Louisiana lottery results

Seeing as how it isn’t always the case with posts on here (especially for average guys like me), I thought I’d share my most recent experience with OLD as it was largely positive.
I’m located in a more rural state with roughly a 60k city population, and around 80-100k in a 100 mile radius. It’s mostly made up of older farmers/ranchers and retirees though the young professional scene seems to be growing.
After 1 month here’s the results: Likes 21, Matches 12, Unmatched (by them) 2, Unmatched (by me) 4, Conversations 9, Multi Day Conversations 4, Weeklong Conversations 1, In Person Dates 0, Second Dates 0, Third Dates 0, Relationships 0
I’ve been on/off and very much love/hate with dating apps for the past 5ish years, though it did result in one great relationship that ended in a mutual split for reasons beyond our control.
Over the past year I wanted to focus on meeting women organically or through friends. It’s actually been going pretty well! I’ve been asking better questions, been more engaging and noticed an overall improvement in my social skills, though nothing has stuck.
So I summoned the beast once again and decided to get back on hinge about a month ago. This time though, I adhered to a clear method since I’ve been down nearly every disappointing road I see posted about on here constantly. My method was: Hinge would NOT serve as my primary (or even secondary) method for putting myself out there. It’d act as a small supplement to the other real life avenues I’d carved out. I also made a point to send every like with a personal message about something that caught my interest on their profile; and I only liked fully filled out profiles with decent pictures and prompt answers largely devoid of any minimal effort quips. I also promised myself to avoid getting as attached to matches (at least in the short term) since ghosting, slow fading, flakiness, dead end conversations etc. are the status quo in OLD. I figured I’d trade a few interesting messages with people but that’d likely be all, and I’d accepted that as a fact.
The rest is more about how I wove my personality/lifestyle into my profile, scroll to the bottom if you want the TL/DR.
I included flattering (but NOT filtered, or otherwise misleading) pictures with one nice clear face shot at the start, a short video, a voice prompt, a mix of full body looks and other shots of me participating in various activities/events over the last few years. I also did my best to breathe my voice into the prompts. I stayed FAAAR away from any cliched answers and ruthlessly edited them until they read clear and concise with a smooth flow. This probably took the most work. I really wanted women to know I’m not doing the bare minimum, but that I also don’t take myself too seriously. I did, however include a section about how important clear communication and initiative is to me as that’s been a recurring issue in nearly all my past matches.
About me: 30 male, 6’1”, 205 lb, caucasian, straight, monogamous, never been married, want a long term relationship, never had kids but want kids, stable full time job in construction management. I chose not to include my political leanings because none of the options accurately described my stances plus I believe I’m compatible with a wide range of viewpoints. Im not really religious though Christianity is probably the closest fit. Given that, I didn’t think it was worth putting on my profile either. I keep in decent shape but I’m a little fluffy in a few areas, though it’s not immediately noticeable with a shirt on. I’m by no means a head turner but I’d like to think I’m above average in looks. I take care of myself and thus would consider my looks slightly above average, though not because I hit the genetic lottery. My hairline is starting to recede and it’s turning grey in a few spots but near as I can tell it’s not a significant draw back to my appearance and I try to always maintain a baseline of personal hygiene. I have a college degree and I live with roommates. I like the occasional drink, not really into drugs or weed and definitely not tobacco or smoking. I also don’t have any pets.
Given the method I approached OLD with this go round I’d say the experience has been very positive so far! I’m happy I’ve had the pleasure of trading a few insightful messages with some awesome people (one woman even turned me on to a new band that I’ve been obsessing over lately). I’ll continue trying to meet people in real life and it will consume the majority of my focus going forward. But, much to my surprise, the experience has been great this go round.
TL/DR: I got back on Hinge. Put some honest effort into my profile and how I went about liking/matching. Went into it with little/no expectations and remained unattached to matches in the short term. Ended up having a positive experience even though I’m very “average” in nearly every sense of the word.

A few weeks ago, a 66-year-old handyman named Lawrence Herr was installing a mailbox outside of his home in Kenner, Louisiana, toiling away in the heat, working past retirement age to provide for his sick 90-year-old mother, and that’s when two men in their 20s—Taj Matthews and Maurice Holmes were their names—drove by. And unlike Lawrence Herr, Taj and Maurice were NOT productive members of society, they were not the kinds of people you’d want living in your neighborhood or anywhere near your kids. Maurice Holmes had just got out of prison on his six year sentence for domestic violence. On that day, Maurice Holmes and Taj Matthews were supposed to be at their jobs at IHOP, but they pretended to be sick so that they could take the day off, and a few hours after getting off of work, they passed Lawrence Herr for the first time as he was working on the mailbox. Surveillance footage shows that the two men drove by and then made a u-turn and passed by Lawrence Herr again, and then made another u-turn, and they drove past a second time, and then another u-turn. On the third pass, Maurice Holmes handed a 9mm pistol to Taj Matthews, who then proceeded to shoot Herr in the back. Lawrence Herr bled out next to the mailbox as the two men drove away.
Now, why would these two young men decide to skip work so that they could stalk and murder a handyman in the middle of the day? Didn’t take long for the police to answer that question. According to authorities, “one of the two suspects has admitted to his role in the crime, explaining they just wanted to go out and ‘kill a white guy.’” Maurice Holmes and Taj Matthews were black and Lawrence Herr was white, so they executed him. Now, these men, they didn’t know Lawrence Herr, they didn’t get into some kind of altercation with him that day, he didn’t shout the n-word at them while they drove past (not that that would justify it), they just decided to take a day off work to go hunting for white people, and so they did. Here’s an official with the Kenner Police Department laying out the details:

”There’s some of the confession of Taj Matthews, who admitted to taking part in the homicide that they did, wanted to commit a murder that day, and specifically they’ve ruled out Hispanics and they said it was gonna be a white person. Within then a couple blocks of their residence, of their starting point, they did find Mr. Herr out working on a mailbox, doing what he does, and they shot him in the back.”

Now, no mainstream media outlet in the country has covered this story, from what I’ve seen—CNN, Fox News, The New York Times, The New York Post—you can search any of their websites for Lawrence Herr—and you can check me on this—and you’ll get no results. Instead of talking about Lawrence Herr, who was executed for his race in the middle of the day, they spent the past week going wall to wall with an obviously fake story about a pregnant white physician’s assistant in New York City who supposedly decided to, out of nowhere one day, terrorize some black people. You’ll probably know the details by now about this story: According to the media, Sarah Comrie got off her 12 hour shift at Bellevue and, for some utterly perplexing reason, decided to steal a Citi Bike from a group of black teens. She would be, I think perhaps, the first middle aged white woman to attempt to mug a bunch of black males. This doesn’t happen - we’ve never seen anything like it before, it would be totally unprecedented in world history, and yet, no media outlets did any research or investigation into this version of events. We were supposed to accept it at face value, and many people did. And they did so based entirely on this out of context video.
Here’s how the New York Post covered that clip, this was the headline: “NYC hospital ‘Karen’ on leave after being accused of trying to take black man’s bike in viral video”. The article goes to mock Sarah Comrie, saying that she “appears to start crying theatrically” in the video. Now, this is the New York Post we’re talking about, which broke the Hunter Biden laptop story. They’re capable of doing real investigative journalism on occasion—and sometimes they do—but what they did here is a use a racial slur in a headline to spread an obvious lie about a pregnant hospital worker.
And yes, “Karen” is a racial slur. I made this point a year ago on Reddit, and of course, a large gaggle of idiots, like usual, pretended that they had no idea what I was talking about, “how could Karen be a racial slur, that’s rediculous,” but everyone knows the truth. Even an article in the BBC from 2020 acknowledges that the Karen meme references “a specific type of middle class white women”, and it became popular “as a way for people of colour, particularly black Americans, to satirise” this type of white person. In other words, it’s a derogatory label that one race of people uses to describe members of another race, otherwise known as a racial slur, that’s what a racial slur is. So I wonder, what other racial slurs does the New York Post allow in their style guide? Do they have any racial slurs about the black teenagers who lied about this woman stealing their Citi Bike? Why not? And what if the Daily Wire started running headlines with the name “Shaniqua” as a pejorative for annoying black women? Would all the people defending the Karen slur remain so open minded? I think we all know the answer.

27F. I’ve always had super clear, almost lottery-lucky skin. It’s chronically dry and I need to drink more water, but I never had acne in the sense a lot of people do. As a result, I didn’t have a skincare routine at all until last year. As I get closer to 30, I want to make sure I’m taking good care of my skin with main goals being hydration and wrinkle prevention. If it helps, I’m super pale but don’t burn very easily.
Morning routine: The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid Glow Recipe Vitamin C FAB Ultra Repair Cream Supergoop Glowscreen
Evening routine: The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid FAB Ultra Repair Cream
I know I should probably think about adding a retinol but am lost on brands or types so any recommendations would be great!

Just had a conversation where the issue came up of, in which jurisdictions is a woman forcing intercourse on a man considered to be rape? I assume most of you know that the CDC and FBI do not consider this to be rape, they define rape as penetrating someone without consent. The UK does this too. But in the US, it varies by state. So, which states use rape to mean penetrating someone without consent? The good news is it's less than half, 18 states use this def of rape. First, I want to emphasize please - let me know if you disagree with my findings. At the bottom of this post is the link I used, feel free to check out my results. (No, Nevada is not one of them, read the definition carefully). Again, let me know what you think). I should add that for those states who don't use the word "rape" in their statutes, I went by their most serious form of sexual assault instead.
OK, drumroll please, here's the 18 states that agree with the CDC Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas. SOURCE: https://ndaa.org/wp-content/uploads/sexual-assault-chart.pdf

Just had a conversation where the issue came up of, in which jurisdictions is a woman forcing intercourse on a man considered to be rape? I assume most of you know that the CDC and FBI do not consider this to be rape, they define rape as penetrating someone without consent. The UK does this too. But in the US, it varies by state. So, which states use rape to mean penetrating someone without consent? The good news is it's less than half, 18 states use this def of rape. First, I want to emphasize please - let me know if you disagree with my findings. At the bottom of this post is the link I used, feel free to check out my results. (No, Nevada is not one of them, read the definition carefully). Again, let me know what you think). I should add that for those states who don't use the word "rape" in their statutes, I went by their most serious form of sexual assault instead.
OK, drumroll please, here's the 18 states that agree with the CDC
Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas.
SOURCE:
https://ndaa.org/wp-content/uploads/sexual-assault-chart.pdf

Following the NBA Draft Combine, mock draft boards have shifted with the lottery results unveiled and several players rising, including Brandon Miller, Taylor Hendricks, Olivier-Maxence Prosper and Ben Sheppard.
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To better project where the top prospects currently stand, we compiled 10 mock drafts from ESPN, The Athletic, Bleacher Report, The Ringer, NBADraft.net, Sports Illustrated, CBS Sports, Yahoo, SB Nation, and USA TODAY’s For The Win.
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Then, HoopsHype gathered thoughts from multiple NBA executives and scouts for their insight on the projected first-round picks for the sixth edition of the aggregate mock draft to find the answer.
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NOTE: These rankings reflect the composite score to get a feel for the overall consensus, not our own opinion. For example, if a player was the first pick on a publication’s mock draft, he received 60 points. If a player was second, he received 59 points, and so on. We then tabulated the total number of points for each player’s consensus ranking.

short version:
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the asus x570-e gaming wifi 2 motherboard causes my 5950x cpu to underperform in all core usage by 300 mhz. this is A LOT! this is 8% missing clock speed.
instead of trying to fix the problem, asus support lies and gaslights me to the point where they try to get me to believe, that this broken behavior is perfectly normal.
going so far as to say a cinebench r20 score of 9300 (picture 1 https://imgbox.com/K4Mmeg64 ) is an acceptable score for a 5950x. (IT IS NOT!)
​
reasons for this long detailed post to exist:

1. goal why this post got made is to create public pressure on asus to FIX the problem with their motherboard as support fully ignored this issue.
2. goal is to warn people to avoid asus as a brand completely if at all possible.

​
asus forum link about this issue and the support hell experience:
https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/gaming-motherboards/asus-x570-e-gaming-wifi-ii-is-broken-reducing-5950x-cpu-clocks/m-p/932777#M1265
____________
​
whole long version in mostly chronological order:

1. asus shipped a broken motherboard, that causes a cpu to underperform.

losing around 300 mhz all core clock (picture 2 https://imgbox.com/HLIF7td4 )
and 6% -ish missing benchmark performance. (picture 3 https://imgbox.com/zPK6D7x1 )
my clock speed: 3600-3625 mhz
my cinebench r20 score: 9539.78 (10 run average, low chip temperature)
reviewer clock speed 3925-3950 mhz
reviewer cinebench r20 score average 10146
missing clock speed: 325 mhz (8%)
missing cinebench score: 606 (6%)
​

1. latest bios (4404 and 4602) reduces performance further by around 1% in benchmarks compared to bios 0309.
   
2. customer contacts asus support
   
3. i provide asus with all my data, which includes pictures of test runs running cpu-z, hwinfo64, etc…. I also include a spreadsheet of reviewer scores (picture 4 spreadsheet https://imgbox.com/IlktIZSa ) and a hardware unboxed screenshot showing their clockspeeds during cinebench r20 as a perfect comparison.
   

link to hardware unboxed review showing their stock score of 10157 and all core clock speed of 3925-3950 mhz in cinebench r20:
https://odysee.com/@HardwareUnboxed:2/amd-ryzen-9-5950x-benchmark-review:1?t=295
​

1. asus support claims to have replicated the issue and forwarded the issue to their higher technical team. (picture 5 https://imgbox.com/v3bfB0FW )
   
2. the asus support gaslighting begins:
   

asus support claims, that a 300 mhz reduced all core clock is due to “system specification difference” compared to professional reviewers.
this follows with asus telling me to overclock my cpu with enabling PBO (precision boost overdrive) and changing certain vrm settings alongside with it. (picture 6 https://imgbox.com/0YSIxISr )
​

1. lots of asus support hell.

this included several people giving the same advice of overclocking my cpu after I specifically said, that this not a solution and not desired.
support keeps “reseting”. this means, that I talk to a new person, who then takes days to forward the issue to someone else, who then might as said earlier give nonsense “advice”. (e.g. : overclock your computer)
​

1. asus lying about 5950x performance:

asus support tells me, that the expected score variance of a 5950x is 9300-9800 points in cinebench r20. (picture 1 https://imgbox.com/K4Mmeg64 ) this is a LIE! (trying to gaslight a customer here)
the variance of 5950x scores from professional reviewers was between 9801-10522.
9801 is already an outlier from the asus crosshair viii formula from overclock3d’s review compared to other reviewer scores.
medium score of 5950x reviews is: 10146.
my score is: 9600.6 (0309 bios) 9539.8 (4404 bios)
​
so I am missing 6% cinebench score and as mentioned in the title 300 mhz all core clock!!!!
the score is worse by a lot than the worst reviewer score.
the clock and score difference is WAY bigger than could get contributed to silicon lottery differences.
so either my motherboard is broken or my cpu is broken.
​

1. asus claims, that they were not able to reproduce the issue now (picture 7 https://imgbox.com/bqbDotHB ), despite claiming, that they replicated the issue earlier.

remember, that asus now claims at the same time for the same issue, that they:
A: reproduced the issue of missing clock speed and performance
B: the score and clocks are perfectly fine and as expected
C: they were not able to reproduce the issue
now you might have noticed, that A, B and C can’t be true at the same time , but asus support doesn’t care and will actually give inherently contradictory statements.
it is absurd and insulting!
​

1. asus keeps going back and forth between having recreated the issue and claiming, that they did nothing and need basic questions answered first.

even when I asked extremely directly whether they did reproduce the issue, asus REFUSED to give me an answer to even that later on!
so the logical step after their latest nonsense claims and avoiding answering is to ask them specifically for the cinebench scores and clocks, that they saw in their claimed test runs.
​

1. guess what…

asus REFUSES to provide their 5950x score results on this motherboard as well as clock speeds after asking them multiple times for this most basic information.
​

1. asus goes on to claim, that my score (and thus clocks) are perfectly fine. (picture 8 https://imgbox.com/ymyaqcxw ) (gaslighting again)

they then LIE and claim, that the reviewers had PBO enabled. (picture 9 https://imgbox.com/5dZnvr29 )
remember: reviewer cinebench r20 score average is 10146.44 my score is 9539.78. both stock.
​
important to know here, that I linked pictures of hardware unboxed running cinebench r20 earlier.
this shows the cpu running at STOCK tdc limit, which is 95 amps.
that not being enough I also send asus a spreadsheet of professional reviewer scores, the boards they used and links to the reviews. NONE of them used PBO of course. (picture 3 https://imgbox.com/zPK6D7x1 )
​
asus literally is trying to tell me here, that 2+2 = 5!
I send them pictures before, that showed, that 2 + 2 =4 (hardware unboxed picture with stock settings running getting 10k+ cinebench r20 score for example)
​
NO asus, go screw yourself! 2+2 =/= 5!
your freaking board is broken and your garbage support can try to lie to me and try to gaslight me as much as they want, this won’t change the facts!
​
this is where it ended at the time.
asus support clearly refused to provide any actual support.
they refused to be honest to a customer on whether or not they recreated the issue.
they continuously lied to me the customer for many many emails over and over again.
they tried to gaslight me to get me to believe, that professional reviewers had PBO enabled to get those stock scores (10146.44 average) and that a 9300-9800 cinebench r20 score is the expected range for a 5950x cpu!
​
there was no budging. that was the line they were drawing.
a straight middle finger to the customer, who spend 370 euros on one of their garbage products. :/
​
this is the experience you can expect to get from asus products or worse.
see section
“examples of other MAJOR asus motherboard problems:”
below for examples of “worse”
​
maybe this big post with lots of evidence will be enough to get asus to fix their broken product, but who knows.
either way, please let this post be a warning, to avoid asus products if at all possible!
​
and for anyone from asus reading this:
fix your broken garbage hardware! and replace the hardware, that can’t get fixed through software!
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_______end of the WHOLE LONG VERSION here________
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some more stuff still follows for anyone interested, but feel free to ignore those and thank you for reading and hopefully sharing the information about garbage broken asus hardware and the horrible, lying and gaslighting asus support.
​
1: how asus should address the problem
2: relevant specs of my system
3: benchmarking information, as in how i benchmarked
4: examples of other MAJOR asus motherboard problems
_____
1. how asus should address the problem:
public validation:
DO actual validation of the issue and share the data through screenshots publicly here on the asus forum:
get 2 5950x cpus 1. being revision/stepping B0, the other being B2. it could be, that the issue is isolated to the B2 stepping, but i doubt it. but hey this is what proper validation looks like and asus has the chips FOR SURE.
run them in the asus crosshair viii hero wifi with the bios version reviewers used like bios 2311 and the latest bios (this board performed properly for reviewers), then test both of those cpus in the ASUS X570-E Gaming WIFI II with 0309 and 4602 bios.
if the board is fine, then the scores should give the almost identical clocks and scores and the scores should be around or above 10k in cinebench r20 and there should be NO regression in scores when updating to a newer bios.
and i would know, that my cpu is broken and i can contact amd for a replacement. (very very unlikely to be the case)
​
if the x570-e gaming wifi 2 is broken, then it will show a massive drop in scores and clocks as i suspect is the case.
again, post all pictures with hwinfo64 open as a response here in the asus forum thread i created.
​
assuming it is the board, which is VERY likely, then the following must be done:
​
work on a fix, which is likely an easy bios fix and then share the fix with a public bios update.
so you grab your bios developers, look at the bios of the asus crosshair viii hero wifi board with bios 2311 and compare it to the asus x570-e gaming wifi 2.
take whatever is broken in the asus x570-e gaming wifi 2 bios and replace it/fix it with the crosshair viii hero wifi bios code with adjustments of course for the x570-e board.
do the same with asus motherboards, that have the same or similar issue. this person has the same or similar issue of missing clock speed/ performance on the asus rog strix x570-i gaming for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xFaCVOFST0&t=311s
so I’m not alone here btw!
if the issue is NOT software based, but hardware based and there is no software fix possible, then REPLACE MY BOARD WITH A WORKING ONE!
and do the same for everyone else with this garbage broken board.
____________________
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2. relevant specs of my system:
motherboard: asus X570-E Gaming WIFI II
cpu: 5950x (stepping: 2, revision VRM-B2 according to cpu-z)
bios tested: 4602 (latest), 4404 and 0309 (first bios)
psu: evga p6 750 watt (seasonic built unit)
os: spyware 10 (windows 10) 2 different versions tested and windows 7
_____
​

1. some benchmarking information, for anyone wondering about my data gathering:

all testing was done with 10 runs and very controlled. no other program running, no screen recording software running, etc… any big outlier due to for example spyware 10 (windows 10) background garbage going on was dropped from the averages.
lots of bios and software testing was done.
any test, where a screenshot was taken is of course discarded from the score data. (that’s the reason 2 scores in picture 2 are blacked out)
and ambient temp controlled as well as i could.
​
examples of testing i did:
with and without chipset driver, different chipset driver versions. windows 7 (score gets lower, but clocks stay the same) and 2 spyware 10 versions.
lots and lots of bios settings, which includes disabling any possible asus garbage, that could cause issues and changing core current telemetry offset up and down.
i tried everything i could think of, before contacting asus support basically and i did very strong data collection to present them with the best, most accurate data i could reproduce.
if you have any question about how horrible asus support is, or details of the data, please feel free to ask me. i’ll gladly answer them if i can
​
4. examples of other MAJOR asus motherboard problems:
this is for anyone thinking, that my experience with this one product is rare.
the 3 examples given include the biggest asus forum thread with the most views and comments ever (asus x570 dark hero not starting up) and straight up fire risk and thus risk of life, that also didn’t get properly addressed for over 8 months (asus z690 hero) :
​
1 asus x570 dark hero NOT starting up at times:
https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/previous-forum/asus-dark-hero-startup-issue/m-p/813987
record asus forum post with most responses and most views. asus did NOTHING to address this problem and was returning boards unchanged, or is exchanging boards and the replacement gets the same issue in a few months at best. asus refuses to share the result of their investigation. (speculation: to avoid a recall) this issue also effects other motherboards btw….
​
2 asus x670 boards:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbGfc-JBxlY&list=PLsuVSmND84Qv-dOEYb8uImC6Jc27gZG8x&index=2
sending 1.4 volts at the soc.
burning through chips and motherboards too or degrading the cpu permanently.
putting on WARRANTY VOID disclaimers on beta bioses, that were created to stop further degrading or burning through chips by limiting the soc voltage theoretically to 1.30 volts soc as per amd guidance.
it wasn’t actually fixed at the time with beta bioses as it was still far above 1.30 volts for soc voltage.
so asus set out a statement to void your warranty, when you update a bios to one, that should protect your hardware actually, but at the same time, that beta bios, that had ONE JOB! didn’t even do that!!
lots of manufacturers had too high soc voltages, not just asus, but asus was the highest and asus handled it BY FAR the worst way.
​
3 asus z690 hero fire and risk of life issue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8ktO-WdlyQ
no full proper recall done for over 8 months.
for a FIRE RISK, you do a PROPER recall, because people could die.
asus did NOT do so.
to be clear here, PEOPLE COULD HAVE DIED!, because asus didn’t do a proper recall for this level of issue. that is the level that asus is at!
_____________
​
so that was all then, hope anyone who made it here and read everything is going to have a lovely life free from asus support hell.
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THE END!

short version:
​
the asus x570-e gaming wifi 2 motherboard causes my 5950x cpu to underperform in all core usage by 300 mhz. this is A LOT! this is 8% missing clock speed.
instead of trying to fix the problem, asus support lies and gaslights me to the point where they try to get me to believe, that this broken behavior is perfectly normal.
going so far as to say a cinebench r20 score of 9300 (picture 1 https://imgbox.com/K4Mmeg64 ) is an acceptable score for a 5950x. (IT IS NOT!)
​
reasons for this long detailed post to exist:

1. goal why this post got made is to create public pressure on asus to FIX the problem with their motherboard as support fully ignored this issue.
   
2. goal is to warn people to avoid asus as a brand completely if at all possible.
   

​
asus forum link about this issue and the support hell experience:
https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/gaming-motherboards/asus-x570-e-gaming-wifi-ii-is-broken-reducing-5950x-cpu-clocks/m-p/932777#M1265
____________
​
whole long version in mostly chronological order:

1. asus shipped a broken motherboard, that causes a cpu to underperform.

losing around 300 mhz all core clock (picture 2 https://imgbox.com/HLIF7td4 )
and 6% -ish missing benchmark performance. (picture 3 https://imgbox.com/zPK6D7x1 )
my clock speed: 3600-3625 mhz
my cinebench r20 score: 9539.78 (10 run average, low chip temperature)
reviewer clock speed 3925-3950 mhz
reviewer cinebench r20 score average 10146
missing clock speed: 325 mhz (8%)
missing cinebench score: 606 (6%)
​

1. latest bios (4404 and 4602) reduces performance further by around 1% in benchmarks compared to bios 0309.
   
2. customer contacts asus support
   
3. i provide asus with all my data, which includes pictures of test runs running cpu-z, hwinfo64, etc…. I also include a spreadsheet of reviewer scores (picture 4 spreadsheet https://imgbox.com/IlktIZSa ) and a hardware unboxed screenshot showing their clockspeeds during cinebench r20 as a perfect comparison.
   

link to hardware unboxed review showing their stock score of 10157 and all core clock speed of 3925-3950 mhz in cinebench r20:
https://odysee.com/@HardwareUnboxed:2/amd-ryzen-9-5950x-benchmark-review:1?t=295
​

1. asus support claims to have replicated the issue and forwarded the issue to their higher technical team. (picture 5 https://imgbox.com/v3bfB0FW )
   
2. the asus support gaslighting begins:
   

asus support claims, that a 300 mhz reduced all core clock is due to “system specification difference” compared to professional reviewers.
this follows with asus telling me to overclock my cpu with enabling PBO (precision boost overdrive) and changing certain vrm settings alongside with it. (picture 6 https://imgbox.com/0YSIxISr )
​

1. lots of asus support hell.

this included several people giving the same advice of overclocking my cpu after I specifically said, that this not a solution and not desired.
support keeps “reseting”. this means, that I talk to a new person, who then takes days to forward the issue to someone else, who then might as said earlier give nonsense “advice”. (e.g. : overclock your computer)
​

1. asus lying about 5950x performance:

asus support tells me, that the expected score variance of a 5950x is 9300-9800 points in cinebench r20. (picture 1 https://imgbox.com/K4Mmeg64 ) this is a LIE! (trying to gaslight a customer here)
the variance of 5950x scores from professional reviewers was between 9801-10522.
9801 is already an outlier from the asus crosshair viii formula from overclock3d’s review compared to other reviewer scores.
medium score of 5950x reviews is: 10146.
my score is: 9600.6 (0309 bios) 9539.8 (4404 bios)
​
so I am missing 6% cinebench score and as mentioned in the title 300 mhz all core clock!!!!
the score is worse by a lot than the worst reviewer score.
the clock and score difference is WAY bigger than could get contributed to silicon lottery differences.
so either my motherboard is broken or my cpu is broken.
​

1. asus claims, that they were not able to reproduce the issue now (picture 7 https://imgbox.com/bqbDotHB ), despite claiming, that they replicated the issue earlier.

remember, that asus now claims at the same time for the same issue, that they:
A: reproduced the issue of missing clock speed and performance
B: the score and clocks are perfectly fine and as expected
C: they were not able to reproduce the issue
now you might have noticed, that A, B and C can’t be true at the same time , but asus support doesn’t care and will actually give inherently contradictory statements.
it is absurd and insulting!
​

1. asus keeps going back and forth between having recreated the issue and claiming, that they did nothing and need basic questions answered first.

even when I asked extremely directly whether they did reproduce the issue, asus REFUSED to give me an answer to even that later on!
so the logical step after their latest nonsense claims and avoiding answering is to ask them specifically for the cinebench scores and clocks, that they saw in their claimed test runs.
​

1. guess what… :D

asus REFUSES to provide their 5950x score results on this motherboard as well as clock speeds after asking them multiple times for this most basic information.
​

1. asus goes on to claim, that my score (and thus clocks) are perfectly fine. (picture 8 https://imgbox.com/ymyaqcxw ) (gaslighting again)

they then LIE and claim, that the reviewers had PBO enabled. (picture 9 https://imgbox.com/5dZnvr29 )
remember: reviewer cinebench r20 score average is 10146.44 my score is 9539.78. both stock.
​
important to know here, that I linked pictures of hardware unboxed running cinebench r20 earlier.
this shows the cpu running at STOCK tdc limit, which is 95 amps.
that not being enough I also send asus a spreadsheet of professional reviewer scores, the boards they used and links to the reviews. NONE of them used PBO of course. (picture 3 https://imgbox.com/zPK6D7x1 )
​
asus literally is trying to tell me here, that 2+2 = 5!
I send them pictures before, that showed, that 2 + 2 =4 (hardware unboxed picture with stock settings running getting 10k+ cinebench r20 score for example)
​
NO asus, go screw yourself! 2+2 =/= 5!
your freaking board is broken and your garbage support can try to lie to me and try to gaslight me as much as they want, this won’t change the facts!
​
this is where it ended at the time.
asus support clearly refused to provide any actual support.
they refused to be honest to a customer on whether or not they recreated the issue.
they continuously lied to me the customer for many many emails over and over again.
they tried to gaslight me to get me to believe, that professional reviewers had PBO enabled to get those stock scores (10146.44 average) and that a 9300-9800 cinebench r20 score is the expected range for a 5950x cpu!
​
there was no budging. that was the line they were drawing.
a straight middle finger to the customer, who spend 370 euros on one of their garbage products. :/
​
this is the experience you can expect to get from asus products or worse.
see section
“examples of other MAJOR asus motherboard problems:”
below for examples of “worse”
​
maybe this big post with lots of evidence will be enough to get asus to fix their broken product, but who knows.
either way, please let this post be a warning, to avoid asus products if at all possible!
​
and for anyone from asus reading this:
fix your broken garbage hardware! and replace the hardware, that can’t get fixed through software!
​
_______end of the WHOLE LONG VERSION here________
​
some more stuff still follows for anyone interested, but feel free to ignore those and thank you for reading and hopefully sharing the information about garbage broken asus hardware and the horrible, lying and gaslighting asus support.
​
1: how asus should address the problem
2: relevant specs of my system
3: benchmarking information, as in how i benchmarked
4: examples of other MAJOR asus motherboard problems
_____
1. how asus should address the problem:
public validation:
DO actual validation of the issue and share the data through screenshots publicly here on the asus forum:
get 2 5950x cpus 1. being revision/stepping B0, the other being B2. it could be, that the issue is isolated to the B2 stepping, but i doubt it. but hey this is what proper validation looks like and asus has the chips FOR SURE.
run them in the asus crosshair viii hero wifi with the bios version reviewers used like bios 2311 and the latest bios (this board performed properly for reviewers), then test both of those cpus in the ASUS X570-E Gaming WIFI II with 0309 and 4602 bios.
if the board is fine, then the scores should give the almost identical clocks and scores and the scores should be around or above 10k in cinebench r20 and there should be NO regression in scores when updating to a newer bios.
and i would know, that my cpu is broken and i can contact amd for a replacement. (very very unlikely to be the case)
​
if the x570-e gaming wifi 2 is broken, then it will show a massive drop in scores and clocks as i suspect is the case.
again, post all pictures with hwinfo64 open as a response here in the asus forum thread i created.
​
assuming it is the board, which is VERY likely, then the following must be done:
​
work on a fix, which is likely an easy bios fix and then share the fix with a public bios update.
so you grab your bios developers, look at the bios of the asus crosshair viii hero wifi board with bios 2311 and compare it to the asus x570-e gaming wifi 2.
take whatever is broken in the asus x570-e gaming wifi 2 bios and replace it/fix it with the crosshair viii hero wifi bios code with adjustments of course for the x570-e board.
do the same with asus motherboards, that have the same or similar issue. this person has the same or similar issue of missing clock speed/ performance on the asus rog strix x570-i gaming for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xFaCVOFST0&t=311s
so I’m not alone here btw!
if the issue is NOT software based, but hardware based and there is no software fix possible, then REPLACE MY BOARD WITH A WORKING ONE!
and do the same for everyone else with this garbage broken board.
____________________
​
2. relevant specs of my system:
motherboard: asus X570-E Gaming WIFI II
cpu: 5950x (stepping: 2, revision VRM-B2 according to cpu-z)
bios tested: 4602 (latest), 4404 and 0309 (first bios)
psu: evga p6 750 watt (seasonic built unit)
os: spyware 10 (windows 10) 2 different versions tested and windows 7
_____
​

1. some benchmarking information, for anyone wondering about my data gathering:

all testing was done with 10 runs and very controlled. no other program running, no screen recording software running, etc… any big outlier due to for example spyware 10 (windows 10) background garbage going on was dropped from the averages.
lots of bios and software testing was done.
any test, where a screenshot was taken is of course discarded from the score data. (that’s the reason 2 scores in picture 2 are blacked out)
and ambient temp controlled as well as i could.
​
examples of testing i did:
with and without chipset driver, different chipset driver versions. windows 7 (score gets lower, but clocks stay the same) and 2 spyware 10 versions.
lots and lots of bios settings, which includes disabling any possible asus garbage, that could cause issues and changing core current telemetry offset up and down.
i tried everything i could think of, before contacting asus support basically and i did very strong data collection to present them with the best, most accurate data i could reproduce.
if you have any question about how horrible asus support is, or details of the data, please feel free to ask me. i’ll gladly answer them if i can
​
4. examples of other MAJOR asus motherboard problems:
this is for anyone thinking, that my experience with this one product is rare.
the 3 examples given include the biggest asus forum thread with the most views and comments ever (asus x570 dark hero not starting up) and straight up fire risk and thus risk of life, that also didn’t get properly addressed for over 8 months (asus z690 hero) :
​
1 asus x570 dark hero NOT starting up at times:
https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/previous-forum/asus-dark-hero-startup-issue/m-p/813987
record asus forum post with most responses and most views. asus did NOTHING to address this problem and was returning boards unchanged, or is exchanging boards and the replacement gets the same issue in a few months at best. asus refuses to share the result of their investigation. (speculation: to avoid a recall) this issue also effects other motherboards btw….
​
2 asus x670 boards:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbGfc-JBxlY&list=PLsuVSmND84Qv-dOEYb8uImC6Jc27gZG8x&index=2
sending 1.4 volts at the soc.
burning through chips and motherboards too or degrading the cpu permanently.
putting on WARRANTY VOID disclaimers on beta bioses, that were created to stop further degrading or burning through chips by limiting the soc voltage theoretically to 1.30 volts soc as per amd guidance.
it wasn’t actually fixed at the time with beta bioses as it was still far above 1.30 volts for soc voltage.
so asus set out a statement to void your warranty, when you update a bios to one, that should protect your hardware actually, but at the same time, that beta bios, that had ONE JOB! didn’t even do that!!
lots of manufacturers had too high soc voltages, not just asus, but asus was the highest and asus handled it BY FAR the worst way.
​
3 asus z690 hero fire and risk of life issue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8ktO-WdlyQ
no full proper recall done for over 8 months.
for a FIRE RISK, you do a PROPER recall, because people could die.
asus did NOT do so.
to be clear here, PEOPLE COULD HAVE DIED!, because asus didn’t do a proper recall for this level of issue. that is the level that asus is at!
_____________
​
so that was all then, hope anyone who made it here and read everything is going to have a lovely life free from asus support hell. :D
​
THE END!

short version:
​
the asus x570-e gaming wifi 2 motherboard causes my 5950x cpu to underperform in all core usage by 300 mhz. this is A LOT! this is 8% missing clock speed.
instead of trying to fix the problem, asus support lies and gaslights me to the point where they try to get me to believe, that this broken behavior is perfectly normal.
going so far as to say a cinebench r20 score of 9300 (picture 1 https://imgbox.com/K4Mmeg64 ) is an acceptable score for a 5950x. (IT IS NOT!)
​
reasons for this long detailed post to exist:

1. goal why this post got made is to create public pressure on asus to FIX the problem with their motherboard as support fully ignored this issue.
   
2. goal is to warn people to avoid asus as a brand completely if at all possible.
   

​
asus forum link about this issue and the support hell experience:
https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/gaming-motherboards/asus-x570-e-gaming-wifi-ii-is-broken-reducing-5950x-cpu-clocks/m-p/932777#M1265
____________
​
whole long version in mostly chronological order:

1. asus shipped a broken motherboard, that causes a cpu to underperform.

losing around 300 mhz all core clock (picture 2 https://imgbox.com/HLIF7td4 )
and 6% -ish missing benchmark performance. (picture 3 https://imgbox.com/zPK6D7x1 )
my clock speed: 3600-3625 mhz
my cinebench r20 score: 9539.78 (10 run average, low chip temperature)
reviewer clock speed 3925-3950 mhz
reviewer cinebench r20 score average 10146
missing clock speed: 325 mhz (8%)
missing cinebench score: 606 (6%)
​

1. latest bios (4404 and 4602) reduces performance further by around 1% in benchmarks compared to bios 0309.
   
2. customer contacts asus support
   
3. i provide asus with all my data, which includes pictures of test runs running cpu-z, hwinfo64, etc…. I also include a spreadsheet of reviewer scores (picture 4 spreadsheet https://imgbox.com/IlktIZSa ) and a hardware unboxed screenshot showing their clockspeeds during cinebench r20 as a perfect comparison.
   

link to hardware unboxed review showing their stock score of 10157 and all core clock speed of 3925-3950 mhz in cinebench r20:
https://odysee.com/@HardwareUnboxed:2/amd-ryzen-9-5950x-benchmark-review:1?t=295
​

1. asus support claims to have replicated the issue and forwarded the issue to their higher technical team. (picture 5 https://imgbox.com/v3bfB0FW )
   
2. the asus support gaslighting begins:
   

asus support claims, that a 300 mhz reduced all core clock is due to “system specification difference” compared to professional reviewers.
this follows with asus telling me to overclock my cpu with enabling PBO (precision boost overdrive) and changing certain vrm settings alongside with it. (picture 6 https://imgbox.com/0YSIxISr )
​

1. lots of asus support hell.

this included several people giving the same advice of overclocking my cpu after I specifically said, that this not a solution and not desired.
support keeps “reseting”. this means, that I talk to a new person, who then takes days to forward the issue to someone else, who then might as said earlier give nonsense “advice”. (e.g. : overclock your computer)
​

1. asus lying about 5950x performance:

asus support tells me, that the expected score variance of a 5950x is 9300-9800 points in cinebench r20. (picture 1 https://imgbox.com/K4Mmeg64 ) this is a LIE! (trying to gaslight a customer here)
the variance of 5950x scores from professional reviewers was between 9801-10522.
9801 is already an outlier from the asus crosshair viii formula from overclock3d’s review compared to other reviewer scores.
medium score of 5950x reviews is: 10146.
my score is: 9600.6 (0309 bios) 9539.8 (4404 bios)
​
so I am missing 6% cinebench score and as mentioned in the title 300 mhz all core clock!!!!
the score is worse by a lot than the worst reviewer score.
the clock and score difference is WAY bigger than could get contributed to silicon lottery differences.
so either my motherboard is broken or my cpu is broken.
​

1. asus claims, that they were not able to reproduce the issue now (picture 7 https://imgbox.com/bqbDotHB ), despite claiming, that they replicated the issue earlier.

remember, that asus now claims at the same time for the same issue, that they:
A: reproduced the issue of missing clock speed and performance
B: the score and clocks are perfectly fine and as expected
C: they were not able to reproduce the issue
now you might have noticed, that A, B and C can’t be true at the same time , but asus support doesn’t care and will actually give inherently contradictory statements.
it is absurd and insulting!
​

1. asus keeps going back and forth between having recreated the issue and claiming, that they did nothing and need basic questions answered first.

even when I asked extremely directly whether they did reproduce the issue, asus REFUSED to give me an answer to even that later on!
so the logical step after their latest nonsense claims and avoiding answering is to ask them specifically for the cinebench scores and clocks, that they saw in their claimed test runs.
​

1. guess what…

asus REFUSES to provide their 5950x score results on this motherboard as well as clock speeds after asking them multiple times for this most basic information.
​

1. asus goes on to claim, that my score (and thus clocks) are perfectly fine. (picture 8 https://imgbox.com/ymyaqcxw ) (gaslighting again)

they then LIE and claim, that the reviewers had PBO enabled. (picture 9 https://imgbox.com/5dZnvr29 )
remember: reviewer cinebench r20 score average is 10146.44 my score is 9539.78. both stock.
​
important to know here, that I linked pictures of hardware unboxed running cinebench r20 earlier.
this shows the cpu running at STOCK tdc limit, which is 95 amps.
that not being enough I also send asus a spreadsheet of professional reviewer scores, the boards they used and links to the reviews. NONE of them used PBO of course. (picture 3 https://imgbox.com/zPK6D7x1 )
​
asus literally is trying to tell me here, that 2+2 = 5!
I send them pictures before, that showed, that 2 + 2 =4 (hardware unboxed picture with stock settings running getting 10k+ cinebench r20 score for example)
​
NO asus, go screw yourself! 2+2 =/= 5!
your freaking board is broken and your garbage support can try to lie to me and try to gaslight me as much as they want, this won’t change the facts!
​
this is where it ended at the time.
asus support clearly refused to provide any actual support.
they refused to be honest to a customer on whether or not they recreated the issue.
they continuously lied to me the customer for many many emails over and over again.
they tried to gaslight me to get me to believe, that professional reviewers had PBO enabled to get those stock scores (10146.44 average) and that a 9300-9800 cinebench r20 score is the expected range for a 5950x cpu!
​
there was no budging. that was the line they were drawing.
a straight middle finger to the customer, who spend 370 euros on one of their garbage products. :/
​
this is the experience you can expect to get from asus products or worse.
see section
“examples of other MAJOR asus motherboard problems:”
below for examples of “worse”
​
maybe this big post with lots of evidence will be enough to get asus to fix their broken product, but who knows.
either way, please let this post be a warning, to avoid asus products if at all possible!
​
and for anyone from asus reading this:
fix your broken garbage hardware! and replace the hardware, that can’t get fixed through software!
​
_______end of the WHOLE LONG VERSION here________
​
some more stuff still follows for anyone interested, but feel free to ignore those and thank you for reading and hopefully sharing the information about garbage broken asus hardware and the horrible, lying and gaslighting asus support.
​
1: how asus should address the problem
2: relevant specs of my system
3: benchmarking information, as in how i benchmarked
4: examples of other MAJOR asus motherboard problems
_____
1. how asus should address the problem:
public validation:
DO actual validation of the issue and share the data through screenshots publicly here on the asus forum:
get 2 5950x cpus 1. being revision/stepping B0, the other being B2. it could be, that the issue is isolated to the B2 stepping, but i doubt it. but hey this is what proper validation looks like and asus has the chips FOR SURE.
run them in the asus crosshair viii hero wifi with the bios version reviewers used like bios 2311 and the latest bios (this board performed properly for reviewers), then test both of those cpus in the ASUS X570-E Gaming WIFI II with 0309 and 4602 bios.
if the board is fine, then the scores should give the almost identical clocks and scores and the scores should be around or above 10k in cinebench r20 and there should be NO regression in scores when updating to a newer bios.
and i would know, that my cpu is broken and i can contact amd for a replacement. (very very unlikely to be the case)
​
if the x570-e gaming wifi 2 is broken, then it will show a massive drop in scores and clocks as i suspect is the case.
again, post all pictures with hwinfo64 open as a response here in the asus forum thread i created.
​
assuming it is the board, which is VERY likely, then the following must be done:
​
work on a fix, which is likely an easy bios fix and then share the fix with a public bios update.
so you grab your bios developers, look at the bios of the asus crosshair viii hero wifi board with bios 2311 and compare it to the asus x570-e gaming wifi 2.
take whatever is broken in the asus x570-e gaming wifi 2 bios and replace it/fix it with the crosshair viii hero wifi bios code with adjustments of course for the x570-e board.
do the same with asus motherboards, that have the same or similar issue. this person has the same or similar issue of missing clock speed/ performance on the asus rog strix x570-i gaming for example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xFaCVOFST0&t=311s
so I’m not alone here btw!
if the issue is NOT software based, but hardware based and there is no software fix possible, then REPLACE MY BOARD WITH A WORKING ONE!
and do the same for everyone else with this garbage broken board.
____________________
​
2. relevant specs of my system:
motherboard: asus X570-E Gaming WIFI II
cpu: 5950x (stepping: 2, revision VRM-B2 according to cpu-z)
bios tested: 4602 (latest), 4404 and 0309 (first bios)
psu: evga p6 750 watt (seasonic built unit)
os: spyware 10 (windows 10) 2 different versions tested and windows 7
_____
​

1. some benchmarking information, for anyone wondering about my data gathering:

all testing was done with 10 runs and very controlled. no other program running, no screen recording software running, etc… any big outlier due to for example spyware 10 (windows 10) background garbage going on was dropped from the averages.
lots of bios and software testing was done.
any test, where a screenshot was taken is of course discarded from the score data. (that’s the reason 2 scores in picture 2 are blacked out)
and ambient temp controlled as well as i could.
​
examples of testing i did:
with and without chipset driver, different chipset driver versions. windows 7 (score gets lower, but clocks stay the same) and 2 spyware 10 versions.
lots and lots of bios settings, which includes disabling any possible asus garbage, that could cause issues and changing core current telemetry offset up and down.
i tried everything i could think of, before contacting asus support basically and i did very strong data collection to present them with the best, most accurate data i could reproduce.
if you have any question about how horrible asus support is, or details of the data, please feel free to ask me. i’ll gladly answer them if i can
​
4. examples of other MAJOR asus motherboard problems:
this is for anyone thinking, that my experience with this one product is rare.
the 3 examples given include the biggest asus forum thread with the most views and comments ever (asus x570 dark hero not starting up) and straight up fire risk and thus risk of life, that also didn’t get properly addressed for over 8 months (asus z690 hero) :
​
1 asus x570 dark hero NOT starting up at times:
https://rog-forum.asus.com/t5/previous-forum/asus-dark-hero-startup-issue/m-p/813987
record asus forum post with most responses and most views. asus did NOTHING to address this problem and was returning boards unchanged, or is exchanging boards and the replacement gets the same issue in a few months at best. asus refuses to share the result of their investigation. (speculation: to avoid a recall) this issue also effects other motherboards btw….
​
2 asus x670 boards:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbGfc-JBxlY&list=PLsuVSmND84Qv-dOEYb8uImC6Jc27gZG8x&index=2
sending 1.4 volts at the soc.
burning through chips and motherboards too or degrading the cpu permanently.
putting on WARRANTY VOID disclaimers on beta bioses, that were created to stop further degrading or burning through chips by limiting the soc voltage theoretically to 1.30 volts soc as per amd guidance.
it wasn’t actually fixed at the time with beta bioses as it was still far above 1.30 volts for soc voltage.
so asus set out a statement to void your warranty, when you update a bios to one, that should protect your hardware actually, but at the same time, that beta bios, that had ONE JOB! didn’t even do that!!
lots of manufacturers had too high soc voltages, not just asus, but asus was the highest and asus handled it BY FAR the worst way.
​
3 asus z690 hero fire and risk of life issue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8ktO-WdlyQ
no full proper recall done for over 8 months.
for a FIRE RISK, you do a PROPER recall, because people could die.
asus did NOT do so.
to be clear here, PEOPLE COULD HAVE DIED!, because asus didn’t do a proper recall for this level of issue. that is the level that asus is at!
_____________
​
so that was all then, hope anyone who made it here and read everything is going to have a lovely life free from asus support hell.
​
THE END!

​
Hi everyone! This is a complete English translation of the Aniara sequel book by Harry Martinson called Doriderna that was put together after the author died. This translation was put together using various translation programs that can be found online, so I can't guarantee that it is a perfect translation, but it's better than nothing. I will also post the original in Swedish so you can improve the translation or look up words etc. if you want. Hope you enjoy!
I would also like to let everyone know that I am also working on my own Aniara fan fiction short story that I call "The Lost Voices of Aniara". This story tells about the events aboard the Aniara from the view point of another passenger and attempts to add more details to the story. It should be ready in the next week or two.
​
HARRY MARTINSON
The Dorides (Doriderna)
Remaining poems and prose pieces in selection and with preface by Tord Hall Albert Bonniers Förlag
​
PREFACE
For reasons I will not go into here, Harry Martinson did not publish any new work in the last years of his life. There is therefore a very large literary legacy, the publication of which began in the fall of 1978 with "Längs ekots stigar" (Along the paths of the echo), published by Georg Svensson. This collection contains only a few purely scientific poems - the emphasis is on nature poetry. The selection was made from unpublished material - which had nevertheless reached the proof stage - in three previous collections.
It remains to address other lines of thought in Harry Martinson's work: the ideas in Aniara, which in various forms occupied his imagination until the end. To follow the continuation of this great theme - at least in part - is what I am trying to do in this second selection from the surviving archive.
​
The 103 songs in Aniara were part of a larger set of poems, and the author then worked for several years on a sequel, to be called 'The Dorids', the people of the tribe of Doris. Around 1959 there were about 80 songs - most of them in more or less completed drafts. The dominant figure in the Dorids would not be Isagel or the Mimarobe, but Nobia, the Samaritan from the tundra planet and deportation site of Mars. Nobia would be a norna (fate goddess), though not a cruel goddess of fate, but a norna who weaves goodness into the fabric of the world.
But the whole project remained a large-scale endeavor. The reasons were many: illness, world events, which seemed to be moving towards a fulfillment of the prophecies in Aniara, and which gave him an increasingly dark view of life: he told me that "Aniara has become a neurosis" ... I feel like Mima being blown apart'. But the decisive reason was surely his demand for absolute freedom in his creativity. He did not want to be confined, and the result was, as he himself said, 'I have stepped out of Aniara'.
The fact that Harry Martinson stepped out of Aniara, and thus also out of the Dorides, does not at all mean that he left the motifs or ideas found there, which cover the scientific field from atoms to stars. Rather, it means that he was able to write without direct connection to the characters of Aniara and the Dorides in particular.
I have therefore considered it justified to call this entire collection the Dorides, even though the prose pieces and several poems do not have a clearly visible connection with such a title.
In order to comment briefly on the selection, I would like to say a few words about Harry Martinson's attitude towards modern science (it is my intention to return to this subject in more detail).
There are two main lines. One is deterministic, and has its roots in classical physics, founded by Newton, which dominated until the end of the 19th century. It has a philosophical form in the law of causation, which means that if you know enough facts about a certain course of events in the present and in the past, you can precisely specify the course of events in the future. Examples of such events in the 'big world' - the macrocosm - are solar and lunar eclipses.
But in the world of atoms - the microcosm - this determinism does not apply. Heisenberg demonstrated this through his uncertainty relation, also known as the indeterminacy principle. In the atoms, individual events are indeterminate, we cannot discern any causality - there is randomness. But chance can be mastered by the methods of statistics, and we must content ourselves with a "statistical causality", which describes the course of events in the atom with the highest possible degree of probability.
It is this second, indeterministic line that has long been followed by most physicists. But there is one major exception, and that is Einstein. At the 1927 meeting of physicists in Brussels, for example, he asked Bohr, Heisenberg and others with mild irony whether they really believed that God plays dice - "ob der liebe Gott würfelt". Einstein was convinced that the universe follows an ordering principle, a geometric structure, which can be called a world soul. This is a pantheistic view that is reminiscent of Spinoza.
Similar ideas are already present in Aniara, but in this selection the picture has become more sharply defined. Harry Martinson does not believe that chance plays a decisive role in the course of the world, as is clear from several poems and prose pieces. He believes more in Einstein than in dozens of other Nobel Prize winners. Apart from these authorities, he follows his intuition.
His approach to religion has often been quoted: he chooses the Riddler over the God. This belief is reflected in 'The Riddle'. In 'Poems on Light and Darkness', published in 1971, Harry Martinson, with 'The Inner Light' and 'The Bird in the Phoenix Bell', presents the events inside the atom itself. These poems show that - although 'Aniara' and 'The Dorides' are more about stars than atoms - he never lost his interest in the microcosm. In this selection, it is the atoms that are more interesting than the stars.
The bard enters the atom. He describes the course of events in a world which is completely beyond our senses and which, despite the enormous aids of science, we will probably never be able to understand exactly. The story itself probably comes from Gamow's book "Mr. Tompkins Explores the Atom". Published in Swedish translation in 1946, it is, along with "Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland" (also 1946), the versatile Gamow's best popular science books. Harry Martinson rated them highly.
The two poems 'Submerged as in a dream but still awake' and 'Actually, the comprehensibility was slight' depict a journey of thought into the atom, and the same motif recurs in several other places.
The poem "A Cosmic Thickness Lying Boundlessly Spread" poetically depicts a world development related to the hypothesis of the "stationary universe" put forward by Hoyle and others, and to Klein-Alfvén's "symmetrical cosmology". For several reasons - mainly aesthetic - Harry Martinson did not like the theory of 'the big bang', which was celebrated by most scientists. His poem should have been written quite a long time ago, and perhaps he would have changed his mind if he had been given the opportunity to understand what the "cosmic background radiation" - with a temperature of about 3 degrees above absolute zero - means for the credibility of "The big bang". It took natural scientists some time to become convinced that this radiation can best be interpreted as a fading glow after an unimaginable cosmic explosion some 18 billion years ago.
This selection also contains several pieces of prose, which in general do not need any comment. But I would like to mention a few. For "The Figuration Patterns of the Goddancer's Juggling Program", in three sections, there is a drawing by Harry Martinson, reproduced on the cover of this collection. The spread comes from Hindu philosophy: we see 'Siwa's juggling dance before Brama'. The dominant curves are so-called lemniscates, which were already known to the ancient Greeks. The lemniscate looks like an eight and is the mathematical symbol for infinity. It is defined as the trajectory of a point under the condition that the product of its distances to two given points is constant. In the center of the drawing there are several small curves. They are ellipses, and an ellipse - also first studied by the Greeks - is defined as the trajectory of a point under the condition that the sum of its distances to two given points is constant. The result is a geometric pattern, similar to a flower, which at the same time provides a poetic image of the complex interplay of forces in the atom with outward and inward energy impulses The juggler finds it increasingly difficult to work with his ball-particles as he progresses through the periodic table of the elements. In the end, he "dances the spectral theme in the dance of the Phoenix" - a symbol of the indestructibility of both energy and poetry, and a recurring motif in Martinson's poetry.
"Delsaga om tidens ariadnetråd" (Part of the saga of the Ariadne thread of time) is almost a fantasy about four-dimensional space, where you have to be careful not to get on the wrong track. The selection of prose pieces ends with "Some fairies dancing in the summer night near a quiet lake". It is a cheerful tale where the author combines a love of the Swedish summer with a love of light.
​
I made this selection at the direct request of Harry. He even said several times that I should have all his scientific poems and prose pieces. But I think I judged this offer correctly when I saw it as an expression of his great generosity towards his friends. I always replied that he himself should complete and select what was to be published. But in his last years he did not want to publish anything. I therefore promised to make a selection if he did not change his mind.
​
He did not, and this collection is the result.
Finally, I would like to thank Ingrid Martinson and Georg Svensson for the understanding and assistance they have given me in bringing this selection to fruition.
​
Tord Hall
​
​
The Dorides (Doriderna)
The book you hold was written in Mima's hall.
Now, on a secret wavelength, it is sent home to you, my friend, who for some years inhabits a spherical beach called the Valley of Doris.
In other words, it was written so close to your own being that nothing could be closer to you than those described here. You are one of them.
​
Over the graves, the indifferent wind spreads
the whisper of the immortal gods
that no loss is foreseen in the grand scheme of things.
But what do the gods - those wasteful billionaires of the heavens - know about the beautiful and wonderful Doris?
how she was worth saving forever
and that whoever loved her
can never be comforted by the gods' continued waste.
About her a bird sings now alone in the tree of the grave. Of her as she was, the glorious one, if no other, the Dorides' thrush sings.
​
The window was full of stars,
The Leonids' swarm of stars came, then you know the time.
Autumn was gone, its yellowing burnt.
The lookout tower, closed on the wooded mountains.
I stood as a child of a time that saw the stars detach from the roofs towards a room where novas frightened a more distant valley, I found other myths than those I was used to picking hurled at me from the space of the Leonids.
I stood in the cathedral of fear of dreams.
The great copper woman who lay there with her back soldered to the lid of the sarcophagus drove horror into me, cast my foot with lead.
That the copper woman knew who I was, I immediately sensed as a deadly weight, and that I had been summoned here by herself, by the queen of copper, of that I was certain.
In empty benches sat forgotten years, from the emptiness of the auditorium the organ pipes shone like stalactites in the vault of a cave and there was nothing, no light, no hint that gathered my crumbling courage.
For everything was fulfilled as it was written in stone once when the water abandoned the green and it was said that man will go away and become the dead slave of the dead dust.
And as I stood there gripped, filled with horror
for this judgment and epitaph
which was predetermined and rehearsed
in the mute trumpet of the seraphim of the stones,
bells fell suddenly from the towers to the earth that rocked with an ore-broken thunder, and the copper woman rose, a scream of remembrance drawn from afar to her lips as she drew me in close to her copper body in terrified death.
He woke up. There was light. It was day.
And the Samaritan Nobia sat silent, but still heard the echo of the screams his dreams had squeezed out of his fear.
She searched for words simple enough for a stranger to grasp, but not so simple as to drive away his trust, hardly won yet.
In simple action she finally found them.
And she stood up and smiled with milk
From the moors of Gondrin to the mouth of this fugitive.
​
​
It is no exaggeration to say that space gave us long winter evenings rolled into one - the one that lasts. Our leisure time finally became a grim question with ice in our eyes and a frozen flame.
It became necessary to tell stories from reality - as it can be taken. I chose to tell about King Basii, who, supported by Chefone, forcibly turned himself into a god and magician in a celestial drama.
The Goldonder King felt like God and determined to live up to the gods he built himself a city in the sky.
It was a global world city of goldonders assembled into a kind of hive heaven.
But Basil's space-city, though it contained twelve million men in his service, was not enough for him; he had another built, and the greatest city in the world was soon in space. That city was a marvel to behold: a mighty golden dome, surrounded by three bionomically serving drabants, one of which was called the Vegetable City, one the Fish Drabant, and the third the Sting.
​
The names reveal their role and purpose.
So Basii sits in his heavenly land. The aquarium dragon orbits faithfully and Stings follows it with fattened animals and the vegetable moon amounts to the redwood.
The golden dome was the city of retreat for all climbers and celestial rebels, for gamma was a poison to all alike and all poor and rich alike had to choose between death and escape.
So many preferred the city of Basil.
But although he rules over twelve million
inhabitants of the great city of space, he is still very rarely happy.
And although the dragons in a faithful circle
raise animals and grow fish and wheat
Basil's only pleasure is when he gets
with Vulvis, the royal slave, to bathe in Lethe.
But all the deliciously good virginity
that can be enjoyed in Basil's harem
is in its nakedness a skin of fear.
of frightened dissimulation. And his love story
...is but a tale to be seen from the outside..,
and all his lust a forced voluptuousness.
​
Thus in The Night of Aniara I draw a little picture that everyone can understand from the rich treasure of reality.
And every time I make an arabesque in the hall of Mima about this space grotesque that Basil's space city can probably be said to be, I can for an hour or so make people sigh: the best is here anyway.
From Basil's false heaven we preserve. No, I'd rather travel with Aniara.
But soon the alarm goes off. The bells proclaim that the images of the fairy tale are overtaken by visions here that distress ignites.
And quickly to the halls I return.
​
The Goldonder's garden bubbled with glamour. A party was being held there and Chefone was there. He showed us a picture of the smith of happiness: the goldonder king Basii, a portrait jubilantly taken on the day the fifteen thousandth goldonder lay in the field ready for the wave of endlessness.
Then we were each seized by thoughtfulness and went to our own in solitude.
For in every ship of this number there was a Mima locked up in its cage.
The Rapid criminal was much loved and could operate as he pleased under the protection of the admiration he aroused. He always appeared at great speeds and abducted women whom he brought to Chefone in light blue rapid rockets.
Of course it was criminal, the people of the valley thought, but the charm was so close to the deed that the rampart was breached by sheer admiration and open worship soon followed the advice of restraint at the murder pedal.
​
Tucked away in a corner of our gondola, I pretend to smile at some rough fellows who spend their evenings with mockery and violence, with a devilish flutter as their sole aim.
They look at me and find me mortified,
- The clear approval is what they expect...
and I'm close to being squeezed badly
every time they jokingly glance at my grave door.
The brute is approaching, his dull face with many a foolish whim weighing on his mind.
And many a scowl missed by pigs from the worst corners of the soul he throws at me.
And when, full of fear, I strike with depleted strength in the dull face, the troll is only amused by my blow and raises his eyebrow with interest.
Then I flee between the troll's legs and out the other side of the danger of death.
How this happened can only be fully explained by the light of the gopher and the fourth tensor theory.
​
Here came the sober, composed and sober man who always kept his soul in trim and stuck to the dry, honest maxims of life.
Now he went into the fire with his imagination.
His cool reason was completely burned His sober composure was fried in seconds when the photo turbo in Xinombra exaggerated the cold matter.
And yet I can't help but admire the man as he made his way to the office where he had been employed for many years
and where, despite offers to flee to the tundra, he provided punch cards for thousands who broke up every day.
There died a man who never raised his voice, who always remained true to his calm tone, the martyr of calm composure who was burned when the cruel fires of excess were lit.
​
One is often chilled to the rock crystal by everything one hears before the ear falls like gray-white ash into the cremation hall.
And the girl from Rind who sees nothing is often heard to ask beyond the eye: how is the world of such torment visible? What is to be seen in this madness, where eeriness against eeriness is heard to answer?
Cultivating insight seemed futile
and many fell away from the faithful crowd.
and its program which was to see through
so that with the transparency of evil
as lens and instrument
try to find new signs
and new ways for the land of Gond.
Most people grew tired and withdrew from the room of the Truth Service, and Nobia sat for long periods almost alone, trying to hold on to her looms, always tormented
by the blood moisture of evil memories, the echoes of horror
surrounded her days
and made the Mara a bedfellow
who tore the fabric of the noman
and raped Nobia's dream
and the mood of life over the moors of Gondria.
It is as important to us to have friends
in the houses of distant worlds as at home by
the familiar road of the green earth.
You are reflected in endless eyes, watched by immense spectators.
They never interfere, but they watch the sewing and the mining,
the nurse and doctor on the rounds and the weapons in the shamelessly cruel wars.
Your own position under their eyes may be likened to the position you take with one whom you do not wish to grieve, but to share joy and to please.
So spoke the old astronomer, and then laid his head down to rest.
And he went smiling to the eternity that had been waiting by his side all his life.
His forehead shone with its ideas, even in the dead of death in the years of space.
He was among those who know the fairies of everything, those who get to comb Berenice's hair.
​
But for the longest time I still want to believe that this is the torment of an evil dream and the ship Aniara a phantom from which I will wake up in the Valley of Doris.
Perhaps everything is a nightmare and I want to wait with poison and a knife. They say there are dreams of a kind that seem as long as a man's life.
Out of the dust you were born, from its gifts you were supported.
You did not manage the gift, many a meadow you made desolate.
What is beyond this sea is called Going down deep among riddles too great to be found in a grave.
Faith can never cover more than what you see in spirit.
​
All the other things are too much to bear.
Do you hear the sound of the rescue team calling from an emergency station that is one of a thousand others, regardless of faith?
Now guess where the road leads and what Paradise is.
One of a thousand rescue stations scattered along the coast here.
Now I want to sing to my ear and ask it to listen to a voice that descends not to destroy the language I have collected for comfort. For the comfort of life and death, I whisper the price of sensitivity every time the sinful flow of language storms the breeze of the spirit.
​
One night Heba lay awake in the city of Aniara and heard the painter's joyful painting.
The skilled varnisher was varnishing the years that would one day end on a stainless steel stretcher.
And suddenly from Heba there was a shout against the smooth roof.
The skilled varnishers know their business well.
Too hard to become joy, too happy to become sorrow. The painters paint everything in Aniara's castle.
​
We know that we have been left out of the higher insight of the ocean of mystery and that we lack the tools to reach the depths of clarity that Mima once gave. But since Mima's death, the average of what we achieve of truth is not very high average is what is required if the choice of new paths is to be avoided.
A small number reach the values that should be the average to reach.
The others are satisfied with the flow of thought,
the rattle with which time is made to pass.
A daughter of my mother, called Tovi, was born in the night of space. Alas, dear ones, where can the crowd's demand for sensation and wonder lead us?
First came, as it should be, the blissfully sweet and indescribably pure birth, when the mimicry lay naked, uncovered and panting in the golden bed of the formula.
To her camp now came the mimicry and winged it
the naked one, as when the butterfly flies the honey chalice of its flower, in Dori's meadows. The description is not given (much to my regret) because there is always the possibility of a wave of miracles taking place in secret, to the great disappointment of many who wish to see how the mimagyne makes love, and from what angle the picture of the goddess's love life should be taken in order to really reach the audience.
Can it not be enough that Tovi gave birth to an allegorical child whom Isagel happily suckled at her breast and practiced miracles and consolation You may think so yourself, but others think otherwise.
For not even a mimagyn can defend the fruit of her womb against the human hyena who demands a clear answer on every point of what precedes it all: the prelude to sowing,
with the insides of the thighs well described in a clear image that gives the "public" a feeling that it was in the bed.
​
Yes, it has happened that I have sometimes asked myself (in private silence, of course) whether the smooth ice of superficiality does not have enough joy, and that the great swallows in these spaces are only terrible wakes which, compared to the agile princess and heartlessly threatening with superior power, will in the end become the cold room of beauty.
So small a strip bears, the other breaks, and all the incomparably large gapes with the same dark death which, unchanging with cold upon cold, only imitates itself.
To raise one's hand then with a light-year pound and demonstrate the fugue of eternity on terrible organs, while the girl in the icy distance dances, hardly greater to see than a fly flown away towards the light, it is to chill with the great weapon as when the superpower with the powers the element hides coldly makes its rows in the land of Gond against unsuspecting cities and, although itself dismissing all talk of sin punishment and trial, nevertheless treats the human with such terrible flame that this terrible torrent of loose gamma released by those who do not mean sin punishment nevertheless cruelly destroys both Yaal and Gena and melts down to ashes the wonder Heba
With the same fire they turned on Chebeba.
​
Posterity does not understand you so easily.
It judges according to the image of posterity
and counts up the time you lived in
as rows of negligence, as offenses
against the spirit of foresight, the duties of thought.
To this it adds the work of suffering
and piles up, as blind as a judge
as you were blind as a criminal, case by case.
Can those who have killed the foundations of joy and destroyed the great city of joy have the right to the joys of life?
Does Cain have the right to be happy?
Can those who strangled the joys of Xinombra and burned the valley of paradise have the right to heights of heaven other than Aniara's daily agony?
I ask but never get an answer. I have to arrange for pastimes
for the hordes of Aniara and manage its entertainment.
​
A wave of newly awakened hatred swept through the mountains where Nobia lived in deep mines and ghostly white lights illuminated every thread of life in the fabrics she wove.
She had sought and found the thread of life - a discovery of how healing rays are empowered by the inner council of things and fused with the heart of the atom.
And while hatred swelled around the mountains
and wounds screamed in the valley of time.
she wove day and night until the color of victory
and the skin of life rose in the hall of death.
Of her beauty little can be said. It was lost in a wave of radiation but the clear purity of the soul could be weighed; in healed wounds we saw her reflection.
​
Then I will throw you out of your chair. I will break your armchair view, because it is false and holds a convulsive security in a time that has slipped out of its rooms, but also the other way around: that it becomes a view without deep insight.
From this world, I shall send you happiness today to the kingdom of love, to the evil shore where the Samaritan Nobia and others spread works of love from country to country.
Figuring out the ways of evil and tracking down all the poison in the city of hate was futile, for hate stood there with heavy blocks united row by row.
Within its walls there was life and movement in the birthing centers and squares where human beings were conceived and human beings were born and human life in the human gap was destroyed. It was best to pretend that this city of self-righteous evil existed as nothing more than a devilish childhood that would mature, grow tired of itself.
We resolved to keep on sending saints there for the longest time.
from the saints' camps as long as the funds lasted
and as far as the need still aroused the heart.
This plan was tried for nine years, during which the Rind camp of saints bled to death: an act of self-sacrifice based on faith in the powers of good. But the heavy wall of hate stood just as hard, and the fatigue of leadership followed the act of hate; only too great was the throne of victory we had.
A single city consumed the power which we had thought sufficient for the transformation of the world.
​
On a rare occasion, the happiness of being free from desire also came.
Then the emptiness suddenly became populated by a kind of spiritualized mystery.
We walked the spirit's path of happiness along the beach, exchanging thoughts, making fortune cards.
It was evening and sunset in the sea.
Night fell, but the land of thought stood firm.
He woke up. She said: guess where.
I can't, he said. How did you get here? The same way you did: up the gravel path and then straight to the left among the cypresses. There was a dewy path the moonlight itself went there with light steps which I tried to imitate.
And when everything was past and the path was over
I managed to become a clear crystal and find you, my friend, on this path.
It is so transparently wonderful here.
We no longer exist. All that was is over.
Neither god nor devil here reaches us anymore and the end is the cruel parody of life.
​
Where is the plain text?
This is what I'm looking for.
The one that fits but still gives song.
After thanking God that he was a wasp and not something else, he continued between the leafy branches and stung the farmer.
Laid out by spiritual mobs, the truth becomes worse than the lie. When the mob washes the barley, it is never clean.
The rabble always wash in the dunghill from the Augean stables.
​
​
Matema's camel bells ring in the deserts of speech where the caravans of unfinished quarrels
never reach their oasis, only become more camels.
Immersed as in a dream but still awake, I found myself changed and so naked that no dream has words for what it was like when, transformed by the stone, I cut down towards the inner realms and while this was happening I became smaller, smaller and even more stripped of layers and layers of time and space as I sank further and further into the stone, deeper and deeper into things.
Who undressed me, wore me down so much that no conceivable smallness so small on this earth can be imagined unless one is long since beyond what every comprehensible thought wants to deny.
And yet I was being stripped and reduced still further in no direction.
So sunk, unceasingly sunk in
towards even more breathtaking reduction
I retained in my dream a way of seeing
and understand that I was traveling into
to the dimensions, the innermost
who with their interior work with their interior
and whose interiors compose the world.
They scare children with darkness, criminals with punishment and sinners with realms beyond death where the vengeful desire to torment has transported its arsenal of tormenting images.
But sorrow follows us every day, and joy follows us every day.
We ourselves are the sorrow, we are also the joy, everything human is rooted in humanity, and no human being can escape humanity, not her hatred and her self-degradation, nor the joy she spreads, nor the love she forms.
There is a third land that is not death and not life, but the reality that pervades all realities, and spins the very thread of the fabric from which dreams are woven. Yes, I had come to the rooms where these threads are spun. When I arrived, I stepped out and saw no longer surprised the smallest fairy, who herself was not at all surprised to welcome me to her inner land.
And although we were both unimaginably smaller than two grains of traveling dust on a suit on earth, we thought we were big here in this smallest room to which I have now come and which nevertheless encloses with its vault a separate world of realities formed.
On the contrary, I cannot describe what I saw of strange things, but that will follow when the habit of telling stories has been practiced for other habits than what life offers,
and other things than those called death.
For though beyond all I have known
this was not death
and though within all I have known
this was not life.
​
Actually, the comprehensibility was slight, as when multiples arranged in layers, and layered in the directions of space, make the fabric of the dream omnidirectional structural and become a fabric consisting of paths where the thread is only thought of as a path as a sign that here the shuttle has gone, but where is the thread? The thread is the path. I saw how the gnome was in a quandary as to which of two different possibilities to give clarity.
Then came formulas of such an elusive nature that the gnome was again gripped by the anxiety
which arises when the explanation is attempted but little response is felt by the pupil.
And with a look that shone as if with sorrow, he signaled a break in the dilemma. And with a formula more magical than comprehensible, we left the atom.
We expanded to other contexts and sat on a leaf next to a bee eagerly searching for honey in a meadow.
​
The Dance
Around the great star of the day we shall orbit the years we have been given to live, and our family for a few thousand centuries, perhaps more, perhaps less, no one knows.
But the time that we are orbiting is so small compared to that of the suns where they wander around in orbits in the galaxy our family named the Milky Way, luminous to behold.
What can our eyes see, our hearts cry out at the thought of atoms going around in the same way with waves and particles.
Some have called this the dance of the gods - it is always being danced by everything in the universe.
All indications are that among the arts of the muses
the art of dance is the first and the last,
and we are in it, dancing out
our role in the dance, it is already being danced
in other worlds separate from our time,
in other dance theaters,
yet one thing is clear
that we are dancing our turns.
Our role in it
is ours and no one else's.
Our own role in the dance art of all worlds.
​
Economic overview
Our earth wanders alive alone, around the sun our dear parent.
As far as the giant tubes reach no living neighbor to see.
Desolate and empty on the one who received the name of the god of war, burning hot and desolate on the one who received the name of the goddess of love.
Jupiter, planet of Zeus
ice-clad to two hundred times the height of the Himalayas.
The others are death's door.
Beyond that, light years to the next planetary village.
So each sun has only one living person, and that one is a leased farm, indefinitely and to an unreliable and dangerous race.
​
Here is a world of light distributed in the mystery of things.
Here is the salvaged light in the innumerable rooms of the stone.
Wands point with poles directed to their rooms inside mountains and stones, spinning mystery.
Deep in her fairy tale, she lives for the sake of the tale.
the norn who has learned to spin the yarn from the wool of the riddles.
​
The spirit of Ideema from space in endless lines gathered the seeds into the durable wood of the suns.
From far beyond time the hydrogen came in modest garb and built for its God the ingenious nests of the atoms.
Come, let us nurture the foundation of our life. The green sphere we have been given to live on in the universe's lottery system.
When the next lucky draw can get rid of the Milky Way's big tombola we do not know and can never reach.
But we do know one thing for sure: the next draw will not include us.
​
A stranger called chance shuffles the cards and deals them to the local players.
Every single poker face keeps a straight face.
There are plenty of goldfish in the tureen here.
According to the law, the silent coincidence itself is the last to raise its hand, with ice in its stomach.
Soon jaws of granite are chewing the cigar.
Where is the bundle of happiness among the starlings?
That question is answered when chance wins.
Then the shot goes off, chance's life disappears. His house of cards collapses, but soon everyone at the counter thinks it was a nice fish, that no one won, that chance herself was told by Smith and Wesson what chance was.
by Smith and Wesson what chance should do.
( translation to be continued )

After multiple failed attempts of obtaining the H-1B visa through the lottery, my company is letting me apply for the O1 visa. I have 1 journal, 13 conference papers, 2 patents, and 57 citations in total. The lawyer who reviewed my profile said, "You do potentially qualify, as you appear to meet the plain language of at least 3 criteria, but we believe this would be on the weaker ends of O-1 petitions with a high possibility of denial. Your total citation count of 57 over an 11 year period is far lower than average (we normally recommend in the hundreds), and 34 of those citations are of your 11 year-old patent. Because patents are not published to a broad audience like journal and conference papers are, USCIS typically does not consider patents or citations of patents to be compelling evidence of international acclaim."
Is this true? I work in field where it takes years to get publishable results. I have 10 months until my STEM OPT extension expires. Should I switch jobs to where the employer directly sponsor for a Green Card?

This is SO funny, I am reposting it and will repost it every once in a while.
From:
https://www.reddit.com/tifu/comments/2vdwtw/tifu_by_drinking_an_entire_bottle_of_louisiana/

I have had a number of job interviews recently that went poorly and did not result in securing employment.
I started to think I needed to do something during an interview to really stand out, be impressive, unique, and highly memorable. I thought it could be risky, but might work out.
I came up with the following idea: After concluding the interview, after the hand shakes, etc, when leaving the room stop, turn around, and say "There's one more thing you need to know about me."
Then pull out a bottle of hot sauce, down the entire bottle, slam it onto the ground and say "I can handle the heat." Nod confidently, leave the room.
Boom.
I imagined that they would be really impressed and wowed by such a performance.
Well it didn't pan out like I thought it would. It was only a small bottle of hot sauce, I figured it would be no big deal to actually do. I should have tested at home first, but I didn't.
I was nervous as a bitch-ass during the interview, but I was determined to follow through with the plan.
So I started exactly as described above. I was leaving, I turned around, maybe not with as much swagger as I'd imagined in my head, and I declared "There's one more thing you need to know about me."
I pulled out the hot sauce bottle, almost dropped it, and started to open the bottle. In my head it was all one quick confident motion, like an electric Indiana Jones, but instead I fumbled around and had a tough time getting it open. It felt like a nightmarish eternity but was probably only about 20 seconds. Enough time for one of the interviewers to ask me what I was doing.
I didn't answer directly. Instead, after I got the bottle open, I repeated "There's one more thing you need to know about me." (But stuttering.)
Then I guzzled down the entire bottle of hot sauce. I instantly regretted it. My mouth and throat felt like lava was swirling around inside me. I immediately started to gag and loudly cough, I was crying involuntarily. Tears hardcore streaming down my face. I was sweating like a terrible fool.
I desperately tried to scream "I can handle the heat" but just kept coughing before I could get anything out.
The interviewers were all standing up looking at me in horror and confusion.
A few seconds before I threw up all over the floor I knew it would happen, but I tried to hold it back. I couldn't.
I threw up all over the floor. It hurt as much on the way out as it did on the way in, if not more so. The vomit felt like flaming barbed wire shredding its way through my neck.
I should mention a disturbing amount of fiery mucus was also leaking out of my nose uncontrollably.
After I finished throwing up I could not bear to look at the interviewers. I hoarsely mumbled an apology and started to stumble as quickly as possible out the door.
I have never been more shamed in my life.
I didn't get the job.

Just had a conversation where the issue came up of, in which jurisdictions is a woman forcing intercourse on a man considered to be rape? I assume most of you know that the CDC and FBI do not consider this to be rape, they define rape as penetrating someone without consent. The UK does this too. But in the US, it varies by state. So, which states use rape to mean penetrating someone without consent? The good news is it's less than half, 17 states use this def of rape. First, I want to emphasize please - let me know if you disagree with my findings. At the bottom of this post is the link I used, feel free to check out my results. (No, Nevada is not one of them, read the definition carefully). EDIT: One person has already disagreed with my findings. He said intercourse without consent is the same as penetration without consent, thus finding 39 states use the CDC definition. I disagree with that. I think intercourse without consent would include a woman forcing intercourse on a man. Again, let me know what you think).
OK, drumroll please, here's the 17 states that agree with the CDC
Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas.
SOURCE:
https://ndaa.org/wp-content/uploads/sexual-assault-chart.pdf

Just had a conversation where the issue came up of, in which jurisdictions is a woman forcing intercourse on a man considered to be rape? I assume most of you know that the CDC and FBI do not consider this to be rape, they define rape as penetrating someone without consent. The UK does this too. But in the US, it varies by state. So, which states use rape to mean penetrating someone without consent? The good news is it's less than half, 17 states use this def of rape. First, I want to emphasize please - let me know if you disagree with my findings. At the bottom of this post is the link I used, feel free to check out my results. (No, Nevada is not one of them, read the definition carefully). EDIT: One person has already disagreed with my findings. He said intercourse without consent is the same as penetration without consent, thus finding 39 states use the CDC definition. I disagree with that. I think intercourse without consent would include a woman forcing intercourse on a man. Again, let me know what you think).
OK, drumroll please, here's the 17 states that agree with the CDC
Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas.
SOURCE:
https://ndaa.org/wp-content/uploads/sexual-assault-chart.pdf

please read the article in full here:
https://www.propublica.org/article/toxmap-poison-in-the-air
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The EPA allows polluters to turn neighborhoods into “sacrifice zones” where residents breathe carcinogens. ProPublica reveals where these places are in a first-of-its-kind map and data analysis.
by Lylla Younes, Ava Kofman, Al Shaw and Lisa Song, with additional reporting by Maya Miller, photography by Kathleen Flynn for ProPublica Nov. 2, 2021, 5 a.m. EDT
Leer en español.
From the urban sprawl of Houston to the riverways of Virginia, air pollution from industrial plants is elevating the cancer risk of an estimated quarter of a million Americans to a level the federal government considers unacceptable.
Some of these hot spots of toxic air are infamous. An 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi River in Louisiana that’s thronged with oil refineries and chemical plants has earned the nickname Cancer Alley. Many other such areas remain unknown, even to residents breathing in the contaminated air.
Until now.
ProPublica undertook an analysis that has never been done before. Using advanced data processing software and a modeling tool developed by the Environmental Protection Agency, we mapped the spread of cancer-causing chemicals from thousands of sources of hazardous air pollution across the country between 2014 and 2018. The result is an unparalleled view of how toxic air blooms around industrial facilities and spreads into nearby neighborhoods.
📷 The Most Detailed Map of Cancer-Causing Industrial Air Pollution in the U.S.
At the map’s intimate scale, it’s possible to see up close how a massive chemical plant near a high school in Port Neches, Texas, laces the air with benzene, an aromatic gas that can cause leukemia. Or how a manufacturing facility in New Castle, Delaware, for years blanketed a day care playground with ethylene oxide, a highly toxic chemical that can lead to lymphoma and breast cancer. Our analysis found that ethylene oxide is the biggest contributor to excess industrial cancer risk from air pollutants nationwide. Corporations across the United States, but especially in Texas and Louisiana, manufacture the colorless, odorless gas, which lingers in the air for months and is highly mutagenic, meaning it can alter DNA.
In all, ProPublica identified more than a thousand hot spots of cancer-causing air. They are not equally distributed across the country. A quarter of the 20 hot spots with the highest levels of excess risk are in Texas, and almost all of them are in Southern states known for having weaker environmental regulations. Census tracts where the majority of residents are people of color experience about 40% more cancer-causing industrial air pollution on average than tracts where the residents are mostly white. In predominantly Black census tracts, the estimated cancer risk from toxic air pollution is more than double that of majority-white tracts.
After reviewing ProPublica’s map, Wayne Davis, an environmental scientist formerly with the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said, “The public is going to learn that EPA allows a hell of a lot of pollution to occur that the public does not think is occurring.”
Our analysis comes at a critical juncture for the fate of America’s air. After decades of improvement, air quality has, by some metrics, begun to decline. In the last four years, the Trump administration rolled back more than a hundred environmental protections, including two dozen air pollution and emissions policies.
The EPA says it “strives to protect the greatest number of people possible” from an excess cancer risk worse than 1 in a million. That risk level means that if a million people in an area are continuously exposed to toxic air pollutants over a presumed lifetime of 70 years, there would likely be at least one case of cancer on top of those from other risks people already face. According to ProPublica’s analysis, 74 million Americans — more than a fifth of the population — are being exposed to estimated levels of risk higher than this.
EPA policy sets the upper limit of acceptable excess cancer risk at 1 in 10,000 — 100 times more than the EPA’s more aspirational goal and a level of exposure that numerous experts told ProPublica is too high. ProPublica found that an estimated 256,000 people are being exposed to risks beyond this threshold and that an estimated 43,000 people are being subjected to at least triple this level of risk. Still, the EPA sees crossing its risk threshold as more of a warning sign than a mandate for action: The law doesn’t require the agency to penalize polluters that, alone or in combination, raise the cancer risk in an area above the acceptable level.
In response to ProPublica’s findings, Joe Goffman, acting assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, said in an emailed statement, “Toxic air emissions from industrial facilities are a problem that must be addressed.” Under President Joe Biden’s administration, “the EPA has reinvigorated its commitment to protect public health from toxic air emissions from industrial facilities — especially in communities that have already suffered disproportionately from air pollution and other environmental burdens.”
ProPublica’s reporting exposes flaws with EPA’s implementation of the Clean Air Act, a landmark law that dramatically reduced air pollution across America but provided less protection to those who live closest to industrial polluters.
The 1970 law resulted in outdoor air quality standards for a handful of widespread “criteria” pollutants, including sulfur dioxide and particulate matter, which could be traced to exhaust pipes and smokestacks all over the country and were proven to aggravate asthma and lead to early deaths. But 187 other dangerous chemicals, now known as hazardous air pollutants or air toxics, never got this level of attention. At the time, the science demonstrating the harms of these compounds, which primarily impact people in neighborhoods that border industrial facilities — so-called fence line communities — was still in its early stages. The EPA did not receive enough funding to set the same strict limits, and industry lobbying weakened the agency’s emerging regulations.
In 1990, Congress settled on a different approach to regulating air toxics. Since then, the EPA has made companies install equipment to reduce their pollution and studied the remaining emissions to see if they pose an unacceptable health risk.
The way the agency assesses this risk vastly underestimates residents’ exposure, according to our analysis. Instead of looking at how cancer risk adds up when polluters are clustered together in a neighborhood, the EPA examines certain types of facilities and equipment in isolation. When the agency studies refineries, for example, it ignores a community’s exposure to pollution from nearby metal foundries or shipyards.
Matthew Tejada, director of the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice, told ProPublica that tackling hot spots of toxic air will require “working back through 50 years of environmental regulation in the United States, and unpacking and untying a whole series of knots.”
Top Polluters
T​​he cancer-causing air emissions from these five corporations cover more populated square miles than the emissions from any other companies, according to our analysis.

• The Dow Chemical Company
• Huntsman Corp.
• Eastman Chemical Co.
• BASF
• LyondellBasell Industries

Most of these companies did not comment; Eastman said, “Not all risk is due to industrial activity, however, we continue to do our part to reduce risk and emissions to ensure the safety of our local community.”
“The environmental regulatory system wasn’t set up to deal with these things,” he said. “All of the parts of the system have to be re-thought to address hot spots or places where we know there’s a disproportionate burden.”
The Clean Air Act rarely requires industry or the EPA to monitor for air toxics, leaving residents near these plants chronically uninformed about what they’re breathing in. And when companies report their emissions to the EPA, they’re allowed to estimate them using flawed formulas and monitoring methods.
“These fence line communities are sacrifice zones,” said Jane Williams, executive director of California Communities Against Toxics. “Before there was climate denial, there was cancer denial. We release millions of pounds of carcinogens into our air, water and food and act mystified when people start getting sick.”
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please read the full article here:
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The cancer risks from industrial pollution can be compounded by factors like age, diet, genetic predisposition and exposure to radiation; the knock-on effect of inhaling toxic air for decades might, for example, mean the difference between merely having a family history of breast cancer and actually developing the disease yourself. While the cancer and asthma rates in Houston’s Harris County are comparable with those in the rest of the state, Texas officials have identified cancer clusters in several of the city’s neighborhoods.
Large swaths of the Greater Houston area make up the third-biggest hot spot of cancer-causing air in the country, according to our analysis, after Louisiana’s Cancer Alley and an area around Port Arthur, Texas, which is on the Louisiana border. For many homes closest to the fence lines of petrochemical plants in cities like La Porte and Port Neches, Texas, the estimated excess risk of cancer ranges from three to six times the level that the EPA considers acceptable.
But because of the way that the EPA underestimates risk, the true dangers of living in a toxic hot spot are often invisible to regulators and residents.
The agency breaks things down into the smallest possible categories “to avoid addressing what we call cumulative risk,” said John Walke, an attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council who formerly worked as an EPA lawyer advising the Office of Air and Radiation. “But our bodies do not parse out air pollution according to rule labels or industrial equipment or industrial source categories.” The cancer risk from each facility or type of equipment may be at levels the agency considers “acceptable,” but taken together, the potential harms can be substantial.
The EPA initially sent ProPublica a statement saying that it “ensures that risks from individual source categories are acceptable and that the standards provide an ample margin of safety to protect public health.”
In another statement sent after an interview, the agency added, “We understand that communities often confront multiple sources of toxic air pollution and face cumulative risks greater than the risk from a single source.” The EPA added that it was working both to better harness the science on cumulative risks and “to better understand risks for communities who are overburdened by numerous sources of multiple pollutants.”
Madison can’t help but notice that when her family travels, K’ryah’s asthma improves. “The first chance I get, I’m moving far away from Texas and never looking back,” she said. “I love being outside. I love seeing the stars. I don’t want to feel like someone is pumping gas onto our front porch.”
The locations of the hot spots identified by ProPublica are anything but random. Industrial giants tend to favor areas that confer strategic advantages: On the Gulf Coast, for instance, oil rigs abound, so it’s more convenient to build refineries along the shoreline. Corporations also favor places where land is cheap and regulations are few.
Under federal law, the EPA delegates the majority of its enforcement powers to state and local authorities, which means that the environmental protections afforded to Americans vary widely between states. Texas, which is home to some of the largest hot spots in the nation, has notoriously lax regulations.
Between 2008 and 2018, lawmakers cut funding for state pollution-control programs by 35% while boosting the state’s overall budget by 41%, according to a report by the Environmental Integrity Project, an advocacy group founded by former EPA staffers. A Texas Tribune story from 2017 found that during the prior year, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality had levied fines in fewer than 1% of the cases in which polluters exceeded emission limits. Even when penalties are issued, many polluters see these fines as part of the cost of doing business, said Craig Johnston, a former lawyer at the EPA and a professor of environmental law at Lewis and Clark Law School.
Gary Rasp, a TCEQ spokesperson, told ProPublica that the agency “has taken actions to monitor, mitigate, and improve the air quality in fence line communities.” The agency runs dozens of stationary air toxics monitors across the state, he added, and “by continuously evaluating air monitoring data, which is more accurate than modeling, TCEQ can identify issues.” The agency also inspects industrial facilities and “has an active enforcement program, referring particularly egregious cases to the Texas Office of the Attorney General.”
That the people living inside these hot spots are disproportionately Black is not a coincidence. Our findings build on decades of evidence demonstrating that pollution is segregated: People of color are exposed to far greater levels of air pollution than whites — a pattern that persists across income levels. These disparities are rooted in racist real estate practices like redlining and the designation of low-income neighborhoods and communities of color as mixed residential-industrial zones. In cities like Houston, for example, all-white zoning boards targeted Black neighborhoods for the siting of noxious facilities, like landfills, incinerators and garbage dumps. Robert Bullard, a professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University, has called the practice “PIBBY” or “Place In Blacks’ Back Yard” — a spin on the acronym “NIMBY” (“Not In My Back Yard”).
📷 How We Created the Most Detailed Map Ever of Cancer-Causing Industrial Air Pollution
Many of the neighborhoods that border chemical plants are low-income and lack the same resources, access to health care and political capital that wealthier neighborhoods can bring to fights against intrusive commercial activities. In places like Baytown, working-class people depend on the very companies that sicken them to earn a living. Over the years, the shadow of industry can permanently impair not just a neighborhood’s health but also its economic prospects and property values, fueling a cycle of disinvestment. “Industries rely on having these sinks — these sacrifice zones — for polluting,” said Ana Baptista, an environmental policy professor at The New School. “That political calculus has kept in place a regulatory system that allows for the continued concentration of industry. We sacrifice these low-income, African American, Indigenous communities for the economic benefit of the region or state or country.”
Tejada, the EPA’s director of environmental justice, said that the Biden administration and the EPA are focused on confronting these disparities. “These places didn’t happen by accident. The disproportionality of the impacts that they face, the generations of disinvestment and lack of access are not coincidences. These places were created. And it is the responsibility of everyone, including the government — chiefly the government — to do something about it.”
The federal government has long had the information it would need to take on these hot spots. The EPA collects emissions data from more than 20,000 industrial facilities across the country and has even developed its own state-of-the-art tool — the Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators model — to estimate the impact of toxic emissions on human health. The model, known as RSEI, was designed to help regulators and lawmakers pinpoint where to target further air-monitoring efforts, data-quality inspections or, if necessary, enforcement actions. Researchers and journalists have used this model for various investigations over the years, including this one.
And yet the agency’s own use of its powerful modeling tool has been limited. There’s been a lack of funding for and a dearth of interest in RSEI’s more ambitious applications, according to several former and current EPA employees. Wayne Davis, the former EPA scientist, managed the RSEI program under the Trump administration. He said that some of his supervisors were hesitant about publishing information that would directly implicate a facility. “They always told us, ‘Don’t make a big deal of it, don’t market it, and hopefully you’ll continue to get funding next year.’ They didn’t want to make anything public that would raise questions about why the EPA hadn’t done anything to regulate that facility.”
Nicolaas Bouwes, a former senior analyst at the EPA and a chief architect of the RSEI model, recalled the occasional battle to get colleagues to accept the screening tool, let alone share its findings with the public. “There’s often been pushback from having this rich data sheet too readily available because it could make headlines,” he said. “What I find annoying is that the EPA has the same information at their disposal and they don’t use it. If ProPublica can do this, so can the EPA.”
In its statement, the EPA said that it plans to improve its approach for sharing air toxics data faster and more regularly with the public. “EPA has not published calculated cancer risks using RSEI modeled results,” it continued. “RSEI results are not designed as a substitute for more comprehensive, inclusive, or site specific risk assessments,” but as a potential starting point that should only be used “to identify situations of potential concern that may warrant further investigation.”
Indeed, our map works as a screening tool, not as a site-specific risk assessment. It cannot be used to tie individual cancer cases to emissions from specific industrial facilities, but it can be used to diagnose what the EPA calls “situations of potential concern.”
Our analysis arrives as America faces new threats to its air quality. The downstream effects of climate change, like warmer temperatures and massive wildfires, have created more smoke and smog. The Trump administration diluted, scuttled or reversed dozens of air pollution protections — actions estimated to lead to thousands of additional premature deaths. In 2018, then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt created a massive air toxics loophole when he rolled back a key provision of the Clean Air Act, known as “Once In, Always In,” allowing thousands of large polluters to relax their use of pollution-controlling equipment.
Biden has yet to close this loophole, but he has signaled plans to alleviate the disproportionate impacts borne by the people who live in these hot spots. Within his first few days in office, he established two White House councils to address environmental injustice. And in March, Congress confirmed his appointment of EPA administrator Michael Regan, who has directed the agency to strengthen its enforcement of violations “in communities overburdened by pollution.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/toxmap-poison-in-the-air
Over the years, Sullivan Ramirez herself has struggled with nerve degeneration and scleroderma, a rare condition that involves the tightening of the skin and connective tissues. While it can be difficult to link specific cases of disease to pollution exposure, the evidence in Mossville has accumulated: In a 1998 health survey conducted by the University of Texas, 84% of Mossville residents reported having headaches, dizziness, tremors and seizures. An EPA study from the same year found that the average level of dioxins in the blood of Mossville residents was dangerously high — triple that of the general U.S. population. Even small amounts of dioxin, one of the most poisonous chemicals released by facilities, can cause developmental problems, damage the immune system and lead to cancer. A 2007 report found that the types of dioxin compounds in the blood of Mossville residents matched those emitted by local industrial facilities.
In an emailed statement, Sasol noted that its property buyout stemmed from direct requests from Mossville residents and that the company offered owners more than the appraised value of their homes. “Sasol and its predecessor have produced or handled chemicals at our Lake Charles complex for more than 60 years. We understand the science and have controls in place to ensure our operations are safe, protective of the environment, compliant with regulations and sustainable over the long term,” wrote Sarah Hughes, a spokesperson for Sasol. “Sasol is proud of our engagement with our neighbors in Mossville and the positive impact it has had on many of its residents.”
📷 Can Air Pollution Cause Cancer? What You Need to Know About the Risks.
Sullivan Ramirez is wary of too much talk. She knows that the new administration has promised something more for communities like hers, but she doesn’t want to get her hopes up. The presentations from captains of industry, the listening sessions with earnest bureaucrats, the proposals from slick attorneys, the promises tossed off by politicians — over the years, she’s heard it all.
The people of Mossville are right to be skeptical, the EPA’s Tejada acknowledged. “I would be skeptical if I was from Mossville,” he added. “They should be skeptical until we actually show up and do the things that they’ve been asking us to do for a long time. But there’s now a level of commitment to actually tangling with these issues in a really serious, substantive way.”
After years of activism in Mossville, Sullivan Ramirez moved to Lake Charles, just a short drive away. But she worries the industrial sprawl will one day overtake her new home. To Sullivan Ramirez, Mossville is “the key” — a warning of what the future holds for America’s other hot spots if business continues as usual.
“This is the 21st century,” she said. “The act of polluting our lands and robbing our communities — when will enough be enough?”
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please read this article in full here:
https://www.propublica.org/article/toxmap-poison-in-the-air

Hi Guys, unfortunately when we missed more than 5K because of busyness.
This is a supplementary Giveaway, which is accompanied by this Children's Day Sale
Thank you very much for your support in these months.
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We are about to complete the construction of the studio, and we will soon enter a whole new state.
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This raffle will have two pairs of Made by Boring shoes as gifts (collection version)
The following is the details of this giveaway
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Prize🎁:
A pair of Made by Boring shoes (collection version)
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Number of winners 🧍‍♂️:
2
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How To Enter?

1. Upvote Post
2. Follow our IG:
3. Leave you and your shoe size

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How do we draw the prize?
Winners will be announced 7 days after posting
We will conduct the lottery through https://redditraffler.com/
The results of the lottery will be published via post
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Special offers
During GIVEAWAY:
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No one can ever predict a Bill Belichick draft.
When people start assuming he’ll act based on his stereotypes (first-round trade down, OL early, no early WRs, all Alabama players or small school guys or guys from Rutgers), he’ll do the opposite. When the consensus is that he’ll shift away from those stereotypes, he’ll lean right into them.
So in observing mock drafts, both full and team-centric, there was a lot of accord that he would follow those stereotypes. (Adam Korsak, both a punter and from Rutgers, was EVERYWHERE.)
But then the end of April came.
Before then, New England had suffered a 2022 season full of embarrassment, from Matt Patricia and Joe Judge’s ineptitude at running the offense to a team that seemed to find new ways to lose in humiliating fashion (a certain ill-fated lateral sequence peak among them). The Patriots went from their dynastic reign as a team which would trounce their opponents in laughers to the team that everyone pointed and laughed at. Mac Jones’ Patricia- and Judge-sparked regression along with impressive cameo appearances by ‘22 rookie Bailey Zappe split the fanbase into Mac and Zappe camps, with sports media fueling the flame by spreading or outright fabricating rumors of Belichick shopping Mac, rumors which lasted through the first day of the draft. It was an ugly season and an uglier start to the offseason.
The franchise clearly needed to make changes in 2023, and changes started near the top. Patricia and Judge lost their roles, the former joining the Eagles coaching staff and the latter moving to lead special teams, a necessary move as this Belichick-led squad had plummeted to the lowest-ranked third unit. (More on that later.) Patricia had filled the dual roles of de facto offensive coordinator and facto offensive line coach, and filled both roles with the acumen of me designing plays in Backyard Football 2002, except I could actually design plays that resulted in touchdowns. Judge had manned the quarterbacks room, and given that Daniel Jones finally broke out for the Giants once Judge had been booted from mentoring him, you can guess how that went for Mac and the Pats. In his new role in charge of special teams, he has already cost the team two OTAs and Bill Belichick $50,000 for an offseason meetings violation, and has elevated his 2022 title of Co-Most Hated Man in Foxboro to Single Most Hated Man in Foxboro.
Anyway, New England needed to fill their old roles, and brought in:
Bill O’Brien, Offensive Coordinator / Quarterbacks Coach A long-time friend of Belichick’s, O’Brien returns for his second stint as Pats OC, having dictated the offense in Rob Gronkowski’s record-setting 2011 season. Additionally, O’Brien comes by way of running the offense and the QB room at the University of Alabama, which spawned Mac Jones. Mac regressed in 2022 after an impressive 2021, but recall that 2022 was under the abysmal leadership of Patricia (calling his plays) and Judge (his direct coach), a situation in which no one could develop. By bringing in his old OC and QB coach, Mac has been put in the best possible position to develop in ‘23, a position which will much more clearly give fans a vision of his future as an NFL quarterback. (And the playcalling will be legitimate! It’s been but a year and we have already forgotten what creativity, route concepts, and misdirection have looked like!)
Adrian Klemm, Offensive Line Coach Belichick’s first draft pick after taking the helm in New England in 2000, Klemm has joined the team after coaching at Oregon last year. He comes with a strong reputation at that coaching position, having headed a Ducks O-line that allowed just five sacks in 2022. Last season, the Patriots saw a regression from their veterans on the line, most notably in Trent Brown’s newfound flag-happiness, and first-round rookie guard Cole Strange put forth a mixed performance. Bringing in an actual offensive line coach gives the team the best chance to fix any issues that showed in ‘22 and to develop their young linemen.
Of course, coaching was not the only issue last season, as New England was criticized for their lack of talent on the roster. Of New England’s high-cash free agent class of 2021, only edge rusher Matthew Judon shined in both his seasons in Foxboro: neither tight end Jonnu Smith nor wideout Nelson Agholor ever got off the ground, tight end Hunter Henry regressed after a solid ‘21, and wideout Kendrick Bourne found himself suddenly in Patricia’s doghouse and off the field. Moves needed to be made as the calendar turned to free agency.
Notable Departures
S Devin McCourty (retired) The most prominent departure from the ‘22 squad, McCourty is one of many who can be termed a quintessential Patriot. A first-round cornerback out of Rutgers in 2010, D-Mac made the switch to safety in 2012 and locked down the position for the next decade. When he was on the verge of leaving the team in free agency in 2015, even reaching out to Belichick to say goodbye, Belichick signed him to a top-valued safety contract and kept him in red, white, and blue. His leadership and personality made him a joy to watch on the field and off, his personality showing itself especially well recently through interactions with his twin brother Jason, who played alongside him for the Patriots from 2018 to ‘20. Statistically, D-Mac ends his career with 35 interceptions, one shy of the franchise record, and 4 touchdowns (two picks, a kickoff return, and a blocked field goal return). We miss him already.
P Jake Bailey (released; signed with Miami) What a drop. After an All-Pro season in 2020, Bailey signed a four-year extension in 2022 only to become the worst statistical punter in the league. After he was injured, the Patriots brought in Michael Palardy, who managed to be even worse (personally, I blame the team’s curse that comes with the jersey number 17). Neither punter remains with the team, Bailey joining an AFC East rival in the Dolphins and Palardy currently unsigned.
TE Jonnu Smith (traded to Atlanta) There is a strong case to be made that Smith is the worst free agency signing Belichick has made as Pats GM. In the two years since inking a 4-year, $50 million deal, Smith totaled just 55 catches for 539 yards and one touchdown, and a ‘22 restructure of his contract meant that Smith appeared to be a monetary albatross the Patriots would not be able to shake loose. What led to Atlanta agreeing to take on his whole contract, sending New England a seventh-round pick to get the player, I have no idea, but I think every Pats fan would agree that Smith didn’t work out in the least and a change was best for all sides.
WR Jakobi Meyers (signed with Las Vegas) Meyers’ departure was somewhat shocking, as the 2019 UDFA had worked his way up to the top of the Patriots’ wide receiver depth chart. More of a big slot guy than an outside #1, Meyers had a minor role in his rookie season and started 2020 at the bottom of the depth chart, but injuries to the players above him got him onto the field, and a 12-catch, 169-yard performance against the Jets that November meant he wasn’t leaving it anytime soon. While not possessing top-tier speed or explosiveness, Meyers was the team’s best route runner and separator, and his departure left another void that needed to be filled.
QB Brian Hoyer (released, signed with Las Vegas) Hoyer was third on the depth chart, Zappe having shown enough to take the #2 spot. While a fine veteran mentor, the Patriots chose to go a different direction with that third QB role.
WR Nelson Agholor (signed with Baltimore) Agholor was given a two-year contract in 2021 with the anticipation of his being the #1 receiver, something which did not happen due to his unreliable hands and separation abilities. For those two years and $22 million, Agholor produced 68 catches, 835 yards, and five touchdowns. Not worth it.
RB Damien Harris (signed with Buffalo) By far the most productive member of the Patriots’ atrocious 2019 draft class, Harris was good in New England but had been passed on the depth chart by sophomore Rhamondre Stevenson midway through 2022. Couple that with Belichick’s predilection to let running backs walk instead of giving them second contracts, sprinkle in a dash of two ‘22 draft picks (Pierre Strong Jr. and Kevin Harris) who will get more opportunities in 2023, top it off with the return of Ty Montgomery II from injured reserve, and it’s no surprise that Harris is no longer a Patriot.
T Isaiah Wynn (signed with Miami) Another former first-round pick, Wynn was all right as a left tackle though was criticized for frequent injury problems; with his fifth-year option picked up for ‘22, he was inexplicably switched to right tackle, where he was very bad. He never really earned the role of franchise tackle, so it was expected that the Patriots would let him walk.
But on the upside, the team now has:
Additions
WR JuJu Smith-Schuster (via Kansas City) After Meyers signed with the Raiders, the Patriots worked quickly to bring in his replacement in the slot. Smith-Schuster revived his career in Kansas City and is now in position to be a primary target for Mac for the next three seasons, possessing more explosiveness and speed than his predecessor. The biggest concern with JuJu is his durability, but I believe the Patriots have made preparations in the draft (spoiler) in case that becomes a significant problem. The fanbase is excited for Smith-Schuster on the field in Foxboro, and deservedly so.
RB James Robinson (via New York (the green side)) A one-time breakout UDFA in Jacksonville, Robinson’s role diminished with the rise of Travis Etienne Jr.; after being traded to the Jets, Robinson never got settled into a role. In New England, Robinson is likely first in line for the #2 RB spot behind Stevenson, an important role given that Stevenson’s overwork saw his productivity decline as last season came to an end. Robinson also possesses the pass-catching versatility that Belichick loves, a role Harris was never used in but Stevenson is, further suggesting he can have a significant spot on the field for the Pats.
TE Mike Gesicki (via Miami) As Smith never worked out as the co-#1 TE, here comes Gesicki. A pure pass catcher at the position, Gesicki has the size and hands to be a reliable target in the red zone, and should pair nicely with Henry for a potential TE-heavy formation as the team approaches the goal line.
T Riley Reiff (via Chicago) T Calvin Anderson (via Denver) While neither comes with the contract expectation of being a long-term solution at either tackle spot, the hope is that Reiff (expected to start at RT) will be an upgrade over Wynn, while Anderson serves as a reliable swing tackle who can start if needed.
LB Chris Board Jr. (via Detroit) Remember that awful special teams unit? Board is one of the NFL’s top special teamers, a player Belichick singled out when New England faced the Lions last year. It’s unsurprising he brought in such a veteran to help solidify the unit after… just all of last year.
QB Trace McSorley (via Arizona) By bringing in McSorley in Hoyer’s stead, the team is showing a bit of a shift in philosophy with how it is using its backup QB spots. Both Mac and Zappe are pocket passers; McSorley does most of his work outside the pocket and can run with regularity, a trend more common among top-level quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. At minimum, he’s worth a camp spot, and that’s fine.
P Corliss Waitman (via Denver) Following the implosion of Bailey and Palardy at punter, the Patriots were on the verge of entering the draft with none on the roster. Waitman is a veteran addition there, but pretty much everyone expected New England to add a punter either as a draft pick or UDFA. (Another spoiler – my bad.)
After this free agency, many saw the Patriots as still having holes at the top of their depth chart at wideout, tackle, and cornerback. Tight end was also considered a need as New England, despite adding Gesicki to pair with Henry, does not have a tight end signed beyond 2023, entering the draft with only Matt Sokol and Scotty Washington behind their name duo.
Then they went on the clock, entering the draft with:
1-14 2-46 3-76 4-107 4-117 4-135 6-184 6-187 6-192 6-210 7-245
Here’s how it all went down.
Draft Picks
TRADE: 1-14 to PIT for 1-17 and 4-120 Although this trade was criticized for receiving too little back from Pittsburgh, it was not a major loss in capital according to the Rich Hill value chart (325 points to PIT, 320 to NE), and it came with enough high-level talent on the board that the Patriots were sure to get one of their targets. The way the board fell, fans most wanted Christian Gonzalez, Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Zay Flowers, or Broderick Jones; when the Steelers took Jones, it became clear that the Patriots were not interested in him (reports came out that the Patriots had not been interested in Jones at all due to coachability concerns), but they were sure to land an exciting player after moving down only three spots rather than the seven-plus many mockers had predicted. Additionally, the Steelers landing Jones appeared to knock the Jets’ war room for a loop (though later video has shown that the Jets were expecting the trade), and the only thing New England fans love more than a victory is an opportunity to screw over the Jets.
1-17: Christian Gonzalez, CB, Oregon The Patriots’ selection of Gonzalez received universal acclaim, and it’s easy to see why. Despite having strong CB depth, the Patriots lacked a true #1 corner; Gonzalez has the ability, length, and athleticism to be that from Day One. The first-round pick via Colorado and Oregon was widely projected as a top-10 selection, so for New England to land him at 17 is a tremendous coup. From his interviews and his play style, Gonzalez seems like a quiet guy off the field who wants to shut the opponent down when on the turf. He’ll be fun to watch.
2-46: Keion White, ED, Georgia Tech White is another player falling under the new Patriots draft umbrella under Belichick and Matt Groh: as athletic as can be. While he is raw, White has the athleticism to play three downs along the defensive line and the versatility to move inside when the situation calls for it. The Patriots thought so highly of him that he was a player they were considering drafting in the first round, even considering a move back into the last picks of the round to snag him, but landed him at 46 anyway. How much he will play as a rookie is uncertain as New England has a very good edge duo in Matthew Judon and Josh Uche, but even if White has to take a year to get acclimated to the NFL, that’s not unheard of in Foxboro and has produced success for highly-touted picks: neither Nate Solder (first round) nor Trey Flowers (fourth round) took on long-term starting roles as rookies (though Solder filled in at right tackle plenty), but were established starters in their second years. Similarly, Uche (second round) started off as an occasionally-used part of a pass rushing rotation before hitting double-digit sacks last year, his third season in the league. And if White earns significant playing time in 2023, all the better.
3-76: Marte Mapu, LB, Sacramento State Here’s that small-school selection that detractors tend to point at regarding Belichick, but Mapu has elite potential. I got tipped off to Mapu late in the pre-draft cycle, and watching film of him I was reminded a lot of Kyle Dugger, another small-school Day 2 player who has turned into an excellent Patriot. Mapu is going to play linebacker, likely his best position, and fill the role of coverage ‘backer that New England has lacked for several seasons. He’s also athletic and scheme-versatile, having spent time at safety and linebacker while at Sacramento State, so he will be able to move around the defensive formation if the situation calls for it. Add to that his tackling, his closing speed, and his containment, and you’ve got yourself a potential stud.
4-107: Jake Andrews, C, Troy The Patriots need their future long-term center with David Andrews now 31 and having an injury history, and Jake Andrews (unrelated) is set up perfectly to be that guy. Andrews the Younger is built in the same mold as Andrews the Elder: both exited college as smaller in stature than other centers but able to get a push on defensive linemen from below, meaning Jake can easily learn specific bits of technique from David. While not expected to play the role immediately, [anagram: Ned Was a Jerk] is now in position to spend time behind [anagram: Swan Diver Dad], preparing himself to take over at center in the near future.
TRADE: 4-120 and 6-184 to NYJ for 4-112 4-112: Chad Ryland, K, Maryland This is not the first time Belichick has selected a kicker in the fourth round, selecting Stephen Gostkowski with pick 118 in 2006; with the Patriots in desperate need for a strong player at the position, moving up to make sure they could land him makes sense (especially with Jake Moody being selected by the 49ers at 3-99). And Ryland is what Nick Folk is not: a big-legged kicker with kickoff ability. Folk has been appreciated in New England for his accuracy, but his distance and accuracy notably declined in 2022, and when forced to kick off, his lack of touchback distance led to trouble, the Patriots surrendering a league-high three kick return touchdowns (including two in the season finale). It’s clear an upgrade at kicker was a requirement this offseason; with Moody gone, giving up a sixth to move up eight spots is absolutely fine. In doing so, New England has hopefully landed their kicker for the next decade.
4-117: Sidy Sow, G, Eastern Michigan At this point, it may be considered confusing for the Patriots to have drafted a left guard in Sow when last year’s first-round pick Cole Strange is entrenched there and Mike Onwenu mans right guard at an elite level, but Groh’s post-draft comments indicated the team would give Sow opportunities at left tackle as well. And not only does Sow have experience at left tackle, he has the size at 6’5” and 326 pounds. New England’s projected starting tackles are veterans Trent Brown and Riley Reiff, both of whom are over 30 and are in contract years; if Sow returns to the position, the former mauling EMU Eagle (heh, two birds) offensive lineman could ease the need at tackle for next offseason.
TRADE: 4-135 to LV for 5-144 and 6-214 5-144: Atonio Mafi, G, UCLA Another interior lineman? Yes. Mafi is a guard whom the Patriots worked with at the Shrine Bowl, and has the versatility to move between left and right guard. As the aforementioned Onwenu is in a contract year, Mafi has a clear path to a potential starting job in 2024, and the most important thing right now for the development of Mac Jones is keeping him upright. By selecting three offensive linemen – using a quarter of their 12 selections on the offensive trench – Belichick and Groh have signaled their intent to do just that. From all accounts, Mafi, who met with New England in a pre-draft visit, is thrilled to join the team; now it’s about proving it on the field.
6-187: Kayshon Boutte, WR, LSU Boutte is the epitome of a boom-or-bust prospect, his elite 2020 and ‘21 being overshadowed by a disappointing 2022 that dropped him from clear first-rounder to a middle-of-Day-3 selection. As a freshman and sophomore, Boutte looked to follow in the footsteps of highly-drafted LSU wideouts such as Odell Beckham Jr., Justin Jefferson, and JaMarr Chase, showing a complete package of agility, speed, and route running. Unfortunately, an injury plus conflicts with his new coach Brian Kelly led to underperformance, and a poor combine performance cemented his draft stock as having drastically fallen. But if he can get back to his earlier form, where his talent and athleticism led to a combined 83 receptions, 1244 yards, and 14 touchdowns in his first two college seasons, Boutte could become the steal of the draft.
6-192: Bryce Baringer, P, Michigan State While New England had signed Corliss Waitman so as to have a punter on the roster heading into the draft, none assumed he was the long-term answer; when the Patriots made Baringer the first punter taken in the 2023 draft, it became clear who was. A walk-on turned cut turned best punter in college football, Baringer has a booming leg that showed itself in an average punt length of 49.0 yards in ‘22; he also holds the Michigan State record for career punting average at 46.0 yards. As a bonus, he worked with Ryland at the Senior Bowl, so the two have already begun to develop chemistry in the holding game. As another bonus, he wore No. 99 in college, and that is awesome.
6-210: Demario Douglas, WR, Liberty When one imagines a typical Patriots slot receiver – small, shifty, and explosive with the ball in his hands – one might well be imagining Douglas. The five-foot-eight Liberty product can absolutely fly, moving all around the formation and catching balls at all levels of the field. New Englanders got a preview of what Douglas’ game might look like when rookie cornerback Marcus Jones began to take snaps on offense last year; Jones was often put in motion before the snap, worked out of the backfield, and assigned touches where his elusiveness was the spark to gain yards. Douglas has said he models his game after Jones, a claim that demonstrates itself when one views his collegiate tape. I had a third-round grade on Douglas, so the Patriots landing him at 210 is a thrill. (Even though the Giants took one of my draft crushes in Tre Hawkins III the pick before, for which I’m still irked.)
6-214: Ameer Speed, CB, Michigan State The unknown about Speed is whether he will develop on defense; that is not his skill at the moment. There are three things known: his size (6’3”, 210 lbs.), his speed (4.34s 40), and his special teams prowess. With longtime special teams captain Matthew Slater likely entering his last year, the Patriots need to develop a new crop of special teams standouts, long a hallmark of Belichick’s Patriots from the time of Larry Izzo. Last year’s UDFA Brenden Schooler looks like one of those players already; Speed will certainly be given every chance possible to be another.
7-245: Isaiah Bolden, CB, Jackson State More tall athletic cornerbacks! The only HBCU selection in the 2023 draft, Bolden is an incredible athlete who likely earned his way to a draft selection by lighting up his Pro Day. Though just a role player on defense, Bolden has developmental traits that any defensive coach would love, and has also been a top collegiate kick returner, leading all of college football in 2021 with a 36.9-yard average on kickoff returns. I don’t see the two late-round cornerback selections as “throw players on the field and see who sticks” à la the ill-fated dual tight end picks of Devin Asiasi and Dalton Keene in 2020’s third round, but selecting players who might have longer chances to succeed, but if they do succeed can truly shine.
Though Bolden was the last of the Patriots’ 2023 draft picks, that did not conclude their rookie class as the period of UDFA signings immediately began. The Patriots have had an undrafted rookie make the Week 1 roster every year since 2004; with just a four-man class this season, chances are slim. They’re not impossible – their only 2021 UDFA, kicker Quinn Nordin, made it – but they’re definitely slimmer. Here are the four who can continue that streak.
Undrafted Rookies
Malik Cunningham, QB, Louisville The most expensive ($200,000) and well-known of the quartet, Cunningham’s slight build and arm as a quarterback led to piles of speculation of his switching positions. However, he has started off his Patriots tenure as a quarterback in rookie minicamp, so he remains a quarterback until further notice. Throughout college, Cunningham’s most intriguing asset has been his supreme athleticism at the position, something which showed up in testing, and it remains to be seen how the Patriots will use that athleticism to help the team. (It may be a good while until outside sources get a look, as minicamp and OTAs have thus far been closed off to the media.)
Johnny Lumpkin, TE, Louisiana-Lafayette After foregoing using a selection on a tight end in a deep draft class (another Belichick trend), New England instead brought in Lumpkin, who projects as a blocking tight end in the NFL. This offsets the biggest negative, his age (he’ll be 26 to start the season), as the Patriots lack a true blocker at the position. Whether Lumpkin can take advantage of this path to a roster spot remains to be seen, but his road to making the team as an undrafted rookie seems easiest at the moment.
Jourdan Heilig, LB, Appalachian State Like Board and Speed, Heilig joins the Patriots as a special teams standout, playing minimal defense as a Mountaineer (three snaps in 2022) but standing out in college on the third unit (210 snaps in 2022). He’ll have a chance to follow in the path of Schooler as a UDFA who makes his mark as a core special teamer.
Justus Tavai, DL, San Diego State The middle of the Tavai brothers (older brother Jahlani is a Patriots linebacker, younger brother Jonah signed with Seattle as a UDFA), Justus played alongside Jonah on the Aztec defensive line in 2022. While Jonah put up eye-popping numbers with double-digit sacks, Justus was a steady contributor as well, putting up 3.5 sacks and intercepting a pass. Tavai is the ninth man on the Patriots’ defensive line right now, so he has a difficult path if he wants to make the team.
He’s not an undrafted rookie, but the Patriots have also brought in veteran free agent Anthony Firsker, TE to compete with Lumpkin, Sokol, and Washington for the third tight end spot, the roster spot opened with their losing reserve Raekwon McMillan, LB to a partially torn Achilles tendon.
Projected Offseason Depth Chart (italics = rookie, (in parentheses = exclusively or primarily a special teamer)) (Note: the Patriots assign temporary jersey numbers in the offseason starting with 50 based mainly on draft position.)
QB 10 Mac Jones 4 Bailey Zappe 19 Trace McSorley 64 Malik Cunningham
RB 38 Rhamondre Stevenson 3 James Robinson 14 Ty Montgomery II 35 Pierre Strong Jr. 36 Kevin Harris 42 J.J. Taylor
WR 1 DeVante Parker 7 JuJu Smith-Schuster 84 Kendrick Bourne 11 Tyquan Thornton 58 Kayshon Boutte 60 Demario Douglas 82 Tre Nixon (44 Raleigh Webb) (18 Matthew Slater)
TE 85 Hunter Henry 88 Mike Gesicki 86 Anthony Firsker 87 Matt Sokol 17 Scotty Washington 65 Johnny Lumpkin
T 77 Trent Brown 74 Riley Reiff 76 Calvin Anderson 75 Conor McDermott 64 Andrew Stueber
G 71 Mike Onwenu 69 Cole Strange 54 Sidy Sow 55 Atonio Mafi 63 Chasen Hines 62 Bill Murray
C 60 David Andrews 53 Jake Andrews 65 James Ferentz 66 Kody Russey
DL 90 Christian Barmore 92 Davon Godchaux 91 Deatrich Wise Jr. 93 Lawrence Guy Sr. 95 Daniel Ekuale 98 Carl Davis Jr. 96 Sam Roberts 70 Jeremiah Pharms Jr. 67 Justus Tavai
ED 9 Matthew Judon 55 Josh Uche 51 Keion White 58 Anfernee Jennings (97 DaMarcus Mitchell) 51 Ronnie Perkins
LB 8 Ja’Whaun Bentley 48 Jahlani Tavai 52 Marte Mapu 30 Mack Wilson Sr. (45 Chris Board Jr.) 43 Calvin Munson 59 Terez Hall 47 Olakunle Fatukasi (66 Jourdan Heilig)
CB 50 Christian Gonzalez 31 Jonathan Jones 13 Jack Jones 25 Marcus Jones 27 Myles Bryant (61 Ameer Speed) 63 Isaiah Bolden 37 Tae Hayes 26 Shaun Wade 34 Quandre Mosely 39 Rodney Randle Jr.
S 23 Kyle Dugger 5 Jabrill Peppers 2 Jalen Mills 21 Adrian Phillips 24 Joshuah Bledsoe (41 Brenden Schooler) (22 Cody Davis) 29 Brad Hawkins
K 62 Chad Ryland 6 Nick Folk
P 59 Bryce Baringer 15 Corliss Waitman
LS 49 Joe Cardona 46 Tucker Addington
Conclusion Is this a perfect Patriots team? No. There are still long-term holes at offensive tackle and tight end, and there is a question mark as to who can be that pass catcher whom defensive coordinators have to plan for, a player the team has lacked for several seasons.
But is this an exciting Patriots roster, a team who has a chance to exceed their middling projections and expectations, a team worth watching and cheering for? Absolutely. Belichick and company have stabilized the coaching staff; added explosive, athletic players at nearly every position; brought in a new crew of players to take over special teams; and begun their draft with three players who could not only start in the NFL but have the potential to star. I fully believe that this is not an 8-9 caliber team, even in an AFC East with three other teams that have added big name after big name.
As Bill Belichick might say, we’re on to 2023.
We’re on to victory.

In her video essay about the consumerist aspect of Harry Potter, Verily Bitchie notes how from the very beginning Harry Potter was praised for “getting kids into reading” Indeed there was a lot of encouragement and acknowledgment from parents and teachers who are overwhelmingly female. Women are over represented as caretakers from parents and babysitters to teachers not to mention librarians and I think in no small part because Harry Potters strong word of mouth came from the many women who embody these roles and who I have a suspicion were overjoyed to see a woman author doing so well, not to mention the fact that boys were reading her novels despite sexist and patriarchal attitudes that so result go unchallenged. (At this rate it’s standard for girls to be encouraged or generally interested in traditionally masculine interests or media content, but we don’t really challenge boys to do the same with anything considered un-masculine)
Additionally, Rowling herself was frequently upheld as a role model for millennials to reach for the stars. How many times as kids did we hear, “JK Rowling had to go through 12 different publishers.” or more often “JK Rowling was writing on napkins unable to afford to heat her apartment!” Which Rowling herself actually dispelled in an interview. Never mind the fact that Rowling received a grant to finish the books from the Scottish Arts Council or the fact that the cafe she wrote in was co-owned by her ex-brother in law at the time.
Barack Obama was not above perpetuating the myth of JK Rowling’s rags to riches. When I was 15, Obama addressed high school students in a nationally broadcast address where he treaded the tired old story about JK Rowling going through publishers and the importance of persistence. This sentiment, lobbed one year into the global recession just reads as incredibly tone deaf and outdated. Was it too much to provide us a healthier and less ambitious as mythologized role model?
I find two problems with this narrative. No 1, this can-do-attitude style undermines the relevance of massive institutions and systems. Publishing is incredibly competitive and 12 rejections is the lesson that should have been taken from that story. Then of course there’s poverty and the freedom to create that financial security and independence brings with leisure time. No 2, this is the kind of astronomical success and cultural cache that only one person can enjoy in a generation. Aside from being more privileged than we were told by the media and misinformed parents and teachers, I can’t help but feel that some of the success of Harry Potter is in some ways accidental. This is not to say the books didn’t have something to them or that Rowling is a crap writer (she’s not) but rather that it wasn’t that alone that got them to where they are. It’s like telling kids if they practice their instruments hard enough they can become The Beatles or The Rolling Stones.
The UK publisher only read the first 60 pages until his daughter convinced him to publish the book. Sometimes these kinds of chances are that arbitrary. How many other authors out there went to 12 different publishing houses with work just as good as JK’s and didn’t have an executive’s child on their side?
It really makes you think about the quality of writing that publishers expect and the biases they inhabit and the whims they can be persuaded on.
Another interesting thing to take note of, Verily Bitchie also mentions how 3 days after the UK publication of the first book, Scholastic won the bidding war for the US publishing rights of the first novel and purchased it for $105,000 which was “practically unheard of a the time for a children’s novel” remarking on the marketing speculation and merchandise tie-ins they saw latent in the text.
So much has been made of Rowling as a writer and who she is as a person, but I think not everyone talks about her as a role model.
The danger of holding her up as a role model of hard work, talent and persistence Is this her success is more a matter of winning the lottery. Not because her books eventually sold and enjoyed popularity but because no other living author has enjoyed this amount of success or even had this kind of a book to franchise business model. That aspect is like winning the lottery and the problem I see with it is that more realistic and achievable goals like, having a stable income, being debt free, having a job you like that is not a detriment to your well being is not seen as enough or even as “successful”
I really blame not JK but the educators, parents and politicians who told us to look to a woman who spawned a $10 billion dollar franchise as a model of success. Who failed to model more attainable and less outer space aspirational examples of success in our lives on the eve of a global recession and the decline of homeownership and the ability to afford basic living expenses.