I made a very silly decision by taking over someone else's tenancy! I accepted a place at a college that I liked very much, but it was in a different city from where I live. I was looking for somewhere to stay in that city for six weeks "lived in my car" I found an ad on Facebook for someone looking for a replacement for their tenancy at a very good price.
I approached them and saw that the property was perfect, so close to the college. When I agreed to take over, I was sent the contract to sign with the rent amount as xx. However, the ad was advertised with a much lower x, so I contacted this student, and they told me that once they get the refund, they would transfer some money to my bank account before I even signed the contract. I was quite hesitant and asked the agency to instead refund them part of their money, and they were happy with it. But the agency said no, that it was a different transaction.
I then signed the contract and paid what I had, and the first party did not transfer the money, claiming that they did not get any refund from the agency, so now I cannot pay the second installment, and the agency threatens with the two options in the title! I don't own property, and my mom lives in a council house. I only own my car, but that's it.
I am really conscious of what they could do. Hardship fund application was rejected as this was not the cheapest accommodation, offered to leave but they did not agree to release me from the contract either! Do the courts consider that I was deceived by the first tenant? I do have all the texts with their name and picture that prove I was deceived? I am an adult, England.

Hi, I’m waiting for my admission decision for UofT industrial Eng and I just wanted to get people opinions on whether or not I have a good shot.
My midterm grades were: Calculus: 90% Physics: 94% Chemistry: 89% Adv Functions: 92% English: 88%
EC’s were: -Chem club membepartial founder -Student council president -Grade 11/12 student representative -Member of Student Senate -Part-time/full-time employment at a job where I work with design elements such as floor planning and design -Part-time employment as a customer service representative at a different store
My interview went really well in my opinion. I barely stuttered and answered my 3 step problem solving question coherently and reasonably without rushing or tripping over my words.
Please be honest! I rather have a preset expectation of a potential denial then an inflated hope of acceptance :)

I (24, F) keep going back to Disability Studies Certificates or Degrees and a Master’s degree in Rehabilitation Counciling. The only thing is I’m not really sure what to do or just feel stuck. I messed up my final year of Undergrad by letting things get to me and graduated with a 3.08 GPA last year. So with some Master’s programs I am not qualified. (The one I keep looking at is the University of Arizona). After I graduated I did a 2 month internship with the American Association for People with Disabilities (AAPD). Truthfully in life I never took anything seriously because I kept making bad decisions or hanging out with the wrong people or dealt with bullying but never did anything about it. I also often would think that I would always fail. Now since I feel like I have an idea of what I want to do but now I feel like that will never happen. All I had an idea for was either helping students or just helping people with disabilities and I don’t know how to take that path or start it. But also feel like my GPA will affect me getting into a Masters program. If anyone could provide advice I would greatly appreciate it.

I (24, F) keep going back to Disability Studies Certificates or Degrees and a Master’s degree in Rehabilitation Counciling. The only thing is I’m not really sure what to do or just feel stuck. I messed up my final year of Undergrad by letting things get to me and graduated with a 3.08 GPA last year. So with some Master’s programs I am not qualified. (The one I keep looking at is the University of Arizona). After I graduated I did a 2 month internship with the American Association for People with Disabilities (AAPD). Truthfully in life I never took anything seriously because I kept making bad decisions or hanging out with the wrong people or dealt with bullying but never did anything about it. I also often would think that I would always fail. Now since I feel like I have an idea of what I want to do but now I feel like that will never happen. All I had an idea for was either helping students or just helping people with disabilities and I don’t know how to take that path or start it. If anyone could provide advice I would greatly appreciate it.

Hi everyone so this is a really petty story from middle school I’m in my 3 year of high school right now.
So anyway when I was in middle school I had this two girls that were my best friends we‘ll call them Abby and Martha and we would mostly walk around the campus talking or sit at the lunch tables drawing but starting 5th grade they would start to ignore me and not answer any of my questions. But is was fine cause naive me still thought we were all friends but one day in 6th grade a few weeks before my birth day they said they had a surprise for me for my birthday but there was also some bad news and I would have to wait for them to tell me that night on discord. So there I was 6th grade me waiting for the text when I get it they said “do you want the good news are the bad news first” I said bad news first cause how bad could it be. It was bad they sent a whole ass list on why they thought I was a ”fake friend” non of them were true. They said I was homophobic which is funny cause I’m gay, they said I was racist which I’m not that either I have plenty of friends that are black, they also said that don’t care about them and never helped them when they were sad which is also wrong because one of them, Martha she said to never say are you ok to her so she doesn’t cry more and I said ok, Another one was I could never remember there birthdays bitch I could hardy remember my own birthday, either way I could keep going but I don’t want to make this to long. So that happened and what was even worse is that they added my enemy to the chat she hated me cause she thought I was trying to steal her man! It took me a whole day to process what happened and that was my first break in this story as there are many more to come. Now fast forward to my birthday I invited Martha and Abby to my party cause why not, only Martha came and two friends from my karate class. Everything was fine until, Abby messaged martha asking were she was martha said at my house Abby freaked out and called Martha a fake bitch and did message Martha for the rest of my party.
Fast forward to my 7th grade year I was still friends with Martha and I made some new friends that I hanged out with but it didn’t last long as It all started during the elections for student council half of my friend group wanted person1 to win while the other half wanted person 2 to win I didn’t know who to pick so I became my own person. But you know who keep switching sides and spending false rumors it was non other then Martha she was causing drama on the second month of school like girl. That was the first crake the second one was when martha and two other people from my friend group but egg into person 2’s soup (one of the girls from the election drama) It didn’t end well and our little group split into two groups the gossip group and the non gossip group the one I’m in along with Martha and two other girls (minded that there were 7 of use). Then Martha and one girl we will call her Stanley girl, they moved over to the gossip group cause they got into a fight with another girl in my group. And of course Martha caused a lot of drama in the gossip group and he ended up only having one friend by the end of the year who was the Stanley girl. Of course Martha got some karma in 7th grade like getting in trouble for fat shaming a diabetic kid or when the girls did like a group therapy and when I was talking about the 6th grade incident she started to cry, fake tears to cause I was ranting and calling her out on it. She always cries when shes in trouble and tries to get out of the situations and get the attention on her which worked all the way up till our 8th graduation.
When you graduate from 8th grade at my middle school you would right a three or more paragraph speech talking about your time at the school this is were my pettiness comes in. The speeches are basically thanking the school and remembering the funny moments, so what I did was talk about good things and bad things of every year, my school was kindergarten all the way till 8th grade. So you can imagine the look on Martha’s face when I basically talked shit about her in front of the whole school. It was priceless and I was the last speech of the 8th graders so when everything was done Martha and her one friend got hit with a lot of questions and insult’s from the middle schoolers and it got to the point were she started crying and ran to her mom.
So there’s my story I hoped you in joyed, feel free to ask me anything in the comments and make sure to subscribe to Charlotte as he is are petty queen. Nyx out

Demographics:
Gender: Male
Family Income: $120,000
Residence: Massachusetts
School: Medium-sized vocational (not traditional) school with 1,500 students
Class rank: Either valedictorian or salutatorian (i think, but we don't do rank)
Hooks: URM (Haitian-American immigrant), First-Gen? (Parents only did Associates in America)
Intended Major: Biochemistry/Molecular Biology
Academics:
GPA: 4.0 Unweighted / 4.56 Weighted
SAT: 1530 (750 EBRW, 780 Math)
Coursework (before senior year): AP Language and Composition (5); Dual enrollment: Speech Communication, Principals of Sociology, English Composition I, Art History, Personal Finance, Spanish I (4.00 GPA through the community college)
Senior Year Coursework: AP Biology, AP Stats, AP Calc, DE Spanish II, Honors World Lit
Extracurriculars:

1. Work (Paid) - Resident Care Associate (CNA): Cared for 24+ elderly residents overall; Assisted with daily living and organized group activities; Ensured safety and needs of residents were met. 300 hours
2. Career Oriented - Externship: Social & Clinical CNA Training: Biweekly, socialized w/ 20+ elderly residents & facilitated group social activities (2021-22); Completed 80+ clinical hours for CNA certificate (2022). 286 hours
3. Research - Research Intern at _ Community College: 4 month full-time research on urbanization’s impact on bees; Gathered & analyzed 500+ insect samples; Participated in weekly journal club discussions. 136 hours
4. Community Service (Volunteer): Weekly, distributed food packages to 50+ in-need local families; Organized & Advertised food & toy drives, collected 100+ donations. 80 hours
5. Work (Paid) - Nutrition Guest Representative: Worked in a team-based setting to take orders, gather, and distribute patient-specific meals to 400+ hospital patients; Stocked floor kitchens. 574 hours
6. Student Govt./Politics - Media Coordinator, Student Council: Designed flyers to increase school-wide student engagement; Created and managed IG account (500+ impressions); Organized cultural & community events. 54 hours
7. Science/Math - Co-Captain and Participant, Math Team: Learned complex math topics; Led team in Regional Math League Competitions; Improved team ranking from 7th to 3rd (2022-23). 96 hours
8. Career Oriented - Competitor (2021-24); Treasurer (2023): SkillsUSA Medical Terminology Competitor (2021-24); Managed SkillsUSA budget and expenditures, raised funding for chapter activities (2023). 135 hours
9. Student Govt./Politics - Attendant (Judge, City Council, HOR), Boys State: Served in judicial branch, House of Rep., and city council in Boys State Leadership mock government; Orated speech for closing ceremony. 144 hours
10. Other Club/Activity Member and Club Chair, Cooking Club: Weekly, created dinner and dessert dishes in small groups; Designed new cross-cultural recipes; Led new member recruitment. 218 hours

(in my additional info, I included currently working as a dietary aide, newspaper club, and my YT channel where I play roblox)
Awards:
Certified Nursing Assistant Certification (March 2023)
SkillsUSA Medical Terminology Competition - 1st Place Regional; 2nd Place District; States Qualified
Massachusetts Science and Engineering Fair - 3rd Place in Local Fair; Qualified & Attended Regionals
National African American Recognition Program
National Honor Society
Essays/Supplementals/LOR:
Personal Statement
I would say my personal statement was pretty strong. I wrote about the stories I heard and encountered while taking care of the elderly and how I've begun making my own stories. I kept it as genuine as possible. My Yale AO said this made her tear up and I think it was a pretty sentimental piece. Initially, I was comparing my essay to those of people online and I was so worried because mine didn't look like theirs and I didn't start ec dropping and shit like them but honestly I had nothing to worry about. Rating maybe: 9 (or 9.5?) / 10
Supplementals
My supps were def rushed but I would say these were really good as well. I kept them genuine and did my best to convey as many aspects of my character as possible. Compassion and diversity was a big theme for me loll. Rating maybe: 8.5/10
LORs
I didn't see most of my LORs but I assume they were good. My calc teacher wrote how I was the best student he's had in years and my lang teacher talked about some classroom moments (forgot what exactly). Rating maybe: 7 - 9 (crazy range ik) / 10
Interviews
Tufts (9.5/10): Very chill and she calmed my nerves a LOT. It was like talking to another kid my age. Lasted like 40 minutes?
Harvard (8/10): Almost very chill, was at starbucks. I messed up and stuttered a few times but overall this was very good. Lasted like 70 mins
Yale (10/10): My interviewer and I were both Black and were able to connect really well because of that. We talked a lot about the Yale environment and being a person of color on campus. Lasted like 80 mins
Princeton (9/10): One of my shorter interviews but he was sooo chill. He was a busy guy so our interview only lasted 20 mins but I was able to express myself pretty confidently and tell him why I liked Princeton.
Duke (6/10): Ok my interviewer was lowk a bot bruh and the interview was p awkward. I didn't do enough research so when he asked me why Duke, I gave a vague answer and bro told me "Well other schools have that too, what makes Duke different."
URichmond Scholars (9.5/10): Even though it was in front of like 8 other people it was very chill. I was able to confidently talk about myself and what I'd like to do at Richmond
DECISIONS
Rejections:
University of Miami (EA)
Brandeis University
New York University
Boston University
Waitlists
Washington University in St. Louis
Acceptances
Duke University
Yale University (likely letter)
Northeastern University (EA)
University of Massachusetts Amherst (EA)
University of Massachusetts Boston (EA)
Northwestern University
Johns Hopkins University
Tulane University (Deferred EA > Accepted RD)
Emory University
Tufts University
University of Richmond + Richmond Scholars full-ride (EA)
Harvard College (likely letter)
Cornell University
Princeton University
Case Western Reserve University (Deferred EA > Accepted RD)
Thoughts + What I Think Helped Me Stand Out
So, yall can probably look at my grades/ecs and realize that I'm not the most cracked applicant (I only took 4 APs!!!). My stats and ecs were definitely really good! but dawg I couldn't even place in my regional science fair. So many kids were better than me in terms of grades and ecs.
But, at the same time, I think in comparison to my school I really stood out with my SAT and grades. BUT ALSO, at the same time it wasn't just stats. My stats just put me into consideration. I genuinely think it was my ECs and essays that got me in. The way I framed my application around compassion and shit I was genuinely passionate about I think really shined through to my AOs and they liked that. I didn't lie about anything (except I might've miscalculated or rounded up some hours...). I wrote my essays just as I would during English class or irl. I didn't try to be someone I wasn't and genuinely did ecs I liked. (and I think yall should do the same!!!).
The college admissions process is draining. To those hs juniors or below looking at this. Start early. Take the SAT and do your best on it. In my honest opinion, DONT HAVE A DREAM SCHOOL. Fall in love with a good safety school. Write naturally and don't try to use big words to sound smart (it becomes unbearable trust me). And tbh just try your best. Yall got this :)

Post Synopsis

This write-up will discuss LittleBigPlanet’s humble origins, its place in the market in 2008, its unique features and mechanics, and a brief summary of the games, impact, and news following the first game. It will be broken down into five sections listed below.

• I. Introduction
  
• II. Origins of Media Molecule
  
• III. General Game Overview
  
• IV. Post-LittleBigPlanet 1
  
• V. Closing
  

I. Introduction

With the advent of the Internet, user-generated content has become an increasingly common phenomenon, and in the last ~20 years in particular, it has propelled entire platforms to become major media centers and empowered users to explore and express their creative side. In 2006, Time named “You” as their person of the year, referring to the millions of users who had contributed user-generated content to websites like YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Wikipedia, and others, and Business 2.0 and ABC News gave similar accolades to "You" in 2006. In the realm of video games, user-generated content has practically become a genre in itself, with modern examples like Minecraft, Roblox, and Super Mario Maker amassing millions of players and building dedicated communities around them that have persisted for years.
LittleBigPlanet was one of the earliest examples in the console space built around the concept of user-generated content. The tools available were top-of-the-line and the best available for a console game at that time. But its appeal as a game went beyond just its robust level editor: the multiplayer and network features, the customization options, and the inviting art style and family-friendly image filled a much-needed niche in the early PS3 library. Its broad appeal enabled it to become one of Sony’s flagship series.

II. Origins of Media Molecule

Rag Doll Kung Fu, The Room, and the Formation of Media Molecule
Media Molecule was founded in January 2006 by four former employees of Lionhead Studios – the studio behind Fable and Black & White. Before forming Media Molecule, members of the team worked on Rag Doll Kung Fu in their free time, and even starred in live action cut-scenes for the game. After presenting the game to a crowd of 300 people at GDC 2005, Mark Healey was approached by both Valve and Nintendo to bring the game to their platform, and ultimately worked out a deal with Valve to put the game on their then new digital platform Steam. Rag Doll Kung Fu was the first third party game on the platform.
Around this same time, the would-be Media Molecule founders built a tech demo called “The Room.” The Room featured elements of creation that would later form the framework of LittleBigPlanet – players could mold objects out of clay and move objects around the room. Valve was interested in hiring them to develop The Room or another project, but it never came to fruition. The Room also featured portals the player could move between. Coincidentally, Valve would hire the students behind Narbacular Drop – which used a similar portal concept as its central game mechanic – that same year (2005) to expand their concept, and eventually create Portal in 2007.
Soon after their work on Rag Doll Kung Fu and The Room, Mark Healey and three other Lionhead Studio employees – Alex Evans, Kareem Ettourney, and David Smith – resigned on the same day to start up their own company, which they called Media Molecule. They turned in their notice to Peter Molyneux, one of the founders of Lionhead Studios, and a man Healey had worked with for around 15 years, between both Bullfrog Productions and Lionhead Studios. While he was disappointed to lose four talented developers on the same day, he wished them well and was happy that they were striking out on their own, rather than taking jobs at Valve.
Initially, the team didn’t have a clear vision of what they wanted their game to be outside of a few general principles. In a 2007 interview with GameSpot, Healey had this to say:

“The idea was to make the most ambitious game we possibly could," Healey said, "and most importantly, get somebody else to pay for it.

Healey went on to talk about the tumultuous nature of working on a creative project:

"What we're aiming to do with the game we're making is somehow give that to people and take away the tedium," Healey said.

Meeting with Sony and Development of LittleBigPlanet
In the initial talks with then President of Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios Phil Harrison in January 2006, Media Molecule presented a demo called “Craftworld” starring Mr. Yellowhead – who would later be featured as a collectible costume in LittleBigPlanet. Craftworld was a physics-based side-scrolling platformer, with no button presses – the character’s movement was wired to the exact physical movements of the analog sticks, which was a novel idea at the time. Instead of using PowerPoint, Media Molecule made a live demo play within their presentation. Alex Evans recalled the meeting at the Develop 2011 Conference in Brighton:

“Our first meeting with Phil was meant to be a 30 minute pitch for our idea for a game called Craftworld that soon turned into a 3 hour brainstorming session,” explained Evans. “Phil said all sorts of buzzwords that hadn’t really hit yet. He said it should be driven by DLC and that it should be free-to-play, have a social core and premium, paid-for content.

This is interesting, because this model didn’t really exist yet on consoles back in January 2006 – the infamous The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion’s horse armor DLC (today it’d be called a microtransaction) was still three months away. However, Sony was working on PlayStation Home around this time which shared these core tenants and was being pushed by Phil Harrison. Despite these initial talks, LittleBigPlanet ended up releasing as a $60 USD game rather than a free-to-play title, though microtransactions in the form of costumes and DLC level packs did make it into the game. Sony would revisit the idea of a free-to-play LittleBigPlanet title in the form of LittleBigPlanet Hub, which was planned to launch in late 2013, but the project was canceled, and presumably the work for it was carried over to LittleBigPlanet 3, which was also sold as a $60 USD game.
Soon after their meeting with Phil Harrison, Sony agreed to fund the project for six months, after which they’d need a playable prototype ready to demonstrate. This was later extended by another three months, as the demo after the initial period was reportedly “unfocused and unplayable.” Alex Evans recalls debugging the game the night before the presentation because the game slowed to a crawl when a fourth controller was added. The game was revealed at GDC 2007 for two reasons, according to Phil Harrison:

“Firstly, I wanted to demonstrate the future of games, which was service-based projects: always on, no end to them. And secondly, to communicate the idea about the user being the creative manager of content. LittleBigPlanet and Home were perfect examples of that.”

Media Molecule would go on to release LittleBigPlanet in October 2008. In less than three years, the team went from a vague premise to a landmark title for the PS3, as well as the second highest rated game of 2008, according to Metacritic. It’s interesting that the team didn’t really have a clear idea of what they wanted to create before their leaving their jobs when LittleBigPlanet feels like such a spark of creative energy, which coincidentally is the premise for the game itself.

III. General Game Overview

The Market in 2008 and LittleBigPlanet's Unique Appeal
As the 2000s wore on, and particularly with the arrival of the HD consoles, it seemed AAA platformers were being phased out. Studios known for their platformers in the 1990s and early-mid 2000s, like Rare, Naughty Dog, and Sucker Punch, were moving away from them, leaving Mario and Ratchet & Clank to carry the genre in the late 2000s. A platformer wasn’t exactly what people thought of as a “next-gen” experience on the HD consoles at the time (PlayStation 3/Xbox 360). It seemed more studios were focused on bringing about more realistic experiences, typically ones that had guns and/or cars. LittleBigPlanet released in a year with games like Grand Theft Auto IV, Metal Gear Solid IV: Guns of the Patriots, Fallout 3, Dead Space, Resistance 2, etc. – games that prioritized realistic graphics, gritty settings, and cinematic set-pieces.
However, if there was a way to make a platformer feel next-gen rather than iterative of the design we had seen for over a decade at that point, LittleBigPlanet achieved it, by utilizing network features and user-generated content as its central focus. The story mode acted as both a fun adventure to play through as well as a showcase of what was possible with the extensive level editor, which allowed players to share levels online and access a database of levels from users all around the world, and even use user-created objects as collectibles in one’s own levels. Its appeal was broadened beyond just the scope of a conventional platformer though, as users would utilize the level editor to create more experimental levels - like this museum level featured in Mm Picks. LittleBigPlanet 2 would expand on this concept further.
The handcrafted art-style was an excellent complement to the game’s vision as a vehicle for level creation, and it allowed parts to be glued together without looking amiss. The idea of customization was extended to the player's character: Sackboy acted as a blank canvas that could be customized, but his knitted nature didn’t look out of place on marketing with nothing on. The soundtrack featured licensed music and spanned all different eras and cultures yet somehow formed a cohesive package – much like the nature of putting together a level using various parts and materials.
Curation Tools and Mm Picks
Sharing and playing community levels was a seamless experience held up by some awesome curation tools. You could play levels off the game’s servers without going through a download process. Additionally, levels featured tags for categorizing types of levels, hearts for bookmarking them, a five-star rating system (later changed to a thumbs up/thumbs down), a comment section, and the ability to view the profile of users to see their levels and favorites. These features are all ubiquitous now and were likely inspired by YouTube’s curation tools, but it was by far the best infrastructure in a game with online level sharing on consoles at that point. Additionally, LittleBigPlanet benefitted from the rise of outside media platforms, namely YouTube, as a way to showcase levels on message boards.
Adding to these curation tools was Media Molecule Picks (Mm Picks), which were community levels branded with Media Molecule’s emblem, signifying their exceptional quality or experimental ideas. This was before Twitter became ubiquitous and developers – and businesses in general – had less direct interaction with their users. Mm Picks were instead posted to their website and even included embedded YouTube videos of the levels, though they did join Twitter seven months after the game’s release, in May 2009. It was a novel thing to see the developer of a game take part in the community of a game in that way, and it was personally the first instance I recall seeing of something like that (as primarily a console gamer at the time). Media Molecule went a step further by including 18 users to create bonus levels for the Game of the Year Edition of the game in 2009.
Additionally, Media Molecule added water in the Pirates of the Caribbean level pack in December 2009 after much clamoring for it in message boards. It’s possible this was already in the works since they had to work out the licensing with Disney in advance, but the trailer seemed to acknowledge that Media Molecule had heard the requests for water in the game. Unfortunately, it and many other cross-promotional level packs are now unavailable to download due to licensing agreements expiring. At the time, DLC seemed liked a great fit for the game, as every added item to the game multiplied what was possible with the game’s level editor, and the frequent level kits would regularly reinvigorate interest in the community. However, many are now inaccessible through practical means (not all level kits were included in the Game of the Year Edition).
Multiplayer
LittleBigPlanet made no concessions with its multiplayer – it was four-players locally, online, or a mix of the two – in story mode, community levels, and creation mode – it featured both cooperative and competitive elements, but the game could still be experienced as a single player experience if desired. Other games usually come with a caveat – either they’re local or online only, provide multiplayer only in certain designated modes, and/or limit the number of players to just two. There were some camera issues in local play in certain fast-paced and/or vertical levels, but the widescreen helped make the game feel less crowded than it otherwise would have (widescreen had just recently become ubiquitous on the HD consoles during this time).
LittleBigPlanet also incorporated a lot of elements that amounted to just goofing around, like slapping your friends, painting them with stickers, grabbing them, and making smiley faces after watching them fall to their death. As inconsequential as these qualities might seem when typing them out like this, people got a ton of mileage out of these.
The competitive play didn’t really work in favor of the platforming levels, but the more experimental, survival-based levels did lead to some fun competition. Chasing leaderboards, collecting all prize bubbles and keys, completing a level with no deaths for rewards, and completing optional co-op puzzles led to a great deal of replayability among the story levels, so there was plenty of reason to jump back into them with someone new, especially since the game had plenty to reward you with in the form of objects, stickers, costumes, and bonus levels.

IV. Post-LittleBigPlanet 1

General Overview of the Series' Games
Sackboy became Sony’s family-friendly mascot and was featured in many advertisements during the Kevin Butler-era. He has been featured as a playable characteskin in games like ModNation Racers, Minecraft, Fall Guys, and Sony’s platform fighter PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale. The series has regularly showcased the new features of Sony’s hardware: the PlayStation Eye and network features in the original game, the PlayStation Move controller in Sackboy’s Prehistoric Moves, and the touchpad in the PS Vita game – although in recent years, it seems Astro Bot has been positioned to showcase these features more than Sackboy’s games (the VR headset and DualSense controller).
There were eight LittleBigPlanet/Sackboy games released between 2008 and 2014, plus a ton of DLC content – since then there have been just two (the last one was a 2023 mobile runner title), neither of which include the creation tools the series was founded on. However, Sackboy: A Big Adventure did retain the cooperative multiplayer, which I believe is an important part of the series’ legacy and isn’t as easy to transition to a 3D platformer.
Media Molecule and the Series' Evolution
Media Molecule stepped away as the main developer after LittleBigPlanet 2 (2011), acting as support for some of the later games. It really shows, as LittleBigPlanet 2 was a major evolution over the first game and expanded the tools and what was possible with the level editor to such a degree its identity as a platform game became blurry: you could make a retro-style arcade game with unique physics, a turn-based battle system, a top-down racer, in-game movies, etc. The possibilities felt endless.
In contrast, LittleBigPlanet 3 was the buggiest game I had ever played at launch, though most of the game-breaking bugs were ironed out over time, it lost its momentum and was still a pretty buggy experience in the end. It did bring some new tools to the table - namely the new characters with unique abilities - but the improvements were much more modest/complementary to the original design, than the massive evolution that was LittleBigPlanet 2. Media Molecule has since developed Tearaway and Dreams, though many of the studio founders have since left the company.
Server Shutdowns
LittleBigPlanet 2 and 3 carried over levels from the previous mainline game(s) - it was nice to know users' works were being preserved. However, there were many bugs in LittleBigPlanet 3 when accessing levels from the first two games so it really wasn't the ideal way to experience them. Sony had shutdown the servers for the PS3 games in September 2021, so it was the only way to play a lot of these old levels for awhile.
Unfortunately, the LittleBigPlanet 3 servers – and therefore all uploaded community created levels from the first three mainline games – were just recently shutdown after being compromised by hackers in January 2024. While the story levels remain, it’s disappointing to know you can only re-experience part of a beloved game, and not the game in its whole. Many of the levels people remember the game by are now lost to time, after 15 years. The ending of LittleBigPlanet even highlights the community levels, as if the ending of the story mode is just the beginning for the rest of the game.
Showing future generations LittleBigPlanet will always come with the caveat that there was much more to the game than they’re able to experience, unlike other classics like Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie. However, it’s not all doom and gloom, as there are custom servers that have retained some of the more popular levels. It goes to show the love the community has for the game.

V. Closing

LittleBigPlanet's slogan of “Play, Create, Share” was superbly executed on all fronts – falling short in even one of these areas would’ve been enough to taint the whole experience: without good gameplay, it wouldn’t be worth making levels, without good creation tools, it wouldn’t be worth sharing levels, without good sharing and curation tools, it wouldn’t be worth keeping a vested interest in playing the game and engaging with the community. But it went even beyond that, with a great art-style that complemented the game's vision of creation, excellent and all-encompassing multiplayer, and active engagement from Media Molecule with the community, through Mm Picks and DLC. It really seems like the type of game that would’ve taken a second game to get right, but instead they got the first game right and made an even more incredible sequel. It brought something uniquely its own to the PS3 in 2008 and earned its place as a flagship PlayStation series.

hey guys! I'm a current junior who has been striving to get into a bs/md program for the past few years. I'm really nervous because I feel like others have so much more competitive things due to science competition stuff which I never participated in due to family issues. I would love for advice on things to do this last summer to buff up my application. I'd also like to know if I'm even competitive to apply. thanks yall <3
(also this is a throwaway account...)
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Demographics: female, competitive public school (class of maybe 700-800 students), Texas resident
ACT/SAT/SAT II: 1480 at the moment but trying for a 1520+ in august
UW/W GPA and Rank: UW: Around a 98.4; W: 109.2; no rank right now, but I'd estimate maybe top 2%
Coursework: AP Courses: Human Geo (5), Bio (5)
-Current: Chem, Physics 1, Art, US History, Calc BC, Gov, Econ, English Lang
-Future: English Lit, Physics C, Stats, Psych, Enviro Sci.
Awards:
- an art international award
- a medical community service award (state level; 200 hours+)
- silver key scholastic art award
- 5 gold medals for art (regional)
- i got awarded a $10,000 scholarship, but should I include that in my resume? (community service based)
- A district level volunteer certificate of 125 hours+ (gold level) & another one for 75 hrs+ (silver)
- top 10 in a competition for anatomy and physiology (state)
Extracurriculars: not in a particular order
- 2 summers of researching at a biomedical research lab that is connected to a very good medical school in Texas. Might not publish anything, but I got a lot of data to do poster presentations later on this year
- founder of a non-profit organization that posts videos online helping patients with a certain something (don't wanna reveal much info, sorry!). also interacting with these patients to help with exercises, etc.
- got selected into an internship that was pretty competitive in my city. It's just a bunch of medical stuff for 3 years.
- Shadowing/medical volunteering for over 200 hours; helped out family practice physicians with whatever they needed, but also shadowed at the same time. Also got to shadow surgeons for a bit too.
- internship at a consulting company (around 100 hours); I honestly talked with the CEO a lot because it's a smaller company, so I might be able to get a letter of rec...
- a small program where I just did mock surgeries on fake stuff haha
- dance for like 7 years (noncompetitive but really dedicated to it); performed at various places
- hospital volunteering for 4 months (12 hrs/week); just normal hospital volunteering stuff
- tutoring for small kids for like 3 months-ish (4 hrs/week); not much to say about this, but it was pretty fun
- president of 2 clubs that are medical related: care cards, item-donations, etc (no $$ raised though)
- volunteered at a bunch of health fair camps (have really cool experiences.. totally recommend!)
- NHS (volunteering at elementary schools) & Science NHS (no volunteering.. just fun science events)
- part of student council too for 2 years (historian)
​
I would totally appreciate it if I could get feedback over what else I should do in my last summer. BS/MD programs have literally been my dream for such a long time, but I'm so nervous to apply in the coming months. Any advice and feedback is greatly appreciated!

The story I'm trying and failing to remember the name of involves someone who gets reincarnated with a girl who was essentially kicked out of her family home because she was a bully character. She attempts to kill herself, and that's when the main character comes to inhabit her body.
The story follows her as she tries to change her public image by getting a job, reconcile with her family, even help out/join the student council. I remember a story arc where she is bullied by one of her old friends. If it helps, one of the defining features of this particular manga that I remember is that, prior to the reincarnation, the main character wore excessive make-up that was very distinctly shown in the art.
If you know which one I'm talking about, I'd appreciate it.

Hey! I’m currenlty gettign ready to apply to medical school ,can you help me compile a good and strategic list of med schools to apply to please. Like one that I might match mission/goals/etc. thank you for any help, trying to figure this out is tough haha
Here are my stats and information: 1. cGPA: 3.4x , sGPA: 3.2x, Masters (SMP) GPA: 3.8 ; NYC Resident, URM ; Mcat: 515

1. Currently wrapping up(SMP) in Jersey, in my last semster.
   
2. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US): NYC, USA
   
3. Undergraduate institution or category:NYU
   
4. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer) 3100 hours as dermatology MA (for MD, DO, PA, and NP), 200 hours shadowing (primarily urogyn but many others as it was a multi specialty clinic), 300 hours as volunteer hospital in high school but continued with them in college in a different aspect (helped bring my schools large resources and funding to this local hospital I was a part of).
   
5. Research: 300 hours at Ivy League lab in high school in which I helped develop a lab protocol and was acknowledged in my mentors PhD thesis (also presented on our work at my high school science conference), 100 hours at a neuromarketing lab in nyc that worked with fortune 500s, 200 hours at a clinical lab at my schools medical center in which one of my responsibilities was translating forms from my second language (Arabic) into English from our large Arab population pool.
   
6. Shadowing experience and specialties represented: 300 hours , primarily in urogynecology but it was a multi specialty clinic so lots of specialties - gave a presentation at the end of it on obgyn topic.
   
7. Non-clinical volunteering: 70 hours as a private piano tutor for elementary kids in my city who couldn’t afford private piano lessons (stopped with COVID) , 50 hours volunteer through my Islamic center helping provide meals for the homeless; also went on a service trip with them to Texas after hurricane Harvey to help rebuild homes in Houston (one week). 300 hours as a volunteer coordinator and counselor for a summer camp for kids who’s parents are diagnosed with cancer.
   
8. Other extracurricular activities: social media coordinator for a an organization here in my city that works to end gender violence against women (I helped manage the male cohort events that worked to make men better Allys), 400 hours as a member of the fresh,soph,jr, and senior class boards on my college student council (this is how I was able to bring my schools resources back to my local hospital)
   
9. Relevant honors: deans list in my junior year of college, recicved mayoral service award for volunteering at my local hospital in high school
   

Goal schools: Albert Einstein, Stonybrook, Suny Downstate, Rutgers RWJ, Rutgers NJMS
others on list: Wake Forest, NYIT, Hofstra, Tufts, Rochester, BU, NYMC, Temple, Hackensack
Any other possible reach schools I have a shot at and more “target” schools you think would be good to add? Thanks!

These are my grade 11 marks so far and what Im planning for grade 12. What other extracurriculars should I do to have a high chance for acceptance?
Side: what ec’s should I be emphasizing?
Grade 11 (sem 1): AP Functions: 95 AP US History: 95 AP Physics: 96 AP Chemistry: 94
Grade 11 (sem 2, midterm): Religion:97 AP Biology:100 AP English: 97 Manufacturing Tech (M course): 97
Grade 12 (planner): English (summer school) Chemistry AP Physics Advanced Functions Calculus AP Biology Sports marketing (easy course for a backup grade)
Extracurriculars: Student gov, council president “Research” (wasnt really research, it was more of a data science thing) High level sports for 5 years Euclid certificate thing for top 25% Some piano awards (not very relevant)
Also im aware that Im taking a pretty heavy course load gr12, but im okay with it because ap bio and physics gr12 are known to be easier courses and i learned 80% of 12 chem in ap 11 chem.
I also need sciences bc i also plan on applying for eng and life sci

Singapore male conscripted to army for 2 years. Chance me for Wharton, Princeton, Stanford, UChicago, Berkeley, Northwestern, Dartmouth, Brown! (guess accepted, rejected, waitlisted)

• Intended major: Economics/Finance with Mathematics
• Grades: International Baccalaureate achieved 39/45 (776 HL), 1520 SAT
• Activities:
  • 2 research publications in university journals
  • 2 local internships in research and sales
  • Founded:
    • Small e-commerce business
    • Tech startup
    • Financial literacy nonprofit
    • STEM tutoring nonprofit
  • Also member of:
    • Student council
    • Varsity sport
    • Competitive math club (several awards including AIME qualified, British Math Olympiad merit, more)

Hello! I am an aspiring HCI jc student and planning to dsa through my leadership, I just want to get your input or any info yall know about this dsa process or any tips for my portfolio or interview, it would mean A LOT for me 🫶🏻 I have represented my school in many events from school roadshows, geography, Chinese, debating, math, art competitions but
here are some of my notable contributes & achievements:
Leadership: - Student Council President (was a level leader in sec 1 & 2, started being in student council early in late sec 2!) - Advisor of the School’s Events Wing - Received School Colours Award - Organised major school events: Sec 1 orientation & CNY with 2 years experience, turned teachers’ day into a whole week of expressing gratitude to school’s teachers & school staffs! & also helped with senior prom night - I’ve done emcee before!
Academics: - First in Standard for sec 1 & 2 - Received SAC Scholarships in sec 1 & 2 - Received Edusave scholarships for 3 consecutive years - Top 10/15 in Standard for sec 3 - My sec 3 l1r5 was around 12-14ish
Debate: - I was representing my school’s debate team and joined many competition in sec 2 & 3 - Was the best speaker in school’s debate workshop
CCA: - My cca is Chinese orchestra & have performed every CNY, National Day & Investitures since sec 1! - However, my SYF obtained accomplishment
Misc: while managing school, I actually did a small business from scratch (the website, marketing, production, mailing everything but I’m not sure if I should include this to my portfolio, it’s a bit unrelated & random?) - I started a small business in sec 1 which made quite an income but most importantly I learned a lot! Like customers behaviours, time management, negotiations skills etc!
I genuinely love planning and carrying out events from nothing & start it up. I love leading people and see them grow! ive researched on many JCs & their culture, & find HCI’s environment and culture fits me best! Thank you for reading!

Here is a post from pro Palestine peace activist from Gaza city Ahmed Faoud Alkhitab on the destructing pro Hamas sentiment he’s seeing an extremist sentiment at these gatherings and a compilation from the rallies with problematic instances
https://x.com/afalkhatib/status/1784009696376143981?s=46&t=6jUwmoQk40_VB2FB7ewzUg
https://x.com/campusjewhate/status/1783890901577699352?s=46&t=6jUwmoQk40_VB2FB7ewzUg
A few points before I continue
1) I don’t believe everyone is pro Hamas 2) I believe in freedom of speech and I don’t believe in bringing the national guard 3) there’s anti semitism there but the entire event it’s self isn’t necessary anti semitic 4) its mainly peaceful excluding violent messages and scruffles that have broken out 5) I believe the good reasonable pro Palestine people go because its anti war but there’s signs and chants going against that 6) unfortunately tankie orgs infiltrate the space as well as pro Hamas orgs
With that being said, I’ve seen support for Hamas with signs like, “by any means necessary” one chant at Columbia supporting October 7th with Columbia students cheering. Signs like “intifada”, “from the river to the sea” chanted by pro Hamas orgs, a chalk message calling for blowing up Telaviv, supporting Iran, chanting that we are Hamas, or signs saying glorify to the resistance fighters, protesting in front of synagogues, calling for “we don’t want no two states we want 48” one another sign saying they will leave the encampment if Israelis go back to Europe or the US their real homes or if Israelis leave, people waving Hamas or Hezbollah flags, people wearing clothing with Hamas members or red triangle or organizers who are against normalization or for toning down their language. I know there’s more slogans and signs but there’s too many to list. Even Norman Finklestein who I disagree with on so many things (supporting Hamas, Russia, defending holocaust deniers, being pro Houthi) even told the crowd at Columbia to stop with the slogans because they turn normies off and guess what they went right back to doing their chants forgetting what Norman said to them.
I spoke to my bf about this and he says I should call it out and I reminded him that it’s the orgs and the speakers and trying to call it out is so difficult. If you try to call it out they’ll excuse you of being against their freedom to protest or their org gets shut down and they get mad. My bf I know is upset at me for being a doomer about this but what can we do?
There’s people like Ahmed who want a robust pro Palestine movement and to address things like Hamas or co existence or fostering dialogue but a lot of these protests are against that. I know I’m being a doomer but what can be done about this? I would appreciate input from the sub on how we can tackle this. My bf says call them out, boo speakers who express extremist sentiment and make them feel unwelcome so they realize this space isn’t for them. My bf also suggests calling the town who gives the marches clearance and tell them.

Allow me to start by giving y'all a rundown on the context behind Kaiser and his role in the story.
Or rather, theirs.
You see, Kaiser is a huge corporation that pretty much owns most businesses of Kivotos (the country where Blue Archive takes place), as all of those said businesses have a certain point in their progress where they'll either need to sponsor or get sponsored by Kaiser's many subcorps, which tackle all the different sectors of the economy that is necessary for society to progress: these include Kaiser Loans, Kaiser Banking, Kaiser Constructions, Kaiser Weaponry, Kaiser Military and so on.
But then why do i describe Kaiser as a single villain? Where, it's a simple and brilliant reason really. When you work for Kaiser, there is no individuality. The Kaiser President hasn't got any name, the Kaiser PMC General is simply called Kaiser General, the Abydos District Kaiser Director is called, you guess it, Kaiser Director.
And the best part? There's not a single HUMAN at the top of the Kaiser Hierarchy. They're all robots, the only humans that work for Kaiser are low-level PMC Soldiers.
Allow me to explain why it's so brilliant: Kaiser, despite being a multinational company, is a single hivemind: you never see Kaiser higher-ups argue on what do to because all of them have the same exact opinions and the same exact desires: to make Kaiser grow.
This alone really sets him apart from other capitalist villains because the very idea of "hey if you kill the capitalist boss suddendly the capitalist business fails and everyone lives happily ever after" is, pardon my honest words, a fucking hypocrisy.
Even Elon Musk disappeared, twitter wouldn't get better. Even if Jeff Bezos "kept himself safe", Amazon wouldn't stop existing and it wouldn't stop them from funding horrendous acts.
"Eating the Rich" isn't a solution, because someone will just inherit that position and take their place. The only possible way, then, would be to destroy the corporation from its most basic foundations, right?
Well, theoretically yes, but practically it's impossible because, in this case, Kaiser owns at least 75% of Kivotos' businesses, making it so they're, by all intends and purposes, the backbone of that society.
Because of that, they're also above law. Here's a few example of Kaiser avoiding any kind of legal backlash from their actions
Volume 1: After failing to confiscate Abydos Academy as a Kaiser's property, despite them owning the entire Abydos district apart from that same fucking school through shady business practices, unpayable loans and what can only be best described as "Exploitation of district officials", Kaiser Director is "wanted" for several crimes. At least that's what Sensei knows about it. In truth, we see him in a Hawaiian-esque Beach, with a Hawaiian shirt on, drinking Coconut milk. Technically he's now a "Kaiser Salesperson" but let's be honest chat none of his wealth actually got confiscated.
Volume 4: the SRT, an ex-police force now stuck as homeless people in Kivotos' least noteworthy park, find out that Valkyrie Police Force have been buying illegal weaponry from the black market. And guess what happens when they themselves try to buy from said black market? A Kaiser Trader shows up to meet them. I am #nooticing a pattern here.
Volume F: This is by far the worst one: not even a month after the Director Scandal AND the Valkyrie Scandal, Kaiser tries to OVERRUN THE MAIN KIVOTOS' STUDENT COUNCIL, which is by all means on an equal level of importance in Kivotos' Government as the WHITE HOUSE in America's. And again, nobody can really stop them, because even GOVERMENT OFFICIALS of that same council were embezzled in that fuckass corporation. They literally ENACT MARTIAL LAW on the entire state and DISCONNECT ANY AND ALL COMMUNICATIONS to other districts.
You know, the Arius Branch was onto something with their motto: "Vanitas vanitatum et Omnia vanitas": Life is worthless, Everything is ultimately futile.
But they forgot the only thing that actually matters in this world: money.
In our world, everything is dictated by how much shit you got in your pocket: in the world of Blue Archive, the credit card is considered a symbol of power, of being someone that can change the world.
Now tell me, is there any difference, truly?

Hello all, in England
I’ve got a daughter in preschool - from our understanding the school has a duty to provide free school meals under the Universal Infant School meals.
The problem comes in with what they are providing - it’s the same menu every week and has next to no nutritional value - It’s full of fish fingers, chicken nuggets, chips etc - meaning most parents who are able provide a pack lunch do so instead.
The school have also refused to provide an alternative meal for another student with special dietary (dairy free) requirements.
Numerous parents have requested the menu be changed - the head of the local secondary school has even stated they will assist with the preparation of the meals as they follow the local council guidelines.
The Governors are also refusing to engage about the food issue.
What are the next steps we can take?
Thankyou

I went for a capitalist run. Funded all my ministry. Built the railway. Traded with Wehlen (partial OBT) Allied with Agnolia (Recognized Heljiland) and Lespia. Accepted ATO aid. Modernised my Military and Fully prepared for war.
I even provoked Rumburg, closed my consulate, Blamed Illana on them, shot their plane Down. Held a Parade. Even in Interview I called Rumburg a 'liar'. Still they Got OMEC sanctioned. AN sanctions was anyway easy/necessary.
And here is the funny part. I did it with History and student council background.

Why young men and women are drifting apart Diverging worldviews could affect politics, families and more An illustration depicting a young woman and a young man leaning against opposite sides of a brick wall
Mar 13th 2024atlanta, beijing and warsaw
id. In a trendy food market in Warsaw, Poland’s capital, two female engineers are discussing how hard it is to meet a nice, enlightened man. Paulina Nasilowska got a big pay rise a few years ago. Her boyfriend asked: “Did you have an affair with your boss?” He is now an ex-boyfriend.
Ms Nasilowska’s friend, Joanna Walczak, recalls a man she met on Tinder who revealed that he was a “red-pill” guy (a reference to “The Matrix”, a film, meaning someone who sees reality clearly. In the “manosphere”, a global online community of angry men, it means realising that men are oppressed.) He thought household chores and child care were women’s work, and that women could not be leaders. They didn’t have a second date.
Typically for young Polish women, Ms Nasilowska and Ms Walczak support parties of the liberal left, which take women’s issues seriously and promise to legalise abortion. Young Polish men, they complain, hew more to the right, or even to the far right. Consider last year’s election. Then the top choice for 18- to 29-year-old men was Confederation, a party that touts free-market economics and traditional social values. (“Against feminists. In defence of real women” is one of its slogans.) Some 26% of young men backed it; only 6% of their female peers did.
Young Polish men have their own set of complaints. Feminism has gone too far, say two firemen in their 20s in a small town. Lukasz says he used to be able to go to a village dance party and “the women there were wife material.” Nowadays “they’re all posting shameless pictures of themselves on social media,” he laments. The media are “all biased and pushing the culture to the left”, complains Mateusz (neither man would give a surname). People no longer admit that men and women often want to do different kinds of work.
In much of the developed world, the attitudes of young men and women are polarising. The Economist analysed polling data from 20 rich countries, using the European Social Survey, America’s General Social Survey and the Korean Social Survey. Two decades ago there was little difference between men and women aged 18-29 on a self-reported scale of 1-10 from very liberal to very conservative. But our analysis found that by 2020 the gap was 0.75 (see chart 1 ). For context, this is roughly twice the size of the gap in opinion between people with and without a degree in the same year.
Put another way, in 2020 young men were only slightly more likely to describe themselves as liberal than conservative, with a gap of just two percentage points. Young women, however, were much more likely to lean to the left than the right, with a gap of a massive 27 percentage points.
In all the large countries we examined, young men were more conservative than young women (see chart 2). In Poland the gap was 1.1 points on a scale of 1-10. It was a hefty 1.4 in America, 1 in France, 0.75 in Italy, 0.71 in Britain and 0.74 in South Korea. Men and women have always seen the world differently. What is striking, though, is that a gulf in political opinions has opened up, as younger women are becoming sharply more liberal while their male peers are not.
For young women, the triumphs of previous generations of feminists, in vastly increasing women’s opportunities in the workplace and public life, are in the past. They are concerned with continuing injustices, from male violence to draconian abortion laws (in some countries) and gaps in pay to women shouldering a disproportionate share of housework and child care. Plenty of men are broadly in their corner. But a substantial portion are vocally not. Young women’s avid liberalism may spring from a feeling that there is much work still to be done, and that opposition to doing it will be stiff.
The gap does not translate straightforwardly into voting patterns, but it is visible. One poll found that 72% of young American women who voted in House elections in 2022 backed the Democratic candidate; some 54% of young men did. In 2008 there was barely any gap. In Europe, where many elections offer a wide array of parties, young women are more likely to support the most left-wing ones, whereas young men are more likely to favour the right or even the radical right.
In France in 2022 young men were much keener than young women on Eric Zemmour, a presidential candidate who wrote a book rebutting Simone de Beauvoir, France’s best-known feminist. Germany’s election in 2021 saw the largest ever left-right gap between the votes of young women and men, according to Ansgar Hudde of the University of Cologne. In Portugal, where the far-right Chega party surged in an election on March 10th, support for it is concentrated among voters who are young, male and less educated. And South Korea in 2022 elected an overtly anti-feminist president; more than 58% of men in their 20s voted for him. Some 58% of women in their 20s backed his rival.
Young and cranky
The attitude gap between the sexes is also visible in how they view each other. People in 27 European countries were asked whether they agreed that “advancing women’s and girls’ rights has gone too far because it threatens men’s and boys’ opportunities.” Unsurprisingly, men were more likely to concur than women. Notably, though, young men were more anti-feminist than older men, contradicting the popular notion that each generation is more liberal than the previous one. Gefjon Off, Nicholas Charron and Amy Alexander of Gothenburg University use a Dutch analogy to illustrate the difference between young (18-29) and old (65+) European men. It is as great, on this question, as the gap between the average supporter of Geert Wilders’s radical-right Party for Freedom and the Liberal Democrats.
A similar pattern holds in other advanced countries. Although a higher share of young British men think it is harder to be a woman than a man than think the opposite (35% to 26%), they are likelier than old British men to say it is harder to be a man than a woman. Young British women are more likely than their mothers to believe the opposite. Nearly 80% of South Korean men in their 20s say that men are discriminated against. Barely 30% of men over 60 agree, making their views indistinguishable from those of women in their 20s or 60s.
In China pollsters do not ask about voting intentions, but they find a similar divergence between young men and women when it comes to gender roles (see chart 3). Yue Qian of the University of British Columbia and Jiaxing Li of the Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences looked at survey data for 35,000 Chinese people. In their analysis they found that young men were much more likely than young women to agree with statements such as “men should put career first, whereas women should put family first” and “when the economy is bad, female employees should be fired first.”
Young Chinese men’s views were not much different from those of older men, whereas young women’s views were far more egalitarian than their mothers’. Claire, a market researcher in Beijing (who uses an English name to preserve her anonymity), says she wants a partner who will treat her as an equal and share the housework. “I think most Chinese men would fail that test,” she sighs. Dr Qian notes that when Chinese parents go to “matchmaking corners” in parks, they brag about their sons’ jobs and degrees, but hide their daughters’ achievements, fearing they will put off potential suitors.
What is going on? The most likely causes of this growing division are education (young men are getting less of it than young women), experience (advanced countries have become less sexist, and men and women experience this differently) and echo chambers (social media aggravate polarisation). Also, in democracies, many politicians on the right are deftly stoking young male grievances, while many on the left barely acknowledge that young men have real problems.
But they do, starting with education. Although the men at the top are doing fine, many of the rest are struggling. In rich countries, 28% of boys but only 18% of girls fail to reach the minimum level of reading proficiency as defined by pisa, which tests high-school students. And women have overtaken men at university (see chart 4). In the eu, the share of men aged 25 to 34 with tertiary degrees rose from 21% to 35% between 2002 and 2020. For women it rose faster, from 25% to 46%. In America, the gap is about the same: ten percentage points more young women than men earn a bachelor’s degree.
Differences in education lead to differences in attitude: people who attend college are more likely to absorb a liberal, egalitarian outlook. The education gap also leads to differences in how men and women experience life, work and romance. To simplify: when a woman leaves university in a rich country, she is likely to find a white-collar job and be able to support herself. But when she enters the dating market (assuming she is heterosexual), she finds that, because there are many more female graduates than male ones, the supply of liberal, educated men does not match demand. Charelle Lewis, a 26-year-old health-care worker in Washington, dc, complains that men her age have “a little-boy mindset”.
The dating scene can also be bleak for men who did not go to university. Upwardly mobile women reject them. Michal Pazura, a young Polish dairy farmer, takes a break from inflating tractor tyres and recalls a girlfriend who “didn’t like the smell” of the farm and left him to live in a town. “I wanted a traditional, stable lifestyle. She wanted fun.” Male farmers have such a hard time finding spouses that a reality show called “Farmer Wants a Wife” is one of the most popular on Polish television. “It’s hard to say what young women want in a man these days,” says Lukasz, the Polish fireman. Previously, they just wanted a man with “a stable income, who could fix things in the house…and who had a driving licence”, he recalls.
Will the gulf in attitudes affect how many of today’s young people eventually couple up and have kids? It is too soon to know. But for those who think the rich world’s tumbling birth rates are a problem, the early signs are discouraging. In America, Daniel Cox, Kelsey Eyre Hammond and Kyle Gray of the Survey Centre on American Life find that Generation Z (typically defined as those born between the late 1990s and early 2000s) have their first romantic relationship years later than did Millennials (born between 1980 and the late 1990s) or Generation X (born in the decade or so to 1980), and are more likely to feel lonely. Also, Gen Z women, unlike older women, are dramatically more likely than their male peers to describe themselves as lgbt (31% to 16%). It remains to be seen whether this mismatch will last, and if so, how it will affect the formation of families in the future.
The backlash against feminism may be especially strong among young men because they are the ones who feel most threatened by women’s progress. Better jobs for women need not mean worse ones for men—but many men think it does. Older men are less bothered, since they are more likely to be established in their careers or retired. Younger men, by contrast, are just starting out, so they “are most likely to perceive women’s competition as a potential threat to their future life course”, argue Dr Off, Dr Charron and Dr Alexander. In a recent study, they found that young European men are especially likely to resent women (and feel that feminism has gone too far) if unemployment has recently risen in their area, and if they perceive their society’s institutions to be unfair. Anti-feminist views, they add, are a fair predictor of right-wing authoritarian ones.
Not all male grumbles are groundless. In some countries, divorce courts tend to favour the mother in child-custody disputes. In others, pension rules are skewed. Men enter the labour market earlier and die younger, but the retirement age for women in rich countries is on average slightly lower. In Poland it is five years lower, so a Polish man can expect to work three times longer than he will live post-retirement, while for a Polish woman the ratio is 1.4, notes Michał Gulczyński of Bocconi University. This strikes many men as unfair. Mateusz, the Polish fireman, recalls when a left-wing lawmaker was asked, if she was so keen on equal rights, what about equalising the pension age? “She changed the subject,” he scoffs.
Another factor that particularly affects young men is conscription. They are the first to be called up; women are often exempt. In South Korea, where military service is universal for men and notoriously gruelling, it fuels male resentment. In Europe conscription is no longer common, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has made young men in neighbouring countries, such as Poland, more scared they may be drafted, says Mr Gulczyński.
Social media, the lens through which young people increasingly view the world, may have aggravated polarisation. First, they let people form echo chambers. When homogenous groups of like-minded people discuss an issue, they tend to become more extreme, as individuals vie for affirmation by restating the in-group’s core position in ever-stronger terms, and denouncing those who dispute it.
When groups of frustrated young men link up online, the conversation often descends into misogyny. In male-dominated Chinese chatrooms the phrase “feminist whore” is common, along with a pun that inserts the character for “fist” into “feminist” to make it sound more aggressive.
Once a man joins an angry online group, the pressure to remain in it is strong. Benjamin, a student in Washington, dc, says he used to be a “red-pill guy …working as a janitor, eating McDonalds and wallowing in self-pity”. He’d watch classes online about how to boost his self-confidence and pick up women. When he quit the manosphere, his friends taunted him as a “blue-pill” (someone fooled by the establishment) or a “cuck” (a weak man).
Second, algorithms hook users with content that terrifies or infuriates, making the world seem both more frightening and more unjust than it is. Women who click on #MeToo stories will see more of them; ditto for men who click on stories of men being falsely accused of rape. Each may gain an exaggerated idea of the risks that they personally face.
“When you go into a gym to work out and a woman’s in your line of vision, you look at her and all of a sudden you’re famous on TikTok for being a sexual harasser or something,” says Kahlil Rose, a 28-year-old conservative man in Atlanta. This has not happened to anyone he knows. But he has seen it on his phone, so it looms large in his consciousness. Benjamin, the student in Washington, offers a similarly gloomy perspective: “Men my age are afraid to get married because they hear a cautionary tale: woman cheats, files for divorce and takes everything he worked for.”
Women see a different world online. Julia Kozik, a student in Warsaw, follows a tip she saw on TikTok. When she rides in a cab, she tears out a strand of hair and puts it under the seat in case she is abducted and the police need dna evidence. “I avoid men at all costs, mostly,” she says.
The political left has done a fair job of persuading women that it cares about their problems. But it has not figured out how to talk to men, argues Richard Reeves, a liberal scholar, in “Of Boys and Men”. Progressives often assume “that gender inequality can only run one way, that is, to the disadvantage of women”. And they apply labels like “toxic masculinity” so indiscriminately as to suggest that there is something intrinsically wrong with being male. Rather than drawing immature boys and men into a dialogue about their behaviour, this “is much more likely to send them to the online manosphere, where they will be reassured they did nothing wrong and that liberals are out to get them”.
Making America virile again
Some politicians on the right, by contrast, have found ways to connect with disgruntled males. Donald Trump is an obvious example. He cultivates “an image of virility and manliness”, argues Mr Cox of the Survey Centre on American Life. He appealed to young men who don’t follow the news by showing up at an Ultimate Fighting Championship event. He also tends “to side with men in cultural conflicts”. In 2018 he decried what he said was a shift in the burden of proof in cases of rape and sexual assault: “It’s a very scary time for young men in America when you can be guilty of something you may not be guilty of...That’s one of the very, very bad things that’s taking place right now.” Progressives may dismiss this as the self-interested griping of a serial abuser. But there’s reason to believe that Mr Trump’s macho behaviour “resonates with young men”, says Mr Cox.
What neither side has done well is to tackle the underlying problems that are driving young men and women apart. Most important, policymakers could think harder about making schools work for underperforming boys. Mr Reeves suggests hiring more male teachers, and having boys start school a year later, by default, since they mature more slowly than girls do. Also, since “the desegregation of the labour market has been almost entirely one-way”, the state could beef up vocational training to prepare young men for occupations they currently shun, such as those involving health, education or administrative tasks. If such reforms help more boys and men adjust to a changing world, that would benefit both men and women.

Bird flu in the milk, an Israel-Lebanon War draws closer, and the worst-case scenarios get even worse.
Last Week in Collapse: April 21-27, 2024
This is Last Week in Collapse, a weekly newsletter compiling some of the most important, timely, useful, soul-crushing, ironic, stunning, exhausting, or otherwise must-see/can’t-look-away moments in Collapse.
This is the 122nd newsletter. You can find the April 14-20 edition here if you missed it last week. You can also receive these posts (with images) every Sunday in your email inbox with Substack.
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The EU Green coalition claims that the Green Deal is probably dead now, since conservatives are projected to make small gains in this June’s EU Parliamentary election.
Gullies are becoming more common across Brazil and several other South American states, a crisis worsened by climate change & deforestation. One coastal municipality in Brazil has seen 50+ homes eaten by new holes; 100+ families have been displaced there as well. The process happens when large quantities of rainfall, unable to be absorbed into the soil (because of overdevelopment & deforestation), run off, carrying the dirt away with it. In the Himalayas, glacial lakes are growing from the massive meltwater piling up in the mountains.
Climatologists believe this summer is going to break records for temperature and/or humidity, with a 70% chance. A study in npj climate and atmospheric science determined that AI holds great potential in forecasting future storms…An analysis of the November 2023 Storm Ciarán predicted its 48-hour trajectory with reasonable accuracy.
A dust storm blew into Athens from Africa, the worst such incident in 6 years. The images look like they’re straight out of a cli-fi movie—or from Mars.
Taiwan felt 6.3 magnitude aftershocks from its 7.3 earthquake 3 weeks earlier, rumbling buildings. Thailand [issued an extreme heat warning](​​https://phys.org/news/2024-04-heatstroke-thailand-year-kingdom.html) after temperatures surpassed 40 °C (104 °F) this week, with a heat index expected to break 52 °C (125 °F). In the first 108 days of the year, Thailand recorded 30 deaths from heatstroke—compare that with 37 in all of 2023. Meanwhile, the heat index in the Philippines hit 47 °C (117 °F), forcing the government to close thousands of schools; one scientist said there was a 50/50 chance it the heat worsening in the coming days. Drought in the Philippines got so bad that an old settlement, flooded by the construction of a 1970s dam, resurfaced after El Niño-aggravated Drought dropped reservoir levels.
The CDC and the U.S. National Weather Service released a new heat scale, with another color representing the most dangerous level of heat. You can search your zip code here to check for your heat alarm level. Meanwhile, the famed climate scientist Michael Mann is predicting the most storms on record this hurricane season, estimating 33 in total.
Water shortage in Scotland. Drought in Spain & Greece expands; one major Spanish wine company laid off 80% of its staff indefinitely because the vines are barely producing anything. In Thailand, sugar farms are drying up. In France, a strange kind of “last chance tourists” from all over are converging on the Alps to see once-epic glaciers before they’re gone forever… Europe, the fastest warming continent, is seeing more days of heat stress than ever before.
A study in Earth’s Future examined the effect of wildfires in Greater Siberia, and found that they are projected to create a cooling effect over part of the northern hemisphere, along with the more obvious: lowered air quality & economic damage.
The total area of oases across the world expanded from 1995-2020 by 220,000+ km² (85,000+ mi²)—an area larger than the size of the island Britain, or Japan’s largest island, Honshu. Most of this expansion was the result of artificial expansion. However, the study from Earth’s Future also says that the risk of desertification is quite high, owing to mismanagement of water resources.
Wildfires in British Columbia & Alberta, including dozens of carry-over fires from last year. Record night temperatures for April in parts of West Africa—Chad even tied its hottest day in history with 48 °C (118 °F). Six countries in southeastern Asia recorded their hottest April night temps. Türkiye felt its hottest day ever in April last week: 39.2 °C (102.5 °F). Drought in Mexico is causing conflict between subsistence farmers and the cartel-linked avocado plantations. Sea surface temperatures remain at record highs for this time of year.
A 14-page article in Science Advances claims that deep sea troughs ferrying circumpolar deep water (CDW) (often warmer & saltier) to the undersides of ice shelves is causing concerning levels of melt. Making the problem worse is an upwelling of an ice shelf’s newly melted freshwater, which rises and pulls the salty water upwards. The study summary explains better, and warns that this feedback loop may reduce the stability of our ice shelves, leading to their Collapse. Some experts are proposing a large geoengineering attempt, spraying aerosols in the stratosphere atop ice shelves within the next 25 years—although they warn such efforts will not be productive unless they are also accompanied by massive CO2 emissions reductions.
Anchovies traditionally found in the Mediterranean have been detected off the Irish coast—about 750,000,000 of them—and scientists are baffled. They say that rising ocean temperatures are probably not enough to attribute this habitat change, since fewer than 150,000,000 anchovies were detected in those waters four years ago.
South Africa & Namibia saw record autumn temperatures. Flooding in Mauritius forced the shutdown of many banks & offices, and flooding worsened in East Africa, where 90+ have been killed by storms in the last fortnight. Tobacco plantations in Uganda killed off the usual animal food sources, forcing local species to eat virus-thick feces...yes, really. Meanwhile, one of the largest mountains of trash in India has been on fire for a few days, spewing toxic fumes into the atmosphere; and it’s still growing by 2,000 tons of garbage every day.
NASA released before & after images from Dubai’s historic flooding.
Foreign diseases & pests are damaging EU agriculture—some 70 new threats each year. In Botswana, Drought is evaporating muddy ponds, trapping hippos; those which escape, desperately thirsty, become aggressive and invade nearby villages.
Over Antarctica, the ozone hole is stretching into December, the start of summer—and the breeding season. Scientists say the exposure to extra radiation is affecting the eyesight of animals, and may threaten their general health. They also blame Australian wildfires for the longer-lasting ozone hole.
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Drinking water in Bangladesh is being poisoned by rising salinity in drinking water. Women are especially affected, particularly pregnant women, who suffer complications resulting from malnutrition, hypertension, menstrual interference, and more.
Residents of an old neighborhood in Ethiopia were given 5 days notice before demolition—ostensibly to rebuild a modern city center……including a $10B (USD) palace complex. Standardized test scores in the UK are at appalling lows—a result blamed, myopically, mostly on COVID school closures.
A study summary from the UK claims that 28% of COVID survivors will develop some form of Long COVID—25% of those will experience brain fog, and 75% some form of depression and/or anxiety. Examinations into the variant of COVID which infected an old Dutch man—and persisted in his body for 613 days—found that the COVID strain mutated into a new immuno-evasive strain inside his body…before killing him.
A 75-page report from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) concluded that migration has now rebounded completely from its COVID dip. The U.S. FDA announced that food recalls hit a new high in 2023, the most since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Scientists claim bird flu was in cows last year, probably. The U.S. FDA also announced that traces of bird flu were found in pasteurized milk—some 20% of samples—but the milk is still safe to drink. Nevertheless, the USDA is doing ongoing milk testing, albeit less than they first promised. The spread of Asian tiger mosquitoes farther northward in Europe portends the spread of malaria and dengue fever to areas where it has never before reached.
Shadow banking relates to non-bank lenders: mostly private investors, and unregulated institutions. Shadow banking is supposedly a $63 trillion (USD) problem worldwide—and the shadow real estate market in South Korea has central banks concerned. Delinquency rates are up, and shadow banking in real estate totals almost $7 trillion (USD). The Bank of England is warning about massive job losses if trends in shadow banking turn sour. Commodity prices worldwide are supposedly going to drop slightly, but inflation will remain.
In Scotland, rising numbers of youths are smoking marijuana. Across Great Britain, child alcohol abuse has become a serious problem; the UK has the highest rate worldwide, according to the collected data. In France, youth curfews have been imposed to keep unaccompanied children under age 13 off the street—more for the safety of adults than the kids.
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Two Malaysian helicopters collided mid-air, killing 10. The UK once again vowed to move forward with deporting migrants to Rwanda this summer. Protestors clashed with police in Venice over a modest €5 fee to enter the historic city on the front lines of climate change. Espionage against Germany, by Russia and China, is growing—or at least being identified.
Haiti continues to get worse as famine continues eating away at the population. 90% of Port-Au-Prince lives under control of the gangs; the other 10% lives under fear of gang expansion. Gangs forced the stop of the unloading of fuel at a port terminal on Monday so they could better wield their fuel as leverage. Haiti’s new transitional council has been sworn in, but is impotent on arrival.
Rebel groups in Sudan, including but not limited to the RSF, attacked 11 settlements in Darfur, following an old anti-black pattern practiced by the Janjaweed. In addition to potentially thousands of lives lost, the traumas of War threaten to perpetuate generational tensions from which new conflicts could sprout. A city that once held half a million people (many of whom were themselves displaced earlier) was razed and the people scattered or killed. And barely a peep of this makes the weekly news…
In Balochistan, a large region of Pakistan, an insurgency is growing, targeting Pakistani security forces and Chinese workers. Killings and IED detonations are said to be reported almost every day. Recruitment into the terror group, several thousand members, has been increased in response to the government’s militarized approach to counterinsurgency. Years of somewhat porous borders have also allowed abandoned American weapons to transit from Afghanistan into the region, empowering rebels.
US-Philippines military drills began the biggest ever between the two nations. Hundreds of people are flowing into Thailand from Myanmar every day, many of them wounded by the heavy-handed ruling junta forces. “This is the worst in my time in 35 years here,” one doctor said of the spike in patients. The junta is becoming so desperate that they are trying to draft Muslim Rohingyas into their forces, some of the very people they attacked, and denied citizenship to, several years ago.
Donald Trump is building a team of China hawks for his potential cabinet, and allegedly planning a more aggressive stance towards China, should he return to power. Reports emerged that, on the day Iran launched 300+ drones against Israel, a simultaneous crackdown began in Iran against women flouting the country’s strict hijab laws. More details are emerging about a massacre in Burkina Faso from February: “They separated men and women in groups…As we started moving forward, they opened fire on us indiscriminately,” said one survivor.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights announced the discovery of mass graves at two hospitals in Gaza—”buried deep in the ground and covered with waste.” An official from the United Nations announced that clearing all the rubble and unexploded bombs from Gaza could take 14 years. And the War isn’t over yet. A growing number of analysts say War against Hezbollah is inevitable as both sides have recently escalated strikes over their 130 km (81 mi) border barrier, the so-called Blue Line.
Hundreds of student protestors were arrested across a number of universities, demanding the institutions divest from Israeli corporations, and generally opposing Israel’s actions in Gaza. Hundreds of thousands of students in Argentina protested against cuts to universities.
Ukraine suspended consular services for some men aged 18-60 living outside Ukraine, as part of a pressure campaign to get them back to Ukraine, where they can be conscripted. Russia warned that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, threatening an unspecified retaliation if Ukraine’s allies seize the roughly $300B frozen assets formerly under Russia’s control. On the battlefield, momentum is moving against Ukraine, although small victories remain. Ukraine is pulling back its Abrams tanks because Russian drones are too easily taking out the tanks. Five of the thirty-one $10M-apiece tanks provided in September have been destroyed so far. Reports emerged that the U.S. sent long-range ATACMS to Ukraine secretly; the ballistic missiles can strike targets up to 300 km away. Ammunition for Patriot systems is now being rushed to Ukraine.
Russia vetoed a resolution to ban the use of nuclear weapons in space. Worldwide, defense spending hit new all-time highs in 2023—about $2.44 trillion USD. (The U.S. accounts for $850B of that total.)
Amnesty International released its enormous, 418-page State of the World’s Human Rights Report for 2023, with 155 country-specific rundowns of selected human rights violations. Search for your own country and judge for yourself how accurate their report is. The general worldwide picture is one of regression to old norms and the breakdown of international law.
“...authoritarian policies ate away at freedoms of expression and association, hit out at gender equality,and eroded sexual and reproductive rights. The underlying public narratives, based in hatred and rooted in fear, encroached on civic space and demonized marginalized individuals…Climate activists were branded “terrorists” for denouncing governments expanding fossil fuel production and investment…States turned increasingly to facial recognition technologies to aid policing of public protests…in Afghanistan, being a woman or a girl has been de facto criminalized…To be a Palestinian in Gaza today is to be plunged to a far more violent and destructive version of the 1948 Nakba...Russia’s aggression has continued to manifest itself in deliberate attacks against civilians, the killing of thousands, and widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure…” -selections from the executive summary
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Select comments/threads from the subreddit last week suggest:
-There will (probably) be signs before SHTF—so say these comments in a thread about horizon scanning a doomsday event. But for some crises, like earthquakes, they spring up suddenly and unexpectedly. This is the very nature of an emergency.
-Household financial troubles are mounting, getting a decent job is nigh-impossible, everyone is coughing, demoralized people are throwing away their lives, trust is gone, most people seem exhausted, and there’s bird flu in the milk—says this essay-length weekly observation from the United States.
Got any feedback, questions, comments, complaints, upvotes, crystal ball predictions, etc.? Check out the Last Week in Collapse SubStack if you don’t want to check collapse every Sunday, you can receive this newsletter sent to your (or someone else’s) email inbox every weekend. What did I forget this week?

ok so i stood for student council elections and i not only have to campaign but also give a speech in front of my entire school (1000+ people) and icl im really nervous and scared while others do not seem to be nervous at all i already am scared of public speaking and have anxiety idk what to do please help me reprogram my mind and get out of this fear of being judged.