#agent 4.25

[noweyay]

Kinda wanna post this before I go to bed

Yaoi…..

[x-z0ne]

thinking about the new corospoil post.

gloves is agent 4, right? but skull and vintage (yes, i know 😒) are agent's 4.5 and 4.25, are they also included in this? the legs in the back are obviously goggles and hachi's but this really has me thinking..

it MIGHT be a no, because if all three were the parallel canon, they would probably all be crammed into one panel. also, there's only one parallel canon that represents four.. hmm

let me know yalls opinions on this

[twenty-words-or-less]

Mississippi Grind

Summary: Estate agent and unlucky gambler Gerry (Ben Mendelsohn) meets significantly younger and much luckier gambler Curtis (Ryan Reynolds) and go on something of an odyssey together.

Incredibly stressful examination on addiction and the difficulty of quitting with two compelling central performances. Ambiguous but hopeful ending, too.

Rating: 4.25/5

Photo credit: Roger Ebert

[aroaessidhe]

Read in September

audio favourites

Sea of Broken Glass - 2.5

The Sea Spirit Festival - 4

The Empire Wars - 4

The No-Girlfriend Rule - 3.75

The Fortunate Fall - 4.25

Junker Seven - 3.75

Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea - 3.25

Moth To A Flame - 4.5

The Ghost of Hexes Past - 3.5

Lightrunner’s Gambit - 4

The Shimmering Prayer of Sûkiurâq - 3

Small Gods of Calamity - 4

The Midnight Market - 3

A Veil of Gods and Kings - 3.5

A Crown of Hopes and Sorrows - 3.5

Dehiscent - 4

Kill Your Darlings - 3.5

A Shield of Fate and Ruin - 3.5

Lacrimore - 4

A Spark of Death and Fury - 3.5

The Blonde Dies First - 3.75

Haifa Fragments - 3.5

Monstersona - 3.5

The Gilded Crown - 4

Grievers - 4

A Bánh Mì for Two - 3.75

The Labyrinth Beckons - 4

Asunder - 4

Time’s Agent - 4

The Sapling Cage - 4

gn/comics

How It All Ends - 5

Of Thunder And Lightning - 4.5

Tiger Tiger - 5

nonfiction

Filterworld

[beardedmrbean]

U.S. customs officials are cracking down on egg smugglers. 

With egg prices soaring in the U.S. over the last year, more Americans are crossing into Mexico to buy the food item and trying to sneak cartons of raw eggs along some areas of the southern border, including California and Texas.

"We are seeing an increase in people attempting to cross eggs from Juarez to El Paso because they are significantly less expensive in Mexico than the U.S.," U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesman Roger Maier told CBS MoneyWatch. "This is also occurring with added frequency at other Southwest border locations."

Egg prices have soared 60% in a year. Here's why.

Jennifer De La O, a  U.S. Customs and Border Protection field operations director in San Diego, said in a tweet this week that her office "has recently noticed an increase in the number of eggs intercepted at our ports." Failure to declare agricultural items while entering the U.S. can carry fines of up to $10,000, she added.

Federal law prohibits travelers from bringing certain agriculture products — including eggs, as well as live chickens and turkeys — into the U.S. "because they may carry plant pests and foreign animal diseases," according to customs rules. Eggs from Mexico have been banned from entering the U.S. since 2012, according to the USDA. Cooked eggs are allowable under USDA guidelines. 

The number of incidents in which raw eggs were confiscated at U.S. borders jumped more than 100% during the final three months of 2022 compared to the same period a year ago, according to Border Report, an online news site focused on immigration issues. The price for a 30-count carton of eggs in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, is $3.40, according to Border Report. 

Egg prices in the U.S. have surged to an average of $4.25 a dozen, up from roughly $1.79 a year ago, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The cost of processed eggs — used in liquid or powdered form in manufactured products including salad dressing, cake mix and chips — has also risen.

Those price increases are being driven by growing consumer demand along with a decrease in domestic egg supplies caused by an avian flu epidemic that has devastated U.S. poultry flocks. 

Nearly 58 million birds have been infected with the disease, while more than 43 million egg-laying hens have been slaughtered, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, making it the deadliest avian flu outbreak in American history. USDA officials are investigating what caused the outbreak.

People entering the U.S. must declare eggs at the border, Charles Payne, supervisory agriculture specialist at U.S. Customs in El Paso, Texas, told Border Report. A customs officer will still confiscate the eggs and have them destroyed, but will waive the penalty for the offender.

"We don't want to issue the penalties, but occasionally we have to," Payner told Border Report. "So if you declare what you've got, there won't be an issue."

[bookishbethanyerin]

• Review: Flawless + Heartless •

So, I did the thing where I started watching Yellowstone and then was all, “must read the cowboy romances everyone has been talking about.” And I am not upset about this one bit!

The books in Elsie Silver’s Chestnut Ridge series are set on a ranch in Canada owned by the Eaton family.

In “Flawless,” we follow Rhett, the youngest son, who is a professional bull rider with a PR problem, and Summer, the daughter of Rhett’s agent who is sent to essentially babysit him for the rest of rodeo season and explicitly told by her dad/boss not to sleep with him.🙃 This book is a ton of swoony fun, the chemistry between Rhett and Summer is at hottest-day-of-the-year levels, and it also offers up an emotional twist that completely blindsided me.

And then we have “Heartless.” I’m normally *not* one to go for the single dad romance book, but y’all. This one.🔥 Cade is the oldest (and grumpiest) Eaton brother, a single dad, a full-time cowboy, and a man who needs some assistance. He ends up being basically forced into hiring Summer’s best friend Willa as a live-in nanny for the summer and holy smokes, these two – it’s a five-alarm situation.🥵

“Heartless” was on track to be a five-star read for me, but a trope I deeply dislike is introduced late in the book – and though it made sense for these characters, I still wish the situation had unfolded differently. But even with that blip for me, I still really enjoyed it!

So! If you’re looking for fun, steamy reads with great banter and some emotional depth, boot-scoot your way over to these Elsie Silver books.🤠

(Psst: the third one comes out soon, and it’s focused on the not-officially-but-sort-of adopted Eaton son, who is a pro hockey player😌)

Flawless: 3.75 🌟 | 2.75🌶️

Heartless: 4.25🌟 | 3🌶️

[libertyreads]

40 Books Before 40 End of Year Update--

I’ve made some serious progress on this project this year. I only have 4 books left after DNF’ing The House on Infinity Loop. Under the cut will be the full list as well as the rating I’ve given for the ones I’ve read so far.

1. Failsafe by Traci Hunter Abramson, Guardian #1. Rating: 2.5 stars.

2. Realm Breaker by Victoria Aveyard, Realm Breaker #1. Rating: 3.25 stars.

3. High School is Hell by Jordie Bellaire, Buffy the Vampire Slayer #1. Rating: 2.5 stars.

4. The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot, The Princess Diaries, #1. Rating: 2 stars.

5. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Rating: 3 stars.

6. Spellslinger by Sebastian De Castell, Spellslinger #1. Rating: 3 stars.

7. Traitor’s Blade by Sebastian De Castell, Greatcoats #1.

8. Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer, Artemis Fowl #1. Rating: 3 stars.

9. Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey, The Expanse #1. Rating: 4.25 stars.

10. The Passage by Justin Cronin, The Passage #1. Rating: 2 stars.

11. Pines by Blake Crouch, Wayward Pines #1. Rating: 2.75 stars.

12. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Rating: 3 stars.

13. The House on Infinity Loop by Bonnie K.T. Dillabough, The Dimensional Alliance #1. Rating: DNF’d.

14. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. Rating: 3.5 stars.

15. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. Rating: 3 stars.

16. Stardust by Neil Gaiman. Rating: 3.5 stars.

17. Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Rating: 1.44 stars.

18. The Humans by Matt Haig. Rating: 3 stars.

19. An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard, An Unkindness of Magicians #1. Rating: 3.5 stars.

20. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

21. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Rating: 2 stars.

22. Fool Me Twice at Christmas by Camilla Isley. Rating: 3 stars.

23. The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson. Rating: 2.5 stars.

24. Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones, Howl’s Moving Castle #1. Rating: 3.5 stars.

25. The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune. Rating: 4 stars.

26. Jade City by Fonda Lee, The Green Bone Saga #1.

27. Love Like This by Sophie Love, The Romance Chronicles #1. Rating: 2 stars.

28. The Princess Saves Herself in This One by Amanda Lovelace, Women are Magic #1. Rating: 5 stars.

29. The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, Gentleman Bastard #1. Rating: 5 stars.

30. The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy. Rating: 4 stars.

31. Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell. Rating: 3 stars.

32. The Initial Insult by Mindy McGinnis, The Initial Insult #1. Rating: 3.75 stars.

33. Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne. Rating: 5 stars.

34. At Midnight, All the Agents by Alan Moore, Watchmen #1. Rating: 2.42 stars.

35. Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel, Themis Files #1. Rating: 4 stars.

36. Terrier by Tamora Pierce, Beka Cooper #1.

37. Across the Universe by Beth Revis, Across the Universe #1. Rating: 2.5 stars.

38. If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio. Rating: 4 stars.

39. Beware the Kitten Holy by Noelle Stevenson, Lumberjanes #1. Rating: 4 stars.

40. The Time Machine by H.G. Wells. Rating: 1 stars.

The average rating for this project so far: 3.14 stars. Which isn’t actually that bad now that I think about it. I made the list from books I had my eye on and all of those book lists about “100 books to read before you die” or whatever.

[brian-betsy]

Interest rates raised to 4.25% by Bank of England property industry reaction

Interest rates raised to 4.25% by Bank of England – property industry reaction https://propertyindustryeye.com/interest-rates-raised-to-4-25-by-bank-of-england-property-industry-reaction/ The impact on buyers’ budgets will weigh on house prices especially in the lower rungs of the housing ladder, where debt is the predominant source of funding, says one agent Brian Betsy

[droctaviolovecraft]

ANM-209-P: Scarebur (art by Viper11)

http://mothrainstitution.wikidot.com/anm-209

ANM №: ANM-209-P

Lead Researcher: Dr. Maicon

Identification: Scarebur

Danger Level: Kali 🟠 (Physical, structural)

Containment Difficulty: 3 (Difficult)

Type of Anomaly: Prisoner, insectoid, anthropomorphic, sentient

**Containment:**

The creature must be kept in a high-security containment cell with reinforced walls and controlled feeding. The cell must be monitored by cameras and motion sensors and equipped with a fire suppression system. Entry and exit of the cell must be authorized by the Lead Researcher or the Area Director. Any escape attempt or aggression by the creature must be reported immediately and contained with special non-lethal weapons.

**Description:**

Scarebur, ANM-209-P, is an anthropomorphic insect with an almost indestructible exoskeleton/armor against conventional weapons. It can walk through fire and has the strength and impact to destroy walls. The creature feeds solely on metals or other materials, and a tracker from the organization has been installed in its chest in case it escapes containment.

It is terrifyingly large, about 4.25 meters tall, weighing over 2.5 tons, with supernatural strength, but is slow and not very intelligent. The origin of the creature is unknown, but it is suspected to be the result of some genetic experiment or mutation. The creature was captured by the organization in a joint operation with the Brazilian armed forces and the task force "Guerreiros da Caatinga" after causing significant damage and deaths in an interior city. The subject is hostile and aggressive and shows no signs of communication or emotion. Research on the creature is ongoing, aiming to understand its biology, behavior, and potential use.

ANM-209 has an accelerated metabolism, allowing it to quickly digest the metals and other materials it consumes. These materials are used to strengthen its exoskeleton and repair any damage. 209-P can also expel metallic fragments as projectiles, causing severe injuries to its targets. Analyses indicate that the creature appears to be sensitive to electromagnetic fields, which can interfere with its tracker and cause pain and confusion. This is one of the few ways to incapacitate the creature without damaging its exoskeleton. The organization is developing weapons and devices based on this principle to facilitate the containment and transport of the creature.

ANM-209 seems to have some degree of survival instinct, as it avoids situations that could put its life at risk. For example, the creature does not attack insects smaller than itself unless it is hungry or feels threatened. The creature also avoids very bright or noisy places, preferring to hide in shadows or underground locations.

The being resembles a giant beetle, with a shiny green exoskeleton, two robust legs, beetle-like mandibles, and two orange eyes. Its exoskeleton is covered with spikes and grooves that serve to protect it and intimidate its enemies. It also has four arms, with the upper ones being much stronger and more useful than the lower ones.

ANM-209 does not have a proper name but has been nicknamed Scarebur by the organization's agents and by Dr. Maicon due to its frightening appearance and resemblance to a scarab beetle. It is also referred to as ANM-209, its identification code within the organization.

[twins2994]

Minnesota Twins-Washington Nationals Series Preview

5.20.24-Pablo Lopez RHP (4-3) 3.93 ERA Vs. Mitchell Parker LHP (2-2) 3.09 ERA

5.21.24-Joe Ryan RHP (2-3) 3.57 ERA Vs. Patrick Corbin LHP (1-4) 5.59 ERA

5.22.24-Simeon Woods Richardson RHP (1-0) 2.97 ERA Vs. Jake Irvin RHP (2-4) 3.91 ERA

The Twins At A Glance- The Minnesota Twins bats have went ice cold during a six-game losing streak. They have scored nine runs in their past six games and the pitching hasn't been bad outside of Saturday's loss. Trevor Larnach is 0-for-his-last-19 and hasn't gotten a hit in over a week. Alex Kirilloff is 1-for-his-last-12 over the past week. Manny Margot has been a bright spot with a .364 average over the past week. He should get plenty of playing time with the Twins facing a pair of lefties in this series. The team made a roster move on Sunday when they designated Jay Jackson for assignment. I think he will refuse his assignment and become a free agent. Caleb Boushley was called up to replace him. Boushley has been good for the Saints with 38 strikeouts over 41 2/3 innings of work. Jhoan Duran has allowed four runs over his past two outings. Josh Staumont hasn't allowed a run over 4 1/3 innings since his call-up.

The Nationals At A Glance- The Nationals are a young team with a bunch of talent. The Nats have lost five straight games as the Phillies swept them in Philadelphia over the weekend. CJ Abrams is a budding superstar and is hitting .269 with seven homers and twenty-one RBI. Jesse Winker has been a good additiong with five homers and twenty RBI. Luis Garcia has been good at second base with a .275 average. The Nats have a few former Twins in Eddie Rosario, Joey Gallo, and Ildemaro Vargas. Rosario is hitting just .180 with six homers and fourteen knocked in. Joey Gallo just returned from a shoulder injury. He is hitting just .129 on the year. The Nationals starting rotation owns a 4.05 ERA, which is 17th in baseball. The Twins will miss Mackenzie Gore and Trevor Williams, who have been the best starters for Washington. The bullpen is a little better with a 3.72 ERA, which is eleventh-best in MLB. Dylan Floro is having a comeback year and has allowed just one run over 22 2/3 innings. Kyle Finnegan is the closer with thirteen saves and a 1.89 ERA. Jacob Barnes, Hunter Harvey, and Derek Law have been good options out of the bullpen.

What To Watch For- The Nationals took two of three from the Twins last April in a chilly series at Target Field. The Nationals lead the all-time series at (11-10) and have won nine of the past eleven meetings. The Twins haven't been to DC since 2016 when the Nats swept them. The Nationals were the last visiting team to play at Target Field. Pablo Lopez is (4-3) with a 4.98 ERA in thirteen starts against the Nats. He has a 4.25 ERA in seven starts at Nationals Park. Patrick Corbin is (1-1) with a 4.50 ERA in two starts against the Twins. All the other projected starters have not faced their opponent. The Twins get an easier opponent, but this Nats team has a lot of young talent. They took two of three from the Dodgers in Los Angeles earlier this year.

-Chris Kreibich-

[noweyay]

Bro what the fuck is your deal

[keratoconusgroup]

Wife new to keratoconus

Hi, my name is Mike, my wife was recently diagnosed with keratoconus. I’ll say that she’s scared, confused, drained, depressed and a whole bunch of other emotions. Shes 29 years old. I’ll start with how it was diagnosed. So about 3 months ago she said she was having very minor blurriness in her right eye, so we made an appt with her optometrist and they said her eyesight went from -3.0 to -4.0 which I thought was a rather large jump. So she gets new contacts and everything is clear and ok. A few days go by and she is having blurriness, eye strain, etc. to the point that we have another visit. They tell her it’s now a -4.25 in the left, and -4.5 in the right with an astigmatism on the right eye. She gets new contacts again, they work well for a few days and we repeat what happens before. Another visit and they’re saying it’s not an astigmatism in the right eye, it’s an adema. So they prescribe prednisone drops for 5 days and then a check up. During her check up, the doctor seemed baffled because the adema was gone but he didn’t know what her eyesight was doing. He then said she needs an emergency visit to the hospital because he thinks she may have MS or possibly ALS. Which sent us into panic mode. We end up at Kaiser the next day, with an ophthalmologist and he does her topography and diagnoses her with keratoconus. Doesn’t go over anything about it with us and sends us on her way. We look it up and the fear begins all over again. We have to wait a month for her appt for her scleral fitting. She doesn’t have glasses that work, nor the correct prescription contacts. So she continues to use her last pair given. They’re wrong and not working but none of the eye doctors seemed to care much about the wait time. We get in for the scleral fitting, which went rather well. We opted for a different ophthalmologist because the first was just not our vibe. The new doctor says she’ll likely get 20/20 vision with the sclerals. We pay the 1k for them as the Medicaid doesn’t cover them. There’s now a 4-6 week wait to receive them and again, no new contacts to hold her over. So we’re now at week 3 of waiting and her eyes seem to be straining pretty bad at this point. We’re both grateful that she is a stay at home mom because she would’ve been fired due to not being able to drive whatsoever. So we’re a bit lost at what to do while the wait seems to be an eternity. Any advice would be very appreciated. When she was diagnosed I got onto Reddit and joined this group and have read almost every single post. I want to know everything I can so I can help her and this seems to be the very best place to be. This is for lack of a better word horrific. I have to much respect for everyone here for being so strong, and for helping one another during what seems like one of the most stressful, life changing events that can happen to someone. submitted by /u/Think-Agent-1356 [link] [comments] https://www.reddit.com/r/Keratoconus/comments/161kt8x/wife_new_to_keratoconus/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

[theblotsays]

SDCC 2023 Exclusive Agent Venom Vinyl Soda Marvel Vinyl Figure by Funko x Previews

Previews is teaming up with Funko to release this awesome San Diego Comic-Con 2023 Exclusive Agent Venom Vinyl Soda Marvel vinyl figure! Introduced in the pages of Spider-Man, Agent Venom is the result of a fusion between Peter Parker’s high school friend, Flash Thompson, with the original Venom Symbiote. There is also a randomly inserted 1:6 rare chase Agent Anti-Venom variant, which is Flash merged with an Anti-Venom Symbiote. Each limited edition Vinyl Soda figure comes packaged in a retro-styled soda can along with a collectible disc.  The San Diego Comic-Con 2023 Exclusive Agent Venom Vinyl Soda Marvel Vinyl Figure by Funko stands 4.25” tall is limited to 17,500 pieces. Collectors can pre-order this SDCC exclusive collectible Marvel Comics figure now at Entertainment Earth for $14.99 here. http://dlvr.it/SqZ0BK

[thexgrayxlady]

Things I Read in May

The Antiquities Hunter by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff - 4.25/5.0 I got this off the 0.99¢ rack at the used book super store because I needed to spend at least five dollars to use my credit card. My rating is absolutely skewed by the price. That being said, this is a delightful little airport book. Like, make no mistake it's an airport book, but one that you want to take home when you're done with it. It's a fun adventure about a PI going undercover with a sexy national parks agent/archeologist to bust illegal antiquities trade. There were a couple of jarring weird turns of phrase that didn't feel like they fit with a mid to late twenties early thirties PI and I wish the protagonist was more active towards the ending, but I still feel like I got a dollars worth of entertainment out of it. You can tell that the author had a good time writing it and I had a good time reading it.

Otherwise Engaged by Amanda Quick - 3.0/5.0 I'm working through the backlog of I needed to spend five dollars to buy the thing I really wanted books. You can tell that the author has written a lot of other books. It's very competently written, has a better set up for fake dating/engaged than The Love Hypothesis, and it was very quick and easy to read. I wish the author had focused on just one of the subplots and fleshed it out more instead of having both of them or had them come together in a less convoluted way, but at the end if the day the subplots aren't really what this book is for. It's a good beach/train/rainy day book. I don't have very many thoughts about it.

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness - 0.75/5.0 This has been sitting on my shelf almost finished for years now. I wanted to finish it before sending it on to the Used Book Superstore. Then I remembered why I stopped reading it. I don't think it should go to the used book superstore anymore. It is so goddamn boring. I had to put on a YouTube video in the background to finish the last hundred pages. This is me finishing this book:

It starts out interesting and full of details, but then it doesn't let up with every minute detail about the main character's life and it is a slog to get through. The vampires are perhaps the least threatening and interesting vampires I've ever read about. The things that do happen are truly and deeply stupid. The main character just has every super special awesome witch power ever even though she doesn't want or use them? She finds out she's been a time traveler all along in a throw away line?! The love interest won't have sex with the main character until marriage!? It's just adult Twilight (derogatory).

The Daughter of Doctor Moreau by - 3.75/5.0 If I had a nickel for every Doctor Moreau book I read this year, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice. Unfortunately, out of the two Doctor Moreau books, this is my least favorite. That's not to say it's a bad book, I just don't think that it's for me. I thought it was well written and the characters were interesting and fairly well defined. It's well paced and atmospheric with a strong sense of what its trying to say. However, I think it could have done without the second viewpoint and there's a big reveal that doesn't hit as hard as the author wants it to. That being said, this book let me read one of the best things I've ever read in a goodreads review, "it's problematic that Doctor Moreau is doing unethical science."

[cazvid]

CazVid Job Listing Video - Travel sales agent from CazVid on Vimeo.

Download CazVid: cazvid.app.link

We are looking for a travel sales agent, some experience in the area and near native english proficiency required. We pay 4.25 USD hourly.

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