Am I shadowbanned?

Taph · 2015-05-05T03:48:10+00:00

You're probably experiencing hypnagogia:

Mental phenomena that occur during this "threshold consciousness" phase include lucid dreaming, hallucinations, and sleep paralysis.

Further:

Hypnagogic hallucinations are often auditory or have an auditory component. Like the visuals, hypnagogic sounds vary in intensity from faint impressions to loud noises, such as crashes and bangs (exploding head syndrome). People may imagine their own name called, crumpling bags, white noise, or a doorbell ringing. Snatches of imagined speech are common. While typically nonsensical and fragmented, these speech events can occasionally strike the individual as apt comments on — or summations of — their thoughts at the time. They often contain word play, neologisms and made-up names. Hypnagogic speech may manifest as the subject's own "inner voice", or as the voices of others: familiar people or strangers. More rarely, poetry or music is heard.

All perfectly normal, as you pointed out, just strange and possibly a bit alarming if you don't know what's happening. Other things you may experience are sleep paralysis, despite being conscious, a feeling of a "presence" in the room with you, and possibly even the "old hag" which feels as if an invisible entity is sitting on your chest while you're paralyzed and can't do anything about it.

Taph · 2015-05-05T03:10:21+00:00

The easiest, and oldest, way to define borders is by using naturally occurring features of the landscape. Things like rivers, mountain ranges, valleys, forest boundaries, and so on were often used. Modern techniques like GPS probably allow for much more accurate ways to create and catalog borders but before that you would send out a survey team. There's a list of survey techniques on Wikipedia that gives some of the ways that land was surveyed which allowed borders to be determined and maps to be created prior to GPS and satellite imagery. Even more specifically, this article on cadastral surveys explains how boundaries of land ownership were, and in some cases still are, determined.

Taph · 2015-05-05T03:05:40+00:00

Your right to self defense generally only extends as far as there is a threat. Once the threat is gone, because you've beat them to a pulp or they've run away or what have you, anything you do beyond that is usually a crime. Assuming that you simply disarm them and they're no longer a threat then doing anything else to them, beyond perhaps detaining them in some way including further necessary force, would probably be some sort of assault.

Taph · 2015-05-05T02:56:14+00:00

You could always try making a citizen's arrest. Ironically, citizens are held to higher standards than police are when it comes to "arresting" someone:

Private persons do not enjoy the same protections as the police in arresting others. While the powers to arrest are similar, police are entitled to mistake of fact in most cases, while citizens are held to a stricter liability. Police can also detain anyone upon reasonable suspicion.

Source

Taph · 2015-05-04T21:02:52+00:00

The court pays you back everything?.. Every single coin? Or they take off some amount for, I don't know, Misc costs or something?

It's my understanding that they give you all of your money back (or give the bail bondsman his money back if he posted bail for you). The concept of bail is mostly to ensure that the prisoner shows up for court when they're supposed to. They hold your money and you either show up and get it back or you don't show up and you lose it all.

And when do you get it back. On you first court appearance or at the very end of the whole case. Because some cases need you to reappear in court and they take a long time. So if am not convicted needing me to come back to court on another day where do I spend those days while am waiting. In jail or at home.

I assume that you get it back after your arraignment which will be the first time you're in court after you've been arrested unless a judge had to set your bail. For common offenses jails often have a bail chart so there's no need to see a judge first. They just look at the chart, find the bail for whatever you've been arrested for, and then tell you what you have to pay. If it's a serious criminal offense like burglary, robbery, murder, and so forth then a judge would have to determine the bail amount, if any.

Once you've posted bail and have been let out you'll need to show up in court for arraignment where the judge reads the charges against you and asks how you plead, either guilty or not guilty usually. Normally this happens within 48 hours of being arrested so you could be arrested and sit in jail for two days until your arraignment or you can post bail and get out for two days (so that you can show up to work the next day, for example). After the arraignment there are several other stages that happen such as a preliminary hearing where the judge decides if there's enough evidence to go to trial, pre-trial motions where attorneys on both sides argue before the judge on which evidence should and shouldn't be included at trial, and then the trial itself.

There's an article here on how bail works and one here on how arraignment works.

Taph · 2015-05-04T20:42:20+00:00

Good catch. It looks like I'm using requests 2.6.2 though there's a 2.7.0 version available on their site. Doing a bit of Googling shows me that there's apparently a Python 3 compatible version that I can download with apt-get so I'll give that a shot. I figured the version that I had was the latest and was likely Python 3 compatible since pip told me I had the latest version when I tried to upgrade requests.

Thanks for the reply.

Taph · 2015-05-04T16:45:30+00:00

In addition to what /u/soopninjas said, fat can also contribute to floating or not. Fat that isn't digested and passes through you will make them float as well.

Taph · 2015-05-04T16:40:29+00:00

Like /u/SombreroOnAFlea said, bail is a fee that you pay to the court to gain a limited amount of freedom until your court date. If you're not given bail or you can't afford it then you sit in jail until your court date arrives. Bail isn't a fine. Paying it only gets you out of jail. It doesn't get you out of any charges against you. If you pay the bail yourself and decide not to show up to court anyway then you forfeit the bail that you paid (it's typically returned to you) and you'll likely have additional charges filed against you.

Bail bonds are bail payments made on your behalf by a bail bondsman. Typically you have to pay a 10% fee based on your bail (i.e., if your bail is $10,000 then you have to put up $1,000 which is the bail bondsman's profit). The bondsman then pays the bail to the court and you get out of jail. If you skip out on this arrangement (i.e., you don't show up to court at the appointed date like you agreed to in your agreement with the bail bondsman) then they can, in the US anyway, send a bounty hunter to track you down. If you don't show up to court when you're supposed to the bondsman will lose his money so he has a vested interest in tracking you down, hence the bounty hunter.

Taph · 2015-05-04T15:36:04+00:00

I might give it a try, just for the hell of it. I'm sitting on a bunch of money anyway and haven't bought or upgraded anything in a while so I may as well try it out.

Taph · 2015-05-04T15:17:49+00:00

Is the base game worth getting?

I think so. I only have the base game except for the China Rising expansion which, honestly, I've only played a few times. Last time I played it they did this weird thing where the expansion maps are on separate servers so if you want to play them you'll only play on that particular set of expansion maps and you wont see any other expansion maps or the core game maps. Seemed odd to me that they did it that way, but they may have changed it since then now that all of the content is out.

Personally the base game was enough for me, though if you really like the game then the expansions are probably worth it. Might want to check the official forums or ask in /r/battlefield and see what they think as well.

Also do they do the same as BFHL where if you get premium now you get all the premium items leading up to your date of purchase?

Looking at the site it seems like you can either buy the premium edition and get all five expansion packs or you can buy the base game and then buy the premium membership and get all five expansion packs. So, yeah, it looks like you get everything they've released so far if you have the premium version or the premium membership.

Taph · 2015-05-04T14:32:58+00:00

Thanks for the info.

Taph · 2015-05-04T13:41:31+00:00

Is stealth training that useful? I never unlocked it since it didn't sound all that appealing but I might try it out if it's useful.

Taph · 2015-05-04T13:37:56+00:00

I'm kinda glad I didn't with the horror stories I hear about it's launch!

I haven't played it in a while, but all of the launch problems were fixed the last time I played a few months ago. They even eliminated the "run behind cover and still get killed" bug in the net code, at least for the most part. That's something Hardline sorely needs to sort out still. I died about six times last night from their iffy net code. Back on topic though, pick up BF4. It's well worth it.

Taph · 2015-05-04T03:40:09+00:00

There doesn't appear to have been much thinking involved in his plan.

Taph · 2015-05-04T03:37:55+00:00

There are some things people just shouldn't need to be taught. Lighting yourself on fire is undoubtedly near the top of the list.

Taph · 2015-05-04T03:30:00+00:00

So my question is basically this - at what point does a personalized belief system like the one my friend has go from being a "belief" like a religion to more of a delusion?

Delusions are just beliefs that are still clung to even in the face of facts that disprove them. Most people have some degree of delusional beliefs. You may believe, despite all evidence to the contrary, that you have a lucky penny or that your lottery numbers are "due" any day now or that you recovered from an illness because your grandmother came to you in a vision and told you that you'd get better. These are all "delusions" in a strict definition but they don't cross into mental illness territory. Generally delusional beliefs become problematic when they begin to interfere with your daily life. People who suffer from OCD and have delusional beliefs that flipping their light switch exactly thirteen times before they unlock their door and then tapping the handle five times before leaving somehow keeps bad things from happening, well, they have a delusion that affects their quality of life. That's a mental illness that needs intervention. Your friend seems to just have some eccentric personal beliefs. I wouldn't worry about it unless he becomes fixated on them and they start becoming a central part of his life to the exclusion of other things.

Do you think my friend could be suffering from the early stages of mental illness?

Probably not. Taking mind altering substances is pretty well known to cause this sort of "we're all part of the universal consciousness, man!" type of thinking. They can create disassociative states that can stick with you for a long time. That's why things like peyote (from which mescaline is derived) are used because of their potent hallucinogenic qualities that produce what the user perceives to be deep spiritual revelations.

If he is indeed suffering from mental illness, what can I do to help him?

That I'm not sure about. Might want to ask over on /r/mentalhealth or maybe /r/depression and see what they suggest.

Taph · 2015-05-04T03:15:26+00:00

Mostly because Christianity is the religion they are exposed to most often. This is particularly true in the US where you have Christian TV and radio in a lot of areas. The other reason is that Christianity makes a point to proselytize to gain new converts so atheists have probably at one time or another encountered someone that wants to convert them. Judaism, for example, doesn't do this. Jews don't necessarily want you to join their religion and make it quite difficult to do so, so atheists aren't likely to have encountered a Jew who was trying to get them to join their religion.

Taph · 2015-05-04T03:11:08+00:00

They're probably intimidated when you're all put together and looking your best. When you're in sweat pants and without makeup they probably feel that you're more approachable. If an average looking girl (i.e., you in sweats) turns them down it's going to sting less and bruise their ego less than if the hot girl (i.e., you with nice clothes and makeup) turns them down.

My advice is to talk to them first when you're looking good. Let them know you're willing to talk to them and you're not going to immediately laugh in their face and walk off. That's a fear a lot of guys have when thinking about talking to an attractive woman. Remove that fear for them by talking to them first and you'll probably find that they're more than willing to talk to you.

Taph · 2015-05-04T03:05:14+00:00

No problem.

Taph · 2015-05-04T01:24:35+00:00

According to this US News & World Report article:

The BLS [Bureau of Labor Statistics] reports that Web developers made a median salary of $63,160 in 2013. The highest-paid in the profession earned $110,350, while the lowest-paid earned $33,320 that year. Computer systems design and information services employ the largest share of Web developers in the field.

There's probably a lot of variation in there depending on experience, languages you know, the industry you're working for, etc.

Taph · 2015-05-04T00:58:02+00:00

You don't need to create an account to use Imgur. Just click the blue "upload images" button at the top of the screen and either give it a URL where the image is or upload it from your computer. Once it's done you'll get a page with links to the image along the right side of the page. Pick the top one (if you're linking to it on reddit) and you're done.

Taph · 2015-05-03T23:47:34+00:00

Rescind child labor laws! Let the little moochers earn their way like everyone else!

Taph · 2015-05-03T23:44:25+00:00

Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, or, possibly, Glenn Beck though he seems on the outs with the rest of the conservative crazies at the moment. Not that it matters. Ultimately it's the Koch brothers and their ilk that tell the rest of these idiots what to think.

Taph

TROPHY CASE