TLDR: Following the recent DOGE and XRP situations, and our influx of new users - I have decided to put together a quick guide on what a pump and dump is, how to spot it, how to avoid it, and what to do should you fall for one. This is just my thoughts on the issue and by no means exhaustive. I welcome comments and my biggest recommendation if you fell for one of these schemes is to accept it, address your emotions, seek support - either by those around you or here if you feel more comfortable, then commit to educating yourself.
 

Summary:

A pump and dump scheme is where a group of people pitch a coin (or stock) to other people to spike short term volume, and therefore the price, in order to profit from selling their own supply at the higher price to the newer investors.
 
How to spot a PnD:

• Promises of huge gains
  
• Forced short time frames to make a decision
  
• No discussion of risk - or questioning permitted
  
• The opportunity finds you, you don't find the opportunity
  
• Comparison to recent success stories - e.g. GME (dubious whether this will even be a success long term for individuals)
  

  Tips to avoid - see below but the main two for me are:

• Recognise emotional decision making, in yourself, and when it comes from others (people you may normally trust). You need to recognise this behaviour, and cut it out at source. To step back and breathe.
  
• Ask yourself, what are they selling me on, and why? If they find you, you are being sold. That is all there is to it.
  

 
 

What is a Pump and Dump scheme?

  A Pump and Dump scheme (PnD from here on in), is where an investor, or group of investors promote a coin they already hold (or are purchasing) in order to cause positive sentiment and the price to rise. At this point these investors will then sell their coins to the newer investors, causing the price to crash and leave the people who fell for the PnD with a large potential loss, or coins which are now worth a lot less than the price they paid for them.
These are not new and were traditionally done via phone call. If you have watched the Wolf of Wall Street, or similar films about penny stocks, you have seen this stuff in action. If you are buying, you are the retail investor who gets taken for a ride.
With the recent influx of new users to this site, and following the PnD schemes surrounding Doge and XRP, lets take a look at how to spot a PnD scheme
 

How to spot a PnD scheme?

 

• Promises of huge gains, in a short amount of time. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. In crypto (and stocks) if someone is talking to you about something, they are selling you their position. If it is positive - they likely own it, if it negative - they either want prices to fall or they hold a competitor. Ask yourself, why someone would be going out their way to tell you something is a once in a lifetime opportunity? If it was, they would be keeping it secret and accumulating themselves. These people are salesman, and you are the one buying the bullshit
  
• Linked to the above there is often a time element - 'get in quick, or you will miss it', they are relying on your impulsive decision making to jump in - they are manipulating you to over ride the logical part of your brain which makes decisions based on information and context
  
• There is no discussion of any potential risks or downsides, and you are removed from groups or harassed for asking basic questions - this is a hive mind at work, and you are being censored from raising any concern or legitimate question.
  
• There may be reference to 'how this time is different', or it plays on recent successes which are in no way comparable - e.g Game Stop - anyone who paused for a second would realise why not only was financially the short squeeze on GME completely different, but also the moral stand point was too. XRP, for example, is a centralised system which enriches the founders beyond belief. Yet these groups tried to ride the sentiment of GME to convince others to join - as a show of rebellion and alliance.
  
• Social media storms are cooked up, it seems like out of nowhere this is all anyone can talk about - when has this ever proven a successful decision? Once everyone is talking about it, you are already too late. You may not lose money, if you are lucky, but you are still the one being duped. Again this is feeding on emotion and Fear of Missing Out. There will be groups created and ran by mods who run them like cults - no talk of anything but price going up is accepted.
  
• There is a time or plan attached - e.g. Pump and Hold at 8:30. For the love of god, if this is the case, sell before then. All the leaders of these groups will have done. All of these public announcements are done again to create legitimacy and make you feel at ease - as a collective.
  
• Generally any concept of 'we are in this together', coming from a group trying to actively push up the price of something short term = PnD. You are not in this together, markets are competitive - they are survival of the fittest whether you like it or not. They want your money, when you listen to them - you are basically offering to hand it over. People invest to make money, especially when the entire premise is pushing a price up to get rich. They do not want what is good for you, they are using you and they will take your money if you allow them to. They are telling you, because you are the opportunity - not the coin.
  
• Be aware, people telling you to hold and buy more, are using you. They want you to push the price back up so they can sell. If you are in these groups - on social media, be aware you may be talking to bots, or at the least people who are trying to dump on you. When it drops, get out.
  

 
 

How to avoid PnDs in future

 

• 'Why are they telling me this?' - this is the first and main question to ask yourself. What does the person sharing the information have to gain from telling me? In this case - you invest and push the price up, allowing them to make greater profit. Understand why they would be sharing details with you - if it such a great thing, why are they sharing it?
  
• if it is a friend telling you, ask for more information - why it is doing well, what the plan is etc - if they can't explain it properly, this is a big red flag and they likely have fallen for it too.
  
• Look out for how someone talks to you about it - is it emotionally driven, does it make you excited? scared to miss out? - This is exactly when you need to step back, breathe and ask yourself if you are thinking correctly. Emotional decision making is not a good thing here, and then ask if they are intentionally trying to get an emotional reaction out of you? (see the above - FOMO, get rich quick etc)
  
• Is there any room for nuance? Are you able to discuss the potential cons or risk? If you are laughed at, or harassed, others are told to ignore you (he won't be getting rich, weak hands, pathetic seller) - this is a huge sign that you are investing in something where no other thoughts are allowed. The reason for this, once you are out the bubble - logic returns and you see the smoke and mirrors for what they are. PnD groups work like a cult, only one form of thinking is allowed, everything else is censored.
  
• Did this come out of nowhere, do I even know anything about this? If you don't know anything about it, except it makes money, don't invest in it. This is a terrible decision for two reasons. Firstly, and most obviously, you have asymmetric information - you have no idea why and what you are buying, therefore can't make an informed decision - only an emotional one. Equally, this kind of thing pushes panicked, emotional selling. When you don't know fundamental reasons why you invest in something, when the price dips you will sell. Why? because when your brain asks you the question 'shit it is dropping, what do we do?!' - your logical brain won't have an answer, because you never gave it the information to form one. This second part is more relevant to regular investments, not PnDs of course, but is worth bearing in mind before you invest in anything.
  
• Was the coin relatively stagnant, or has it dipped recently? PnDs typically target coins which haven't moved much recently, or have lower trading volume, this allows for a much easier spiking of the price due to a small change in demand equalling a big change in price. If you look at the charts and it was doing nothing until this big flurry of activity - you are being taken for a ride.
  
• Look for the news, if it is pumping, don't listen to people inside the group - search for reasons why something is pumping. If you can't find anything of value, there probably isn't anything, and you are gambling on emotional decisions.
  
• The opportunity finds you, you don't find the opportunity. Getting rich off 'undervalued' coins, or finding a hidden gem is not easy. They are hidden for a reason. If someone is coming to you with this, remember they are selling. You are buying.
  
• If someone does approach you, talk to someone else outside of the bubble - find another group e.g. CC, or other investors - talk to them, get outside perspective before investing.
  
• look for examples of populist sentiment. Do you hear things about an other? - e.g. haters, those missing out who are jealous. Are you made to feel like you are part of a special group? The ones with insider information? This is a lie, it is very very common manipulation within populist movements, cults etc - to create a narrative of an other to entrench tribalism within the group. This is done to make you switch your brain off, to rule on emotion.
  
• is there a recent comparable story that was successful? e.g. GME (yes this isn't the same at all in reality, but the story being sold is - or at least plays on the hype of GME). If there is, you are being played. The real opportunity, just like the hidden gem, is the first one. When people tell you this is happening again, they are simply using the positive news from one case and applying it to their own - often because it lacks any actual, real, tangible reason for succeeding or being a good investment.
  

 
 

I fell for a PnD, what next?

 
Have you sold yet - No? Are you in profit? Sell. Whilst you still can. Greed will tell you not to, and perhaps you can eek out a little more money. But you are gambling, and gambling extremely high risk against people trying to take all your money.
 
Yes, you have sold. Did you make a profit? Yes - great. You are still a an idiot, just a lucky one. Tell yourself that. There is a difference between opportunist traders taking advantage of PnDs and someone getting lucky and getting out before it collapses. Do not confuse the two. The first group know what they are doing (and they may still lose, but they are aware of the real risk). You are fucking lucky. Don't do it again. So count your blessings, go through the same process of learning about PnDs and begin to understand why you fell for it, how to avoid it in future and realise you are up - you won. Don't go back in, you are asking to lose.
 
Yes you have sold? Did you make profit? No? Ok, this is normal - 90% + of people doing this will end up in the same situation.
 

• Recognise and accept your mistake. Do not feel ashamed of it, it is ok. You were played, it happens to all of us in our lives at some point.
  
• Step away from whatever device you used to invest. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO WIN IT BACK RIGHT AWAY. You will most likely make things worse, investing again on emotions - even worse emotions now, shame, anger, disbelief.
  
• Talk to the important people in your life if you feel comfortable, if not, come here or to other anonymous groups for support. It is important to share what happened, to vent emotionally whatever it is you feel.
  
• Realise it is only money, even if gambled way more than you should have done, long term you will get out of this. Focus on other areas of your life for the time being - emotional investment, fulfilment and development - seek out things which may centre to your emotions again, whatever that may be - getting out in nature, cooking, reading, adrenaline sports - whatever the shit you need, do it.
  
• Consider who, if anyone needs to know. Did you borrow from you and your wife's joint account? Accept a loan from a mate? These people need to know the truth. Do not hide it and hope to win it back. Tell the truth. They deserve it.
  
• Do not repeat the same actions, if you want to win long term from this - you need a different approach. Step away from the high stakes casino and figure out long term strategies to make money.
  
• Learn to diversify and manage risk. You are taking a huge gamble going all in on something - even if it isn't a scam, you need to protect yourself through diversifying your investments. Get rich quick schemes are the fastest way to lose money.
  
• Educate yourself on these behaviours - I would recommend 'Thinking Fast and Slow' by Daniel Kahnemann as a personal favourite. This book helps to look at and address the biases that make up our emotional decision making, and learn how to recognise these and instead 'think slow'. You won't regret reading it.
  

Yes, this is a casino. Yes, the glories of WSB have been built on the charred corpses of untold retards who diamond-handed weeklies until the bitter end, and the few who climbed atop the fray to reach Valhalla. But there's an inconvenient reality that calls into question the mythology of WSB, which is that many of our most storied figures are, beyond the memes and rocket emojis, investors, rather than gamblers or their slightly more couth bretheren, traders.
If there's one thing that I hope the flock of newly-minted degenerates realizes, however recent events have shaken out, it's that there are multiple paths here and multiple ways to get rich and go broke or some horrific combination thereof. After GME or (insert stock here) comes and goes, there will be other plays that speak to your fancy. But the more you know about yourself and how you'd like to play this very elaborate game, the less likely you are to get fucked by it.
Hopping onto meme stocks is just one path. It's the most accessible and I'm all for it. Entire currencies have been created based solely on meme power. But the essential thing to know is that history does not repeat itself. There will never be another TSLA or another GME. When you invest in a meme, you aren't investing in something bound by history, or reason. Many of the stocks that become memes actually begin, like GME, as solid value propositions. By the time they become memes, though, you've already missed the "value" phase and you're basically banking on something that's hard to pin down.
It's a slippery basis for an investment, but it's made a lot of people rich. Maybe it will make you rich. This is one path that you can choose, but here's the thing, you actually have to be committed to it. Hopscotching from one meme to another won't get you to tendie town. That's trading, not investing, and trading doesn't work out well for most people.
The unique thing about GME - and many will disagree - is that it's a meme based on a trade rather than an investment. If you're an investor, a short squeeze is meaningless. Ryan Cohen can't sell at the peak. I think it's all gotten fantastically muddled. People have piled onto this play which is essentially a trade, but they aren't approaching it like traders. Again, trading is hard. If you're like me, then you suck at it and have had to swear it off after blowing up your portfolio twice on stupid options plays. Traders - the ones far more sophisticated than you and me - have actually been making a killing on GME.
I'd argue that the GME team does consist of investors, but they're investing in the wrong thing. At the end of the day, you can only invest in a company, and not a community of investors. Investing will never become a "movement" because movements are about values, while the market is about money. In this game, money always wins. You can attach a face to it - Melvin Capital, Citadel, whatever - but it is inherently faceless.
DFV didn't initially invest in a meme, or a movement - he invested in a (deep fucking) value proposition informed by his analysis of where Gamestop stood as a company and where it was heading. And then, as we all know, he held. And that's exactly what he has in common with WSB's other luminaries.
If you can see what the market doesn't yet see, put a chunk on the line that you can afford to lose, and wait (that's the important part) then you might have some juicy gain porn of your own to post in a year or two. You need conviction, though, or you'll just spend all your time looking at the tickers that made it big that day and move on to the next, sexier play. The only way to have conviction is to learn enough that you can actually internalize the DD that you come across and make it your own. And usually the only way to learn is to fail. Maybe that's the part of the road you're on right now, but it's a good start.
Edited for TL;DR - Know the difference between trading and investing, and try to do more of the latter.

At a discord room I visit, people often state while Brosnan's movies obviously were box office successes in Britain esp GoldenEye, he isn't as in-grained with Bond as he is in the rest of the world. That in the UK no single actor is ubiquitous with the role.
It does make me wonder because even outside the core Bond community, I notice with Brits I met online and irl including not just casual fans but even people who don't remotely care about 007 or even just spy movies period................... Much of them are aware that not only has there been 007 actors before Brosnan but they seem to know the names of several generations of the character. Enugh that its quite common to hear from random Brits including non-fans state "Oh Connery is the best!" and "I miss the Roger Moore days", etc. Even Milleneals UK people I know who grew up with Brosnan at least are aware of Connery and Moore (including those who never seen the pre-90s movies and openly state either Brosnan or Craig is their fav if only because they are the only ones they are exposed to).
As an American who was born in the 90s I will state before Craig's run Brosnan was not only the BOND for the American mainstream but he's the only one that most Americans even know about (even with the Craig era replacing him). So much that even people who don't know Pierce is the name of the 90s Bond actor like elder men who grew up in the Great Depression and preppy school girls I had as classmates who don't care about action flicks immediately picture Brosnan's image (ot at least his general basic features like dark hair and blue eyes) with Bond. Hell despite Craig being Bond for a whole generation, I met plenty of people born in the 2000s who associate Bond looking like Pierce Brosnan than Craig! Pretty much what I wrote above also applies to Canadian fans from my experience visiting the country to meet relatives and chatting online in gaming message boards and on Steam.
In addition despite the popular belief that Dalton's movies were flopped, they actually made profits worldwide. A hardcore fan told me its a misconception that was created by the fact Dalton's run underperformed in America but not only did it make cash world wide but they actually made around equal gross profits to Roger Moore's last 3 007 movies before he stepped down. That Dalton's movies was certainly popular in the UK during their original run.
I will also point out talking with non-English folks such as people from El Salvador, France, UAE, Japan, and elsewhere across the world online, they seem to only associate Bond with Brosnan and Craig and are ignorant of earlier iterations (excepting obviously older people who remembered when Connery and others were front page news in local non-English newspapers and magazines of their countries).
So i am very curious if Brosnan is not as popular in Britain as he is elsewhere throughout the world where people still associate Bond with his image including those who don't know his name is Pierce Brosnan and young people who grew up with Craig? I will also add I notice Pierce Brosnan even in the UK is so ubiquitous among video gamers too!
What exactly made Brosnan so ubiquitous with Bond outside the UK esp North America? In addition what exactly makes Brosnan so associated with video games and so known among hardcore gamers who don't watch movies and TV? Why does it seem Dalton isn't looked down upon in the UK and had some following in his native country while TLD and LTK are seen as corny failed attempts to successfully do what Casino Royale managed to execute decades among audiences outside of Britain esp North America (and Dalton so forgotten internationally so many people don't know a more realistic brutal Bond was already attempted before Casino Royale)?

Hello fellow autists,
Just a pre-cursor, this is my first post of any kind on WSB. I would occasionally peruse the forum but was obviously drawn here from the GME craze and love every part of it.
Score Media and Gaming, listed on the TSX as SCR and in the US as TSCRF.
These guys have nothing but positive news coming in the next 12 months and has the ability to at least double in the next half year, if not sooner. These guys are foraying into the sports betting market and are the only players that have a fully intuitive and integrated sports scores/stats application on the market.
So what are the positives/catalysts for Score Media:
- Expansion with the help/investment of Penn Gaming to expand sportsbook in the US. Keep in mind, Penn is the same company that invested in Barstool. The Score is already approved in New Jersey, Indiana and Colorado, with Iowa right around the corner, and Michigan up next.
- Sports betting in Canada is a 14 Billion dollar market. Single wagering is currently illegal, however, there is unity across the aisle between all political parties to amend the criminal code and make single wagering legal. There are currently two bills in play. C-13 and C-218. C-13 second reading is currently delayed, while C-218 is scheduled for the House of Commons on February 24th. Like most countries, they have currently spent a ton of money propping up their respective economies due to COVID-19. It is highly unlikely the Canadian government rejects this massive taxable revenue stream when it needs it the most
- Leader in sports applications for time spent on the app on a monthly basis, beating out heavy hitters like TSN, ESPN, Bleacher Report....literally every other sports media application
- Only major player with an already existing sports news/fantasy application with seamless sportsbook integration. No hopping back and forth, you can wager through the sports app as if you were on the sportsbook
- They are the biggest E-sports media player with over 1 million subscribers on YouTube and that lead is growing
- They are pushing to get listed on the NYSE in the very near future to further growth and investment opportunities.
The only real hinderance that could potentially stop the run of this company is if the Canadian government fails to amend the current laws for single game wagering, which in the current economical climate, I find extremely unlikely. ESPECIALLY with support from all political parties including the Conservatives, New Democratic Party, Bloc Quebecois and most Liberal MP's.
Even in the event that this for some reason failed to pass, it still has access to an enormous US market with the backing of Penn.
I love this stock boys and girls!
​
EDIT 1: Currently with 2500 shares. Started at 1.71 and have been steadily buying dips, now at 1.91 cost average
Sources and Links:
Bill C-218 and Canadian Market: https://financialpost.com/telecom/everything-has-changed-canadian-companies-looking-to-cash-in-as-sports-betting-legalization-spreads
https://www.radionl.com/2021/02/04/bclc-advocating-for-ottawa-to-legalize-single-event-sport-betting/
ScoreBet integration: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201112005877/en/Introducing-BET-SECTION-A-New-Dedicated-Home-for-Betting-on-theScore-App
Penn investment and US plans: https://www.thestar.com/business/2021/01/16/the-faceoff-score-media-vs-draftkings-the-well-known-canadian-online-gaming-site-is-bracing-for-competition-from-its-larger-us-peer-but-its-high-brand-recognition-across-canada-gives-it-home-ice.html
Canadian position compared to rivals and US listing plans: https://www.casino.org/news/thescore-ceo-says-company-in-pole-position-for-canadian-sports-betting/
​

There's a disconnection between understanding of what "value" is, or how to decide what is "investment" and what is "speculation". It's not binary, it's a spectrum. It's not universal, it's relative. It's relative to YOU, specifically YOU. It's not constant, it's relative to price and other opportunity. Lastly, it's not guaranteed. Ever. The future is unknown. You or I might not even be here for it.
Every person reading this knows some things I don't know, and every person doesn't know some things I do. Unless you are a literate dog, we probably share some qualities. In fact, even if you are a dog, literate or otherwise, we share some qualities and no small amount of identical language in our DNA. Dogs love steaks, and fresh air. Both things I like quite a bit too. But I enjoy looking for undervalued stocks, and dogs seem more interested in fetching tennis balls. We're both animals, but we're not the same animal.
To go back to GME and the toad's wild ride one more time this week, I can promise you I looked at some of the same numbers that DeepFuckingValue looked at 2 years ago. Lots of people did. I looked at gamestop in 2019, a few times in fact. I passed. DeepFuckingValue didn't. We were both right.
DeepFuckingValue looked at the company a year or two years back, and evaluated the numbers and the situation, and understood that a lot of short sellers were counting on this company to fold in the very near future. He probably also noticed that more and more short sellers seemed to be jumping on this bandwagon. He knew the situation wasn't nearly that dire. In fact it was likely to be "game on" for Gamestop, for quite a while to come. I got puns all night, so buckle up. Then he looked at the share price, understood the proposition and probability that this was a potentially very asymmetric opportunity (low probability, enormous return, mispriced very cheaply in relation to the potential return). I looked at the same things, but he got from the situation contextual understanding I didn't get. Namely the magnitude to which shorts can backfire and how to estimate it.
I also recognized, back in 2019, Gamestop was probably not in as dire straights as predicted. I wasn't alone, or special in this. Lots of people, including some famous people, recognized it. Michael Burry. Ryan Cohen. That one guy from the internet. I knew about the gaming console cycle too. I looked over the balance sheet. I got that piece of the puzzle, lots of us did. What I didn't understand very well at all was how short selling squeezes worked in practice, or just as importantly how to value the proposition. I still don't understand that with any genuine confidence, but I do get it more now than I did. Doesn't matter. I didn't get it, it was too confusing for me. So I passed. I said No.
People who "get it" get this concept. Two people can do opposite things for different reasons, and both be right. It's relative to you, your understanding, your tolerance for what talking heads often confuse with risk. Your tolerance for volatility. He understood the proposition, evaluated what he was PAYING for what he was GETTING (in this case not just the companies liquidation value backstop, but the potential possibilities of the price appreciation he could be getting - this eventual squeeze), knew himself well enough to decide if he could stomach the roller coaster, and chose to get on the ride.
I'm genuinely happy for this guy, and everybody else on these message boards in that rocket or just popcorning along in the theatre. I'm also happy for myself, because even though I didn't have any money stake in GME I understand more about how short selling and squeezes work than I did just a week ago. I got a free option on education.
The ups and downs are not risk. Volatility is not risk. Here's where we get vague, because this GME story isn't over. It's only gotten started. This has implications for the broader market. Follow me into the fog of tomorrow, will you?
Even the smartest, brightest people taking this bet 1 or 2 years ago had to contend with a lot of fog. It's not gone. Certainly the picture is MORE clear now than it was last year, but things are still REALLY FOGGY. More foggy for some of us than others. What we're witnessing now is why you cannot apply mathematics to complex systems (especially systems involving people) and expect everything to go as modeled. We don't have all the rules. This isn't chess, it's life. People cheat, bend the rules, propagandize, lobby, sue, counter-sue, weaponize fear and do everything in their capacity to get an advantage, up to and including breaking the law. Life isn't chess, it's poker. But it's way more complicated than a game of hold em. It's poker with 10,000 players at your table and a deck of 2.6 million cards, and a roof that might cave in once in a while and kill some of the people at the table, and one of the waiters serving drinks, and maybe the general mood in the room. Also someone who loses might pull out a gun and shoot the dealer. We cannot know all the things that might happen. But if you're in the casino we call earth, some of these events could affect you. I'm long on humans going to Mars, or Europa, or The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. God rest your soul, Douglas Adams.
This is why the proposition that the early birds took, people like DeepFuckingValue, is nothing whatsoever the same as the proposition that exists right now. Even if you and I have the same understanding of the proposition he took 2 years ago, and understand why it makes sense, it's not the same proposition that exists now. He bought in at I don't know what, $2 or $5/share. Some long dated options that cost a few pennies. People buying in now are paying $100, $200, $400/share. Refusing to pay too much is your biggest defense against being stupid. Don't be stupid.
If you're a fan of that Stranger Things show, you probably recognize that theme. "Don't be stupid." "We're not stupid." In that case, we have something else in common. I love that show. There's a beautiful scene in that show where the adopted dad Hopper is trying to explain to this orphaned, frustrated teenager Eleven why she can't go outside. It's not safe. The risk is too high. Dangerous people are after you, and they aren't playing by the rules. Hopper and Eleven are arguing and bickering about this, and neither can see the other person's side. They are both right, for different reasons.
This is a fictional show, and she is an extraordinarily powerful telekinetic. She can move stuff with her mind. Violently. The government scientists who raised her and trained this ability are after her. Hopper doesn't understand this yet. She can rip people in half with a willful thought. She's not in danger.
Except she is. There are things she doesn't get. Weaknesses she hasn't accounted for. She's got this great little group of friends, and they aren't superheroes. They've got families. Real people she cares about, who are regular people and definitely can be hurt. This is what Hopper is trying to get across. He's got experience, he's lost people. He knows. She thinks he's just an old grumpy boomer and he thinks she's just an emotional child. But they're talking past each other, and as teenagers are wont to do, rash decisions are made and things get out of hand. People die.
This has so many parallels with what's going on in Gamestop (and the markets broadly) recently. People, "the bad guys", are not playing by the rules. Other people, "the good guys", did not account for this ratfuckery. Now there's a tug of war. In the media, the courts, the SEC, congress, even in the public square of reddit and twitter. The proposition that was when DeepFuckingValue and company investigated it 2 years ago is not the proposition that is today. Even if it was the same situation, he and I came to different conclusions for different reasons because he understood it and I did not.
If you want to be an investor, you've got to learn to say NO, and not because "the other guy is wrong". You say NO because you don't understand how to value what is being offered confidently, or you do understand it and you see risks in the proposition that make the price unattractive or this particular proposition untenable for your temperament. Just like anything else in life, be it dating, job offers, or nigerian prince's who just need a little help with an inheritance scheme, successful people learn to say No to almost everything. The most successful people learn to say No so gracefully the rejected party leaves feeling good about getting rejected.
Investing is saying No to offers you don't understand and requiring a bargain price. Speculation is everything else. At /ValueInvesting, We're not stupid.
Corrected: The girls name is Eleven, not Seven. Fixed, Thanks jelledm

It's not a debate about whether to plan things. It never has been. Things are already planned and that's how conservatives like it. The question is how things should be planned and by whom. In capitalism, production is planned by the rich, who have no goal in mind but their own profit. To frame the debate as though it were about capitalism versus central planning, like attempts at characterizing capitalism as an 'emergent order,' has only ever been propaganda for the rich.
Why can't things be run differently? In 1920, an economist tried to devise an answer when he wrote about the economic calculation problem (ECP). To make economic decisions requires we have a common value to compare things by. How else do we know what to produce? A shipment of steel could be used to make cars. It could also make pipes, or microwaves, or any other number of things. How do we decide? There isn't a simple, objective answer you could produce in a lab test. It's a matter of finding the right proportion of what everybody wants. So the critical question is, what do people want? How do we determine that? The argument people are making when they invoke the ECP is a socialist economy couldn't determine this, and will thus always mismanage resources. (This is the origin of the 'commie no food' meme.)
The capitalist price system does provide some information about demand, as prices do reflect how real people are spending their money and thus implies an expression of preference. But how much information this actually produces is exaggerated, along with just how meaningful that information is, while its various problems and shortcomings are swept under the rug. Ludwig von Mises, the economist who first described the ECP, meanwhile does nothing to make the case for why no other method to gauge demand is feasible. He asserts the price system itself couldn't be replicated in socialism, but only because his grasp of socialism was basically if one big company bought the whole economy and prices were arbitrarily set by bureaucrats sitting in a room somewhere. The only point he made in the end is planning requires information, which is mundane.
There's numerous ways to gauge demand. The one I'm most interested is just plainly asking, which I have no problem calling the survey method. Take a random sample of the population every so often, have them rank things by importance. That's it. It would create the same type of information as the price system currently does, if not better. What interests me about this method is its simplicity. It could of course be built upon and expanded over time, and other methods could be incorporated in addition to it, but a general belief of mine is that movements require simple ideas as their foundation, and on this subject I can think of nothing more straightforward and easy to understand than 'to determine what people want, ask them.' It's the ideal starting point.
A big objection I always hear to this idea is people wouldn't answer realistically. People would say they want caviar and lobster every meal, or something like that. But obviously we could present choices and trade-offs in such a way that reflects how difficult things are to provide. It's not a choice between bread and lobster, it's a choice between lots of bread and some lobster, because lobster takes more labour and resources to obtain. The suggestion we couldn't figure out something so basic helps to betray how much of the 'skepticism' about socialism is just dull status-quo bias. The argument is practically 'an idea must be bad if I can imagine it being implemented poorly.'
The other big objection is people don't know what they want. After all, how they reply to a survey doesn't always align with how people really behave. And I suppose that's true, but I also don't accept that it's a disadvantage. In fact, I assert the opposite. This objection touches on a big reason why socialist planning would be so advantageous.
There are those who think what people say they want can be discarded. It's what people do, in practice, that matters. To put that differently, it's not people's stated preference that we should care about, but only their revealed preference. That's what reflects our true desires. To put it mildly, this couldn't be more wrong.
If asked clearly and given time to think and produce a deliberate answer, what people say they want is a much better way to determine their values than observing what they do when put in a system designed to influence their behaviour otherwise. The simplest example: a person can be on a diet and want to lose weight, but if we leave a box of doughnuts in the break room every day their behaviour might not reflect that.
And the capitalist economy is one big 'break room with a box of doughnuts.' It's an environment we have no control of, built to modify our behaviour in whatever way is most profitable for the rich. There's obviously a significant disconnect between what people truly want from life and how they end up behaving in capitalism, and to suggest that's not a problem because however they behave is their 'true selves' is an astoundingly stupid oversimplification of human behaviour. It's logically akin to arguing drug addiction isn't a problem because the addict chooses to keep doing drugs, which proves that must be what they want.
Most people fall into traps they'd vote against if they could. Like how supermarkets put all those impulse-buy candies and chocolates near the checkout till, or put common staples like rick, milk, or eggs at the very back of the store to ensure you have to walk through all the aisle to get to them. CostCo, the second largest retailer in the world, regularly moves all their inventory around for no fucking reason beyond ensuring people don't know where anything is and they have to wander around the store looking for stuff, because that way they're forced to walk by and look at more products, and on average end up buying more. Can you imagine if we had an economy that was designed to be efficient, instead of there being whole industries dedicated to this kind of manipulative bullshit?
And capitalists love peddling addiction. Tobacco isn't as cool as it used to be in the West, but it's still a huge problem in some countries, and nicotine products are making a comeback. Meanwhile, alcohol is still going strong. Where I live, they've been putting beer and wine in supermarkets now, predictably always near checkout. And let's not forget sugar and caffeine are highly addictive, and many products have both, including products marketed to children. Did you know in the USA, obesity has doubled over the last two decades?
Gambling can be addictive. That includes not only predatory bullshit like casinos and lotteries (which should all be burned to the ground), but an increasingly large part of the video game industry, as developers incorporate more and more gambling elements into popular titles to better manipulate people into spending money they'll regret.
Pornography is addictive. Food in general can be an addiction. Arguably shopping, consumption, the thrill of going out and spending money and getting to open new things, can itself be an addiction.
This could veer off into a debate about when exactly a behaviour becomes an addiction, but the exact application of that terminology is far from the point. No, the point is how in the moment of consumption, people aren't as rational and in-control-of-things as it's convenient to portray them. So much of our consumption is impulsive, irrational, and manipulated for the benefit of producers. A system where normal people were able to exert actual control over production would naturally be much, much better at determining what things people truly value than what we have.
And as far as I could tell that was the best critique of the survey idea they could muster.

I know what you're already thinking. Playboy is a dead porn brand that publishes a magazine and doesn't appeal to millennials or gen z right?
Wrong.
Leadership
Let's start with Ben Kohn, the CEO. Kohn has worked in private equity for 25 years and started a firm called Rizvi Travers which invested in pre IPO tech companies. They were the largest investor when Twitter went public and invested in Facebook, Snapchat, Square, SpaceX, Instacart, and Uber.
In 2011, Kohn partnered with Hugh Hefner and took Playboy private. Kohn became the CEO in 2017 with the goal of revitalizing one of the largest, most recognizable brands in the world. Since becoming CEO, Kohn has been shutting down most of the legacy business and most recently discontinued producing a domestic magazine. He's focused most of his attention so far on growing the high margin licensing business and direct to consumer business, transforming Playboy into a consumer lifestyle brand focusing on 4 categories:

• Sexual Wellness
• Style & Apparel
• Gaming & Lifestyle
• Beauty & Grooming

Kohn is also placing a strong emphasis on appealing to women and young people, something that Playboy had never done in the past. Over the last 3 years, the female audience has grown by 70% and 90% of their audience today is under the age of 40. Out of the total e-commerce sales, 40% of customers are women.
Financials
Playboy is already a profitable business. They have a highly efficient, high margin business model that accelerates with growth.
For the first 9 months of 2020, Playboy grew revenue by 78% from 57 million to 101 million and grew adjusted ebitda 129% from 9.5 million to 22 million. For 2021, they reaffirmed guidance of 167 million of revenue and 40 million dollars of ebitda. By 2025, Playboy is conservatively projecting 296 million of revenue and 140 million in ebitda, but expects it to be much greater. It's also important to note that they have over 400 million of forward booked minimum guaranteed cash flow, but they only recognize 67 million of that today, so the actual revenue numbers are much higher.
Playboy's business is monetized in two primary ways, licensing and direct to consumer. Licensing is a key part of the revenue stream and they anticipate it more than doubling moving forward. However, Playboy is extremely excited about its growing direct to consumer business as well which I will dive into in the next section.
Growth
Playboy has huge growth opportunities in each of their 4 product categories. First I want to point out that Playboy is HUGE in China and it's growing rapidly in India. In China, Playboy is one of the leading men's apparel brands with over 2500 brick and mortar stores and over 1000 e-commerce stores. Playboy sells products in over 180 countries and is the 17th most licensed brand in the world.
Style & Apparel:
Over the last 3 years, Playboy has partnered with Pacsun, Misguided, Supreme, and others. The Pacsun and Misguided businesses have increased almost 15x over the last 3 years. Playboy also launched Playboy Labs and partnered with Steve Aoki to promote the brand. Playboy intends on transitioning this business from a pure licensing business to a direct to consumer business going forward. They have future collaborations with Yandy planned as well.
Sexual Wellness:
The sexual wellness category is a 240 billion dollar industry today and is projected to grow to 400 billion by 2024. Currently, the industry is fragmented and made up of small businesses with no ability to scale. Playboy is poised to become the leader in this category through strategic acquisitions of existing companies and by growing its product offerings. Yes, I'm talking about lingerie, condoms, sex toys etc. They recently acquired the sexual wellness retailer Lovers for 25 million and expect them to add 45 million in revenue over the next 12 months. They are planning on making more strategic acquisitions in this space moving forward to become the leading direct to consumer brand in this field. They also began offering online sexual wellness classes for women, which have seen large growth since inception.
Gaming & Lifestyle:
The growth opportunities in this category are huge. Playboy is diversifying into online gambling, mobile gaming, CBD/Marijuana, and virtual reality. They have a social club/poker room opening in Houston this year in addition to their casino in London. They currently have partnerships with Microgaming as well as Scientific Games for mobile gambling apps like slots and poker, with plans to build more. They are also planning on entering the sports gambling market through partnerships with well known sports betting operators.
Moreover, they recently launched an exclusive furniture collection on Wayfair and plan on offering more in the future. They currently offer 3 CBD products and have plans to enter the legal marijuana market when it's legalized at the federal level, which might happen soon under the Biden administration. As of now they sell Playboy branded smoking materials like ash trays and grinders. They are planning on launching 4 more CBD products in 2021. Lastly, Ben Kohn said that experiencing Playboy through a virtual world format is something that is "extremely interesting to us". He gave an example of the Travis Scott and Unreal Platform collaboration.
Beauty and Grooming:
Currently, Playboy offers men's and women's fragrances and color cosmetics in Europe. They have plans to expand their product line and enter the North American market this year. In China, a place where Playboy has a large market presence, Men's grooming is one of the fastest growing categories and an area that Playboy is not in today. They are planning on entering this market in the near future with Playboy branded skincare and grooming products.
SPAC Merger
Playboy has a DA with Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp, $MCAC, with the shareholder vote taking place THIS TUESDAY 2/9/21. Once it's approved, the ticker will change to PLBY shortly after. One of the great things about this deal is that there are absolutely no warrants outstanding, meaning there will be very little dilution. They only have 1/10th of a right per share outstanding which automatically convert to common stock. Upon completion of the merger, PLBY will have only 37 million shares outstanding, which is a very low float. Any increase in volume and demand will send the stock price higher.
After the merger, PLBY will have a market cap of approximately 413 million. For comparison to other global brands, Nike's market cap is 185 billion, Disney's is 329 billion, and Lululemon's is 45 billion. Now I'm not saying Playboy is near those companies today. However, if they continue growing and realize their potential, they're massively undervalued.
Additionally, the management team all signed 12-month lock ups, preventing them from selling for at least one year. This is not a transaction sale, but a true capital raise to accelerate growth. They are in this for the long haul.
Conclusion
Playboy has big growth opportunities in multiple product categories to become a leading consumer lifestyle brand. They have a high margin profitable business model and a very healthy balance sheet. They have 100 million in free cash right now and only 40 million in net debt, or one times 2021 adjusted ebitda. They already have global brand awareness and the bunny logo alone has tremendous value. Ceo Ben Kohn knows what he's doing and has a proven track record of success.
It might be flying under the radar right now because all the hype is surrounding GME and EV socks. I believe when the ticker changes to PLBY and people realize that Playboy is no longer what it used to be, this has huge long term upside.
FYI: All of the statistics I mentioned are directly taken from the CEO Ben Kohn in his 1 hour webinar interview with SpacInsider.
Disclosure: Long 500 commons $MCAC
Disclaimer: Do your own due diligence too

How Should the Factions of Fallout 4 have been Fleshed Out?
In a lot of criticisms of Fallout 4 it is mentioned that many of the factions don’t feel nearly as fleshed out as the main factions of Fallout New Vegas.
This I feel is a fair criticism which I feel can be traced back to the voiced protagonist(One of the most costly and time consuming parts of development) taking away lines of dialogue that could have been used to voice other characters or been used to create more quests. I believe unless I’m mistaken that Fallout 4 has more lines of voiced dialogue then any other RPG at the time.
The other problem I feel is that the Bethesda unlike Obsidian didn’t feel it was important to address the history of many of the main factions that we see in game compared to groups such as Caesar’s Legion or the city of New Vegas. For example we don’t know how the Railroad was founded, we only get a single line during loading screens explaining when/how the Minutemen were founded, the Supermutants have two voiced characters in the entire game and we have no idea what motivates them. We also see only one returning character from Fallout 3 among the Brotherhood and have little to no idea what happened to settlements in Fallout 3. Imagine if we could talk to characters like Star Paladin Cross or members of Lyons Pride.
So without contradicting any of the lore established in Fallout 4 or changing any of the events that occured in game how would you have expanded on the lore/added more quests to Fallout 4 for the four major factions.
I would love to hear what everyones ideas would be. Four of mine would be as follows.
-For the Minutemen allow the Raiders of Libertalia to be talked too and for them to recruited back into the fold of the Minutemen. A redemption quest or an elimination quest for the Minutemen would be fun, especially if it intersected with the leader of the Libertalia Raiders being replaced with a rouge Synth. Instead of storming Libertalia for the Institute the quest would allow Libertalia to be infiltrated and for the leader to be reclaimed without the rest of the Raiders noticing. Maybe even restore the former Raider leader or one of his subordinents that used to be a Minuteman.
-For the Railroad I would have found it more interesting if they had used much more compartmentalization in the structure of their organization. Instead of the Freedom Trail leading directly to the Railroads leadership, it instead leads to a cell tasked with recruitment. From there you can slowly move up the ranks of the organization by doing quests. Perhaps the upper leadership will contact you through an intermediary after killing Kellogg such as Deacon, who will allow the Railroad questline to begin as normal.
-For the Brotherhood of Steel I’d have loved it if we can talk to soldiers throughout the organization who have been recruited from various settlements from around the Capitol Wasteland. From them we could hear about all the locations we visited in the last Bethesda game. We could hear from veterans of the Brotherhood Outcasts and maybe even meet Protector Henry Casdin, we could meet recruits from Oasis, Canterbury Commons and Megatons. From them we can figure out how the Brotherhood treats wastelanders under their rule and what the extent of their authority is.
-Finally for the Institute I’d have loved if there was at least one historian among the Synth Retention Bureau. Him and others like him could be a descendent of CIT’s humanities department. I included him in the Synth Retention Bureau due to feeling that branch of the Institute would have the most interest in the history and politics of the Commonwealth. This historians will then send you on archaeology digs and other research assignments in order to discover the history of the Commonwealth. This would function similarly to learning the history of the Sierra Madre Casino. It would also be fun if for the Institute you could undertake kidnapping and assassination missions, just like Kellogg.
These are just some ideas, I’d love to hear what anyone else have to say. Apologies if this is the wrong Subreddit for a post like this.

Overview

Well, I'm sure everyone has seen the news. The end of MassForTheDead is upon us. I started in early November. After doing all the story quests and some other things I ended up with only 3 5-star people, and sort of quit because the odds were horrible. I can't remember the exact number of rolls, but I saved every single Choas Stone.  
I quit around Thanksgiving, it isn't that the game isn't fun, but the odds were horrible and the prices made no sense. I will get into the problems with this game later, but eventually, I started back up before Xmas. I had better luck this time, while I didn't get any xmas people, but I had decent luck getting other 5-stars.  
It's a fun game, but it has many problems. As a developer, I somewhat expected it to fail, but I really was hoping that it wouldn't. I actually mentioned many of the reasons behind it in my review on google play. I shared my review with a few others, but I didn't actually make a post about it. However now I guess it's the last chance I get. I hope that the creators of MFTD see this... because many of these problems I feel almost anyone could come to the same conclusion as me.  

NOTE: My language gets a little spicy, do forgive me for not being PC.

Online Only

One of the biggest problems with the game is it being online only. This means that if the game servers are shut down... simply the game doesn't work. Meaning if the game ends in 3 months (like now) everything you have to spend was pretty much wasted. It isn't like steam where you can buy and sell skins or items... you buy a digital product with the potential chance of it being taken away from you at any time.  
No one likes this... I would like to blame the devs, but typically it isn't them who make this decision. It's almost always someone higher up, but either way to be honest it was retarded.  
It should have been an offline game, are at least playable offline people wouldn't have felt so bad by buying stuff, since they could still use it after the servers are shut down.  

Multiple Versions

Having multiple versions of the game is stupid. Simply stupid. It is already hard enough for developers to support Android, Apple, and say the web... but now they need to support Android (jp), Apple (jp), Android (globe), Apple (global).  
You rarely see this in western games... However, it is pretty common for Asian games. Rpgs especially almost always get a special global version. My only guess is because of location and language... however you should have designed your app to work with multiple languages. This is web dev 101, you space things out or have scroll bars or cut it off with a popup to give the full name or details. There are tons of ways around this... It's the same story with locations, you should have designed the online game from the ground up to be usable with multiple servers.  
I don't want to go on forever about this, but it's basic things. Just add multiple languages, that was it. All you needed to do, yet tons of games every year get a "global" version just for it to die a few years later. STOP IT. Make 1 version, with servers globally. Not enough people in Germany?... shut that server down and move them to another server.  
Sorry for the rant on this part, I've played at least 20 games they forced you to play the global version and ended up shutting it down after a year or 2. Honestly, at as dev it drives me crazy they do this. People don't care you have a special ____ holiday or whatever... AWESOME, cool you have a holiday about some cucumber god, ok let us play it, we don't need a second version.  
I guess what I'm trying to get at... Crunchyroll shouldn't have been involved in the first place. Maybe as translators, but AAAaaah fuck me dude, why do they keep doing this?

Worse than Gambling...

You buy "chaos stones", which give you a chance to roll for people in the game. Aka gambling, but instead of getting a chance for money, you get a digital item that could disappear at any moment when they shut the game down. At least with gambling, you have a slim chance of getting your money back.  
There have been many countries trying to put regulations on loot boxes in games... I'm pretty sure this game would eventually fall into that category. If they are not forced to change it, at the very least they will probably make it 18+ or the local equivalent. Some countries have been trying to force similar taxes onto these types of apps that casinos have to deal with. Potentially they are going to run into an issue with this game because of the random aspect.  
They continue to make it worse by having "free" Choas Stones mixed with "paid" Chaos Stones. Honestly, I'm surprised some mom hasn't created a Facebook group about how it's tricking their children. Anyway, I don't care about this, but it is something to note, that this will probably be brought up against them later on.  
I know some people will probably argue saying baseball cards, or pokemon cards are similar... however you are getting a physical object. You have it forever, you can sell it, trade it, lick it. It's yours forever. Yes, they are both random chances, but as I explained above... at any moment you could lose it. I could go on with other things, but I'm ranting, so we will leave this here.

Price

... do I have to explain this. The prices are INSANE, let's just forget about it being something you could lose at any moment or the random chance. There are many packs and things for $32.99. Let's look at one. 515 paid stones plus some other stuff. That is 1 roll or ten items... WHAT?!?  
Look at any other game, even the MOST money-hungry games like Clash of Clash or Fortnite are 1/4 of this price... and they are games that have been around for years, with tons of content, and tons of game play, and large player bases.  
It's like paying $30 goto a movie... or $15 to goto another movie at a better theater, that also in 3d. Don't get me wrong... I LOVE OVERLORD. I love it, I read at least 2 novels a month... but the prices for MFTD are just crazy. Personally, I bought VIP, I think that it's a decent price to support the game and help them developed it... but to be honest for $20 you don't shit. I understand they need to make money, but I 100% guarantee if they cut the price in half, they would more than double their sales. Many of the people reading overlord are younger in high school or college... I can't imagine they are looking forward to throwing down $32 for a roll at 10 cards? (or whatever you call it)... however $16? it far more reasonable. How many of would have bought a "pack" for $16 yet didn't because it was $32?  
I'm an old (not really old, 31), and I didn't because it's a ripoff. I just feel like I'm getting bent over around back.

Summary / Horrible

LMAO, guys... honestly this game I love it. I love Overlord, but some of the ideas behind it were horrible. It isn't just 1 of them... but when you add them up all altogether I knew it wasn't going to last long.  
What is even worse... they announced they are closing the game down... YET you can still buy shit. YOU CAN STILL BUY DIGITAL ITEMS that will be gone in 2 months. WHAT THE FUCK?!? Am I'm crazy, or is this just me or is this a total douchebag move?  
They don't force you to see the notification, nothing pops up... just a quiet little whisper "psst, the game ends April". I will admit, they are at least shutting it down in march... Do they are not a complete scumbag... However, it should have been locked the moment they announced the ending of this game. People love this game, they are dedicated to it. They have spent thousands of hours grinding just to save up for the new stuff coming out next week. I'm sure there are people who just bought stuff yesterday...  
What is even worse, I'm pretty sure someone knew about this at least a week ago. I can't imagine some CEO just say, yea I'm done, lets tell them today the game ends. There were meetings, discussions, multiple companies involved... probably a public relations person who spend a day to come up with that announcement.  
I'm going to end it here, while I wasn't surprised I wish it continued or was offline as its a fun little game to play throughout the day.

At a discord room I visit, people often state while Brosnan's movies obviously were box office successes in Britain esp GoldenEye, he isn't as in-grained with Bond as he is in the rest of the world. That in the UK no single actor is ubiquitous with the role.
It does make me wonder because even outside the core Bond community, I notice with Brits I met online and irl including not just casual fans but even people who don't remotely care about 007 or even just spy movies period................... Much of them are aware that not only has there been 007 actors before Brosnan but they seem to know the names of several generations of the character. Enugh that its quite common to hear from random Brits including non-fans state "Oh Connery is the best!" and "I miss the Roger Moore days", etc. Even Milleneals UK people I know who grew up with Brosnan at least are aware of Connery and Moore (including those who never seen the pre-90s movies and openly state either Brosnan or Craig is their fav if only because they are the only ones they are exposed to).
As an American who was born in the 90s I will state before Craig's run Brosnan was not only the BOND for the American mainstream but he's the only one that most Americans even know about (even with the Craig era replacing him). So much that even people who don't know Pierce is the name of the 90s Bond actor like elder men who grew up in the Great Depression and preppy school girls I had as classmates who don't care about action flicks immediately picture Brosnan's image (ot at least his general basic features like dark hair and blue eyes) with Bond. Hell despite Craig being Bond for a whole generation, I met plenty of people born in the 2000s who associate Bond looking like Pierce Brosnan than Craig! Pretty much what I wrote above also applies to Canadian fans from my experience visiting the country to meet relatives and chatting online in gaming message boards and on Steam.
In addition despite the popular belief that Dalton's movies were flopped, they actually made profits worldwide. A hardcore fan told me its a misconception that was created by the fact Dalton's run underperformed in America but not only did it make cash world wide but they actually made around equal gross profits to Roger Moore's last 3 007 movies before he stepped down. That Dalton's movies was certainly popular in the UK during their original run.
I will also point out talking with non-English folks such as people from El Salvador, France, UAE, Japan, and elsewhere across the world online, they seem to only associate Bond with Brosnan and Craig and are ignorant of earlier iterations (excepting obviously older people who remembered when Connery and others were front page news in local non-English newspapers and magazines of their countries).
So i am very curious if Brosnan is not as popular in Britain as he is elsewhere throughout the world where people still associate Bond with his image including those who don't know his name is Pierce Brosnan and young people who grew up with Craig? I will also add I notice Pierce Brosnan even in the UK is so ubiquitous among video gamers too!
What exactly made Brosnan so ubiquitous with Bond outside the UK esp North America? In addition what exactly makes Brosnan so associated with video games and so known among hardcore gamers who don't watch movies and TV? Why does it seem Dalton isn't looked down upon in the UK and had some following in his native country while TLD and LTK are seen as corny failed attempts to successfully do what Casino Royale managed to execute decades among audiences outside of Britain esp North America (and Dalton so forgotten internationally so many people don't know a more realistic brutal Bond was already attempted before Casino Royale)?

At a discord room I visit, people often state while Brosnan's movies obviously were box office successes in Britain esp GoldenEye, he isn't as in-grained with Bond as he is in the rest of the world. That in the UK no single actor is ubiquitous with the role.
It does make me wonder because even outside the core Bond community, I notice with Brits I met online and irl including not just casual fans but even people who don't remotely care about 007 or even just spy movies period................... Much of them are aware that not only has there been 007 actors before Brosnan but they seem to know the names of several generations of the character. Enugh that its quite common to hear from random Brits including non-fans state "Oh Connery is the best!" and "I miss the Roger Moore days", etc. Even Milleneals UK people I know who grew up with Brosnan at least are aware of Connery and Moore (including those who never seen the pre-90s movies and openly state either Brosnan or Craig is their fav if only because they are the only ones they are exposed to).
As an American who was born in the 90s I will state before Craig's run Brosnan was not only the BOND for the American mainstream but he's the only one that most Americans even know about (even with the Craig era replacing him). So much that even people who don't know Pierce is the name of the 90s Bond actor like elder men who grew up in the Great Depression and preppy school girls I had as classmates who don't care about action flicks immediately picture Brosnan's image (ot at least his general basic features like dark hair and blue eyes) with Bond. Hell despite Craig being Bond for a whole generation, I met plenty of people born in the 2000s who associate Bond looking like Pierce Brosnan than Craig! Pretty much what I wrote above also applies to Canadian fans from my experience visiting the country to meet relatives and chatting online in gaming message boards and on Steam.
In addition despite the popular belief that Dalton's movies were flopped, they actually made profits worldwide. A hardcore fan told me its a misconception that was created by the fact Dalton's run underperformed in America but not only did it make cash world wide but they actually made around equal gross profits to Roger Moore's last 3 007 movies before he stepped down. That Dalton's movies was certainly popular in the UK during their original run.
I will also point out talking with non-English folks such as people from El Salvador, France, UAE, Japan, and elsewhere across the world online, they seem to only associate Bond with Brosnan and Craig and are ignorant of earlier iterations (excepting obviously older people who remembered when Connery and others were front page news in local non-English newspapers and magazines of their countries).
So i am very curious if Brosnan is not as popular in Britain as he is elsewhere throughout the world where people still associate Bond with his image including those who don't know his name is Pierce Brosnan and young people who grew up with Craig? I will also add I notice Pierce Brosnan even in the UK is so ubiquitous among video gamers too!
What exactly made Brosnan so ubiquitous with Bond outside the UK esp North America? In addition what exactly makes Brosnan so associated with video games and so known among hardcore gamers who don't watch movies and TV? Why does it seem Dalton isn't looked down upon in the UK and had some following in his native country while TLD and LTK are seen as corny failed attempts to successfully do what Casino Royale managed to execute decades among audiences outside of Britain esp North America (and Dalton so forgotten internationally so many people don't know a more realistic brutal Bond was already attempted before Casino Royale)?

'Looking down their nose at you': GameStop frenzy showed a fresh contempt for hedge funds. Why do Americans hate them? Updated 2:25 pm EST Feb. 11, 2021 In the middle of a pandemic and slow economic recovery, Americans think they’ve identified their Wall Street villain: hedge funds. Their nemesis is summed up in a few searing images: a hedge fund manager who makes millions betting that the subprime mortgage market will collapse, without warning them. Or another relaxing on a yacht as the economy tanks. Years of anger culminated late last month when a group of angry small-time investors on Reddit took on a few of those firms in the GameStop “short squeeze” frenzy. That spurred millions of others to join in, as their effort to drive up the price of a stock perceived as undervalued soon shifted to a campaign to “Stick it to Wall Street." They used the "squeeze" to rally the share price and make profits for themselves while forcing the hedge funds who had bet it would fall to buy it to prevent greater losses. What are these funds, and where does this resentment come from? Hedge funds, known for using higher risk investing strategies, are private investment vehicles that typically wealthy individuals use to get higher returns. They control more than $3 trillion in assets globally. They've angered many Americans by gutting companies such as former American retail icon Sears, causing layoffs and engaging in questionable financial practices that contributed to the near collapse of the U.S. financial system in 2008, experts say. 'This is life changing': Meet the Redditors behind the GameStop saga “Most people see it as guys in suits looking down their nose at you,” says Adam Bixler, 28, an active user on the WallStreetBets Reddit forum, whose members led the charge against the funds. “How I feel is probably how a lot of people feel when thinking about the financial crisis and the massive wealth inequality that exists in this country.” Radio Shack, Toys ‘R’ Us and Payless ShoeSource, along with mall-based retailers such as the Limited, Wet Seal, Claire’s and Aeropostale faced further financial woes after hedge funds and private equity firms loaded them up with debt. A fight is raging in the stock market: Should you worry about your 401(k)? Where to get vaccines: CVS, Walgreens to begin delivering COVID-19 vaccines on Friday “The idea that you can crack open a hedge fund like a piñata and redistribute all this money to people in the form of a short squeeze is very appealing,” says Bixler, who lives in Boonton, New Jersey, and works as a product manager for a company that makes software and tools for the advertising industry. “These are the stimulus checks that everyone wanted.” Proponents of hedge funds say the firms identify and support distressed industries such as retailers and newspapers. These funds are owned by groups of big investors pooling the savings of millions of unionized workers, such as teachers and firefighters, who count on hedge funds to grow and protect their nest eggs. Even so, hedge funds are viewed as vultures by many Americans. Kaysha Apodaca, an emergency room nurse in Dallas, was furious last summer when she lost thousands of dollars after CytoDyn, a biotechnology company she owns, was hammered following a negative report from a “short selling” research firm, about one of CytroDyn's drugs in clinical trials. The post with the research was later pulled. This year, Apodaca thought she missed the opportunity to jump in and buy GameStop or AMC, so she supported the Reddit campaign against hedge funds by investing a few thousand dollars into shares of Nokia, another beaten-down stock discussed on the forum. “I hate hedge funds. Even if this goes to zero, I’m OK with it. I’m not selling, just to prove a point,” Apodaca said. “Hedge funds have unfairly made money off retail investors for years. Now they’re getting a taste of their own medicine.” For Iris Findlay of Orlando, Florida, joining the movement was a way for Americans to show their strength in numbers. “I’m definitely not OK that there are so many billionaires hoarding their wealth while people are struggling, especially during the pandemic,” said Findlay, 31, who is disabled and retired from the Air Force. A large portion of hedge-fund assets are owned by institutional investors, such as pension funds and endowments. Hedge fund research has been critical in exposing an array of accounting fraud scandals in recent decades, including the one involving energy firm Enron. “Hedge funds do play a very important role in the financial ecosystem, but at the same time, they have a PR problem,” says Andrew Lo, a finance professor at MIT Sloan School of Management. They are an easy target, experts say, because some high-profile managers' massive wealth offends Americans who struggle to make ends meet. Michael Burry, founder of Scion Asset Management, is an investor whose billion-dollar bet against the housing market was chronicled in Michael Lewis' book "The Big Short." He personally collected $100 million and made $750 million in profits for his investors. These managers “are seen as multibillionaires that really don’t care about the public good and are focused on enriching themselves and their investors,” Lo says. “But I think that’s a caricature, especially given that hedge funds now have become much more institutionalized as pension funds and endowments are investing in these financial vehicles.” Who do Americans blame? When asked who was the “most in the wrong” in the trading mania that set off one of the biggest short squeezes in history, nearly half of Americans polled said it was either hedge funds (27%) or online brokerage Robinhood (22%), according to a Harris Poll survey conducted Jan 29-31 that was given to USA TODAY exclusively. Just 8% said it was the Reddit retail investors on the WallStreetBets forum, who angered hedge funds that had bet GameStop's stock would remain low. The small-time investors used the forum to help drive up the prices for shares such as GameStop, theater chain AMC Entertainment and several other companies. Many respondents were angry that hedge funds were shorting stocks – betting that the share prices would fall – of companies that average people use and love, according to John Gerzema, CEO of the Harris Poll. “This wasn’t just an attack on a few weak companies,” Gerzema says. “These are companies that are a part of middle-class America and ordinary people’s lives.” How did these funds begin, and how did they grow into such big villains in the minds of so many? What are hedge funds? Hedge funds are financial partnerships between a professional fund manager and investors who pool their money into the fund to earn active returns. Hedge funds can be traced back to the 1940s when Alfred Winslow Jones, an investor, sociologist and former Fortune magazine writer, created a "hedge" by “shorting" stocks he thought were poised to fall. The "hedge" was meant to reduce risk and protect against market fluctuations. It was unconventional at the time but remains the basic strategy for these funds. Hedge fund strategies today are more diverse and run the gamut of extremely risky to fairly conservative. There's another theory about the origin of hedge funds, and this one is connected to a more beloved figure. Some people credit the founding of hedge funds to Benjamin Graham, a mentor to Warren Buffett and the author of "The Intelligent Investor" – the bible of everyone who loves Buffett's method of investing. Buffett, one of the world's richest people and a folksy inspiration to small-time investors, argued that Graham managed a fund with a "hedge"-like strategy in the 1920s. So you made a bundle on GameStop: Get ready to pay the taxes How did hedge funds evolve? Hedge funds have gained in popularity over the past two decades after many of them delivered hefty outsize returns in either up or down markets, an attractive selling point for savvy investors. Some of the world's largest hedge funds include Bridgewater Associates, founded by billionaire Ray Dalio; Renaissance Technologies, founded by billionaire Jim Simons; and Pershing Square, run by Wall Street billionaire Bill Ackman. They have historically charged much higher fees than mutual funds, which are professionally managed funds that invest in stocks, bonds or money market instruments. Since hedge fund managers are nearly always paid a performance fee, or percentage of the gains they create, they have a strong incentive to make money for their investors. For the hedge fund managers to earn performance fees, their investors have to make money first. Hedge funds charge an expense ratio and a performance fee. The common fee structure is known as two and twenty – a 2% asset management fee and a 20% cut of generated gains. How did they become villains? While many Americans lost money during the depths of the financial crisis, some big-time investors did astonishingly well, including those who predicted and profited from the buildup and collapse of the housing and credit bubble in 2007 and 2008. For those Americans who had their livelihoods upended in the financial crisis, it left a bad taste in their mouths, experts say. “They’re associated with ruthless financial institutions that are out there to make money and not care where it’s coming from,” says Itay Goldstein, a professor of finance and economics at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business. A big winner from that time is billionaire investor John Paulson, a hedge fund manager who netted $20 billion in profits when he bet against subprime mortgages at the peak of the credit bubble in 2007. In general, short sellers keep stock prices in check by voicing their opinion on where they believe a stock is valued, says Dennis Dick, head of markets structure and a proprietary trader at Bright Trading in Las Vegas. “I’m concerned with this public image that ‘evil short sellers are betting against America’ and that it’s ‘un-American to short stocks,’” Dick says. “It’s not like every short seller is making bets against America. They’re making calls on whether a stock is overvalued or not.” GameStop: Reddit ran a 5-second Super Bowl ad in honor of WallStreetBets, GameStop stock volatility The hedge fund industry has faced a rough stretch in recent years and underperformed the broader stock market but produced its best return in a decade at 11.6% in 2020, according to data provider Hedge Fund Research. Some received a boost from shares of technology firms and companies that focused on goods that people used when stuck at home during the pandemic. Americans who don’t invest directly in hedge funds still receive a benefit from the returns that hedge funds generate, according to Daniel Smith, a partner at ACA Compliance Group, an advisory firm for financial services. Of the $4.5 trillion in state and local pension plans, about 6.9% is allocated to hedge funds, according to data published by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, the Center for State and Local Government Excellence and the National Association of State Retirement Administrators. ”Hedge funds help secure the retirement of more than 26 million teachers, firefighters and other public employees by helping pensions navigate all market conditions and meet long-term financial obligations,” says Bryan Corbett, president and CEO at Managed Funds Association, a hedge fund lobby group. GameStop and questions of power The rollercoaster involving GameStop, Reddit and Robinhood has prompted Capitol Hill’s harshest criticisms of Wall Street in years. Several prominent lawmakers on Capitol Hill have warned of such moments, cautioning that companies and hedge funds have too much power. One of these lawmakers, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who is well known for her disapproval of Wall Street, called on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to address the dramatic swings surrounding these companies. Warren wrote in a letter that it is “long beyond time for the SEC to act” and asked it to investigate the rallies in GameStop, AMC Entertainment and others that “have seen huge shifts in their share price driven by similar internet reading schemes.” "These wild fluctuations are just the latest indication that many private equity firms, hedge funds, and other investors, big and small, are treating the stock market like a casino, giving little consideration to the companies, communities, workers, and consumers that may be affected by these risky bets," she wrote. The House Financial Services Committee will hold a virtual hearing Feb. 18 regarding “recent market volatility” involving GameStop and the other companies. According to Politico, the CEO of Robinhood, Vlad Tenev, is likely to testify. GameStop-Robinhood stock revolution: Not a secure retirement plan Does the movement have legs? Questions have been raised as to whether the populist movement threatening to disrupt the financial system will be sustained. It’s too early to tell, experts say. “It has the potential to gather momentum. It depends on whether we see other related episodes in the next few weeks that show the same kind of patterns in the financial markets," Goldstein says. "We live in a period of so many unusual things going on that it will probably take the edge off this event." Hedge funds such as Melvin Capital Management took the brunt of losses from soaring stock prices of GameStop and other heavily shorted stocks. Others made a ton of money on the rally, including Senvest Management, which had a profit of nearly $700 million, The Wall Street Journal reported. “Is it sticking it to Wall Street? Only temporarily, but in the long term probably not,” Goldstein says. “At the end of the day, the sophisticated financial institutions will find ways to recuperate and make money out of this.” Lo of MIT agrees. “This incident highlights the growing dissatisfaction, distrust and dislocation that many people feel with respect to the financial sector,” Lo says. “It suggests that people are sick and tired of being disenfranchised and being pushed around by large financial institutions.” Contributing: Savannah Behrmann

I've thought alot on gaining poweprogress on an account, and the best way to accomplish it. Then extrapolated a little from my other experiences to come up with this. Please realize that almost the entire guide excludes Light/Dark in any regard.
TL:DR Version: I have tested and managed an e5 two times now in under 5 months. It should be even easier than when i did as since game has gotten alot friendlier. My luck was not good nor bad. Just takes doing the goal oriented things below. Saving what you should save. Spend when you should spend. Feathers really are important for this. Its also very important to prioritize the feathers in events. Get 240 Casino coins, 80 POs, or 500 HSs THEN spend them to complete said event. Don't use them before that since you lose out on the feathers. Once you start building a supply of feathers, don't spend them until you can fully build the hero. Next is focusing on 4★ shards for most of your growth. Last is DON'T BUILD HEROES YOU WON'T FODDER. Do these and even you can do it. I know its a bit of a read, but this whole thing does work, but you can't cherry pick the parts you want to do, and expect it to not take you longer, in some cases alot longer.
Keep these heroes until you know better what you are doing:

Horus	Gustin	Tix	Ithaqua
Cthuga	Morax	Ignis	Kroos	Delicium	Nakia
Heart Watcher	Rogan	Elyvia	Garuda
Xia	Sigmund	Inosuke	Sherlock	Penny	Unimax - 3000

Starting

The idea behind this whole post is to focus efforts towards the earliest most efficient E5 you can make. The power of an early E5 vs a team of 6x 10★ isn't really even comparable. The E5 will wipe the floor with them in every way. More specifically an E5 of one the best heroes in the game will carry your progress well beyond any other strategy after its made. No hero does everything the best. Therefore, we want to pick as good a hero as we can, without waiting forever. We still need to get this made in a reasonable time frame so you can build on your progress.
So once again the idea is to go all out for ONE hero. Don't level anything you can't sacrifice. ALL Prophet Orbs, Prophet Branches, Feathers, Guild Coins, EVERYTHING that is a resource and can be used to progress your E5 will be used for your E5.

The Basics

Lets start with the basics by breaking down Hero ★ ranks. The basic unit is a 5★ building block. Heading over to the Creation Circle, we can turn some 5★s into 6★s. Once at 6★, level the hero to 100 and promote it. Then the promotion tab becomes active on that hero. The rest of the promotions will be done here. Requirements below:
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7★	4x 5★ Same Faction	-	-
8★	3x 5★ Same Faction	6★ Same Faction	-
9★	2x 5★ Same Faction	6★ Same Faction	1x Copy of Hero
10★	9★ Any Faction	6★ Same Faction	2x Copy of Hero
E1	9★ Any Faction	-	1x Copy of Hero
E2	9★ Any Faction	-	1x Copy of Hero
E3	10★ Any Faction	-	-
E4	10★ Any Faction	-	1x Copy of Hero
E5	10★ Any Faction	-	1x Copy of Hero

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Looking at this we can see that we will need to get our E5 hero to 9★, three 9★ fodders, and three 10★ fodders. That's 304x 5★s if i did the math right. That is alot of 5★s.
So here is the basic plan.

• Step 1: Pick and build good 10★ Fodder Heroes
  
• Step 2: Pick an E5 Hero, exclude all other potential heroes.
  
• Step 3: Complete events specifically with Feathers in mind.
  
• Step 4: Steal Underpants
  
• Step 5: ???
  
• Step 6: Profit
  

The most common ways to majorly slow your progress seems to come in 2 forms.
1.) You feel you need a full team of heroes with lots of stars. 2.) You struggle with the long view and build non fodder heroes.
So let me just say once again. You don't need a full team. You need 1 good hero. If you decide on a hero, stick with that hero.

Picking the E5 Hero

This is your first E5, once made it will be your only hero for a time. Because of this, it needs to be a solid hero for carrying your progress from that point on while you start on your next. I used to rate heroes on a per Category basis and weight the results for a best hero ranking. That takes too much work. So instead of that non-sense i'll just tell you who i would build.
1.) Tix 2.) Inosuke 3.) Garuda
Try to build 1 of those 3. Tix and Inosuke are a bit better than Garuda, but she is still very solid if you happen to have alot of copies of her. You can always build the other 2 next.
Picking your E5 hero is probably the trickiest part of this whole thing. The several month building process gives you time in which your fortunes can change. So here is my advice. Build Norma to 9★ and use her for early game. Start working on 10★s of other decent fodder heroes. In that time, if you pick up 2-3 of any of the three heroes i listed, just lock in and go for that hero. I also don't count the Imp Adventure Chest as picking up a hero. I'm talking through PO, HS, Super Casino, Random Holiday Events, Heroic Miracle, or Altar Event. Keep the Imp Chest a Chest until you pull the trigger on deciding which hero you are going to make. Once you decide on a hero, you can open the chests. Feathers should never be used until you can promote a hero to E5 the exact moment you spend them. If you are still building Fodder or the copies don't add up to 9, you don't spend feathers. The reason is because we really only want to spend feathers on this first hero for speed. After this first hero, feathers should be solely for Light/Dark hero copies or 400 Feather P2W Artifacts. So the less you can spend the better. It is still worth using them at the right time for your first E5 though.
If you aren't sure where to orb, i would suggest one of 2 things. 1.) If you have any copies of the heroes above, try the faction you have the most of. 2.) If you don't have any, pick Fortress. It has Inosuke and Sherlock. Both are great. Shadow basically only has Tix. Forest has Garuda and Rogan which are good but aren't quite as good as Sherlock and Inosuke.
At the moment Inosuka and Tix are probably the most useful heroes. Therefore if you have no copies of any of the other listed heroes, you should just start your aim there.
Once you get an E5 hero, you don't start filling in your team with a bunch of crap low star heroes. You start the process over again on a new hero. Though maybe this time include Light/Dark as options. You really shouldn't ever be building anything that isn't going towards an E5 Hero, other than maybe HeartWatcher and Sigmund which are generally fine at 10★ or E3.

Picking 10★ Fodder Heroes

Faction	Hero	Hero	Hero
Shadow	Dominator	Walter	Corpse Demon
Abyss	Karim	Barea	King Barton
Forest	Starlight	Groot	Vesa
Fortress	Ormus

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To make an E5 hero, we need three 10★ sacrifices for the last steps. So it helps to make those useful heroes until its time to sacrifice them. Which of these heroes you build will depend on luck, and the faction you choose to use Prophet Orbs on. Each faction has a few worthy 10★ heroes listed above.
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Streamline the Fodders

The fodder process needs to be focused on building only 1 Non-Fodder Hero to E5. That means leaving all other God Tier Heroes unmade and in Token form if you can help it. This will stop them from taking up a hero slot. Good to get in the habit of keeping heroes in Token form until they are needed. That being said, any hero i didn't list at the very top of this thread should be put to use making 10★ fodders. No need to save them if they aren't on that list.
The biggest mistake newer players make is underestimating the power of 4★ Shards and not picking them up at every available opportunity. The importance of 4★ Heroes IS HUGE. It is the basis for 75% of my growth. You build the shard numbers daily, in small amounts. By the end of the month, they add up to thousands. On top of that, with the monthly Fusion quest, the first 20 5★s you make reward you gold, which you will need. They should be picked up at every chance. Here is where to find them.

• Marketplace: 30x Shard for 1.5m Gold (pick up 3★s too)
• Seal Land: Smash daily for the most you can (after 10 or so buy 3x extras smashes)
• Event Raid Hero Challenge: Spend gems for extra completes here. All that you can EVERYDAY.
• Tavern Quests
• Aspen: The Lady Dude sells 30x Shards for 1.5m Gold

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My Monthly Progress:

1. All month long, do everything to build 4★ shards
2. Once Heroic Miracle comes around
   • Use all my Heart Summons, destroy all 1★ and 2★
   • Use all my Random 4★ shards along with 3★ shards to form 5★s
3. Keep forming 5★s until i can turn them into a 6★
4. Once i have three 6★s of the same faction a. Collect 9 more 5★ fodders of that faction b. Collect 1 more copy of one of the 6★ heroes c. Craft a 9★
5. Use 5★ Random Summon Shards a. You want to collect 5 of any of these heroes. b. If you have 2 copies of any of them, make a 6★ c. Make a 10★ with said hero

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Change Log:

Changed all kinds of crap. Cut out tons of non-sense filler. Mostly updated so people reading don't build the outdated heroes. Its been awhile since i updated this.

At a discord room I visit, people often state while Brosnan's movies obviously were box office successes in Britain esp GoldenEye, he isn't as in-grained with Bond as he is in the rest of the world. That in the UK no single actor is ubiquitous with the role.
It does make me wonder because even outside the core Bond community, I notice with Brits I met online and irl including not just casual fans but even people who don't remotely care about 007 or even just spy movies period................... Much of them are aware that not only has there been 007 actors before Brosnan but they seem to know the names of several generations of the character. Enugh that its quite common to hear from random Brits including non-fans state "Oh Connery is the best!" and "I miss the Roger Moore days", etc. Even Milleneals UK people I know who grew up with Brosnan at least are aware of Connery and Moore (including those who never seen the pre-90s movies and openly state either Brosnan or Craig is their fav if only because they are the only ones they are exposed to).
As an American who was born in the 90s I will state before Craig's run Brosnan was not only the BOND for the American mainstream but he's the only one that most Americans even know about (even with the Craig era replacing him). So much that even people who don't know Pierce is the name of the 90s Bond actor like elder men who grew up in the Great Depression and preppy school girls I had as classmates who don't care about action flicks immediately picture Brosnan's image (ot at least his general basic features like dark hair and blue eyes) with Bond. Hell despite Craig being Bond for a whole generation, I met plenty of people born in the 2000s who associate Bond looking like Pierce Brosnan than Craig! Pretty much what I wrote above also applies to Canadian fans from my experience visiting the country to meet relatives and chatting online in gaming message boards and on Steam.
In addition despite the popular belief that Dalton's movies were flopped, they actually made profits worldwide. A hardcore fan told me its a misconception that was created by the fact Dalton's run underperformed in America but not only did it make cash world wide but they actually made around equal gross profits to Roger Moore's last 3 007 movies before he stepped down. That Dalton's movies was certainly popular in the UK during their original run.
I will also point out talking with non-English folks such as people from El Salvador, France, UAE, Japan, and elsewhere across the world online, they seem to only associate Bond with Brosnan and Craig and are ignorant of earlier iterations (excepting obviously older people who remembered when Connery and others were front page news in local non-English newspapers and magazines of their countries).
So i am very curious if Brosnan is not as popular in Britain as he is elsewhere throughout the world where people still associate Bond with his image including those who don't know his name is Pierce Brosnan and young people who grew up with Craig? I will also add I notice Pierce Brosnan even in the UK is so ubiquitous among video gamers too!
What exactly made Brosnan so ubiquitous with Bond outside the UK esp North America? In addition what exactly makes Brosnan so associated with video games and so known among hardcore gamers who don't watch movies and TV? Why does it seem Dalton isn't looked down upon in the UK and had some following in his native country while TLD and LTK are seen as corny failed attempts to successfully do what Casino Royale managed to execute decades among audiences outside of Britain esp North America (and Dalton so forgotten internationally so many people don't know a more realistic brutal Bond was already attempted before Casino Royale)?

COVID-19 Update: December 22, 2020
Scheduled for 1pm.
Today, Governor Charlie Baker and Lt. Governor Karyn Polito will join Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders and Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Mike Kennealy to provide an update on COVID-19.
Link to livestream and recording
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• This fall when the region saw an increase in infections MA responded by deploying teams to support and test nursing homes, rolled back reopening, issued a stay at home advisory, strengthened the face covering mandate, restricted what type of procedures hospitals could perform, worked with hospitals to increase their capacity, and opened up two field hospitals.
• This added hundreds of hospital beds, and slowed the growth in November.
• Administration has released guidance urging people to spend this year celebrating with only those in their household. If you don't, practice good hygiene, socially distance, and wear a mask.
• Since thanksgiving hospitalizations and cases have skyrocketed. This has slowed slightly, but not enough.
• Before thanksgiving our hospitals acute beds were 67% occupied; by December 15th they were 83% occupied, and we have only recovered 1% since that peak.

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• The hospitals are under incredible pressure as we head towards another holiday season which will see another spike unless everyone plays a very different game than we did at thanksgiving. As a result we think its appropriate to take action now to slow that spread in a way that will avoid overrunning our hospital system.

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• Today we are announcing new statewide restrictions which will be in effect for at least two weeks starting Saturday Dec 26th, in addition to the stay at home advisory, face mask mandate, and early closures that are already in place. The intent of these restrictions will be to pause activity and reduce mobility so we can reduce the spread of the virus without closing schools or businesses.

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• Capacity limits reduced to 25% for most industries including restaurants, personal services, theaters and performance venues, casinos, office spaces, places of worship, retail, driving and flight schools, golf facilities for indoor spaces, libraries, lodging for common areas, arcades and indoor recreation, fitness centers and health clubs, museums, cultural facilities, and guided tours.
• Workers and staff will not count towards the occupancy counts for restaurants, personal services, places of worship, and retail businesses such as grocery stores. All other rules and restrictions in each sector specific guidance will remain in place.

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• Indoor and outdoor gathering limits will be reduced to 25 people outdoors and 10 people indoors. This applies to private homes, event venues, and public spaces.

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• All hospitals must postpone or cancel all non-essential inpatient elective invasive procedures unless postponement would lead to high-risk for significant clinical decline of patient health. Hospitals should not schedule any new inpatient non-essential elective procedures until further notice from DPH.
• Non-essential elective invasive procedures are those which are scheduled in advance because the procedure does not involve a medical emergency, and where delay would not adversely effect an individual's health. It will be clinical judgement that will judge situations on a case-by-case basis what can be postponed and canceled.
• We are not shutting down healthcare; ambulatory, outpatient treatment, and preventive procedures such as mammograms, pediatric appointments, radiology, cancer screenings are not impacted. Inpatient and emergency services remain open.
• We take this next step to preserve inpatient bed capacity and our clinical resources including staffing to prepare for flex surge capacity as needed. We must ensure our healthcare system can meet any acute care demands for our residents.

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• Nothing announced today impacts K-12 education. As the science and medical data has made clear, all school districts, including those with high infection rates, can and should bring students back into the classroom. These restrictions will help bring students back, and bring them back soon.
• We are continuing to stand up Field Hospitals as alternate care sites. These hospitals provide acute care for covid-19 positive patients who need a low to medium level of care.
• Worcester field hospital at the DCU Center currently has 26 patients with a staffed capacity of 50 beds. Since opening they have treated and discharged 100 patients with an average length of stay of just under 4 days. While the facility can accommodate 200 patients when completely full, it has been designed in units which can be stood up independently in 25 pod units.
• In the coming weeks the second field hospital will begin accepting patients in Lowell. We are calling out for Nurses and Patient Care Associates to apply for this very important work. Visit Lowell general response .com.

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• The decision to reduce capacity to businesses was a difficult decision which carries very negative ramifications on peoples livelihoods and their families.
• The economic package that was passed by congress will go a long way in addressing some of the financial damage that these restrictions will have on individuals families and businesses.
• More help is needed for businesses, and our administration is putting together a significant economic relief fund for our commonwealth's small businesses (details coming tomorrow).

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• No dashboards will be posted Friday 12/25 and Friday 1/1. They will be updated Saturdays.
• First Vaccine Dashboard will be posted Thursday.

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Information on Temporary Capacity and Gathering Limit Information

Ok... it took a while but here is the next sphere for the euthanatos. I´m sorry I´m taking this long to release these posts, but life has been truly demanding these weeks. If you guys have the courage to get through this wall of text please say what you think about the work so far.
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Please, send some feedback if you can.
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Past Lists:
Basic Rotes for the Traditions
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Mind
O - Dissecting reflections - While many traditions recognize the idea of a soul and relate it to a person's individuality and psychic identity, the chackravanti for their part, hold a very different concept from the ghostly images we often see depicted in stories and myths. That which is truly immortal in ourselves is the atma, which is boundless, infinite and unquantifiable awareness. The mind is actually a material object shaped by karma, a vase full of resplandencent water in which all individuality is just reflected light of the universal consciousness. Lives pass away, worlds arise and dissolve, passions come and go, what remains is the gaze of eternity, from which we all descend.
Through meditation, spiritual communion and immersion on the secrets of life, death, the gods and rebirth, the euthanatos experience all sort of spiritual influences over their minds, bodies and souls. They sediment the realization that even minds are external phenomena, things that we observed, analyse and judge, momentary vessels bound to the wheel as any other physical forms, worn and discarded by the atma in its procession through eternity.
During instructions on this rote, mantras and prayers are taught as aids for mages to retreat from their own minds. In this wordless state of pure awareness, the true source of emotions, memories and thoughts become clear as either bubbling from within or intruding through the actions and influences of exterior forces. Through this spell the traces of mundane persuasion, emotional manipulation and trickery becomes as clear as more overtly supernatural commands and the gross organic motions provoked by drugs, sleep deprivation, physical discomfort, neurological problems or pathologies can be distinguished from pulses arising from deep within the subtle mind. By extending his perceptions to other beings, painting their third eye with sacred tinctures or leading them into song, ritual and yoga, the mage can penetrate the subtle shell that safeguard another consciousness and extend his senses, finding similar clues about influences working inside.
O - Constricting Knots - Fate and karma bind the heart in supernaturally powerful knots, as regret, grief, trauma and longing constrain the shape and movement of the mind, ordaining the obsessive return of specific thoughts, memories and impressions. The connection thanatoic mages have with the wheel makes them especially sensitive to the vibrations, tunes and pulse tormented souls leave in the environment.
After strengthening his personal connection to the forces of fate and karma through exercises of worship, funerary work or spiritual practice, the mage may choose to keep his senses open to the presence of people around him. While walking among those present in a funeral or vigil, it is easily to discern who is most perturbed, regretful or tormented by the passing, while reading the laws of a contract, vows of a pledge or duties associated with a role it is easy to spot the tell tale sign of discomfort and doubt at unfulfilled obligations or unwilling bondages. While watching over a crowd the mage can also discern which souls are most troubled, deranged and who may warrant a deeper investigation, maybe hiding skeletons in their closet. More merciful observations also reveal what people may need a comforting word or even timely intervention in order not to drown on their own grief, sadness or unhealth obsessions.
OO - Whispers of Silence - One of the similarities between the chackravanti, Sahajyia and the akashayana is that a core part of their style lies in the development and cultivation of faculties that outsiders often conflate with all sorts of psychic powers described both in myth and science fiction. These traditions often use meditation, mantras and physical practices such as yoga and martial arts as common gateways to such powers but each group gives emphasis to different elements of those practices. The akashics often immerse themselves in the motion and presence of their exercises learning to cultivate and hold specific transcendental mindset that can hardly be explained by words alone, only experienced through trainning and repetition, Sahajiya pursue the opening of perceptions arising from the energies and states of consciousness developed in such rituals while euthanatos see diligent work, both physical as well as spiritual, as building a stable path of development, strenghtening the spirit in a similar way physical exercise builds the physical body.
This specific rote makes use of the sharpened spiritual senses developed by the mage to capture the faint energetic vibrations provoked by the motions of the mind. Through meditation and yoga the chackravanti infuses vitality in the invisible organism upon which his spiritual senses are build, by painting the third eye with the appropriate spices, herbs and tinctures he both cleanses and attunes it to the proper essence of thought and through mantras and breathing he removes all distraction that could interfere with his supernatural perception. While walking among other meditations, the guru judges if they are holding the proper mental patterns or silently humming the correct mantras, by peering deep into the eyes of a suspect, the investigator listen to all words that aren’t said in a conversation, by diving in crowded markets the peregrim tastes bits and pieces of each person’s thoughts looking for particularly troubled, violent or enlightened scents that may warrant further attention. Both in memorial services as in crime scenes killers are often captured as they can’t help but coming to gloat on bewildered investigators and during high stakes games in casinos both legal and illegal, lakshmits can’t help but smile at how easy it is to bluff their way into the fortunes necessary to fund the tradition.
OO - Gravitas - The heart of each creature pulses with energies and emotions proportional to their level of spiritual evolution. While on a sensible level, all humans may seem similar, the vibrancy, tension and pull of their subtle organisms reveal differences in spiritual evolution as deep as those of the size, gravity and between the planets and stars that dot the night sky. Through their dedication to the maintenance of the universe, euthanatos transform themselves accumulating the kind of enlightened karma that is said to allows souls crossing the wheel to ditch the human condition and rebirth in the exalted form of gods and goddesses. This spiritual merit, can be used to exert enormous emotional pull, plunging the hearts of sleepers into the mage’s metaphysical gravity, synchronizing their moods, feelings and dispositions with the divine motion the mage cultivates inside himself.
By praying for the deceased, the mage can calm the hearts of the grieving, by singing mantras in a temple, worshipers are reminded of the depth of eternity, with whispered threats backed by sacrificial knives, fools can be made to feel deep, unrelenting dread and regret. The focus of this rote is often a jewelry, symbols or idols of the gods of the wheel as well as the morbid attires and distinct signs that set euthanatos as tenders of the dead and gatekeepers of eternity. Whatever the emotions the mage exhudes they all lead to states of deep contemplation. humility, quietude or regret preventing the heart from entertaining the petty problems of daily life, leaning toward appreciation of that which truly matters on a greater picture of the cosmos.
OOO - Dreadful Reminder - There are no perfect crimes or unseen secrets. Our own thoughts, memories and hearts are the eyes of the gods and goddesses of fate, in our roots, we all connect to the eternal motions of the wheel - a single soul split in a million shards, trying to experience a multitude of different lives while longing for the cyclic end of times when everything reconnects and returns to one.
While the life span of universes is long, each heartbeat counts, forever lost once spent. The clock is always ticking and the possibilities of life reduce bit by bit each day. This rote teaches the mage to hold that pervasive fatality through mantras, offerings to the gods and hands dusted with bone ashes or blood tinctures. By touching a sleeper or holding his gaze while performing a dreadful mudra or mantra, the mage infuses his spirit with heavy, sinking energy that resurfaces the deepest regrets or painful losses, makes eyes flood with bitter tears and cracks voices up with supernatural disquiet.
If used on wake victims, this rote may lead to sobbing confessions, catatonic introspection or, if the euthanatos cover his skin with ashes or paints the visage of the black goddess over his face, make the victim see the source of his torments and regrets in the person of the mage.The subject loses notion of time and place, disoriented as if deeply intoxicated, he may think he is relieving the context of a past trauma and may attack, try to make amends, confess or apologize.
If used on a sleeping person, this rote warps dreams into nightmarish reenactments of past trauma, favoring the situations in which the subject regrets having taking part. Shaking and sweating, the person vocalizes in his sleep and may be led to answer questions the mage asks as the words reshape themselves in the lips of the figures present in the dreams.
OOO - Spiritual Agony - Spiritual development is the feeding of a flame that burns brighter and hotter while sustained by karmic fuel. The presence of illuminated beings is bright light that expands just beyond the material spectrum, capable of blinding and burning the senses of lesser beings that refuse to cultivate their spirit or end up becoming too accustomed to dwell into darkness. When channeling the wheel or expressing their inner divinities, chackravanti ignite the invisible bodies like furnaces, blazing like few things on the material world ever could.
This rote is a two part process in which the mage “heats up” his own enlightened soul and, through mantras, curses, and energy projection using asanas and mudras, he stirs into torpid motion the invisible senses of a target. Confronted by a sudden flash of invisible brilliance, the unprepared soul shakes, burns and twists in spiritual agony. Such discomfort manifests as a strange headache that rapidly intensifies into a feverish migraine and a disorientation that becomes a complete inability to string coherent thought, speech or remember anything other than the pain and the present moment. Continuous exposure to this magick rapidly takes out a victim, making its consciousness retreat in itself not to confront the light. This is a technique often used to contain or take out a victim without showing signs of actual physical violence.
OOOO - Hanging by their words - A healer is just a man that set himself to study organisms like his own so he can know health, disease and the divide between, a general is but a soldier that learns to guide a much larger army them himself by predicting the rules and motions of war and the skilled boatsman drinks from the river’s water but knows to respect its currents and depth. The role of a mage, to the euthanatoi, can be understood in the shadows of those figures. While sleepers live and die blind to meaning, fight battles they don’t understand and drown in the currents of fate, the awakened have conditions to learn the eternal laws of karma, become the avatar that turn the great wheel itself and can channel the forces of fate as long as they obey and respect their position related to them.
This rote manifests this perspective as the mage adorns himself with the symbolic garments of the great judges of the underworld, the furies or the sisters of wyrd and lends his eyes, ears and voice to the greater forces of fate, justice and cosmic order. Empowered by and moving along the chains of fate, the euthanatos can force people to comply to oaths previously taken, duties they once accepted and traditional roles that they willingly and knowingly fulfilled.
Under matrimonial vows, partners confess their deepest secrets and desires to each other, In a court of law no lies can be ever uttered, police officers can’t help but uphold not only the letter but also the spirit of the law and are compelled to put their own lives on the line in the defense of the citizens they swore to serve and protect, physicians can do no harm and the self proclaimed followers of a god and adherents of a religion cannot act against their creed, deny service to their temples or participation in adoration of their deities. Promises made in the euthanatos presence can be enforced through mystical might as free will become powerless against the forces itself has put in motion. While the mage is a channel for oppressive spiritual pressure, he is just an instrument to that which people bring upon themselves. If the cause is proper and just, he may try and set traps to ensnare the uncautious, but they must always fall themselves into foolish promises for their will to be subsumed by this spell.
OOOO - Rivers of rebirth - The chackravanti consider physical things many elements other mystics see as intrinsic or deeply tied to the most rarefied parts of the spirit. Among those things is memory itself. Seen as another vessel for the atma or a stains on the outer fabric of the soul, memories are dissolved and washed away in the process of rebirth either in the fires of the Wheel or the cold waters of lethe. By divesting themselves from the heavy substance of past lives, people prepare to reenter the world with a lighter karmic burden, flexible and amenable to building a better platform on which to stand for further cycles of rebirth.
This rote allows the Euthanatos to bring into the living world the spiritual mechanisms that lifts the weight of memory. The enactment of prayers, mantras and the retelling of epics over the consecration of jars of pristine water, specially prepared baths, scented curtains of fine silk or white cloth drenched in perfume create appropriate physical vessels to extremely fine and powerful spiritual emanations. By submerging, bathing or guiding a person through such filters, the mage can make a person forget their whole lives and begin anew, reborn while still in the flesh and better suited to rebuild themselves a better karmic vehicle in this life. A limited, more controlled, version of this process can be enacted by making a people confess their traumas and regrets during the execution of the ritual. By using a lighter touch the mage erases only those elements brought to the forefront of the mind, living all the rest intact. The finest, most delicate version of this rote uses small cloths, special perfumes and exquisite bottles to either douse a victim or with which to imbibes a piece of cloth used to suffocate a target. This very limited exposure only takes away the immediate moment from memory and, if the victim is guided into telling pieces and bits about themselves, those facts are only temporarily removed slowly manifesting back in the recesses of the mind as days pass by.
OOOOO - The Shadow Arbiter - Thanatoic Masters learn how to turn the same processes that nurture their inner gods and goddesses to seed the spirit of other beings. Fed and deeply connected to the strands of fate, these embryos develop into powerful psychic entities, always watching and judging their hosts so they properly fulfill all oaths, duties and vows they might take.
This rote is traditionally done through mantras, brandings and sacrifices made at the feet of statues of cthonic deities or in ancient temples dedicated to the Gods of the Wheel. On their knees, the target host must utter their oaths, promises and vows to the cold uncaring visages of stone and become haunted by their images that burn itself deep inside their minds. From that point onward, whenever they are alone, look to mirrors or fall asleep, the impassive eyes of eternity hover over them and the silhouette of bloodthirst gods dance just outside their field of vision. If they are pious and truthful, such presence recedes to the background, but if they foment even the briefest thought about betraying their duties, terrible and violent images jump to the forefront of their minds, they drop into bouts of insanity and may feel all sort of phantom pains and tortuous delusions.
When brought to the presence of the chackravanti, the hosts of these entities can be made to fall in deep torpor, allowing the entities to take hold of their body to express their judgement and report events that may have happened. In such terrible occasions, the entity and the chackavanti may agree to sentences, missions and attonement plans that are informed through nightmares at the proper times and are enforced through the painful leash of madness.
This is a rote often used to ensure victims make amends for large karmic debts they might hold. It is an alternative to the good death to those beings that are considered too tainted to be safely released into the wheel before working to lift at least some of their karmic debts. While a nightmarish experience, to host such small avatars of the gods, is seen as a sacred honor as it exposes a person to holy emanations that are said to help in growth and healing of maladies of the soul.
OOOOO - Unlocking the Vessel - Mastering the intricate locks that bind the ethereal organism to the gross physical body is the traditional feat that sets masters apart from lesser thanatoic mages. This work is done by carefully using material reagents, pigments and natural essences in an environment properly harmonized through mantras, devotional services and powerful energetic cradles created by the most elevated spiritual faculties of an enlightened master. With a careful touch on the chackras and prana pathways, this rote expertly looses up the soul from its organic vessel without damaging the systems that are used to connect one another. Temporarily freed from its body, the subject of this spell can wander around as a immaterial ghostly figure only other astral travelers and psychics can properly perceive.
While in control over the spiritual gates of the body, the master can also choose to bring other souls into the vacant vessel and, with a proper setup, cross operations can be done, making souls temporarily switch bodies, flowing into each other through a artificial, common, spiritual circuit.
Once the influence of the spell fades, the souls are rapidly brought back to their vessels as long as their silver cord, a metaphysical link between the astral and material vessels, is kept intact. To cut such link, though, is an easy task for a thanatoic mage able of working this rote, and in some war chantries it is a common tactic to keep prisioner’s spírits away from their bodies and under constant treat of a final severance.