"When Su-Metal goes on stage, she is the tallest 5'1'' person in the world."
 
It is Su'nday, kitsune!
Everything which is related to our queen has its place here, new or old stuff.
 
Last week thread
Last week favourite post was "Blue Su" posted by jiupinkprincess
Congratulation jiupinkprincess! You are now the Ultimate Su fan for the week!
 
Special flair
"Ultimate Su fan of the week" >> jiupinkprincess, you can now wear this flair. As long as you keep the title, you can wear the flair! However, if someone else win the title, you'll have to remove the flair. There can be only one bearer of this flair!
here is the link to the thread by Facu474 where it is explained how to activate a flair, according to your system.
 
 
 
TITLES (this section is only shown at the first Su,Yui & Moa days of each month).
Currently, we have:
 
Legendary Kitsune (9 tails): da_one1morelight ; RemarkablyCalm ; BLAKEPHOENIX; u/meta_tom ; jiupinkprincess ; rickwagner
 
Multi-tails kitsune: NoiseAdministrative2 (7 tails) ; KAR-METAL (4 tails) ; GrowlMetal (3 tails) ; VinceMetal (2 tails) ; Homeworld2 (2 tails ; ThisIsMaddening (2 tails) ; mikays (2 tails) ; crackzame (2 tails) ; Shamata (2 tails) ; MG_TheShrike (2 tails) ; saintsfan92612 (2 tails) ; PikaPriest (2 tails) ;
 
Ultimate Babymetal fan: da_one1morelight (x69) ; meta_tom (x25) ; jiupinkprincess (x19) ; RemarkablyCalm (x11) ; BLAKEPHOENIX (x7) ; rickwagner (x7) ; KAR-METAL (x3) ; newtypestring (x3) ; GrowlMetal (x2) ; VinceMetal (x1) ; Homeworld2 (x1) ; ThisIsMaddening (x1) ; mikays (x1) ; crackzame (x1) ; Shamata (x1) ; MG_TheShrike (x1) ; NoiseAdministrative2 (x2) ; saintsfan92612 (x1) ; Chadwick_chad (x1) ;
 
 
Ultimate Su fan:
AidilAfham42 (x1)
Alesanko (x3) ;
Autopilot_Psychonaut (x1) ;
BLAKEPHOENIX (x7) ;
Chadwick_chad (x1) ;
Codametal (x1)
Com1ngOfAgr (x1)
crackzame (x1) ;
Cradlerocker_1995 (x3) ;
cubervic (x1) ;
da_one1morelight (x80) ;
ElevenLongships (x1) ;
Facu_feg (x10) ;
FutureMetal444 (x2) ;
GrowlMetal (x5) ;
hachiroku16 (x1) ;
Homeworld2 (x3) ;
inkybloaters(x1) ;
I_Saw_The_Sign (x1) ;
JeTu66 (x1) ;
jimmy-metal99 (x1) ;
jiupinkprincess (x26) ;
JMSMinnesota (x1) ;
KAR-METAL (x12) ;
KirstyMeta97 (x1)
Kmudametal (x1) ;
KurausuSon (x1) ;
kranzx (x1) ;
L1GHTG30 (x2) ;
Maxxash (x2) ;
MC_Cryptid (x1) ;
meta_tom (x25) ;
MG_TheShrike (x2) ;
mikays (x9) ;
moonshutr7 (x1) ;
mtobing11 (x1) ;
newtypestring (x3) ;
NoiseAdministrative2 (x2) ;
nukedog7 (x1) ;
PearlJammer0076 (x1) ;
PikaPriest (x3) ;
ONErondo0fGHOSTS (x1) ;
Q-METAL (x3) ;
RainbowAnna89 (x1) ;
RemarkablyCalm (x12) ;
RequiescatxInxPace (x1) ;
rickwagner (x9) ;
Rina_Rina_Rina (x1) ;
saintsfan92612 (x2) ;
Sarckie (x1) ;
Shamata (x1) ;
spacebug30 (x2) ;
Spotmetal (x1)
Tanksenior (x22) ;
ThisIsMaddening (x4) ;
Tyson_Jon87 (x1)
VinceMetal (x3) ;
xd_Warmonger (x1) ;
ZlleH (x1)
 
(only the titles gained from the 175th edition of each thread are taken in account)
 

• "2/3/4/5/6/7/8/9 tails kitsune" : Gain a new tail by winning both the "Ultimate Babymetal fan" title, and the "Most dedicated kitsune" title! Also, if you win 10 "most dedicated kitsune" titles, you get a tail! (Good luck to get 9 tails!)
  
• "Ultimate Babymetal fan" : Gain the Su, Moa and Yui "Ultimate" titles.
  
• "Su/Yui/Moa ultimate fan" : rewards the most upvoted post in those threads. Only 1 post by thread is taken in account. The answers to a post are not taken in account.
  
• "Most dedicated kitsune" : rewards a kitsune who posts a goodies in each of the 3 girls special threads from the same week (Sunday+Monday+Tuesday, also the "momometal" thread can be taken in account in replacement of the Yui thread). The answers to a post ARE taken in account but only if a goodie is integrated with the answer, furthermore only the posts/answers with 10+ upvotes will be taken in account. Note: a goodie could also be a text like that or a haiku and so on. For every 10 "most dedicated kitsune" titles you win, you get a new tail.
  

 
 
 
SUPERQUIZZ!!
Part 1 beginner ; Part 2 members questions ; Part 3 Lyrics & Songs knowledge questions ; Part 4 Pochette, Show knowldege & cultural questions ; Part 5 Various questions
 
 
Archives
I only link the last thread of each month. If you want to reach the second thread of a month (for example) just navigate through them by using the "last week thread" link. Andy1295 Su'nday threads! ; 09/2017 10/2017 ; 11/2017 ; 12/2017 ; 01/2018 ; 02/2018 ; 03/2018 ; 04/2018 ; 05/2018 : 06/2018 ; 07/2018 08/2018 ; 09/2018 ; 10/2018 ; 11/2018 ; 12/2018 ; 01/2019 ; 02/2019 ; 03/2019 ; 04/2019 ; 05/2019 ; 06/2019 07/2019 ; 08/2019 ; 09/2019 ; 10/2019 ; 11/2019 ; 12/2019 ; 01/2020 ; 02/2020 ; 03/2020 ; 04/2020 ; 05/2020 ; 06/2020 ; 07/2020 ; 08/2020 ; 09/2020 ; 10/2020 ; 11/2020 ; 12/2020 ; 01/2021 ; 02/2021 ; 03/2021 ; 04/2021 ; 05/2021 ; 06/2021 ; 07/2021 ; 08/2021 ; 09/2021 ; 10/2021 ; 11/2021 ; 12/2021 ; 01/2022 ; 02/2022 ; 03/2022 ; 04/2022 ; 05/2022 ; 06/2022 07/2022 ; 08/2022 ; 09/2022 ; 10/2022 ; 11/2022 ; 12/2022 ; 01/2023 ; 02/2023 ; 03/2023 ; 04/2023
 
Contribute
Want to participate or make one of these threads, partially or entirely? Any suggestion? Just PM me! ^{It's always welcome!}
 
And to start the thread, here is an album.
 
Enjoy your Su'nday

All my games are NIB/sealed unless otherwise noted. Always willing to look at lists and am primarily looking for Nintendo items. I ship on Wednesdays.
Here is what I have to offer: HAVE
Switch *A Hat In Time *Aqua Moto Racing (CIB) *Azure Striker Gunvolt *Bad North *Battle World Kronos (CIB) *Ben 10 *Blacksad Under the Skin *Blazblue Cross Tag Battle *Brigandine *Clannad *Close to the Sun *Contra Rogue Corps *The Count Lucanor *Crayola Scoot (CIB) *Darksiders II *Dead by Daylight *Dead Cells *Diablo III Eternal Collection *Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth *Dimension Drive Limited Edition (PA-0149) *Disgaea 5 *DOOM *Dragon Ball Fighterz *Dragons Dogma *Fate/Extella Link *Fault Milestone One *FIFA 18 *FIFA 19 *FIFA 20 *Galak-Z The Void + Skulls of the Shogun *Gigantic Army *God Eater 3 *Hell Warders *Hellmut *Hotline Miami Collector's Edition (SRG-2280) *Hover *Ice Age Scats Nutty Adventure *Indivisible *Instant Sports (CIB) *Instant Sports Summer Games *Kotodama 7 Mysteries of Fujisawa *LA Noire *Layers of Fear Limited Edition LRG *Monster Hunter Generations *Mortal Kombat 11 *Mother Russia Bleeds *Mutant Football League *My Hero One's Justice *NBA 2K Playgrounds 2 *NBA 2K18 *NBA 2K19 *NBA 2K20 *New'n'Tasty Oddworld Abe's Oddysee Limited Edition *Northgard (CIB) *Nurse Love Obsession *Oddworld Stranger's Wrath HD Limited Edition *Oddworld Munch's Oddysee Limited Edition *Our World Is Ended Day One Edition *Payday 2 *Planescape: Torment & Icewind Dale Enhanced Editions *Poi *RBI Baseball 17 US Cover *RBI Baseball 17 CA Cover (CIB) *RBI Baseball 18 US Cover *RBI Baseball 18 CA Cover (CIB) *RBI Baseball 19 US Cover *RBI Baseball 19 CA Cover (CIB) *RBI Baseball 20 US Cover *RBI Baseball 20 CA Cover *Race with Ryan *Remilore: Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore *Reverie Sweet As Edition (PA-0569) *Riot *Risk of Rain 2 *Saints Row the Third *Saints Row IV *Samurai Shodown *Scribblenauts Mega *Scribblenauts Showdown (CIB) *Shantae Half Genie Hero Day One Limited Edition *Shaq Fu *Sid Meier's Civilization VI *Sine Mora EX *Skully *Slain Back From Hell *Sniper Elite III Ultimate Edition *Sniper Elite V2 Remastered *Soccer Tactics *South Park The Fractured Butt Whole *Sports Party (CIB) *Spyro Reignited Trilogy *Star Wars Jedi Knight Collector's Edition *Star Wars Jedi Knight II Collector's Edition *Star Wars Racer Collector's Edition *Star Wars Pinball *Steins Gate Elite Limited Edition (slight corner damage) *Steven Universe Save/ OK K.O.! *Street Outlaws: The List *Streets of Rage 4 Classic Edition *Streets of Red Devil's Dare Edition *Super Blood Hockey Standard Edition *Super Dragon Ball Heroes World Mission *Super Street: Racer *Tennis World Tour *Tennis World Tour Roland Garros Edition (CIB) *Thea The Awakening *This is the Police *This is the Police 2 *This War of Mine *Tiny Barbarian DX *TT Isle of Man - Ride on the Edge (CIB) *Uglydolls An Imperfect Adventure (CIB) *Umihara Kawase Fresh *V-Rally 4 (CIB) *Vampyr *Warriors Orochi 4 *Wasteland 2 (CIB) *Wild Guns Reloaded *WRC 8 *Xenon Racer *Yomawari: The Long Night Collection *Yu-Gi-Oh Legacy of the Duelist *Zombieland
Wii U *Bowser Wii Remote Plus *007 Legends *Adventure Time Explore the Dungeon Because I Don't Know *Adventure Time Finn & Jake Investigations *Amazing Spiderman (CIB) *Amazing Spiderman 2 (CIB, Walmart cover) *Amazing Spiderman 2 - CIB bad disc *Assassins Creed III (CIB) *Assassins Creed IV Black Flag (CIB) *Barbie Dreamhouse Party (CIB) *Barbie Puppy Rescue *Batman Arkham City Armored Edition (CIB) *Batman Arkham Origins (CIB) *Ben 10 Omniverse (CIB) *Ben 10 Omniverse 2 (CIB) *Book of Unwritten Tales (CIB) *Cabela's Big Game Hunter Pro Hunts (CIB) *Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2013 *Call of Duty Black Ops II (CIB) *Call of Duty Ghosts (CIB - missing single insert) *Cars 3 Driven to Win *Croods *Darksiders II (CIB - nordic games cover) *Darksiders Warmastered Edition *Dues Ex: Human Revolution Director's Cut *Epic Mickey 2 (CIB) *Ducktales Remastered (CIB - no pin) *ESPN Sports Connection (CIB) *Family Party 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade (CIB) *Fast and Furious Showdown (CIB) *FIFA Soccer 13 (CIB) *Funky Barn (CIB) *Game Party Champions (CIB) *Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams - Director's Cut *Hello Kitty Kruisers *Hot Wheels World's Best Driver (CIB) *How to Train Your Dragon 2 (CIB) *Injustice (CIB) *Jeopardy *Kung Fu Panda *Madden 13 (CIB) *Mario Party 10 Mario amiibo bundle *Marvel The Avengers Battle for Earth *Mass Effect 3 (CIB) *Mighty No. 9 *Monster High 13 Wishes (CIB) *Monster High New Ghoul in School *Monster Hunter 3 (CIB) *NBA 2K13 (CIB) *NBA 2K13 (CIB, bad disc) *Need for Speed Most Wanted U (CIB) *Nickelodeon Spongebob Squarepants Planktos Robotic Revenge (CIB) *Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures *Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures 2 (CIB) *Penguins of Madagascar (CIB) *Phineas and Ferb Quest for Cool Stuff (CIB) *Planes (CIB) *Planes Fire and Rescue *Rabbids Land (CIB) *Rabbids Land (CIB, bad disc) *Rapala Pro Bass Fishing (CIB) *Rayman Legends *Rayman Legends (CIB, bad disc) *Resident Evil Revelations (CIB) *Rise of the Guardians (CIB) *Rodea They Sky Soldier w/Bonus Game *Runbow Deluxe Edition *Scribblenauts Unlimited (CIB) *Scribblenauts Unmasked (CIB) *Scribblenauts Unmasked w/DVD (CIB) *Shantae Half-Genie Hero Risky Beats Edition *Smurfs 2 (CIB) *Sniper Elite V2 *Snoopy's Grand Adventure *Splinter Cell Blacklist (CIB) *SteamWorld Collection (CIB) *Tank!Tank!Tank! *Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (CIB) *Terraria *Transformers Prime (CIB) *Transformers Rise of the Dark Spark *Turbo Super Stunt Squad (CIB) *Walking Dead Survival Instinct (CIB) *Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper (NIB, seal is ripped) *Watch Dogs (CIB) *Wheel of Fortune (CIB) *Wipeout 3 (CIB) *Wipeout Create & Crash (CIB) *Zombi U (CIB)
DS *Game and Watch Collection CIB *Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass CIB
GameCube *Bloodrayne Disc only *Die Hard Vendetta Disc only *Beyblade VForce Disc only *Army Men Sarge's War Disc only *Black Gameboy Player (no disc) *MadCatz Controller
PS5 *DualSense Wireless Controller *DualSense Charing Station
Here is what I'm after: WANT
Switch Games *Advance Wars 1+2 *Bayonetta 3 *Bayonetta Origins *DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power *Kirby and the Forgotten Land *Kirby Return to Dream Land Deluxe *Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom *Lego Brawls *Live A Live *Mario and Rabbids Sparks of Hope *Mario Strikers Battle League *Metroid Dread *Metroid Prime Remastered *Pokemon Legends Arceus *Pokemon Shield + Expansion Pass *Pokemon Sword + Expansion Pass *Splatoon 3 *Tetris Effect: Connected *Triangle Strategy *Xenoblade Chronicles 3
Switch Accessories *Joy-Cons (yellow, mario red) *Joy-Cons Zelda Edition *Themed Switch docks
Gamecube *Mario Party 5 - CIB *Mario Party 6 - Manual only *Purple Gameboy Player (with or without disc) *Component cable *S-Video cable
PSP *Me and My Katamari
Wii *Animal Crossing City Folk with or without microphone
3DS/DS *Arkanoid *Atari Greatest Hits 1 *Atari Greatest Hits 2 *Break 'em All *Centipede Infestation 3DS - Case only *Deal or No Deal DS - Game only *Detective Pikachu 3DS - Case/artwork only *Elf Bowling 1 & 2 *Korg DS *Korg DS Plus *Mario vs Donkey Kong 2 DS - Game only *Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Gates to Infinity 3DS - Case and manual only *Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon 3DS - Case and manual only *Space Invaders Extreme *Space Invaders Extreme 2 *Space Invaders Revolution *Tetris DS *Tetris Party Deluxe
GB/GBC/GBA *Gameboy Camera *Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages *Pokemon Pinball *Pokemon Gold *Consoles

"Great Days And Glorious Victory! My Name is Spifflemonk aaand welcome to my Letsplay! Today we will be celebrating the recent release of many games to the open market by Humans with a game that was recommended to me many times by my work colleague. Hats off to you Jerry! Today we will start with a game called: Factorio. Okay... Apparently it is a resource management and automation game with a simple graphics component. Let's check some of the reviews."
*Spifflemonk looks at some of the reviews for the game and grows disturbed and confused.*
"Erm.. hmm... Is this a human thing? These reviews are all positive but... all of them say the same thing. The last maybe two hundred reviews all say a different iteration of the same thing. Is this a joke or... am I getting into something bad here?"
*Spiffles screen displays a short scroll of the latest reviews. All of them say something along the lines of: THE FACTORY MUST GROW*
"Well, okay then. I know this game does have mods, I looked earlier to test my game settings and recording software. I will be ignoring all of that for now and focusing only on the 'vanilla' experience, is what the humans call it? I think... Okay well lets get started erm... New Game... Sandbox... oh... this looks complicated. Just go default settings and start."
*The game screen loads fast and the introduction sequence plays, starting with the sound of explosions and a bleep noise, explaining how to win the game. Victory is achieved by launching a rocket with either a satellite or the player in it.*
"So... from what I can tell here, the player, that's this little guy here, needs to build a factory to make rockets to get back into space after crash landing. Okay, how hard can that be?"
*The following hour of gameplay takes place with Spifflemonk learning the controls of the game, getting used to the graphics and doing some exploring. Eventually he actually gets to work, placing his first miner down, and putting his first stone smelter next to it. He spends a few minutes clearing boulders and trees in his crash site and slowly accumulates resources enough to add more miners, eventually setting up his first belt line and assembler after the first hour.*
"Right then! That's good uh... According to this I need to do research by making Science Packs? Okay so... I need to automate red science because hand crafting is.... very slow. Very very slow. Okay then uhh... Iron Gears and Copper plates? That's easy! I will just..."
*Another twenty minutes pass by, seemingly a bit too fast as he finishes hand crafting the first fifty Red Science. Depositing a few of them into a science lab and looking at what research is available.*
"Hmmm... Automation. That's going first, I can build assemblers now. After that maybe... Logistics? What's this? Belt Splitters, Underground Belts and Inserters? Oh look, power generation, that will be needed! I will start with...."
*Two hours pass without Spifflemonks notice as he upgrades and improves, adding production lines to automate the construction of Red Science packs. Finally unlocking Green Science packs.*
"Oohhh this gets a LOT more complicated... I need a mix of multiple resources to make these. Iron Gears, Copper Plates, Iron Plates... Green Circuits?! Where do I get those?! Oh... So... this goes here and that can go..."
*A further forty minutes pass when SpiffleMonk begins to panic as a red triangle with an exclamation point appears on his screen, indicating his factory is taking damage.*
"What? WHAT!? What's that red thing, is that some kind of alarm!? Okay uhh... let me just go see what it is then."
*Spifflemonk hastily runs towards the noise to find the games enemies: the Bug Hives of Nauvis attacking his Copper mines.*
"What are those things? AAHH STOP EATING MY MINERS!!! Oh gods oh gods where.. do i have a weapon or... I do have a gun! Okay uhhh... Shoot!"
*Spiffle fumbles but eventually finds the shoot button, and three of the six aliens chewing on his base get killed. He does however run out of ammunition for his simple pistol, and the aliens redirect their attention to his character.*
"What? Why isn't it firi-I'm out of bullets? This needs bullets?! Wait, wait NO-"
*A group of six aliens attack him and kill his character, resulting in a game over screen. The game automatically deletes his save file, as the difficulty is set to hardcore.*
"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-"
*His channel outro plays.*
TOP COMMENT: "THE FACTORY MUST GROW."
__________________________________________
"Great Days And Glorious Victory! My Name is Spifflemonk aaand welcome to my Letsplay! Today we are going to try Factorio out again. Last time did not go well. BUT I have a better knowledge about the game and one of the first things I know to do is make ammunition! I know Im not alone here this time so I can prepare for it. Lets play!"
*Game starts with the same settings as the previous time, Spifflemonk wastes no time and clears the local area of trees and rocks and immediately starts automation as quickly as he can. Within two hours, he is roughly close to where he was when he got killed last time.*
"Right! I looked more at the research options and found better gun, better bullets and automated ammo production. As you can see, its green science, red science and as you can see, the first few bits of Military science are just coming off the assembly line. I was told from the last comments... aside from the crazy chanting... I needed to get walls, gun turrets and other things, and try not to pick a fight."
*Spifflemonk continues gameplay for a further hour or so before that all too familiar signal blares, the red triangle with an exclamation mark appears.*
"AHA!!! Now we will see who's the boss in this factory! Have at thee!"
*Spifflemonk heads towards the target and encounters a group of eight enemies, who he easily deals with. After replacing tw destroyed miners, he resumes working and begins to automate oil processing.*
"What is oil in this game? Is it like balm oil or something? Do humans use handwashing agents as industrial machinery? What is oil in this... hold on let me see something..."
*Spifflemonk pauses his gameplay and reads out an article on crude oil and fossil fuel industry, then a follow up article on plastic.*
"Plastic... and petroleum. Well thats... okay. Well we have something similar but we generally used hydrogen and stuff. I don't even know if my homeworld has the same... we never needed it. We mostly use ceramics and stuff as well as silicon based industry so... we don't have plastic in our industry. Wood and a sort of bitumen substance is the closest we have to your human coal and we have no crude oil processing at all so... no plastic. Is that why human circuitry processing is so cheap? Plastics?"
*Spifflemonk makes a note to do some research later on and carries on with automation. Eventually about an hour or so after starting to produce plastic bars, the alert sound rings ut again and Spifflemonk charges out to meet the new enemy.*
"Okay let's go! I'm still making bullets and guns so I should be HOLY CRAP!"
*Spifflemonk arrives and is swarmed by an army of around three dozen or so enemies, and is killed while attempting to run away. Once again, his save is still in hardcore mode, so he dies, a game over screen occurs, and his save is deleted.*
"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-"
*The gameplay ends and Spiffles outro plays out as normal. However it seems as though the audio wasn't properly edited and a number of seriously bad curse words and slurs can be faintly heard in the background.*
TOP COMMENT: "Hardcore mode? I think you should turn it off in your gameplay settings dude. Hardcore mode is something players of only like maybe 150 hours or more would attempt. In any case, good effort! Build walls, turrets, get secured asap next time. Subbed and liked!"
_______________________________________________________
"Great Days And Glorious Victory! My Name is Spifflemonk aaand welcome to my Letsplay! Today it's going to be Factorio again!"
*The channel intro plays and the screen cuts to a factory that seems already built.*
"On the recommendation of some of my subscribers, thank you all by the way, I have turned hardcore mode off and started building walls and defenses. This game looked so stupidly simple I had no idea just how... intricate it really is. So this time instead of taking you all through the long and boring i have pre buit my base and as you can see I have started producing the first batches of Blue Science, and have here something humans have in real life apparently: Trains!"
*A quick overview of the base is shown, followed by a short montage of the bases construction. A blueprint is outlined for later construction that produces Purple Science and logistics robots, along with a side factory that makes various other things such as belts and assemblers. The factory however, is a mess made of spaghetti, with obvious bottlenecks and mishmashes of belts.*
"I think i'm getting the hang of this game! Okay so, let's go see what we can do. And before you ask, yes I have already died twice while building this place."
*An hour or so of gameplay follows, with Spiffle checking and rechecking his factory, adding bits here and there, putting more belts in, and having a short pseudo aneurysm while figuring out the intricacies of the blueprint upgrader before finally arriving at his newly built train.*
"According to humans and the Factorio guide, trains are a long term, long range logistics solution that replaces belts across long distances. Humans apparently had these things for hundreds of years, in real life. They still operate today apparently, you can find a few of these 'railway networks' on Earth and other colonies. This will be the first time we use one. I had no idea how to automate this so I had to watch a guide so, don't judge me. So... let's go!"
*Spifflemonk enters the train and opens the UI to start the automation sequence. The train spools up then charges round corners at breakneck speeds and arrives at a train stop for a Stone Mine several miles away from his main base. As instructed in the guide, the train loads up on stone and once full, charges back at blistering speed back to his main base. He is a little bit too giddy at the result."
"WHY DON'T WE HAVE THESE!? That was amazing! No seriously, Council of Elders, ask the humans if we can borrow some of their trains. This would have solved SO many problems back in the day! SO many problems! Look how much this thing can carry!"
*Gameplay stops, Spifflemonks Outro plays. The next video he releases is a two and a half hour long video essay entitled: "Why we need to beg humans for trains' and receives nearly half a billion views.*
TOP COMMENT: "Seriously? You guys dont have trains? I'd love to know how that actually worked for you guys to get to space or do mass transit. I can recommend a few games if you want."
__________________________________________________________
"Great Days And Glorious Victory! My Name is Spifflemonk aaand welcome to my Letsplay! Today we are back with: You guessed it, Factorio! Last time was a solid... month I think between that episode and my last upload. That was because I was trying out a train for myself! I went to the human colony of Epsilon Eridani nearby and tried a train. Best thing ever. Why don't we have those? Anyway, today on Factorio it's time for expansion!"
*Spifflemonks intro plays and a further overview of the factory is played, showing a separated train network with multiple railway sections with up to 30 trains running at once. Further advancements have been made, with a series of blueprints laid out and half completed for the production of yellow science.*
"As you can see I did some off camera work here. I do read your comments, I will try to make my videos, especially on these games, slightly shorter. And also, I checked the reviews again. I'm starting to understand where you are coming from. Factory must grow. From players with upwards of two thousand hours. With how short lived humans are you'd expect the to not spend two thousand hours playing a game, now would you."
*Sheepishly displays his own time of one hundred and thirty four hours, before returning to the game*
"So anyway. Today, as far as I can tell from the research queue, is the last day we will play as I am not that far off from-"
*Spifflemonk is interrupted by several attack alerts, noticing on his map that there are several attacks going at once across his frontline. Spiffle assumes all is well and ignores it. A minute later, he starts noticing that Copper production has stopped, and looks up again at his mining outpost to notice there is a truly MASSIVE biter army overwhelming and obliterating everything there. He panics and subsequently dies six times trying to take the biters out.*
*In the ensuing chaos Spifflemonks base is seriously damaged with Green circuits and Blue circuit factories being destroyed, part of his ammo production line is cut and four of his trains destroyed too. The entire north and north east face of his base is completely destroyed. The equivalent of twelve hours of work lost, to the tune of maybe another thirty minutes to an hour of replacing everything the biters destroyed.*
"Thats... thats just plain evil! How am... how am I supposed to beat that!? There were thousands of them! Okay, screw this, I am reloading a save!"
*Spifflemonk reloads the save and tries again. He redirects his attention to strengthening his defenses, doubling the number of turrets and strengthening his defensive line. The biters attack again, and this time Spiffle barely, very barely, makes it out with no major losses.*
"This is insane... absolutely insane! Okay... I get it. I need more guns. The rocket will have to wait I guess. So what do i- Flamethrower turret? What's a flamethrower?"
*Spifflemonk looks up the concept, unfortunately clicking on the wrong link and showing what flamethrowers were used for in the Vietnam war and World War Two. He has a slight panic attack and ends the video there.*
TOP COMMENT: Save Scumming is a legitimate tactic when you are a new guy. No issues dude, fight on. And flamethrowers? Yeah... did you know there's a thing called Incendiary Bombs? That's fun!
________________________________________
"Great Days And Glorious Victory! My Name is Spifflemonk aaand welcome to my Letsplay! Today we are back in Factorio. I have sent a special message to the Council about… Flamethrowers… and yes they scare me too. So today its more Factorio. I have done some off camera work so we can skip straight to the point. Seventeen hours later… I am starting to understand why some people have upwards of a thousand hours in this game. Why does it seem to… Anyway.”
*The channel intro plays and an overview of the factory is shown, with the last shot ending with Spifflemonk standing next to the Launch Silo for the endgame rocket. It isn't ready for launch yet, but it appears all the components are where they need to be.*
“Okay then, uhh… here we go!”
*Spifflemonk connects the last belt line to where it needs to be and resources begin to flow. He follows the connection to a series of a dozen assemblers, oil refineries, chemical processors and explains as he goes to tell the viewer what each machine set does. After a few minutes, the first Rocket Control Components have been made and the progress on the silo goes up.*
“It is a little slow but thats okay, room to expand and grow! In any case, this should be done shortly. OOhhh look at that!”
*Spifflemonk watches with the depression of a kid in a candy store with an unlimited budget as the animation plays of the rocket emerging from its silo.*
“Well… uhh… I assume I enter it just like the train I guess…”
*Spiffle enters and launches the rocket. The endgame scene plays, and Spiffle earns some steam achievements for the game.*
“YES!!! YES BY THE GODS YES!!! Finally! I am finished! OH… how long did it take to finish my first - A HUNDRED AND EIGHTY FOUR HOURS!? How… How is it possible this game took so much of my attention?!Uhh… Wow. So.. I guess mods are next. Any suggestions in the comments? Thanks for watching!”
*The channel outro plays as Spiffle stares blankly at the screen showing his playtime with the game.*
TOP COMMENT: Only a hundred and eighty hours? Dude, rookie numbers. You should try mods next time. Just quality of life stuff like stack sizes or Supersonic Trains. Then, after you've launched a couple more rockets - go for broke and install the Space Exploration modpack. THAT… that modpack is pure agony.

Hey guys just an honest vent about how keep losing all my money on gambling. Not comfortable to open up about it with anyone so Reddit anonymously would be my best option in order to satisfy the urge of expressing my situation.
I’m 20 and am a student. My family supports me and I do not work at all. Every time they send me money I blow it on online gambling. The amount they give isn’t much and due to the fact I’ve won 20k one time (which I ended up losing) I keep going all in with the money I have in hopes to win something close to that number. It’s a non stop cycle for the past 6 months which obliges me to cut down on food, sport socializing and completely distracts me from work related ideas I have. It’s not even about the money at this point but about the excitement of gambling with more than I can afford. I know it’s super degenerate but I’ve watched enough gambling related content online to become brainwashed and addicted. It’s comparable to being possessed and I am finding a way to get rid of the devil having full control of what I do. My control over my actions is close to none and I want to gain it back but seems like I’m used to the suffering and lost all motivation to do so. Have nobody around me to support me since I feel embarrassed opening up about it due to fear of judgement. At this point I feel like only a miracle can bring me back on the right path and cure me of these self destructive thoughts which constantly attack me.
Thank you for reading and all feedback is appreciated.

“There is probably no more influential thinker in the study of UFOs than the French astronomer and computer scientist Jacques Vallee.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmLE0X5FRFc&t=342s
Thus, starts this excellent short YouTube documentary linked above, Jacques Vallee, UFOs and the Case against Extraterrestrial Origins produced by Think Anomalous in 2022. Dr. Jacques Vallee early in his career was a proponent of the ET Hypothesis (ETH) as explanation for UFOs. However, after years of speaking to UFO witnesses and discussing the cases with an informal group of scientists that he called “The Invisible College”, Vallee concluded the following: the proposition that UFOs were controlled by ET beings was too simplistic.
In my opinion, contact experiencers and activists should also be skeptical of the ET explanation for UFOs and the non-human beings associated with them. This is especially so given the larger society is starting to acknowledge the reality and importance of what are now called UAP. Although the current emphasis is on sighting reports, eventually societal discussions will not be able to ignore the stories of contact and communications with the non-human intelligences associated with flying saucers.
As one who supports the staging of Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE) popularly known as CE-5s, it is crucially important that contact activists have at their disposal the most accurate assessments of what is truly going on. The thoughtful analyses of a brilliant thinker such as Dr. Jacques Vallee should guide our investigations into UFOs and associated paranormal phenomena. These have been called “The Contact Modalities.” This is term coined by author Rey Hernandez, who believes that UFOs, out of body, and near-death experiences as well as other paranormal events should be studied as related phenomena characterized by manipulations of spacetime within a matrix of consciousness. In my judgment, by having a nuanced and sophisticated approach to flying saucers, contact and disclosure activists will be able to share their knowledge most effectively with the larger society.
An important factor that contributed to Vallee rejecting the ET Hypothesis is that encounters were associated with a multitude of what are considered paranormal phenomena like poltergeists and apparitions. Many of the reports included many absurd elements and behaviors exhibited by the “ufonauts” that Vallee deemed were not consistent with their being highly advanced ET visitors with sophisticated technologies. The seemingly nonsensical behaviors of the so-called aliens seemed so contrived that he suspected they were designed to display certain images. Those visual displays were associated with profound psychological transformations in many witnesses and over time have had an effect of society in general.
In the documentary, producer Jason Charboneau lists Vallee’s reasons for challenging the ET Hypothesis. These appeared in an article Vallee published in 1990 in The Journal of Scientific Exploration.
“First: he argued that there were far more landings and contacts than would be necessary for an interplanetary survey or surveillance operation. By his and others estimates there must have been 3 million UFO landings around the world in the last 20 years, an impossibly large number.
Second: UFOs and ufonauts rarely flew away or walked off. When they left, often they simply vanished blinked out of existence or slowly faded away. This suggests that the craft and occupants were more like projections than physical things.
Third: the bodies, actions, and the abilities of the ufonauts do not suggest an extraterrestrial or evolutionary origin. Often the aliens were identical to humans, spoke our languages and were perfectly capable of breathing our air and walking in our gravity.
Fourth: Vallee noted that most of the ufonauts revelations, especially those concerning their origins were nonsense and almost entirely different from one another. Ufonauts claimed to be from just about everywhere in the universe and frequently gave directions or offered maps that made no logical sense such as the two-dimensional star map shown to Betty Hill.
Fifth: finally, Vallee argued that the data collected from cases of so-called alien abduction were unreliable and again involved highly unlikely scenarios. For example, abductees frequently describe highly invasive and painful medical procedures in order to achieve tasks that even doctors in the 1980s could have done with minimal discomfort.”
The Think Anomalous team has produced many excellent short documentaries and I encourage everyone to view and share widely this important resource.

So, I’m my latest game, I’ve reached a point where realistically, conquering the world is pretty easy. It’s just a matter of winning the various wars with smaller realms. And my army outnumbers theirs so hugely that the only strategy involved is managing supply.
Maybe for other people, this micromanagement of my army to make sure they don’t starve to death is fun, but for me, I have no interest. War and combat, in general, is something I don’t have much interest in. I’m fairly content to ignore the battle mechanics entirely, and just based strategy on “bigger number wins”.
What I play this game for is the roleplay, so as I was dividing my army into smaller and smaller chunks, it made me realise: I’d be perfectly happy to just let the AI control my army and do all this supply management while I focused on activities. And from a roleplay perspective, it made total sense. Why was my character, who was at home planning a tournament, making decisions for an army on the literal other side of the world?
Making armies you aren’t commanding AI controlled would simultaneously provide opportunities for roleplaying characters who have no interest in being personally involved in war, and would also make martial education and lifestyle more valuable. Personally, for my playstyle, those traits are basically useless, because I don’t want to risk my character fighting in an army. But if the game required me to personally command my army for optimal strategy, then I would probably train my heirs in martial a lot more often.
Obviously, with how bad AI armies are at the moment, this would be pretty frustrating. But a couple of mechanics could fix that. For one, you could bring back the ability to give commands to AI armies: stuff like “siege this holding” or “follow this army” or “chase down this commander”. And you could make how the AI follows these objectives match their personality: a Brave character might choose to fight a battle they expect to lose, while a craven character might refuse to join a battle an ally is in until victory is assured. A patient character might wait for a holding to surrender, while an impatient one might assault. A vengeful character may ignore the bulk of an army to seek out a rival commander. This would make choosing the best commander for each objective a much more interesting choice from a roleplay perspective.

Dr. Jacques Vallee is Skeptical of the ET Explanation for UFOs: Contact Experiencers Should Study his Detailed Investigations.
Joseph Burkes MD 2023.
“There is probably no more influential thinker in the study of UFOs than the French astronomer and computer scientist Jacques Vallee.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmLE0X5FRFc&t=342s
Thus, starts this excellent short documentary linked above, Jacques Vallee, UFOs and the Case against Extraterrestrial Origins produced by Think Anomalous in 2022. Dr. Jacques Vallee early in his career was a proponent of the ET Hypothesis (ETH) as explanation for UFOs. However, after years of speaking to UFO witnesses and discussing the cases with an informal group of scientists that he called “The Invisible College”, Vallee concluded the following: the proposition that UFOs were controlled by ET beings was too simplistic.
In my opinion, contact experiencers and activists should also be skeptical of the ET explanation for UFOs and the non-human beings associated with them. This is especially so given the larger society is starting to acknowledge the reality and importance of what are now called UAP. Although the current emphasis is on sighting reports, eventually societal discussions will not be able to ignore the stories of contact and communications with the non-human intelligences associated with flying saucers.
As one who supports the staging of Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE) popularly known as CE-5s, it is crucially important that contact activists have at their disposal the most accurate assessments of what is truly going on. The thoughtful analyses of a brilliant thinker such as Dr. Jacques Vallee should guide our investigations into UFOs and associated paranormal phenomena. These have been called “The Contact Modalities.” This is term coined by author Rey Hernandez, who believes that UFOs, out of body, and near-death experiences as well as other paranormal events should be studied as related phenomena characterized by manipulations of spacetime within a matrix of consciousness. In my judgment, by having a nuanced and sophisticated approach to flying saucers, contact and disclosure activists will be able to share their knowledge most effectively with the larger society.
An important factor that contributed to Vallee rejecting the ET Hypothesis is that encounters were associated with a multitude of what are considered paranormal phenomena like poltergeists and apparitions. Many of the reports included many absurd elements and behaviors exhibited by the “ufonauts” that Vallee deemed were not consistent with their being highly advanced ET visitors with sophisticated technologies. The seemingly nonsensical behaviors of the so-called aliens seemed so contrived that he suspected they were designed to display certain images. Those visual displays were associated with profound psychological transformations in many witnesses and over time have had an effect of society in general.
In the documentary, producer Jason Charboneau lists Vallee’s reasons for challenging the ET Hypothesis. These appeared in an article Vallee published in 1990 in The Journal of Scientific Exploration.
“First: he argued that there were far more landings and contacts than would be necessary for an interplanetary survey or surveillance operation. By his and others estimates there must have been 3 million UFO landings around the world in the last 20 years, an impossibly large number.
Second: UFOs and ufonauts rarely flew away or walked off. When they left, often they simply vanished blinked out of existence or slowly faded away. This suggests that the craft and occupants were more like projections than physical things.
Third: the bodies, actions, and the abilities of the ufonauts do not suggest an extraterrestrial or evolutionary origin. Often the aliens were identical to humans, spoke our languages and were perfectly capable of breathing our air and walking in our gravity.
Fourth: Vallee noted that most of the ufonauts revelations, especially those concerning their origins were nonsense and almost entirely different from one another. Ufonauts claimed to be from just about everywhere in the universe and frequently gave directions or offered maps that made no logical sense such as the two-dimensional star map shown to Betty Hill.
Fifth: finally, Vallee argued that the data collected from cases of so-called alien abduction were unreliable and again involved highly unlikely scenarios. For example, abductees frequently describe highly invasive and painful medical procedures in order to achieve tasks that even doctors in the 1980s could have done with minimal discomfort.”
The Think Anomalous team has produced many excellent short documentaries and I encourage everyone to view and share widely this important resource.

Hi.
Hope you’re doing well.
I’ll probably get downvoted a lot for this and I don’t mean to offend anyone and I’m not saying everyone who says they’re tired of superhero movies is wrong about over saturation of comic book movies because the number of movies and shows have increased exponentially since the MCU, but that’s not the point I’m making.
However, I genuinely believe, as stated in my title, that “superhero fatigue,” in my view, is a crutch used by people who either cannot/don’t want to have an intellectual discussion of why a movie underperforms.
I cannot speak for everyone and their circumstances, but I personally firmly believe if a movie - comic book or not - is well-made enough and of the highest standards that people will watch it regardless and that comic-book-movie saturation is a surface-level or even lame observation from people who don’t want to dig deeper. I’m sorry if I offend anyone with this view, but I’m just being honest.
Some MCU movies recently have been terrible by their standards and everyone got off the high of Phase 1-3 MCU which was so well mostly meticulously orchestrated years in advance. Many of the DCEU movies recently including Batman v Superman have undelivered and James Gunn has been brought in to rebuild it, but I don’t believe “superhero fatigue” is fundamentally the reason for that or even a major factor worth considering for that long. Sure, it could be fair to say for some people that they are fatigued, but if the movies were hot and extremely well-made, I don’t think most people would let “superhero fatigue” stop them from watching a masterpiece or just an awesome movie.
Basically, I believe quality will always win out and people will see a popular movie if it’s hot and their family and friends are gushing with praise and “superhero fatigue” only exists when a movie or consecutive movies are underwhelming.
Again, sorry if I’ve offended anyone who firmly believes in “superhero fatigue” but I invite you to share your views..
What are your thoughts on “superhero fatigue”?

“There is probably no more influential thinker in the study of UFOs than the French astronomer and computer scientist Jacques Vallee.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmLE0X5FRFc&t=342s
Thus, starts this excellent short documentary, Jacques Vallee, UFOs and the Case against Extraterrestrial Origins produced by Think Anomalous in 2022. Dr. Jacques Vallee early in his career was a proponent of the ET Hypothesis (ETH) as explanation for UFOs. However, after years of speaking to UFO witnesses and discussing the cases with an informal group of scientists that he called “The Invisible College”, Vallee concluded the following: the proposition that UFOs were controlled by ET beings was too simplistic.
In my opinion, contact experiencers and activists should also be skeptical of the ET explanation for UFOs and the non-human beings associated with them. This is especially so given the larger society is starting to acknowledge the reality and importance of what are now called UAP. Although the current emphasis is on sighting reports, eventually societal discussions will not be able to ignore the stories of contact and communications with the non-human intelligences associated with flying saucers.
As one who supports the staging of Human Initiated Contact Events (HICE) popularly known as CE-5s, it is crucially important that contact activists have at their disposal the most accurate assessments of what is truly going on. The thoughtful analyses of a brilliant thinker such as Dr. Jacques Vallee should guide our investigations into UFOs and associated paranormal phenomena. These have been called “The Contact Modalities.” This is term coined by author Rey Hernandez, who believes that UFOs, out of body, and near-death experiences as well as other paranormal events should be studied as related phenomena characterized by manipulations of spacetime within a matrix of consciousness. In my judgment, by having a nuanced and sophisticated approach to flying saucers, contact and disclosure activists will be able to share their knowledge most effectively with the larger society.
An important factor that contributed to Vallee rejecting the ET Hypothesis is that encounters were associated with a multitude of what are considered paranormal phenomena like poltergeists and apparitions. Many of the reports included many absurd elements and behaviors exhibited by the “ufonauts” that Vallee deemed were not consistent with their being highly advanced ET visitors with sophisticated technologies. The seemingly nonsensical behaviors of the so-called aliens seemed so contrived that he suspected they were designed to display certain images. Those visual displays were associated with profound psychological transformations in many witnesses and over time have had an effect of society in general.
In the documentary, producer Jason Charboneau lists Vallee’s reasons for challenging the ET Hypothesis. These appeared in an article Vallee published in 1990 in The Journal of Scientific Exploration.
“First: he argued that there were far more landings and contacts than would be necessary for an interplanetary survey or surveillance operation. By his and others estimates there must have been 3 million UFO landings around the world in the last 20 years, an impossibly large number.
Second: UFOs and ufonauts rarely flew away or walked off. When they left, often they simply vanished blinked out of existence or slowly faded away. This suggests that the craft and occupants were more like projections than physical things.
Third: the bodies, actions, and the abilities of the ufonauts do not suggest an extraterrestrial or evolutionary origin. Often the aliens were identical to humans, spoke our languages and were perfectly capable of breathing our air and walking in our gravity.
Fourth: Vallee noted that most of the ufonauts revelations, especially those concerning their origins were nonsense and almost entirely different from one another. Ufonauts claimed to be from just about everywhere in the universe and frequently gave directions or offered maps that made no logical sense such as the two-dimensional star map shown to Betty Hill.
Fifth: finally, Vallee argued that the data collected from cases of so-called alien abduction were unreliable and again involved highly unlikely scenarios. For example, abductees frequently describe highly invasive and painful medical procedures in order to achieve tasks that even doctors in the 1980s could have done with minimal discomfort.”
The Think Anomalous team has produced many excellent short documentaries and I encourage everyone to view and share widely this important resource.

I like Commander because I like to build for my Commander. That's the point, I imagine, but I have a deck or two that has multiple win cons. So they aren't 100% about the commander. I have this deck that I made while high, and I realized it doesn't need to use the commander at all. I chose it just to have my color combo. The whole deck works flawless (in theory) without ever even looking at the commander. I would never play this commander. Is that against some kind of rule?¹ I imagine there are plenty, plenty, of games where people don't throw their commander out for any number of reasons, but to just not have a single thing need your commander, never use it, on purpose?
¹oh- I don't mean official rule. I meant others, (tournaments?) is it weird? because obviously the only real rule about having your commander is all your colors must match it.

This is an ongoing drama, one that won't stop until probably next year or even longer. But before I get into the details of the drama, let's talk about the background, and the important information to know...
TW: Sexual assault discussion mentioned about halfway.

Hockey? NHL? What the fuck are those?

Ice hockey is a sport where 6 very large, burly men put swords on their feet and glide around on ice against 6 other very large, burly men who also have sword-shoes. They carry a stick to whack around a hard little circle of rubber and each other (most often each other) with the goal of hitting that little rubber past another large burly man into a 6'x4' net. A game takes place over 3 periods of 20 minutes each, and whoever hits the rubber circle most often in the opponent's Warhammer gaming table sized net is the winner of the game. There are 82 games during the 'regular season', and then they compete in the 'playoffs' for the Stanley Cup, which is worth at least $5.
The National Hockey League, or the Ligue Nationale de Hockey if you hate everyone else in North America, is effectively the world's highest level of ice hockey. People all over the world spend their entire youth lives training to have a shot at being drafted by an NHL team, from Belarus to England, from Canada to Australia. There are other leagues in the world, but they are more or less for people who are shunned in the NHL for whatever reason, people who have retired from the NHL but still play hockey for whatever reason (Jaromir Jagr, I'm looking at you), or people who aren't good enough to play in the NHL but still good enough to be paid to play.
There are 32 teams in the NHL at the moment, but the most important teams for this story are:
1) Chicago Blackhawks: I'm going to go over the Blackhawks later in this post. It's...a lot.
2) Anaheim Ducks: A team that was originally owned by Disney based on the movie The Mighty Ducks. No, I'm not joking. They were founded in 1993 and have had some close calls with the Stanley Cup, and won one in 2007. They finished the 22-23 season with the worst record possible, and one of the worst records in NHL history.
3) Columbus Blue Jackets: They're young, having only existed since 2000. They've never been in the Stanley Cup finals, and have never really had a good season during their existence. They finished second to last.
4) Seattle Kraken: They're the newest team, being founded in 2021. They're actually not relevant at all to this post; they're my team and therefore am obligated to mention them.

Okay, so sword-feet and stick hitting rubber circle. What is this about 'draft'?

In order to make it to the NHL, you have to be drafted by an NHL team. Being drafted is similar to how people used to pick each other for teams during recess. You know, where you kept getting picked last. Except if you get drafted, you get a contract worth potentially millions of dollars.
The draft takes place over a series of rounds, where each team picks one person each (unless they traded their draft pick, but this isn't relevant). In the first round, the teams with the worst record draft first, all the way up to the team that won the Stanley Cup. Then in the second round, it counts down from Stanley Cup winner down to the worst, third round is from worst to best again, and so on until the draft is completed (Usually 7 rounds).
HOWEVER, there is a twist...

The Lottery

So in order to prevent teams from 'tanking', aka losing on purpose in order to get the best draft pick, the league came up with the Draft Lottery. After the season has ended, every team that didn't make the playoffs participates in the lottery. Whoever wins the lottery will jump up 10 spots in the draft. Teams who were worse during the season get higher odds. This year, the team with the best odds are the Anaheim Ducks, at 18.5% chance of winning, since they sucked hard and it wasn't even on purpose.

Okay, enough. Why is the 2023 draft important?

This year is one of the most important drafts in recent NHL history. The current highest-rated prospect is Connor Bedard. Bedard is...good. Like, really good. Like, really, REALLY good. Top NHL players are saying that Bedard already has the best shot release in hockey right now at least...and he's only like 17 years old. I won't go into it much further, but Connor Bedard is the type of player that can lead teams to the Stanley Cup by just being on the team. People are comparing him to Wayne Gretzky; if you need context for who that is, he's considered one of the best sports-people of all time out of all sports.

Side Show -- The Chicago Blackhawks, and Why Everyone Hates Them

The Blackhawks, which I'm going to call the Hawks, are an old team. They've been around since the 40s as one of the 'original six', teams that have been around since the modern NHL was a thing (well, not really, but it's not relevant). Yes, the NHL only had 6 teams until the 1960s, which is when they finally expanded into more markets, which then snowballed into what we have now (32 teams).
The Hawks have had...a rough recent history. They effectively had a dynasty for most of the 2010s, winning the Stanley Cup 3 times, and a lot of it had to do with their talent. Before the 2010s, the Hawks sucked. That is, until they drafted amazing players like Jonathan Toews (pronounced "taves", not "toes") and Patrick Kane, who helped boost them to the Stanley Cup in the 10's (They have since retired. This is important context.) These picks were already controversial; people like to claim that the NHL favors original six teams because they're massive markets, which means more butts-in-seats, which means more money. So the Blackhawks getting so many first round, top-3 picks was...suspicious to most.
But all of this is overshadowed by the sexual assault and subsequent cover up.
During the 2010 season, one of their cup-winning seasons, a player named Kyle Beach, was sexually assaulted by a member of the coaching staff. He brought it forward to the organization who did their best to make sure that the coaching staff was safe and sound. Kyle Beach never broke into the NHL aside from the 2010 season -- take that information for what it is. In 2021, Kyle Beach sued the Blackhawks for their mishandling. An independent investigation found that the Blackhawks knew about the sexual assault, and did nothing to the perpetrator. The perpetrator went on to commit more acts of sexual assault against young players.
The punishment that the Blackhawks faced? Nothing major. They were fined $2 million. Which...is basically nothing, considering they made $222 million that year. So, like...1%.
This punishment was a slap in the face to teams like the Arizona Coyotes, who lost draft picks (which means losing players that could turn their organization around) because of a much, MUCH less severe violation (In their case, the Coyotes were performing physicals on potential draftees before they were drafted, which is a violation of the NHL constitution). Other teams have lost players because of similar circumstances -- the first one that comes to mind is the Boston Bruins, who dropped a (potential) top player because it came to light he had hazed, abused, and hurled racial slurs at a black autistic player in the junior leagues.
Needless to say, this further fueled conspiracies that the Blackhawks were getting special treatment because of their status as an original six team, and how big the Chicago market is.
From the /hockey subreddit:

Didn't the NHL originally fine the Devils $3 million for the Kovalchuk stuff a decade ago? What a joke. [Context: Kovalchuk was a high-level player, and the Devils tried to do some sneaky-shady stuff in order to keep him.]
Coyotes lost high picks for getting extra physical data, Devils got fined $3m and two picks for cap circumvention, and we got fined $250k for calling out George Parros for being the joke he is. And all the Blackhawks get for covering up rape is a $2m fine?? What a fucking joke [Context: This is a Rangers fan, and the Rangers called out George Parros, leader of the Department of Player Safety, for doing nothing about player safety. They were fined $250k for making mean comments.]

It doesn't really help that Chicago fans have a poor reputation. In the NHL, Chicago fans have a reputation for being drunk fair-weather fans. Before 2010 Chicago had a rough time filling up their arena to half-way. During the 2010s? Sellout arena, every game. Going into the 2020s, when their team started sucking again, they're back to struggling filling seats.
So the hockey fandom in general doesn't really like Chicago, but how does this all tie into the 2023 Draft?

The Lottery (for real this time)

As mentioned before, the 2023 season was potentially a huge season for struggling teams like the Columbus Blue Jackets or the Anaheim Ducks. Getting Connor Bedard would turn around entire franchises, overnight.
Going into the draft, the heavy favorites to win the lottery were the Ducks at 18.5%, the Blue Jackets at 13.5%, and the Chicago Blackhawks at 11.5%. The other 13 teams had basically less than 10% odds.
The draft lottery was televised, and millions of people watched ESPN and TSN to see the results from all over the league. Top teams in the west were praying that the lottery winner would go to the Blue Jackets so they wouldn't have to face Bedard, and top teams in the east were praying the lottery pick would go to the west for the same reason. Everyone universally had the same sentiment though:

Anyone but Chicago.

The hosts go down the line to show the new draft lineup, starting from 16 and going down. Nothing seemed to change in the lineup; teams hoping for ajump up were sadly disappointed but knew they never really had a chance anyways.
The hosts get to the top 5. The reveal the 5th pick is...Montreal. Montreal fans speak French-Canadian sadly, or whatever it is Quebecois folk do.
The fourth pick is revealed. The San Jose Sharks. Sharks fans chomp sadly. Or drink their Starbucks sadly. Idk, I'm not rich enough to live in San Jose.
Then something curious happens. They cut to a commercial break, but the ESPN broadcasters say something very curious. "An upset for Columbus! It's down to Anaheim or Chicago!" Suspicion arises. The card for 3rd place wasn't revealed, how could they have known that Columbus was the 3rd pick? Conspiracy talk bumps up in the live Reddit thread. People were already saying that Chicago won the lottery. They just knew.

Nice of ESPN to state Columbus will pick 3rd before Daley ever even showed it and they went to commercials “It will be either Chicago or Anaheim”….
Elliotte Friedman tweeted out who got pick 1 and 2 during the commercial break. Said tweets have now been deleted.

The NHL lottery comes back on after commercials and reveal that CBJ wins the 3rd pick to no one's surprise. All that's left is two envelopes, one with a '2' the other with a '1'. They begin to open the '2' envelope. The hockey world goes silent, as whoever gets the 2 spot means that the other won the lottery...

The Worst Timeline

The worst-case-scenario happens. Chicago, universally hated in the hockey world, wins the draft lottery. Duck fans are outraged. Blue Jacket fans are outraged. Literally every fanbase is outraged.

hockey 9/11
why has god abandoned us
If you didn't think Chicago was getting Bedard here is your lesson of how fucked up the world is
Fuck this
Can't lose that media market now that Kane and Toews are gone!
Never forget that the Coyotes had to forfeit a first round pick for talking to a prospect before it was permitted, while Chicago protected a fucking rapist and got no reprecussions.
Coyotes: asks prospects what they ate and to wear shorts? Forfeit draft picks Blackhawks: cover up sexual assault and lie your asses off? Have a Bedard
Draft HoF talent 1st overall -> Go on a dynasty and win 3 cups -> Trade HoF 1st overall -> Draft another HoF talent 1st overall.
He went to the least deserving team.

Individual team subreddits were no better. Every fan from every team, aside from Chicago, were seething and chomping at the bit. There is an ongoing conspiracy about the NHL favoring Chicago now, and people are actively calling for the NHL commissioner's resignation.

Living in a Post-Apocalypse Wasteland

It's been barely a month since the bomb dropped. Food is hard to come by. Hope is lost. People fight each other for the barest scraps of undamaged cloth to keep warm at night since the sun was blacked out.
We don't know what will happen. Life is moving on, but is it really life if there's no will to live?
In seriousness, no one wanted this outcome. Even some Hawks fans hated this. It's hard to say what will happen to the NHL now. Some people are saying that Connor Bedard will get drafted and refuse to play for the Blackhawks, demanding to be traded. Some say he'll disappear to Europe and play in the Swedish league or the KHL to avoid the Blackhawks contract. Others say he'll be a fool to avoid the NHL and just take what he's got, and demand a trade later.
No one knows what Connor Bedard is thinking. He's not really said anything. But we do know that the world of hockey has been shaken to its core. If Bedard plays, Chicago will be a force to be reckoned with for years. If he avoids Chicago, it'll be a legendary act of defiance that will 100% cause the NHL to invent a rule to prevent that from happen again.
But for now, I must return to my fallout shelter. It's not healthy to stand in the radiation for too long.

People are going to be very quick to blame the offense for the Mariner's mishaps, but the pitching has also been somewhat of an issue.
I have many times posted about the magic number being 4 for the Mariners. Allow 4 or more runs they lose 87% of games. Less than that they win around 75%. Asking your starting pitching and bullpen to hold teams to 3 runs is a tall order.
3 runs or you lose sounds like an offensive issue but in games where they allow more than 4 runs the Mariners on average allow 7.5 runs. That is sounds to me more like a pitching problem than hitting.
This is not to excuse the mariners dreadful offense that needs to get better, but they are not solely to blame for how bad we look.
For those wondering in games allowing 3 or less the average runs allowed is 1.6 and the offense as a whole scores about 4.5.

hello to every one of you, Hello, my name is Noam, and I am hoping that you might be able to help me locate an old game that I used to play around four years ago. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please let me know. On a daily basis, up until the point that the game was taken off of Origin, I played it. During that short period, it could still be purchased through Origin. I do not remember what the name of the game was, but I do remember that it was a strategic game in which two teams competed against one another to see who could take control of the other base first. I am unable to recall the precise number of maps that were available, but based on my best guess, there could have been anywhere from one to three of them. There was a points meter at the very top of my screen; the winning team would be the one with the most percentage. In the middle of the map, there was a powerful dinosaur or miniboss that, if you defeated it, would award you with additional points. If you did this, you would have an advantage over the competition. There were no skins, but there were characters that you could switch between. however, I cannot recall whether or not each of these characters had a unique set of abilities. The area that you needed to capture was shaped like a circle. The longer you stayed on the enemy point, the bigger your percentage of success. I seem to recall that it was a rather tiny area. robots that spawned in my base always walked in a line towards the enemy base, and they were not very powerful because whenever they came across an enemy on their way or rather an enemy base they would stop and start shooting with no so much impact. I will be grateful if you can recreate it. Please think of any game and thank you.

hello to every one of you, Hello, my name is Noam, and I am hoping that you might be able to help me locate an old game that I used to play around four years ago. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please let me know. On a daily basis, up until the point that the game was taken off of Origin, I played it. During that short period, it could still be purchased through Origin. I do not remember what the name of the game was, but I do remember that it was a strategic game in which two teams competed against one another to see who could take control of the other base first. I am unable to recall the precise number of maps that were available, but based on my best guess, there could have been anywhere from one to three of them. There was a points meter at the very top of my screen; the winning team would be the one with the most percentage. In the middle of the map, there was a powerful dinosaur or miniboss that, if you defeated it, would award you with additional points. If you did this, you would have an advantage over the competition. There were no kinns, but there were characters that you could switch between. however, I cannot recall whether or not each of these characters had a unique set of abilities. The area that you needed to capture was shaped like a circle. The longer you stayed on the enemy point, the bigger your percentage of success. I seem to recall that it was a rather tiny area. robots that spawned in my base always walked in a line towards the enemy base,and they were not very powerful because whenever thay came across an enemy on their way or rather an enemy base robots they would stop and start shooting with no so much impact. I will be grateful if you can recreate it.
Please think of any game and thank you.

So I know some halfway similar ideas are out there, but hear me out! Gist : A platform that allows dealers to bid on cars, from the PUBLIC. Business Model: Convince dealerships in a local area to pay 2k a month (give or take) to be on the platform to bid on said cars (say 10 or so dealerships). They are guaranteed to bid on at least 50 vehicles + or - every month. I said bid, not buy. + possibly a buy fee per vehicle, which I will explain later on. The dealership would get a refund if we don't hit the quota for number of cars to bid on that month. Keep in mind this model is for the public, not a auction. What's in it for the seller? They (everyday people) take pictures of car, vin, brief description and status of car. The system (based on KBB or whatever) gives them a instant general quote range to expect. Once inputted the company would then submit the car to the private bidding page (with our paying dealers) and bid eachother out for (x) hours. Then, within x business days and or hours you call / text the guaranteed quote to the consumer (assuming the car is what they said it was) and they have x hours to accept before having to re submit. If they purchase, a person from the businesses team will meet to pick up the car, complete a short inspection / drive, and hand the seller cash. Thats It! The seller wins (not having to deal with people, as well as getting a check delivered to them) as well as the dealer. All they have to do is bid. The car company deals with finding people to input there cars, dealing with all paperwork, and delivers it straight to the dealer. The buy fee per vehicle I stated earlier would be for the software company to pick up the cars. Something along the lines of $300 fee on top of purchase to cover towing? Problems I haven't worked out / thought of 1. The status of the car. How do you cover each end if the car is not what the seller said it is once the dealer receives it? (as simple as dents to a bad tranny?) 2. How the company with the software pays the seller. Pick up a check from the winning bid dealer? Any ideas there? 3. If the car isn't paid off. Quick math: 10 dealers @ 2k/ month = 20k/ month or 240k / year revenue. + buy fee of $100-800? per car Company Costs: Website / software startup Sourcing everyday people to post on the website for the dealers (30-100 a month?) Picking up / paying customer / delivering to dealership. Another backend cost I could see picking up on is for wholesalers. They pay (x) per month to run there cars through the site. Would have to be careful who we let through with that and vet very well though. This would help guarantee the 50 cars a month they can bid on, but I could see this becoming a problem for 1 reason. Wholesalers would start posting cars they don't own yet to bid them out before buying to know what they can get out of it ahead of time (smart on there end), but on the backend you will have dealers bidding hundreds of cars and possibly winning not enough to be worthwhile. I AM STILL IN THE BRAINSTORMING STAGE PLEASE GIVE ANY INFORMATION (WHICH IS A LOT) THAT I HAVE NOT THOUGHT OF THAT COULD BE GOOD / A PROBLEM. TIA!

College coaching salaries are insane and getting worse. College boards of regents are clearly getting suckered into some horrible salary arrangements and frankly aren't smart enough to make these arrangements.
Jimbo Fisher's outrageous buyout dwarfs even Auburn's recent buyouts where they were paying several coaches something like 30 million to not coach Auburn after they were fired.
When will actual adults take control of college coaching contract negotiations?
https://www.si.com/college/tamu/football/texas-am-tamu-aggies-jimbo-fisher-hot-seat-buyout-record-contract-sec-championship-update

Here we are. Since the Garibaldi's nightmare update, Italy in Kaiserreich has been split into five factions: two republics, two monarchies and the pope. Lorewise, Italy suffered a civil war after the Weltkrieg, thus condemning the peninsula to a political instability that only awaits a second Risorgimento to end.I, as many other fans, think that Italy does need a rework, but maybe not as critical as others have proposed: I will address later on on the issue of the Mezzogiorno (Southern Italy), which is currently split between the Two Sicilies, ruled by Bourbons, Latium, ruled by the Pope, and Sardinia, ruled by the house of Savoy.

Risorgimento 2: Electric Boogaloo

Alright, alright, before going into the details of the various states ruling in the peninsula, let's address the region as a single element. It is one nation divided and it needs to get together again; Risorgimento is a question and the answer is "War" (because otherwise the game wouldn't be fun and because all those casualties are thankfully just numbers on a screen).
I think that the war of unification, wether it's just one or two (or more), are to be left isolated from direct foreign intervention: it usually happens that if the Neosafendisti event happens (this means that the southern states support terrorism in the SRI and the SRI responds by declaring war) and the peninsula gets into a war, after some years of fighting the SRI will join the Internationale, getting the Two Sicilies to join the Reischpakt (or other factions) and causing the war of unification of Italy to become one with the second Weltkrieg.
Does that make sense? Yeah, sure: the political balance in the peninsula is broken, the Internationale hurries to try to aid the italian ally ASAP and the Two Sicilies will respond by joining a faction. Could it be changed? Yeah, and I believe it would be even better: what if we isolate the second Risorgimento so that Italy (or the most of it, excluding Sardinia and maybe the northern republic) can unify before or during the second Weltkrieg without having to fight dozens of french/british/german/austrian/other troops camped on the Alps or Appennines?
"Isolating" Risorgimento does NOT mean that other nations are not going to intervene: the new Italy is going to be (possibly) decisive to the outcome of the second Weltkrieg, hence everyone, the Internationale, the Reischpakt, the Entente and Austria, are going to want to influence the war, obviously, but we can limit that to the volunteers, similarly to what happens during the Second American Civil War. This means that the Internationale will get a national spirit of "Supporting the SRI" giving the +X Volunteer Force, the austrians getting a similar one for the northern republic/federation/whatever (or they may not support it if the conditions are not favourable to them) and southern italy will get support from... well... we'll see: I already have a couple ideas on how to rework it as a whole, so I'm not really sure who would support it: could be Germany, could be Austria, could be the Entente.
So we now have war all over Italy, great. Lots of volunteers (not as many as a Weltkrieg-styled war would imply), lots of lend leases, lots of events. Events that could mean a ceasefire between the south and the north, partisans, captured cities, stability up-and-downs, you get it. There's a lot of content that could be added. A lot of it could be a "recalling" to the previous Risorgimento campaigns: events for the SRI capturing Naples referring to Garibaldi or the Kingdom led by the house of Savoy entering Milan, once again.
In the end we get an unstable, to-be-rebuilt, war torn Italy that at least is unified and ready to choose its future path, either in a faction or isolated.
An extra to this chapter: I feel like the elections in the various italian states should have some kind of effect on other italian states: totalists elected? Give an event to the Republic of Italy and the Kingdom of the south that pushes the rightmost parties. Radical Socialists elected? They might spark a light rise in the popularity of the Social Democrats in hopes of collaborations. ANI elected in the north? In the SRI there would be a rise of the Totalist rilevance thanks to their firmer behaviour towards the other states. This is a thing I feel more in general for the whole mod: I really like elections and I love inventing coalitions to think how smaller parties could win against a bigger one, but I also feel like they need more dynamism, especially in an uncertain region such as post civil war Italy.

Questione Meridionale, once again

Questione meridionale or the issue of the south: historically it meant how southern Italy was dealt with after the annexation of the Two Sicilies and the rise of Brigantaggio, armed people who revolted in the south against the new state. I cite the historical fact not only to give context to the name of the chapter, but also because I think that it might be the case to use these brigants in our mod, I'll explain why.
It is a known fact that southern Italy needs a rework: the Pope? He seems useless; the Bourbons? Cool, but unrealistic how they came to power; Sardinia? It's just standing there waiting for the Entente to land beside Genova for the 56th time in six months so they can enjoy the manslaughter of ten thousands portuguese, australians and french soldiers.
I put these three nations together because I feel like they could actually stay together: what if instead of three different entities we get a new state, like the old (as in old versions) confederation was? I do NOT intend to just choose one of the three leaders and ditch the rest though: I feel like we can have a fun little power struggle to choose the path you prefer.
The starting situation might be this: southern Italy, from Rome down, plus Sardinia, is still ruled by the house of Savoy (parenthesis: I do not know which king: surely Vittorio Emanuele III has abdicated by now, but in favour of whom? I think the son, Umberto II, could be a considerable alternative to Amedeo, but this is a trivial thing to decide, let's postpone it). The rule of the Savoyards is very weak though, think of it: they almost completely lost the civil war, the industrialized north is occupied by a Syndacalist republic who has sworn death to the monarchy and yet another republic has proclaimed itself to be the successor to the italian power struggle, with the old kingdom in shambles being confined in the rural south. Also, as I mentioned before, brigants.
I believe that the first part of the game for the southern kingdom could be: do you resist the brigant tensions and protests and reform the kingdom, eventually repealing the martial law and preparing for a second risorgimento OR you lose to them, causing a complete change of your country?If you were to lose to them, then you'd have two options: the brigants, fomented by the house of Bourbon, restore Ferdinando to the throne, basically just changing the ruling monarchy. The other option would be (maybe implementing a foreign –German, Austrian and Entente– summit) placating the protesters by choosing a more "neutral" (not really, but you get what I mean) choice: the Pope.This way we could have a unified southern Italy, with Sardinia no more isolated from the rest of Italy, and a possibility to choose between the old kingdom, the new kingdom and the old italian confederation which sounds, academically speaking, pretty fucking cool.
Two words on the Italian Confederation ruled by the Pope: one of the things I loved about the Garibaldi's nightmare update was the implementation of a LOT of new nations in the italian peninsula: from two nations to, possibly, seven! All those microstates you can release such as Tuscany or Lombardy, they're cool! Let's not remove them from the game entirely!I think they can either pop up when a foreign power, such as Austria, decides to "balkanize" Italy after conquering it OR if the Pope decides to lead a decentralized italian confederation: instead of having a state called Italian Confederation, you'd have a faction named after it containing all these microsates, led by their Pope liege, who will lead them in internal politics (something like the single currency thing or the unified economy similarly to the Mitteleuropa or the IEDC and the research ones like the ISAAC or the Kaiser Wilhelm Society) as well as in external politics: each state reclaiming the "Irredent lands". Note: the concept of irredent land is borrowed from italian irredentism, meaning that Ticino, Malta, Corsica, Trentino would still be claimed by the confederation (Ticino to Lombardy, Trentino to Venice) even though realistically those states acting indepedently wouldn't really care to claim or conquer them.

The northern republics, they're pretty good!

The title kinda sells it: I don't have much to say about them, I think their content is on point: they have the content they're supposed to have. The SRI wishes to conquer all of Italy under a Syndacalist state, the Republic of Italy wishes first of all to survive, and the possibly to reunite the peninsula under a new, democratic, republican state.
The SRI might fall in the hands of Totalist Mussolini and similarly the republic, suffering pretty badly from the economic crisis, risks to either fall in the hands of the National Populists (in which regard I have to say I really enjoyed the brief but intense lead of D'Annunzio in older patches, it didn't feel so unrealistic) or completely collapse in the austrian sphere of influence, losing its independence and becoming a federation led by an austrian appointed ruler.
Again, for the both of them things would be better, more balanced and, most importantly, MORE FUN, if the Risorgimento were to be left alone by the rest of the nations, if not for volunteers, sanctions, embargoes, that kind of things. But I do not wish to repeat myself any further, wich is a thing I do too often.
Thank you for your patience in reading this, I sure hope to read your considerations on this and my apologies for any mistakes in my essay, since I'm neither an english-native speaker nor an expert in Kaiserreich lore.

Posts in the series

• First: Here
• Second: Here
• Third: Here
• Fourth: Here (Unplanned)
• Fifth: Here
• Sixth: Here
• Seventh: Here
• Eighth: This

Brief recap

In the previous post, we continued our analysis with a second round of eliminations of more religions that cannot reasonably be from a judging and fair God. At this point, only the Abrahamic religions remain to be analyzed, which we will do below.
--
The reason I wanted to analyze the Abrahamic religions together last is because they have many similarities. For one, they reference the same God and agree on many details: similar people, similar places, similar events and for the most part, even originated in the same region. In addition, two of them are the biggest religions in the world today, far ahead of all other religions in terms of adoption, nearly accounting for half of the people on the planet! The fact that they are spread out in time and that they reference each other, can at least in theory, represent a pattern of recurring communication. It's also possible that they're just copying from each others. Let's see!
The timeline of appearance of the Abrahamic religions from old to new is as follows:
Judaism

• Year of inception: 3500 years ago, approximately
• Location of inception: Middle East (Modern day Palestine)
• Messenger: Moses
• Referenced prophets: Adam, Noah, Abraham...

Christianity

• Year of inception: 2000 years ago, approximately
• Location of inception: Middle East (Modern day Palestine)
• Messenger: Jesus
• Referenced prophets: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses & other prophets.

Islam

• Year of inception: 1400 years ago, approximately
• Location of inception: Middle East (Modern day Saudi Arabia)
• Messenger: Muhammad
• Referenced prophets: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus & other prophets.

Druze

• Year of inception: 1000 years ago, approximately
• Location of inception: Middle East (Egypt)
• Messenger: Hamza Ibn Ali Ibn Ahmad
• Referenced prophets: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad & other prophets.

Mormonism

• Year of inception: 200 years ago, approximately
• Location of inception: New York, United States of America
• Messenger: Joseph Smith
• Referenced prophets: Moses & Jesus. Does NOT reference Muhammad (Islam) nor Hamza (Druze)

Baha’i Faith

• Year of inception: 200 years ago, approximately
• Location of inception: Middle East (Modern day Iran)
• Messenger: Baháʼu'lláh
• Referenced prophets: Jesus, Muhammad, Buddha...

Can the Abrahamic religions be instances of communication from their common God? It’s possible, however some issues surface:

• Issue 1: The Druze faith stands out with its secretive nature as it is intentionally restricted. This not only opposes the intention of communication, but also contrasts with the other Abrahamic religions that are all open.
• Issue 2: Mormonism and Baha’i Faith both start nearly 200 years ago in different places while not being compatible with each other. They cannot be both instances of communication. One of them isn’t, or both aren’t.
• Issue 3: Mormonism doesn’t accept Islam nor Druze, while Baha’i Faith accepts all major religions, even Buddhism, which is incompatible with Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Let’s keep the issues above in mind and apply the same criteria to the Abrahamic religions in the same way we did to all of the others. We will analyze them in the chronological order of their appearance.

Judaism

Let's analyze the message of Judaism.

• Criterion 1 (Living religion): PASS
• Criterion 2 (Warning of judgement): PASS. Judaism warns of judgment day and explains the conditions for success and failure. This makes it unsafe to dismiss! It's the first religion to pass this criteria.
• Criterion 3 (Universality): FAIL. While anyone can technically convert to Judaism, it seems like it was specifically destined for Hebrew people, who later became the Israelites. Many prophets after Moses were specific to the Israelites it seems. The beliefs themselves are universal, in that they don’t have anything in particular that caters to a specific group. Still, it seems restricted to the ethnic Jewish group.
• Criterion 4 (Past reference): PASS. Judaism references previous prophets of monotheism who were supposedly sent by the same God. Prophets like Noah and Abraham. This means that before Judaism came along, there were previous instances of communication, which is necessary for a judging and fair God.
• Criterion 5 (Alignment with reality): PASS. The idea that a God created everything and is testing humanity here on Earth is plausible and does align with the reality we are living. Almost all humans share a common life track: birth, weakness with need of care, strength and autonomy, weakness with need of care again, then death. Moreover, all humans have a certain level of free will. While no absolute free will of action exists, the free will to think and accept or reject ideas is guaranteed. This makes the judgment of such free will possible.

Now let's analyze Moses, the founder of Judaism.

• Criterion 1 (Impeccable social reputation): PASS. He was a leader to his people, the Hebrews. He saved them from the oppression they were living in under the Egyptians (1). He was known for his sense of justice and courage (2). Many of his stories are told in the Bible as well as in the Qur’an.
• Criterion 2 (Non-involvement rule): PASS. Moses is the first to pass this criterion. Every single founder of religion who was mentioned previously, was publicly involved with either an existing religion that served as a launch pad or had a profession or interest that prepared the terrain for their claim. Moses was raised by the Egyptians, but never adopted their religion, nor was he involved in any other religion that he publicly taught or engaged in. He also wasn’t known to have any profession where he produced thought or knowledge.
• Criterion 3 (Sudden self-produced life direction change): PASS. Moses killed an Egyptian who was mistreating one of his people. According to Britannica, Moses voluntarily killed the Egyptian after making sure that no one was looking (3). However, according to the Qur’an, Moses killed the Egyptian by accident after hitting him, and was instantly regretful asking God for forgiveness (4). Regardless of which version of the story is true, Moses fled because he feared for his life. Now here’s the sudden life direction change, he came back after a while by his own volition claiming to be sent by some God who was unknown to the Egyptians, then confronted the Pharaoh himself!!! No sane man would do such a thing! And not just that, he survived everything and won in the end!!!
• Criterion 4 (Complete devotion): PASS. Moses came back to a place where he feared for his life, put forward the exceptional claim that he was sent by a God he wasn't involved with when he left, confronted the ruler, and succeeded against incredible odds!
• Criterion 5 (Wide reach of message): PASS. The message of Moses had and still has a big influence on this very day! There probably aren’t many people in the world today who don’t know who Moses is, regardless of their beliefs. He is one of the most important prophets in many major religions. His legacy is still a part of the Bible as the Old Testament.

If there is a judging and fair God, Moses is highly likely to be one of his messengers. He passes all the criteria while explicitly making the claim of being sent by a God. If he was a fraud, he would have had an existing history of it, and he wouldn’t have dared to come back to a place where he killed someone and feared for his life, then challenge its ruler and win! If he was a deluded self-appointed leader to his people, that delusion would have been his demise. He would have been killed, as other religious founders have. Instead, he and his people, although an oppressed minority without any military power, were able to escape their oppressors and defeat them! This is impossible without some powerful external assistance.
One can reasonably claim that the story of Moses is just a myth that is made to look impressive. That would be fair, except it had more impact than what a myth can fathom. That being said, even if we accept that it’s all a myth, or at least a heavily augmented truth, it is still told by other Abrahamic prophets who happen to have had similar or more impact than Moses did. This makes his story as valid as theirs can be. So, let’s continue our analysis.
Sources:
(1) From Britannica: Moses... Hebrew prophet, teacher, and leader who, in the 13th century bce... delivered his people from Egyptian slavery...
(2) From Britannica: ...When he found an Egyptian taskmaster beating a Hebrew, probably to death, he could control his sense of justice no longer...
(3) From Britannica: ...After checking to make sure that no one was in sight, he killed the tough Egyptian overlord...
(4) From the Qur’an (translation): ˹One day˺ he entered the city unnoticed by its people. There he found two men fighting: one of his own people, and the other of his enemies. The man from his people called to him for help against his foe. So Moses punched him, causing his death. Moses cried, “This is from Satan’s handiwork. He is certainly a sworn, misleading enemy.” He pleaded, “My Lord! I have definitely wronged my soul, so forgive me.” So He forgave him, ˹for˺ He is indeed the All-Forgiving, Most Merciful.

Christianity

Let's analyze the message of Christianity.

• Criterion 1 (Living religion): PASS
• Criterion 2 (Warning of judgement): PASS. It does warn of an upcoming judgment and details the conditions of success and failure. This makes it unsafe to dismiss.
• Criterion 3 (Universality): PASS. It is definitely universal. Anyone can be a Christian, and it’s easy to find Christians from different countries, different ethnicities speaking different languages. It doesn’t get as universal as this!
• Criterion 4 (Past reference): PASS. It references previous religions and prophets, like Noah, Abraham, Moses, and many others. All of them being sent by the same God.
• Criterion 5 (Alignment with reality): FAIL. Some concepts in Christianity don’t align with reality well. Christians view Jesus as the son of God, but also as a part of God. God being three different entities, but still one: God the father, the holy spirit and the son. A concept called the trinity. Christians believe that God sacrificed his son in order to absolve humans from their sins. This doesn’t quite make sense for many reasons:

1: If God sacrificed his son in order to absolve us of our sins, judgment wouldn’t make sense. Also, why does a God have a son? Mortals have children to continue the species and to provide for them when they grow weak. A God doesn’t need a son...

1. If God sacrificed his son, also a part of himself, it should have been the final act of life here on Earth. Instead, he let Muhammad come after and be so successful in reversing this idea, all while claiming to be sent by him!!! And what about the people who died a long time ago and never knew about this important sacrifice?
   
2. The idea that God is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-loving doesn’t stand for a judging God. It simply isn’t possible for him to have these 3 attributes at the same time. If he is all-knowing, then he knows that many humans will fail his judgment and be severely punished. Consequently, if he is also all-powerful, being all-loving would have him not resort to judgment and not punish anyone. Since he insists on judgment with a heaven and hell, then he isn’t all-loving. Muhammad also happens to correct this idea.
   
3. The conditions of success and failure in the upcoming judgment are not particularly fair. It’s not about what actions one does during their life, rather, it’s about accepting Jesus as savior. One can be the most ruthless killer, then just accept Jesus as savior in order to be absolved of all wrongdoing. Also, what about all the people who lived and died before Jesus was even born? They didn’t know Jesus; how can they accept him as savior? Haven’t they spent their lives following other rules? Isn’t that unfair to them?
   

Now let's analyze Jesus, the founder of Christianity.

• Criterion 1 (Impeccable social reputation): PASS. Jesus had a notoriously flawless social reputation and was known for his noble morals.
• Criterion 2 (Non-involvement rule): PASS. He was raised Jewish, however he wasn’t particularly involved in any public religious activity, nor did he engage in any activity that produced thought or knowledge. He was a carpenter by trade (1), until his mission started. After which, and this is critical, he was immediately at odds with the existing Jewish teachings to the point of being in danger!
• Criterion 3 (Sudden self-produced life direction change): PASS. He was known to be a carpenter, then he suddenly turned into an itinerant preacher at odds with the established teachings (2). If he had been publicly learning or teaching Judaism before his claim, he would have failed this criterion, as almost all others have. However, it’s not the case, and the transformation is self-produced and puzzling! How does a carpenter who isn’t involved with religious matters nor any knowledge or thought producing profession, suddenly become an itinerant preacher with enough difference to the established faith to become a threat and a target?
• Criterion 4 (Complete devotion): PASS. He died for his mission (the Christian version is in contrast with the Islamic version here). There is no better test of devotion. He also was at odds with the established Jewish religion, which made him a target. Most of the founders of religion that we have seen, never entered in conflict with the existing religions at the beginning, rather, they built upon them and benefited from their involvement with them.
• Criterion 5 (Wide reach of message): PASS. Christianity is the biggest religion today! Nearly 25% of humans are Christians, and the rest know or have heard of Jesus. Now this, is communication!!!

Similar to Moses, if there is a judging and fair God, Jesus is highly likely to be one of his messengers. His feat is even more impressive than that of Moses. His mission and success in correcting and complementing the existing Jewish faith against incredible odds, adds more credibility to his claim. Jesus changed the world and continues to do so today!
Sources:
(1) From Britannica: ...Joseph is said to have been a carpenter (Matthew 13:55)—that is, a craftsman who worked with his hands—and, according to Mark 6:3, Jesus also became a carpenter...
(2) From Britannica: ...As a young adult, he went to be baptized by the prophet John the Baptist and shortly thereafter became an itinerant preacher and healer (Mark 1:2–28). In his mid-30s Jesus had a short public career, lasting perhaps less than one year, during which he attracted considerable attention...

Islam

Let's analyze the message of Islam.

• Criterion 1 (Living religion): PASS
• Criterion 2 (Warning of judgement): PASS. Islam clearly warns of an upcoming judgment and details the conditions of success and failure. Consequently, it’s not safe to dismiss.
• Criterion 3 (Universality): PASS. Islam is universal. Anyone can be a Muslim, and it’s quite easy to find two Muslims who are from different countries, ethnicities and don’t share the same language. The yearly pilgrimage where millions of Muslims gather is proof to how diverse Muslims can be.
• Criterion 4 (Past reference): PASS. Islam references many past prophets (25 in total), including but not limited to: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, David, Jacob, Jonas, Moses, Jesus... It clearly states that God has been communicating since the beginning out of fairness, so that people wouldn’t find any excuse when judgment comes!
• Criterion 5 (Alignment with reality): PASS. Islam insists on monotheism, and clearly reverses the trinity concept that has gotten into Christianity, as well as the idea that God is all-loving, on top of being all-knowing and all-powerful.

It aligns with reality well by describing reality as a test of free will. Life is neither the suffering Buddhism makes it out to be (which it isn’t), nor is it the joyous life Tenrikyo claims it should be (which again, isn’t). Every single human is continuously tested through good and bad. When it is something bad, it is their patience and acceptance that is tested. When it is something good, it is their capacity of being thankful and generous that is tested. Everyone’s life is a mix of good and bad. Exceptions exist and are accounted for.
Islam states that God has been sending prophets since the beginning in order to remind people that judgment is coming. It states that people who didn’t get the message will be tested again. Those who got the message of the prophet of their time, accepted it and followed its guidelines, shall pass the judgment. Those who rejected the message after receiving it clearly shall fail.
Now let's analyze Muhammad, the founder of Islam.

• Criterion 1 (Impeccable social reputation): PASS. Prior to his claim, Muhammad was highly regarded by his community and known for his trustworthiness (1).
• Criterion 2 (Non-involvement rule): PASS. Again here, Muhammad was not involved in the pagan polytheist religion of his community, even though it was popular, nor was he involved in any other religion. He was a successful merchant (2) and notoriously illiterate (3). He didn’t have any profession or interest that produced thought or knowledge.
• Criterion 3 (Sudden self-produced life direction change): PASS. Muhammad’s life changed drastically after he supposedly received revelation. The first contact shocked him greatly (4). After telling his wife what happened, she took him to her cousin who was knowledgeable about the Jewish faith. He told Muhammad that what happened to him was similar to Moses, and that a day will come when his community chases him away.
• Criterion 4 (Complete devotion): PASS. Muhammad suffered a lot for his claim and was under constant threat of death (5). He used to request to be guarded at night, however upon receiving revelation that God will protect him from people, he sent the guards away from that moment on (6). He was never harmed even while having many enemies who wanted to kill him.
• Criterion 5 (Wide reach of message): PASS. Muhammad, an illiterate person living in a remote desert, without any special means or skills, was able to spread his message everywhere, and he predicted it from the start (7). He created a civilization that would change the world in just 23 years. Like Christianity, Islam is found almost everywhere, and almost everyone has heard of him and his religion. It’s not by chance that the most popular male first name in the world today is “Muhammad” (8).

If a judging and fair God exists, Muhammad is highly likely to be one of his messengers. He was leading a normal and regular life in a polytheistic society for 40 years, then suddenly started preaching monotheism, suffering for it and even going to war for it.
Sources:
(1) From Wikipedia: ...Due to his upright character he acquired the nickname "al-Amin" (Arabic: الامين), meaning "faithful, trustworthy" and "al-Sadiq" meaning "truthful" and was sought out as an impartial arbitrator. His reputation attracted a proposal in 595 from Khadijah, a successful businesswoman. Muhammad consented to the marriage, which by all accounts was a happy one...
(2) From Wikipedia: ... It is known that he became a merchant and "was involved in trade between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
(3) From Wikipedia: ... Because he could not read and write himself...
(4) From Wikipedia: ...Muhammad was deeply distressed upon receiving his first revelations. After returning home, Muhammad was consoled and reassured by Khadijah and her Christian [sic] cousin, Waraqah ibn Nawfal. He also feared that others would dismiss his claims as being possessed...
(5) From Wikipedia: ...Regardless, several attempts were made at Muhammad's life...
(6) From Qur’an. Aisha said: "The Prophet was being guarded until this verse وَاللَّهُ يَعْصِمُكَ مِنَ النَّاسِ (Allah will protect you from mankind) was revealed." She added; "The Prophet raised his head from the room and said; «يَا أَيُّهَا النَّاسُ انْصَرِفُوا فَقَدْ عَصَمَنِي اللهُ عَزَّ وَجَل» (O people! Go away, for Allah will protect me)"
(7) From Sunnah: Miqdad reported that he heard God’s messenger say, “There will not remain on the face of the earth a mud-brick house or a camel’s hair tent which God will not cause the confession of Islam to enter bringing both mighty honour and abject abasement. God will either honour the occupants and put them among its adherents, or will humiliate them and they will be subject to it.” Miqdad said, “God will then receive complete obedience.”
(8) https://www.thebump.com/b/muhammad-baby-name

Druze

Let’s analyze the Druze faith!

• Criterion 1 (Living religion): FAIL. It’s not an extinct religion, but it is intentionally restricted and doesn’t accept conversions to it. How can this be a communication from a judging and fair God if the people being judged cannot have access to the material they need to succeed? If it stated that only a specific audience was targeted, that might have worked, but it doesn't say that, at least not when it started.
• Criterion 2 (Warning of judgement): PASS. Since Druze references other Abrahamic religions, I’m giving it a pass here, even though it’s not clear what the Druze actually believe.
• Criterion 3 (Universality): FAIL. It’s far from being universal. It doesn’t want to be, and it’s not.
• Criterion 4 (Past reference): PASS. It does reference other religions, even though it’s not clear in what capacity. Are the previous religions considered as previous instances of communication? Or does it complete its worldview with their knowledge? I’ll give it a pass.
• Criterion 5 (Alignment with reality): FAIL. Its closed nature makes it impossible for it to align with reality.

Now let's analyze Hamza Ibn Ali, the founder of Druze.

• Criterion 1 (Impeccable social reputation): FAIL. The Druze faith was named after Al-Darzi, who might have been either a disciple or a teacher of Hamza. A rivalry appeared between the two. Al-Darzi disputed the role of Hamza as the leader of the movement. They were both acquiring followers and engaged in regular brawls (1). So in summary, God supposedly sent Hamza as a messenger preaching that the current ruler was the embodiment of said God (If God is the embodiment of the ruler, why need Hamza at all?!!), then another man entered in competition with this messenger, who was also tolerated by the ruler, and even ended up giving his name to the movement, all the while the followers of each man fought each other. Then after said ruler was killed, the movement disappeared from its place of inception, but survived elsewhere and became a restricted religion. This doesn’t show anyone involved in a good light, especially not Hamza.
• Criterion 2 (Non-involvement rule): FAIL. There isn’t enough information about Hamza Ibn Ali before he entered Egypt in 1017. However, he fails the non-involvement rule, as he was appointed as a preacher in his own mosque before he started claiming that the reigning caliph was the embodiment of God (2). Rather convenient since that granted him support and favors (3).
• Criterion 3 (Sudden self-produced life direction change): FAIL. He supposedly received revelation, however that didn’t seem to cause any change in his life whatsoever. Receiving an unexpected contact from some God is supposed to cause a noticeable drastic change in one’s life, unless such revelation was expected or planned. Suffice it to say that he was already a preacher before supposedly receiving revelation.
• Criterion 4 (Complete devotion): PASS. Hamza definitely feared for his life but continued with his claim. He went into hiding, which seems a little bit cowardly for a prophet. In contrast, Moses came back to a place where he feared for his life, because he believed there was a God protecting him. The same happened with Muhammad who confidently sent guards away after revelation. However, since Hamza continued with his claim, considering this as a pass seems fair.
• Criterion 5 (Wide reach of message): FAIL. Hamza Ibn Ali failed to spread his message even though he initially set out to (4). If one is to say that the message couldn’t spread because of persecution, well, the same persecution occurred for Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and yet, these messages spread everywhere despite everything.

It’s extremely unlikely that the Druze faith is a communication from a judging and fair God. Its founder fails a combination of some important criteria.
Sources:
(1) From Wikipedia: ...Indeed, in his epistles, Hamza is critical of his colleague, both for al-Darzi's disputing Hamza's role as the leader of their movement, as well as for his followers' over-zealous, extremist and provocative actions, which revealed the movement's ideas prematurely and placed it under danger of attack... During this time, the followers of the rival leaders engaged in regular brawls in the streets of Cairo, cursing one another as infidels.
(2) From Britannica: ...Almost nothing is known of his life before he entered Egypt in 1017. He became a spokesman for the religious convictions of the Fāṭimid caliph al-Ḥākim (the Fāṭimids were the ruling dynasty in Egypt), who was already accorded the position of imām, a divinely appointed and authoritative spokesman for Islam...
(3) From Wikipedia: ...According to the medieval chroniclers, he too enjoyed signs of favour from al-Hakim: when he complained to the Caliph that his life was in danger, he was given weapons, which he demonstratively hung on every entrance to the Raydan Mosque...
(4) From Britannica: ...Considerable resistance to these doctrines appeared when they were first preached in 1017, and Ḥamzah went into hiding until 1019, when al-Ḥākim was able to move vigorously to support the new religious movement... Ḥamzah claimed to be representing not just another sect but rather an independent religion, one that superseded traditional Islam. Al-Ḥākim disappeared in mysterious circumstances in 1021, and, much persecuted, the Druze cult all but ceased to exist in Egypt...

Mormonism

Let’s analyze Mormonism:

• Criterion 1 (Living religion): PASS.
• Criterion 2 (Warning of judgement): PASS. Mormonism is built on top of Christianity and Judaism, to which it delegates a vast chunk of knowledge. Consequently, I’ll give it a pass here.
• Criterion 3 (Universality): FAIL. It is far from being universal. If it was God’s way to bring Christianity to its rightful state, the least we can say is that it didn’t happen. Most of Mormons are still in Utah (U.S state), where they went after Smith was killed.
• Criterion 4 (Past reference): PASS. Mormonism references both Christianity and Judaism. This makes it pass this criterion, however, the fact that it doesn’t reference Islam is problematic for its worldview.
• Criterion 5 (Alignment with reality): FAIL. Being based on Christianity, Mormonism inherits some of the same issues. It corrects some, but also introduces some of its own. For example, Mormonism states that there are three separate divine entities, God the father, Jesus Christ and the holy spirit. They’re not three in one, as Christianity says. This doesn’t solve the issue of sacrificing one divine entity for the sins of humans while still judging them. It only adds complexity. Are these Gods equal? What if they don’t agree on something? This also goes against Judaism, which Mormonism references, and with Judaism comes the whole legacy of monotheism! Mormonism corrects the idea that salvation only depends on accepting Jesus as savior. It adds the fact that deeds play a role, which is fair.

Now let's analyze Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism.

• Criterion 1 (Impeccable social reputation): FAIL. Smith’s reputation was less than stellar (1). His treasure hunting profession isn’t exactly the most honest of professions. Also, eloping to marry his wife, attempting to marry already married women, escaping justice, dying in a shoot-out with the mob...
• Criterion 2 (Non-involvement rule): FAIL. He fails the non-involvement rule on many accounts. He was heavily involved with public religious activity and even magic, in a place and time where religious revivalism thrived (2).
• Criterion 3 (Sudden self-produced life direction change): FAIL. Supposedly receiving revelation in 1823 via the angel he called Moroni, didn’t surprise him, nor seemed to have much effect on his life direction. He continued treasure seeking using questionable methods and leading the same life.
• Criterion 4 (Complete devotion): PASS. Smith was extremely devoted to his cause. He never gave up until the end!
• Criterion 5 (Wide reach of message): FAIL. If Mormonism was God’s way to bring back Christianity to its rightful state, then the mission simply failed. It seems like Christianity enjoys far more universality than Mormonism. In this regard, Smith failed his mission, as most of the followers of the religion are still based where their ancestors ended up after the death of Smith.

Sources:
(1) From Wikipedia: ...Meanwhile, the Smith family faced financial hardship... Family members supplemented their meager farm income by hiring out for odd jobs and working as treasure seekers, a type of magical supernaturalism common during the period. Smith was said to have an ability to locate lost items by looking into a seer stone, which he also used in treasure hunting, including, beginning in 1825, several unsuccessful attempts to find buried treasure sponsored by Josiah Stowell, a wealthy farmer in Chenango County, New York. In 1826, Smith was brought before a Chenango County court for "glass-looking", or pretending to find lost treasure; Stowell's relatives accused Smith of tricking Stowell and faking an ability to perceive hidden treasure... Although Smith had abandoned treasure hunting, his former associates believed he had double crossed them and had taken the golden plates for himself, property they believed should be jointly shared. After they ransacked places where they believed the plates might be hidden, Smith decided to leave Palmyra
(2) From Wikipedia: The region was a hotbed of religious enthusiasm during the Second Great Awakening. Between 1817 and 1825, there were several camp meetings and revivals in the Palmyra area… Smith said that he became interested in religion by age 12… With other family members, Smith also engaged in religious folk magic, which was a relatively common practice in that time and place…

Baha'i Faith

• Criterion 1 (Living religion): PASS.
• Criterion 2 (Warning of judgement): UNKNOWN. Baha’i Faith claims to be a unification of all the major religions. The issue is that some of the religions it references speak of judgment, like Judaism, Christianity and Islam, while others don’t, like Buddhism and Hinduism. While Baha’i Faith speaks of a day of judgment, it doesn’t seem to view it in the same way. It speaks of deeds being judged, but not according to each religion’s standards, rather, according to Baha’i Faith’s standards, which I have failed to find after multiple searches. If the conditions of success and failure aren’t clear, the God of Baha’i Faith cannot possibly be fair. I’ll mark this as unknown, but it’s actually closer to a failure.
• Criterion 3 (Universality): FAIL. In theory, Baha’i Faith should be universal, as it calls for the unification of all the major religions. It attempts to please everyone, but even while doing so, its numbers remain low, and is mostly unknown.
• Criterion 4 (Past reference): FAIL. Baha’i Faith references all major religions, but not as past instances of communication. It essentially claims that there is only one religion, and that the major religions were manifestations of God, but don’t necessarily represent said unique religion correctly. It references all major religions only to change their core beliefs in order to achieve unification. Said another way, this One God, has left people to be duped by false religions since the start, and only thanks to Baháʼu'lláh in the 1800s, did he think to show the truth to people. What about those who died long before Baháʼu'lláh was even born, and who followed Buddhism for example without ever believing a God existed?
• Criterion 5 (Alignment with reality): FAIL. This is a big failure. Baha’i Faith doesn’t make much sense, to the point of being revolting, to me at least! It attempts to be everything to everyone. Its founder claims to be Christ returned for Christians, the second coming of Jesus for Sunni Muslims, the Imam Husayn for Shi’a Muslims, the reincarnation of Krishna for Hindus, and the fifth Buddha for Buddhists. Never mind what each one of these symbols means in the context of its own religion, it just takes the concept and runs with it. It disregards most of what is associated with these symbols, it only needs its acknowledged existence. Let’s not forget that most of these religions do not agree with each other! It attempts to reconcile worldviews that are incompatible with each other. It picks and chooses what it wants from each major religion and disregards the rest.

Now let's analyze Baháʼu'lláh, the founder of Baha'i Faith.

• Criterion 1 (Impeccable social reputation): PASS. Coming from a wealthy family, he was known to give considerable amounts of time and money to charity.
• Criterion 2 (Non-involvement rule): FAIL. The founder of Baha’i Faith, Baháʼu'lláh, as well as the founder of Bábism, Siyyid Ali Muhammad, known as the Báb, and who laid the foundation for Baha’i Faith, both fail the non-involvement rule. They were both heavily involved in public religious matters before and at the time of their claims (1) (2). We are not talking about regular religious people going about their day, then making an exceptional claim out of nowhere, no! It’s practically the same scenario every time: a person is deeply involved with religious matters, or actively pursuing a profession or an interest, which leads them either by opportunity or by delusion to their claim. It’s the same here!
• Criterion 3 (Sudden self-produced life direction change): FAIL. Baháʼu'lláh had already set the course of his life and was already deeply involved in religious matters before he supposedly received his first divine revelation, which was in prison. From then on, not much had changed.
• Criterion 4 (Complete devotion): PASS. He stood by his claim and spent most of his life in prison. It’s important to note though that he wasn’t initially imprisoned because of his claim. Rather, it was because of his involvement with Bábism.
• Criterion 5 (Wide reach of message): FAIL. If Baháʼu'lláh was sent by the one and only God in order to unify all major religions, such unification hasn’t happened successfully.

It's highly unlikely that Baha'i Faith is a communication from a judging and fair God.
Sources:
(1) From Wikipedia: Some of his earlier writings suggest that he did not enjoy the business and instead applied himself to the study of religious literature… He was constantly absorbed in his own thoughts, and was preoccupied with repetition of his prayers and verses… In 1841 the Báb went on pilgrimage to Iraq, and for seven months stayed mostly in and around Karbala. There he attended lectures of Kazim Rashti and became his follower… As of his death in December 1843, Kazim Rashti counseled his followers to leave their homes to seek the Mahdi, who, according to his prophecies, would soon appear. One of these followers, Mullá Husayn, after keeping vigil for 40 days in a mosque, traveled to Shiraz, where he met the Báb…
(2) From Wikipedia: Soon after declaring his spiritual mission to Mullá Husayn, the Báb sent him to Tehran to deliver a special tablet to one whom God would guide him to. After learning about Baháʼu'lláh through an acquaintance, Mullá Husayn felt compelled to arrange for Baháʼu'lláh to receive the tablet—this news brought great joy to the Báb when Mullá Husayn wrote to him about it…

Summary

After analyzing all the religions, the ones that are highly likely to be communications from a judging and fair God if one exists, are Judaism, Christianity and Islam. They are the only religions that satisfy most of the criteria. In fact, their founders are the ONLY ones who satisfy all the criteria, specifically the criterion of non-involvement prior to their claim of a contact with a God. All the other founders were involved in one way or another, making their claim a possible result of either fraud or delusion.
It is important to note though: we haven't proven that a judging and fair God exists, and we haven't proven that these religions are actually communications from him, not at all. All we did was to reasonably prove that if a judging and fair God exists, then Judaism, Christianity and Islam are highly likely to be communications from him.
In the next post, we will continue our research and see how we can reasonably prove that a judging and fair God exists.
Until next time!

I backtested using thinkorswim as the code I am using is only in thinkscript and I cannot convert it into python or some other language. Tried using ChatGPT with no success. I used the 3-minute timeframe so I was only able to backtest within 30 days as you cannot go back further than that on thinkorswim.
My philosophy is that there is no need to go that far back as the market is random intraday to some degree of news being impactful. Such as Fed announcements or more recently the debt ceiling talks. The market 60 days ago is completely different than what it is now. So, the parameters are different to what indicators you are using. It is proven that parameters change as the market environment changes. I like to change my parameters on my indicators within usually 2-3 weeks. Thats why I like to only backtest recent data as far back as 30 days because I feel like it is optimal and recent data is more important than the data 5 months ago.
Here are the results and let me know what y'all think:

• Total Trades: 53
• Losing Trades: 15
• Winning Trades: 38
• Win %: 72%

I like to also put a $ figure to these numbers. So, if my max loss is $350 that means in total my losses would be ($5,250). If my max win is $500 that's means my total profits would be $19,000. So total PnL is $13,750. To me this is not bad at all. Obviously, these numbers are hypothetical if you 5x both the losses and winnings thresholds the total PnL would be far greater. Which is the end goal.