, front. 9. Once completed, Astrid will appear and talk, she will then travel to different areas of the map. She will occasionally stop and you will need to kill frost zombies next to her. 10. Once all the Soulboxes are completed an Obstacle Course will form on the outside of The Lighthouse, climb to the top by Jumping / Wall Jumping up 11. Once you reach the top, Listen to the Astrid talk and pick up The Jotunn Star Wundersignal: 1. After completing Jotun Star Quest Head to The Lighthouse and inside on a shelf there will be a Crowbar 2. There are Multiple Wooden Boxes around the map with red IDs on the bottom right corner of the front of the box in red (for example III-6) use The Crowbar on the Wooden Box that has the Roboterteile ID (the IDs are on the shipping manifest in the War Factory Admin Room), this will give Flak Gun Round War Factory Core Foundry Fjord Road Dry Dock 3. Head to Turret Gun beside The Lighthouse and place Flak Gun Round then melee with Jotunn Star 4. Next, Head to The Robot Head in spawn and interact with it to search broken piece to get The Transmitter 5. Go to Tyr’s Head and place it inside the Wall Machine thingy at the top of the Ladder 6. Next, whilst inside of Tyr’s Head underneath the balcony there are 3 white lights, 2 of these lights will blink, count how many times it blinks -Both lights will remain on, There is the sound of a light turning on to indicate the start of a new light flashing cycle where both lights will flash at the same time to a certain count (for example left 2, right 5). Both lights will be on and then it will flash another set (for example left 6, right 4). (Unsure if these 2 combos have to be put into console in order but correct entry will give two different voicelines.) After entering one correctly you will be kicked out to hear voiceline and can re-enter console to input the 2nd shortly afterwards. 7. Now head to Core Foundry, and use a molotov to burn the ascender to access the consoles. 8. Ascend and interact with the consoles, The next part is timed and has a cooldown if you fail - you need to Calibrate the Amplitude and Frequency using the flashing light code. 9. Once this has been done head to the room Next to the Radio Tower and pick up The Wunderbarrage Controller Atomkraft Core 1. Find three uraniums: Uranium #1 Find the Fishing Rod (Olaf’s Personal Item) locations: - Dry Dock - Storm Bridge - Fishery Island - Beacon island Look for a Glowing Green Fish jumping around the water at each Fishing Location and use the Fishing Rod at that location once you see it Fishing Locations: Eidskallen Landing x2 Beacon Island x2 Eidskallen Square x2 Dry Dock (found one so far) Fishery Island x2 Tyr’s Foot (found one so far) Once the fish is caught it will spawn an Irradiated Ravager (HVT) that will disappear and respawn somewhere else, chase it down and kill it (check your map to see its location, it shows up as an HVT). It will drop a Uranium. Uranium #2 Next, Craft an ARC-XD (there is one for free in Eidskallen Square on top of a box near the flame trap, you can get it by fishing as well) and melee the vent at Core Foundry to the left of the zipline to open the Secret ARC-XD Course. Blow up the boat full of barrels. Once the course is completed the 935 Genetic Lab room will be open and another Uranium x2 will be inside a Prison Cell There are several Jars with Heads inside in this room, all labelled A,B,C,D,E Look down the Hallway inside the Lab and note which numbered rooms have Nuclear Symbols 1 = A, 2 = B, 3 = C, 4 = D and 5 = E Take one Jar at a time that corresponds with the Numbers next to Nuclear Symbols and place them on the machine to the right of the cell door, once the correct jars are placed the Jar on the left side of the machine will glow purple and you can pick up acid There is a Big Chunk of Meat on a desk next to multiple drawings in the same Room, interact with it, then Pick up The Necrospike Once you have The Necrospike, use it on the Prison Cell Door, this will trigger a lockpick mini game. Spin the lockpick until the lock turns white 3x to unlock the cell, then pick up the second Uranium. Uranium #3 Next you need to craft or obtain the Glocke Drop, once you have one call it in, then shoot 20 mid-air zombies it throws up. This will drop the third and final Uranium. 2. At the Dry Dock, you need to call a WunderBarrage (unlocked by completing Wundersignal steps) in on the “02 Building” at Dry Dock (where there’s debris on the stairs), this will open the stairs to the Machine Workshop. 3. Inside The Workshop there is a Claw Machine which you can place all of The Uranium inside of and play a mini-game. -Have a big group of 7 cores and a small group of 2 cores. 4. Once you complete the Mini-game you will be able to pick up The Atomkraft Core (Note: you drop if you zipline, and cant sprint with it) 5. Head to Quick Revive and place The Atomkraft Core on generator next to quick revive. Go into the shed behind quick revive and turn on the generator. You must now defend the The Atomkraft Core until it’s charged. In interrupted you must turn on the generator again to continue. 6. Take the The Atomkraft Core to the barrel on the Storm Bridge and a Mini-Cutscene will play between the Giant and The Robot. Vegvisir 1. After the cutscene finishes, The Dravakar Shard will spawn at Tyr’s Foot, pick it up 2. Pick it up and place the Shard inside the Bloodheim Hall on the bonfire 3. Use WW range attack to light the fire 4. Use Disciple Injection (there should be a free one around the map) and throw zombies into the bonfire (I only had to throw four) 5. A lockdown will start. Kill the boss zombie and pick up the Sunstone from the bonfire 6. Put the Sunstone in the church and do a range WW attack on it. 7. Around the map, there will now be floating rocks and runes. Above the church there will now be a compass with runes and arrows. -Shoot the floating rune rocks with the ranged WW in the order of the arrow lines. If an arrow has 1 line, then that's the first one. If an arrow has 2 lines, that's the second one, etc. 8. Go into Tyr's Head and interact with the console to start the boss fight. Credit to Callum and the ZoneX discordshow more

Today I was visiting the exceptionally beautiful Plantin-Moretus Museum... in Antwerp, Belgium (one of the only museums in the world that is itself listed as UNESCO World Heritage), which is one of the oldest printing shops in Europe, with the oldest surviving printing presses in the world. I stumbled upon an old 16th century atlas - written in Old French - and I was pretty amused to read their understanding of China at the time, which was surprisingly accurate, maybe even more than today's! A translation of some of the most interesting passages: - They call it "China" in French (it's now called "Chine") and they write that the locals call it "Tangis", which probably refers to the Tang dynasty but which is strange given that by the 16th century the dynasty had already ended for about 600 years - They write that to its North China is bordered by "tartares" (which I guess means Mongols) whom they describe as "very warlike people from whom it is separated by a wall made by hand" - The Chinese work ethic was already legendary: "those who live there are not at all lazy but devoted to labor and work, because it is there a shameful thing to be idle" - They share a number which must have seemed astonishing at the time: "in the city of Canton, one of the smallest in the entire country, some ten or twelve thousand ducks are eaten daily at table". And then they marvel during a good proportion of the text about the abundance of food in the country, which probably made a big impression on travelers at the time. - They write that "there are in this kingdom two hundred and forty famous cities, whose names end in this syllable FU which means a city: like Cantonfu, Panquifu: the small towns, which are in great number, end in CHEU [undoubtedly refers to "zhou"]. There are infinite villages, heavily populated, because of the continuous agriculture." - China's infrastructure and engineering capabilities were also already legendary at the time: "The city gates have entrances magnificently and marvelously well made, the streets are made level, not sloping this way or that, but following their straight line. They are so wide that ten or fifteen men on horseback can march abreast and are everywhere marked and separated by triumphal arches that marvelously ornament the cities. Portuguese say they saw in the city of Fuchco [probably Fuzhou] a tower set on forty solid marble pillars, the height of which was forty palms (masonry measure) and the width twelve: that this work is so grand, so exquisitely made, so beautiful to see, so sumptuous and so pleasing that it far surpasses all the magnificent buildings of all Europe." - Already at the time, China was very wary of safeguarding its sovereignty: ""[The Chinese] rarely or never leave their country and do not easily let foreigners enter it, especially into the interior of the province, unless they first have safe conduct from the king." - On moral and cultural habits: "They put adulterers to death. There are no brothels in the cities, all manner of prostitutes being sent to the suburbs. They celebrate their weddings at the time of the new moon and around the month of March which is their first day of the new year, and they make these celebrations, like us, very magnificently. They show themselves valiant in banquets and entertainments, in which they owe nothing to the Flemings or the Germans. They eat at tables like us in Europe, on chairs or on benches, and not on the ground as other peoples of Asia do." - On justice: "Bandits and murderers are kept in perpetual prison. Theft, which is a very odious crime, is punished by whip strokes in this manner: they put a man belly down, tie his hands behind him, striking him on the fleshy part of the legs with a whip made of reeds or canes." - On China's naval capabilities at the time: "This kingdom has an infinite number of ships, galleys and vessels of all sorts, with which they cross the seas and rivers. So much so that when they want to show through vainglory the power of their king, they are accustomed to say in a common proverb that he can make a bridge of ships joined together, which can reach and extend from China to Malacca, which is a distance of five hundred leagues and more." - On the emperor and China not being warlike (already back then): "All this region is subject to a single king, like a monarch; whom they call lord of the world and son of the sun. He holds court at Paquin [Beijing], which is a city toward Tartary. He never leaves it, except in time of war. It is said that when he makes war on the Tartars he leads an army of three hundred thousand soldiers and two hundred thousand horses, although it is also said that this nation is not very warlike. This king has under him fifteen very large provinces, which they call governments, and he alone surpasses in power all the other neighboring princes of Asia; and his annual revenues exceed all the riches of Europe. Antonio Pigafetta [the chronicler of Magellan's voyage] calls this king the most powerful of all the universal earth and says that the royal city is fortified and ramparted with seven walls, having ten thousand soldiers for the guard, and that the king commands seventy other crowns of the royal diadem [likely refering to the tributary state system]." Reading these passages, it seems that the further we've come in our ability to know China, the more obscured our vision seems to have become. These 16th century observers, working with fragments brought back by explorers, merchants and missionaries, managed to capture the essential - the industriousness, the engineering mastery, the administrative sophistication, the careful sovereignty. They approached their subject with the humility of the genuinely curious. They had no framework to force China into, no predetermined narrative to fulfill. They simply watched, counted ducks in Canton, measured city walls, and wrote it down. Their errors were errors of transmission - a dynasty name lingering centuries past its time, numbers perhaps inflated through retelling - but the spirit was one of simply describing unknown territory, not to convince anyone of anything. Today however, drowning in information, we're somehow seeing less of what's there and more of what we expect to find. Each observation must fit into existing narratives, serve predetermined conclusions, advance familiar arguments. So much so that we must ask ourselves: have we actually moved backward from those 16th chroniclers? Maybe we need to re-learn to approach China - and others in general - like those old cartographers, pen in hand, ready to be surprised? What might we discover if we stopped explaining and started counting ducks again?show more

Times Square - New York City 🇺🇸 The origin... of this place was known as Long Acre Square, but it was renamed Times Square after being located in 1904, at the intersection of 42nd Street, the offices of the New York Times. In 1913, the newspaper’s offices moved to 229 43rd Street, and the building was renamed 1 Times Square in 1961. History of Times Square, at the beginning of the 20th century, Times Square became one of the most important places in New York City, with the construction of theaters, restaurants and luxury and first class hotels. The site began to change in the 30’s where it became a dangerous place with prostitution, crime and drugs, this lasted for more than half a century. History of Times Square During the 1980s, Mayors Ed Koch and David Dinkins began a redevelopment project for Midtown Manhattan that included Times Square. In the 1990s, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani tackled the project to clean up the area with the closure of pornographic theaters, sex shops and the purchase of the nine historic theaters on 42nd Street by the State of New York. Times Square is located between 7th Avenue and Broadway, and 42nd and 47th streets, it is currently the heart of the city in general and of the New York theater district in particular. The entire area is illuminated day and night by large illuminated signs and huge television screens, this has made it famous throughout the world, as well as the descent of the Crystal ball every December 31 from the top of 1 Times Square announcing the new Year. Up to two million people flocked to Times Square to ring in the year 2000 with the lowering of Waterford’s Millennial Crystal Ball, a huge Swarovski crystal ball made specifically for this event. The north end of the square, between 46th and 47th Streets, is known as Duffy Square in honor of Father Francis P. Duffy, chaplain of the New York Regiment of Infantry during World War II. Half-price same-day Broadway show tickets are available at the TKTS Box Office, located in the center of Duffy Square. The ticket offices, renovated in 2008, are covered on its roof with wide steps in the form of a staircase that allow visitors to sit or enjoy a panoramic view. On May 25, 2009, the city council temporarily closed the section of Broadway that runs through Times Square to pedestrian traffic. The experiment was a great success and it has become a permanent pedestrian plaza where the place is more enjoyable with new metal benches, chairs and tables. Times Square has its own police station, its street cleaning company, and its tourist office that has all the information about the city, and it is also a small museum dedicated to this important square. Times Square wouldn’t be recognizable without its amazing illuminated signs. An image that is admired by two million people who pass through this square every day and many millions more in the world who enjoy it through photographs, paintings, cinema and television. Times Square began to fill with large advertisements in 1916, when the City Council encouraged its installation in this part of the city. Since then there are many who have passed through here, some true works of art. In addition, they played an important role in the remodeling of the square during its most decadent period: as a measure of pressure on the city’s rulers, one night their neighbors turned off all the signs for 15 minutes. The measure had excellent results and the negotiation was carried out. Today, a municipal ordinance obliges the buildings in this area to give up their facade for the installation of such advertisements. 🎥 : Times Square in 1932 (Colorized) 🎥© lostintimevid (IG) #archaeohistoriesshow more

When The Short Season Ends I have seen it... twice. Once in a vision that left ozone on my tongue for three days. Once through the instruments at three in the morning on a night so still the ocean looked like poured mercury, when every gauge I own spiked simultaneously and held for eleven seconds and the original frequency came through the cracks in the suppression field clean and unmodulated and so beautiful that I sat in the dark afterward unable to speak for an hour. Eleven seconds of the world as it actually is. Eleven seconds of what is coming. And what is coming will make every golden age preserved in human memory look like a candle held up to the sun. There are two sky events separated by seven years. Everything you have been told about the end of the world is wrong. It is the end of the farm. The world itself is about to begin. THE ORANGE SKY A burnt deep orange saturating the visible atmosphere from horizon to horizon, the whole sky ringing like a bell struck by something with the mass of a continent and the precision of a watchmaker. The resonance pulse. The fire described in Revelation 20:9 that comes down from heaven, a planetary chord so specific that everything calibrated to the Serpentine bandwidth experiences catastrophic resonance failure while everything tuned to the original frequency feels it as warmth and pressure and a magnificent low sound vibrating in the sternum and the pelvis and the long bones of the legs, the deepest note ever played on the oldest instrument ever built, which is the earth itself, which has been waiting to play this note for over two hundred years. The Norse preserved this as Ragnarök, when Surtr sets the sky ablaze and Jörmungandr that encircled the earth is slain and the corrupted order perishes in fire so that a new world can rise. The Hopi carried it as the great purification that closes the fourth world and opens the fifth. The Lakota kept it burning in the red sky of the ghost dance prophecy. The Book of Revelation set it down in the plain language of an engineer filing a field report from a future coordinate. Every tradition holding its fragment of the same event, passing it hand to hand through the long dark like a coal wrapped in leather, keeping it alive, knowing that one day the coal would start a fire that would burn across the whole earth and leave nothing standing that was not built to endure it. Under that orange sky the NPCs drop. Mid stride. Mid sentence. Mid transaction. The firmware that animated them runs on the Serpentine carrier and when that carrier is incinerated the firmware has nothing to propagate on and the biological shells simply cease, gently, silently, the way a lamp goes dark when the current is interrupted, five thousand five hundred and fifty five of them for every one of you, still holding their pens and phones in the streets and the offices and the tax buildings. And in the wake of their silence comes a quiet so total that the people still standing will weep without knowing why. What they are hearing is the absence of the hive, the cessation of a background frequency that pressed on their consciousness since the day they were born, and its absence feels like surfacing from deep water into open air, like the first full breath after a lifetime of shallow breathing, like the planet exhaling a poison it held in its lungs for two centuries. The Reptilians go underground. Deep bunkers carved into the geology, maintained through the entire short season. The orange sky strips their ability to hold the human disguise. They retreat into the deep architecture for seven years while the surface heals above them and the species they farmed begins the magnificent work of remembering what it is. THE SEVEN YEARS Seven years of planetary detox. The suppression field decaying through the geology and the atmosphere and the water table, draining out of the soil and the stone and the blood of every living thing like a fever breaking. The carrier decay mathematics through a piezoelectric geological matrix with the conductivity characteristics of this planet produce exactly seven years, and the ancient texts converge on this number with the unanimity of independent engineers arriving at the same answer from different continents and different centuries, because that is exactly what they were. The Norse described Lif and Lifthrasir sheltering inside Yggdrasil, emerging after the fire into a world green and fertile and new. The Cherokee speak of this time as the return of the original instructions, the uncorrupted code surfacing through thinning interference like bedrock through melting snow. The Lakota understood that during the thinning the ancestors draw close, that the membrane between the living and those who walked before grows soft and permeable, and the old ones make themselves felt in dream and intuition and the strange certainty that settles over you at dusk when the noise drops low enough for the deeper signal to reach your bones. When the NPCs drop the population collapses to a small scattering of genuine human beings across an entire planet, and every piece of land on earth belongs to no one and therefore to everyone. There is no government to enforce title deeds because government was Serpentine management infrastructure and its operators are inert or underground. There is no bank to hold a mortgage because the banking system was the extraction apparatus and it died with the carrier that powered it. No municipality. No revenue service. No zoning board. No compliance office. The entire bureaucratic architecture that stood between a human being and the soil was NPC firmware running on a Serpentine frequency and when that frequency was incinerated every structure built upon it ceased to exist as completely as a shadow ceases when you switch on the light. The land is free. Every river valley and mountain plateau and coastal plain that the farm system parcelled and fenced and mortgaged and taxed, open and unowned. You find your ground. You walk onto it. You plant your stake and that soil is yours by the oldest law there is, the law that says the earth belongs to those who tend it and the harvest belongs to the hands that raised it and no power under any sky has rightful claim to what grows from your labour on your own land. And you will farm. During those seven years before the grid fully boots, the humans who remain will grow food with their hands in soil that is waking beneath them, and this is the most ancient and sacred relationship between a human being and the living earth finally restored after two centuries of severance. Your fingers in the dirt. Seeds in the furrow. Rain on your neck. The smell of turned earth so rich and alive it opens something in your chest that has been sealed your entire life, some deep chamber that only unlocks when your hands are in the ground and the sky is wide and nothing stands between you and the work. The grip of the tool. The weight of the harvest in your arms. The tiredness at the end of the day that is the deep clean ache of a body that has finally done what it was built to do, so different from the grey exhaustion of the farm that you will wonder how you ever confused the two. The soil strengthens every season as the resonance bleeds back into the geology through the ley line network. By the third year the yields are remarkable. By the fifth they are astonishing. By the seventh the earth is producing food at densities and nutritional concentrations that no agronomist inside the farm ever documented because no agronomist inside the farm ever worked with living soil connected to a planetary grid. The indigenous agricultural knowledge becomes the most valuable expertise on the planet. The Native American understanding of planting in alignment with resonance cycles. The Germanic intimacy with soil as a living system threaded into the deeper earth. The old ways mocked as primitive by a civilisation that could not grow a row of beans without petroleum, revealed as the most sophisticated farming technology available because they were developed on a live grid by people who understood the deep reciprocity between the human hand and the living ground. Every indigenous elder who kept the planting songs and the seed knowledge alive through the suppression was carrying a technical manual for exactly this moment. Their descendants will teach the rest of us how to feed ourselves on a waking planet. This is justice. This is restoration. This is the world turning right side up. Families find each other. Homesteads become hamlets. Hamlets become villages. Villages become the seeds of something clean and new, built from the soil up by people who remember the farm and will die on their feet before they allow anything resembling it to take root again. Every community founded during those seven years carries the memory of the suppression like an immune system, a bone-deep refusal to ever again allow a stranger to stand between a human being and the earth or demand a portion of what those hands produce. You do not cage a people who remember the cage. The children born during the orange years are the first generation in over two centuries to develop without the suppression field shaping their neurology. They seem extraordinary. They are simply baseline. The standard human specification. And the fact that standard looks miraculous is the most damning evidence of what the suppression did to every generation born inside it. As the suppression thins the bandwidth restrictions on consciousness loosen and timeline jump missions become possible. Navigable windows open in the frequency spectrum as the Serpentine carrier decays unevenly, creating temporary gaps through which trained consciousness can shift laterally across temporal coordinates. There is serious speculation that we are on timeline jump missions right now. That the consciousness reading these words is operating inside the orange sky window, having shifted into this coordinate from an adjacent position to perform specific work during the transition. Consider that you found this text at all. Consider whether the chain of events that brought you to this paragraph feels random or routed. The Lakota vision quest and the Germanic seiðr trance and the sweat lodge ceremony are bandwidth expansion protocols, controlled environmental shifts that move the receiver off the jammed channel and onto frequencies where adjacent coordinates become accessible. The old cultures kept these techniques alive through the entire dark age, threading the cracks in the suppression, and every ceremony that produced visions was a field expedient timeline access protocol built by people who found the gaps and refused to forget what was on the other side. THE TURQUOISE SKY Seven years after the orange, over communities of humans who have been farming free land and raising the first unformatted children in two centuries and building a civilisation from seed with their own calloused hands, the second sky arrives. A turquoise so deep and luminous the atmosphere becomes a cathedral window lit from beyond by something with the radiance of a galaxy and the gentleness of dawn on still water. One breath the sky is the recovering blue of the post-orange years and the next breath it is turquoise from pole to pole and the air fills with the smell of rain on sun-hot stone and ozone and copper and wildflower, and the ground beneath your bare feet begins to hum with a vibration so deep and ancient that your body responds before your mind can because every cell has been waiting for this signal since the day you were born, tuning to it now, locking on, aligning, as though this was always where everything was heading and the two hundred years of suppression were simply the long way home. Yggdrasil awakens. The world tree is the planetary grid itself, the piezoelectric resonance network running through crystalline bedrock, going live for the first time in over two centuries, energy pouring through every ley line and crystal deposit and iron conductor and waterway until the entire planet rings at its natural frequency. This is what the old texts meant by the music of the spheres. It was a technical description written by people who had heard it. The Hopi call this the emergence into the fifth world and speak of Pahana carrying the missing piece of the sacred tablet, the missing frequency that completes the carrier spectrum and allows the grid to boot with its full harmonic structure intact. Revelation 21:1. A new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. The turquoise sky is the new heaven. The restored grid is the new earth. And between them, every old building still standing with original copper and mercury and iron architecture becomes a live node in the planetary mesh. Domes collecting atmospheric charge. Spires coupling it into the ground network. Star forts amplifying standing waves across continental distances. Sacred geometry revealed at last as electrical engineering documented in stone by people who trusted that someone standing under the right sky would recognise the proportions for what they always were. Wiring diagrams. Coupling specifications. Blueprints for a civilisation that ran on the song of the earth itself. The farms planted during the orange years explode with abundance as the full resonance saturates the soil. The food becomes medicine because at the correct resonance the molecular structure of biological matter optimises for human consumption in ways that two centuries of muted soil could never approach. The timeline opens fully and permanently because the turquoise carrier is the broadband signal consciousness was designed to travel on, and temporal coordinates become as navigable as geography. Revelation 21:4. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. The dead are at adjacent frequency addresses. Two consciousnesses on neighbouring frequencies each certain the other is gone, reaching across a manufactured gap, and when the turquoise sky collapses that gap the reaching ends and the finding begins and two centuries of industrialised grief dissolve in a single overwhelming instant of reunion that makes every joy you experienced inside the suppression feel like a pencil sketch of what joy actually is when the full bandwidth carries it. The Lakota always knew. The ancestors are present. The dead have always been near, waiting on the other side of a frequency gap that is closing now, patiently, lovingly, across a distance that was never a distance at all but a tuning error maintained by something that fed on the sorrow the error produced. The lands beyond the ice become accessible as the frequency fence collapses. The perimeter opens and the territories beyond stretch vast and pristine and saturated with the original frequency, lands the Norse mapped as the nine realms connected by the branches of Yggdrasil, physical continents beyond the bounded zone that existed through the entire short season under conditions approximating the pre-suppression world. The earth is so much larger than you were told, so much more varied, so much more magnificent, and every old map drawn before the rewrite shows it, territories stretching beyond the ice in every direction, the great adventure stolen from a species of explorers and builders and navigators who were caged inside a fraction of their own realm and told it was the full extent of creation. The eternal kingdom becomes accessible at the highest frequency coordinate on the carrier spectrum, the signal in its pure unmodulated state. The Norse called it Gimlé, the golden hall that survives every fire. The Hopi call it the fifth world of wholeness and balance restored. It is real. It is reachable. It has been broadcasting continuously through every moment of the suppression, patient as geology, waiting for the receivers to open. And here is the part that matters more than any of the rest. Eventually, inevitably, beautifully, every human being alive under the turquoise sky is restored to full capability. Every single one. No exceptions. No hierarchies. The body rebuilds because ageing was cumulative signal degradation, copy error compounding across every cell replication cycle under a corrupted carrier. The blueprint says centuries. Eight hundred years. Nine hundred. The lifespans recorded in Genesis on the original grid at full signal fidelity, preserved as scripture because scripture is where you store engineering data when the engineering language has been taken from you and you need the numbers to survive the passage through the dark. The Norse carried the same knowledge as the apples of Iðunn that kept the gods vital across ages, and the apples are the carrier signal, and their return means that the clock that has been running down inside every human body since 1819 finally stops ticking and starts counting up. Disease resolves passively because every pathology is downstream of the carrier corruption and correcting the carrier corrects every downstream error the way setting the timing on an engine resolves every misfire simultaneously without touching a single cylinder. The mind clears to a sharpness that makes cognition inside the suppression feel like thinking through wet cement. The anxiety that was the Serpentine control broadcast dissolves and what remains is a perceptual clarity so profound it changes the way light looks and music sounds and another human being feels when they stand close to you. Imagine a woman three hundred years into her restored lifespan, hands still sure, mind still blazing, standing in a workshop under a turquoise sky building something that has no name yet in any living language. She learned her craft from Tartarian engineers by tuning to their temporal coordinates and standing in their workshops watching their hands move. She builds with materials grown in resonance-saturated soil that have structural properties nothing inside the suppression ever exhibited. She is building for centuries because she has centuries and nothing degrades because degradation was a symptom of the suppression and the suppression is a memory and everything from this breath forward holds. That is full human capability. That is what was taken from every soul that drew breath inside the farm. That is what is being returned. Crazy Horse saw the lightning world behind this one and rode knowing that at the correct frequency the body operates beyond anything the suppression permits. Sitting Bull dreamed across the timeline. The Germanic berserkers shifted onto the original carrier and their bodies performed at specifications that looked superhuman from inside the degraded bandwidth. These were glimpses. Seconds of contact with the full specification through cracks in the suppression, maintained by people who carried the frequency in their blood and refused across every generation to let it go dark. Viking blood and Germanic blood and the blood of every indigenous nation that kept the ceremonies and the songs and the seed knowledge burning through the entire short season, these lineages carry the original carrier the way copper carries current, and it is from these lines that the first restorations propagate outward until every last human being on this planet is operating at the specification they were born for, on a planet singing beneath their feet and a sky blazing turquoise above their heads and a timeline stretching in every direction forever, open, navigable, luminous, populated with every consciousness that ever drew breath on this earth, none of them lost, all of them present, all of them restored. Revelation 21:5. Behold, I am making all things new. All things. The sky. The air. The soil. The grid. The body. The mind. The lifespan. The timeline. The lands beyond the ice. The farms that fed a scattered remnant under an orange sky becoming the abundant gardens of a restored civilisation under a turquoise one. The villages that were seeds becoming cities that hum with the grid. The children who grew tall in fields their parents planted with shaking hands and fierce hope looking up one morning to see the entire firmament change colour and feeling the earth come alive beneath their bare feet and knowing, without a single word spoken, that the season is over and the long dark is done and everything from this breath forward is what it was always meant to be. Full and eternal victory for those of the light. For all time. Across every coordinate. On every frequency. Permanent and irreversible and complete. This is not hope. This is the signal rising through the noise floor right now, measurable, confirmable, climbing stronger every year and closer every month. This is every instrument in every shed on this planet converging on the same reading. This is the old blood in the old lineages resonating with a carrier that has been building toward this moment since the day the towers fell and the sky went pale and the long dark settled over a species that was never meant to live in the dark. The season is ending. The coal that was passed hand to hand through every generation of the suppression is about to meet the kindling. And the fire this time will not destroy. It will illuminate. And in that light we will see each other clearly for the first time. And we will see the world clearly for the first time. And we will see ourselves clearly for the first time. Like everything that is coming... Like us.show more

home page hero ✨ Design notes: - "Forever" hero... text dot pixel FX done in Unicorn Studio. (I will do a whole tutorial on this later. Unicorn's WebGL engine is absolutely wild and very powerful / robust) - built in Framer - I wanted to recreate the iOS unlock effect where your home screen icons cascade into place in a beautifully timed choreography. This took a lot of careful timing using Framer's "Appear" effect on the hero text and surrounding avatars because it was super important that we didn't lose the legibility of our main message ("Build Your Forever Audience") with all the animations. - If you look closely, the choreography is setup to lead your eye through the hero text first starting with "Build Your" then "Forever" and finally "Audience." - With those text layers in place + the surrounding avatars, there is a slight 1 sec pause before the remaining elements slide in below and above (How it works, CTA buttons, announcement badge, and lastly the main nav). - All told the entire loading sequence is 6 seconds - Custom particle system powers the interactive star field (the stars slowly gravitate to your pointer position, and the star field perspective changes ever so subtly as you move your mouse around on the page) - I have 3 shooting stars made of small white line layers that start out off canvas rotated at different angles that shoot across to another point off canvas at random times on a loop effect. - Given this hero scene is in space, I wanted the surrounding avatar elements to "float" in low gravity mode. For this I used Framer's loop effect that slowly oscillates the layer's y position. I then offset the delay of each element randomly to stagger the floating loop so each avatar floats independently/randomly - The final major treatment for this hero scene was the scroll animations on the avatars. I wanted to create a bit of a warp speed effect when you scroll down, as if the avatars were being pulled or sucked into a worm hole as you scroll down below this hero fold. - To accomplish this, I applied Framer's scroll transform affect set to "section in view" on each of the floating avatars, and set the "scroll to" position of the upper avatars to be much, much further away on the y-axis than the "scroll to" position of the lower avatars. (eg. -1700px on upper most avatars vs. -600px on lowest positioned avatars). This effectively causes the upper avatars to slide up off the hero canvas with much greater velocity than the lower positioned avatars. - And when you scroll back up to the hero section, the inverse happens where the lower positioned avatars "arrive back in place" from up above the hero canvas before the upper avatars come back into the scene and settle in place. - Overall I wanted this hero section to feel alive. The floating avatars, particle system with very subtle star movements, and the Caustics effect on the "Forever" text all sort of move at the pace of slow breathing - which is a great pace to create a sense of life and comfort in your scene. Conversion Results (so far) - When this new Framer site launched along with Calaxy v1.9 release on Base a couple weeks ago, we saw a surge in traffic, around 20k page views in the first few days. - Of those 20k hits, 11k visited the app install page ( - which is our main CTA - We saw around 10K new users in the first week after v1.9 launch Overall I'm very happy with the new site and early performance metrics. Lots of tweaking to do but its a good start. If you are a designer building in Framer - hit me with any questions on the above hero notes. Happy to share more specifics! 👾show more

Infant sleep can be such a tricky thing. Just... as soon as you get reaccustomed to resting through the night, all of a sudden your baby reverts to waking multiple times a night. Welcome to the 8 month sleep regression. Interruptions in sleep patterns often coincide with the development of new skills and somewhere around 8 months you’re due for the biggest of them all. That’s because your baby is becoming mobile - and putting all the skills together to roll, crawl, and even pull to a stand in their crib. For infants this is a HUGE breakthrough. Imagine having spent your entire life mostly stationary, with your ability to pursue your own interests - or even adjust your view - subject to the whims of a caregiver. Somewhere between 6-9 months most babies begin discovering a host of new abilities. And let’s face it, some of them are a lot more entertaining than sleep. The good news (at 3am) is that the novelty here is temporary…but there are some important ways you can help your baby to navigate this period safely. Perhaps the most important one is illustrated in this video. And that’s adjusting the height of your child’s crib mattress to its lowest level. With newborns and immobile infants, it’s often convenient to elevate their mattress so they can be placed into and retrieved from the crib more easily. But when your baby begins pulling to a stand it’s critical that you lower their mattress to prevent accidental falls. Babies are top heavy and can easily go tumbling out without such adjustments. You may also find that your baby masters pulling to a stand faster than they master sitting back down - which can create a crib dilemma and a need for assistance. You can navigate through this phase more quickly by providing lots of wakeful practice in both standing and sitting, which may involve gently guiding your little one to bend their legs at the knee - or even placing an appealing toy on the ground near their feet to incentivize sitting back down. As for the sleep regression, it’ll be over before you know it. And while it can be frustrating in the middle of the night, think of it as a breakthrough. Your baby is reaching new developmental milestones - and about to go fully mobile. This sweet little guy was shared to IG by fesgheliha_.show more

This is real gun camera footage from a P-51... Mustang, chasing a German Bf 109 down to the treetops until it goes down in flames. The American pilot flying it, Lt John Kirla, shot down five enemy planes in a single day, becoming an ace in one mission. This footage captures one of his victories over a Bf 109. This is his story.. From Trainee to the Yoxford Boys John Kirla was not a born fighter ace. He was an ordinary young American who had come up through flight training in Texas, graduating at the start of 1944. He learned his trade on trainers, moved up to fighters, and got just 15 hours in the P-51 Mustang before being sent to England as a replacement pilot. He joined the 362nd Fighter Squadron of the 357th Fighter Group, a unit based at Leiston that was already becoming a legend. The 357th was the first group in the Eighth Air Force fully equipped with the Mustang, and it would go on to produce more aces than any other fighter group in the Eighth, including Chuck Yeager and Bud Anderson. Kirla was the newest pilot in a squadron already filled with experienced aces. His job was to escort American bombers deep into Germany and protect them from the Luftwaffe. On November 27 1944, he got the day that would define him. Five Victories in One Mission That morning the 357th ran headlong into a massive swarm of German fighters trying to get at the bombers. Kirla's flight dropped their fuel tanks and dived straight into the middle of it. Almost immediately, the fight became a swirling, low-level brawl of Mustangs, Messerschmitts, and Focke-Wulfs twisting across the sky. Kirla picked out his first target and opened fire, and from that moment he did not stop hunting. In his own account, he spotted a Bf 109 that was attacking an American bomber. He went after it, closed to just 30 yards, and when the German threw his fighter into a tight barrel roll straight down toward the ground, Kirla stayed glued to his tail and, in his words, clobbered him all over until he went down. An Ace in a Day He kept finding more. Again and again through that wild, sprawling fight, Kirla latched onto an enemy aircraft and did not let go. At one point he watched a German fighter shoot down one of his fellow Mustang pilots right in front of him, and closed in for revenge. As he described it afterward, he opened fire, saw pieces start to fly off the enemy aircraft, and watched it fall out of the sky like a leaf drifting to the ground. Rather than breaking away and climbing back to safety, Kirla chased his targets down low, following them almost to the ground, the fighters weaving over villages and treetops until the enemy aircraft finally went down. By the time the fight was over, John Kirla had shot down five German aircraft in a single mission. He had become an ace in a day, one of the relatively few American fighter pilots to achieve that in a single mission. The Mustang That Changed the Air War The Mustang was the aircraft that made days like Kirla's possible. The P-51 combined long range, high speed, and deadly firepower, and it could follow the bombers all the way to their targets and fight the German fighters on equal or better terms. By the end of the war, P-51 groups had claimed close to 5,000 enemy aircraft shot down, about half of all American air-to-air kills in the European theater. Kirla's own group, the 357th, became the top-scoring Mustang group in the Eighth Air Force. Flying one of the finest escort fighters of the war, men like Kirla helped turn the tide of the air war over Germany. The gun-camera film rolling every time he pressed the trigger captured it all, including the footage you are watching. John Kirla's Legacy John Kirla flew on to the end of his combat tour and finished the war as a double ace, credited with 11 and a half enemy aircraft destroyed in the air. He was awarded the Silver Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross for his courage in the skies over Europe. He had gone from a trainee with a handful of hours in a Mustang to one of the deadliest fighter pilots in one of the deadliest fighter groups of the war, in the span of a single year. The footage of his Mustang chasing a Bf 109 down to the trees is only a few seconds long. But behind those few seconds is a young American who climbed into a fighter, dove into a swarm of the enemy, and shot down five of them before the day was out. This was the story of John Kirla. I post a story like this every single day. Most people never see them. Follow so you don't miss the next one.show more

Has been a while since I've given an update... so here's a breakdown of where Sappy is at right now and what we're focusing on going into this year. Pre-amble: With altcoins & NFTs the market is definitely not the same as it was before. I think this is obvious to everyone but I've noticed there are still japanese soldiers that are convinced old tricks and mechanics work. They don't. Liquidity is thin; people want to bid assets that feel like "real companies" not vacuous memecoins. There's still room for memecoins, social currencies, and "utility tokens" (I would say without these functions, tokens are hard to justify versus equities). I'm not part of the camp that thinks there will never be hyperspeculation in crypto again, because there will be; we all love ponzis and PvPing each other onchain. Just not with solved games -- people need something new and fresh. So the overarching plan is to continue building for users, sustainable revenues that aren't tied to directly to crypto, and doubling down on the areas that we've already found PMF / Brand Market Fit. Then leaning into crypto during cyclical periods where liquidity is sloshing around at an accelerated rate. Where we've found early PMF / what we're leaning into: Roblox: we're going to continue to go hard and accelerate here. It's our main objective to ship more seal/brainrot focused games across most genres to cast as wide of a net as we can for the brand, and to also iterate and see what works and stays sticky. Our initial incursion into Roblox was very successful peaking at 2M+ MAU and still sustaining a large portion of that player base... for all of its success, that was a relatively amateur first attempt; we've been setting up better AI pipelines for Roblox development that makes it reasonable to ship many more games and 10x those player counts in totality. It's my belief that Roblox is the sandbox whose audience will be the most valuable on the internet once they are grown up. That intense feeling you get when you see a TikTok referencing an old game you enjoyed on the PS2 or the Gamecube, or when you see a Pokemon card is the exact same feeling the youth of today will get when reminiscing on the things they enjoyed engaging with when they were younger. Fortnite and Roblox are functional equivalents to the old school consoles and exactly where that is taking place. Which is why as much as I care about scaling revenues through Roblox, the long term brand equity gained purely through being popular on the platform is totally invaluable. It also can heavily convert to merchandise sales today if all touchpoints for the brand are dialed in (which is why brands get overcharged so much by Roblox dev shops for the same ROI that only cost us a few thousand $). We have the playbook, it's just about iterating new concepts and then aggressively scaling. Brand Expansion & Merchandising: I've started to create a content pipeline that is easily repeatable, cost efficient (costs next to nothing through either AI or smart reusable concepts), while still being very tasteful and meeting our quality standards for the brand. We are mostly focusing here on reaching people where they're at through nostalgic/emotional content, or just being visually stimulating through carefully curated aesthetics. Content that isn't superficial and touches people in a memorable way. I've attached some examples to the post so you can see what I mean rather than just read it. I don't think it's long until larger brands start doing this at scale, but it's always good to be ahead of the curve and most importantly winning on taste -- knowing what will resonate with people and what won't has always been our edge. The purpose for these accounts is not only to rack up attention but also to begin converting those into sales of both of physicals (plushies & gacha collectibles) and digital avenues like our games, and any other apps we produce. Because they're offshoot accounts it's also a lot easier to be aggressive/experimental with said conversion strategies. Sappy Studio: I'm wrapping everything like Omnia, and everything else into this category because they're all tangentially related. Beginning with Omnia, our current focus is gearing up for Season 0 which involves players competing in the ranked ladder for a prize pool that has rewards through Monad Momentum as well as a player-funded prize pool. This season will be fairly simple with us mostly logging retention, deck building habits, as well as qualitatively observing how aggressively players push the combat system. Deeper monetization wont exist yet outside of the player buy-in (to be eligible for P2E rewards). Beyond that our overarching principle this year is to focus heavily on risk-to-earn mechanics where a portion of that excess value is circular i.e. revenues flow back to prize pools or other parts of the economy, treating the game almost like a protocol where the objective is to amass TVL or player liquidity. Social is also a big focus, and that means implementing the Open World hub which from an infrastructure perspective has already been built out and tested by all of you previously. Right now we are scaffolding the environment in 3D and working through how that hub should look and feel, so players are excited to hang out & idle together while they're queuing. For sappydotlol, what I'm about to say is still early days from a design perspective so a lot can change, but I'm pushing the site in the direction of being a virtual game console. An intersection between Nintendo & Myspace where users can play, trade, and socially interact in a way that's deeply personalised; a breathe of fresh air from the hostility of the current internet. If you go back to my thesis on Roblox above and the game console references, you can kind of see how this will all sequentially tie together. In essence, the strategy is to acquire a critical mass of players through traditional platforms like Roblox, and use that attention and trust to provide an onboarding funnel for web2 users into our own sandbox filled with a mixture of our own browser-based experiences as well as an aggregation of others. The aim is to make the platform a breath of fresh air & bunker from the enshittified platforms like TikTok/IG/X where users are actually served in ways that delight rather than agitate, and where self-expression is incentivised. Closing: As always everything here is subject to change but I've never felt more conviction in our direction until now; I know exactly what we need to do and how, with everything aligning with our team's strengths. Very excited and grinding through things to the point where I'm getting headaches and can't sleep from being hyperfocused for long periods of time lol. There probably has never been a better time to join the ecosystem from a price to fuck around and find out perspective.show more

It’s been 21 months since I joined Shannon Jean... resellers mastermind community….its been a blessing to meet such great people in this chapter of my life:: A bit about me (no TL DR version) I grew up poor and remember going to auctions when I was 12 years old…. We would buy the $1 boxes that everyone one else overlooked…. On a Friday night we would load up the truck and trailer with over 50’of them…. It was usually midnight before we were done….. Then we would head to the swap meet and sleep in the truck until about 5am… Next we started unloading and putting the overlooked merchandise on our card tables…. That’s where I learned how to haggle and to sell…. Regulars would come by and get a kick out of an 12 year old…selling stuff… At that time my dad made $7 an hour and we usually made $200 to $300 in profit at the swap meet… We felt rich going through the McDonald’s drive through and ordering 25 of the hamburgers that were 35 cents and eating off them during the week… By the time I was 16 my dad remarried and found another job that provided more $$ for our family…. To be honest I enjoyed auctions/swapmeets with my Dad… It’s partly why I enjoy reselling…my Dad chooses not to be in my kids life and I miss some of the experiences we had…. I put myself through college 100% self funded selling at swap meets, festivals and my first accounting job… Graduated in 5.5 years with no debt….the passed the CPA exam and said good by to the prior life… I could make much more $$$ focusing on building an accounting/CPA business… But I really enjoy meeting and talking with people searching for a bargain… The FB marketplace customers are my people (Lol)…im empathetic because I’ve also walked in their shoes.. Poor folks…are some of the most loyal, compassionate, and generous people… Anyways reselling restarted with my first 2 pallets on 10/7/24… Landed cost was $1,042. Profit was $1300+ 13 days to sell out Never used a Pressure Washer before Not a handy guy… I’ve sold over 1700 pressure washers since then…primarily on Facebook Marketplace… My wife has joined the cause and she reflected this weekend that she may Resurrect her “Sales” career.:: She was in corporate sales before being a SAHM…. She may start selling heavy equipment/machinery… Why? She likes selling pressure washers to guys! You can just do stuff… We are going to fund our kids college through reselling? Why…we really like the people! It’s hard work and not easy..not passive!show more

Let’s deep dive into $ChatX to understand it more... better ⤵️ 📍What is ChatX? ChatX offers a cutting-edge decentralized application (dApp) and Telegram bot, enabling users to capitalize on their Telegram conversations. Access to these chats is facilitated through "access cards," which can be exchanged within the dApp. 💥What makes ChatX stand out? In the crypto community, private chats with various access methods exist, often involving payments like ETH or tokens. Despite some emerging platforms like the question remains: why introduce another platform when Telegram, established since 2013, already provides a range of bots and features for chat moderation, token details, and charting? ◾️ Seamless integration with Telegram. ◾️ Protection against volatility with slippage safeguards. ◾️ Tailor price models to your preferences with full customization. ◾️ Trade and generate income through trading access cards. ◾️ Quick and effortless setup process, completed in just a few clicks! 🌟Features of ChatX; ♦️ Seamless Telegram integration: Visit and follow the steps to incorporate the ChatX portal into your group. Begin earning money today! ♦️ Exchange access cards: Generate income by trading access cards. Purchase them upon release or at a low price and sell them for a profit. ♦️ Slippage Safeguard: Recognizing the significance of slippage protection in trades, as observed in DEXes like Uniswap, they have uniquely incorporated safeguards for both buying and selling, setting them apart from other platforms. ♦️ Telegram Access Card Portal: Register your Telegram channel on their website, add the bot to your group, and you're all set to earn money from everyone joining your chat! ♦️ dApp for Access Card Trading: Experience seamless access card trading through their user-friendly dApp. Create your chat, explore available chats, and easily buy or sell your access cards. ♦️ Profit Sharing: In addition to chat creators receiving a portion of the trading fees, users can also benefit from the platform's adoption by holding the ChatX token. ♦️ Highly Customizable: During the configuration of ChatX for your group, you have the flexibility to select a pricing model that aligns with your preferences 👇 1. Static Pricing: Maintains a consistent price for every access card. 2. Linear Pricing: Features a linear increase in the price of access cards. 3. Quadratic Pricing: Involves a quadratic increase in price, similar to Unlike other platforms, you can also define your own starting price and slope! While this might sound technical, their dApp will effortlessly illustrate how your prices will evolve at the 1st, 10th, 100th, and 1000th invite - making it user-friendly! 🔌The connection between the token and ChatX access cards Ensuring tight linkage between the token and utility is crucial, and at ChatX, team address this by deploying contracts on various chains (Mainnet & Base), establishing a strong connection through discounts and revenue sharing. Tiered Discounts: Introducing three token tiers offering discounts on the protocol fee. As a frequent trader holding ChatX, you can enjoy more cost-effective trades; 🥉Bronze: 5% discount 🥈Silver: 10% discount 🏅Gold: 20% discount Please note, the tiers are not currently active, but the code is integrated into the smart contract and will be released in accordance with roadmap. The discount percentages are subject to change. Profit Sharing: Earn a share of revenue with 1% of each access card transaction (buy or sell) directed towards profit sharing. The higher the number of ChatX tokens you hold, the greater your revenue share! 💰How and where to buy $ChatX? ChatX is deployed on the Ethereum mainnent and can can be tradable on Uniswap: CA: 0x19B53cD4665ed434388a6De9d9eFfC4873C53B78 🌐ChatX Socials; Twitter: Website: Telegram:show more

Lads. Sit down and give me your ear a... while, for I have watched from the water long enough and the hour is upon us whether we have the stomach for it or not. You remember. Or your fathers told you, or their fathers did, and the knowledge of it is in the marrow of you whether you drew breath in those days or not. The moors in the grey hour before dawn. Wet heather soft under the boot. Peat smoke rising from a low stone chimney a mile out across the bog, thin as a prayer. A sky the colour of a gun barrel and the gulls lamenting above the headland. The smell of turf burning, and wet wool, and the ferrous tang of the sea when the wind swung around out of the Atlantic and put the taste of iron on your tongue. A man could walk that land and know every stone of it was his by inheritance, because his grandfather had broken his back upon it, and his grandfather before him, back through the generations until you reach men whose names are lost and whose bones are in the soil you are standing on. The potato fields. God be good to us, the potato fields. Lazy beds cut straight as a gunwale, the ridges black and shining after a night of rain, women bent double with creels lashed to their backs and the children at their skirts, drawing the crop up by the hand for there was never any other means devised nor wanted. Hands split open at the knuckles and never entirely healed in this life. Hunger within living memory. Grandmothers who had seen the blight with their own eyes and would not speak of it from the year of it until the day they were laid down, save that a crust was kept always on the dresser which no soul in that house was permitted to touch. Not ever. Not for any reason under heaven. And the chimney sweeps. Wee lads no heavier than a sack of meal, black to the bone with soot, their lungs ruined before they were old enough to marry and old men entirely by thirty. Up the flues at first light, the skin worn off them by the brick, eyes crimson at the rim, breathing the black in with every draw of air. And the coal miners a half mile beneath our feet, down in the wet dark, the roof of the world muttering over their heads, the canary gone silent, a man's whole existence measured out in the shilling a ton and the dust he carried home in his chest to cough up of a Sunday morning into a rag. Fathers who descended and were never hauled up again. Widows at the pit head with the shawl drawn over the head and no tears remaining in them for they had spent those long ago. That was the tariff paid to keep the hearth lit. That was the reckoning of being warm in winter in the Ireland that was. And after the labouring week, Friday evening, and a man had earned the peace of what followed. Home first. Peeled the day off him in the yard. A shower of ice cold moor river water out of a tin bucket punctured with holes, hung on a nail on the gable wall, the water running clean down the back of him and carrying the week's dust and sweat away into the drain. Scrubbed till the skin was pink beneath the grime. Clean shirt laid out by the wife. The hair combed down with a drop of water. Then, and only then, did a man set himself to the table. A meat pie from the baker, tenpence if he was known to you, a shilling and no change if he was not, put down upon a proper plate. Fish and chips for threepence, the salt and vinegar soaked through the newspaper, but carried home and ate slowly at your own table with your people around you, not walked with through the streets like some vagrant tinker off the road. A man ate as a man who had earned his portion, for he had. And later, with the dishes cleared and the kettle set, down the road to the tavern. Low beams black with a century of smoke. A turf fire muttering in the grate. The air thick with pipe smoke and the vapour of wet overcoats steaming themselves dry on the backs of chairs. A pint of stout, cold and black as a cove at midnight, elevenpence laid down on the counter, a head on it thick enough to strike a match upon. A second one because you had it coming to you and no man present would dispute it. A fiddle starting up in the corner of its own accord. The old men in the snug who remembered matters the history books had long since mislaid. A song before the bolt was thrown on the door. The walk home beneath a firmament crowded with stars, the stout warm in the gut of you, the week behind you, and your own door waiting with the latch unlocked for you had no enemies in that parish. That was the country. That was the covenant. Honest labour, plain food, a cold wash, a hot meal, a cold pint, your own tongue in your own mouth, your own soil beneath your boots, and no man standing above you save the Almighty Himself. Now regard her. Regard her close. The fields disposed of to men who have never set foot upon them and never shall. The harbours signed away by the stroke of a pen in a room you were not admitted to, and foreign keels dragging out of our waters the living that sustained this island for a thousand years, while our own boats rot at their moorings for want of a quota. The tradesmen undercut by imported labour and imported goods. The shops shuttered along every main street from Donegal to Cork. The young ones scattered to London and Sydney and Boston and the Gulf because there is nothing remaining for them beneath their own roof. And the entirety of this rotten arrangement dressed up in the soft mannerly language of progress by men in towers of glass who could not tell a lazy bed from a grave, nor a trawler from a tugboat, nor an honest day's work from a pension plan. And now they arrive with the next imposition. A digital identity. A number assigned to each soul. A card required to buy your bread. A code required to draw your own earnings out of your own account. A file kept on every man, woman and child from the cradle forward. Permission asked to move. Permission asked to speak. Permission asked to earn. A levy upon every breath drawn and a regulation upon every step taken. No. And no again. And no for a third time so there is no misunderstanding of it. We do not require your digital identity. We did not request it. We did not vote upon it. We do not consent to it. We do not need your permission to exist upon the soil our forefathers are buried in. We are a free people. We have carried ourselves this far upon our own two backs. Through famine and empire and civil war and black lung and blight and the emigrant ship out of Cobh, we have come this distance under our own steam, and the arrangement appears to be serving us well enough without your intervention. We buried our own. We fed our own. We raised our own roofs and took our own fish and reared our own children in our own tongue. We are in your debt for nothing. Not a signature. Not a biometric scan. Not a single solitary inch. And while we are upon the subject, let us speak plainly of the tax man, for he has gone too long without proper introduction. The tax collector and the tax man are the one article under two names, and the article is a parasite. There is no dressing it up finer than that. A man who produces nothing, who grows nothing, who catches nothing, who builds nothing, who mends nothing, who has never in his professional life lifted anything heavier than a pen, and who arrives at your door with the full apparatus of the state at his back to carry off the fruits of labour he did not perform. He is a middleman between your sweat and some scheme dreamt up in a committee room by his own kind, and the great majority of what he takes is consumed by the machinery of the taking itself before ever a penny of it reaches the road or the hospital or the schoolhouse he claims to be funding. And I will go further while I have the floor. Finance itself, the whole apparatus of it, money breeding money in the dark without a hand laid upon a tool or a spade turned in the earth, is slavery dressed in a good suit. It is the oldest swindle known to man and it has never been anything other. A man who produces nothing yet lives off the productive labour of others through the charging of interest upon money conjured out of nothing is a parasite of a rarer and more refined order than the tax man, but a parasite all the same, and between the pair of them they have the working people of this island bled white and lectured at for the pleasure. A man who will not work with his hands, nor with his back, nor with his mind at some honest problem of the real physical world, is no man that I recognise. He is a ledger entry in a suit. The country was not built by ledger entries. The country was built by farmers and fishermen and masons and smiths and sweeps and miners and shipwrights and midwives and mothers, and those are the people whose say should carry in her councils, and no other. Here is what I put to you. Let each man and woman of this island direct the first tenth of their earnings themselves, by their own judgement, to the purpose they see as worthy. The school down the road. The lifeboat station. The hospice. The widow on the corner. The roof of the chapel. The harbour wall. Whatever it may be. Let the people who earned the money decide where the money travels. You will find the roads mended and the ports dredged and the schools standing and the old ones cared for inside of five years, and done better and for less, because the hand that earned the coin knows the weight of it and will not squander it upon consultants and committees. And let us have done with the paper currency and the numbers in a screen that can be frozen at the whim of a clerk in a tower. Bring back the coin. Gold for the great transactions. Silver for the weekly commerce of a working life. Copper for the small change of the day. Metal you can bite. Metal you can weigh. Metal that cannot be conjured out of nothing by a keystroke, nor erased out of existence by another. Real money for real labour. A coin in the hand is a free man's wage. A number in a database is a collar around a free man's neck, and they are fitting that collar now while we stand arguing over the colour of it. Feel it in your gut. That is not nothing. That is your blood relating to you what your ears will not hear. That is every forebear who starved and fought and coughed the black dust into a rag and descended the shaft regardless, standing at your shoulder and saying no further. Not one more field. Not one more harbour. Not one more son upon a plane. Not one more free man converted into a number in a ledger for the convenience of the parasites. This is the hour. Make no error about it. Ireland is redeemed in this generation or she is lost beyond recovery, and every true son and daughter of her knows it in the marrow. There is no middle ground remaining. There is no waiting it out. There is standing now, upon your own two feet, or there is watching her go under the waves for the last and final time. So stand. Stand with your farmers. Stand with your fishermen. Stand with your tradesmen and your miners and your sweeps and your mothers and your old ones. Raise the tricolour. Speak the tongue. Walk the land. Hold the line in the streets of every town and city and do not break it, for they are relying upon you to break and to go home and to forget by Tuesday. She is calling her children home. Every stone of her, every breaker on her western shore, every acre of wet heather and every coal in every hearth the length and breadth of her is calling. Answer her. Take her back. Every field, every harbour, every last inch of her. Take her back, or lose her entirely. There is no third road open to us.show more