Had a thought about this - Our imaginations and memories exist as signals in our brain (as far as we know today), and a universe simulator would need to have memory to store ALL the imaginations, memories and signals of all living things.
When each one of us tries to access memory that has not been completely forgotten, the simulator would also need to simulate everything involved with remembering. But when we're not actively thinking of the memory or even recently thinking of it, do we know (from psychology) whether we physically have storage of that full memory? Or do we simply have a "reference" stored, whereby accessing it pulls it out of some long-term storage bank that is not stored in our mind?
And what happens when we completely forget something? Is that memory still in our mind physically (shouldn't be, by definition)? Would a simulator still need to "retain" that memory somehow? And, if not, where does the information that used to form that memory go?
I also asked Chat GPT about garbage collection, and here's what it had to say (got its permission to post on reddit ;-) ):

If we assume that the universe is a simulation or a computer, then garbage collection and memory management would likely be handled by the underlying software or hardware that is running the simulation.
In a traditional computer, [...shortened...]
In a simulated universe, it is possible that the underlying software or hardware would perform a similar function, tracking the use of virtual memory and freeing up resources that are no longer needed by the simulation. This could be done in real-time as the simulation is running, or periodically during "downtime" when the simulation is not actively being interacted with.
It is also possible that the simulation could be designed in such a way that garbage collection is not necessary, either by using a static allocation of resources or by constantly reusing and recycling resources as needed.
However, it is important to note that the idea of the universe being a simulation or a computer is purely speculative and currently lacks any scientific evidence to support it. It is an interesting thought experiment, but any conclusions drawn from it should be taken with a grain of salt.

Does any of these sound potentially valid for the simulation theory? Would there be any methods of verifying or testing?
Given that the universe seems to be accelerating exponentially, is it reasonable that any underlying simulator would also need to allow for memory to hold or process exponentially increasing information? If so, the idea that simulation hardware is being added on or perhaps there is already so much memory or processing power that these exponential increases are "taken care of." But that ... feels ... less efficient than what we know of physical processes.
What do you speculate?

TL:DR Slim, mature, responsible, and intellectual guy seeking a petite to average size (as in, not overweight, not that you have to be short haha) younger girl (18 or older) that's going to graduate HS this year, or did recently (i.e. the last few years or so) that wants the build the deepest, most romantic and loving relationship with someone that genuinely wants to get to know and understand them on a deep level! Also, someone that will DEEPLY appreciate them, on a level most boys her age could only dream of. Someone that will THOROUGHLY enjoy spending TONS of time with you, savoring every second, loving the memories you're making together, and the things you learn about each other as you get to know and understand each other that much better! A girl that wants to experience a "young love" style of romance, and by that I mean going on all sorts of dates, including some cheesy ones, holding hands a lot while we walk around in parks, at the mall, even at the supermarket if you wish (if you're super shy we can hold off on the PDA such as hand holding until you're more comfortable). By "young love" I also mean just being very romantic, excited to see and spend time with each other, and also lots of hugs and cuddles and kisses (only in private is fine at first if you're shy). Do all sorts of things in life together, cuddle, travel, explore, and just in general enjoy life together and spending time together. Also trying lots of new things together and really appreciating the memories we're making together! Basically just going all-in on the romance / relationship and giving it our all, and just thoroughly enjoying the ride as we get to know each other better and better, and hopefully we click well enough to stay together forever! <3
So that gives you a decent idea of who and what I'm looking for, but there's still more details I'd like to go into, as well as telling some more about myself, so you can better understand who I am.
Ideally I'm looking for a girl that just graduated HS (or did in the last few years), but anyone up to ~25 or so is welcome. If you're shy, even extremely shy, or have strict parents [those aren't requirements either], this could be a great opportunity for you, as I used to be extremely shy when I was younger too (and also had strict / controlling parents, so I understand how that can be too). If you're outgoing, and/or just want to explore new things and places in life, that's cool and fine too! Size wise, as I'm a relatively slim guy myself, I'm attracted to girls that are petite to average weight. I want to be able to do some athletic things together like walking/jogging/perhaps some sports (and/or other things, depending on what you're into). So it's not just an attraction thing that I'm not interested in people overweight, it's a matter of lifestyle / mentality / and being able to do certain things together. Of course I expect my partner to have the same expectations of me, that I don't get fat either.
Anyways, moving on, so thanks for reading my post so far, and if you're looking for what I'd described, hopefully you'll read on and find me interesting, and if so, PLEASE send me a message! It's fine if you are just curious and want to ask some questions and learn more first, before making any decisions / jumping into anything! With that in mind, let me describe myself a bit. I'm a slim, intellectual guy, often been called cute, and I'm pretty upbeat and optimistic, but I've been a bit lonely lately and would LOVE to find a girl that wants a deep, loving, emotionally and mentally close relationship, and is willing to put in the time and effort to build that - assuming of course we click well enough. That doesn't mean we need to rush into things, and I'm not looking to - I'm just saying that should be our end goal. If we date for a while and then decide we're not a close enough match, well, it happens sometimes, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try! So, to address the elephant in the room, yes, I would be a good bit older than you, so obviously you need to be OK with dating a middle aged guy, and I realize that's not for everyone - and that's fine. I'm not looking to pressure anyone into anything. But I also know that there most definitely ARE some girls out there that are open to that, as well as some that specifically prefer that. There's advantages to dating someone a bit older than you, such as them being a lot more mature, responsible, considerate, respectful, and, perhaps most importantly, appreciate life and a deep relationship sooooo much more. Someone whom knows when they have someone special with them, and can appreciate and enjoy that on a level that someone your age can't. Anyways, as long as you're genuinely open to a deep, serious relationship with someone my age, hopefully someday leading to a serious LTR and kids, that's fine. Like I said, I'm not looking to rush into anything, I want to spend some time chatting and getting to know each other first, so we can get comfortable with each other before meeting. So if you're shy, even extremely shy, don't worry, it's OK! I actually used to be EXTREMELY shy when I was young, so I totally understand how that can be, and I usually can get along well with shy people because I've been there and understand where they're coming from. Also, if needed I can carry the conversation until you start getting more comfortable and more talkative. ;) If you've been too shy to talk to guys you like (or possibly you do like older guys but are WAY too shy to approach one) - but genuinely DO want a relationship and would love to find someone willing to spend the time to get to know and truly understand you, this could be the opportunity you're looking for! On the other hand, if you're outgoing and love to chat [and looking for a relationship], that's totally fine too! haha Both sides of that coin can be fun, so I'm cool with either way you are. ;)
Alternatively, maybe you had a bad time at prom (or some other romantic event you were looking forward to), or didn't go, or didn't have anyone to go with, or maybe it was OK but didn't nearly live up to your expectations, and would love to get to have some romantic evenings and memories. Or maybe you just didn't get out much (or had super strict parents that didn't let you) and want to get out into the world and explore new places and new things, etc. and would love to have a romantic partner to share all those experiences and memories together with!
...or maybe you had suuuuper strict parents and want to finally get out from under the rock you were living under and finally get to see and do many of the things you've wanted to for a long time! (I would totally understand this one as I had very strict parents)
Maybe you've had a few relationships before but you never clicked very deeply with any of them (and/or they were just too immature), and you're looking for a relationship that's much deeper and more meaningful than that. Or maybe you've never had anyone that you've connected well enough to to feel that they really understand you. ...while I can't promise that we'll click well enough for that to happen, I'd like that to be the goal, and there's certainly a non-zero chance of it happening haha.
Perhaps you're REALLY wanting to be able to fully dive into a relationship as soon as you graduate, and are looking forward to, not necessarily Prom [although possibly that too], but also/mostly just would love to be able to take a long romantic vacation / visit once you're done with school and have some freedom. An opportunity to be yourself and learn about both yourself and your romantic partner.
Or, lastly, maybe you're just single and would love to have someone to cuddle with, talk to, share everything with, watch movies or shows together with, play games together, and travel or explore together!
Anyways, whatever the case is for you, if you think I'm interesting and would like to explore some or all of those things, I'd love to hear from you! Before I get too far ahead of myself, let you tell you a little about me. I'm 39 (but I look a bit younger), white, 5'11" and relatively slim at 165 lbs. I enjoy walking and jogging in the park, as well as exploring new parks / seeing new places and new scenery. Although it's 100 times better when I have someone to enjoy that with and talk to meanwhile! <3 Anyways, I do have a number of nerdy interests - games, movies, anime, computers, science stuff, etc., but I can also enjoy long conversations with a date, walks in the park - or on the beach, playing board, card, or video games together, or sports, etc. Plus I'm open to learning some interests of yours - I can't promise I'll be interested in all of your interests, but it's extremely likely that I'd at least enjoy hearing you talk about them, and some of them I may be happy to join you in (this is very likely). We don't need to share ALL of the same interests, as long as we share a few haha. As far as games go, I'm primarily (almost entirely) a PC gamer, but I occasionally play some console games (primarily older consoles). My favorite thing to do is to cuddle up and watch something fun or interesting, such as movies, YouTube (I watch a lot of YouTube), Anime, Netflix, or Kdramas (occasionally). So you need to at minimum be someone whom would enjoy cuddling up and watching things together with me haha ... but then, almost everyone enjoys doing that. Oh, and I also have a relatively newfound love for Theme Parks and water parks since I recently started going back to them for the first time as an adult recently, and there's many more I'd love to go to - as well as re-visit the ones I've been to with someone special going with me to share the experience with. <3 I'm also curious to try out some amusement parks now that I'm getting more comfortable on rollercoasters.
Anyways, that's a bit about me, I'd love to hear some about you and what your interests are! And maybe note some shared interests that we have! Of course I do have some additional interests, I haven't listed EVERYTHING haha, nor do you need to in a first message haha. Just because my post is long doesn't mean your messages have to be haha. ;)
As for requirements for you, I'm pretty open minded on most things, so I'll try to keep the requirements pretty minimal. Ideally I'm looking for someone that's white or Asian, or some mix thereof (i.e. if you're 50/50, or 50/50 white or Asian and something else, that's fine). I'd consider making exceptions to this for the right person, if we really clicked otherwise. ;) Age wise, while it would be nice to find someone about to graduate HS (and is excited to use their newfound freedom to explore so many new things in life and the world), I'm willing to consider someone a bit older, up to early to mid 20s, as long as we share a number of interests and you feel like you're looking for something similar to what I've described. It's more that I'm looking for someone with a certain mindset and/or at a certain point in their life, not necessarily that they're SUPER young. My main requirement is, as someone that's slim (and sometimes athletic, when I have time to get more exercise), I need you to also BE [as opposed "working on it"] average weight or below, and plan to stay there (but also to expect me to as well - I don't expect anything from a partner that I don't have at LEAST as high expectations of myself about). I find petite girls super cute, but average size girls are fun and cute as well! Both sizes have their fun and interesting points haha, so I'm fine if you're either one.
Anyways, I think I've talked long enough for now haha, but that gives you a decent idea what I'm looking for plus some basics about me. As the title says, while ideally I'd love to find someone within 3 hours of Harrisonburg, VA, I'm willing to consider someone anywhere in the US (probably just the lower 48 states). Drives longer than 3 hours are definitely still very plausible, possibly even 8 or 10 hours perhaps, and flying is an option if you live significantly further away (plus points if you live anywhere remotely near a major airport, but that's not a requirement). Anyways, my point is, if you're further away than a few hours drive, I'd need you to be willing to travel / work with the distance when the time comes - particularly with the drastically increased costs of gas/travel these days. For example, if you're pretty far away, then after the first visit or two, we'd probably need to be planning longer visits when one of us travels to the other. Anyways, I'm not looking to rush into meeting, but I'm also NOT INTERESTED in an online only relationship. We need to start meeting in person in the relatively near future (i.e. a few weeks or so (possibly several weeks if you're far), assuming we talk a good bit during those few weeks). Also, I'm willing to come to you the first visit (or perhaps more) if you're far, but after the first visit or two you'd need to be willing to visit me (I might be willing to pay for your flight if you can't, we'll see), as that's going to be a LOT cheaper than me flying out somewhere, getting a hotel, and renting a car. On the other hand, if you're much closer, within a reasonably driving range, if needed I could pick you up in my car once you're ready to visit (and I can just drive to you for the first few visits). And if you're within 3 hours or so drive, I'm happy to drive to you for several visits at first, until you're ready to visit me. Regardless of the timing, I'm not going to pressure you do visit me before you're comfortable doing so, and it's something we can play by ear. For example, if you're someone that's super shy I understand if it takes a few extra times of me visiting you before you're ready to visit me, or perhaps we need to chat some extra time first, etc.
Well, thanks for reading my rather long post haha, hopefully I've piqued your interest, and if so, I'd love to hear from you! Certainly feel free to ask me any questions you may have, either if you're interested, or if you're curious but need to know some more before you know if you're interested haha. Also, I'm happy to exchange some (clean!) pictures of each other after a few messages. On that note, when you message me, please tell me at least a little about you (i.e. age, race, height/weight, and a little about you and what you're looking for). Thanks again, and hopefully this can be a great opportunity for both of us, and the start of something amazing!
P.S. To the SUPER shy and lurkers out there - yes, you, you know who you are - if you've been looking and wanting a relationship for a while, but have been too shy to ever post yourself or respond to a post, but you find me / what I'm looking for interesting, THIS is the post for you, THE one you've been waiting for. I've talked to a few VERY shy girls occasionally, and it was such an amazing experience for some of them to talk to someone that understands them and is willing to take the time to get to know them, and give them time to get comfortable before meeting. Someone that can help them slowly come out of their shell, gently nudging them to try new things and slowly be more outgoing, but without being pushy. So if that's you, you fit what I described that I'm looking for, and you're THAT shy but really DO want to be in a relationship, THIS is the post that's the opportunity for you. You've found the person that's willing to spend the time to get to know you and let you get comfortable, and also the guy that's going to enjoy and appreciate spending time with you in person if/when we get to that point (hopefully, that's the objective). I understand that shy girls, if you can get to know them well enough that they get comfortable with you, can often build some of the deepest emotional connections, because they appreciate the few close friends they do have SO much moreso than average people. So, if that's you, and you've been wanting a relationship for a while but been too shy to message anyone, PLEASE do this time! <3 I can carry the conversation if needed, but you need to at least say "hi" so that I know you're interested! [If you're too shy to say much, just say "Hi, I'm shy but I'd love to chat" or something like that]. :) Romance doesn't have to be just something you read about in books or watch in movies, YOU CAN experience it yourself! <3

Is anyone actually offended by the term “natural birth”?
Currently pregnant with #2 and planning a “natural” unmedicated home birth with a certified nurse midwife who works home births. For my first, I also did unmedicated but was in a birth center with CNMs and everything went super smooth so that’s why I feel confident in doing home birth this time around (as long as everything remains low risk obviously).
But whenever the term “natural birth” is brought up it seems like people push back and advocate for the term “unmedicated”. But at least in my experience, the people advocating against using the term natural birth are not self reporting as the ones offended by it. It always seems to be people pushing back in order to not offend anyone else, but I can’t recall anyone actually saying the term natural birth bothers them.
I’m a scientist, so I use the term “natural” in its literal definition to mean.. physiological, unassisted, without medical intervention, etc. and it doesn’t really have any connotation to me. Use of intervention is by its very definition not natural. That doesn’t mean it’s bad though, it’s just in the literal definition. It didn’t occur naturally. I’m super happy we have interventions for people who need or want them. For example I’m happy I have had all my **shots so I have immunity to some diseases. That’s not “natural” immunity, (I didn’t acquire it without medical intervention), but it’s a good thing nonetheless.
I know plenty of moms who have had cesareans, either as an emergency or elective, and I don’t think anyone would say that was a natural birth. Again, it’s a good thing. Not being natural isn’t bad or immoral or anything.
My idea is that the potential offense would come from a response like this: if someone says they’re planning or have had a natural birth, someone could respond or think “so does that mean my birth was unnatural?” Because I can see that unnatural definitely has a negative connotation culturally. I just don’t think it should. If you had or are planning on having augmentation or intervention (for whatever reason), and you feel like that is the best choice for you.. why should it matter how other people refer to their plan or their birth?
Maybe it’s just me coming from a family with members who are natural childbirth and lactation educators and advocates, so I grew up hearing and seeing natural births, that it surprised me when I first heard (online, I might add, not in real life) people saying “natural birth” isn’t a good term.
I’ve also heard that it’s inaccurate, but I think “unmedicated” is also inaccurate. What types of medications count? If you’re induced with Pitocin but don’t get an epidural, is that “unmedicated”? If you just use gas is that “unmedicated”? These terms to me seem equally imprecise, so I think you should just refer to your own plan/experience in the way that you resonate with and that feels most accurate to you and your experience.
TLDR; if you yourself are offended or bothered by or advocate for not saying “natural birth”, why? Why do you think we feel like something unnatural has to have a negative connotation when PLENTY of good and amazing things aren’t “natural”?
EDIT: ** I said “shots” because when I said vccines, the bot thought I was talking about CVID and removed it. I mean I’m not NOT talking about C*VID, but I also mean other illnesses as well.

I’m long term subbing as a PE teacher and I was wondering if there is an app where it can prove that students did the physical activity. For missed days, I was thinking of having students make up a day by participating in a 30 min activity and writing it in a log, but how can I make sure they’re actually “doing” the activity, and not just writing it down?

State of Instagram Reels In 2023

We kicked off 2023 with some serious announcements from Instagram’s CEO confessing that Instagram pushed more reels than photos. And they will settle things back to normal meaning pushing every single piece of content at the same rate.
After that Meta’s Earning Report 2022 came out, In the statement regarding Instagram. Mark Zuckerberg confirmed that to make people create & watch reels they tried to give new format a boost until 2022. Now, reels can grow on their own.
And that brings us to current state of reels, which is reels aren’t as organic as 2021. But the time spent by Instagram users is increasing, now more than 20% users spend their half of the time on reels tab.
That’s why IG reels needs to be part of your overall Instagram strategy.

State of Tiktok 2023

Changes to Tiktok algorithm are bigger than Instagram reels. Increasing the arguments regarding Tiktok Vs Instagram strategy, here’s what you need to know regarding these changes.
First Tiktok recently announced a new monetisation feature called “Tiktok Series”.
Tiktok believes in quality content & they have mentioned these priorities over and over again. This time with “Tiktok Series” the platform wants creators to create long-form content to make Tiktok users more engaged within the platform.
The creators can charge upto $190 for content series. Your Tiktok series can have upto 80 videos with length of upto 20 minutes.
This new era of paywalled content on Tiktok will bring more engagement & money to creators.
Second TikTok’s Creativity Program aka “Creative Fund 2.0”
The platform introduced a new creator fund called “Tiktok creativity Program” and creators can apply for monetisation of video content. But this time there is a change to help deserving creators make more money.
In creativity program, creators apply for monetisation for a specific Tiktok video and the video has to be over 1 minue length or minimum. Plus, Tiktok will review Originality & creativity of video to consider monetisation.
Final Take, What these changes tell us?
These changes tell us that Tiktok wants original & long-form content to exist on platform. Tiktok was know for trending sounds in 2019-2021 and it still represents that part of social media. But now the platform seeks originality & wants to be a content hub like Youtube.

Understanding Instagram Strategy

I’ve advised 1000s of marketers, SMBs & creators that only reason Instagram never dies is because it’s the most personal platform & middle child in the family of Social Media Platforms.
The audiences on Instagram want to see memories, highlights & content from their friends, families & connections. And they discover new creators & businesses based on what Instagram knows about them. And Instagram gets the knowledge from who they follow, what they or the people they follow like. It’s all interconnected.
And that’s different from Tiktok. On Instagram while creating reels, you have to remember to make sure you focus on creating content more valuable for your existing followers.
When you create valuable content for them. You will get better engagement from them and as Instagram’s audience is interconnected & the platform knows the interests through the audience. You will go viral & get more engagement.
Meaning key to a great Instagram reels strategy is focusing on fulfilling your current audience with value to get more engagement from non-followers. To do that, you need to be more focused on understanding your followers how they react to different posts. After that you need to find what other creators & businesses are doing to find what works.
Both of these will help you in creating content within your expertise, without any pressure to jump on trends. Why? As you now understand what strategies & tactics work for your audience better than those Instagram fast growth gurus.

Decoding Tiktok Strategy

Above I mentioned Tiktok is different with context about how Instagram’s audience is interconnected & existing followers make a huge impact on virality.
Tiktok is opposite, People use it to discover new solutions, trends, Ideas & businesses. They aren’t interconnected with most of their friends. Unless Tiktok asks you to connect contacts & 70% people usually don’t follow their friends after connecting their contact lists.
Tiktok users are on Platform for new content discovery. You see content based on what you like, the personal connections doesn’t matter as much as they did on IG.That’s why brands on Tiktok try to create content that targets a broad share of platform. Because people are hear to build new interests, and discover new businesses.
First, Brands try to create content that appeals to 90% of people interested in X topic to go viral or gain exposure.
For example, @Bose on Tiktok create funny reels about their new products to reach most of the audience.
Second, They create educational & focused content to keep the existing followers engaging + connected with their brands.
To explain Take @schick on Tiktok creating story-focused content to make sure the connection between newly gained audience starts building.
Third, Brands try to stay relevant by discussing points that audience mentions in comments. To make people believe they are listening to everyone.
For Example, McDonald’s Tiktok manager replied to a follower who said nobody will read this. This act shows a lot & the screenshot of this comment gathered 13k likes on Twitter.
Showing how engaging in comments can also impact your audience + you can end up gaining more attention on Twitter or reddit.
Packing all this up, Tiktok strategy For Brands & Creators is a mix of broad content to target new followers & insightful content to keep the followers engaged. And engaging is similar to Instagram, It’s important on both platforms.

Instagram Images Vs Tiktok Carousels

In the state of Instagram reels, I mentioned that IG is back to prioritising every single format equally. What does that mean? It means that Instagram Imagery content is here to stay & it is gaining organic reach.
Comparing it to Rival Platform, now we have carousels on Tiktok. And this feature is highly organic when we compare it to Instagram carousels.
Tiktok carousels are an amazing way to post imagery content on platform and you can share more than 10 slides with ability to add sounds. On other hand, You can now add sound to Single images on Instagram but regarding carousels you can only have upto 10 slides with no sound adding feature.
Instagram carousels seem to take a loss here in terms of organic reach & Format freedom. But this format is one of my favourite to build an engaging audience as your audience tend to spend more time consuming your content.

So perhaps you saw my in-depth test drive of a Sebo E3/K3 yesterday and wondered if I'd do a Miele C3 test drive. Turns out YES, yes I would/did/am. Now when reading these comments please remember my use case - 80% hard flooring (but moving in a couple years and who knows what the flooring might be at the new house). 3000 total square feet. Three levels. And two rag doll cats that shed their undercoats of fine, fluffy fur EVERYWHERE. Here's yesterday's thread:
https://www.reddit.com/VacuumCleaners/comments/11ww74l/test_drove_a_sebo_today/
So I went to the OTHER vacuum shop in town, which again sells both but primarily Miele. And as expected, they recommended the HomeCare+. First the pricing: $1200 with a bunch of extras (and of course the 5 year bumper to bumper). They also would include: multi-floor, SEB228 power brush, the oversized horsehair dusting brush (with multi-way articulation), the two-foot-long flexible crevice tool, and the parquet twister.
First Impression - build. It's also pretty light - a touch bigger than the E3 but they weigh almost the same, by my measurement. The canister itself feels roughly as well built as the Sebo from the outside. The hose is longer, and the wand is MUCH beefier. I know that in practice the Sebo's wand is probably easier to fix/maintain but the Miele's aluminium telescoping rod just feels beefier. Also no exposed wires. Don't know if that matters. The Miele felt nicer to hold - the handle grip was slightly larger which worked better for my XL hands. The onboard tools are not any better than the Sebo, TBH. Just pretty basic.
Second impression - it is also quiet. Maybe a touch louder than the Sebo, or the store could have been quieter than the other store. Definitely still REALLY quiet. But, to be fair there's no air belt AND it's fully HEPA - which the Sebo is not. The SEB228 head is in fact louder than the ET-1, but nowhere near as loud as some videos might suggest. Maybe they're having QC issues? One thread suggested that their old one was quieter than the new one, and that they tried one at the store that was also loud. Well, this one wasn't.
Third impression - suction. The low is lower than Sebo's low, but the high is much higher than Sebo's high. So that's a thing. Bigger motor, I suspect. Low is specifically for drapes though, so they might actually have purposely geared it SUPER low for a reason. I'd say it works kind of like:
Dyson v8 low < Miele low < Dyson high < Sebo low < Sebo high < Miele high.
Fourth impression - attachments. The parquet twister is just as awesome as everyone says. Edge suction is STELLAR on it. The SEB228 is far better than you'd think - even on bare floor. It also does include the auto-shutoff in the newest iteration (he sucked up a towel to demonstrate). It was, however, HEAVY. Like "glad it's self propelled" heavy. Twice as heavy as the ET-1. That's a thing. The turbo pet tool ($50 extra for the non-Miele-branded Wessel Werk) was great.
He didn't have an SEB336 head out to test, so I can't give my impressions of that. The multi-floor tool is... super unexciting and unlikely to ever be used. The fancy dusting brush is significantly nicer than Sebo's. The crevice tool is ... long and flexible.
Fifth impression - service and warranty. If I buy the Homecare+, it's pretty much the same as the Sebo. Tune-ups included, 5 year bumper to bumper. And while I was there a lady came in with a 15 year old Miele that had lost some suction. They quoted her $99 to tear it down, overhaul it, and repair the suction issue. She was worried it would be more, and he jokingly said "well if you're really worried a new one is $350, I won't overcharge for labor!" and quoted the lower rate.
Sixth impression - filtration. Well, here's the thing. This guy DID know HEPA from S-Class. And it IS better. A little noisier? Yeah, so is a HEPA air purifier compared to non-HEPA. The real question is "do you need HEPA", not "is this a good filter". Those of us that want to see PerformanceReviews magic zero emissions... may want a Miele:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f9Q74FFRVo
(Bear in mind that the ambient is 150k, and Sebo brings it to around 7k or even lower, and that's all particles down to 0.2micron... also bear in mind that dust mites and their droppings are much larger than that, and 100% blocked by both units. So is pollen, and pet dander.)
I will, however, say that the auto-closing bag flap is nice. Not that you open the bag compartment much, but when you do Miele auto-ejects the bag slightly and closes the flap so you don't have to fumble around for it, discover it broke off and fish it out of the body cavity all while compressing the bag and pushing dust out. So that's a win for the Miele.
Seventh impression - fit and finish. I'll say that it's close. The Sebo is probably a LITTLE more snugly built, if I'm being honest. When I opened up the Miele, it was easy to take the cover hinge off its tracks and remove it entirely. But it went right back in, so maybe this is a design feature rather than a flaw. The HEPA filter is sealed really well. The bag seals really well. The pre-motor filter is more substantial than I was expecting. And the bag is a SERIOUS THING. Sebo's bags are good, but the bag on the Miele is REALLY GOOD. This unit was smooth like the Sebo, but in a more "aluminium and strong materials" way than in a "industrial plastic and lightweight" way. The hose and wand together are probably heavier than the Sebo, so if I did the ceiling fans a lot it'd likely be a consideration.
Verdict: I need to talk it over with the wife. If the filtration was equal, I'd be buying the Sebo no question - my gut reaction is that the Sebo's build quality is just higher. But since the Sebo would cost nearly $1400 to kit out, let's do the math on the Miele - $1200 plus the turbo pet tool ($50) plus the Soniclean-branded Wessel Werk RD285 for $40. So I'm at around $1300 in Miele land. So roughly the same, or even slightly cheaper, than the Sebo.

70hz is actually like a 15% increase in smoothness. It’s pretty noticeable, just don’t want it to mess up my deck

I'm thinking of switching daycares and would like some advice. I've narrowed down my options to one place, but I don't love it compared to my current daycare.
Cons for switching: 1. It's farther away. It's about 15min walk instead of a 5 min walk like my current one. Parking isn't convenient for pickup, but I could try. (I'm really bad at parallel parking though) This is fine for warm weather, but it will be bitter in the winterain.

1. More days off. My current daycare is off for 19 days. The new daycare one is off for probably close to 40 days. It will be hard finding coverage on those off days. My SO does not have flexibility when it comes to off days, and I only have 29 vacation days throughout the year. Family isn't nearby. I wfh and my SO does not.
   
2. Hours are worse. It's do-able, but harder for me to get to the new daycare. New daycare closes at 5:30. I get off at 5, assuming I don't get stuck in a meeting. This makes a very small window for pickup. Current daycare closes at 6p.
   

Short reason for switching: there will be more kids the same age as my LO.
Long reason for switching: NYC has a Free* 3k for all program. This means that daycare is free from 9-2:30 and you just pay for aftercare. Some daycares participate in this program. Mine does not. My fear is that because my daycare does not participate in the free 3k program, kids will leave when they turn 3. I already know one older kid who is leaving in July. I don't see anyone who is 4 at my current daycare even though they are licensed for that age. Another kid older than mine might leave soon. I worry all the empty slots will be filled by babies and my kid will get bored.
I have heard a lot of good things about the daycare I'm thinking of switching to from parents on Facebook. The staff is great. They serve organic food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They have a better teaching curriculum with themed months. They give plenty of photos too. They have an outdoor playground (a luxury for NYC).
I love my current daycare. My LO loves it there and it's all my LO has ever known. The teachers love my LO, they give us plenty of photos/videos, there's lots of outdoor space, the hours are great, the cost is relatively low (for NYC standards), and they don't have a ton of closures.
Would you switch? I'm really scared my kid will be so lonely and alone one day. I'm also scared of change and how my LO will adapt to it. If I want to get into that other daycare, I have to do it soon because it's very popular.
I know a few moms at my current daycare and I contemplate asking if they plan on staying till kindergarten. But, it's hard to believe they would because truthfully, we've all talked about moving to bigger houses. And you can't afford a house in my neighborhood.

I'm traveling to Okinawa for 4 months this summer (mid-May to mid-September), but I'm a broke college student. I graduate this May, and I managed to get a "cheap" flight flying out of Kansas City for approximately $1600 roundtrip as a graduation gift to myself before I come back and live the rest of my life at an office job. I have family there, so I'm not worried about accommodation or transportation.
I am, however, worried about food/dining out/groceries to dine-in (considering I pitch in a bit for my fair share as I stay with my family or else my guilt will eat me alive) and souvenirs. I know there will be days where we stay in and not go out, so how much money should I be prepared to spend on this trip? Or how much money should I bring? Do they do currency exchange at the airport? Is Okinawa really expensive? I've seen posts about the cost of produce. I'm currently going off the 'Budgeting' list from another page, and also doing some google research but just wanted to get opinions from people who have travelled long-term to Okinawa/stayed/currently staying in Okinawa.
I don't think we are planning to go on mainland either as my SIL will be in labor in June, and she would prefer to stay home.
(Note: this is my first time flying out of the country so any tips/suggestion/advice would help! Thank you!)

My father has a Subaru Outback 2021 that he wanted me to update the software on. I looked into how to do it and it seems there are multiple things I need to update. The "Starlink" software itself (is this the actual car's software or is it something entirely different? I am not really sure WHAT Starlink actually is, I assumed it was the remote start/etc software but no, that's an entirely different app) and the navigation software.
It would refuse to connect to our WiFi so I followed the steps to download the software to USB using my computer, according to the instructions listed on Subaru's own website listed here: https://techinfo.subaru.com/stis/doc/ownerManual/Gen3_1_FOTA_NAVI_HOWTO_v7software.pdf
It says that downloading them using the PC App to USB would download updates to both the map and software. (It also originally said I would need a 16GB flashdrive, but then insisted on one that was at least 64GB... and then downloaded only 14GB of files to it...). When I did this though, it seemed to ONLY download map updates.
I assumed that there was no software updates for the car, but then as I was trying to use the USB it finally connected by WiFi... and found a software update.
I told it to go ahead.... and it was taking forever. I tried driving it as close to the access point as I could but it was still downloading at a snail's pace.
I decided to just try the USB instead for now, also at a snail's pace.
The issue I have though is not so much the time it takes, but what I am exactly supposed to do while it is downloading/installing. Am I just supposed to wait in the car with the engine off? It said it could take up to an hour, and from the rate it was going likely longer. That would kill the battery having it on for that long without the engine running. Am I supposed to have the engine running? That would waste a ton of gas just idling for an hour, not to mention is probably not good for the engine. I tried leaving to see if it would still update while I was not in the car, but after about 10-15 minutes it shut off.
So how am I supposed to update the software exactly? Am I supposed to actually wait in the car with it turned on and the engine either on or off for over an hour just waiting for the update to finish? Or is there some sort of way to make it just update without being fully on and needing to be in the cahave my fob in the car?

We lay together that night. It seemed that this act was the ultimate stress reliever and comfort between bonded pairs, we’d done the same in our time together in Chi’cagoa Rea. Though we had little enough time together thanks to her ship obligations in the immediate time after that, as she’d engaged in a few extremely profitable trade runs from Earth to a Dlamias outlying colony that conveniently enough had no patrol ships around to ask any nosy questions about arrests or charges…
We made up for the lost time when we could.
Lisa always took full advantage of that absence, though as for what she thought of the Captain’s absences, [Redacted]. The homeworld did not get around to properly securing the colony where the liquor flowed from, until after the Earth government asked that she be pardoned as a show of good faith given her ‘exemplary services rendered in the pursuit of harmony between worlds’.
Which was a fancy way of saying she had a fanbase and it would look good if she were in favor again. I wag my tail sometimes, thinking of the apocalyptic fury that must have run through some bureaucrat’s veins when they had to process that request for an outlier turned infamous pirate. Even if she didn’t target the Dlamias fleet, her ability to wreak merry havoc must have presented all kinds of headaches back home. Not to mention stealing the ‘official envoy’s’ place.
That one did eventually arrive and now made occasional trade runs in a triangle shape between Earth, Dlamias, and the Maxiki home moon.
But I digress.
Our laying together proved relaxing to us both, and when she was nestled against me in the bed we shared, I would be lying if I said I could easily return to my former existence in general isolation.
The more I thought about it, the more the concept of human ‘pack like’ families appealed to me.
And I had a lot of time to think about it.
Unsurprisingly, a few days later a small team of six grief therapists arrived, three of them with experience dealing with what humans referred to as PTSD or, ‘Post Traumatic Stress Disorder’ or what Dlamias referred to as WIOS or ‘War Induced Outlier Syndrome’. In the past I would not have recognized it, but I cannot unsee what I have seen. And that is that the term ‘outlier’ in there is not just a medical identification for a traumatized soldier, but a deeply embedded mistrust of nonlinear thought and a noncompliance with the common cultural framework our government has approved.
In short, it helped make outliers appear inherently untrustworthy, though to their credit they recognized that soldiers were victims of this rather than internally flawed in some way.
I wasn’t present when the exerts arrived, but was present when the engineers on loan from Earth were assisting the Red Spark’s engineers with the installation of several virtual reality systems akin to what Bonny Red described as experiencing on board Captain Archer’s ship fifty years earlier.
Of course the new models were far more versatile and realistic, or so their chatter said.
“Yeah these things are great.” The skinny engineer in plain white overalls said as he tapped it, “There aren’t many like this one out there, the sense data is a lot more immersive, and the time dilation software is such that these Arachnae 9000 models can give you almost anything you want, thanks to their embedded creation kits. Now you can modify your games and customize them to your liking, and with Genesis mode, you can create your own world and games within it, and jump to other peoples designs on the network in the same way as long as they’ve either made it ‘public’ or given you a passkey access code.”
“That’ll make a good training system.” The engineer, Scotty, remarked. “Do we get to keep these after the mission?”
“Hell if I know. But…disconnecting them would be damn tough. And I don’t have a disconnect schedule date. So…probably?” The human remarked, “I’ve got to say, I envy you these things. Even the capital ships don’t all have these yet.”
I pretty quickly figured out that some of the humans on board the ship had pulled a few strings to get some entertainment on board the Red Spark. And probably done it quickly too, using the therapist costs as a late rider on a bill or something.
It was a guess, but I suspect, a good one.
As for the therapists themselves, as these systems were hooked up, the humans tested them and began installing the programs they would need. You might find this strange given that time dilating virtual simulators were used in the human confinement system of justice, as well as it simple games and the older models were used as toys to play games.
But as it turned out, virtual reality was also used in therapy.
I was able to briefly try one out while the therapists explained.
A therapist named ‘Carl’ went over it while the program ‘World of Healing’ loaded.
What began as a silent black world in which I stood, neither falling nor flying, nor seemingly standing on anything at all, stars came into view first, billions of tiny lights twinkling in the darkness. The sorts of things that inspired the dreams of generations.
Then there was grassland, rolling hills, and I was standing on soft earthen and green.
Then the hills loaded terraces with yet more greenery, and around them appeared little babbling brooks, creeks of water with the occasional small fish leaping through the water from one place to the next.
Then, young men and women clad in the outfits of human nurses, the traditional red and white shades.
The therapist appeared beside me a moment later, stepping out of the darkness as his avatar loaded. “Let there be light.” He said with a wave of his hand, and the sun began to rise in the distance. There was a strange warming sensation, like I’d stepped out into an early summer day, as well as the feel of a breeze, I looked down at my body, my hairs were moving.
“That’s good.” He said and cracked a little smile, he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Environments like this one are popular.” He said, “I actually worked on the development of some of these. The nurses,” he gestured to the unmoving simulations, “are designed to appear as nonthreatening as possible. Mostly female, but there is some demand for males as well. Do you know why?” He asked.
“No?” I didn’t, and as he began to walk down a trail of smooth stones that appeared beneath our feet, he explained.
“Do you know what the most common word among the wounded on the battlefield is?” He asked, and as we walked, I watched the scene continue to generate, the path leading to small islands of trees that swayed in the simulated breeze. I shook my head.
“Mother.” He replied. “Followed closely by ‘I’ and ‘want’ and ‘my’. In every language, the wounded scream for their mothers, even the fiercest, hardest, and most savage of men in their most painful hours, call for the one who provided care and comfort in their childhood. Usually, that is still the mother. Not always, mind you, but commonly.”
He smiled at the simulated nurse, and even without being activated, it made a radiant smile in return. “So we program the nurses of both sexes with simulated parental care and attention personalities. Ideally the personalities of the wounded based on known interview data are loaded beforehand to provide the best possible experience, thus allowing the AI to tailor itself to the needs of the wounded.”
I couldn’t deny I was impressed.
“And the environment?” I asked.
“A garden.” Carl replied, “Someone once said, ‘If any man has ever heard the voice of god, it was in a garden on a cool day.’ Our myths and legends often begin our existence in idyllic gardens. Of course we know those are just myths, stories. But it says something about our nature that when we need to create a paradise, ‘this’ is what we make.” He held his arms out as if to embrace the simulation.
“Running water has a calming effect, the feel of the ground and the breeze, the sun and the caring attendants, all serve to create the ideal environments for a group of wounded soldiers. The nurses,” he added, “can be taken over by real qualified people like myself to properly diagnose and help guide the healing of others. The truth is, we don’t heal anybody.”
“No?” I was surprised at his admission, and Carl stroked his russet beard and chuckled as he replied.
“No. A doctor of the body can claim he healed a disease or an injury. But people who deal with the mind, we are guides. That is all. PTSD isn’t something you ‘get over’. It doesn’t go away, it just goes from an open wound to a scar. It may hurt sometimes, like a scar, but it doesn’t have to dominate someone’s life. All we do, is try to make it easier for that scar to form. Environments like this?” He said rhetorically, “These are just ultra modern hospital beds.”
“Couldn’t you just, I don’t know, leave somebody in here for what feels like a hundred years until they’re a whole lot better?” I asked, and his head hung just a little.
“If we could do that, we would. But studies of simulation use show that long term continuous use makes it difficult to adapt to the real world again. In the distant past, astronauts who spent only a few weeks in space, took several days on Earth to remember that things they let go of wouldn’t just ‘float’ if they let go of them. I can only imagine how much coffee was wasted.”
He let out a mock gasp as we got to the little tree cluster where willow leaves hung in long strands to create a kind of gentle shadow casting barrier to the trunk within.
“If we leave somebody in a superhero game for what feels like a hundred years, they’ll try to use those powers in the real world. If we leave somebody here in paradise for a hundred years, they’ll no longer be able to function in reality. And time dilation in a simulation isn’t exactly the same as actually lived reality either. Even the best AI is predictable to a degree. The real world, not so much.”
That was unfortunate, but even so, I could see the use.
“So, an hour per day drawn out to a few days at a time for the grieving, the wounded, and whoever we need. We have simulations for almost everything. From the wounded veterans, to those who grieve the dead in a thousand times a thousand ways.” Carl seemed to me to be equal parts proud of, and saddened by, the existence of this simulated world.
“It gets really bad, doesn’t it?” I asked and out of curiosity, when we crossed a hill to find ourselves amidst an apple orchard, I reached up to pluck a bright red fruit from a branch. It felt so real in my hands. And there was even a real scent to it. ‘I wonder, can I taste it?’
“It does.” Carl replied. “A few decades ago there were some xenophobes who were protesting… something. I don’t remember what it was, I was a child at the time, but some of them managed to get a bunch of guns somewhere and took over a bridge and blocked a road. They brought out their wives and children to use as human shields, trying to force the government to kill them to create sympathy for their cause.”
The apple tasted fantastic, but at his words I coughed and spat and he slapped me several times on the back. This ran entirely counter to everything I’d studied in human society. My work showed that humans valued their offspring and mates to such an extreme degree that harming them was akin to suicide if the survivor got a chance to exact revenge.
“I see that sounds strange to you.” He affirmed and asked, “Are you alright?”
“Yes, yes but…” He slapped my back a few more times and then finished.
“There’s a subset of humans for whom mates and children are property, this is a dying cultural remnant of the past, but it dies hard. Xenophobes wouldn’t hesitate to use those they’re supposed to protect, as pawns for their vicious causes. My father actually worked with both the people who confronted them, and the unarmed people that were rescued.”
“How did it come out?” I asked.
“I was just a kid, I don’t know all the details. But the media stories that spun about it accused the xenophobes of every kind of abuse on their spouses and children, thousands of people were ‘doxxed’ when they posted support for the xenophobes actions. It’s like somebody was out to get them. It got messy, they were a laughing stock, referred to as maniacal cowards, and there were a lot of cartoons and comics where people whose faces and names were out there, became villains to be laughed at and despised. I guess pretty much any evil thing is easy to believe if you’ll put your own kid or your own spouse between you and a bullet just so other people will feel sad for you.” “I mean, were there deaths or…?” I wished I hadn’t asked, but he shook his head.
“No, not exactly. Some clever bastard came up with the idea of walling them in. They pushed these big metal walls into place to surround them, then tightened it up. Slid a roof overhead, and then gassed the lot of them with something to knock them out. There was a lot of gunfire, it made the news, but seeing them shooting at giant metal walls while hiding behind their families did nothing to help their cause. But there were a lot of people who needed mental healthcare to recover from that incident. That’s why I do what I do. My father did it, and I saw how badly it was needed. It’s kind of my purpose, I guess you could say.” Carl said and reached up to take a bite of an apple for himself.
“Tastes like reality.” He said, and then asked, “Have you seen enough?”
“Yes. But… thank you for coming, I think you can do a lot of good up here.” I said and he quickly recited the exit code.
“Admin Red Spark Arachnae nine thousand. Exit simulation.” He said, and the world faded away to nothing.
I was sure of one thing at least.
The wounded hearts were in good hands.

I am 8 months into long hauling, and until December of last year couldn’t stand up, couldn’t read or think and I felt like I was close to death. Low blood pressure, low heart rate, just felt like I was dead. Then December happened and I saw improvement, then January and I had a few days of feeling like I was healing. February hit and a ton of stress happened and then I now have POTS, increased heart rate, and a few other issues.
This past month I was able to go get my nails done, get lunch, and walk around a store. I’ve taken small trips to do things but pay for it. I’ve been able to work a bit more, am cooking again, feel physically stronger and now shower daily not once a week. It doesn’t feel like I’m getting my life back, it’s still awful especially on my period and the ten days before my period.
Can I still heal? Is there hope for me I can better than I am now. I’m 30, getting divorced, and just feel terrified my life is over and I’ll never find love again or travel or have kids. I just need some hope

About 5 years ago I out of nor where stopped being able to sleep. Only every other night i could sleep due to exhaustion from not sleeping the night before . Unrelated to anxiety too, I could be in pure relaxation and sleepiness and just never be able to fall asleep.
I have tried every single thing you could name. Every sleep hygiene technique, every supplement, acupuncture, breath work, hypnosis, meditation, yoga. As I was very reluctant to go the medication route.
2 years later I finally decided that the stress my sleep was causing me wasn’t worth it and took medication and now I have been able to sleep every night for the past 3 years.
I have tried experimenting with not taking them over the few years and always am worse off sleep-wise than how I was before the medication.
One of my biggest intentions with ayahuasca is to be able to get insight on why I can’t sleep without medication. The thing is, that your not supposed to be on medication leading up the the ceremony. I’m not sure how long that is, but a few weeks without sleeping sounds terrifying! Not to mention an ayahuasca ceremony, I imagine, is probably very physically draining. I’m just so scared of this process, but I really feel as though it would be beneficial for me long term.
Anyone else had or had a similar experience with this?

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I (mid30s HLF) have been with my partner (early 40s LLM) for several years now. The sex was great for the first year of the relationship then dropped off sharply. At this point, I can’t even remember the last time we had sex at all, let alone had sex until we finished. He’s been tested and is in good health, we’ve tried different pills, but nothing worked. After our most recent failed attempt, he brought up the idea of a sex therapist.
I’m not entirely against the idea, but I’m curious as to others experience with it. Did it help your relationship (long term? Short term?) or was it just a time and money sink?

So, Rank Match is coming to EN (in less than 12 hours as I’m writing this!). Maybe you’ve seen a few posts crop up on your twitter TL or randomly on this subreddit bringing up fear of cheaters. Maybe you haven’t and have only seen the ones saying “I’m no good, I’ll probably only languish in bronze” or something like that. But all the same, I think we need to treat with the topic.
Let’s talk about cheating. It’s rampant, and it needs to be recognized. It’s worth addressing. It’s worth keeping EN’s integrity as a server.
A little context, before I do: I'm a user from the community Sekai server (henceforth referred to as Sekaicord) linked on the sidebar. By habit, I am not a reddit user, and I apologize if this comes off too strong as a consequence. I understand this is a contentious topic, and I recognize that I might have perception bias if the only posts I see from here showcase the "worst" posts and not the actual "average" opinion on this — but, my impression is that, in general, this subreddit has a terrible track record when it comes to identifying cheaters, and an equally awful slate of defenses for their behavior. I'm writing this post not just to address some of these defenses, but also to open the conversation. The less we know about it, the less we can push the devs to take action on it. And likewise, the more we’re aware…
Some context for my viewpoints / experiences on the matter:
- I'm a Day 1 JP player, with 240+ Master FCs. I played EN from day 1 up until around Scramble, when the amount of external tiering drama got too much for me (and, if my handle on what happened during White Day is right, it hasn't gotten better). Level-wise, I’d be about Lv31-32 for FC skill and 26-28 AP-wise. Ask me for a handcam if you want. On Sekaicord I frequently talk to much better players — yes, even ones who can FC/AP 33+ songs (which are probably the most likely to get doubted). I asked a player with Lv34+ FCs (AMARA, 16bit, Intense Voice, Disappearance/END) to review this huge treatise before I wrote it out. I'm pretty confident as to their legitimacy and generally see some patterns that emerge as to why they are. I'll explain some of these here.
- I tend to give the benefit of the doubt to APs up to around Lv32 in the wild, but a lot of Lv33+ FCs tend to be more suspect for any number of reasons you can see from the co-op results screen.
- The atmosphere in Sekaicord around cheating is, as you can probably infer from my tone, highly distrusting. Cheaters are banned on sight once proof is established beyond doubt – so in fact, it surprises me that technically speaking, the rules on the subreddit’s sidebar don’t concretely penalize cheating!
But like many communities, it didn't start out like that. The dedicated gameplay channel was VERY happy to celebrate players' accomplishments (we used to have every 33+ FC pinned) and generally didn't ask for much proof — until Rank Match came on JP, and a player who we all thought was just insanely good got exposed (because JP caught and banned him). Here's the thing — he was a good player in his own right (i.e., Lv. 32+, but not good enough for the results he cheated), and the way he hid his results was much less blatant than some of the people later banned from the server for cheating, who… well, put in about as much effort as some of the cheaters that have been linked to me from here. This is how it goes for pretty much any community: break the established trust, and obviously nothing's the same afterward.
I will try to write this in such a way that it gives cheaters as few hints as possible on how to make their plays look more "legit"; I simply want to point out some of the common patterns that emerge when a cheater really is afoot (and which are never an issue for a legitimate player), and refute some of the more common defenses.
Another thing: yes, not everyone condescends to the level of some of these defenses I’ve written out. However, I’ve seen them appear enough in more or less these exact forms, unchallenged, that it’s worth quoting them in exactly the same way to give you an idea of what’s wrong with these viewpoints. This is not meant as a personal attack (moreso if you may have said something to these effects in the past); it’s simply an attack on the logic behind them.

DEFENSES:

(1) "Has it ever occurred to you that someone might just be that good? / Or maybe they're just that good?"
Statements like these are, to put it bluntly, passive-aggressive and condescending towards people who might have genuine grounds for suspicion. People weren't born yesterday; we're fully aware that people on the level of HPS, MaengZombie, nanoflower, REN, STK, SkisK… exist. (I've specifically excluded jack just because he's the low-hanging fruit and also to point out that if one’s only knowledge of a "good player" is jack, well… there’s a whole world out there).
But the reason people don't cast doubt on those players is because they have put in the effort to be deserving of that trust. Every one of the players I've mentioned has videographic evidence — YouTube, Twitter clips, the list goes on. They frequently compete to get world-first on APs, and they're well aware that if you do not have a video that shows your hands, your play means nothing. For example, tweets purporting to show world-firsts on Six Trillion Years and Overnight Story were, pretty much without exception, disregarded by JP players when the user was silent on the question of handcams.
(The first recognized AP of Six Trillion Years is from SkisK , at 1d 1h 19m after release.)
(A little aside: JP players can be pretty ruthless about cheaters. From the official JP Discord, I passed by this message of someone posting a Yaminabe AP tweet with no proof on release day and was (not) surprised to see a slew of X-to-doubt reactions -- and, as with the tweet above which I had to resort to Wayback Machine to show you, it was later deleted presumably after getting called out.)
I also want to be clear on this: this also means that a player you don't expect CAN come out of nowhere and stake their claim on an achievement, as long as they have the proof to back their claim up. Here's a good example: the maxed score on Arcaea's hardest chart, Testify BYD, was achieved by a player (005saikou) who otherwise wasn't known for any other world-firsts! And — you guessed it — he had an annotated video to back up his claim, commenting on which parts he thought was hardest, and other peculiarities of the chart.
There's a common counterargument to (1) that goes something like
(2) "Well, maybe some people just don't want to show their hands / dox themselves / don't know how to record / etc."
Let's do this point-by-point.
2a) "...don't know how to record / not everyone has a second phone or camera to record handcams with..."
The trial-and-error process required to reach the level of play we're talking about 99% demands the ability to record, review, and rewatch your play. Even if you're not going to post it, you almost certainly will have tried it at some point on the road to 33+ just for your own "where did I go wrong?" purposes.
This argument is also an insult to the intelligence of a player; recording ISN'T EVEN HARD. Recording is built-in on iOS. Recording on Android is as simple as typing "screen recorder app" into Google Play Store (or its equivalent, for Xiaomi and other no-Google builds) and downloading the first free option that doesn't have ads every 0.1 seconds. While screen recordings are less trustworthy than handcams because, well, you can’t see what the player is doing in order to get that result, they’re trustworthy enough in conjunction with players who, besides a recording, can talk about what, why, and how they do what they’re doing (more on this below).
As for handcams, please don't be intimidated by the fact that most well-known YouTubers have professional-looking, crisp 1080p setups: even a grainy 480p view is enough as long as it's clear you're not pretending to mash away while a bot automatically PERFECTs the 200BPM portions of Intense Voice. Google "handcam setups", or DIY one by cutting a slit at the top of a cardboard box and pointing a camera lens down while you play from the bottom (my preferred solution). I have seen players who record themselves using cheap $20 webcams not even clipped to anywhere stable, players who ask to borrow a family member’s phone or camera for a paltry five minutes… anything to be honest! For as many cheaters I’ve seen accused, I’ve also seen nearly as many people who put in the effort to be honest, which deserves a good mention.
Just about every case I know of someone who wasn't a cheater was willing to provide a handcam of some sort. It doesn't matter if they took 30 minutes, five hours, or three days — they came back and defended themselves. I've even seen it on the EN discord! The first instinct of a cheater, by contrast, is to either stay completely silent and let other people do the defending for them, or to get extremely defensive and use some of the many arguments here.
Incidentally, there are legitimate examples I know of of completely unknown players who pop up one day in Sekaicord with some godlike play, and the reason they were believed on the spot? Handcam.
2b) "...don't want to show their hands / dox themselves..."
I suppose nothing can be done about that, but on this point I'd like to point out that Sekai is hardly the first (and will not be the last) rhythm game community to have doubters. This is frankly small-time compared to osu! players doing this like it's a JOB. And that comes down to a fundamental truth about rhythm games: difficult skill-based achievements have always had value because people SHOW they can be done. Consequently, if there is no proof, there is no value; if you're willing to make an outrageous claim; you best be prepared to show some outrageous play, or risk it not being worth anything at all.
There are other ways to show you clearly did what you're claiming to that don't involve a handcam, mind you — but they involve knowing what you're talking about, describing the chart / your strategies in detail, and, well, generally a certain level of passion about the intricacies of the game that most cheaters don't really seem to have, because they're only really here for the one fleeting shot at attention (mentioned this above already; skip to “spotting cheaters” below if you’re curious enough to know how).
Moving on…
(3) "But they posted a recording of…"
Let me be clear on this point: I personally (and many others) are not wondering if they photoshopped a rainbow clear diamond on a song; anyone can do that in three minutes. I am also not wondering (and do not care) if someone has a recording of themselves scrolling through a list of songs with a shiny line of rainbow diamonds, because that doesn't really mean anything if they cannot demonstrate the ability to repeat it (and that a bot didn't do it for them). On this point, most players aren't so letter-of-the-law obsessed as to demand a recording of a re-AP (understandable: players like Mita Kousuke take months even to get a singular AP on What's up? Pop! and there's no guarantee the perfect moment will be caught on camera for most players) — I (and many others) just want to see a level of play that reasonably LOOKS like they can do what they’re claiming to have done. Put simply, I really just want to see someone’s fingers dancing where the notes are landing, not their hands flailing miserably against the glass screen while a bot does the actual playing.
What would "reasonable" look like? Take a look at the Mita video as an example. While he lists some of his current personal bests at the top, you'll find that the majority of these streams are him failing, sometimes incredibly early, sometimes amazingly -- but the overall level of play is high. Players who've just finished with a feat from the night before / day before / two hours / 30 minutes before don't "rust over". A few hours' rest (if necessary) for exhausted hands is almost always enough to show something approaching legitimate if the player in question is legitimate -- again, no one's asking for a second AP.
(4) "You're just jealous!"
And? So what if I am? Since when was emotion a valid reason to stop reading and avoid the possibility that even people driven by emotion can make valid points? But part of why this argument is unusually effective is because most aren't aware of the common patterns that drive cheaters, and so valid arguments are often dismissed as being down to jealousy if you're not aware of why some of these defenses for cheaters just don't stick.
Part of why I shared the context of where I come from with this was partly to dispel this argument. I've long since accepted that there are people much better than me, and I want to explain why people (who don't necessarily have that chance) react the way they do towards cheaters without resorting to ad hominems like this.
But never mind me. If me potentially being jealous is enough to discount it at my sub-33 skill level, then would you believe the distaste for EN cheating if it came from the world-first AP on Kusaregedou to Chocolate? Incidentally, I assure you he's got nothing to be jealous of: after all, he's going to Tokyo for Spring CS and rubbing shoulders with HPS and the rest of the Sekai gods.
(5) "It's just a game, why would anyone cheat on Sekai?"
If you've ever heard a variation of the common schoolyard boast (or jokes about it) "my dad works at Nintendo / Game Freak / Activision / [insert AAA video game company here]", the answer is: it’s for exactly the same reason immature people have lied since the dawn of society — attention and self-esteem. Of course they gain nothing from this, it is just a game, after all — but kids literally lie just to win arguments as petty and easily-forgotten as those in a schoolyard. Why would Sekai be the first skill-based game (of many, many rhythm games out there) immune to this?
(6) "It's just a game, calm down lol"
I genuinely struggled to write an answer to this without getting a bit irritated; I’ve seen this so many times in so many places for so many wrong reasons. But what’s wrong with being passionate about a game? What’s wrong with wanting the pastime you settle into after a stressful day of work or school to be a fair playing ground? Why shouldn’t a game be taken seriously when competitive PvP games fuel multi-billion industries, have university scholarships, and round-the-clock teams and sport scientists analyzing them, and ignite the passions of people just as intensely as any “traditional” sport?
“Because that’s esports, and this is just Sekai”? Here, tell me you can’t feel the room shake when Mita APs Brand New Day live on stream.
What’s wrong with being passionate about something in the same way others, you included, are passionate about things besides Sekai – enough to be offended if someone said this exact same thing to you? What’s wrong with wanting fairness for one thing and not another?
(7) "Trust the cheat detection!"
I hate to have to say this, I really do, but automated cheat detection for EN is TERRIBLE. It might not even exist. As evidence I'd like to point towards some of the more infamous cheaters: the T2 for Mesmerized by Mermaids in EN. There are some pretty damning threads from long-time tierers that have explained the point in much more detail than I could eloquently say. Now, this exact cheater was defended by someone using the exact same argument I'm about to reply to, and it's just as fallacious now as it was then.
Allow me to explain exactly why "trust the cheat detection" doesn't fly.
- T2, as the threads I've linked demonstrate, was clearly botting, and did so for the entire week the event ran. So why didn't the supposed "cheat detection" pick this up? Why was T2 allowed to play all the way until the EVENT ENDED? Why was the event title AWARDED to T2, denying the T4 (nara) the T3 as a result?
- The appeal to authority argument particularly disgusts me because of one thing: JP has had its own issues with cheaters of a different nature: those who share accounts so that they can tier 24/7 with no downtime. The example I know of is from Unnamed Harmony: not only did they outright admit to account sharing (and insinuated that the t2 who lost was probably also cheating), they weren't banned. I use JP as an example for this reason: JP, which actually, proactively bans botters in Rank Match, still has cheaters that are left completely alone. How then, can you expect EN to have better scrutiny when even botters need a public outcry and a LOT of angry support desk mails just to get one T2 banned? (oh, and come back, and get that account banned too, and admit to committing about 7k euros worth of chargeback fraud…) No offense, but EN can't even herd its official discord channels together; how am I supposed to believe they have time for botters?
T2 Mermaids is hardly the only example there is — only the most notorious one. But if even the cases of people high enough to be in the ranking spotlight take so much effort to call out (no thanks to people spouting uneducated defenses and convincing enough people), how much more botters who just roam the wilds with all perfects that show with 0 notes hit?
Put another way: why use a tiering cheater as an example for skill-based cheating when tiering skill boils down to whoever has the stamina to slap Envy for the longest time? Answer: they use the same tools. The person running around with an EmpErroR AP in public rooms may be doing it to show off, while a tiering cheater may be doing it so they doesn’t lose sleep or struggle the same way their competitors do, but the means are (almost) always the same: a machine does the work for them. And if the game isn’t banning one of them… how can you be confident they’re banning the other?
“Well, that was months ago! They’re better now, I hope!”
The proof is in the pudding. If you’re right, then I’d be happier than anyone else.

SPOTTING CHEATERS:

Besides the whole "they get really defensive" / [insert argument above] things listed above, there are a few more tells that really go a long way towards sniffing out a cheater, and I'd like to go over some of them here (since they didn't really fit naturally into the counterarguments presented above). I'll skip over directly critiquing their results in the case that a prospective cheater reads this and takes notes on how to avoid getting caught.
Now, a little disclaimer, for fairness: most of the posts I’m aware of don’t actually involve the cheaters themselves risking getting caught on here, and so the uses for such red flags may not be easily applicable. But all the same, they go hand-in-hand with the (fallacious) defenses for cheaters, and it’s important to know what you’re looking for when someone inevitably comes here asking why they got banned (for “no reason”) assuming EN is any trustworthy when Rank Match hits.
Keep in mind: each of these ALONE does not mean someone is a cheater — it's when red flags like these, ALONG with refusing to provide videographic proof, come together, that someone becomes more and more suspicious.
(1) Unrealistic timeframes for improvement
Let's not mince words here: the highest levels of Sekai are HARD. As in, it competes with "pure" rhythm games like Arcaea, Lanota, Phigros, Cytus, Dynamix, CHUNITHM, maimai, ONGEKI… levels of hard. Sekai itself is unusually hard for a popular rhythm game (sorry Tokyo 7th Sisters, no one knows you) with funny PNGs you roll and pay for, in a market where the closest competition (and therefore most people's previous frames of reference for existing difficulty) is Bandori or Enstars. And, well, no offense… but Bandori doesn't have six Hell or Hell SPs (and it took THIS long to release the 33+ specials…) and a release schedule that promises more every three months, like we're getting with Yaminabe and Jinsei. As for Enstars? Two years to release Awakening Myth and Seishun Emergency SP (and they’re only roughly as hard as ~32lv. Sekai charts).
What this results in are cheaters who grossly underestimate the time needed to get to Sekai's highest level. You might hear things like "i was up all night / week / month getting this omg my fingers are so tired". To use an example from sekaicord / experience: most players who commit to the improvement grind tend to find that they'll improve really quickly from 26 to 30 — and then hit a major wall at Lv31, where the difficulty then spikes exponentially. The average time it takes legitimate players to go from Lv31 to 32? Six months or more. 32 to 33? You'll be lucky or just insanely good if it takes you six months.
Anyone claiming to be the exception to this pattern, put simply, needs the proof. People are willing to believe someone’s good if they can see someone play good.
(2) Not recognizing patterns when questioned
An actual story about a banned cheater from sekaicord: they claimed to have AP'd Don't Fight the Music on Master, and immediately fell through when people started asking them about patterns from other charts, including Hibana and KING. The issue? They were told that those patterns were from Don't Fight the Music. This is pretty much self-explanatory: you'd at least be expected to know the charts you're claiming to have beaten!
But besides that, people who have pulled off such feats (hell, pretty much anyone) always has a devil of their own. Everyone has That One Pattern they find, and which they hate. And if you're a devilish enough little Pattern (hello Greenlights / Bitter Choco Decoration), you'll be so absolutely evil that everyone will know you, not the other way around. Someone who picks out a pattern that is pretty obviously free to someone actually at that skill level OR doesn't have a least favorite pattern at all tends to stink from a mile away.
(3) Low-quality / vague explanations and/or misuse/lack of terminology/jargon
A common trope in TV shows, video games, and so on is a smart character (usually a scientist) who launches into a convoluted explanation with a LOT of jargon you're not supposed to understand, before a character stops them and says you're making my brain hurt. While silly, this trope has some basis in the fact that people who are good at something tend to be really passionate about it, and often won't hesitate to explain in a lot of detail exactly how they pull off what they do. The same almost always goes for rhythm game players — it's common for people who have just conquered a chart in sekaicord to follow up their FC / AP screenshot with a long-ass postmortem of the parts they hated the most, the strategy that finally got them through it, and pretty much everything in between.
As a cheater, it would be pretty difficult to emulate this. There's no adrenaline rush as you get through the part that you've been struggling on for weeks, possibly months, no sitting down staring at a chart viewer cursing the disgustingly hard part, no detailed "L-R-L-R(index)-R(middle)" big brain strategy just to pass something extremely cursed. There is nothing to explain. Most often, you will get "i was just shaking throughout it's all so hard", "uhhh i just mashed as hard as i possibly could" “go watch a video instead of bothering me” without reference to a specific pattern, and almost no way to describe their solution in terms any reasonably practiced regular would be familiar with. Did you jack this part here? Two fingers or multiple? Is there a BPM divisor that helps you get the rhythm down on this?
Let's go back to the 005saikou Arcaea example I mentioned earlier. Pretty much anyone at that level will have thoughts about their own achievements, and which parts they found hardest to conquer; look at the pinned comment (translation of the CCs) on his Testify video and see just how detailed they can get. I'm not saying everyone has to get to that level of detail, but someone with practically nothing to say about their achievements AND no video either is a serious red flag.

A brief conclusion

Why I took the time to write all of this is pretty simple: I would very much like if people were more aware of the players they're defending who don't deserve to be defended. Not only are there legitimate players out there much more deserving of your attention, but there's also a glut of illegitimate ones out there cruising along with the potential to make Ranked Match completely unplayable if we're just going to sit here and pretend it's not a problem. Perhaps you’re thinking it’s not going to be a problem for you if you only stay in Bronze / Silver / Gold / Plat. Good for you, but then that leaves Diamond and Mastery completely unplayable wastelands fit only for people who jump onto sites-that-shall-not-be-named for modded apps. Pretty much every time I talk to a JP player about EN and the prospect of ranked match, I universally hear back the words “cheating” and smell the implication that there’s no point to even touching it. There’s already so few legitimately skilled players on EN (let alone those who aren’t simply imported / previously JP players) and the last thing EN needs is to drive those players away.
Genuine question: If the playerbase is capable of raising enough of a stink to get an entire event memory-holed out of existence (I have not forgotten RMD), please tell me why it's not possible to push the devs to take action on people who will undermine the legitimacy of an entire game mode? It's easy enough to ignore if you're just running around co-op getting event points and can forget about someone who's not playing the game, but in a game mode whose basis is a fair and even competition between two players, surely there's some reason to get them to do something.
Call me jealous, salty, misguided, whatever you want, but if at the end of the day this post has you thinking a bit more critically about why people can be so suspicious of others (and why it's more legitimate than just jealousy), then writing it will have been worth something. Please, don’t throw these words by the wayside, and keep a more critical eye out for the people you meet, be it in ordinary rooms, on social media, or, well… on Ranked Match. If you could do something about RMD, you can do something about cheaters.
If you’ve gotten this far, thanks for your attention and time.

This happened over the weekend after a little to much St. Paddy’s day celebrating.
A little back story, my niece is 33 and single after a 9 year long term relationship that we all thought was heading towards wedding bells. But covid lockdowns really took its toll and showed her that he was never getting down on one knee. Since then she has been on numerous dates with what seem like great guys, my wife and I even tried to set her up with a couple of people but it never comes to much. A month max then she ditches them.
Her and my wife (36) have always been super close, sharing everything with one another. She has broke down to her on a couple of occasions, that she will die alone, never have kids etc.
So let’s get to the fuck up, last weekend we invited her and her new love interest over to celebrate St. Paddy’s Day. But she arrives alone and told us that it wasn’t working out with her new man. Same old story as before and an overly emotional niece starts throwing back drinks like there’s no tomorrow.
Fast forward a few hours, we had dinner, went to a local bar and spent the evening drinking. When the night is coming to an end, my wife and niece decided to keep the party going back at our place. They open a bottle of wine and get to the drunken girl chat, I leave them to it and head to bed. An hour or two pass and I get woken by sobbing coming from down the hall, my niece is in a full on break down and I get up to try settle things down and get them to bed.
As I walk down the hall way I hear her crying out, “it feels like nothing, I need more” between her wails. Not thinking much of what she’s saying I swing the door open to she my wife holding my sobbing niece in her arms as she continues to cry “I need to feel stretched, why can’t any of these guys satisfy me”.
I lock eyes with my wife who is giving me the get the fuck out look as my niece hasn’t noticed me yet. I reverse out the door and down the hall again, but no before hearing her final cry of “Is it to much to ask that a guy has a big cock to fill me deep and hard”.
Next morning my niece didn’t wake until the AM with the worst hangover, I can’t look her in the eye anymore and I struggled to make conversation without thinking about her very big demands in her relationship.
TL;DR
I walked in on my wife having a drunken heart to heart with my niece confirming she is a size queen and why she never sticks with a man.

Hey fellow long haulers! This is my first post but I’ve been dealing with long COVID since my first infection in October 2022. I have two autoimmune diseases (ulcerative colitis and celiac) and I was not hospitalized for the initial COVID infection (thank you vaxes and boosters) but I got very sick with pneumonia just after, requiring two rounds of antibiotics as well as inhalers.
I am diagnosed with autism and ADHD, I think this could be important to mention since nicotine is a stimulant, and there also seems to be a lot of comorbidity with ADHD and long COVID.
My main long COVID issues so far have been POTS, PEM, and insane brain fog. I was a full time web developer running my own startup on grant up until I got sick, and because of my autoimmune diseases, I was on an extremely strict exercise and nutrition regiment. I miss intense exercise so much. I tried to return to intense exercise way too early in my recovery, like many others here. I regret it so much.
I also think I should mention, although I was in very good shape / eating healthy / in remission from ulcerative colitis for the four years leading up to catching COVID, before that I was an alcoholic and extremely unhealthy. I was a full time musician and being a night worker is really hard on your body, even without all the substance abuse. I was hospitalized for a liver injury in late 2018 and since then I have been sober and I admit I used exercise to replace my addiction. It’s been incredibly difficult to stop myself from exercising, I miss that dopamine!
I’ve been trying out different supplements suggested on this subreddit with some great results so far with magnesium glutamate and L-theanine when it comes to reducing anxiety, but I hadn’t found any relief for this insane brain fog. I decided to try nicotine patches. I’m in Canada and they are free, I’m using the 7mg 24 hour delivery kind.
I know nicotine is a stimulant, and stimulants can have very negative effects on POTS. I’m so desperate to get some brain function back that I decided it was worth the risk.
Day 1: I am usually around 80BPM sitting down and anywhere from 120-160BPM when standing for more than a few minutes. With the nicotine patch my BPM was stuck around 100-125 even sitting down. However, it only took about an hour to feel my brain fog beginning to lift. It felt as though my eyes grew wider, light was brighter, I felt chatty for the first time in half a year, and I was excited to try to do some work. I did feel some nausea around mid day, but eating took that away. I could not fall asleep so I took the patch off in order to sleep, which took about two hours after removing the patch.
Day 2: I still felt all the same positive effects, and my heart rate was lower while sitting (90-110). Still some nausea, but far less. I took the patch off earlier so I could have a better chance at sleeping. I tested out walking a bit to see how my POTS was doing and nothing has changed for me in the higher range. My heart rate still easily climbs up to 140-160BPM if I’m standing too long, especially if I’m warm. This is great news because my fear was that the patch would make my heart rate spike higher, but so far it’s only changed my resting heart rate.
Day 3: My resting heart rate is even lower (85-105), I feel really clear headed with zero nausea and less nervous energy. On the first two days, my energy was stronger but this is because of adjusting to the nicotine. The first two days I was knocking stuff over and dropping stuff by accident and by day three I’m feeling much more steady handed. Took the patch off two hours before bed and slept just fine.
Day 4: The same as day 3 really! I’m hoping my resting heart rate goes lower but it’s about the same, still no new all time highs for my heart spikes so that’s great. I didn’t sleep at all this night even though I took the patch off at the same time, but I’ve suffered from insomnia my entire life and I know this event was not related to the patch.
Day 5: Without enough sleep it’s hard to say which symptoms are stemming from the patch or lack of sleep. I still feel my brain fog improving like the past days, but the nausea is back and my POTS is way worse. My resting heart rate was back above 100BPM most of the day, but I still got lots of work done.
Day 6: I slept last night and my POTS is back to day 4 levels. I feel much more calm than the first few days, but the clarity and my energy in terms of capacity to sustain activity and hold conversations remains. I am still hoping to see my resting heart rate go lower.
Day 7: I had a bad sleep last night, I get night sweats really bad sometimes since getting COVID so this is not related to the patch, but once again my resting heart rate is way higher than I want it to be (95-110). All the clarity from the first days remains, with no nausea or nervous energy.
In conclusion: Before the patch, the most I could do was 1-2 hours of work without crashing hard. With the patch I’m getting 4-5 hours. I feel social for the first time since getting sick. I feel hopeful. My resting heart rate is higher than it was before, even when I remove the patch, my heart rate is higher than it was at night. I’m noticing that in the mornings before I even put the patch on, I’m feeling much more clear headed.
To the other POTS people, this is a risky trial but I can say with certainty that my heart rates did not spike any higher than before the patch, it’s my resting heart rate that’s scary. I know the trial is meant to be for 7 days, so I’m going to take a break now to see if my symptoms overall have reduced since this trial, but I’m honestly considering keeping these patches as an extra tool for challenging / mentally demanding days. Maybe just for weekdays. I mentioned earlier that I’m diagnosed with ADHD, and since nicotine is a stimulant, it can reduce ADHD symptoms, which means it’s entirely possible that the patches are only addressing my previously existing condition. Either way I’m really glad I tried it.
The other reason I think nicotine is helping so much is because it’s an immune suppressant. Because of my ulcerative colitis, I’m very aware of how much immune suppressants can help address inflammation hell, and I really feel like long COVID is causing autoimmunity.
I also want to say thank you to everyone here, there is so much valuable information in this group! As someone who’s been dealing with autoimmune diseases for over a decade, my number one tip is to only change one variable in your treatment at a time. If you want to test out the patches, make sure all your other variables are consistent so you can observe the changes as clearly as possible.

Inquisitive Universe: Good evening guys how is everyone?
Let's quickly look at Screen burn in.
Now before we start we can talk about the things that screen burn in is not.
No it doesn't mean that your screen caught fire or that it has literally burnt. Absolutely not.
It also does not mean that your display panel has melted or that one component has burnt.
When it comes it to screen burn, I have heard a lot of funny things about it. 😂
A screen burn-in, also known as image burn-in or ghost image is a discoloration of areas over an electronic display.
As we should know, a screen is made up of pixels. These pixels are what light up to display the images on your screen.
They work by displaying something and then switching to something else and after that something else...and so on.
However, just like all silicon technology, the pixels on a display have a lifespan. With every use, they grow older. As they switch from one image or colours to another, they age.
This is one of the reasons I'm not very sold on very high refresh rates like 120Hz or 144Hz.
They cause displays to age really fast.
So if you tend to use only one particular app that shows on one area of your screen a lot, that area is going to get old faster than the others.
This means that that area of the display will then slowly lose it's ability to reset and display something else.
As a result, the last image that was shown is what would remain on the screen.
People who use their keyboards a lot would see the ghost of their keyboards on the screen. Instagrammers would see the IG logo permanently. Same goes for the Twitter folk.
In extreme cases, it may just turn black.
If you tend to leave your screen lit up for a long time and stay put on only one app (e.g Facebook), you’re definitely inviting screen burn. This is because the part of the screen displaying the F logo of facebook will age faster and the F may be burned into your screen.
Using a device at top brightness for long periods of time is not healthy for a smartphone display. Staying on a single app like Facebook, Opera mini or Snapchat just tends to compound the problem. Excessive gaming too could also be a contributing factor as well.
LCD and OLEDs tend to react differently to overuse and aging.
LCDs do not light themselves, instead the pixel is separate from the backlight so the pixels tend to last longer and are more resistant to screen burn.
In fact, if another image is purposely displayed over the burnt-in culprit, it slowly fades away and the pixels can then reset.
As a result, LCDs do not suffer from true screen burn-in. They suffer from what is otherwise known as Image persistence or Temporary image retention.
OLEDs and AMOLED on the other hand tend to succumb to screen burn more easily.
This is because the pixels on an AMOLED screen do two things i.e. display information and light up the screen.
So if a pixel ages or is damaged, there's no backlight to keep it lit up. It slowly dies and eventually turns black.
Finally how to avoid screen burn in, especially if you use an AMOLED. LCDs no too get issue but AMOLED...

1. Reduce screen brightness
2. Never use at max brightness for long periods
3. Reduce screen time out
4. Avoid staying on one page or app for too long
5. Give your phone breaks in-between use
6. Use dark mode. Dark mode is useless on LCDs but highly effective on AMOLEDs

I’m looking for a friend who’s a girl. It’s been some time since I last had friends (we can talk about this in detail) and I feel the void every day. I would really like someone genuine and likeminded to talk to. I’m from Canada, so wherever you are from, at least we will have each other online. My underground was in biomedical science and my masters is in public health, and I’m working in healthcare. I have a lot of interests and enjoy having fun! My interests include listening to music, all kinds, I love Taylor swift, twilight, LOTR, history, TV and movies (currently going through a Christian bale phase, does it ever leave?) in general! I try to stay up to date with current shows and movies. Something about me is that I’m loyal for life and I’ll always be there, and I hope to find that in a friend as well. Message me if you think it would be a good fit!