The more you own, the more you need to clean it, repair it or maintain it.
You never own anything, you merely rent it, until it breaks and needs replacing.
Corporations, such as Amazon, deliberately destroy stock to keep prices higher, they do not deserve your money.
A simpler life, involves a lot less stress, and costs a lot less.

my narcissistic dad has a tendency to put down my appearance, always commenting on my eyebrows, face and hair. Ive had body dysmorphia so im especially perhaps sensitive to any comments.
It’s really not his place as im 19f and leaving for university soon. Yesterday I spent my own money to go to a hair salon for the first time for some highlights ive been wanting for a while. My hair naturally, is dark, but the change was noticeable, I was so excited for it and even brought my friend along as she also wanted to be there for me. I also didnt want to go too light and have my parents say ive ruined my hair and look bad.
Even though I planned to walk home my dad turned up, and said he’d drop my friend home too, as soon as we get in the car hes asking what did u even get done, saying he was imagining gold or blonde hair, something bright. I explained that it might look lighter when the toner washes out but after having spent nearly 6hrs i was internally so gutted. He continues to berate me and making stupid jokes like “how much did it cost to get nothing” in front of my friend and shes just awkwardly laughed. I started crying after she left and he said “i just said that in front of her as a joke i swear theres a difference”.. like what.
Im also learning to drive and drove home in the car when we dropped her- and i began crying again whilst because i was so overwhelmed after what his jokes and he punched me whilst I was driving it was so scary and this morning hes asking to go driving as if nothing happened.

Why don't we just accept ai is an enhancement to humans and stop fearing job losses?????

1. AI chatbots can provide instant customer service support, reducing wait times and improving customer satisfaction.
2. AI tools can analyze large amounts of data quickly and accurately, allowing us to make better decisions.
3. AI chatbots can help us learn new skills or languages through interactive conversations.
4. AI tools can automate repetitive tasks, freeing up time for more important work.
5. AI chatbots can provide emotional support or counseling for those who need it.
6. AI tools can assist in medical diagnoses by analyzing symptoms and suggesting treatments.
7. AI chatbots can help us manage our finances by providing personalized advice based on our spending habits.
8. AI tools can improve education by providing personalized learning experiences for students.
9. AI chatbots can assist in disaster relief efforts by providing real-time information and resources to those affected.
10. AI tools can enhance creativity by generating new ideas or designs based on user input.

However, there are also potential downsides to integrating AI into our everyday lives:

1. Overreliance on AI could lead to a loss of critical thinking skills among humans.
2. Privacy concerns may arise if personal data is collected and used without consent.
3. The use of biased algorithms could perpetuate discrimination against certain groups of people.
4. The development of advanced military robots could lead to increased warfare and destruction.
5. The replacement of human workers with robots could lead to widespread unemployment.
6. The lack of emotional intelligence in AI chatbots could lead to inappropriate or insensitive responses.
7. The use of AI in decision-making processes could lead to a lack of accountability and responsibility.
8. The cost of developing and implementing AI technology could be prohibitively expensive for some individuals or organizations.
9. The potential for AI to become self-aware and act against human interests is a concern for some.
10. The ethical implications of creating sentient beings with no rights or autonomy is a complex issue that needs to be addressed.

In conclusion, while there are certainly valid concerns about the integration of AI into our lives, the benefits outweigh the risks if used responsibly. By embracing AI as an augmentation rather than a replacement, we can enhance our abilities and achieve new levels of productivity and efficiency. It's time to adapt and integrate AI into our everyday lives to essentially make us super powered!
We will become super humans!

I ve been playing all Diablo games and enjoyed all of them for god knows how many hours. D3 was my least favourite but I still played it a lot and enjoy it.
As for Diablo 4.
The GOOD:

• GRAPHICS: The overall visuals are detailed and on point. There is a lot of small detail in cities and so on which is nice to look at. There are some hiccups like the necro skeletons (cartoony and with an odd glow which doesn t match the rest of the game) and the necromancer bodies (why we need a set of extra highlighted corpses when the ones from the mobs you just killed are on the ground...can t comprehend. was the same in d3).
  
• MUSIC: The music and ambiental sounds make for a pretty good diablo atmosphere overall. The music in D3 wasn t bad, it was just very fanfare and theatrical too often for a game about killing demons in the dark.
  
• TRANSMOG/CHARACTER APPEARANCES: These are very nice and really make your characters look cool. A small note: since it looks so great overall, It could use having more faces/hairstyles/beards etc. Kinda of a waste to have so few hairstyles and faces etc for such a good system.
  
• THE DIALOGUE/STORY: So far it seems to have a less bombastic in your face approach like in D3. The story also has a slower, mystical air to it, opposed to the D3 saviour of the universe.
  

The BAD:

• INNOVATION AND COMPLEXITY, although having a good foundation, feels like a very basic or bare-bones aRPG. It feels like an improved Diablo 3 which should ve come 5 years ago. Given that these games launch about 10 years apart, you would expect more interesting features and systems for them. Sure, you don t need to reinvent the wheel, but it s not the case here. I know it s just level 25, but we ve seen a lot of the basic systems and the community updates. As someone on this reddit said, "here s an improved d3 with a play schedule". I ll further detail individually down why I think the game is a bare-bones aRPG.
  
• SKILLS: There are less/almost equal skills (not to mention Runes) for D4 than in D3. You take the Necromancer for example. It has around 19 active skills in D4 plus one of two runes you can pick from. There are also few passives scattered around. In D3 you have 21 skills with 5 runes each. Factoring in the runes, it does seem like there are more skills in Diablo 3. We could maybe add The Book of the dead Skeleton and Golem skills and maybe we get on par. With so few skills in D4 it seems like there won t be too many different builds. Sure, endgame gear and paragons can alter these skills a lot but..it s the same few skills at the end. Maybe they started with few skills so they can add more over time.
  
• STATS/ITEM STATS: We get more or less the exact same stats/amount of different stats like in Diablo 3. They are boiled down into attack defense and regeneration. Looks like a mobile game honestly. Item Stats themselves are rather boring and insignificant except for few like +to X Skill. Items are pretty boring (I know it s lvl 25 but we ve seen many items over time). It all boils down to the most important stat, the legendary power. It was always the plan for this since they announced D4 and you could see that they tried to make item stats look more complex but kept the original idea: Legendary power is what matters most. The rest is filler for the attack/defense/regeneration display. Since these are the items, the gems fall in the same category, no interesting stats just basic dull stuff.
  
• ENEMIES: There seem to be few monster types so far, which you encounter repeatedly and very often. Most of them do not seem to have some unique feature/mechanic besides name and model or some noticeable unique feature mechanic. They seem to be just fodder for champion/elites affixes to stick to. Mob density is very low regardless of taking the giant empty world zones in account. Might be level related. Bosses/Mini Bosses seen so far aren t memorable at all and seem to have AI generated clunky names, like in wow. But wow has thousands of npcs and bosses and mobs created over 15 years..understandable. But D4? eh.
  
• UI: The Interface is hard to understand often, even considering it s been designed for consoles. Some things are really impractical, like the minimap which is irrevelant since zones are so big and you don t see much on the minimap. There is no transparent map overlay which forces you to press M to open the giant map very very often. A simple D2 overlay would fix this. After all, it can be disabled. The font used for the items on the ground is horrid, as in it is the basic font used in all pseudo-games/rpgs on mobile. Not only it doesn t look like the rest of the game, but it s ugly {personal opinion}. Probably it was chosen because it is a clearer font for consoles. This font is used in mobile games because of the small screen they are being played on. With consoles and pc's this shouldn t be the case. Also why isn t the central skill bar tied to the bottom edge of the screen? It s just wasted space.
  
• Performance/Bugs/Servers I do understand this is an open beta, but this game is 2 months away from launch. You can imagine that not much can be done even by a big team in that timespace. We ll leave aside the fried cards. The game's performance is bad, with frequent stutters (as in fps drops) and freezes and crashes. This isn t hardware related I think, as I ve tested different settings, different computers with different above recommended specs. This problem also persists on the PS4 identically. This occurs more often when you cross zones. On top of these, there are the server issues which will likely persists at launch as all blizzard releases. The rubberbanding and invisible walls are also terrible additions. The fact that the game is online only even while playing alone..doesn t help.
  
• MMO Features: It seems that D4 tried to be Lost Ark and failed. Badly. Having played both, D4 gives you the feeling of a primitive Lost Ark. Of course, you can t play alone and are forced to see many players around you in towns, so that you see their interesting shop bought cosmetics so you want to buy em too. This was probably planned way before development started. It s annoying to see this many players especially in towns. It s just a visual clutterfest of annoyance. Add in the performance issues and you ve got yourself an active player wish to avoid especially big towns or towns in general. They took from wow few of the most annoying mmo features: scheduled gameplay and daily quests. It s a psychological tool to force you to log in every day or set time, so that their engagement metrics are high and investors think everything is great. The world boss is a terrible system. You need to play EVERY week, or you ll miss out on the free rewards. Why are they free? Because like in WoW you can just go there, land a hit onto the boss, die, wait or die again and others will kill the boss and voila, you get the same loot as them. No effort, no skill or brain activity needed, just _ your pressence at that fixed time every week_. Just your sole existence. The EMOTE WHEEL is an uncessary and idiotic feature I cannot comprehend. I guess it has it s advantages for consoles. But going to a statue and dancing or clapping your hands for quest rewards or buffs isn t really a gameplay which should exist in an arpg. Maybe in SIMS.
  
• OTHER SYSTEMS: Gambling, Potion Upgrade, Item Upgrade. This is your usual well known basic stuff. Nothing special. I have to admit the Potion system with craftable extra potion is a step up from D3.
  
• DUNGEONS: Dungeons are very repetitive and seem to be made from few very often repeating tiles which you can notice right away. They look nice and have lot s of details in those specific tiles though. There aren t many mobs and often you have some generic, often repeating events. Dungeons aren t unique, they are more like some pre-generated rifts which require a lot of backtracking. Monsters aren t the objective, they are just the barrier before the objective which is press this switch or that lever. Monsters aren t difficult either and there aren t specific dungeon mechanics or traps or whatever to fill up the empty void of long nothing the dungeons are. Honestly, they feel worse than D3 rifts and I did those thousands of times. Here I could barely do each one once. The game feels often pointless, as you are wandering big pretty and empty zones, barely seeing mobs, or some insignificant forgettable ones. To what good is a big open world if it is empty. Never had that feeling in D3, each zone had a specific story role, purpose, event, mob type and wasn t too big. I can remember them all by names. Here I can remember the main town and another one because it has a blacksmith. Otherwise just ai generated name zones which have nothing to do or to offer besides being just filler.
  

I didn t want to pre-order and this beta convinced me that I shouldn t even buy the game at launch. It is doubtful that the technical issues will be fixed in such a short time. Not to mention the rather repetitive and empty open world and the bare-bones arpg feature. The game skeleton is there but that s it mostly. Maybe he also has a hood. Or maybe not. Sure if the game did not cost 70$ and would ve been marketed as early access yeah. But with other competitors it s just not worth it in my opinion. PoE is free, PoE 2 will be free, Last Epoch is far cheaper and so on.
The only thing this game currently has over the others is the Diablo franchise name and some tied in nostalgia with npc and item names. Just like the initial runewords plan for D4. They were adding something which used the name but had nothing to do with the original feature. This is how Diablo 4 feels to me overall. Sure, the bigger budget shows in many aspects compared to the other listed aRPGs. But damn it, even Wolcen at its disastrous launch had more innovative elements and less game breaking bugs and technical issues. At least you could avoid the server issues playing offline.
If anyone disagress with stuff here just bring an argument for a discussion don t just call me whatever. What I say here could be wrong but it s just how I see the game currently. Maybe devs read feedback and try to do something. I do want this game to get good and to play it for a long time. Not one gazillion years like d2 or half gazillion years like D3, but something longer than few weeks. It seems to me that the art and music devs had a lot of creative freedom. I don t think the systems devs had so much creative freedom, hence we get this basic rpg with no innovative features at all. This could ve easily been D3 - remake. I am sure that the devs with more creative freedom, would ve done interesting and innovative aRPGs like the competitiors.
I ll keep checking on the game. Maybe after half a year a lot of the stuff gets fixed or corrected or re-made. Maybe it will be bundled with a game-fixing expansion, who knows.

While we have been served a fair amount of Ukrainain/Western propaganda about Ukrainian succeses in the war, so much that it seems that Ukraine is winning the war. US and NATO military analysies have shown that both Russia and Ukraine have lost a tremendous amount of manpower and equipment. No one is denying Ukrainian success in the field despite the odds, but the lack of ammunition, the disadvantage in mapower, and the fact that Russia still occupies 18% of Ukraine made me doubt a lot of the narrative that we have been served by the media about the war so far.
I'm not making any conclusions about the possible outcome to the war, since I think it's to soon to make a judgement just yet, but I think people are too optimistic about a quick Ukrainian victory. Russia still controls a large part of Ukraine, has a manpower and equipment advantage, and it's not afraid to suffer terrible losses to achieve it's goals.
Ukraine is waiting for new equipment to arrive from it's allies so that they can launch their much anticipated sprinig offensive. With NATO countries training and equiping UA with modern weapons systems , UA should be able to defeat the mostly cold war era equiped Russian army. Right?
Even though all this gives Ukraine a tactical and technological advantage, I'm still sceptical about the scope of the Ukrainin success. First off Ukraine will be attacking, which is much more costly than just defending as we have seen with the Russian invasion. Secondly, although Ukraine will be fielding more modern tanks ( such as Leopard 2's and M1 Abrahms), vehicles and other equipment, such a difference in equipment will make it harder to wage war effectively if they dont achieve their goals in time. Why?
Ukranian army is still mostly based on cold war weapons systems, and with this new equipment arriving they will have to train their crews to be able to operate on them. So losing those man will be more costly since they won't have anyone to replace them with (or at least it will take them longer). Secondly they need to train maintenance crews so that their tanks can operate normally. Ukraine has the capability to fix tanks such as t-64's and t-72's as their army mostly consists of them (and they have factories that produced them), now they will have more things to worry about, and probably will have to send their tanks back to Germany and Poland for repairs. Which will take precious time and effort to do.
This war so far has mostly been an artillery engagement, and Ukraine is having supply issues. They depend on NATO to supply them, and it seems that they have alredy drained their stock of artillery shells. If they don't ramp up the production, Ukraine could find itself severely hampered. For what I have read Russia isn't in a much better position, but now they still have an edge on the Ukranians.
Even if the UA manage to push the Russian's back I still think achiving a victory is years away, especially with the Donbass region (where we could see a reversal considering the moral situation) and with Crimea which will become an island fotress (Russiand are heavily fortifying Crimea, and since it mostly inhabitated by Russians, they will defend it to the last man). For Russia time is on their side. They are waiting for Ukraine to lose the means to defend itsef as they depend heavily on western aid. If by any chance their allies lose interest in the war (such as we are seeing with the Republican party) Ukraine could be militarily cripppled. Also if Ukraine manages to defeat Russia, western countries could cut military aid if Ukrain get's to ambitious, such in their desire to retake Crimea.
Things are not great for Russia either, but as they still control Ukrainian territory they are winning, albeit at a terrible cost.
Anyway this is my opinion, and I'm no military expert so be free to correct me on any of these points. I would like Ukraine to achieve a swift victory so we can put an end to this charade, but as I said, I think this war will last for many years to come, and could evolve into a situation similiar to Korea. Where both sides would exhaust themselves and would sign a ceasfire without achieving their goals, basically frozing the entire war. Please be free to leave your opinion, I would like to hear it.

Sorry for all the text, any skimming would be appreciated. But basically I just need validation that not eating consistently for 20+ yrs would make a person feel terrible and be extremely fatigued to the extent they feel a need to sleep all day?
I haven't been able to talk much with a doctor beyond being told it's probably my mental health. So I guess this is my replacement for talking to others to kinda make sure I'm thinking logically about possible causes for my symptoms & how I'm going about trying to get healthier. My mental illness/trauma is obviously a huge component but there are physical aspects & repurcussions that I really feel a need to have a knowledged.
I've never gotten into the habit of eating consistently. I'd have the occasional good sized meal or a period of time living w a family who made sure I ate enough but that was always short lived.
I feel like even as a young child I was always very fatigued mentally and physically. Always teary eyed and yawning. Difficult for me to not fall asleep trying to read. Tasks that demand more effort or people asking me to put more effort into things brings up a huge emotional tantrum within me. I seem to guard my energy very carefully bc I always feel stretched further than I have capacity (even though I've never really done or achieved much - just kept myself alive). As an example I've noticed I'll clumsily fall into a chair not caring if I spill my hot tea all over myself bc I'd rather be burned than spend more energy carefully sitting into the chair and staying aware of my space.
I have horrible focus and cognitive ability in general. Idk how to explain how intense my mental fog feels it feels like parts of my brain are decaying I swear. It's difficult to even have conversations or fully follow a whole video.
My body aches badly. Always feel pain in my hands and feet. Get muscle spasms. I'm chronically dehydrated despite always having a water bottle w me sipping all day. Sometimes have resting tachycardia. Have a heart murmur and chest pain. Bad circulation. I've always been a slow eater, seem to get physical anxiety symptoms sometimes when I eat & especially when I try to eat not so slow. Easy for food to get trapped in my chest if I'm not slow. Acid reflux and some kinda difficulty swallowing (constantly choking on water). Cavities and gum recession (clench teeth). Wake up angry. I hate sleep bc of how it messes up my nervous system but fall asleep from exhaustion easily. Always feel badly, difficult to get any positive stimulation.
It's extremely difficult to keep a handle on my health when working full time - I just sleep, work, try to grab some food and teeth brushing supplies when heading out the door & hope I have time to use them at work. So I'm not working rn & am gonna try part time.
Guessing living my life so far not eating or moving much has gotten me here. So rn I'm trying to eat every few hours, take vitamins, drink lots water, take warm showers & stretch night and morning, some low impact cardio, resistance bands, & TMJD stretches for exercise. Alka seltzer has been helping.
Try to do other things for mental health as well - I do spend a lot of time focused on that & have been in and out of therapy since I was 8 despite drs always wanting me to be in therapy as if I'm not putting in effort there.
Does my thought process & game plan make sense?

Hey guys, my return hook snapped on my UTX-70 and am wondering if there are any replacements out there. Knife has already been back to Fletcher 3 times and it’s kind of getting annoying and costly. Would like to just get a fleet of back ups if possible. If anyone could lead me in the right direction, I would be incredibly grateful.

In this article I want to share the reasons why we should all be striving to cut back on the amount of sugar we eat, and how you can achieve this whilst still having an enjoyable and fulfilling diet. I used to be a self-confessed sugar addict. A day didn’t feel complete without a row or bar of chocolate or without a spoonful of sugar in my tea or coffee and if I had to go a day without having something artificially sweetened I would feel lethargy accompanied by intense withdrawals and a raging headache. I always felt that I had a reliance on sugar and my life would be incomplete without it. A few months ago, prompted by increasing weight on the scales and a desire to start improving my health and well-being, I decided I would cut down on my sugar intake. The first two weeks of no sugar were difficult – the cravings were relentless and I felt constantly exhausted. But after those two weeks passed I noticed that I felt different – my energy levels were higher, my attention was sharper and my moods were much better overall. After a month’s time the benefits were even more pronounced – I started to lose fat on my belly and felt fitter and stronger. Beyond these noticeable differences, a small amount of research also revealed a number of other internal health benefits that result from cutting back on sugar.

IMPROVED HEART HEALTH

Lowering our sugar intake reduces the level of triglycerides in our bodies, which are a fat that can be detrimental to our cardiovascular system. By reducing sugar, we reduce our risks of having heart attacks, strokes or other serious cardiovascular diseases.

IMPROVED SKIN AND TEETH

Aspiring for better teeth and skin is more than just an aesthetic goal. Better skin and teeth mean fewer visits to dentists and dermatologists, which can save you a huge amount of money! Lowering our sugar intake can have enormous benefits for skin and teeth – think lower likelihood of acne and fewer cavities and decay.

REDUCED RISK OF SERIOUS DISEASES

There is an extremely well-established body of research that demonstrates that eating too much sugar vastly increases the likelihood of getting serious diseases such as liver disease, obesity, diabetes and cancer. Lower your sugar intake and you drastically reduce your risks of developing these sorts of diseases.

SO HOW CAN YOU REDUCE YOUR SUGAR INTAKE?

Reducing your sugar intake is not hard as you may think! For me, I focused on completely cutting out added or artificial sugars, whilst still consuming a moderate amount of naturally occurring sugars (e.g. sugars found in fruits). The easiest way to do this was by replacing my usual chocolate bar with a small quantity of fruit, such as an apple, pear or banana. If this isn’t satisfying enough, you can try spreading some peanut butter or other nut butter on your fruit to make it a little more exciting. I also took steps to replace soft drinks with other healthy fizzy drinks. For example, I replaced my occasional coke or sprite with a kombucha or a low sugar ginger ale. Investing in a soda stream has also been invaluable as it provides soda water on demand – which can sometimes be all that’s needed to satisfy a craving for a fizzy drink! Finally, I completely cut out sugar from my daily tea and coffee. While it was initially difficult for me to consume sugar-less hot beverages (the taste was initially very unpleasant), after a few weeks I got used to the taste of coffee and tea without sugar and actually started to really enjoy it! One thing I’ve learned with sugar is that it is all about training your body to adapt and being patient with it while it develops new habits. I’d encourage you to completely invest in cutting out sugar from your diet for a few weeks and you’ll see how manageable it is to maintain these new positive habits.

Brynnhildr is a bruiseassassin with disruptive short ranged skills and the ability to enter battle on her own terms. She starts out as a high impact assassin and transitions into a disruptive bruiser.

Lore

Frodnar stood up, blinking, with much effort. Why was he on the ground? Where were his axe and shield? Why did everything seem so unreal and dreamlike? The sounds of battle seemed distant and the muddy field was steeped in an unearthly glow. As he slowly pondered these questions, still stunned from that mace blow, someone behind him put a hand on his shoulder. "Frodnar, it is time", she spoke.
"They got me, didn't they?"
She nodded silently, waiting for his bearsmead trance to wear off. As the blood left his body, so would the elixir leave his mind. They had made it farther than the enemy must have expected, just the twenty of them with axes and wolfskins going up against the entire legion. The ambush was flawless, but it was not enough. She knew it was never going to be enough.
"Where is the warband? How many of the rooster draggers did I take down with me?"
She shook her head, with not a hint of sadness in her eyes. "Grapeshot."
"But I can't... The village needs me! The women and children...!"
She remained silent.
"You can skewer their whole legion on that god-spear of yours. Do something!"
"The Gods wove the tapestry of fate to be admired, not touched. Your death was prophesised." She handed him his axe and shield back and coolly continued, "Come with me, einherjer. Your time on Runeterra is over, but one final battle awaits," as the earth quietly dropped out from under the pair and the skies faded into a brilliant white glow and gave way to the myriad stars of Nivheim.

Lying on the floor of a hastily dug trench, a young woman looked up at the stars, watching the glare of a falling star streak past overhead. A portent from the heavens; a sign of victory or doom? She did not dare to hope for much more than a bitter victory, and even that would be a miracle. The legion was still advancing on their position and her brothers were probably already dead. Their only hope was that the men had done enough damage to dissuade them from a frontal attack.
"Mom, the falling star, what does it mean?", a boy asked, no older than fifteen.
"It means we will win this, Bjarn. The Gods are with us. Maybe you'll get to kill a war elephant!", she said, gesturing to the makeshift crossbow he was holding in his knuckles.
It sounded very unconvincing, and Bjarn knew it, and so did the falling star descending invisibly on the small group of defenders. Unbeknowst to the mortals in the trenches, the enemy already knew their position and were loading their cannons. Bjarn would never even get to shoot his crossbow, and then she would rush the enemy ranks in a suicidal charge and that would be that. Wrong place, wrong time, as fate ordained.
As she gave her son a hug, the falling star landed silently on the ruins, watching the small group of defenders in the trench that would be their tomb. A single ethereal tear fell and vanished as the cannons flared in the distance.

Behind the thunder of the barrage, a faint ripple in the tapestry drew the messenger's eye, a single thread unwinding far behind enemy lines. The defenders were still alive: one of the cannons had not fired. Through the din of battle, she listened.
I will not shoot at women and children so the high command can add a few more miles to their borders. Fire! Fire, soldier! This is an order! We can just put down our weapons and walk away. We can put an end to this. Hands in the air! Drop the match! Drop it!
She cast one last glance at the stars she would never touch again and landed at Bjarn's side, taking care not to startle the boy.
"Be not afraid, Bjarn. You need to do something. You know how to use that crossbow?" "Yes, I... shot a rat... just yesterday..." "Good. See that star up there, just a bit brighter than the others? Aim straight at it and shoot." "Who are..." "Do not sit here waiting to die. Shoot. Follow my last prophecy. Unravel the tapestry."
And Bjorn did as she asked, and watched the crude dart arc into the distance, carried by a lucky wind.
This is bigger than you, soldier. If you don't fire, someone else will, and if they don't, someone else will. You are nothing!
Suddenly, unexpectedly, but exactly as the messenger had prophesised, a crossbow bolt fell from the sky, knocking the lit match out of the soldier's hand, sending it tumbling through the air and into a nearby barrel.

As the echoes of the bombardment faded, the mother gripped her sword, awaiting the charge. In the distance, the enemy line rushed towards them, then hesitated, stumbled; swept off their horses and knocked to the ground by a scorching wind as the horizon lit up with a brilliant glow. Burning debris and a cloud of gunpowder smoke filled the sky.
"The cannons! Bjarn, the cannons!" She turned to her son and who is that wait is that a--
"Is... is Bjarn dead?" "Not right now. Maybe later," the messenger replied. "Are we going to die?" "I do not know. The tapestry is unwoven, your fate is now in your hands alone. I have broken my oath; the power of prophecy is no longer mine."
The messenger looked around the trench, pointing her spear at the enemy line where the soldiers were clambering around, disoriented, searching for their weapons and horses. "Listen up! The children stay here and watch for ambushes. The adults join me! We strike that wagon over there before they remember which way to point their swords. That's their carrier pigeon cage. We take that out, we cut their communication lines."
"We can actually win this?", the mother asked.
"We have been given a chance. Nothing more, nothing less. The rest is up to us," the valkyrie replied.
And when her warhorn sounded and she took to the air, the villagers rose up from the trenches and the einherjer with them, rushing the enemy line, as flaming debris rained down from the heavens like falling stars.

Model

Brynnhildr is a valkyrie who has broken her oath and is doomed to remain in Runeterra. She has gray feathered wings with hints of iridescent starlight and wears elegant gray starmetal armor, a deep blue feather cloak and a circlet decorated with starmetal wings over long blonde hair streaming behind her.
She uses her wings to hover just above the ground, but walks when slowed.
Her weapon of choice is a long starmetal spear. She usually holds it one-handed, but grips it in two hands during [Q] Star of Hope.
When she dies, her corpse burns away with starlight flames, leaving no body.

• Easter egg: On her left hand she wears an enchanted ring, forged by Ornn out of stolen Runegold.

Skins

• Death-Fate Brynnhildr: Raven feathers and a black hooded cloak; one of the Greek Keres.
• Merciful Brynnhildr: Old soldiers may fade, but HEROES NEVER DIE.
• Biblically Accurate Brynnhildr: Be not afraid. (Legendary skin; three lion heads and flaming wheels rotating like helicopter blades.)

Abilities

[Passive] Taker of the Slain

"I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the Gods have taken an interest in you."
Doom-Sight: Brynnhildr has vision of all allied champion corpses on the map.
Guide the Einherjer: Brynnhildr can right click an allied champion corpse within range to fly to its location and carry off its spirit. For each spirit chosen this way, she gains bonus damage and defence until that champion respawns. This can only be performed once per corpse.

Stat	Value
Guide the Fallen: Range	400
Guide the Fallen: Buff: Bonus attack damage	5 (+level/2) (=5-14 to 20-56 total)
Guide the Fallen: Buff: Bonus armoMR	3 (+level/3) (=3-9 to 12-36 total)
Guide the Fallen: Mana cost	30

[Passive] Gray Swan

hums 'Ride of the Valkyries'
Brynnhildr can fly at a higher altitude, assuming a more streamlined pose and gaining bonus movement speed, ghosting and increased vision range.

• To activate, Brynnhildr must move in the same direction for a certain distance to attain enough lift, after which she automatically flaps her wings to climb.
• The ability ends when Brynnhildr attacks, casts an ability or takes damage.

Stat	Value
Movement speed	+30% (+2/level) (=32-66%)
Vision range	+150
Activates when moving in the same direction for a distance of	1250

[Q] Star of Hope

"Remember the dead, but fight for the living."
Brynnhildr performs a short dash with her spear, damaging the first enemy unit in her path. On impact, she flaps her starlight infused wings, dealing area effect damage to enemy units next to the target in a line perpendicular to its travel path. The dash can collide with terrain obstacles.
If Brynnhildr is in [Passive] Gray Swan mode, she performs a much longer ranged point-and-click "Swan Dive", swooping down with a shrieking cry and crashing into the target with a spear attack followed by a wing spin that deals area effect damage in a radius around the target. This version of the ability can travel over terrain obstacles.
The "Swan Dive" can also target allied champion corpses at an even longer distance, immediately applying [Passive] Taker of the Slain to the corpse.

Stat	Value
Range (Regular)	450
Range (Swan Dive)	900 (1350 if corpse targetted)
Wing strike (Regular): Width	250
Wing strike (Swan Dive): Radius	300
Wing strike: Physical damage	40/70/100/130/160 (+1.15 total AD)
Cooldown	12/11/10/9/8 seconds
Mana cost	70/75/80/85/90

[W] Between Worlds

"It is not yet your time. Return whence you came."
Brynnhildr grabs an enemy unit in melee range and carries them into the sky, making both herself and the target untargettable for a short time before dive bombing the target back down for major damage and a slow. If this is the last enemy unit and the damage kills it, she then immediately goes into [Passive] Gray Swan mode.
If Brynnhildr activates this ability during [Q] Star of Hope, it immediately casts on impact instead of waiting for the animation to finish. This deletes the wing strike and its area effect damage, dealing the damage only to the direct target, but prevents the target from escaping after the dash lands.

Stat	Value
Duration	Up to 1.25 seconds (impact occurs 0.25 seconds before the end)
Impact: Physical damage	30/50/70/90/110 (+1.0 total AD)
Impact: Slow	50% fading over 1.1/1.2/1.3/1.4/1.5 seconds
Cooldown	18/16/14/12/10 seconds
Mana cost	80/85/90/95/100

[E] Valravn

"Your fall was preordained. Come with me."
Passive: The enchantment on her Ring of Runegold increases Brynnhildr's attack speed against enemy champions and applies a stacking "Doomed" mark to the target, up to 3 stacks.
Active: Must be cast at a target in melee range with 3 "Doomed" stacks on it. Brynnhildr grabs the target and leaps backwards with a flap of her wings, taking the target with her. If she jumps over a terrain obstacle this way, the target is pulled into the obstacle and stunned, allowing her to escape.

Stat	Value
Passive: Bonus attack speed	20/25/30/35/40%
Passive: Mark duration	2 seconds (refreshed on attack)
Active: Backwards leap distance	350
Active: Terrain collision stun to target	1.5 seconds
Active: Cooldown	12/11/10/9/8 seconds
Active: Mana cost	60/65/70/75/80

[R] Götterdämmerung

"Fight. Go. Take back this world from the Gods."
Brynnhildr sends the einherjer, the immortal spirits of her chosen champions, to attack her opponents.
The einherjer are invulnerable and intangible flying warrior spirits with swords and axes (canonically they are the champions she has chosen with [Passive] Taker of the Slain). They appear behind Brynnhildr, seek out an enemy champion with "Doomed" stacks from [E] Valravn and fly into the target while swinging their weapon for damage. They pass through their target several times, turning around with wide arcs to attack again before dissipating when their attack limit is reached.

• If more than one enemy champion has stacks, the attacks are split between them depending on their relative number of stacks (if one has 3 stacks and one has 1 stack, the damage is split 75-25%).
• The stacks on the target(s) do not fall off while the spirits are attacking them.
• If the target dies, the spirits will find other targets with stacks to exhaust their remaining attacks.
• The spirits will pursue targets indefinitely, but have a maximum duration and will dissipate when it runs out regardless of how many attacks remain.
• This ability cannot be cast if there are no enemy champions with stacks within its detection radius.

The number of spirits increases based on the number of champions she has chosen with [Passive] Taker of the Slain.

Stat	Value
Detection radius	800
Number of Einherjer	3 + Number of champions currently chosen with [Passive] Taker of the Slain
Einherjer: Movement speed	600
Einherjer: Attack limit	3 (destroyed after 5 seconds)
Einherjer: Physical damage	15/25/35 (+0.1 bonus AD) (=45/75/105 (+0.3 bonus AD) per spirit) (=135/225/315 (+0.9 bonus AD) to 315/525/735 (+2.1 bonus AD) total)
Cooldown	180/140/100 seconds

Gameplay

Brynnhildr goes top or jungle, starting with [Q] Star of Hope in top lane and [E] Valravn in the jungle.
In either role, her lack of sustain hampers her ability to passively farm and she should hunt for early kills instead. Engaging with [Q] Star of Hope into [W] Between Worlds results in decent damage and delays their escape, potentially leading to a pull from [E] Valravn to stall them further while she auto attacks them.
In the jungle, she is very mobile thanks to [Passive] Gray Swan. It does need a runway to activate and turns off when she gets hit, making it much harder to use in top lane and mitigating the potentially abusive scenario of being able to hard engage from outside the opponent's range.
At level 6, the ultimate comes online. It only deals damage, and not a lot of it at first, but the spirits continue to pursue the target until their duration or attack limit runs out. It is primarily useful for counterganking and dragon fights because the damage scales up if her allies die first and [Q] Star of Hope has a very long range when aimed at an allied corpse.
Her weakest point is the mid game. Her AD scaling is not the greatest and she lacks defensive buffs and therefore needs [W] Between Worlds as an aggro dump, using it like Playful/Trickster instead of as part of her combo. This is a transitional phase and she should build hard defence at this point.
In the end game, her role shifts into a disruptive bruiser tank of sorts. Damage falls off, but her attack speed gets fast enough to chain [E] Valravn after [W] Between Worlds, trapping the target in a CC combo if they don't manage to escape the slow. Furthermore, she now benefits from staying longer in the fight due to [Passive] Taker of the Slain and the power of [R] Götterdämmerung to turn a losing teamfight around if she waits until the last moment (but no longer) to cast it.

Champion Creation Contest

• Late: I thought it said "Fate" until I read the following paragraph, but I like my version better.
• Ability with multiple distinct uses: [Q] Star of Hope can be a tactical dash with damage perpendicular to its path, or a point and click long ranged dash with splash damage.

I received mine yesterday. Initial impressions below. No reprogramming yet (having some issue with the layout editor).
I like a lot about the new Glove 80 — the approximate design of contoured key-wells in two separate halves is great, the wireless connection (even if you only use it for one half) is great, and the build quality is good. There are also a few things I would likely do differently if it were my design:

• The full standard F1-F12 keys. Sure, we don't really need that many, but it's a standard and plenty of apps have bindings to F11/F12 which are hidden on an extra layer on this board.
• Bring the thumb keys in slightly closer. My hands are medium-to-large and I still think the Alt and Control keys are a stretch while the LayeSystem keys require moving the hand (fine for these two keys).

Further notes:

• I can't comment on the shape of the key-wells yet except to say they definitely take some getting used to (coming from an Ergodox which already has vertical stagger). The pinky stagger is especially noticable — stronger than on Ergodox and as a result more natural positioning but less familiar to standard keyboard users.
• The common WASD control scheme does not work. ESDF is the obvious replacement; it just means remapping lots of keys. (Maybe shifting all keys with a special layer is the easiest solution.)
• There is no natural cluster for the arrow keys. That's acceptable, but might still be nice to have.
• The lower pinky keys are presumably there because that's where many users are used to finding Shift and Control keys. Similarly with the top two rows on the outer columns, these keys are not easy to reach, so only there for "extra keys" and "tradition". With this in mind cutting the top row down to only ten F-keys is even more strange (the missing key is easier to reach than the outer keys on the top row).

I'm not going to comment on price, except that low-volume manufacturing is expensive. I'm happy with my purchase, but attempting to compare on value is pointless. Now that MoErgo have successfully built a production line for and certified their product I hope that they are able to get volumes up and costs down and convert more of the world to this style of keyboard!
About the default layout:

• I've seen several replacement uses for the mostly useless CapsLock key, starting with Backspace as promoted with the Colemak layout. I still think Colemak is the best general layout for writing English and I still think Backspace is the best alternate use of this key. That said, Esc has to go somewhere.
• Putting the layer switching keys in out-of-the-way locations is half-arsed usage of layers. If you really go into using them you will want layer access on one of the most convenient keys; say, the nearest thumb key. But that's a rabbit hole for you, the user, to choose to go down (or not).
• Shift on the thumb cluster is new on me. Not sure about it. On the other hand I do like the position of the Control keys.
• Some common combos are less easy to press due to having all these keys on the thumb clusters: Control+Shift, Control+Backspace/Delete, Control+Alt, Control+Shift.
• My Ergodox has redundant Space and Enter keys in prime position on each cluster. I will probably do the same here. Except that I also want AltGr in prime position somewhere (access to an OS-mapped extra layer).

This mini review was written on the new board and the main difficulty encountered was getting used to the new position of the keys (especially Shift). I haven't remapped yet (but certainly will soon).
Also of note: I bought the unsoldered version, for no good reason actually. Soldering is easy if you have a good iron and know what you are doing (I won't recommend it otherwise however due to small components you can easily break). Shorten the mentioned switch legs before soldering. If you ever want to replace keys after soldering you probably can with a solder sucker, but don't expect an easy job.

This post was originally a reply to a question on one of my other posts here, but it really deserves its own more detailed post simply because even over 30 years later it just makes me and a lot of others go “Eeh? How did that actually happen?”
When it comes to sporting rivalries in Australia, Ford vs Holden is one of the longest. Today, it’s hard to believe with Ford no longer making cars in Australia and Holden no longer even existing but there was a time were what car Australians drove really mattered. Were you a Holden family with Monaro’s, Torana’s and Commodores or a Ford family with a Falcon in your driveway? It was one or the other. No in between. There are stories of Holden-driving fathers refusing to allow their daughters to date boys simply because their dads drove Fords. The battles were fought on every level: advertising, dealers and from the mid-1960’s on the racetrack. And that’s were our story kicks off…
It's 1967 and for the first time, an Australian-made car has won the Bathurst 500. A Ford Falcon XR driven by Harry Firth and Fred Gibson wins the race and Ford Australia are ecstatic. A phrase commonly used at the time is “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.” Winning Bathurst was a big deal and Ford reaped the benefits with sales and foot traffic into their dealerships. Crucially it really hurt their main rivals Holden.
For 1968 Holden wanted revenge on the racetrack. They had a great car in which to get it too, the Monaro. There was however, a bit of a problem. You see Holden despite being proudly Australian was owned by General Motors and at the time, GM had a blanket ban on their manufacturers going motor racing.
Pretty much everyone within Holden wanted to go racing though, so the Holden heavies looked for a loophole that would get them on the Bathurst grid and they quickly found one. They realised that there was nothing to stop them giving some money to their dealers and telling the dealers to then give said money to an idependant race team and voila! You’ve got yourself an all-but-official factory race team that gets around the GM ban. The man at the head of this team is David McKay, Australia’s first touring car champion. He’s ready to take on Ford’s leader Harry Firth.
For the 1968 Bathurst 500, the Holden vs Ford battlelines are drawn. And Holden gets its revenge as Firth’s Ford’s flounder. Strangely though, it’s a privateer Monaro that takes the chequered flag first. McKay brings his factory-but-not-really-factory-just-in-case-Detroit-gets-wind-of-this Monaro’s home second, third and fifth. And then he made an error. He failed to protest against the winning Monaro that some alleged ran with an illegal brake system. Holden’s heavies weren’t happy at all. They were in it to win with their own cars not their customers. And then for McKay, things got worse.
After Bathurst, Holden and Ford would face off again in the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon, the most epic car race ever staged. Almost 100 teams from all over the world took part but Australia was only focused on Firth & McKay. They were evenly matched. 3 Falcons for Firth and 3 Monaro’s for McKay. And just like Bathurst, neither of them won.
But in the Ford vs Holden battle, Ford came out most definitely on top, finishing 3rd, 6th and 8th and taking the best performing team award for their troubles. McKay’s Monaro’s came home 12th, 14th and McKay’s lead car DNF’ed after rolling in the Australian outback. And that was the last straw for Holden. McKay had failed them.
Ford Australia meantime was going through a restructure. The restructure involved refreshing their racing team. And incredibly, that meant showing Harry Firth the door. Big Mistake. Huge. You’d think after his marathon efforts, Ford would be pretty chuffed, but they got rid of him. Holden pounced. Within a fortnight, Harry was a Holden man. All his mechanics and engineers went with him. This was the start of what became the Holden Dealer Team.
Despite nicking all of Ford’s mechanics and tech know-how, Firth failed to poach their drivers. That forced him to go searching for young talent. He eventually found Colin Bond a promising rally and circuit driver and then noticed a driver of a little blue Austin A30 that was giving almost every competitor a complete belting. His name? Peter Brock.
For Bathurst 1969, Firth did what McKay couldn’t: Deliver the Holden factory a Bathurst win. Bond won, Brock was third and just behind was Ford’s new lead driver. He was an ex-pat Canadian who looked like an angry maths teacher. His name? Allan Moffat. A rivalry had just started.
For 1970 & ’71, Moffat dominated the Bathurst enduro in the mighty GTHO Falcon but in 1972, Brock struck back for Holden. That win made him the golden boy of Australian motorsport. Brock wore the white hat: hippy-handsome, a great driver and a man of the people, driving the Australian car. Moffat wore the black hat: cranky, methodical, withdrawn and representing the American manufacturer.
For 1973 the ante was turned up. The Bathurst race went from imperial to metric. 500 miles became 1000 kilometres. The regulations changed from Improved Production (stock-standard production cars with minimal upgrades. Some were even road registered) to the more liberal Group C Touring Cars. Moffat cleaned up in ’73 but it wasn’t all doom and gloom for Holden when at the end of the year, Ford pulled the plug on its factory race team. From 1974 Moffat was forced to go it alone in his own team with only back-door support from Ford.
But Holden wasn’t without its troubles either. At the end of 1974, Brock had a blow-up with Firth and left the HDT. Some say Firth fired him. Others say Brock grew tired of Firth’s iron fist approach to running the team and dipped out.
In two years both the white knight and the black knight were out on their own. And yet…they excelled. Despite driving a shoestring budget Holden, Brock won Bathurst in 1975. Moffat was a constant front-runner. The back-door support from Ford helped. The Holden Dealer Team though remained THE Team. Firth still ran it efficiently and he still had Colin Bond. Like Brock though, Bond was growing tired of Firth. He was paid next to nothing for his driving and expected to be on spanner duty in the workshop. So when Allan Moffat made him an offer at the end of 1976, Colin accepted.
In 1977, to quote Moffat: “We blew the doors off Holden”. With the HDT now minus their two star drivers, Holden floundered on the track. Moffat’s Ford team was well-backed and well-organised and as a result, Moffat in Falcon #1 and Bond in Falcon #2 dominated the year. The crowning glory was their 1-2 formation finish at Bathurst. Ford got an insane amount of mileage out of it. Nearly 50 years later, it remains one of the most iconic images of Australian motorsport. At the end of the year an exasperated Holden official approached Moffat and in desperation asked: “What can we do to beat you?”
Moffat shrugged and replied “Simple. Re-employ Brock”
With Harry Firth retiring, that’s exactly what they did. For 1978, Brock was back as a driver for the HDT. Moffat’s honest reply to that Holden official came back to bite him in the clacker. With money from Ford drying up, Moffat began to flounder and Brock dominated for the next two years, culminating in the 1979 Bathurst 1000 were he won by a whopping 6 laps and broke the lap record on the final lap. What a show off.
But then right after that epic performance…Holden pulled the plug. They were done.
Brock however refused to give up. He assumed ownership of the team and over Christmas, embarked on a whistle-stop tour of the Holden dealerships offering them a deal. The deal he offered them was a tricked-up road-going Holden Commodore built by the HDT. Any Holden dealership who helped fund the race team got exclusive access to sell the road-going car. The campaign was a success. Over 100 dealerships signed up putting the ‘Dealer’ right back into the Holden Dealer Team and HDT Special Vehicles was born.
In the early 1980’s, the HDT lead by Brock was a juggernaut both on and off the racetrack. Bathurst victory after Bathurst victory and the road car business boomed. Initially, Holden were reluctant but seeing the demand, they supported the program. By 1981 the first HDT road cars were delivered to the clamouring dealers. As Brock’s number one lieutenant and teammate John Harvey put it “Demand was so high, we couldn’t make them quick enough!”
The Group C Touring Car era ended at the end of 1984 and the Holden Dealer Team looked every bit like champions. Multiple Bathurst and other race wins, a road car arm that was fast becoming a great Australian success story and the best and most popular driver in the country at the head of it.
What next?
For 1985, Australia adopted international Group A Touring Car regulations. With every touring car series all over the world running to these regulations, you could take a car all over the world and race it. Pretty cool right? Brock certainly thought so and started planning...
But before we get to the HDT takes on the world part, let’s back up a bit. At the back end of 1984, Peter Brock was absolutely knackered. On top of driving, running the race team, an unsuccessful Le Mans campaign and the road car division, he liked a drink and a smoke or ten. Heck the HDT’s main sponsor was Marlboro. There were rumours he was really, really crook.
Ultimately, Brock found a chiropractor called Eric Dowker who got him back into shape. Dowker also got him off the grog and the cigs and even got him to go vegan.
For 1985, Peter Brock rolled out ready for the Group A era. He was in much better health by now thanks to Dowker’s interesting therapy (we’ll get to that in a minute). Mobil replaced Marlboro as the main sponsor on the race cars and Brock set about plans to take on the world.
First thing he needed to do was to sell enough road going HDT cars to satisfy the Group A rules. Once he had done that, the race Holden could be based off the HDT road car with all the tricked-up bits on it. By the end of 1985, he had done just that.
1986 was going to be a big year for the HDT. Their new car was ready to take on not just Australia but also Europe. Brock was looking ahead to 1987 and the World Touring Car Championship that going to take place. As well as his regular Australian campaign he was going to take the HDT to Europe for a partial campaign in the European series as ‘dress rehearsal’ for the WTCC a year later.
And then Brock did something unthinkable. He invited Allan Moffat to morning tea at his workshop. At the time, Moffat was unemployed. After his Ford support dried up, he became a Mazda man which didn’t make him more popular. In fact it made him less popular. Signs that read ‘no Jap-Crap’ were prominent around Australian racetracks in the early 80’s. He had delivered them a reasonable amount of success but when the Group A era started, Mazda didn’t have a car that would fit the regulations. Moffat was out of a job when the phone rang with Brock’s morning tea invite.
According to Moffat “Morning tea turned into long lunch, long lunch became afternoon tea and I drove home in a HDT Commodore, my new company car.”
All of Australian motorsport chocked on their breakfast when they read the headline ‘Moffat joins HDT’. Superman had just hired Lex Luther. “What the actual f**k?” said literally everyone.
With everyone still in shock, Brock & Moffat started off 1986 with a win in New Zealand, their first race as teammates. They both looked at each other after the race and almost simultaneously asked “Why didn’t we do this a decade earlier?” And then everyone got it. The best driver in Australia had hired the second-best driver in Australia. A pretty good duo to take on the world, yeah?
The first half of 1986 was a busy one for the HDT. The Australian championship, the partial European campaign that culminated in the Spa 24 Hour in Belgium and the ever-expanding road car business, Peter Brock was a man who looked to have it made. As Moffat put it, “Peter was well on his way to becoming a millionaire while the rest of us were just journeymen”.
And then…
Then came the Energy Polariser.
This is when things turn to sh*t.
As I said Eric Dowker was a key part of Brock’s life. Along with going smoke and grog-free, part of his treatments involved crystals and all sorts of stuff that would be considered “New Age”. Noticing how well it had worked on him, Brock became a full-on convert. He was bordering on being obsessed with these damn crystals and then he had an idea: If crystals and help human performance, what about car performance?
The idea seemed innocent enough, but most would have written it off. Brock didn’t. According to some from within the HDT, crystals were getting dangled around the engine dyno and other areas of the workshop. Dowker started appearing at every race meeting in full HDT uniform. He was mockingly referred to as “Doctor Feelgood”.
Ultimately, Brock and Dowker came up with a small plastic box filled with a pair of magnets separated by some crystals embedded in epoxy resin. It was held to the firewall of a car by a single self-tapping screw. The Energy Polariser.
According to Brock “It’s a magic cure. It makes a shithouse car good.”
Brock had already been quietly fitting them to the race cars without telling the other drivers. John Harvey only found out when the polariser broke off its mounting point during a practice session and almost went under his brake pedal.
Brock then started offering them to customers. For just $467AUD you could have this little box of magic fitted to the firewall of your car and it would cure all its ills (allegedly).
Now put yourself in Holden’s shoes. You have an image to maintain right? And then you find out your golden boy is with no scientific basis, putting a box of crystals in cars that have your name and badge on them claiming that they’re “Aligning the molecules of the engine”. Hmm…
So very reasonably, Holden at this point is saying “Uh Peter? This Energy Polariser thingy? What’s the thinking behind it? Seems a bit fishy to us.”
Brock and Dowker respond to Holden with a press release. It was essentially one page of complete and utter gibberish were Brock and Dowker crap on about “vibrations” and how the Polariser will “align the molecules in its sphere of influence”. Want to give yourself a migraine? Here it is in all its glory (apologies for the quality): https://hsvclubnsw.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/DB-Technology-Polariser-Statement.pdf
Remember, this isn’t a cult leader or a pyramid scheme sales pitch or a Byron Bay “Instagram influencer” coming out with this. This is coming from a racing car driver.
The real concerning thing for Holden and anyone who knows a thing or two about cars was the recommended tyre pressures for a Polariser-equipped car: 20 psi. For those of you who don’t know, that’s all but flat. But according to Brock, that’s okay because “the molecules will be aligned, and all will be well…”
At best it was all pseudoscience and at worst it was downright dangerous. Holden were alarmed and insisted on properly testing it. To nobody’s surprise it was found to be simply what it looked like: a box of crystals. Brock then went over Holden’s head to General Motors thinking that surely the mothership would hear him out. They didn’t. Still though, Brock rejected the perfectly reasonable findings that his box of crystals was useless. He even lied to Holden that when GM tested it, they thought it was brilliant and were considering making it a standard feature in all their cars. A quick phone called from Australia to America proved that to be false. As far as Brock was concerned, the Energy Polariser was so advanced, there wasn’t a way to properly test it. Holden were NOT happy at this point.
Brock though didn’t care. Even when the Australian Sceptic’s Society awarded him their ‘Bent Spoon Award’, he pushed on determinedly creating a road car that in his mind would be his and the HDT’s crowning glory: The Director.
All this culminated in February 1987.
The World Touring Car Championship that the HDT were going to take on? Nope. Brock pulled the pin leaving co-drivers Moffat and Harvey (who were both finalising sponsorship deals) out in the cold.
And then he really, really shot himself in the foot when he launched The Director. As an aside, The Director was one badass looking car. Based on the Holden VL Commodore with a low body kit and flared rear wing it still looks the goods today. But Holden took a dim view of it for two main reasons:

1. It came with the Energy Polariser fitted as standard.
2. It featured a new independent rear suspension system developed by the HDT that Holden hadn’t tested or approved.

Holden had asked for more time to evaluate the suspension, but Brock ignored them and refused to even allow Holden to test it. On top the Energy Polariser, it was the last straw.
At the launch of The Director Brock stood in front of The Director that sat on a rotating platform and said the words that put the final nail in the HDT’s coffin:
“We have a motor car which you can probably see circulating behind me which is capable of gaining us some much-earned export dollars and Holden are trying to stop me and I’m a pretty determined sort of person and I’m pressing on. They said to me, if you Peter Brock announce this car at the end of this week, we will withdraw all support. Well, I’ve gone ahead, and I’ve announced it.”
After that, Holden were officially done. They terminated their partnership with the HDT. The dealers cut the support to the race team and the money dried up. The road car business was finished and the race team was decimated. Allan Moffat and John Harvey resigned.
Here's a news report that sums up the events: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZZpP4fbgeE&t=196s
Moffat summed it up best in his autobiography: “I have been through the corporate wringer myself. I have railed against bureaucracy and been frustrated by people who simply won’t be reasonable and do things my way. I have, in my view, been severely let down by people I’ve trusted-although possibly they don’t share that opinion. But if I’d been in a position where I had General Motors in my hip pocket, I would never, never, never have put myself above them. That’s not corporate cowardice; it’s just common sense.”
The HDT was done. Or was it? You see although Holden didn’t want a bar of Brock, his main sponsor Mobil reasoned that he was still the fan favourite and therefore, still money in the bank and agreed to sponsor what was left of the team. He just needed a bit of extra cash to keep him racing. And it came from an unlikely source.
He had three race cars left in his workshop. Two were for racing in Australia and the third was for the aborted World Touring Car campaign. Three men showed up to look at that car. They told Brock they represented a huge fan of his who wanted to own a bit of Brock history. They wrote a cheque for $125 000, gave it to Brock, put the car on their trailer and took it straight to the car’s new owner: Allan Moffat.
Moffat and John Harvey ended up doing what Brock was going to do: Have a crack at the World Championship. It was only a partial campaign on a shoestring budget, but they took a victory at Monza and an outstanding 4th outright at the Spa 24 Hour, driving as a two-man team when everyone else had 3. For me, as an Australian motorsport nutcase, this remains one of the biggest ‘what-ifs’. I mean just imagine if Brock pulled his head in and they had a proper well-financed crack at it. The HDT could have been world champions…
But that’s all hypotheticals. For 1987, Brock ran a much leaner operation. He had a quiet Australian championship. No wins and no podiums. He was even lapped in several races. He cut a dejected figure. And then…
He went out and won the Bathurst 1000.
Against the world’s best (Bathurst was part of the World Touring Car Championship), and in a shoestring budget sh*tbox of a car, he won the damn thing! (I’ve covered that race more thoroughly in a previous post here. Just check my profile for the “Nice wheel arches mate” story. Highly recommend, great read 😉)
After 1987 though, Brock really was in the wilderness. He spent 1988 in an uncompetitive BMW and 1989 & 1990 in a, wait for it, in a Ford. He did win a handful of races but was far from the force he once was. At the end of 1990 the team was officially closed down.
For 1991 Brock went back to Holden, albeit as a privateer, again with minimal success. For 1994 though, Holden took him back in a factory capacity. After the HDT was wound down, Holden backed a new factory squad run by the Tom Walkinshaw Racing empire, the Holden Racing Team. For 1994, the HRT reasoned that commercially, having the people’s champion and the money from Mobil that came with him was a good thing. Brock was back albeit just as a driver. He had no say in the running of the team. Still, he became more competitive again, but he never quite rediscovered his untouchable brilliance from the late 70’s and early 80’s. The younger generation was taking over. By the end of 1997, he retired from fulltime driving.
The problem for Brock, was that retirement didn’t suit him. He was restless and kept on having little comebacks. Some were successful, others less so. He also got right into tarmac rallying which would sadly be the death of him. Ask any Australian motor racing fan where they were and what they were doing on the 8th of September 2006, and they will be able to tell you. I know I can. Driving in a Targa Rally in Western Australia, Brock’s Daytona Coupe went driver’s door first into a thick gum tree. He was killed instantly. All of Australia went into mourning for the second time in just a couple of days. Steve Irwin had died earlier in the week. September ’06 sucked if you were Australian.
It's been over 15 years since Peter Brock died. Many books, documentaries and podcasts have been made about him. There’s no doubt that he was THE fan favourite of Australian motorsport and his legacy and success is still revered today. And yet, when you bring up February 1987 and the events leading up to it to a Brock-diehard even they’ll admit it wasn’t his finest hour. Good people sometimes make bad decisions.
To finish up, here’s an ironic twist to the story. Since Brock’s death, the value of the HDT road cars has spiked due to their heritage and rareness. But the most valuable of all? That would be The Director. Only 9 were made before the HDT road car division was shut down so their value has soared. Originally priced at $87 000 when launched in 1987, one of them sold at auction for well over $300 000 in 2010. The same car that brought the company down is now the most valuable car that it produced.
And yes, it came equipped with the Energy Polariser.

A brief background

So, let's sum this up. The origins of cryptocurrency go back as far as 1998 and a computer scientist named Nick Szabo who developed Bit gold but, the actual creation of a viable cryptocurrency was ten years later in 2008, by Satoshi Nakamoto, whose whitepaper outlined how a linear, time-stamped network could fuel a cryptocurrency called Bitcoin.
Thus, the coin/currency/token/digital asset (these terms are interchangeable) is stored on the chain — a distributed ledger. The main feature of true cryptocurrency is that there is no central control over the currency, unlike banks or governments. You do, however, get centralized cryptocurrencies where there is a measure of control exerted. Check out this list of centralized and decentralized crypto. The blockchain and Arbitrum Airdrop cryptocurrency industry's overall sentiment and purpose are to be a democratic alternative to traditional currency.

The crypto culture

As you dabble and delve into crypto, you will become very aware that there is a strong community backing this new industry. The community has a powerful ethos and purpose related to individual control of their financial destiny and provides financial access to users that may not qualify for traditional financial services.
Decentralized blockchain networks are chains of validation nodes. These nodes are basically stakeholders that verify transactions. There is no central authority, and the system is set up based on parameters determined by the code upon which the blockchain operates. Several blockchains exist, and they have their own currencies — for example, the Ethereum blockchain fuels the ETH cryptocurrency.
It is worth noting the players involved in the cryptocurrency culture or even subculture.

Un-jumbling crypto wallet jargon

Understanding the background, how the tech was built, and who continues to maintain, participate in, grow and invest in the blockchain and cryptosystem should give you an idea of where or how you want to fit in. So whether you aim to mine crypto with the view to becoming a venture capitalist that supports and funds exciting and innovative projects or if you want to simply trade crypto or perhaps yield farm, everyone has to start in the same place — getting the best crypto wallet. Without a crypto wallet, no transactions can be made.
And that is where this list will begin. It will have a dual purpose in that it will offer an explanation for terms and sequentially transport you along your journey for entering the crypto sphere.

1. Decide on a wallet

Ï Hardware and software wallets Hardware wallets are physical storage devices like an advanced USB that stores your currency. A software wallet is basically like online banking. To access your crypto, which can also be called digital assets, you need to provide the private keys which open access to your currency and give you the ability to transact.
Ï Custodial and non-custodial wallets A custodial wallet is usually run by a central or semi-centralized blockchain, just like a traditional bank. A centralized wallet stores your private key and provides backup and security for your crypto. For some starting in crypto, this can be reassuring.
Non-custodial wallets are software wallets to which you are the only one that has the keys to access the data. No one but yourself has custody of this information, so if you lose the private key information, there is no way to recover the wallet's assets.
A non-custodial wallet can be referred to as a Decentralised Finance or DeFi wallet. This is true decentralization of financial power and responsibility.
One of the best Defi wallets on the market is the Eidoo wallet, which gives you access to a full DeFi ecosystem through their DeFi wallet app, which also integrates a DeFi Visa Crypto Card or the eidooCARD.
Ï Public and private keys In case you hadn't realized as yet, keys are special passwords that are cryptographic. There is a public key that is matched with a private key. Whatever is encrypted with a public key can only be decrypted by the private key. When signing up for the wallet of your choice, you will be guided through the process of securing your keys. It is essential to keep the private key somewhere safe.
Ï KYC — Know Your Customer The blockchain and crypto community, as you know now, are driven by decentralization, protecting privacy, and, to some extent, anonymity. For the most part, the community prefers anonymity, but crypto users, when utilizing a crypto wallet, need to verify their identity when interacting with Fiat, for regulatory purposes. The process of verifying your identity is called KYC and is aimed at curbing illegal financial acts like money laundering, tax fraud and financing terrorism or illegal activities.

2. Buy and trade some crypto

Ï Transaction fees Once you have your wallet, you will be able to buy the cryptocurrency of your choice using fiat. Fiat currency is normal traditional money — the currency of where you live. Any transactions conducted have a fee associated with them just as a normal bank but crypto fees are called gas fees. The Gas price is the amount you pay for every unit of gas just like the cost for a liter of petrol for your car.
These fees enable and power the transactions and are usually paid for in the form of a utility token depending on the blockchain — more about that below under tokens.
Different types of transactions require differing amounts of gas depending on the degree of computational difficulty. Also, the term gas limit refers to how much you are willing to spend on a specific transaction, if you don’t specify enough gas the transaction cant be completed and will fail but because work has been done on the transaction the gas you did specify won't be re-imbursed.
Ï Exchange Usually, you will buy or rather exchange your fiat on a crypto exchange. There are several different exchanges — they are the marketplaces where trading currencies happen almost like a stock exchange or changing your Euros into another currency on the forex exchange. It should be noted that there are centralized and decentralized exchanges, and as in the case of the wallets, the former has a central body that controls it. Simultaneously, the latter is distributed to nodes that uphold a central smart contract, which underpins all exchange operations and has been agreed upon by all stakeholders.
Ï Types of crypto There are so many types of cryptocurrencies available. If you are part of any crypto communities on Telegram or follow crypto enthusiasts on Twitter, then knowing what they are generally referring to is very helpful. For example, Altcoin can't, and won't be found on any exchange. It is a collective name for all coins that are not Bitcoin.
Tokens represent a unit or portion of a cryptocurrency and may be considered securities in some jurisdictions depending on the specific rights of the token holder. Typically when a new cryptocurrency is introduced, parties who are funding the new currency are given tokens representing their participation, or investment.
Don't be confused between security tokens and utility tokens. They are different. Utility tokens are designed to enable certain functions on a project or blockchain platform, also referred to as “gas.” Utility tokens are not necessarily backed by any assets and afford you no rights to dividends, shares of a company, or other ownership. Security tokens, however, are a store of value that are often traded, and meeting the “Howie Test,” and can appreciate (or depreciate) giving the owner asset appreciation and returns from investment. Specifically, the Howey Test determines that a transaction represents an investment contract if "a person invests his money in a common enterprise and is led to expect profits solely from the efforts of the promoter or a third party."
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies that are linked to the price of another asset or group of assets. This lowers volatility in the market, and usually, the assets linked to the stablecoins are established and quite resistant to price fluctuations. Tether, Goldcoin, PAX and Binance USD are some of the most frequently used stablecoins.

3. Spend your crypto

Once you have stepped onto the crypto pitch with your DeFi wallet app accessible or with your crypto debit card in hand, there are many activities you can undertake, and it really is worth exploring the different investment avenues, opportunities, and crypto mining strategies in play. If you have opted for a wallet that exists within an expansive ecosystem like the Eidoo wallet mentioned earlier, you may have to look no further for an exchange and access to other decentralized finance (DeFi) solutions like lending and borrowing.

4. Track your crypto

At this point it is worthwhile investigating Blockchain explorers - a blockchain explorer is like the Google of the crypto world. Blockchain explorers like Etherscan lets you access the details related to your transactions on specific wallet addresses and blockchains. The details include the amount transacted, where the funds came from or went to and their ongoing status. Explorers make crypto more transparent and are very helpful as you can track payments and you investigate different investments and actions that have taken place on the chain.
It is essential to do your research and reach out to the crypto community who can guide you through these processes. Happy spending and hopefully earning too!

Long before August 2022 was a small group of people hand picked by Amazon from around the Amazon trading world for their writing and reviewing skills.
These people were called Vine Voices and were given special privileges in return for testing and writing honest detailed reviews on products new to the market. They were graded and monitored on their performance by the amount of helpful votes they got from prospective buyers (which no longer applies). It was an honour to be a vine voice, one of the selected few. I - like some of you - am one of those vine voices.
Before August 2022, being a vine voice was a responsibility taken seriously. We took pride in our reviews and made every effort to give the best product evaluation that we could according to our experience of it. After all, prospective buyers relied on us to give them an honest account of the products to help them make the right decision.
A vine voice review was trusted and respected because we were honest. We didn't rate a product higher than its worth just because it was free. If it was bad we said so. Hence why authors assigned us the nickname of ... Amazon's assassins.
At first the products were mainly books then came video then gradually other items. The list was sent once a month at the same time on the same day, so everyone would wait in earnest on that day. There wasn't many items but there were far fewer voices also and quite often some of us would miss out and have to wait another month. There were no targets to meet back then though so it wasn't a worry we concerned ourselves with
As time moved on and Amazon progressed, Amazon started to move into the market of technology. Our vine lists started to become more interesting and varied and, more frequent which eventually gave birth to... The Vine Portal
As the vine voice review programme moved quickly forward so did Amazon. Recruiting more sellers with varying products. At first the cost of joining the programme for a seller was high so only big brand name companies could afford to join. The lists of available items for vine voices became more frequent. High value items started to drop into our Rfy lists regularly.
We had time to browse the list and check the details of an item before making a decision. Items would stay on our lists for hours while we 'ummed and arred' whether we wanted it or not. We had time to take measurements, check compatibility and space availability for large items like furniture, tvs, computers etc and the item would still be available on our lists some time later.
It was great, vine was a dream come true for a carefully selected few. Now we had a variety of products to choose from. We could decide not to take that projector or tv because there'll be another tomorrow or the day after . There was no rush.
Then Amazon made a sweeping change. It restructured the costs for sellers to join the vine programme. Thus making it cheaper for medium and small businesses to offer items onto vine while at the same time offering a promotion of free joining fee to new businesses coming on board. That brought about a flood of cheap products into the lists that we affectionately know as ' tat'
My personal experience of vine has been one of an evolving self discovery.
From the time of when I first was invited and thinking " Am I dreaming? Is this real ? ". I felt humbled yet confused that I had been chosen to become one of the privileged few. I hadn't at that time bought much from Amazon and so my reviews were few - however, they were truthful, insightful, concise and compact with details.
As time went by and I amassed more experience of product reviewing I - like others - took great pride in offering the best service for the vine programme. Making every effort to be worthy of the honour and the privilege that had been bestowed upon me.
Each day I would stroll through the lists at leisure and pick out suitable items I liked. Some useful household items some hobby things and some new things to try. Some high value and some not, eagerly awaiting their arrival.
Once delivered I would hurriedly open the boxes - again, eager to try them out. I would push and pull, twist and bend at things to test their durability. If I ordered bakeware I would bake purposely to test the product ( I hate baking by the way). If I ordered paints I would paint a picture to show the results and capabilities of the product. I would make notes as I went along testing the product then finally I would sit and draft out my review before editing for final submission. I enjoyed every second of it all.
I wasn't free from the daily feelings of guilt though. I have been given this wonderful opportunity to obtain items free when everyone I know and the majority of those I don't know have not. It cut through me like a hot knife through butter when someone I knew was struggling financially to get their TV or washing machine fixed. Or to replace a kettle or toaster that just broke. I wanted to help but was bound by ' vine rules ' of not telling anyone that I am a vine voice nor parting with items for 6 months. I could slip them a spare kettle but offering a new tv or washing machine without an explanation as to how I obtained it was - to say the least - somewhat suspicious. I still to this day feel guilt that I am this privileged and others aren't and I fight a constant battle inside daily of wanting to share it all with others less fortunate.
Next came the third quarter of 2022 when Amazon recruited a swathe of new vine voice recruits to - what many of us believe - was to reduce the number of unwanted items that were - by now - building up daily. It was a good business move by Amazon as they only get paid when an item is reviewed so with hundreds of items going un reviewed Amazon were losing a lot of potential spondoolies.
It wasn't such a good move for us ancients though. It meant more competition for the items available because of course, the new recruits weren't going to just take the stuff we didn't want and why would they? They all have as much right to everything as the rest of us. We were all new once. It's only right they play on a fair playing field. Suddenly everything changed. Gone were my days of being able to leisurely stroll through the lists without panic or pressure. Then to top it all Amazon brought in targets and tiers. Vine now became a different beast altogether.
Now I found myself in pool of piranhas in the midst of a feeding frenzy. Gone are the days of taking time to read and evaluate if an item is suitable for what I want. I'm now fighting against thousands of opponents for each morsel. My instinct tells me to step back but my drive to survive says fight. I join the swarm and battle for enough crumbs to keep me swimming in the pool for another day.
As days and weeks go by I find myself more and more consumed with the fight of vine. It used to be a sunny meadow of golden treasures just waiting for the picking. Now it's become a bloody battle ground of winners and losers.
The constant checking the lists throughout the morning, waking early throughout the night in order to hopefully chance on an early drop. Seeing poor quality reviews on high value high end items from other voices everywhere I look degenerating the value of the vine voice program.
Stress and frustration has taken its toll. Vine no longer is the joy it once was. Every morning I found myself putting on the proverbial armour and stepping into war on the vine battle field only to discover it's a never ending war that none of us can ever win. We may achieve victory one day only to lose the next and the next and the next
I decided to to take the advice of my instinct and step back. I hung up my battle armour and sat peacefully watching from the sidelines. Waiting for all participants to exhaust themselves and max out their quota, then I leisurely pick up the late gems that drop in.
My life is no longer a battle for survival in the vine gold tier, I can attain that with enough useful items after the feeding frenzy is over. Nor is it a meadow of gold for the picking - those days are gone for good and will never return, but it belongs to me again and not vine. I get on with my day without thoughts of vine, without the stress and frustration that comes with it now. I have found a piece of the meadow that is untarnished by greed that offers sufficient morsels for my needs. With my back to the battle field I wait patiently for the glisten of a gem to appear. I am at one in peace with vine once again.

I’d like to get a synthesiser for my 9 year old twins. They have a piano and are learning, so it’s not to replace that. They keep asking about synths. I was lucky enough to go to a school with a good music classroom - we had loads of cheap keyboards (Casio SK-1, Yamaha cheap keyboards, Atari running Notator and a Roland MT32 & sequencer) but also an SH101 and a DX7 which made a massive impression on me.
But the SH101 is so expensive now, and the DX7 was hard to program.
What’s the best option? My preferences:
1) Don’t break the bank. Ideally well under £500. I don’t want to cry too much if they destroy it…
2) Ideally one knob per function. Preferably true analog, but see option 1…
3) A built in keyboard. Raises the cost, but it needs to be “switch it on and start playing”
3) A built in speaker. Suspect this isn’t possible, but I reckon it helps with kids.
What would you suggest? (I guess I could build a kit… I can solder a bit, but not brilliantly)
Many thanks!