Today I purchased the Genisis 700c Saber. This is my first ever road bike, up until this point I always was riding mountain bikes.
I'm happy to announce this is the easiest to pedal bike I've ever ridden in my entire life. Everyone was saying that I shouldn't get a walmart bike so I almost didn't but after looking at the walmart reviews I decided to do so.
I'm now full of sweat, I got a good workout and without hurting my knees like my previous bikes did.
I'm looking forward to a future where I'm losing weight and enjoying the exercise.

i’m in the bathroom typing all of this, wonder how? i’m a 15 year old female, i have anemia due to this i’m very skinny. I’m doing workouts to gain no one else knows besides my friends who are great supporters to me. I’ve seen a great change in my body and i’m actually very proud of it until today, my parents told me how i’m gonna end up in the streets for being to skinny and begging for money, mind you being skinny is my biggest insecurity besides my nose. they also commented how my future kids and gonna look at me weak because i’m skinny. That hurt me a lot because i always dreamed about having a husband with kids. i didn’t want to say anything because i didn’t want to get in trouble especially since the night before my ex (15 year old male) wrote me saying how during his cancer i was grounded and he didn’t have anyone to talk to because his parents cared, yes but they left him to go to the casino. I didn’t want to be grounded so he can rant to me, i know how it feels not having anyone to talk to. i know it sounds dumb, yes. But my ex is the only person who heard me throughout my pain even after we broke it. he heard me all the pain i had such as h*rny guys at school making me uncomfortable, hearing my life problems i have, and etc. but seeing how he suffered through i felt so bad. i got off track sorry but i left my parents and i was crying in the bathroom and instead of just wanted to sh again, i wanted to tell people what i’m going through anonymously hopefully to calm myself down and not bother my ex much. this isn’t the only time my parents said things like this, it got to the point i only see my brother (middle child) the only person i can trust in this family. The oldest brother lost my trust when he saw red when i was cleaning and tried putting my to the floor, i’m glad my father came in time if not i would’ve been hurt badly. but that all stopped when he got mad cause my dad told him i was talking to a guy my age but he didn’t get mad at that, he got mad cause father told him he was black. i told him straight up “Seriously? your only mad cause you thought he was black? what does that have to do? this is why i don’t love and trust for anyone in this family, i only trust my brother (middle child) he always understood and raised me to who i am today, he never hurt me. All you guys to is make up lies about me and when you find out i’m failing you get happy and start blaming me for everything.” after that my brother realized what he did was wrong and apologized but i can’t forgive him although sometimes i thought of forgiving him, but i’m scared of getting hurt again. my brother (middle child) knows about my ex but i never got the heart of telling him i was sh myself, i don’t want to see him hurt or anything. last time i saw him cry was when he was drunk telling my parents how lonely he was out in the marines. i even cried myself seeing him cry. i only had the guts to tell him that i was being bullied all throughout elementary and he told me how sorry he was that he was out for 4 years due to the marines and i didn’t have a person to talk to about it. Right now he’s at work while i’m here sitting down in the floor telling reddit what i feel, i’m scared i want to better my life but i always get hurt by people. I ghosted everyone except for my close friends of 4 and my ex. i went as far as begging my parents to move me schools. i want a fresh new life. i want to spend my last two years of high school happy.

So I’ve got an erg rower in my garage that I use on my own, but am a naturally competitive person and want to start rowing with other people. What are some good places I might go to row with other people? From what I find when I do a quick google search, it’s usually just Orange Theory type places. I’m 32 years old and somewhat new to rowing and likely have pretty bad form, so I’m not looking to make any high end teams or anything.

Hi RBI! this happened like an hour ago and im still on edge, so I could use some reassurance that I'm being paranoid.
I live in a rural area with some extended family members, and sometimes I babysit their toddler when they're working. Normally her dad works from home, But today everyone is out but me and the baby. The only car on the property currently is one that's very obviously not in commission, so it definitely looks like no one is home. Theres 2 buildings, the main house and about 40 ft away the garage, with has an upstairs thats an apartment and an office on the bottom floor behind the garage. The dogs started fussing, so I opened the back door for our older dog to go out while I put a lease on my younger dog. Older dog sprinted to the garage, and when I glanced over there was a dark metallic grey van in that driveway. It has a large decal that said "SPECTRUM" on it, and orange flashing lights on top. There was a man standing outside the vehicle with his cell phone in his hand, and another person in the passenger seat. In hindsight, it kinda looked guy outside car was taking pictures of the garage? it was either that or a selfie. anyway I ran up with younger dog to go grab older dog and apologize for her charging at them. they didn't really say anything, and the instant i brought the dogs back inside they left.
The whole situation made me feel really weird, especially since when I messaged my family they said they weren't sure why they'd be there. Its also really strange to me they didn't knock on the front door if they were going to be doing work around? I also have ZERO idea what they would be doing here unscheduled and unannounced? and I've never seen a spectrum vehicle that wasn't white and blue. Theres no router in the garage, but there is one in the office thats behind it, but its not obvious the office is there unless you know before hand, the door to it is on the other side of the building
Does anyone have experience with something like this before? What could they have been doing? I didn't ask any questions in the moment because I was worried about the dogs jumping all over them and I assumed my family who pays for our internet would know :/ I'm probably just being paranoid (and hope I am) but I want to be sure. We have cameras outside the buildings that I'm going to ask my family to check later.

I posted earlier for help but no response, yet still need help, I moved to a new apartment with my five year old Siamese cat she’s a sterilized female(for background: she is super loving and calm cat, but i was in different country and she stayed with my family including my 6 year old sister who makes her go crazy). So today my friend who will be away for a 10 days asked me to keep his orange male cat who is also sterilized, I got them today together kept them in separate rooms for a serval hours, let them sniff each-others stuff and some time later i let them see each other from window, both were curious so i let them out, my car rushed over, smelled him and he hissed back and she just passively hid her tail and laid down, the other cat hissed again and my cat run away and hid in corner, after few minutes of staring contest i separated them again and left the house for 2 hours, after i came back they were both hiding from each-other i don’t think they moved much since i left, i picked up my cat and got him close and they hissed and went back, i let them look at each other for a while, the friends cat went close to my cats toilet and started smelling it, when he turned around my cat jumped on him and clawed me pretty bad when i stopped her, both are fine i interrupted them straight away, the friends cat is way larger like 7 kg and is scared hiding in toilet, my cat is literally looking for him standing next to door very aggressively, although i think its move of her being scared aggression, she feels comfortable with me holding her. I was standing behind her on all the interactions because she gets jealous easily, I know i messed up but i don’t know better, how to go about this from here. Should i ask friend to get a hotel because he is really out of options all his other trusted people have large dogs and its not option. note that my friends cat moved 3 houses in 2 days so he is pretty stressed, i know that cat since he was a kitten so he is comfortable with me as well. Thanks for any help.

I posted earlier for help but no response, yet still need help, I moved to a new apartment with my five year old Siamese cat she’s a sterilized female(for background: she is super loving and calm cat, but i was in different country and she stayed with my family including my 6 year old sister who makes her go crazy). So today my friend who will be away for a 10 days asked me to keep his orange male cat who is also sterilized, (note that its pretty much first cat interaction for both of them up close) I got them today together kept them in separate rooms for a serval hours, let them sniff each-others stuff and some time later i let them see each other from window, both were curious so i let them out, my cat rushed over, smelled him and he hissed back and she just passively hid her tail and laid down, the other cat hissed again and my cat run away and hid in corner, after few minutes of staring contest i separated them again and left the house for 2 hours, after i came back they were both hiding from each-other i don’t think they moved much since i left, i picked up my cat and got him close and they hissed and went back, i let them look at each other for a while, the friends cat went close to my cats toilet and started smelling it, when he turned around my cat jumped on him and clawed me pretty bad when i stopped her, both are fine i interrupted them straight away, the friends cat is way larger like 7 kg and is scared hiding in toilet, my cat is literally looking for him standing next to door very aggressively, although i think its move of her being scared aggression, she feels comfortable with me holding her. I was standing behind her on all the interactions because she gets jealous easily, I know i messed up but i don’t know better, how to go about this from here. Should i ask friend to get a hotel because he is really out of options all his other trusted people have large dogs and its not option.
Thanks for any help.

Just feeling really down today and I could use some words of wisdom, advice, commiseration, anything.
After I had my second baby in 2020, I was not in good shape. I had her very close to my first (15 months apart) and hadn't exercised a single day in those entire fifteen months. Once my daughter was born, I started running. Got really into it, ran a half marathon, and was doing about 30mpw. It felt like it was becoming a part of my identity.
I'm 21 weeks pregnant. I'm trying so hard to keep the running up. I'm doing three miles, five or six days per week. But every day it feels harder and harder. Every day I have to stop and walk more. Just now I couldn't even manage a mile - I had to do almost the entire workout by walking at an incline.
I know some moms run all the way through pregnancy. I'm feeling so, so down about how hard it's becoming for me. It just feels like there are lead weights tied around my ankles. My entire body feels heavy.
I wanted to stay a runner through this pregnancy but I'm afraid I won't be able to. I'm just so sad about it.
Anyway - not sure what I'm looking for here but I just needed to get this out into the void.

This little piece I wrote because I have zero mental energy to write something I care too much aobut the format and quality, and i've been wanting to have a look at this topic for a while.
Don't expect a lot of quality, but here have a thing.
---
[This video is shown in its raw form for purposes of transparency of the procedures. For the edited version please visit the Emergency Services Guild public-facing site]
[Content Warning: This video contains images of both stampedes and wartime stampede incidents of the following situations: Human First Contact, Operation Blindside, Sillis Occupation, Kolshian Scouting of Venlil Prime]
[This video will be subtitled instead of utilizing audio translation]
The camera’s view is completely obscured by a grey mass “I think it’s running, can you check it for me?” says a deep bassy voice of a human.
“Yes, i’m getting the audio and a very good closeup for your shirt” the voice of a venlil sounds hoarse
The grey mass recedes and the room becomes visible. A large naturally-lit room of plain appearance, there is a long table set in the center of it surrounded by chairs, the table itself is clearly designed with a holographic projector and at the far end of the room there is a large display.
There are seven people present, three humans dressed in grey outfits with red highlights, each one of them with a different insignia emblazoned on their breast but all three of them have similar themes, a helmet, an axe and a ladder is present on all three designs. Four venlil represent, two with sashes of office with the white with red stripe color and the exterminator’s pyre-and-shield insignia and two with armbands with the red pawprint.
“Alright, before we start the actual meeting, can I ask why are they here?” says one of the humans, well-built and with a lighter complexion, pointing at the two venlil with sashes.
“Because it’s part of our job? Because we’re involved?” says the one with greyish wool and dark spots
“I’m sorry if i’m skeptical why an exterminator is in a meeting involving public safety and stampede response”
“Because” the venlil’s voice becomes louder “It’s our job. And I’m already brahking tired of this whole act. I’ve heard every variation of ‘you shouldn’t be the ones doing this’ you can imagine. Every human I’ve met has said this, multiple times” he slams his fists on the table
“And I brahking agree, look!” he points at one of the venlil with the armbands “Our jobs literally overlap, why do we even HAVE this overlap? What could the exterminator’s guild do in a stampede that the emergency services guild couldn’t? Why is it that any job that requires you to have the slightest bit of tail to do it they drop on us? I don’t brahking know!” he’s taking deep breaths “So… Why don’t we skip this part and just get to the meeting?”
The humans are taken aback, while it seems like the venlil were quite unfazed at the sudden energetic outburst in a strange reversal of the usual reactions. “Not… Quite what I was expecting” that first human adds “Alright, I’ll keep my thoughts to myself for now”
With that, the human that had been adjusting the camera sits down and the arrangement of seating is visible clearly: The four venlil are on one side of the table while the three humans are on the other. One of the venlil with the armbands speaks up “We are gathered at this moment for a presentation of the United Nations’ Extraplanetary Emergency Response Division’s research on the nature and possible mitigation of stampedes”
“Present for this meeting are three human representatives of the UNEERD, Captain Fabia” a human female with short crimson hair and wiry build nods “Captain Jorge” the first human nods “And Captain Ishikawa” a human much taller human with shortly cut dark hair and mildly reddened skin speaking of a disagreement with the eternal twilight nods.
“Present are also four venlil representatives. Representing the Exterminator’s Guild are Division Lead Toss” the venlil who had the outburst earlier nods “Of the Stampede Response division, Division Lead Tunam” a venlil with a strangely reddish coat halfway between pink and red nods “Of the Behavioral Studies division” the speaking venlil himself, best identified by an eyepatch on his right eye, nods “Representing the Emergency Services Guild is me, Division Lead Onam of the Stampede Response division, and Division Lead Liram” the venlil beside him nods, a woman with a distinctive vertical striping pattern “Of the Medical Response division.”
Onam takes a deep breath “You may begin the presentation, Captain Jorge” he’s being incredibly professional
With that, Jorge uses a holopad to summon an image on the monitor at the far end, a simple bullet point list “Though all present here already know, I’ll state it for the record. The ESG has requested from the UNEERD an independent study of mitigating techniques for stampede events, both to help us increase our understanding of the local needs and to acquire an outside perspective that may improve their own understanding”
“We will be presenting our current findings, which have proven to be pretty surprising in my opinion” he gives another command to his holopad moving to the next slide “I’ll begin with the most important finding before we look into how we’ve reached this conclusion. But in effect, a proper stampede event can actually severely reduce to completely eliminate casualties in a situation of panic, however, those events can devolve into panicked flight as well as not every species is capable of those”
At that, Toss tilts his head to the side “Of all things… Stampedes preventing casualties? That’s really difficult to believe”
Ishikawa offers a shrug “I know. I’ll be honest we kind of came into this with, let’s say… A bit of a bias against you. But the observations held true, and it turns out the situation is considerably more complex than it seems”
Jorge nods “Take note this is mostly a preliminary study, we don’t have a lot of data of the sort we needed.” he pulls up another bullet list in the screen “Our work was focused more on the behavioral end, as you’ve more than proven to have the infrastructure and technical superiority here, but we have found a distinct lack of behavioral studies on stampedes”
Tunam takes a deep breath “Sure. More stuff we got wrong, as always” but before one of the humans can say something he waves dismissively with his tail “It’s alright, you’re just doing your job. It just gets exhausting hearing this every damn paw. Sorry for the interruption, please continue”
Jorge has a look on his face for a moment, something like worry and sympathy, before continuing “We have performed our studies by examining footage of stampede events with specific characteristics. First, monospecies events, with three examples. The stampede events during our first contact, as a sample of stampede events amongst the Venlil, recovered footage of an event in the Cradle during Operation Blindside, as a sample of stampede events amongst the Gojid. Take note that while this particular footage was from a situation far from any attack sites and before the arxur invasion, the reliability of it is shaky because of the wartime situation. And a stampede event on Sillis that happened recently in response to peacekeeper forces”
As he talks, three of the bullet points light up “Additionally, we later compared stampede events involving multispecies groupings. Particularly we have studied the very recent events here on Venlil Prime during the kolshian threat as well as a second event that occurred on Sillis involving a damaged dam” the last two bullet points light up
The female firefighter pipes up “We’re going to treat you like adults here but early warning we’re not going to be censoring any of the footage. I imagine given you all work with this there shouldn’t be anything you’re not familiar with”
The one-eyed venlil makes an assentive motion with his ears “Sadly, we’ve all seen enough of the carnage to be used to it”
Jorge moves on to the next slide, which contains video. He passes the holopad off to the human woman at his side “Your turn, Fabia”
She nods “We’ll start by examining this footage of the first contact. First tell me if there’s anything unusual you notice here” she says, letting the footage play. It’s an aggregation of a few different cameras, apparently from residential apartments. It shows the residents, all Venlil, running away from their apartments and spilling over in the streets, the residents of each apartment building start running towards where presumably the nearest bunker is. It only takes a few moments before they start pushing each other out of the way and the ones at the fringes of the herd end up unable to follow the group as the ever-growing mass of people start to push them against the walls of the buildings and side streets, a little while longer the first tramplings start to happen.
Tunam has had a very careful eye on the footage “This looks like a textbook case of a stampede. Nothing particular to it” he flicks his ear to the side
Taking the sign, Toss adds in “Dreadful, as always, but not even the worst example I’ve seen”
Onam sighs “I remember that one. Wouldn’t want to be those two knowing all of this was caused by them. But still, a pretty normal stampede, if anything a mild one”
Liram makes a dismissive wave of her tail “Didn’t even manage to overflow the hospitals, so i’m calling that one a win”
The sunburnt human bites his lower lip, trying to keep something inside. But ultimately it spills over “How bad is it for those kinds of responses?” it’s not so much an accusatory tone as much as a sad one.
“Very” is the only answer Onam gives.
At that, Fabia waves “And here is where a human, or more specifically outsider perspective helped.” she presses a couple of controls in the holopad, rewinding the footage to the start “I want you to pay attention to how this particular herd moves, just the one from the beginning of the video”
The footage plays again, showing the residents of the apartments rushing out, most take the stairs while a few take the elevators. There’s parents carrying their pups and some elderly being rushed along. The footage switches to the outside view where the whole herd of venlil from the apartment seems to erupt out of the front doors at the same time, it follows them for a bit until they’re closer to another group leaving their residence before Fabia pauses “Here’s where we noticed something, how much panic do you see in here?”
It’s Tunam’s turn to respond “Normal levels, i’d say, nothing out of ordinary. Which, they were expecting a raid or worse, so keep that in mind.”
Fabia nods “And that’s why the difference is important. Pay attention to their movement” she rewinds to the moment where they’re leaving the apartment building “Pay close attention to their feet” she zooms the video
The four venlil focus on it, seemingly unable to see what is happening “It takes humans at least months of training to be able to do this. They’re all moving in perfect synchrony” she rewinds one more time, and with the information out there it’s clear that at this point, this herd’s footsteps are moving in perfect lockstep “And I have severe doubts those people have any sort of training”
Onam turns his one good eye towards Fabia, then back at the footage, then back at Fabia “That… Yes, I can see that. But that has to be a fluke, if that is true then we wouldn’t have tramplings”
In response, Fabia changes footage. It shows a different apartment building, but the contents are similar: Up until the herd is a good distance away from the building their movement is synchronous and even the exit, though clearly panicked, seems to flow without injury. She shows footage from three more apartments “We thought that too, but this pattern repeats every time. This is a level of instinctive organization that’s, to me, supernatural. But at some point it breaks down”
The medical lead had his eyes closed in thought for a while now “That… Now that you say that… Stampede injuries are always outside. Well, no, not always of course. But less than twelve percent of them happen inside buildings, the vast majority happens on the streets”
The human woman passes the datapad aside, Ishikawa picks it up and calls up the footage again. It’s the same as the initial one, but it shows two herds approaching “And here’s where it breaks down. Look” he plays it as everyone pays much closer attention to the details of the video. The two different herds simply crash into each other, causing people to fall over and the two previously-synchronized groups to fall completely out of order.
Tunam’s tail swipes a short arc forwards “Ah, I see. Each herd is acting like a single unit at that point, so this situation is like two people running into each other. Now they’re on the floor and confused” he stares as the footage continues, and what was two groups ends up splitting into four completely disorganized groups “And the herds are unable to reform after that”
“This is where i’m going to introduce some specific terms we’re using here” Ishikawa adds “Specifically we’re referring to the organized movement portion as a ‘stampede’ proper. The situation where everything breaks down and they are completely disorganized we’re referring to as ‘panicked flight’, much how it is for us humans. And this specific situation that caused the breakdown of the stampede we’re calling an ‘impact’ event, given it was two herds impacting against each other”
Ishikawa then changes to a different piece of footage “And this will be the second breakdown situation we’ve recognized, a ‘command failure’ event.” he starts the footage, it’s a proper stampede, the video is from a camera on a defensive bunker proper, the masses trying to get inside are visible at the bottom of the image. Something happens in the incoming stampede, it slows down a little bit, before suddenly the back half overtakes the front half, tossing people into the ground.
“Notice how the approaching herd seems to be behaving as we’ve initially expected, even going so far as slowing down to prevent from barrelling into the people waiting to enter the bunker” he adds, before rewinding to just before the breakdown and zooming the video “But notice here, at some point those two start having a discussion while they run” the video is zoomed on a pair of venlil who seem to be shouting, though the video has no audio “Shortly after, the entire formation breaks and the rear speeds up, trampling the front”
The crimson venlil adds “They were following the one on the right…” he has a certain tone of awe on his voice “They all had their attention trained on him”
At that the female firefighter makes a questioning noise “How’d you figure that out?”
Tunam does a quick sideways flick of his ears in a dismissal move “I guess you don’t know how to see where we’re focusing our attention on when we don’t have to turn our entire heads for it. But pay attention to the ears, when they’re completely upright to take in sound they’ll be tracking whoever the focus is. As you can see, they were all focusing on the one on the right, which was the one being yelled at” he focuses on the now still image for a while “You can see he has his tail in his hands, while the one yelling at him has his chest first ruffled out.” his eye seems to focus beyond the image now “This herd didn’t break down because of another, but they lost guidance, is that it?”
Jorge sighs, but he has a slight smile “See, I told you it’d be wise to have at least one venlil in our team. Just from being able to read their body language he skipped past two weeks of comparisons”
Ishikawa gives a light sigh “But that’s correct. This is a ‘command failure’ situation. We’ve noticed that in every stampede there seems to be someone that works at least as pace setting, if not straight up herd leader. It seemed in cases to mostly be arbitrary, but once someone got in that position everyone would follow that one”
Jorge picks up the holopad again “Next up” the screen changes again, it’s another video that is quite clearly not on Venlil Prime “This one happened during peacekeeping operations on Sillis…” there’s a certain inflection of disgust in the human’s voice as he mentions ‘peacekeeping’ “You probably already know what to expect but I want you to focus on the differences here”
The video that plays out starts with what seems like a protest in front of a UN field base, the recording is from the body cam of a soldier on top of a watchtower. There’s a moderate mass of tilfish with all sorts of signs, there’s shouting. The camera turns to show an APC get close to the mass from inside the base, there’s shouting from the human guards but nothing happens, until the APC revs up its engine heavily. At the angry roar of the vehicle the protesters started to bolt, four large groups forming in different directions.
The camera follows one such group as it starts heading off down a street, unlike the venlil stampedes this one starts from moment zero with trampling and people moving into each other. At some point it’s visible someone at the middle of the formation seems to hesitate and slow down, causing the entire mass to slow down for a moment, and then someone else near the slower raises their arms. At this point this is too far from the soldier’s body camera to catch noise, but what seems to be a discussion has happened, and suddenly the stampede speeds up and the scene that follows gets considerably worse as the mass turns into a tangle of limbs cross across eachother and tearing itself apart as they try to move in the same general direction.
“It started bad” says Toss “But it got worse. I’ve never seen a stampede get worse like that”
Onam puts his tail on the table, tapping the surface gently with it “It happens as it grows in size but this group didn’t change. That did seem like a command failure situation causing it to get even worse, yes, but they seemed to already be very out of sync from the start”
The human with the holopad nods “And that’s the biggest failure of your treatment of stampedes showing itself.” he rewinds the video to when the APC starts roaring “And honestly, we were stuck on that failure mode for a while too until one of the younger members of our team spoke their mind. Pay closer attention to the amount of damage that is happening during the stampede here” they all lean closer as they watch the start again “How many wounds are you seeing?”
It’s the one-eyed venlil that answers “None… They’re not trampling eachther, they’re climbing each other, and walking under the others, somehow without hurting themselves?” his voice has a definite awe to it.
Jorge nods “Yep. Tilfish, both from their body plan and however way their kinesthetic sense works, appear to be fully capable of moving over, through and under each other like they weren’t even there. That seems to be pretty unique to their species”
It’s the red furred venlil that comments now “But they lose that coordination when the command failure happens, so they start to miss their movements and now we have limbs tangled on themselves and tearing themselves apart”
“Comparing medical reports from this with medical reports from the first incident with just venlil” starts the female firefighter “We see different wound patterns. A monospecies panicked flight of tilfish will lead primarily to damaged and removed limbs while one of venlil will lead to crushing wounds. Because your herd movement patterns and capacities are different, when the stampede fails into panicked flight the wounds are different”
Liram tilts her head to the side “That’s what you meant. We… Speh, the entire federation, has been treating stampedes like they behave the same for every species” her tail swats left to right for a while with an excessive amount of force “But this makes sense. And I presume you have an example of a species that doesn’t stampede up next, right?”
Jorge nods, moving to the next video. It shows a wide, long street “This one was recovered from the Cradle, this happens during the strikes on the orbital defenses but before the first orbital drop. Meaning, long before any ground operation starts” the video is sped up considerably at the start, the trickle of gojid into the streets is slow as to require that, but the flows from the buildings and side streets slowly thicken as more and more people start fleeing away from the camera’s direction. The mass that forms is enormous, taking up the entire street, and to flows and moves as if it wasn’t a mass of people, not even like a mass of animals, but it flows like a river, like it ceased to contain living beings and it now contained fluid particles.
Tunam, whose expression has been growing more and more serious by the moment, initiates “I… I’ve never seen a stampede like… It really shows the difference seeing the comparison, here we didn’t have groups forming at exit points and leaving, we have a slow trickle until the mass of people is…”
Ishikawa nods “Until the mass of people starts behaving like a fluid, completely detached from the will of the people inside of it” he puts his elbows in the table “Very much how it works with humans. At that point, you just need to let the flow move you and hope for the best, while trying to keep yourself safe”
Jorge zooms in the image, which appears to be sufficiently high quality to get detailed images of any particular member of the mass “You can even see the measures they take to prevent harming themselves” he directs the zoom to an area where you see the gojid have somehow arranged themselves back-to-back and front-to-front as they’re pushed and shoved, trying to avoid harming themselves on each other. It’s visible, however, they have no control over the motions as they’re simply being moved by the mass. One unlucky woman trying to hold on to some form of backpack gets pulled under the mass of bodies by the article. Most gojid seem to be taking conscious effort to keep their quills from flaring out, but many are failing and some trickle of blue can be seen on some backs
“Of course” the zoomed out area directs to a different section while zooming out “This is neither instinctual nor organized, as you can see the vast majority of the cases are like… This…” the best description of the moving mass of very sharp people being dislocated by nothing but panic and fluid forces is… A meat grinder. There’s more blue than brown visible and the speed with which the human moves the video elsewhere is quite indicative of how none of the present trained emergency workers had the stomach to witness it.
Liram has stood up “By the void… But- But- There’s gojid population on this planet! I’ve never seen anything like this when they’re involved!” there’s straight up panic in her voice.
With a command, Jorge moves on to the next slide “And that segues well into the next topic of research, multispecies stampedes” there’s a still image of a large street in the capital, mostly empty at this point “As you can imagine there’s behavioral differences in multispecies situations”
Jorge passes the holopad over to Ishikawa “This one is pretty recent, hell I still remember it myself. The kolshian probing attack” the video starts, and for a few seconds the slow foot traffic of the mostly empty street seems undeterred. Then, most everyone still walking the streets, which here in the capital means a variety of species from venlil and human to takkan and iftali, picks up their holopads at once. And with different degrees of urgency and reading speed, they start running.
Nothing seems to progress further than that other than people entering buildings, but after a while longer it happens, groups start leaving the buildings in large herds “As you can see” Ishikawa pauses “We see them exiting buildings in large groups, just as the stampeding species do” he let it play again. Just like in the first two videos the large groups seem to be moving roughly in coordination within themselves, but it seems to be a much more frail kind of coordination as the group’s form changes and shifts as the people inside adjust their position.
Ishikawa zooms into one of the groups “Here, check their movement” it’s visible that only a portion of them is moving in actual synchrony, the venlil as well as a pair of sulean and three krakotl seem to be moving very much in lockstep, and one human who seems to be acting as a leader as she points and shouts. Meanwhile the other humans, two takkan and a gojid aren’t moving quite in synchrony but seem capable of keeping themselves in formation thanks to the others around them. “Here we see the effect of a mixed species setting. The stampeding species manage to give enough structure to the group that the others can follow”
Tunam is staring intensely at the video “But that’s a very fragile configuration, isn’t it? The ones organizing on instinctive drive can’t possibly keep this much structure for long? Without training this is going to break down quickly”
Ishikawa nods “That’s what we thought as well but…” he lets the video play, and they watch that mass of bodies continue to move mostly organized down the street. At some point another equally mixed group starts approaching from the side, but one of the takkan appears to start shouting. But instead of things breaking down, what happens is that both groups merge together, there’s some minor bodily impacts but from the visible motions of the group there’s some shared apologies and they continue moving at a slower speed, matching the speed of the second group “That doesn’t happen, the whole situation is even more stable”
The video continues for a while, and Ishikawa zooms to the front of the formation. The human who’d been the apparent leader taps rather violently a venlil on the shoulder. There apparently seems to be a verbal altercation, but both give each other affirmative visual cues and the venlil speeds up a little bit. And the rest of the herd matches pace as the group changes direction to another street “And this is a smooth change of command, presumably the human that’d been the unofficial lead figured out who knew the shortest path to the bunker and they’ve began following him instead”
The crimson venlil sinks down in his chair “That’s… I’ve never seen a stampede move quite like that, even multispecies ones. It has to be you…”
“Much as i’d love to give us all the credit” Jorge starts “I don’t quite think it is. Or rather, it’s not something i’d say is inherently human. If it was, once that group changed command they’d break down, or it wouldn’t be able to merge that easily with a takkan mediating. No, I think it was just those specific humans being able to keep their cool that helped it.”
He looks at Tunam for a half second before continuing “Everyone else seems to be… Very prone to panicking quickly. And while we’re just as prone to panic we don’t seem to get there as fast as the others. For some reason. Keeping a bit of a calmer head allows the prevention of command failures and the overall effect of reducing the panic level in a herd enough that any member present has enough wits to negotiate through an impact as well”
Upon noticing Tunam’s souring expression, Ishikawa gives the pad another command to move on to the next video “To give a bit more context to an important part of the behavior we’re analyzing here, we have this one footage of what is essentially a stampede event, but not one most people would recognize as such”
It seems to be footage of Sillis again, most obvious by the number of tilfish present. The footage is from a cargo hauling drone in a work site by a river at the bottom of a dam. There are a handful of humans, a half dozen venlil and a gojid all wearing construction uniforms identifying them as part of one of the UN relief forces, the various tilfish around are also wearing bright construction vests and protective gear and with the exception of two of them, they seem to be trying their best to stay away from the others. Suddenly, the gojid who’s near the river looks down at his feet, then starts running away shouting. At that everyone other than the tilfish start running as well, the group slows down for a moment as the tilfish workers run towards the group and they all continue together up a hill. A few seconds after they crest the hill there’s suddenly water in the worksite as the dam cracks and collapses. The group stops at the top of the hill, and quickly they’ve brought up holopads to start doing damage assessment as a few head closer to the rushing waters.
“This, as you can see, looks nothing like what you expect out of a stampede. We’ve interviewed those workers remotely to get a better grasp of what happened” Fabia adds “Thanks to their sensitivity to ground vibrations, the gojid worker caught the dam’s damage early and called for the others to run, which caused the work crew to evacuate to higher ground.” she waves at Ishikawa, who rewinds the video and zooms on the group as it runs “As you can see, we have the organized movement of a stampede proper” and known his cue he skips ahead to the group on top of the hill “And they stopped quickly, as well.
The human with reddened skin rewinds the video again to show the moment the group slows down “And here’s the particular detail I want you to pay attention to. Notice the group formed when the gojid called out the emergency, but only two tilfish joined it. The two that were already talking with the UN forces”
Onam tilts his head, clearly in thought as his blind eye is facing the screen now “You’re saying there’s an influence of familiarity?”
In answer, Ishikawa shakes his head in negative “Yes and no, we believe this is an effect of threat-assessment. The two that trusted the veracity of the information about the danger moved as quickly as the rest of the herd, which had managed to form thanks to the presence of the venlil and tilfish. Only after the other tilfish recognized those two did they start moving”
“And the whole group slowed down for them, without breaking apart” the crimson venlil adds “This is very much not anything we’d consider a stampede, however as you said the synchronized movement happens and they even managed to clear through the obstacles in a surprisingly safe manner on the way out”
Jorge picks up the holopad again and moves on to the next slide “So to sum up our theories. Certain species have an innate capacity of large-numbers collective movement, what we call a stampede is simply that natural capacity displaying itself during mass flight. That capacity can be harnessed to reduce casualties of panicked flight by giving the moving group an organized form, but only as long as the organization can be sustained. This mass movement capacity also applies to situations where other species would still perform in an organized fashion, but its instinctive nature severely speeds up the process.”
Before he can continue, however, Tunam mutters a little too loudly “But the results you’re going to give us are going to be the same brahking thing as always”
Jorge ignores the muttering “To begin with we’re going to suggest a system similar to the fire brigades we have on Earth. Essentially, any group large enough, such as a company or an apartment building, needs to have a handful of people with some training in emergency procedures for fire escape, so they can guide the rest of the people.”
Ishikawa intrudes “And in countries with higher seismic activities like mine, those procedures also include how to deal with earthquakes for example”
Jorge nods, and takes a deep breath “Look, I’m not going to sugarcoat it. Your threat-assessment skills are horrible, for some reason- No, I think for reasons we’re all acquainted well enough by now, you’re all very likely to jump at shadows, far more than you should. However, your flight responses are part of your nature, trying to fight your nature never, ever works, you always have to work with it.” he’s staring directly at Tunam, who has met his stare with his right eye “So the primary suggestion is to introduce a form of ‘emergency herd lead’ training in organizations so that we’re certain there are individuals capable of keeping command and a lower baseline of chaos during a stampede event as well as further research into better methods of performing such a function”
Tunam doesn’t flinch from the stare “Come on, say it”
“No. As much as I’d love to say something like what you think I will, I’ll be honest. You guys expect to face orbital bombardment threats with enough frequency that civilian bunkers are part of city planning. Not a human alive today could imagine living in this nightmare their entire lives, I’m going to give you some credit here. Plus, in real threat situations as seen in the last video, you have very beneficial threat responses.” Jorge adds
Jorge waits for a few moments, then continues “That concludes the presentation of the early findings and initial measures we’ve identified. It should be noted that this topic will require much further research, preferably from a multidisciplinary group with representatives of multiple species. Though those findings may be applicable at the present our suggestion is that any action taken at this moment be only provisional and on an experimental level until further research can be made”
Onam stands up “Very well, with that I declare the meeting concluded” he takes in a deep breath and sits back down, making an annoyed sound with his voice as he swats his tail to the side “What is it about you humans that you could see all those things?”
Fabia shrugs, sitting more relaxed in her chair “I don’t think it’s something special, we’re just outsiders with a different perspective.”
A loud screeching noise can be heard, and as everyone turns to face Tunam the source of the noise is visible as the hand he had on the table had dug its claws into it “It’s not like we haven’t found out those things before, isn’t it?” he doesn’t seem to be directing his words to anyone in particular
The one-eyed venlil tilts his head to the side “We did have that work group almost fifteen cycles ago. I remember they were considering a suggestion like what we just had right now, but the work group never went anywhere and we never got any real results”
Tunam stands up suddenly, sending his chair scattering “One more to the list I guess…” there’s a tiredness to his voice “I should figure out where they wound up…” he turns around and goes to leave “We’re done here, yes? I should go” and stalks out.
The remaining people in the room look at his exit confusedly, as Ishikawa comes over to turn off the camera the others can be seen leaving.

hi everyone, i’m two weeks into my first semester of didactic and having serious trouble in cadaver lab :(
i’m really good at memorizing diagrams and understanding concepts/relationships in theory but when the cadaver is in front of me i can’t pick anything out and feel so stupid.
we take weekly quizzes in lecture and i’ve gotten 100s on both so i know that i’m retaining at least some of the material but i worry that my inability to apply these concepts to the cadavers is going to kill my grade. i was doing really well on the spinal cord and back but now we’ve moved into the arm and my mind is empty no matter how well i know the structures. with all of the vasculature/nerves tangled up together (with a lot of structures cut and missing due to amateurs doing the dissection), it looks like a pile of spaghetti. for example, we learned the brachial plexus this week and i was able to draw it out in like five minutes but once the cadaver was in front of me i couldn’t pick anything out.
i’ve been using net anatomy for pictures to study outside of lab and complete anatomy to supplement. i’ve gone to the lab after hours a couple days this week to study the cadavers but i’m so lost that it wasn’t productive and only made me feel worse. i also am so scared of getting behind and the whole “you need to master what we cover in class today” thing every single day is daunting when you’re in class 8-5 and trying to generally take care of yourself and your well-being.
has anyone experienced something similar and would be able to give advice as to how they sharpened their cadaver skills and excelled in lab? our first practical is next week and i’m so nervous. thanks in advance 💕

Hi guys as I assume a good chunk of you have heard that Hybe is having season two of Island after almost 3 years recently the trailer for r u next dropped and you can see girls running in white dresses and there seems to be an orange circle possibly a symbol in the video one of the theories i have is that it seems to be like groups almost like how girls planet 999 with k group, j group,c group due to the fact there are girls running in different backgrounds and the teaser photos are all different I also think it will be a 7 member group due to there always being consistently 7 girls in each frame anyway what are you guys theories of this survival show do you think it’ll be similar to the structure of Iland or do you think they’ll come out with a totally different voting/selectionsystem

Am I the only one who finds Dating in your 30’s mind boggling and discouraging? I mean you’re in this awkwardly sweet spot of being too old or too young for people. I try to date somebody my age (30+) and I’m too young wtf lol. Anyway Im I’m living in a personal dating hell lol. SO here I am on Reddit, dragging myself from shores of the digital cesspools we call dating apps. I’m putting a serious effort in finding a warm, loving, loyal, genuine respectful person to call my life partner and enjoy life together. As Ozzy Osborne says “I’m shooting my shot in the dark” (great song btw)
I am a 33 year old professional from the east coast currently living in Southern California for the past 4 years and been single for 5 years sadly. I have an amazing career as a clothing designer and graphic artist and a clothing brand owner all of which is my dream jobs and occupations. I got to meet celebrities and work with them on numerous projects which is always exciting. My social life here is kinda dull since moving to California. I only get to interact with people if it’s networking in the industry, unfortunately I’m a shy guy. But when I open up to being comfortable I’m a total charismatic gem. I’m a very loyal, chivalrous, respectful, loving, genuine, thoughtful, monogamous, spontaneous, funny, patient, open minded, adventurous, intellectual. I’m also Very goal driven, motivating, and a supportive man always wanting the best for you and your life. I Can be clingy but not in a stalker smothering way, more so the type of guy who craves giving my undivided affection and attention to who I’m with 110%. I want the person I’m with feel loved and thought about 24/7. Willing to relocate wherever for the right one if it gets to that point. Just to be with you ❤️.
Physically…I look like a potato 😂 jk I’m 6ft tall 180 lbs ( definitely in shape) Mixed race of black and Chinese, nice light brown /caramel skin, long braided auburn colored hair ( alien hair honestly because it naturally changes colors with the temperature outside) 6 tattoos 2 nose piercings, brown eyes and I was always told I have nice eyes and godly eyelashes 🫥 which idk how to take but yea it’s a thing i guess lol. Heres some pics of me https://imgur.com/a/9I9JwxJ :) I dress very nicely from what I was always told. Most of the time I have a punk & streetwear meshed aesthetic.
My day to day bullshit aka hobbies and interest: •Making art is my ❤️ •Designing clothes for my brand •Go to the beach •Workout 5-6 days a week •Reading •Practice choreography and dance (I used to be in a competitive dance battle group Let me teach you some moves 💃🕺) •learning about space or nature •cooking (yes I can out cook you, don’t try it 😂) •infatuated with nature and the outdoors •learning and teaching new things •listening to good music •Gaming and streaming on twitch during the weekends and some weeknights after work. •I read manga and watch anime BUT let me put a disclaimer…THIS doesn’t mean I want to talk about this stuff all day everyday lol. Yes let’s watch something together or discuss a theory or two, but don’t wake up with it on your mind first thing in the day. It’s a turnoff tbh.
What I’m looking for in you? Yes…we all have a preference that’s totally normal. But some people are unreasonably picky lol. So first off ill say that I don’t care what religion or race you are or If you want kids or have one already. Those things don’t determine who will love me and vice versa. So come and talk to me I won’t reject you. However I do need a woman that’s:
•Goal driven and goal oriented. •Monogamous •Knows what she wants in life and in a man •Funny, smart, respectful, not afraid to commit (like me), loving, imperfect, genuine, seriously loyal, feminine, supportive, educated, non political, outgoing, loves to travel/explore. •looking for a serious long term relationship •Cultured •Physically active and healthy (not saying you need to be a model or even close but at least be active or in shape like I am. I used to be obese years ago and I don’t plan on going back and I see WAYYY too many woman demanding a fit male but don’t even want to workout themselves.) •Drug free and std free (I’m 420 and psychedelic friendly) •26+ in age living in the U.S, definitely a plus if you live in California.
So hopefully you made it this far, hopefully I caught somebodies eye, hopefully the love of my life is reading this…please send an introduction of yourself with a SFW selfie. Please be local or in California. It’s easier for us to see each other and bond 💜
Thank you for reading this. There’s so much more about me for you to learn, in a good way lol.
TLDR: I need a boothang to make my queen ❤️😊

Hey, everyone. Since the new season marked a pretty big shift in how ranks are reset, I wanted to dive in and figure out exactly how the formulas have changed and to try to make sense of it. I'm fairly confident in the conclusions I've come up with, but if anyone is aware of anything that I've gotten wrong, please let me know immediately because the last thing I want to do is spread any false information.
Even though the numbers I'll be using actually represent Skill Rating as opposed to MMR, I'm going to be referring to it as MMR since that's what it's typically referred to here.
If you don't care about any other details, you can skip ahead

So, first of all, what happened?

In the F2P era of Rocket League, seasonal resets have been performed using the formula:

NewMMR = TargetMMR + (OldMMR - MedianMMR) * SquishFactor 

Each playlist has its own values for variables TargetMMR, MedianMMR, and SquishFactor. I'll try simplify this best I can.
Over the course of a season, expansion naturally occurs in both directions: above-average players slowly creep away from the middle in the positive direction; below-average players slowly creep away from the middle in the negative direction. So, the point of the reset is to squish everyone back together just a little bit to counter that expansion. Above-average players lose rating to start the season while below-average players gain rating to start the season. There are many benefits to this system.
The variables:
MedianMMR is, ideally, supposed to indicate the value at which the median player sits. This should represents the 50th percentile of the distribution. This has not typically been the case.
SquishFactor is supposed to tell us how much we want the playerbase to collapse together. This is a value between 0 and 1. The lower the value, the more the playerbase collapses. The greater the activity a playlist receives, the greater the expansion that occurs, the greater the squish should be.
TargetMMR is supposed to tell us where we want the Median value to start the season at. In a system interested in preserving a distribution, this value should be slightly lower than the intended median in order to account for inflation. A TargetMMR higher than the MedianMMR indicates a likely upward shift in distribution whereas a TargetMMR lower than the MedianMMR indicates a likely downward shift in distribution.
An example:
Let's say we have a reset formula with the following values:

• MedianMMR: 700
• SquishFactor: 0.95
• TargetMMR: 600

And let's say that I ended the season at 1000 MMR. We end up with the formula:

NewMMR = 600 + (1000 - 700) * 0.95 

Basically, what we're doing here is figuring out how far we ended from the median value, removing a percentage of that difference, and then redistributing around a new median value. However, the meaning of the TargetMMR depends on the meaning of the MedianMMR. In this example, TargetMMR is lower than MedianMMR, which indicates that the intent is to shift the distribution dowards. In theory, this formula is great at normalizing the distribution. In practice, the variables haven't really had consistent meaning.

So, what's gone wrong so far?

Well, for starters, the variables have remained pretty consistent.
As far as I'm aware, the MedianMMR value has stayed pretty much the same throughout the majority of the F2P era, even as the median value of the distribution has shifted. For example, the MedianMMR value for 2s up until last season was 540 (low-mid Gold 2) while the actual median rank was low Platinum 3. That's a huge difference. And because the TargetMMR value was 600, the formula basically indicated intent on pushing the median value higher than it was. Essentially, the variables just weren't really being used properly and were never updated and adjusted around the real system.
For context, people have pointed out in recent season distributions that 2s has an awkward bump in the bell curve (which has been incorrectly attributed to things like smurfing). The bell curve goes up, slightly back down, and then back up again at the peak, pointing to an increased capacity of players around the Diamond 1 rank. The reason for this is that the actual median value is around low Platinum 3, but the reset is actually collapsing players around the Diamond 2 rank. A player with 940 MMR to end the season would have started at 940 MMR in the next season.
Perhaps it was their intent to shift the median higher after agressive early F2P resets. I don't know why more straight forward values haven't been used.
Casual resets have never made sense.
Each reset has an rank cap that even the highest players must abide to. The cap for Unranked playlists is 1660 MMR. The problem is that the casual ranks have always been inflated, and they know that. So, to start each season, players from pro to Diamond are forced together at the same rank, which doesn't quite make sense. 1660 wouldn't be an issue if the reset actually tried to aggressively enforce a lower target value and bring everyone down into the confines of a rank system that better mimics the ranked one.
Snowday and Dropshot resets were left to rot.
For some unknown reason, the MedianMMR value for both Snowday and Dropshot have always been higher than the TargetMMR value. This means that they're constantly shifting the the distribution downwards. For context, prior to this season's change, a player that ended the season with 0 MMR would start the following season by actually losing 8 MMR. However you look at it, this has never really made sense.

So, what did the new changes accomplish?

Well, both MedianMMR and TargetMMR values have changed: MedianMMR for all formulas; TargetMMR for some. Previously, TargetMMR values were consistent across all playlists, which made less and less sense as seasons progressed. Now, it does look as though many of the new MedianMMR values are a lot closer to the actual median value.
How did each playlist change?
In 1s, we went from a break-even (MedianMMR = TargetMMR) system to one that's looks to shift the distribution upwards. Some players who previously would have lost rank will find that they've gained rank.
In 2s, we went from a system that looked to shift the distribution upwards to a system that looks to drastically shift the distribution donwards.
In 3s, we went from a break-even system to a system that looks to shift the distribution slightly downwards.
In Hoops, we went from a break-even system to a system that looks to shift the distribution downwards. The new hoops formula looks to be identical to what was previously the Dropshot and Snowday formula.
In Rumble, we went from a break-even system to a system that looks to shift the distribution downwards.
In Dropshot, we went from a system that looked to shift the distribution downwards to a system that looks to drastically shift the distribution upwards.
In Snowday, we went from a system that looked to shift the distribution downwards to a system that looks to drastically shift the distribution upwards.
Thoughts
Do all of the new values make sense? Perhaps. I do see the logic behind most of these changes. 1s needed an upward shift. 2s was way more inflated than 3s. I'm surprised that the want to shift the 3s distribution downwards. Hoops and Rumble were more popular the Dropshot, so the downward shift make sense if they're looking to make things consistent. Dropshot and Snowday desperately needed a boost. Casuals inexplicably remain with a 1660 cap.
If these new values are persistent as previous values have been, then these new values will again prove to be problematic. These numbers need to shift each season and it really shouldn't take much effort to handle that on their part.

Now, about a potential screwup with the 2s reset...

It was brought to my attention by u/JC-Velli that there seem to be some inconsistencies in how the 2s reset was performed. While the 2s reset formula seems consistent for the majority of accounts I've looked through, there seem to be many, many examples of accounts where the 2s reset in particular was inexplicably less drastically impacted than others. I've been linked to many such accounts that only received around half of the rating loss that they should have suffered. I've also stumbled upon a number of instances in this subreddit as well. There doesn't seem to be any consistent logic behind which accounts this impacts, but the value does seem to be consistently around half of what's expected. Right now I'm looking at an account that I know to have dropped from 1496 to 1204 in 2s, another account that I know to have to dropped from 1549 to 1389 in 2s, and another account that dropped from 1492 to 1358 in 2s. This makes absolutely no sense. Psyonix messed up.
Just as I was about to submit this, Psyonix came out with the following announcment:

Update on Competitive: The MMR adjustment we made to 2v2 Doubles at the start of Season 11 is having a more significant impact than intended. We are re-adjusting that change today. This re-adjustment is happening now to affected accounts, and will take several hours to complete. MMR adjustments made to other Competitive Playlists will remain unchanged. Thanks, everyone, and good luck with your placement matches!

Hey guys, hope you’re all doing well! Some great news, after almost 20 months of hitting long Covid, I think I have come close to full recovery. I don’t know if it’s just time or wonder works but I felt like my recovery started to upscale when I indulged into alkaline water. Note that my symptoms were mostly POTS-like, neuro in nature, some acid reflux, heartburns, and just crazy DPDR and brain fog. But after drinking samples of alkaline water for about 3 months now (as of publishing this) that actually came from an ionizer, I felt gradual improvement. If you think about it our body is 70% water and that’s a huge portion, so changing the water we drink might just be the missing link. I’m not saying it might help everyone 100% but it’s just my theory, I wouldn’t take this is as a medical advice either. Just felt overall more hydrated and it just felt like a miracle cure in a couple of months. I could finally actually think clearly again, and as I’m typing this I just feel like I would never imagine a moment like this again in my life. There’s hope guys, I know you guys prolly want me to skip to the real deal and that’s the alkaline ionizer machine that helped me its the one from enagic USA. There are a lot of low grade ionizers out there in Amazon. Been there done that, no they don’t work. I bought mine from Grecalda’s link, if you need it just let me know, he introduced it to me and I couldn’t believe it at first, thought it was a scam for the price but there are cheaper options. At this point I would do anything to get better and I did. It was worth the money, I’m still using the ionizer today and it just needs annual cleaning which is cheap. Thank God for this! Keep charging everyone! We got this! More research is being put! And oh if you want to get the place to buy it, just let me know. They have cheaper options that might just work.

Hey, everyone. Since the new season marked a pretty big shift in how ranks are reset, I wanted to dive in and figure out exactly how the formulas have changed and to try to make sense of it. I'm fairly confident in the conclusions I've come up with, but if anyone is aware of anything that I've gotten wrong, please let me know immediately because the last thing I want to do is spread any false information.
Even though the numbers I'll be using actually represent Skill Rating as opposed to MMR, I'm going to be referring to it as MMR since that's what it's typically referred to here.
If you don't care about any other details, you can skip ahead

So, first of all, what happened?

In the F2P era of Rocket League, seasonal resets have been performed using the formula:

NewMMR = TargetMMR + (OldMMR - MedianMMR) * SquishFactor 

Each playlist has its own values for variables TargetMMR, MedianMMR, and SquishFactor. I'll try simplify this best I can.
Over the course of a season, expansion naturally occurs in both directions: above-average players slowly creep away from the middle in the positive direction; below-average players slowly creep away from the middle in the negative direction. So, the point of the reset is to squish everyone back together just a little bit to counter that expansion. Above-average players lose rating to start the season while below-average players gain rating to start the season. There are many benefits to this system.
The variables:
MedianMMR is, ideally, supposed to indicate the value at which the median player sits. This should represents the 50th percentile of the distribution. This has not typically been the case.
SquishFactor is supposed to tell us how much we want the playerbase to collapse together. This is a value between 0 and 1. The lower the value, the more the playerbase collapses. The greater the activity a playlist receives, the greater the expansion that occurs, the greater the squish should be.
TargetMMR is supposed to tell us where we want the Median value to start the season at. In a system interested in preserving a distribution, this value should be slightly lower than the intended median in order to account for inflation. A TargetMMR higher than the MedianMMR indicates a likely upward shift in distribution whereas a TargetMMR lower than the MedianMMR indicates a likely downward shift in distribution.
An example:
Let's say we have a reset formula with the following values:

• MedianMMR: 700
• SquishFactor: 0.95
• TargetMMR: 600

And let's say that I ended the season at 1000 MMR. We end up with the formula:

NewMMR = 600 + (1000 - 700) * 0.95 

Basically, what we're doing here is figuring out how far we ended from the median value, removing a percentage of that difference, and then redistributing around a new median value. However, the meaning of the TargetMMR depends on the meaning of the MedianMMR. In this example, TargetMMR is lower than MedianMMR, which indicates that the intent is to shift the distribution dowards. In theory, this formula is great at normalizing the distribution. In practice, the variables haven't really had consistent meaning.

So, what's gone wrong so far?

Well, for starters, the variables have remained pretty consistent.
As far as I'm aware, the MedianMMR value has stayed pretty much the same throughout the majority of the F2P era, even as the median value of the distribution has shifted. For example, the MedianMMR value for 2s up until last season was 540 (low-mid Gold 2) while the actual median rank was low Platinum 3. That's a huge difference. And because the TargetMMR value was 600, the formula basically indicated intent on pushing the median value higher than it was. Essentially, the variables just weren't really being used properly and were never updated and adjusted around the real system.
For context, people have pointed out in recent season distributions that 2s has an awkward bump in the bell curve (which has been incorrectly attributed to things like smurfing). The bell curve goes up, slightly back down, and then back up again at the peak, pointing to an increased capacity of players around the Diamond 1 rank. The reason for this is that the actual median value is around low Platinum 3, but the reset is actually collapsing players around the Diamond 2 rank. A player with 940 MMR to end the season would have started at 940 MMR in the next season.
Perhaps it was their intent to shift the median higher after agressive early F2P resets. I don't know why more straight forward values haven't been used.
Casual resets have never made sense.
Each reset has an rank cap that even the highest players must abide to. The cap for Unranked playlists is 1660 MMR. The problem is that the casual ranks have always been inflated, and they know that. So, to start each season, players from pro to Diamond are forced together at the same rank, which doesn't quite make sense. 1660 wouldn't be an issue if the reset actually tried to aggressively enforce a lower target value and bring everyone down into the confines of a rank system that better mimics the ranked one.
Snowday and Dropshot resets were left to rot.
For some unknown reason, the MedianMMR value for both Snowday and Dropshot have always been higher than the TargetMMR value. This means that they're constantly shifting the the distribution downwards. For context, prior to this season's change, a player that ended the season with 0 MMR would start the following season by actually losing 8 MMR. However you look at it, this has never really made sense.

So, what did the new changes accomplish?

Well, both MedianMMR and TargetMMR values have changed: MedianMMR for all formulas; TargetMMR for some. Previously, TargetMMR values were consistent across all playlists, which made less and less sense as seasons progressed. Now, it does look as though many of the new MedianMMR values are a lot closer to the actual median value.
How did each playlist change?
In 1s, we went from a break-even (MedianMMR = TargetMMR) system to one that's looks to shift the distribution upwards. Some players who previously would have lost rank will find that they've gained rank.
In 2s, we went from a system that looked to shift the distribution upwards to a system that looks to drastically shift the distribution donwards.
In 3s, we went from a break-even system to a system that looks to shift the distribution slightly downwards.
In Hoops, we went from a break-even system to a system that looks to shift the distribution downwards. The new hoops formula looks to be identical to what was previously the Dropshot and Snowday formula.
In Rumble, we went from a break-even system to a system that looks to shift the distribution downwards.
In Dropshot, we went from a system that looked to shift the distribution downwards to a system that looks to drastically shift the distribution upwards.
In Snowday, we went from a system that looked to shift the distribution downwards to a system that looks to drastically shift the distribution upwards.
Thoughts
Do all of the new values make sense? Perhaps. I do see the logic behind most of these changes. 1s needed an upward shift. 2s was way more inflated than 3s. I'm surprised that the want to shift the 3s distribution downwards. Hoops and Rumble were more popular the Dropshot, so the downward shift make sense if they're looking to make things consistent. Dropshot and Snowday desperately needed a boost. Casuals inexplicably remain with a 1660 cap.
If these new values are persistent as previous values have been, then these new values will again prove to be problematic. These numbers need to shift each season and it really shouldn't take much effort to handle that on their part.

Now, about a potential screwup with the 2s reset...

It was brought to my attention by u/JC-Velli that there seem to be some inconsistencies in how the 2s reset was performed. While the 2s reset formula seems consistent for the majority of accounts I've looked through, there seem to be many, many examples of accounts where the 2s reset in particular was inexplicably less drastically impacted than others. I've been linked to many such accounts that only received around half of the rating loss that they should have suffered. I've also stumbled upon a number of instances in this subreddit as well. There doesn't seem to be any consistent logic behind which accounts this impacts, but the value does seem to be consistently around half of what's expected. Right now I'm looking at an account that I know to have dropped from 1496 to 1204 in 2s, another account that I know to have to dropped from 1549 to 1389 in 2s, and another account that dropped from 1492 to 1358 in 2s. This makes absolutely no sense. Psyonix messed up.
Just as I was about to submit this, Psyonix came out with the following announcment:

Update on Competitive: The MMR adjustment we made to 2v2 Doubles at the start of Season 11 is having a more significant impact than intended. We are re-adjusting that change today. This re-adjustment is happening now to affected accounts, and will take several hours to complete. MMR adjustments made to other Competitive Playlists will remain unchanged. Thanks, everyone, and good luck with your placement matches!

Am I not supposed to leave the orange bag in the little orange bin I got from the recypark for collection? Did this today, came home to a bin still full of compost material. I thought i could leave this out to avoid it getting ripped up by animals...

Hey guys Ive been training for IM 70.3 Steelhead coming up in two weeks. Training has been overall great and I have been doing two a days for the past two months mixing all of the disciplines (running most days, switching between swimming and biking). Ive averaged around 15 hours of training weekly.
Yesterday after my run workout I all of a sudden started feeling really achey and I had a mild fever. Last night when I was in bed I had chills which turned into sweats.
Today Ive been very achey and Im wondering if Im overtraining? Im based in Chicago so I was wondering if it might be due to the forest fire smoke from Canada that has made its way over here.

Hey I wanna document my journey and ask for some feedback. Today was my first day in the gym and I'm planning on doing weight training 6x a week for the next three months (plus 40min light cardio every day). I currently weight 77kg (170lb) and 1.85cm high (6"1'), but I have an horrendous amount of belly fat and almost no muscle, and for years I've been ashamed of going to the beach or taking my shirt off because of it. This is the summer when I'll change that :)
This is my current workout plan and I'd like to get some advice if I'm prioritising the right things. I'm doing 3 sets of 12 reps for each exercise, and the weights are pretty low rn but I intend to increase them overtime. I will stick with this plan for two months (6x per week) then change for the last month.
Regarding my diet, I'm working most of the time including lunch that I have with my coworkers, but I'm taking extra 40g of protein each day and trying to eat healthy when possible (no processed stuff, chicken/turkey every day at night, no soda, candy etc). I assume I should be making a calorie deficit of ~200kcal per day, but it's a guess. Overall I'm eating a little bit better than in the last few months (during which my weight was stable), but exercising more so I assume I should lose some (but not much weight). I know this isn't optimal compared to the bulk-cut, but I don't think I have the discipline to follow that yet, plus my big priority is cutting the fat I currently have already ;)I'm taking any advice, suggestion or feedback you guys might have.
Again these are the links to:
My body - https://imgur.com/a/xRNx0mr
My workout plan - https://imgur.com/a/rgN7A39

Today is a switch template for the benchmark. Last time we did this was on the 6th of February.
Tread Block 1 * 45 sec base to push * 30 sec WR * 45 sec push * 30 sec WR * 45 sec push to AO * 30 sec WR * 45 sec AO * Transition to floor
Floor Block 1 - 4.5 minutes * Buy-in: 250m push row * Circuit: * 10 x bridge * 10 x TRX high row * Transition to rower
Row Block - 4 minutes * 500m row * Check time * Recovery row til time and then transition to treadmill
Tread Block 2 - 4 minutes * 160m (0.1 mile) tread * 30 sec WR * Repeat until time
Tread Block 3 * 1 min AO * 1 min WR * 1 min AO * 1 min WR * 45 sec AO * 1 min WR * 45 sec AO * 1 min WR * 30 sec AO * 1 min WR * 30 sec AO * Transition to floor
Floor Block 2 - 9.5 minutes work & rest * 6 - 10 each x full step up, rest * 6 - 10 x chest fly, rest * 8 total x seated torso rotation * 8 each x low side plank pendulum with kick stand * Repeat until finisher: 30 sec of bench hopovers
DC commentary: >! First benchmark of the month the dreaded 500m benchmark row. A difficult one to improve on so don’t be too concerned if you don’t get a PB each time (I didn’t!). Hard one to pace as well as it isn’t quite an all out (unless you can do it super quick) but it will absolutely destroy your legs for the rest of the class. Today is a switch template so you if you are starting on the treadmill you will do a warmup there, then head to the floor for a short row buy-in and some activation exercises. \ \ We then went to the rower for the benchmark. You only get one shot at this, unlike the 200m benchmark row where you get the rowdemption. After this you can do a recovery on the rower but as we had a 1G our coach let us do a walking recovery on the treadmill. Your next tread block is an extended warm down where we just did 160m (0.1 mile) runs with a walking recovery. I just did this as a push as the legs were still feeling like jelly. \ \ The last tread block is a power block with six all outs and a minute of walking recovery in between. Legs had recovered by this time so happy to go a bit faster here. The last floor block has step ups, chest flys, torso rotations and side plank pendulums. Bench hop overs to finish and you are done. Distances were short today at 3.65km (2.268 miles) which was understandable. \ Besides the benchmark the rest of the day is relatively gentle with plenty of recoveries. I give today’s template a 3 (🪶 🪶 🪶) out of 5. !<

I have been keeping up with Food, Game, and Film theory for a long while and I feel like I haven't missed any announcements. Yet today, I was watching YouTube, and randomly see a video for a channel called Style Theory. My immediate thought is "no way that's real". I click on it, and it's real. And apparently it's not even all that new! It's three damn months old and I somehow missed this?
What is the community's thoughts on this? I think it's such a random jump from everything else. When food theory first came out I was like, that's not at all related to film or gaming at all, but I'm into it. Food Theory is a very great channel and I'm glad it exists. But when I saw Style Theory, I genuinely thought it was a fake channel trying to bait the mythical fourth channel of the "Simon Says" wheel.
I'm not trying to hate on it, but it seems like such an absurd thing to have a channel on. Let me know what y'all think? Should I watch some of it? I watched the first three videos and I didn't really get a good feel for the channel at all.

Hey I wanna document my journey and ask for some feedback. Today was my first day in the gym and I'm planning on doing weight training 6x a week for the next three months (plus 40min light cardio every day). I currently weight 77kg (170lb) and 1.85cm high (6"1'), but I have an horrendous amount of belly fat and almost no muscle, and for years I've been ashamed of going to the beach or taking my shirt off because of it. This is the summer when I'll change that :)
This is my current workout plan and I'd like to get some advice if I'm prioritising the right things. I'm doing 3 sets of 12 reps for each exercise, and the weights are pretty low rn but I intend to increase them overtime. I will stick with this plan for two months (6x per week) then change for the last month.
Regarding my diet, I'm working most of the time including lunch that I have with my coworkers, but I'm taking extra 40g of protein each day and trying to eat healthy when possible (no processed stuff, chicken/turkey every day at night, no soda, candy etc). I assume I should be making a calorie deficit of ~200kcal per day, but it's a guess. Overall I'm eating a little bit better than in the last few months (during which my weight was stable), but exercising more so I assume I should lose some (but not much weight). I know this isn't optimal compared to the bulk-cut cycle, but I don't think I have the discipline to follow that yet, plus my big priority is cutting the fat I currently have already ;)I'm taking any advice, suggestion or feedback you guys might have.
Again these are the links to:
My body - https://imgur.com/a/xRNx0mr
My workout plan - https://imgur.com/a/rgN7A39

Hey I wanna document my journey and ask for some feedback. Today was my first day in the gym and I'm planning on doing weight training 6x a week for the next three months (plus 40min light cardio every day). I currently weight 77kg (170lb) and 1.85cm high (6"1'), but I have an horrendous amount of belly fat and almost no muscle, and for years I've been ashamed of going to the beach or taking my shirt off because of it. This is the summer when I'll change that :)
This is my current workout plan and I'd like to get some advice if I'm prioritising the right things. I'm doing 3 sets of 12 reps for each exercise, and the weights are pretty low rn but I intend to increase them overtime. I will stick with this plan for two months (6x per week) then change for the last month.
Regarding my diet, I'm working most of the time including lunch that I have with my coworkers, but I'm taking extra 40g of protein each day and trying to eat healthy when possible (no processed stuff, chicken/turkey every day at night, no soda, candy etc). I assume I should be making a calorie deficit of ~200kcal per day, but it's a guess. Overall I'm eating a little bit better than in the last few months (during which my weight was stable), but exercising more so I assume I should lose some (but not much weight). I know this isn't optimal compared to the bulk-cut cycle, but I don't think I have the discipline to follow that yet, plus my big priority is cutting the fat I currently have already ;)
​
I'm taking any advice, suggestion or feedback you guys might have.
Again these are the links to:
My body - https://imgur.com/a/xRNx0mr
My workout plan - https://imgur.com/a/rgN7A39