Meme - "No Nut November
Destroy Dick December
Fibonacci Fap February"
Meme - "WOODEN STOCK
SYNTHETIC STOCK
LAUGHING STOCK: people who didn't nut for a whole month because the internet told them not to"
Meme - Aayesha @Aayeshasharma17: "It's a duty of every female friend to break his male friend's NNN challenge"
Kids, Family and Jealousy: On the lam - FML - "Today, all three of my kids snuck out of a family reunion because they were bored. I was furious, until I found out my husband had also gone with them. After I was done yelling at all of them, I realised I was mostly jealous they didn’t take me with them. FML"
Man Complains Online That $1.90 Cai Png With Sardine & Curry Veg Is “So Expensive” - "“Walao, a slab of sardine, curry vegetables, the boss charged me S$1.90. So expensive. #SG” Accompanying his food was a can of oolong tea, presumably from the coffee shop’s drinks stall... Most of the comments opined that Tay was expecting too much, and that $1.90 was very reasonable... A man living in Johor Bahru also weighed in: “It would cost about RM7.50 to RM8 ($2.20 - $2.40) in JB. Are you making fun of us Johorians? This [food] is cheap.” Another netizen gently poked fun at Tay, saying: “$1.90 must be the price of your oolong tea, you haven’t counted the economic rice.”
Cory Clark, Behavioral Scientist - "I grew up in Bath, Ohio, birthplace of serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer, and sometimes home of the GOAT, LeBron James. A contrarian and skeptic since childhood, at age 7, I disproved the existence of Santa Claus... Up until college, my long-term plan was to be a backup dancer for Snoop Dogg. Snoop Dogg had to cancel his concert due to bad weather (typical Ohio hazard), and so I was forced to make other plans. Once in college, I couldn't decide whether I wanted to be an astronaut (physics major), Bertrand Russell (philosophy major), or a person who runs experiments on humans (psychology major). After I calculated my slim odds of being the first person to discover extraterrestrial life and my mom vetoed philosophy, I landed on psychology... My hobbies include phojography (taking pictures while jogging), phodography (taking pictures of my dog), renting rides with personality and exploring new corners of the world by myself, and planning for my future beet farm/live music venue/goat sanctuary, to be called Beets, Beats, & Bleats... Note. My chin is not surgically enhanced. That really is just the way it is."
Meme - "Junior Carbon Developer
CyberCoders 3.6 Nashville, TN 37219 +6 locations
$120,000 - $160,000 a year Full-time
Easily apply
Must have 10 years of Carbon experience - no exceptions and C++ doesn't count
Must also have 10 years with AWS and React. Knowledge of Photoshop strongly preferred.
Google's Carbon programming language aims to replace C++ - MyBroadband
1 day ago - Google unveiled a new programming language called Carbon on Tuesday, 19 July 2022, which it said is a experimental replacement for C++."
The Carver - Wikiquote - "Beauty is a curse on the world. It keeps us from seeing who the real monsters are."
The hidden areas of planes where the crew rests - "here are some secret areas on widebody aircraft, where the pilots and cabin crew go to rest during long flights. Passengers can't access them under any circumstance and they're well hidden from view. They're called Crew Rest Compartments and their location on the plane varies... Cabin crew members on long haul flights usually spend at least 10% of the planned flight time in the rest areas."
How Hershey's Chocolate Helped Power Allied Troops During WWII - "In 1937, the U.S. Army approached the Hershey Company about creating a specially designed bar just for its emergency rations. According to Hershey’s chief chemist Sam Hinkle, the U.S. government had just four requests about their new chocolate bars: They had to weigh 4 ounces, be high in energy, withstand high temperatures and “taste a little better than a boiled potato.” The army didn't want the bar to be so tasty that soldiers would eat it in non-emergency situations... most who tried it said they would rather have eaten the boiled potato. The combination of fat and oat flour made the chocolate bar a dense brick, and the sugar did little to mask the overwhelmingly bitter taste of the dark chocolate. Since it was designed to withstand high temperatures, the bar was nearly impossible to bite into. Most men who ate it had to shave slices off with a knife before they could chew it... The bar was hardly the only sweet in the D-Day rations. Sugar was an easy way to pep up the troops, and the quick burst of energy it provided made a welcome addition to kit bags. Along with the D rations, troops received three days worth of K ration packs. These were devised more as meal replacements and not sustenance snacks like the D rations, and came complete with coffee, canned meats, processed cheese and tons of sugar. At various points during the war, men could find powdered orange or lemon drink, caramels, chewing gum and—of course—more chocolate... Heinz created self-heating cans that could be lit with a cigarette, Kellogg’s supplied K-Rations for soldiers' breakfasts."
Hiker who went missing on Appalachian trail survived 26 days before dying - "A hiker survived for 26 days after disappearing off the Appalachian trail and wrote desperate journal entries and text messages that have only recently reached her family... Geraldine Largay, known to her friends as Gerry, disappeared on 22 July 2013 after leaving the trail to relieve herself, wardens said in the report. She remained missing for over two years... Largay’s husband George was not far away on the morning she went missing. He had driven to the Route 27 Crossing, about a 22-mile hike away from the shelter where his wife was last seen. Largay had committed to a “thru hike” of the 2,168-mile Appalachian trail, and had already traversed more than 1,000 miles. Like many hikers, she took a trail name: hers was “Inchworm”. Her husband met her along the trail for small reunions and resupplies... “Hiking the Appalachian trail and sleeping in tents and wearing the same stuff for three and four days in the rain – not on my bucket list,” he said. “But she needed to be supported on the hike, because she had limits on what she could carry, so I simply had to say, ‘OK, suck it up. What’s six months in the grand scheme of things?’ So I did it.” The documents show that Largay, 66, tried to text her husband after she lost her way. At about 11am that day, she wrote: “In somm trouble. Got off trail to go to br. Now lost. Can u call AMC to c if a trail maintainer can help me. Somewhere north of woods road. XOX.” The text never sent because of poor or nonexistent cell service. Largay tried to find higher ground, the wardens wrote, and attempted to send the text 10 more times in the next hour and a half. She eventually camped down for the night. The next day she tried to text again, with an undelivered message at 4.18pm: “Lost since yesterday. Off trail 3 or 4 miles. Call police for what to do pls. XOX.” By the next day, George Largay was concerned and the official search began. Over the next few weeks it expanded past the warden service to include search aircraft, state police, national park rangers and fire departments. They pursued hikers’ tips, scoured side trails and set dogs to searching – to no avail. Heavy rains that week obscured the trail, and Largay remained lost, a face on trail signposts for other hikers to look for. Adam now knows that at least three K9 teams came to about 100 yards of the camp. The newly released documents, first reported by the Boston Globe, also show that close friends cast doubt on Largay’s ability to hike alone. Her friend Jane Lee, who had hiked much of the trail with Largay before a personal emergency called her away, told wardens that her friend sometimes struggled to keep up, and had questionable skills with a compass... The campsite was “difficult to see unless you were right next to it”, Adam wrote, noting that the tent was under several large trees whose branches obstructed the sky. The site was in dense woods near the border of the navy and public properties, and Largay had built a bedding area out of “small trees, pine needles and possibly some dirt in an attempt to keep her tent out of any water,” Adam wrote. She also had tied a space blanket between branches to provide some cover. There was also evidence of lost opportunities: an open canopy nearby where she could have been seen from the sky, had her tent been under it. Largay had also tried to set fires, Adam suggested, noting nearby trees that had been charred black, seemingly not from lightning but by human hands. In the camp they found the basics for hiking – maps, a rain jacket, a space blanket, string, Ziploc bags, a flashlight that still worked – and small human reminders: a blue baseball cap, dental floss, a homemade necklace with white stone wrapped in string. They also found her notebook, moss growing on it, titled: “George Please Read XOXO”. Entries explained that she had spent about two days wandering after a wrong turn across a stream, and that she had tried to find ridges where she could regain some sense of place. The entries continued until 18 August, nearly a month after her disappearance, though Adam wrote: “We are unsure if this is a correct date or not.”... The camp was less than two miles from the Appalachian trail. Adam wrote that walking south from the campsite, the dense forest became open woods with good visibility after 60-70 yards, and after another 25 minutes he found “a clear logging road” that led to lodging. In total the walk took about 30 minutes."
Flavoured condoms being used in Bengal's Durgapur to get 'high'; here's how - "As they popularly say, addictions of all sorts are bad for health. According to media reports, some students in West Bengal’s Durgapur have become addicted to using condoms. What should be used as a contraceptive is being used to get ‘high’ by these students. Based on a report in News 18, the sale of flavoured condoms has surprisingly increased in many parts of the city, including Durgapur City Center, Bidhannagar, Muchipara and Benachiti, C Zone, A Zone. The students have been reportedly soaking condoms in hot water. Thereafter, they drink the liquid to get a ‘high’ that lasts for about 10 to 12 hours... Durgapur RE College Model School chemistry teacher Nurul Haque said, “Soaking condoms in hot water for a long time breaks down large organic molecules and creates alcohol compounds. This compound is keeping the youth intoxicated.”... The recent reports add condoms to the list of items that are unlikely candidates of substance abuse, including drinking cough syrup, aftershave, paint among others."
'Be responsible, don't use a condom tonight': Jiyo Parsi's unique ad campaign encourages Parsis to marry within the community and multiply - "The Government of India's Jiyo Parsi is a scheme to revive the dwindling Parsi community in Mumbai. It has been recorded that only 40,000 Parsis are left in Mumbai with the birth to death ratio being 1:4. These disappointing statistics led to an innovative ad campaign that encourages Parsis to marry within the community and procreate.The campaign from Madison Advertising asks young men to 'break up' with their mothers, and asks them to get married and have children quickly, 'because your parents won't be around forever to babysit.'While the world promotes safe sex and the use of condoms, this ad campaign takes a different route and asks couples to not use a condom and help the Parsi population multiply!"
Dan McLaughlin and His 10,000-Hour Journey: Not as Easy as You Might Think - "Malcolm Gladwell said so in his enlightening book, Outliers, so it must be true. “The idea that excellence at performing a complex task requires a critical minimum level of practice surfaces again and again in studies of expertise. In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours.” So inspired was Dan McLaughlin, a commercial photographer from Portland, Oregon, he decided to quit his profession and commit to learning how to play golf by practicing for 10,000 hours to see if he could become a professional golfer. This from a man whose golf experience up till then consisted of two visits to a driving range as a child... I suppose McLaughlin’s premise is that in the nature vs nurture debate, nurture (or deliberate practice in this case) can “trump” nature, or the genes that assign specific physical attributes to you. Here’s what David Epstein wrote in his fascinating book, The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance, about why that thinking appeals to so many people:
'The “practice only” narrative to explain Tiger Woods has an obvious attraction: it appeals to our hope that anything is possible with the right environment, and that children are lumps of clay with infinite athletic malleability. In short, it has the strongest possible self-help angle and it preserves more free will than any alternative explanation.'
And yet, Epstein explains that the 10,000-hour idea is more rule of thumb than rule.
'…one man’s 3,000-hours rule was another man’s 25,000-and-counting-hours rule. The renowned 10,000-hours violin study only reports the average number of hours of practice. It does not repot the range of hours required for the attainment of expertise, so it is impossible to tell whether any individual in the study actually became an elite violinist in 10,000 hours, or whether that was just an average of disparate individual differences.'
In other words, 10,000 hours is an average, and there must be other reasons to explain why some people achieve mastery faster than others, or why two people raised in similar circumstances have different performance levels. Epstein goes on to explain powerfully that while practice and work ethic are key factors in a person improving in a given activity, genetics play a significant role. After all, as the author quotes genetics researcher Janet Starkes, “if only accumulated hours of practice matter, then why do we separate men and women in athletic competition?”
Golfer Dan McLaughlin and the Failure of "The Dan Plan" - The Atlantic - "Dan McLaughlin reckons he’s sat down to compose the farewell post to the Dan Plan a hundred times. “I just don’t know what to write”... For five years, McLaughlin cast everything else aside—career, money, even relationships—to put this to the test. But then his back gave out. He pushed himself to the limit and still came up short... “The idea of talent is [like] living in a society of kings and princes,” he says. “If you don’t limit yourself by this idea ... it’s more like a democracy where anyone who’s willing to work [can] succeed.”... “I could watch him and think it was remarkable for someone who hadn’t played before,” Bjork recounts. “Or, I could look at him ... and say the whole idea of [making] the pro tour was unrealistic.”"
Princess Märtha Louise of Norway gives up royal duties to run business with shaman fiancé - "Norway’s Princess Märtha Louise is withdrawing from official royal duties in order to concentrate on the alternative medicine business she runs with her fiancé, American spiritual guru Durek Verrett. The 51-year-old princess, who is fourth in line to the Norwegian throne, “will not be representing the Royal House at the present time”... The pair have run seminars together offering “meditations and shamanic exercises” that can “reveal to you your divine self activated and how you can utilize your gift to change the world.”... In 2002, Märtha Louise, who is the only daughter of the Norwegian king and queen, gave up her “royal highness” status as well as her royal allowance to pursue her career in the media. The same year, she wed Norwegian author Ari Behn. The pair had three daughters before announcing their separation in 2016. Behn died by suicide on Christmas Day 2019."
Elephant kills elderly woman and then returns to trample her corpse at funeral in India - "An elephant in eastern India killed a 70-year-old woman and then returned to her funeral to trample her corpse. The incident occurred in Odisha state on Thursday, police said. Maya Murmu was at a tube well drawing water in Mayurbhanj district’s Raipal village when the wild elephant appeared out of nowhere. Authorities said it had strayed from the Dalma wildlife sanctuary, nearly 200km from Mayurbhanj... when family members gathered for the funeral and were in the middle of performing last rites, the same elephant appeared, lifted Ms Murmu’s body from the funeral pyre and trampled it again, as shocked mourners looked on. The family were only able to go ahead with the ceremony after the elephant left. It remains unclear if the animal harmed anyone else present."
7 Percent Of Americans Don't Lock Their Doors. Here's Who They Are - "“If most people do it, it’s not their personalities that explain why it’s done,” said Dr. Baruch Fischhoff, a professor of decision science at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. “This is a cultural norm. It’s very low cost, and everyone grew up doing it so they just continue doing it.” Though non-lockers are rare across all demographic groups, some Americans are more likely than others to go lock-free. For example, 12 percent of Americans age 65 and over, but only 4 percent of those under 30, generally don't lock their doors when they go out, with other age groups falling in between. And 14 percent of those who live in rural areas -- but only 5 percent of city dwellers, 6 percent of suburbanites and 7 percent of those who live in towns -- say they don't lock up when they leave the house. Whites were more likely than African-Americans to say they don't lock their doors, 8 percent to 2 percent, while Republicans (12 percent) were more likely to be non-lockers than Democrats or independents (both at 6 percent). More Americans -- 23 percent -- say they seldom lock the doors when they're home. Once again, people living in rural areas, older Americans, whites, and Republicans were the most likely to say they generally don't lock their doors... Eight percent of rural-dwellers, but 17 percent of city-dwellers, said their home has been broken into, while 20 percent of blacks and only 13 percent of whites said the same. However, there was little difference by gender, age, party or region in reports of break-ins"
Operation Fish - Bank of Canada Museum - "It’s 7:35 a.m., July 1st, 1940 and a shipment of fish has arrived in Halifax. Labelled “Top Secret,” it was the culmination of almost a year of planning and preparatory work. It’s one of the war's best kept secrets—and certainly one of the most interesting. The Bank of Canada was about to become a key, if secret, player in the Second World War, and truthfully, the story doesn’t involve a single fish at all. It involved gold. A lot of it—thousands of pounds that needed to move across an ocean to protect the future of Europe... The United Kingdom could be the next to fall, so Churchill has developed plans to install his government in Montréal and continue to lead the Commonwealth from Canada. The Bank of England has also begun preparing for the worst—putting in motion plans to run a “shadow bank” headquartered in Ottawa. Since the Munich Agreement of 1938, it has been increasing its gold reserves in Canada as a precautionary measure. Now, with Germany at their doorstep, Churchill accelerates the process—devising Operation Fish, a plan to move England’s entire gold reserve overseas to Canada... Amazingly, not a single gold-bearing vessel is lost. By the end of Operation Fish, over 1,500 tonnes of gold ingots and coin would be placed into the Bank’s vault, where they would remain for the duration of the war. To help keep track of the gold, Mansur and the Bank hired roughly 120 retired Canadian bankers, brokers and investment firm secretaries. By their count, the Bank’s gold stores were second only to that of Fort Knox"
How a lonely dolphin's 'sexual behaviours' toward humans caused one French town to ban swimming - "People eager to spend the waning days of summer frolicking in the waters near a coastal town in France might want to rethink their plans. It isn’t safe, according to local officials, who recently banned swimming and diving in the area. But the danger threatening visitors to the beaches of Landévennec isn’t a vicious rip current or a shark — it’s a lonely, “love lorn,” male bottlenose dolphin nicknamed Zafar. For months, Zafar has been known in the Bay of Brest for his unabashed playfulness, even allowing people to hold on to his dorsal fin as he takes them for rides, the Telegraph reported. But the dolphin’s interest in humans now appears to be driven by the need for company of an intimate nature, French newspaper Ouest-France reported. “He is in heat,” one marine mammal expert told the news site. Zafar has been seen trying to rub up against swimmers and boats or kayaks, Le Telegramme reported. In other instances, the dolphin prevented a female swimmer from returning to shore (she was later rescued by boat) and lifted another woman out of the water with his nose... “It’s been observed that dolphins and different whale species will rub themselves against objects with what appears to be some type of sexual satisfaction coming about”"
Clearly, if a human had sex with the dolphin, it would be raping it, since animals can never consent to sex with humans. And this isn't the only example
How we sleepwalked into George Orwell’s nightmarish vision - "George Orwell’s classic novel foretold a lot, but the manner in which we’ve handed over our personal data to faceless corporatocracies is doubleplus-ungood... it wasn’t until the passing of the analogue era that Orwell’s vision became more realised, although what he had not envisioned was our own eager collusion in handing over our personal data to a Big Brother corporatocracy, and our lurch towards so-called populism... Mass surveillance, corrupt power, cronyism, distortion of truth, collusion with falsehood, state brutality, media brainwashing; Orwell was writing during the rule of Stalin, yet the term Orwellian is even more creepily applicable in the digital age, where the scope for information distortion seems limitless, thanks to humanity’s greatest invention since the printing press... The internet, initially utopian, has in recent times become Orwellian — creating hypnotic control, harvesting personal data, monitoring and recording our every move, powering the mass transmission of lies. The only difference is that instead of resisting, we continue to wholly embrace it: like Winston Smith after being reprogrammed, we all love Big Brother. Except in 2019 we call it Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Amazon, Google. We walk with our heads bowed. Ironically, the novel itself has not been immune from online distortion. In June 2017, the line “The people will not revolt. They will not look up from their screens long enough to notice what’s happening” began zinging around the internet, attributed to Orwell — suggesting he had basically predicted the mass use of smart phones back in 1948 — yet the line was not taken from the novel, but from a 2014 theatre adaptation."
Ironically, the writer promotes a leftist agenda
Strong and stable? Maybe, maybe not. What we can learn from No 10’s cavalcade of lecterns
Sex work is rewarding, pupils told by education providers | News | The Times - "Providers of sex education in schools are teaching children that prostitution is a “rewarding job” and failed to advise a 14-year-old girl having sex with a 16-year-old boy that it was illegal. Outside organisations teaching children about sex also promote “kinks” such as being locked in a cage, flogged, caned, beaten and slapped in the face... One organisation encouraged pupils to demonstrate where they like to touch themselves sexually, in a practise criticised as “sex abuse” by campaigners. Another provider, an LGBT+ youth charity called the Proud Trust, produces resources asking children aged seven to 11 whether they are “planet boy, planet girl, planet non-binary”. Last night campaigners said that “inclusiveness is overriding child safeguarding” and that the materials were “bordering on illegal”. This week Rachel de Souza, the children’s commissioner, revealed that she would review sex education being taught in schools after Miriam Cates, an MP, was contacted by a parent whose nine-year-old child came home “shaking” and “white as a sheet because they’d been taught in detail about rape”. Relationship and sex education (RSE) became compulsory in English secondary schools in 2020, with many contracting out the teaching. Since then an industry has sprung up of providers who produce resources and go into schools to teach sex education and gender issues... The website features a question from a 14-year-old girl having a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old male. She states that she is worried about becoming pregnant because they are not using contraception and are using the “withdrawal” method. In his response Hancock, who describes himself as a freelance sex and relationships educator, said that “your risks of pregnancy are very, very low”, a statement described as “dangerously reckless” by campaigners. He also failed to mention that the relationship was illegal and advised using lubricant during anal sex... In a post about “kink”, Bish links to a blog that provides a list of sexual activities including using manacles and irons, whips, swinging and beating. In a post about masturbation, parents are told: “If your kid is having trouble understanding this, or you want to explain how to touch themselves, you could get hold of some Play-Doh or plasticine and make a model of what someone’s genitals might look like. They could practice touching the models gently in a similar way to how they may touch their own.” The Safe Schools Alliance said: “Telling children to practise masturbating on a plasticine model is child sexual abuse.”... A survey by the Sex Education Forum of children aged 16 and 17 last year found that 35 per cent rated the quality of their school’s RSE provision as “good” or “very good” — down six percentage points from the previous year. This was attributed to many of the basics not being covered. The Proud Trust produced a range of resources called Alien Nation that asked primary schoolchildren aged seven to 11 whether they felt closest to “planet boy, planet girl, planet non-binary”. It also asks: “Which planet were you sent to as a baby” and “What would your ideal planet be like?”. Its website states that the resource was funded by Cheshire West and Chester council. The charity Educate & Celebrate, founded by Elly Barnes, a teacher, promoted a book called Can I Tell You About Gender Diversity?, which tells the story of Kit, a 12-year-old girl who is being medically transitioned to live as a boy. Resources on their website include lesson plans for children aged seven to 11 that suggest pupils “create a gender neutral character” that they can share with the rest of the class. Teachers should encourage them to “refrain from saying he or she” and “introduce gender neutral pronouns and language, eg They, Zie and Mx”. The group says that its methods have been adopted by “hundreds of schools”. Last month Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, a former director of public prosecutions, said that providers were preventing parents from viewing teaching resources, citing commercial confidentiality...
A mother was reported to social services after she objected to the way her children were being taught about sex and gender at school (Charlotte Wace writes). The woman said that she wanted her six daughters, four of whom are foster children, “to know they have [a] right to safe spaces based on biological sex and equality in sport”. She wrote to the school after being told that two of the girls, aged 12 and 13, were due to have lessons on sex and gender, and asked to see material used in the lessons in advance. It amounted to “indoctrination”, she claimed in her letter, and she asked the school to add “some scientific balance”."
Anyone against "sex education" is a far right homophobic prude who wants abstinence-only sex education
Errol Webber on Twitter - "If you have to hide the curriculum from the parents of your students, you don’t belong in a classroom or in close proximity to anyone’s kids."
Meme - Reasons why you want a gf: "Sex. Sex is nice. Fun. A girl would be fun to have around"
Reasons why you have no gf: "You don't actually want one
Insecurity. You have a list of perceived problems that bother you and wreck your confidence (Ugly, manlet, etc)
You never try. You always have an excuse notto hurts try. more But the regret hurts more in the long run than any rejection
Grotesque obesity or deformity
You have a boring life."
Reasons why you want a gf & Reasons why you have no gf: "Savior Fantasy. You think a pixie dreamgirl will rescue you from your shitty life just like in one of your animes
Desperation. You need sex and you don't care who you fuck. You're just consumed by it
Validation. You need a gf because you think that then you'll have the right to be confident
Purity Fantasy. You want a pure virgin gf that will give herself to you because you're that special
Obligation. You feel like a failure at life if you don't have a gf.
Love Fantasy. You think that love is a blissful state and that you need a girl to love so that you can attain this blissful state"
Meme - "I know we had a good time last night but I have a confess :("
"Ugh what is it?"
"Okay so im obviously a human bean, but I sometimes see myself as a werewolf like not in a furry way but an animalistic sexy Daddy wolf way with large hairy black balls that are hairy and black and a large massive huge cock. Okay don't respond bitch *growls and the moon cums out. I can feel my body vibrating and my SUPER hairy balls and LARGE cock are getting large and huge and hairy. My body gets hairy and black and my voice gets deep like a black guy (I'm not racist) I get very muscular and beefy and I moan as my super socket cock cums all over your mid 6/10 face*"
Transformers 1986 Broke An '80s Movie Rule In Order To Traumatize Children - "The Transformers: The Movie killed off different popular Autobots from the show, the most prominent one being Optimus Prime, who died after a battle with Megatron. According to the story consultant for the movie, Flint Dille (via THR), "The kids were crying in the theaters. We heard about people leaving the movie."... Optimus Prime's death and those of other Autubots broke an unspoken rule of '80s filmmaking: do not kill off protagonists, given their franchise-building potential. Nonetheless, a combination of not realizing how popular Optimus Prime was and the desire to deliver an impactful moment for children resulted in the deaths... The Transformers: The Movie ushering in a new era for Hasbro by killing beloved characters was controversial, but it proved to be beneficial for the movie in the long term. Despite the film being a financial disappointment — it grossed $5.8 million on an estimated $5 million budget — The Transformers' various high-profile Autobot deaths drew attention to it. That, in turn, greatly prolonged its longevity. The film became a talked-about topic for years after its release, which eventually led it to reach cult status and become one of the most prominent installments in the Transformers movie franchise... While The Transformers: The Movie failed to reach the popularity Hasbro hoped it would, the film had one beneficial effect on the series: it made it feel unpredictable... The reason for killing off recognizable Transformers was to replace them with new protagonists, and thus, a new line of toys. Yet, following the movie's release, sales of Transformers toys disappointed, as merchandise based on the new Autobots proved less popular than those of the previous characters. Hasbro also received multiple letters from fans upset by the killing of Optimus Prime. Those factors ultimately led the company to revive him in the two-part Transformers season 3 finale, "The Return of Optimus Prime." So, while The Transformers: The Movie largely failed, the feature served as a gauge for Hasbro to learn what aspects of the property worked for fans."
Nonoverlapping magisteria: Why Gould got it wrong - "First, even if one ignores the instances that religion is expressly in conflict with science – such as when it lobbies to prevent stem cell research and have creationism taught in schools – the two nonetheless remain fundamentally irreconcilable. Second, religion does not restrict itself to moral teachings, and the role of science in developing an intelligent ethical framework is unavoidable... The philosopher Russell Blackford argues that the reason it is even possible to imagine no conflict between science and religion is a result of just how much the religious have had to concede... If religious apologists are content to dodge scientific criticism by invoking the argument for nonoverlapping magisteria, they forfeit any claim that their beliefs are supported by science. Conscious of this, many religious apologists are critical of Gould’s nonoverlapping magisteria."