text:
\section{Introduction}\label{sec1}

The preparation of a mechanical oscillator in a coherent quantum-mechanical state~\cite{poot2012} is one of the experimental frontiers~\cite{carlesso2022} that may test the limits, if any, of the applicability of quantum mechanics to the macroscopic world~\cite{leggett2002,arndt2014}.
Different approaches to this end, largely stemming from the field of optomechanics~\cite{aspelmeyer2014}, have been proposed and experimentally explored, with a wide range of physical systems of choice~\cite{poot2012}, which includes membranes~\cite{teufel2011}, nanobeams~\cite{chan2011}, cantilevers~\cite{marshall2003,kleckner2006,poggio2007},  levitated particles~\cite{delic2020,gonzalez2021}, dilatational resonators~\cite{oconnell2010}, and so on.
These systems span a wide range of frequencies, from kHz to GHz, and can be monitored not only via optical methods but also superconducting circuits~\cite{gely2021}.
Within this vast array of options, sub-kHz oscillators with a large mass, such as the soft magnet-on-tip silicon cantilevers used in magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM)~\cite{rugar2004}, are attractive to test and constrain~\cite{diosi2015,vinante2016} physical models of the wave function collapse~\cite{bassi2013}, particularly the continuous spontaneous localization (CSL) model~\cite{ghirardi1990} and the Di\'{o}si-Penrose model of gravitationally-induced collapse~\cite{diosi1987,penrose1996,oosterkamp2013}.

One common prerequisite of these experiments is the cooling of the oscillator to minimize thermal fluctuations and its coupling to environmental degrees of freedom.
This can be achieved either passively (as e.g. in Refs.~\cite{lahaye2004,cattiaux2021}), or by relying on active feedback cooling protocols typically borrowed from the optical domain~\cite{kleckner2006,poggio2007,teufel2011}.
Either way, low temperatures provide an advantage.

The thermodynamic cooling of such systems comes with long-standing challenges.
While the ground-state cooling of GHz oscillators can be achieved with a standard dry dilution refrigerator, temperatures below 1~mK are a requirement for observing quantum effects in the motion of oscillators in the MHz~\cite{cattiaux2021} or kHz range.
Conquering the sub-mK domain, which requires dedicated cryogenic techniques such as adiabatic nuclear demagnetization~\cite{pobell,abe2014}, is currently the subject of a collaborative research effort~\cite{pickett2018}.
A parallel challenge is the need for a vibration isolation system that can screen the oscillator from the omnipresent low-frequency mechanical vibrations afflicting any dilution refrigerator, wet or dry.

In this work, we report progress towards the simultaneous resolution of both challenges in a cryogenic setup dedicated to MRFM.
We show that it is possible to lower the temperature achievable in our setup by more than one order of magnitude -- from $T\approx$20 mK to $T\lesssim$1 mK -- without compromising the vibration isolation.
To achieve this, we combine the use of an adiabatic nuclear demagnetization stage with the mass-spring system for the filtering of mechanical vibration already described in Ref.~\cite{dewit2019}.
The lowest temperatures reached are established through the in-house implementation of a primary magnetic flux fluctuation thermometer (MFFT)~\cite{fleischmann2020}.
We observe an increase of the cantilever quality factor $Q$ upon lowering temperature, compatible with a power-law $Q^{-1}\propto T^{1/5}$.
Furthermore, we are able to detect its thermal motion down to 20 mK without observing saturation, indicating that we are limited by the sensitivity of the readout circuit rather than by uncontrolled heating of mechanical modes.

\section{Experimental setup}\label{sec:setup}

Our experimental setup is described in Fig.~\ref{fig1:setup}.
At its core is the combination of an adiabatic nuclear demagnetization embedded within a pulse-tube dilution refrigerator~\cite{batey2013,todoshchenko2014,palma2017}.
We make use of a PrNi$_5$ nuclear stage for adiabatic nuclear demagnetization, positioned above the mixing chamber plate.
The magnetization of the PrNi$_5$ stage is controlled by a 2~T magnet, while the thermal contact with the mixing chamber can be turned on and off via an Aluminum heat conductance switch controlled by a separate magnet.
The 2~T magnet needs up to 40~A of current and is thermalized to the still plate, while the Aluminum switch needs up to 150~mA and is thermalized to the 50~mK plate.

\begin{figure}[t]%
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figure_01.pdf}
\caption{Schematic drawing of the experimental setup. The main panel shows the adiabatic nuclear demagnetization stage, the mass-spring system for vibration isolation, and the MRFM system. The insets on the right show details on the magnetic flux fluctuation thermometer (MFFT) and the circuit connected to the MRFM sample, both of which are eventually readout via separate SQUIDs (Magnicon NC-1 Integrated Two Stage Current Sensor). An image of the setup is shown in Appendix~\ref{app:photo}.}\label{fig1:setup}
\end{figure}

Below the mixing chamber there is a mass-spring system optimized for passive filtering of mechanical vibrations between 100 Hz and 10 kHz.
It consists of four copper masses ($\approx$ 2 kg) connected by springs, that can easily be replaced to vary the resonance frequency. It is designed to filter both vertical and lateral vibrations, and it is thermalized to the mixing chamber plate.
We refer to Ref.~\cite{dewit2019} for more details on the mass-spring system and its performance in the dilution refrigerator before the installation of the demagnetization stage.

The magnetic resonance force microscope is firmly attached to the lowest mass of the mass-spring system.
The force sensor is an IBM-style silicon cantilever with a permanent Nd$_2$Fe$_{14}$B magnet attached to its tip.
The mass of the magnet is estimated to be $m\approx 1.5$~ng, which, together with the measurement of the frequency of the fundamental mode, $\omega_c\approx 653$~Hz, yields a stiffness $k\approx 2.6\cdot 10^{-5}$~N$\cdot$m$^{-1}$.
The tip-holder is connected to a plate that can be tip-tilted and lifted in the z-direction by three piezo knobs.
This allows to control the positioning of the cantilever with respect to the sample below it.
Oscillations of the cantilever can be electrically driven via a dither piezo.
The cantilever, the sample as well as their holders have been described in Ref.~\cite{dewit2019thesis}, to which we refer for further details.

A silver wire running down from the PrNi$_5$ provides the thermal link to cool down the cantilever holder.
After passing through the mixing chamber plate, the wire is anchored to the mass-spring system in order not to compromise the vibration isolation.
This is achieved by gluing the wire to LEGO\textsuperscript{\textregistered} blocks attached to each mass of the mass-spring system.
The extremely low thermal conductivity of LEGO\textsuperscript{\textregistered} blocks in the mK range~\cite{chawner2019} guarantees the thermal isolation of the silver wire from the mixing chamber without the need to compromise the vibration isolation.

The temperature of the silver wire is monitored through two different thermometers.
The first thermometer is a resistance thermometer developed by one of us (W.B.) and mounted on the silver wire right above the vibration isolation stage.
This reference thermometer offers fast, highly-accurate temperature readings between 15~mK and 1~K.
The second thermometer is a magnetic flux fluctuation thermometer (MFFT) built in-house, positioned below the mass-spring system and right above the cantilever holder.
The MFFT consists of a superconducting coil gradiometrically wound around the silver wire~\cite{palma2017}, see panel (a) in Fig.~\ref{fig1:setup}.
It is connected to a SQUID for the readout of the magnetic flux fluctuations induced in the coil by the thermal fluctuations of charge carriers in the silver wire~\cite{fleischmann2020}.

The three joints connecting the silver wire to the PrNi$_5$, the MFFT and the cantilever holder were spot-welded in-situ, silver-to-silver, rather than clamped.
This is done in order to maximize the thermal conductivity and avoid bottlenecks in the thermalization of the MFFT and the cantilever to the nuclear demagnetization stage.

Finally, the silicon sample below the MRFM sensor contains a pick-up loop for the magnetic readout of the cantilever position via a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID)~\cite{usenko2011,dewit2019thesis}.
The pick-up loop is first connected by Aluminum wire bonds to a transformer chip situated in the sample holder.
The latter is in turn connected to a commercial SQUID via approximately 45 cm of superconducting twisted pair inside a lead capillary.
As shown in panels (b) and (c) of Fig.~\ref{fig1:setup}, the twisted pair cabling also includes a single-loop calibration transformer connected to a lock-in, that can be used to calibrate the transfer function of the readout circuit, as described in App.~\ref{app:calibration}.

\section{Results}\label{sec:results}

\subsection{Noise thermometry}

We begin the discussion of the experimental results from the thermometry, which is essential to establish that our setup is capable to reach temperatures below the typical base temperature, $\approx 20$~mK, of a dry dilution refrigerator.
In a noise thermometer such as the MFFT, the temperature is extracted from a measurement of the power density spectrum (PSD) of the noise registered by the device: in this case, the noise PSD $S_\Phi$ of the magnetic flux picked up by the coil of the MFFT.

\begin{figure}[t]%
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figure_02.pdf}
\caption{\emph{Panel A}: Power spectral density of the magnetic flux noise measured in the magnetic flux fluctuation thermometer, at two different temperatures. \emph{Panel B}: Calibration of the noise thermometer versus the HDL resistance thermometer. The yellow dashed line is the linear fit used in the calibration of the thermometer. \emph{Panel C}: Temperature of the silver wire at the bottom of the vibration isolation stage, from the calibrated MFFT thermometer. The yellow curve shows the reference temperature in the range in which it is reliable.}\label{fig2:thermometry}
\end{figure}

Two typical spectra corresponding to different temperatures are shown in Fig.~\ref{fig2:thermometry}A.
They feature a plateau at low frequencies and a roll-off at high frequency, with a cutoff frequency at about 500 Hz.
In theory, the frequency dependence of the magnetic flux noise in a MFFT is expected to take the form~\cite{fleischmann2020}:
\begin{equation}\label{eq:mfft_theory}
S_\Phi = 4k_BT\,\sigma\,\mu^2_0 R^3\,G(R/\delta)
\end{equation}
where $\sigma$ is the bulk conductivity of the metallic wire which generates the magnetic fluctuations, $R$ its radius, $T$ its temperature, and $\mu_0$ its magnetic permeability.
The dimensionless function $G$ depends on the precise geometry of the MFFT (i.e., on the combined system composed of the metallic wire and the pick-up coil).
It encodes the frequency dependence of the noise via the skin depth $\delta(\omega)=\sqrt{2/\mu_0\sigma\omega}$ and it determines both the cut-off frequency and the roll-off of the spectral density with frequency (possibly together with additional effects contributed by the surrounding readout circuit, e.g. the cutoff introduced by amplifiers at the end of the measurement chain).

On top of the behavior predicted by Eq.~\eqref{eq:mfft_theory}, the measured spectra show many non-thermal interference peaks, presumably due to electrical interference picked up in the SQUID wiring, through crosstalk from the silver wire to the SQUID via the coil wound around the wire (see Fig.~\ref{fig1:setup}A), or because of interference further down the amplification chain. In order to extract the thermal noise signal, we remove the interference peaks during the data post-processing, using an empirical procedure described in App.~\ref{app:mfft}.
For consistency, the set of frequencies associated with interference peaks is determined once and kept common to all datasets.
In Fig.~\ref{fig1:setup}, the raw data is shown in grey below the post-processed data, explicitly showing the interference peaks removed in the data analysis.

Once the thermal noise signal is isolated, Eq.~\eqref{eq:mfft_theory} allows in principle to extract the temperature via a fit of the measured PSDs.
However, it is non-trivial to determine the function $G$ in Eq.~\eqref{eq:mfft_theory} from first principles, and furthermore we do not know precisely the conductivity $\sigma$ (or equivalently the residual resistivity ratio) for our silver wire.
Therefore, we resort to a calibration of our MFFT using the HDL reference thermometer.
Consistent with the expectation that the MFFT should operate as a primary thermometer, the spectral noise power below the cutoff frequency in the PSD varies linearly with the temperature, see Fig.~\ref{fig2:thermometry}B.
The unknown proportionality factor is determined empirically via a direct comparison to the reference thermometer temperature in the range between 40~mK and 80~mK, where the latter is reliable.
The linear behavior can then be extrapolated to lower temperatures, only limited by the noise floor of the SQUID readout circuit of the MFFT, which is approximately 1 $\mu\Phi_0/\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$.
More details on the MFFT calibration procedure are given in App.~\ref{app:mfft}.

In Fig.~\ref{fig2:thermometry}C we show the MFFT thermometry data during a 60-hour measurement run which started at the cold end of an adiabatic demagnetization cycle.
The data reveals that the temperature of the Ag wire at the bottom of the vibration isolation stage was as low as $0.6$ mK, very close to the theoretical lower limit reachable in our setup, which is set by the magnetic ordering of PrNi$_5$~\cite{pobell}.
We attribute the sharp temperature spikes visible during this time interval to the spurious presence of strong mechanical excitations of the system causing temporary heating of the silver wire. We find that these spikes often occur in the first week after the initial cool down from room temperature.
In the first part of the measurement run, in which both heaters and demagnetization stage were kept idle, the temperature slowly drifts upwards, approaching 2 mK after 45 hours.
At this point we applied heat via a heater, thermally anchored to the mixing chamber, causing the temperature to increase to 100 mK.
The aforementioned calibration was performed during this time window at the end of this nuclear demagnetization run.

\subsection{Temperature dependence of the quality factor}

Our second set of results concerns the dissipation properties of the cantilever.
Besides being a basic characterization of the MRFM system, we are motivated by the fact that applications of our experimental setup to CSL exclusions studies benefit from large quality factors of the cantilever force sensor.

\begin{figure}[t]%
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figure_03.pdf}
\caption{\emph{Panel A-B-C}: Three examples of Lorentzian fits of the cantilever response to sweeps of the dither piezo driving frequency, at fixed driving amplitude and at three different temperatures, increasing from left to right. \emph{Panel D.} Temperature dependence of the quality factor extracted from the frequency sweeps. The red, yellow and blue data points correspond to panels A, B, C. The inset contains shows the sama data point against a fit to a power-law $Q^{-1}\propto T^{\alpha}$, which gives $\alpha = 0.19\pm 0.02$. See App.~\ref{app:qfactor} for more details on the data analysis.}\label{fig3:qfactor}
\end{figure}

The quality factor of the force sensor can be determined by driving it externally via the dither piezo and varying the frequency of the drive around the resonant frequency $\omega_c \approx 653$~Hz.
The displacement of the oscillator as a function of frequency can be determined from the voltage measured across the readout SQUID, using the calibration described in App.~\ref{app:calibration}.
We performed multiple frequency sweeps for different temperatures and fixed driving amplitudes, of which some examples are shown in Fig.~\ref{fig3:qfactor}A-C.
They display typical resonant behavior: a Lorentzian peak with maximum amplitude $A$ of a few nanometers and width $\Gamma$ on the order of a few tens of milliHertz.
The direct comparison of panels A to C in Fig.~\ref{fig3:qfactor} indicates that the peak broadens at higher temperatures, indicating an increase in dissipation.

The quality factor $Q = \omega_c/\Gamma$
can be extracted via a fit of each frequency sweep to a Lorentzian peak.
The results are shown in Fig.~\ref{fig3:qfactor}D and they reveal that the quality factor slowly increases with decreasing temperature: from $Q\approx 2\cdot 10^4$ at $T\approx 70$~mK to $Q\approx 4\cdot 10^4$ at $T\approx 1.5$~mK.
We refer to App.~\ref{app:qfactor} for details of the data analysis and the error estimation.

We note that for these measurements, the cantilever was positioned approximately 100~$\mu$m away from the sample in order to minimize the influence of surface two-level systems, presumably dangling bonds that cause surface spins, on the cantilever's properties~\cite{denhaan2015,dewit2018}.
Thus, the increase in $Q$ must likely be connected to a factor intrinsic to the cantilever.
A fit to a power-law $Q^{-1}\propto T^{\alpha}$, see inset of Fig.~\ref{fig3:qfactor}D, yields an exponent close to $\alpha=0.2$.
Similar scaling has been previously observed in different types of micro-resonators~\cite{hutchinson2004,imboden2014}, and may be indicative of the presence of structural disorder in the silicon cantilever.
Future measurements with an improved coupling should allow to improve the accuracy of this temperature dependence.

\subsection{Thermal motion of the force sensor}

The energy stored in the oscillator in the absence of any external drive, including that originating from unwanted vibrations of the setup, is subject to thermal fluctuations.
Therefore, to demonstrate that the silver wire does not impair the performance of the vibration isolation stage, we set out to measure the thermal motion of the cantilever versus temperature.

The fluctuations of the cantilever displacement can be inferred from a measurement of the PSD of the MRFM readout circuit, where the thermal motion appears as a Lorentzian peak centered around $\omega_c$.
The area under the peak can be converted into an rms displacement of the cantilever, $\langle x^2 \rangle$, where $\langle \cdot \rangle$ denotes the time-average of the displacement over the duration of each measurement.
Since the measurement time ($t_\textrm{meas} = 600$~s) is much longer than the ring-down time of the cantilever ($\tau=Q / \pi\omega_c \approx 5$~s for $Q=10^4$), the rms displacement can be converted to temperature via the equipartition theorem, $k_BT_\textrm{cantilever} = k\langle x^2 \rangle$, where $k$ is the stiffness of the cantilever.
In order for this measurement to be successful, it is important to have a large sensitivity of the readout circuit to the oscillator displacement.
Therefore, to measure the thermal motion, we moved the cantilever to be much closer to the sample with respect to the position used in the previous Section.
Due to the influence of two-level systems on the sample surface, the quality factor through this measurement was lower than in the previous one: it did not exceed $2\cdot 10^4$ and decreased with temperature temperatures~\cite{denhaan2015,dewit2018}.

\begin{figure}[t]%
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figure_04.pdf}
\caption{\emph{Panel A}: Cantilever temperature, MRFM sample temperature and silver wire temperature measured versus time. The cantilever temperature is estimated from the displacement fluctuations of the cantilever. Time zero on the horizontal axis correspond to 16:03 on Sunday, January 3rd 2022.
Black arrows indicate time intervals likely corresponding to a measurable increase in vibrations, e.g. due to activity in the building.
\emph{Panel B}: Averaged cantilever temperature from panel (A) plotted against the MRFM sample temperature. The black dashed line indicates the condition $T_\textrm{cantilever}=T_\textrm{sample}$. The red dashed line is a fit $T_\textrm{cantilever}=c T_\textrm{sample}$, yielding a coefficient $c=1.40\pm 0.07$.}\label{fig4:thermalmotion}
\end{figure}

In Fig.~\ref{fig4:thermalmotion}A we show the results accumulated over the course of a week-long measurement run.
Over this time, we varied the temperature of the MRFM sample containing the readout circuit in a step-like fashion, from approximately 15~mK up to approximately 200~mK and back; the sample temperature was measured via a second reference thermometer (not shown in Fig.~1).
All the while, we monitored the rms fluctuations of the cantilever motion, via a PSD measurement with a 50 kHZ sampling rate and a measurement time of ten minutes; see App.~\ref{app:thermalmotion} for further details.
The results, cast in terms of a cantilever temperature, are shown in  Fig.~\ref{fig4:thermalmotion}, together with the temperature $T_\textrm{bath}$ of the tip holder of the cantilever chip.
We find that the variations of the oscillator temperature largely follows the bath temperature, up to fluctuations.
In Fig.~\ref{app:thermalmotion} we also show the temperature of the reference thermometer anchored to the silver wire (the same used in Fig.~\ref{fig2:thermometry}), which relaxes to that of the MRFM sample during each step.
The heat path from the sample to the silver wire may go through the cantilever itself or through the Macor rings (see Fig.~\ref{fig1:setup}).

Averaging over measurements of the oscillator temperature obtained at constant bath temperatures yields the bottom plot of Fig.~\ref{fig4:thermalmotion}.
We see that although $T_\textrm{cantilever} > T_\textrm{sample}$, there are no clear signs of saturation of the cantilever temperature down to the limit of our signal-to-noise sensitivity at $\approx$20 mK.
Note that the error bars in Fig.~\ref{fig4:thermalmotion}B include both the statistical uncertainty coming from the averaging (i.e., the standard error of the mean) and the calibration uncertainty discussed in App.~\ref{app:calibration}, with the latter providing the most important contribution to the total uncertainty.
In fact, we cannot exclude that the cantilever temperature is overestimated due to a systematic error in the calibration procedure of App.~\ref{app:calibration}.
This possibility is flagged by a linear fit to the data in Fig.~\ref{fig4:thermalmotion}B, assuming a zero intercept, which yields a linear coefficient incompatible with one -- compare the red and black dashed lines.

At fixed $T_\textrm{sample}$, subsequent measurements of $T_\textrm{cantilever}$ are expected to fluctuate around the average value $\bar{T}_\textrm{cantilever}$ with a standard deviation $\delta T~ =~\sqrt{\tau/t_\textrm{meas}}\,\bar{T}_\textrm{cantilever}$.
Therefore, for each plateau in $T_\textrm{sample}$ in Fig.~\ref{fig4:thermalmotion}A, approximately 95\% of the data points are expected to fall within an interval $4\,\delta T$ around the average cantilever temperature.
For $Q=10^4$, the confidence interval is approximately 37\% of $\bar{T}_\textrm{cantilever}$.
While this is indeed the case for much of the time, during some time intervals we observe systematic fluctuations outside of this confidence interval, see e.g. the two black arrows in Fig.~\ref{fig4:thermalmotion}A.
This could hint at an additional, possibly co-existing, origin of the temperature difference between the cantilever and the sample.
Namely, it could indicate that the cantilever still suffers from vibrations of the building to a measurable degree.

\section{Conclusions}\label{sec:conclusions}

We demonstrated that it is possible to combine nuclear demagnetization and vibration-isolation techniques to reach a vibrationally quiet 1 mK environment at the bottom of a dry dilution refrigerator.
Improvements to the SQUID circuit should allow us to improve the sensitivity of the readout by as much as one order of magnitude.
In turn, this may allow us to probe the thermal motion of the cantilever from the 20 mK demonstrated here to the sub-mK regime, far away from the surface with the pick-up coil.
Even lower temperatures may be reached by adding a second, copper-based nuclear demagnetization stage thermalized to the silver wire at the bottom of the vibration-isolation stage.

Looking ahead, we can discuss the feasibility of our setup for improved tests of CSL models~\cite{carlesso2022}.
To this end, two important experimental parameters are the thermal force noise $S_F$ and the radius $R$ of the magnet attached to the cantilever.
Getting a lower force noise with a larger diameter particle will improve the exclusion plot for CSL parameters such as the collapse rate $\lambda$.
Previous results from our group~\cite{usenko2011,vinante2016} reached $\sqrt{S_F}\approx5\cdot 10^{-19}\,\textrm{N}/\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ with a magnet radius of $R\approx2.3~\mu$m, smaller than our present value of $3.6~\mu$m.
Extrapolating our current results, we may estimate the thermal force noise of our cantilever~\cite{stowe1997} assuming that thermal motion can be detected down to $T\approx 0.5$~mK, at which we can estimate $Q\approx 50\cdot10^3$ based on the trend shown in Fig.~\ref{fig3:qfactor}D.
This would allow us to reach
\begin{equation}
\sqrt{S_F} = \sqrt{\frac{4k_BT\,k}{\omega_c Q}}\approx 6\cdot 10^{-20}\,\textrm{N}/\sqrt{\text{Hz}}\,,
\end{equation}
As the figure of merit for CSL measurements is roughly $S_F/R^2$, the comparison of past and current values of $S_F$ and $R$ suggests a possible improvement of two orders of magnitude in the exclusion plot for $\lambda$.

The observation of the thermal motion of the cantilever down to temperatures $T\approx 20$~mK implies that, at least during quiet times, the vibration isolation is good enough to attenuate the cantilever position noise at resonance to a level below $\sqrt{4 k_BT / k}\approx 0.2$~nm. Note that with a quality factor $Q\approx 4\cdot 10^4$, this requires the cantilever base to vibrate by less than $50$~fm in the cantilever bandwidth. The position noise will have to be improved by a factor of approximately five in order to observe thermal motion at 1~mK.
In order for a future measurement to put the tightest constraints on CSL parameters, we need to also work on an improved accuracy of the parameter that converts the SQUID voltage to the motion of the resonator, which will require a careful characterisation of the SQUID and the readout circuit itself.

\backmatter

\bmhead{Data availability statement}

The data and code that have been used to generate the results of this work are available on \href{https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6897977}{Zenodo}.

\bmhead{Acknowledgments}

We thank K. Heeck, A. Vinante, H. Ulbricht, and G. Pickett for useful discussions.
This publication is part of the projects 175.010.2015.050, 680-91-123 and 2019.088 financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).

\clearpage
\begin{appendices}

\section{Image of the experimental setup}
\label{app:photo}

 \begin{figure}[h]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=1\textwidth]{photo.pdf}
\vspace*{8mm}
\caption{Photo of the the experimental apparatus of Fig.~\ref{fig1:setup}. The mass-spring system and the Ag wire with the LEGO\textsuperscript{\textregistered} blocks are visible, as well as the the lead casing of the readout SQUID, the MFFT and the MFFT SQUID. Note that this picture was taken before some of the final spot welds were made to connect the different segments of the Ag wire.}\label{fig_supp:readout_circuit}
\end{figure}

\clearpage
\section{Magnetic flux fluctuation thermometry: data analysis}
\label{app:mfft}

The results reported in  Fig.~\ref{fig2:thermometry} are obtained from a continuous monitoring of the magnetic flux fluctuation thermometer (MFFT) over the course of about 60 hours, between December 21st and December 24th, 2021. This measurement run started at the end of an adiabatic demagnetization cycle, thus at the lowest temperature achieved in the Ag wire at the bottom of the vibration isolation stage. After 45 hours of idle monitoring, the temperature was gradually increased to approximately 100 mK over the course of 15 hours. This was done via a heater thermally attached to the mixing chamber plate, which caused heat to leak into the part of the system attached to the PrNi5 demagnetization stage.

Throughout this time, the signal from the MFFT-dedicated Magnicon SQUID was sampled at 2 MHz and stored on disk. About 13000 time traces were saved during the measurement run, each lasting approximately 16 s.
We determined the power spectral density (PSD) of each time trace via a discrete Fourier transform. We used Welch's method with a Hamming window and 50\% overlap between consecutive windows. In order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, we averaged the PSD obtained from ten consecutive time traces. Note that this yields a final time resolution of about 160 s for the determination of the temperature via the MFFT. The 1321 averaged spectra resulting from this procedure, with frequency resolution of 0.0625 Hz and an upper cutoff of 10 kHz, are made available as the raw data underlying Fig.~\ref{fig2:thermometry} (the full data is available upon request).

As mentioned in the main text, on top of the behavior expected from Eq.~\eqref{eq:mfft_theory}, the measured spectra show many non-thermal interference peaks which need to be removed in post-processing for a reliable calibration of the thermometer. We do so via the following procedure. For each measured spectrum, we:
\begin{enumerate}
    \item discard data below 50 Hz, which is affected by $1/f$ noise as well as noise originating from the pulse tube.
    \item divide the remaining data into smaller frequency bins of 50 Hz width.
    \item for each bin, determine the frequencies at which interference peaks occur by identifying outliers in the bin. The outliers are identified using the combination of two criteria: a height threshold, and a $z$-score threshold.
\end{enumerate}
If a certain frequency is identified as an outlier in more than 2.5\% of the measured PSD, it is discarded from all the spectra for the remaining of the post-processing analysis.
Spectra measured at high temperatures are not used in determining this threshold since the interference peaks are drowned out by the signal.
In Fig.~\ref{fig2:thermometry}, the raw spectra are plotted in grey, while the cleaned spectra in yellow and blue.
Discarded data points are therefore visible in grey in the background of the post-processed spectra, revealing the effectiveness of the peak-removing procedure.

The calibration procedure of the MMFT is done as follows.
First, we numerically integrate the PSD to determine the flux noise power between a lower cutoff $\omega_0=50$ Hz and an upper cutoff $\omega_1=3$ kHz.
Consistent with the expectation that the MFFT should operate as a primary thermometer, the resulting spectral noise power,
\begin{equation}
P = \int_{\omega_0}^{\omega_1} S_\Phi \,d\omega\,,
\end{equation}
depends linearly on the temperature $T$ measured by the reference thermometer above 15 mK, as shown in the top right panel of Fig.~\ref{fig2:thermometry}.
A linear fit of the data in this temperature range provides the required calibration for the MFFT thermometer.
We used only the temperature range between 40 mK and 80 mK to perform the linear fit.
For this procedure to be valid, we must assume that in this temperature range the temperature along the silver wire was uniform across the vibration isolation stage, so that the MFFT and the reference thermometer are at the same temperature.
This calibration is subsequently applied to the entire measurement run.

\section{Analysis and calibration of the two-stage cantilever readout circuit}
\label{app:calibration}

\begin{figure}[h]%
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figure_supp_readout_circuit.pdf}
\caption{Schematic circuit of the two-stage readout circuit for the cantilever force sensor. Here $\alpha$ denotes the linear coupling between the pick-up loop and the cantilever displacement, while the mutual inductance $M_{12}=5$~nH.}\label{fig_supp:readout_circuit}
\end{figure}

In Fig.~\ref{fig_supp:readout_circuit} we show a schematic circuit for the two-stage readout circuit for the cantilever force sensor.
The displacement $x$ of the oscillator from its rest position induces a change in the flux through the pick-up loop (with total flux $\Phi_1$) on the sample chip. For small $x$, the induced flux is linear in the displacement: $\Phi_\textrm{ind}=\alpha x$, where $\alpha$ is a coupling constant (with dimensions of Wb$\cdot$m$^{-1}$) to be determined: it depends on the position of the cantilever with respect to the pick-up loop, and in particular on the height of the cantilever with respect to the pick-up loop on the sample.

This change in flux induced by the cantilever motion is transferred first via a transformer to a secondary loop (with total flux $\Phi_2$) which contains the input coil of the readout SQUID.
The secondary loop also includes a calibration coil that can be used to externally inject a flux in the circuit.

Neglecting the back-action of the SQUID on the readout circuit, the potential energy of the latter of Fig.~\ref{fig_supp:readout_circuit} can be written as:
\begin{equation}
U = \frac{1}{2L_1}\Phi_1^2 + \frac{1}{2L_2}\Phi_2^2 + \frac{M_{12}}{L_1L_2} \Phi_1\Phi_2 + \frac{1}{L_1}\Phi_1\,\alpha x + \frac{1}{2}k_0x^2 - \frac{1}{L_2}\,\Phi_2\,\Phi_\textrm{cal}
\end{equation}
Here, $L_1$ and $L_2$ are the total inductances of the two stages of the circuit, $k_0$ is the bare spring constant of the oscillator, and $\Phi_\textrm{cal}=M_\textrm{cal} I_\textrm{cal}$ is the flux induced by the calibration coil. The stationary condition $\partial U /\partial\Phi_1=0$ yields the conservation law for the flux $\Phi_1$:
\begin{equation}
\Phi_1 = -\frac{M_{12}}{L_2}\Phi_2 - \alpha x\,.
\end{equation}
This relation can be inserted back in the potential to eliminate $\Phi_1$. The result is:
\begin{equation}
U = \frac{\eta}{2L_2}\Phi_2^2+\frac{1}{2}k x^2 - \frac{\alpha M_{12}}{L_1L_2}\,\Phi_2\,x - \frac{\Phi_\textrm{cal}\Phi_2}{L_2}\,,
\end{equation}
with $k=k_0-\alpha^2/L_1$ a modified spring constant due to the presence of the pick-up loop, and
\begin{equation}
\eta = 1 - \frac{M_{12}^2}{L_1 L_2}\,.
\end{equation}
In this form, the potential energy can be used to derive the equation of motion for the cantilever displacement $x$. Neglecting, for the moment, thermal noise as well as additional driving sources such as the piezo, one obtains (in frequency domain, denoted by hats):
\begin{equation}
\hat{x} =  \frac{\alpha M_{12}}{m L_1 L_2}\,\frac{1}{\omega_0^2-\omega^2+i\gamma \omega}\,\hat{\Phi}_2
\end{equation}
Here, $\gamma$ is the damping rate, $m$ is the mass of the cantilever, and $\omega_0=\sqrt{k/m}$ the resonant frequency. The flux $\Phi_2$, in turn, is the sum of the contributions induced by the calibration coil and by the oscillator displacement.
From the condition $\partial U/\partial \Phi_1=0$, we find:
\begin{equation}
\eta \Phi_2 = \Phi_\textrm{cal} + \frac{\alpha M_{12}}{L_1}\,x
\end{equation}
Hence, in frequency domain:
\begin{equation}
\eta \hat{\Phi}_2 = \hat{\Phi}_\textrm{cal} + \frac{\alpha^2}{m L_1}\,\frac{M_{12}^2}{L_1L_2}\,\frac{1}{\omega_0^2-\omega^2+i\gamma \omega}\,\hat{\Phi}_2
\end{equation}
With some algebra, we can obtain the response of the readout circuit to the calibration signal:
\begin{equation}
\hat{\Phi}_2 = \frac{1}{\eta}\,\frac{\omega_0^2-\omega^2+i\gamma\omega}{\omega_0^2-\delta^2-\omega^2+i\gamma\omega}\,\hat{\Phi}_\textrm{cal}\equiv T(\omega)\,\hat{\Phi}_\textrm{cal},
\end{equation}
where
\begin{equation}
\delta^2 = \frac{\alpha^2}{m L_1}\frac{1-\eta}{\eta}\,.
\end{equation}
The phase $\phi$ of complex-valued transfer function $T(\omega)$ is given by:
\begin{equation}
\tan \phi = \frac{\delta^2\,\gamma\,\omega}{(\omega_0^2-\omega^2)(\omega_0^2-\delta^2-\omega^2) + \gamma^2\omega^2}\,.
\end{equation}
Qualitatively, in the weak-coupling regime $\delta \ll \gamma \ll \omega_0$ valid for our experiment, the phase response shows a peak at $\omega \approx \omega_0$ of amplitude $\delta^2/\gamma\omega_0$ and width controlled by $\gamma$.
It is convenient to introduce the quality factor of the cantilever, $Q=\omega_0/\gamma$, as well as a dimensionless parameter,
\begin{equation}
\beta = \delta / \omega_0\,,
\end{equation}
which is a figure of merit of the sensitivity of the readout circuit to the cantilever displacement. Then, the phase response can be written as:
\begin{equation}\label{eq:tan_phi_model}
\tan \phi = \frac{Q\beta^2\,(\omega/\omega_0)}{Q^2(1-\omega^2/\omega_0^2)(1-\beta^2-\omega^2/\omega_0^2) + (\omega/\omega_0)^2}\,.
\end{equation}
This expression can be used to estimate the parameters $\beta, Q, \omega_0$ for the experimental setup.
This is done by applying a calibration signal $\Phi_\textrm{cal}$ of constant amplitude and varying frequency $\omega$, and then fitting the resulting phase response to Eq.~\eqref{eq:tan_phi_model}.
In Fig.~\ref{fig_supp:calibration} we show the results of two calibration sweeps essential for the results shown in the main text.
Note that, in practice, the data shows a linear drift in the phase which attributed to a drift in the phase shift of the drive current.
This drift is associated with the capacitance of the wiring and a drift in the value of the resistor which converts the output voltage of the lock-in to a current injected in the calibration transformer; this linear drift is included as an additional free parameter in the fit.

In the top row of Fig.~\ref{fig_supp:calibration}, we show a calibration performed at the cantilever position used to study the temperature dependence of the quality factor (Fig.~\ref{fig3:qfactor} of the main text).
The resonator is positioned far from the surface with the pick-up loop to avoid interaction with the surface spins near the pick-up loop.
Due to the expected small coupling to the cantilever, the input data for this calibration measurement consists of the average of 24 frequency sweeps.
We note that while the absolute value of the response suffers from slow drift of the gain of the amplifiers used, even after the averaging, the phase response only suffers from the noise in the SQUID.
A non-linear fit of Eq.~\eqref{eq:tan_phi_model} yields $\beta = (3.77 \pm 0.02)\cdot 10^{-5}$, $Q = 37000 \pm 500$ and $\omega_0 = 653.17$ Hz.
The uncertainty on fit parameters was determined via a simple bootstrap procedure: the fit was performed 1000 times on resampled data, and the uncertainty obtained from the variance of the resulting distributions of fit parameters.

In the bottom row of Fig.~\ref{fig_supp:calibration}, we show the results for a calibration sweep taken at a much lower position of the cantilever.
In this case, due to the stronger coupling, a single sweep was enough to achieve a sufficient signal-to-noise ratio.
In this case, the fit yields $\beta = (3.69 \pm 0.03)\cdot 10^{-4}$, $Q = 18500 \pm 400$ and $\omega_0 = 2\pi \times 653.11$ Hz.
This value of the coupling strength $\beta$, ten times larger than in the previous position of the cantilever, was used in the data analysis of the thermal motion of the cantilever (Fig.~\ref{fig4:thermalmotion} of the main text).
Note that, comparing the two calibration measurements, we note a $\pi$ phase shift in the response of the cantilever, which we attribute to the different positioning of the latter with respect to the pick-up loop.

When the calibration coil is not used, the flux through the readout SQUID is directly proportional to the cantilever displacement $x$:
\begin{equation}\label{eq:x_to_flux}
\Phi_\textrm{SQUID} = \frac{M_\textrm{in}}{L_2}\Phi_2 = M_\textrm{in}\,\sqrt{\frac{k}{\eta L_2}} \,\beta\,x
\end{equation}
Thus, in order to determine the displacement $x$ from a measurement of $\Phi_\textrm{SQUID}$, we need to know the spring constant $k$ as well as the circuit parameter $\eta L_2$.
The former can be estimated from the frequency of the cantilever and the mass $m$ of the Nd$_2$Fe$_14$B magnet on its tip.
From a measurement of the radius of the magnet, $R\approx 3.65\cdot 10^{-6}$~m, assuming that the sphere outweighs the silicon cantilever and assuming a spherical shape for simplicity, as well as knowing the mass density $\rho=7600$~kg$\cdot$m$^{-3}$, the mass of the oscillator turns out to be
\begin{equation}
m \approx \frac{4\pi R^3}{3}\,\rho \approx 1.54\cdot10^{-9}\,\textrm{g}.
\end{equation}
Hence we obtain:
\begin{equation}
    k \approx \,m\omega_0^2 \approx 2.6\cdot10^{-5}\,\text{N}\!\cdot\!\text{m}^{-1}\,.
\end{equation}

The circuit parameter $\eta L_2$ is estimated as follows.
The transformer connecting the two loops has a gradiometric washer design with a total mutual inductance of
\begin{equation}
M_{12}\approx5~\textrm{nH}\,,
\end{equation}
Additionally, the transformer has an input inductance of $\approx 2\cdot90$~nH on the SQUID side and of $2\cdot0.22$~nH on the pick-up loop side.
The inductance of the secondary loop is the sum of contributions coming from: (1) the input inductance of the SQUID, 400~nH; (2) the inductance of $\approx$~45 cm of twisted pair, which we estimate to be $\approx$~180 nH. Hence we have:
\begin{equation}
L_2 \approx (400 + 180 + 2\cdot90)~\textrm{nH} \approx 760~\textrm{nH}
\end{equation}
The inductance of the primary loop is the sum of the pick-up loop inductance on the MRFM sample, which is $\approx 1.5$~nH, the contribution coming from the transformer and the inductance from the loop formed by the bonding pads and bonding wires to the transformer chip. The latter contributions we estimate to be $\approx 2$~nH based on the bonding area. Hence
\begin{equation}
L_1\approx (1.5 + 2 + 2\cdot 0.22)~\textrm{nH}\approx 4~\textrm{nH}
\end{equation}
These inductances yield
\begin{equation}
\eta \approx 0.99\,.
\end{equation}
Finally, the input coupling of the SQUID was $M_\textrm{in}=2\cdot10^6~\Phi_0\cdot$A$^{-1}$.
Plugging in these numbers in Eq.~\eqref{eq:x_to_flux}, we obtain a conversion factor:
\begin{equation}\label{eq:calibration_coefficient}
c \equiv M_{\textrm{in}}\sqrt{\frac{k}{\eta L_2}} \approx 0.012\; \Phi_0\cdot\textrm{nm}^{-1}\,.
\end{equation}
This factor can be used to obtain the displacement given a measurement of the flux through the SQUID.
In practice, what we measure is the output voltage $V_\textrm{output}$ (in Volts) of the SQUID operated in FLL mode, with a transfer function of $0.43~\textrm{V}/\Phi_0$ and a gain $G=10$ due to the SRS amplifier at the end of the measurement circuit.
The conversion back to the oscillator displacement is done as follows:
\begin{equation}\label{eq:calibration_V_to_x}
x = \frac{V_\textrm{output}}{0.43 \cdot G \cdot c \cdot \beta}\,\textrm{nm}\,.
\end{equation}
It is hard to estimate the individual uncertainty associated with all the circuit parameters entering Eq.~\eqref{eq:calibration_coefficient}.
Thus, to estimate the calibration uncertainty associated with Eq.~\ref{eq:calibration_V_to_x} we assign a relative uncertainty $\delta c / c = 0.1$.
To compute the uncertainty on $x$, this uncertainty can then be combined with the uncertainty on $\beta$ coming from the calibration fit of Fig.~\ref{fig_supp:calibration} as well as, if appropriate, the statistical uncertainty associated with the output voltage when averaging over many measurements.
Note that this uncertainty may not reflect the presence of an unknown systematic error in the calibration stemming from, e.g., a wrong estimate of the loop inductances.

\section{Temperature dependence of the quality factor: data analysis}
\label{app:qfactor}

The measurements reported in Fig.~\ref{fig3:qfactor} took place during a demagnetization sweep  which ran between Dec.~11 and Dec.~13, 2021.
The magnet current was ramped down in a step-like fashion from 40~A down to zero.
At each step, we measured the response of the cantilever to a drive applied to the piezo, varying the driving amplitude and sweeping the driving frequency.
The cantilever was read out using the two-stage SQUID detection circuit described in Appendix~\ref{app:calibration}, with the SQUID signal converted to an estimate of the displacement of the oscillator induced by the piezo drive.
We only report results corresponding to the largest drive amplitude, i.e. 10~mV applied to the input of the piezo.

\begin{figure}[t!]%
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figure_supp_calibration.pdf}
\caption{Calibration fits to extract the coupling $\beta$. \emph{Top.} Calibration for the piezo sweep measurements used in Fig~\ref{fig3:qfactor}. In this case we extract $\beta = (3.87\pm0.03)\cdot 10^{-5}$. \emph{Bottom.} Calibration for the thermal motion measurements shown in Fig.~\ref{fig4:thermalmotion}. In this case we extract $\beta = (3.67\pm0.04)\cdot 10^{-4}$.}\label{fig_supp:calibration}
\end{figure}

The temperature of the Ag wire throughout the demagnetization sweep was monitored using the MFFT, and determined in post-processing using the same calibration described in Appendix~\ref{app:mfft}.
We assume that the cantilever-piezo system was in thermal equilibrium with the Ag wire throughout the measurements.
We assign a temperature to each step of the demagnetization ramp by averaging out the MFFT measurements that occurred during each step; these temperature values are then assigned to each frequency sweep depending on the initial time of the sweep.

The frequency sweeps display the typical resonant behavior around a center frequency $\omega_c\approx 653$ Hz.
We swept the frequency from a value below $\omega_c$ to a value above it and back down.
Because of the presence of hysteresis between the ``up'' and ``down'' portions of each sweep, they were analyzed separately.
The slight hysteresis is caused by the slow response of the resonator because of its high Q-factor,
From each displacement vs frequency curve, we obtain the quality factor through a fit to a Lorentzian peak function.
The uncertainty on the quality factor was determined via a simple bootstrap procedure: we re-sampled the data with replacement 1000 times, performed the non-linear fit on each re-sampled curve, and assigned uncertainty based on the empirical distribution of fit parameters thus obtained.
Results from the ``up'' and ``down'' sweeps, as well as from different sweeps that occurred at the same temperature, were aggregated using inverse-variance weighting to obtain the quality factor vs temperature data shown in Fig.~\ref{fig3:qfactor}.

\section{Detection of the thermal motion of the cantilever: data analysis}\label{app:thermalmotion}

The measurement run summarized in Figure 4 took place over the course of almost 200 hours between January 4th and January 11th, 2022.
With minor interruptions, the voltage across the SQUID coupled to the cantilever detection signal was sampled at 50~kHZ.
In total, 950 time traces each lasting approximately 10 minutes were stored on disk during this time interval.
For each time trace we computed the power spectral density with 1~mHz resolution.
The power spectral density was obtained via Welch's method, as described in Sec.~\ref{app:mfft} for the MFFT data.
After a supervised visual inspection of the data, 28 time traces had to be discarded because they displayed clear artifacts related to the feedback loop of the SQUID going out of lock or other miscellaneous anomalies preventing the continuation of the data processing.

\begin{figure}[t!]%
\centering
\includegraphics[width=\textwidth]{figure_supp_thermal_motion_example.pdf}
\caption{Example of a thermal peak in the PSD of the SQUID readout signal. The thermal peak at $\approx653$~Hz is marked by a red arrow in the left panel and shown in greater detail in the right panel. The larger peak at 650~Hz is an electrical interference peak. The analysis of this particular trace yields an rms cantilever displacement of $0.4$~nm and $T_\textrm{cantilever}\approx290$~mK. }\label{fig_supp:example_thermal_motion}
\end{figure}

The analysis of the remaining 922 time traces focused on the frequency range between 652~Hz and 655~Hz, approximately centered around the cantilever resonant frequency $\omega_c\approx 653$ Hz.
In this small bandwidth, the PSD traces typically display a Lorentzian peak centered at $\omega_c$, which can be attributed to the thermal excitation of the cantilever oscillations.
In Fig.~\ref{fig_supp:example_thermal_motion} we show one illustrative example of such a thermal peak in the raw data.

The average energy stored in the oscillator during the measurement is proportional to the area of this thermal peak in the PSD.
To assign a value to the area on the basis of the noisy data, it is important to determine the noise background.
This was done separately for each trace, as follows.
First, we binned the data in six intervals of width $0.5$~Hz, such that the peak was contained in the third bin, while the remaining five bins only contained the noise.
We took as the noise power the average integral of these five bins, and subtracted it from the integral of the PSD in the bin containing the peak.
The result was first converted to an rms displacement of the oscillator, $\langle x^2 \rangle$, using the calibration procedure outlined in App.~\ref{app:calibration}, and then to the temperature of the oscillator via the equipartition theorem: $k_B T_\textrm{osc}=k\langle x^2\rangle$.

\end{appendices}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


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text:
LTR Finance No. 4 plc
New Issue Report: LTR Finance No. 4 plc
Rating Action: MOODY'S ASSIGNS DEFINITIVE RATINGS TO NOTES ISSUED BY LTR FINANCE NO. 4 PLC
Pre-Sale Report: LTR Finance No. 4 plc
Rating Action: MOODY'S ASSIGNS PROSPECTIVE RATINGS TO NOTES ISSUED BY LTR FINANCE NO. 4 PLC
Moody's updates on Notes issued by LTR Finance No. 4 plc
Frankfurt, July 04, 2008 -- After reviewing the performance of the portfolio backing the long-term credit ratings for the notes issued by LTR Finance No. 4 plc, Moody's Investor Service has not taken any rating action.
Today's announcement by Moody's is in response to a deterioration recorded in recent months in the performance of the 90+ delinquency bucket of LTR Finance No. 4 plc. More specifically, the delinquencies 90+ days had grown to 4.89% of the current balance of May 2008 from 2.92% of outstanding balance in August 2007. At the same time, the pool factor reduced from 34% to 19%. The 45% reduction in the pool factor explains a certain part of the increase in the 90+ days delinquency ratio since August 2007.
The recovery rate was initially assumed at 34% -- however, based on information received, Moody's has determined a recovery rate on defaulted loans of approximately 26% so far. This determination is based on the latest cumulative losses and cumulative default numbers Moody's has received and published in its Performance Overviews for this transaction.
Nevertheless, Moody's notes that no reserve fund draws have taken place so far because excess spread has remained sufficient to cover defaulted loans.
As a result of the review, Moody's has not changed the rating to reflect the available credit enhancement, which is still adequate given the current portfolio performance. Moody's will continue to closely monitor this transaction.
LTR Finance No. 4 plc is the fourth securitisation transaction completed by Banco Finantia backed by a portfolio of automobile and equipment financing contracts originated by Banco Finantia's subsidiaries in Portugal and Spain.
For updated monitoring information, please see our Performance Overviews available on www.moodys.com.
Marie-Jeanne Kerschkamp
Moody's Deutschland GmbH
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Sebastian Hoepfner

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Evagrius for Saturday morning practice
As it was, it just seemed time to read some Evagrius Ponticus (345 - 399) after zazen.
Indeed, I urge you to welcome exile. It frees you from all the entanglements of your own locality, and allows you to enjoy the blessings of stillness undistracted. Do not stay in a town, but persevere in the wilderness. 'Lo,' says the Psalm, 'then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness' (Ps. 55:7). If possible, do not visit a town at all. For you will find there nothing of benefit, nothing useful, nothing profitable for your way of life. To quote the Psalm again, 'I have seen violence and strife in the city' (Ps. 55:9). So seek out places that are free from distraction, and solitary. Do not be afraid of the noises you may hear. Even if you should see some demonic fantasy, do not be terrified or flee from the training ground so apt for your progress. Endure fearlessly, and you will see the great things of God, His help. His care, and all the other assurances of salvation. For as the Psalm says, 'I waited for Him who delivers me from distress of spirit and the tempest' (Ps. 55:8. LXX).
(Excerpts from The Philokalia, Evagrios the Solitary, (345/6-399), VOLUME 1: Page 31. Outline Teaching on Asceticism and Stillness in the Solitary Life) http://desertfathers.blogspot.com/2011/06/evagrius-ponticuson-asceticism-and.html
Theres this:
Introduction Evagrius Ponticus (b. 345 in Ibora; d. 399 in Egypt), a monastic theologian, was one of the most talented intellects of the fourth century. Circulating in elite ecclesiastical circles of Cappadocia and Asia Minor, he began his career under Basil of Caesarea and Gregory of Nazianzus, serving with the latter in Constantinople through a stormy tenure that culminated in the Second Ecumenical Council (381). Known then as a brilliant heresiologist, Evagrius seemed destined for a successful ecclesiastical career. He chose a different course, and fled to Jerusalem, where he took vows in the monastic communities of Rufinus and Melania. From there he traveled to Egypt and lived in monasteries in Nitria and Kellia. In Egypt he wrote extensively in a variety of genres—letters, proverbs, brief sayings (chapters), and treatises—nearly all geared toward explaining and analyzing vice and virtue, demons and angels, psychological and psychosomatic phenomena—in sum, the life of the ascetic. His accounts are set, sometimes explicitly, oftentimes pensively, within a well-developed metaphysical system that responded to both classical philosophy (Plato, Aristotle, Stoicism) and the theology of some of the most accomplished Christian intellectuals (Clement of Alexandria, Origen, Gregory of Nazianzus). http://evagriusponticus.net/
Evagrius' understanding of the spiritual life has been succinctly summarized as 'the mind's long journey to the Holy Trinity'.[1] This journey can be envisioned as a helix, a geometrical form which combines both linear direction and circular movement.[2] The linear motion consists of 'progress' (προκοπή) or 'ascent' (anabasis /ἀνάβασις) towards God which is at the same time characterized by a 'circular' movement between the poles of praktiké (ἡ πρακτική) and theoretiké (ἡ θεωρητική): that is, between the ascetical ('ethical' or 'practical') life and the contemplative life. Fundamental to Evagrius' model of spiritual progress is his conviction that the Christian praktikos πρακτικός or ascetic should mature into a γνωστικός, a 'knower' or 'sage' skilled in contemplation and capable of imparting spiritual knowledge. He describes sequential levels or stages of spiritual progress, but he does not thereby imply that it is possible to completely rise above the praktiké and 'graduate' from the quest for virtue. As the praktikos makes progress he learns to perceive the work of asceticism from an increasingly contemplative perspective.[3] And since the struggle against certain passions continues until the very moment of death,[4] even the mature gnostikos must continually advance in virtue, practicing ascetical vigilance.[5] Thus the journey towards God is not a simply a movement beyond praktiké into theoretiké: spiritual progress includes a gentle oscillation between these two poles in such a way that continuing attention to the changing demands of praktiké yields ever greater contemplative refreshment. http://www.ldysinger.stjohnsem.edu/@books/Dysinger/2005_bk_ps-pr-ev_1-3.htm
There's a lot to sort through for spirituality to drown you in its depth.
Thread: I'll start. I wrote this after a Friday morning conversation with several inmates at maine state prison, and a final conversation with a co-monastic (with gratitude to them and to the student who sparked the conversation)
After a student said "there will always be evil"
Perhaps we'd have to ask "What is evil?"
Without objectifying evil into a demonic being, or relying on ancient mythological stories, what can we say about evil that describes evil in our experience?
Let's try this:
Evil is the cold, fearful, separation of oneself from others, from the authentic reality of interrelationality, and opting for objectifying, reactive, angry, harmful, and unfeeling behavior toward the other or others.
If evil were to be countered and possibly overcome, it would be by means of compassionate, involved, relational, intersubjective, kind and caring response to each person and persons within the circumstance and surround of immediate and distant experience.
If, at root, every sentient being longs to avoid suffering and experience aware happiness (in whatever form within which it comes) then, no one consciously would seek to harm or hurt another in ways that we would call evil.
This would entail becoming conscious, deepening and expanding that consciousness, until nothing is left out of our identifying surround, that which we might call kin, family, neighbor, community, divinity, cosmos, humanity — the circumincessional interpenetration* and the dancing interconnectivity of cosmotheandric** reality.
We are exploring here a new ethic and spirituality of being present in existence — and beyond — with one-another.
With this awareness and ongoing intelligent inquiry, we very likely could arrive at a condition of heart and mind which would be happy to help one-another to experience happiness and dwell compassionately in the midst of others, or no-others, surrounding.
What we call evil begins to disappear when any individual chooses to enter a compassionate and thoughtful interaction with any one individual within the sphere of their presence.
* http://www.purifymind.com/Circuminsessional.htm
** http://www.raimon-panikkar.org/english/gloss-cosmotheandric.html
interrogatory
Q: If you had the opportunity, would you join the current administration in the White House?
A: No!
Q: I have no further questions.
there, there
is yesterday
is here
Posted by meetingbrook at 3:12 AM
shema
Χριστός-Μεσσίας is the nature of the universe.
No church, no temple, no mosque, no scripture contains this nature.
Each breath is the liturgy of the cosmos.
first thing this morning, Richard Rohr's daily meditation
https://cac.org/category/daily-meditations/
An Unfolding Future
To fight the concept of evolution is to fight the core meaning of biblical faith, which is a generous balancing act between knowing and not knowing. Unbelief is to insist on total knowing now—by myself! As people of faith, we believe that God is guiding this mysterious universe, although much is hidden from us, both in the past and the future. "Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and the human heart has not conceived, what God has prepared for those who love God" (1 Corinthians 2:9). Judeo-Christian believers, in particular, should have been the first to understand and promote a philosophy of progress because they had an Absolute Source and Goal to ground the trajectory.
In 1929, astronomer Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) published his findings that revealed the universe was expanding. Many began to imagine that if the biggest frame of reference—the cosmos—was still unfolding, then maybe that is the pattern of everything. The latest evidence shows that this expansion is even happening at an ever-increasing rate! It seems to mirror the increasing rate of change with each new technological and scientific breakthrough. This rapid change is scary and unsettling. I can see why people are panicking and trying to find some solid ground, a fixed point to the turning world.
Fundamentalist religion and identity politics seem to be running the show now, and I can even understand that. But God has never "circled the wagons" to regain control and stability. God only moves in every larger spheres and orbits, which is what we mean by calling God infinite, eternal, or almighty.
I have no knowledge of where the universe story might be fully or finally heading, but I can see what it has already revealed with great clarity—that knowledge builds on itself, is cumulative, and is always moving outward toward ever-greater discovery. People who cling to the past and resist change have a hard time participating in God's and their own future. Perhaps this is an appropriate application of Jesus' somewhat problematic words, "Anyone who has will be given more . . . but anyone who has not, will lose what little he has" (see Matthew 25:29). This is only true in the realm of spirit and wisdom which increase and evolve with use. Material reality decreases with usage, which is why our consumer worldview is unsustainable.
In the words of Thomas Keating,
There seems to be an intent or a plan in creation to bring into manifestations revelations of the Unknowable One that awaken in us the greater and greater capacity to love. . . . Evolutionary consciousness is extremely important . . . and science has vastly increased the understanding of how the immensity of the universe continues to expand and how its infinitesimal quality continues to unfold.God is more and more trying to move the human race to the next stage of consciousness beyond the rational, technological, dominating worldview . . . recognizing the truth that there is only one self ultimately and this is God manifesting in us. [1]
Gateway to Presence:
If you want to go deeper with today's meditation, take note of what word or phrase stands out to you. Come back to that word or phrase throughout the day, being present to its impact and invitation.
[1] Thomas Keating with Carl J. Arico, God Is Love: The Heart of All Creation Guidebook (Contemplative Outreach: 2016), 22, https://www.contemplativeoutreach.org/product/god-love-%E2%80%93-heart-all-creation-guidebook.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, "Evolution Is Another Name for Growth," "Evolutionary Thinking," Oneing, vol. 4, no. 2 (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2016), 111-112.
god skips church
The dream and fantasy
called life in this world carries on.
Things feel less and less solid.
A disappearing night.
Everything is prayer.
Earth as zafu, zabuton.
Hands poised
The video asked whether Jesus was a Buddhist.
Where was he from age 14 to 30?
And did he go to Kashmir after the crucifixion event and subsequent recovery?
Plausible? Or mere fancy?
Last night I sat with someone's grandmother for an hour in a hospice room. A vase of flowers and two small carafes of water and juice on table traversing bed.
She was there. I was there. Granddaughter and friend arrived and stayed a while.
From adjacent room guitar and voices played and sang.
Listening in letting inside.
Grandmother and I had our quiet listen to the brief concert. A bass voice, some harmony, then laughter, returning to silence.
Who was it once spoke about the "real realization of reality"? A new 3r's for pedagogy.
A rooting and recollecting responsivity.
Where rest and return to restorative emptiness is the sole scripture capable of being read with no sound, no interruption, no-other awareness.
Mere mother, grandmother, there, going no-where, the unborn and undying, here.
Our unarticulated, nameless movement, through and through.
Water brothers, water sisters, wending way, together.
Asperges me, Domine,
Hyssopo, et mundabor:
Lavabis me,
Et super nivem dealbabor.
Miserere mei, Deus,
Secundum magnam misericordiam tuam.
Cleanse me, O Lord, With hyssop, and I shall be made clean: Wash me, and I shall be made whiter than snow.
Have mercy on me, O God, According to Your great mercy.
Thread: I'll start. I wrote this after a Friday mo...
first thing this morning, Richard Rohr's daily med...


Recently, my desktop computer running windows 10 has become unbearable to use. My backspace button is somehow being spammed, and it is impossible to type with the keyboard. It not only interferes with typing, but often causes programs I have open to be redirected back a page since the backspace bar is being hit so much. It is almost as if every letter I type is followed by a backspace. There is a short grace period in which I can type, and that is right after I restart my computer. I have checked task manager, and no unwanted programs seem to show up. I have done multiple full scans with webroot on my computer, all showing clean. The keyboard I use is certainly not faulty as when disconnected, the back spacing continues to delete letters irritatingly. The keyboard is also fully functional on a friend's laptop.
As typing this, I just found that disabling the backspace and delete key functions have no effect on the problem. Typing is very unpredictable, sometimes it works with full functionality and other times it doesn't at all. These periods of functionality probably only last under a minute.
I could certainly use feedback, it's not easy typing all this on a phone.
Edit: Just to clarify, I definitely did restart my computer already, and used safe mode.
Can you please confirm if this happens when you are in the System BIOS as well, or when you Boot Your Computer in Command Prompt Externally using Windows 10 Bootable Media?
> Running the SFC /SCANNOW Command in the Command Prompt as explained above.
> If that doesn't work, Restoring Windows to an Earlier Restore Point, i.e. when it worked fine.
> If none of the above works, you can try Resetting Windows 10 to Factory Defaults (of course without removing your personal files).
Feel free to report back for any further assistance.
I apologize for the really late reply.
Restoring my computer to an earlier save worked, thanks mate!
Question My keyboard rebinded itself?
Question How to PrtScn with a mac keyboard ?


Why 90 Days of Journaling? This is the perfect amount of time to Get Your Life! Making a 90 day plan and focusing on it daily through journaling will create an opportunity for you to have several victories in a shorter period of time, moving you closer to your ultimate goal of having the life you want! When we stretch goals out too far we are less likely to reach them, therefore having them narrowed in a shorter period of time creates an increased likelihood for success.
Make the next 90 days of your life count. Commit to the process of journaling daily in efforts to begin to see your life open up possibilities you never knew could exist. This journal will walk you through each day and keep you encouraged to the end.
Preorder this journal before it comes out and save $5. Offer valid until June 24th. Please allow 2 weeks for delivery of book after June 25th.
1. What address would you like your journal shipped to?


A delegation from College of Law students at Al Yamamah University visited the Human Rights Commission. The visit was for educational purposes on legal and judicial bodies in the Kingdom. Dr. Khalid Al – Habshan, Assistant Professor in College of Business was the head of the delegation. Dr. Bandar bin Mohammed Al-Aiban, President of the Human Rights Commission and Dr. Nasser Bin Rajeh Al-Shahrani, Vice President of the Human Rights Commission attended the meeting.
In line with the policy of Al Yamamah University, which is keen to introduce its students to the leading institutions in the Kingdom and to learn more about its competencies and programs, this visit came to motivate the students to do their best in order to be the leaders of the future. The delegation visited the Commission of Human Rights and leaned the nature of its role in the promotion and protection of human rights. The visit also introduced the students to regional and international agreements that Saudi Arabia is part of.
At the end of the meeting, the delegation thanked the President and the Vice President of the commission for the good reception and the valuable information presented.


Many useful products originated from university research work. These include seat belts, Gatorade, the Internet, and Google. This product concept incubator provides an opportunity for the people of Wikiversity to conceive, describe, improve, and develop important new product concepts.
Consumers can describe products they would like to see here. Creative inventors can propose product concepts. Innovators can refine product concepts into requirements statements and design specifications. Entrepreneurs can then develop and launch products inspired by these specifications.
Please add your product ideas to this list.
This page was last edited on 3 December 2018, at 21:57.


When I grew up, I associated Belfast and Northern Ireland with terror, bombs, and injustice. Belfast by Boney M played on the radio over and over again, and TV showed countless bombs exploding in suburban areas. Back in the 70's I was too small to really understand what was happening, but both the news and the song followed me into the 80's.
I still associate Belfast with something negative, but now it's cruelty to animals.
I have followed the case of Lennox since 2010. Lennox is mix between Labrador and American Bulldog. His family had him since he was a puppy, and he was a companion dog to the disabled daughter. Lennox never did anything wrong, he never harmed anyone, but someone saw him and decided he looked like a Pitbull.
One day, people knocked on the family's door. From what I hear, they even had coffee with the family, while they measured Lennox's head. They took him away to a city pound, explaining that based on his looks he might be dangerous. According to the local law, the family loses all rights to the dog once he falls under the breed specific legislations.
He has been held by the city for two years, in a sad cage with sawdust on the floor. For two years, the family has fought to get him back. They don't even have the right to visit him, and when the 12 year old girl calls Belfast City Council to ask if she can come see her dog, they hang up on her.
In some countries, keeping a dog in such a small confined area surrounded by his own feces, without even a decent place to lie down, would land you in jail for cruelty to animals.
There has been petitions (if you haven't signed one yet, please click here to do so) and protests from people all over the world. They have even DNA tested Lennox to prove he isn't a Pitbull, but it doesn't matter; he looks enough like one to fall under the breed specific legislation.
The mailbox of Belfast City Council is always full - very likely with e-mails regarding Lennox - and all the debate leads nowhere. The day before yesterday, courts decided the decision from 2011 stands: Lennox will be put down, because he looks like he could possible hurt someone in the future.
I know a lot of people struggle every day to save pets no one wants; I'm one of them. This guy has a loving family that doesn't give up hope on him, and will probably still die. It's so frustrating and I feel so bad for both him and the family I want to cry. Honestly, if it was my dog, I'd be shot dead or in jail by now.
Oodles of people (including me) have offered to take Lennox so he can live, but guess what - Belfast City Council won't let him leave the country. When did it become okay to condemn someone to death based on the way they look?
I'm not really surprised the court's decision stands; when so many people get involved in such a big fiasco, it might be hard to back down and admit they were wrong. Still, Belfast City Council, the one saving Lennox will be a hero of international proportions.
You want people to think your city is the best place in the world. You want people to think they should go visit and spend their money in your stores, maybe think they should move there and open a business. Turn the Lennox fiasco around; let him go home, and become heroes in the eyes of the world.
The Save Lennox Webpage. The menu "About Lennox" tells his story very well.
The Save Lennox Facebook page is a good source for news.
There is also a Save Lennox Twitter account.


text:
Local barber providing the homeless with free haircuts goes national
PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - Too often we are seeing the homeless population forgotten or ignored. Some want to help but don't know how. Trying to find resources for people without food and shelter can be an overwhelming but today Bill Anderson revisited a man who started giving free haircuts to the homeless. Now his mission is growing... for goodness sake.
READ MORE: Philly barber is providing the homeless with free haircuts
"To me it means a lot. It means that someone cares. It shows me that someone sees what we go through and they wanna do something about it."
Earlier this year, we introduced you to Brennon Jones and his haircuts for the homeless.
"When you're on a mission and God has put you on this path nothing should stop you," he told FOX 29.
He promised it would be a daily thing that he wanted to see grow and now it has. This week, he starts the 'Cutz of Compassion Tour.'
"We do free haircuts, we do bags of toiletries, bag lunches, prizes and games and giveaways and it's all geared around the homeless and less fortunate and it started with a haircut," he said.
His concept remains simple, go to areas with large homeless population and give out free haircuts but when his story went viral people wanted to help first at a larger local event.
"I had seven barbers from the surrounding areas and we set up an outdoor salon. We cut 89 people's hair that particular day," Jones explained.
And now in seven cities from Camden to Charlotte
"I came up with the idea if it's needed here in the tri-state area I'm sure its needed everywhere else."
Catching up with Brennon after a few months very little had changed about his mindset. He's now personally given nearly 200 free haircuts to the homeless and less fortunate with no desire to slow down.
"A lot of people ask me hey when will you stop, I will never stop I'm invested. My heart is invested. I never took barbering so serious until now."
One thing that he does seem to have grasped is the fact that exposure can be a good thing if it's used in a positive way. Something he explained to FOX 29's Bill Anderson as a reason to why he cuts hair on the median at Broad and Walnut.
"Why in the middle of the street? So people can see what's going on there's no excuses. When you put something right in their face they can't ignore it. I'm challenging everybody to do something about it," Jones explained.
Brennon Jones is one of the people shining a light on the needs of our area's homeless population in hopes that we will all respond but at least for a few weeks this summer he'll also spread that awareness to other cities and show the importance.
Collingswood teen charged with murder after authorities say he fatally punched 95-old-man
Firefighters use basket to rescue injured worker from Philadelphia high-rise
Police: Woman, 32, dies after being found with gunshot wound to stomach in Frankford


text:
Q: Why does the node hierarchy in a PHP DOMDocument not match the given html hierarchy? I have an html string that is formatted correctly for html.
After I load a PHP DOMDocument object with it I read the node tree and it is wrong.
The node tree does not match the html.
The table node is inside a #text node.
The 2nd td node is inside the first td node.
The 2nd tr node is inside the first tr node.
The 4th td node is inside the 3rd td node.
The #text 'after' is inside the table node.
Why is this wrong and how can I fix it?
The code below is executed here:
https://dev.aecperformance.com/test.php
//Formatted so you can easily see the format
$html = "

                This is a bold red test a table

Head 1	Head 2

Value 1	Value 2

                after

            After div
        ";
//Formatted with all tabs and line feeds stripped
$html = "
This is a bold red test a table

Head 1	Head 2

Value 1	Value 2

after
After div";

$nNxtLvl = 0;
function processChildNodes($node)
{
    global $nNxtLvl;

    $lvl = $nNxtLvl;
    for($i=0; $i < $lvl; $i++) {
        echo "        ";
    }
    echo $node->nodeName;
    if($node->nodeName == "#text") echo " " . $node->nodeValue;
    echo "
";
    $cNodes = $node->childNodes;
    if (!empty($cNodes)) {
        foreach ($cNodes as $cNode) {
            $nNxtLvl++;
            processChildNodes($cNode);
        }
    }
    $nNxtLvl = $lvl;
}

$dom = new \DOMDocument();
$dom->loadHTML($html);
$ls = $dom->getElementsByTagName('body');
$elBody = $ls[0];
$ls = $elBody->childNodes;
for($i=0; $i < count($ls); $i++) {
    processChildNodes($ls->item($i));
}

A: You put $nNxtLvl++; inside the child node loop, so each time there is a new iteration (aka another sibling node), the level is increased.
You can fix it just by moving it outside the loop:
    if (!empty($cNodes)) {
        $nNxtLvl++; // <== Moved outside the loop
        foreach ($cNodes as $cNode) {
            processChildNodes($cNode);
        }
    }

Some other advices about your code:

*

*Avoid using global variables (they are quite never used in our days in Php); instead pass the level as second argument of you function processChildNodes();

*You can clearly avoid the for($i...) loop, indeed you just want to echo a repeated string, so you can use str_repeat(), for example: echo str_repeat(" ", 8 * $lvl); instead of the whole loop.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


Hello! I am Ashley, a tutor with a variety of educational experiences. I currently hold a Bachelor's of Science in Chemistry, Pre-Med and a Master's of Science in Forensic Science, Chemistry track. I am currently a scribe in a Baltimore area hospital. My first experience in tutoring was as a homework helper at my former elementary school. I enjoyed engaging with the younger students and the students were overjoyed with having a scholar, younger in age, that they could connect with. I began working as a teacher's assistant and tutor at Delaware State University during my freshman of college. The subject areas I focused on were College Algebra, Trigonometry, Calculus I, and General Chemistry. I enjoyed providing flexible hours and supplementary education to my peers so that they would have 1-on-1 time with a knowledgeable, but relatable counterpart. During this experience, I learned how to cater to the needs of the students by accommodating to their individual learning style. My most recent educational experience was as a middle school supplemental instructor. I was responsible for conducting an algebra and geometry remediation class for students who were required to re-take a state-wide, mandated math exam. During this time, I was able to teach small groups of students and focus on subject areas that required improvement based on their individual test scores.
I most enjoy tutoring because I am able to provide individualized instruction that students may otherwise not experience in a classroom setting. This field is most rewarding when the progress of my students is proven through their understanding, grades, and test scores.
I have a general knowledge of basic math and science, from the elementary(K-12) through college level and I am also available to tutor general elementary school studies such as reading, writing, and spelling. The high school and college classes that I have tutoring/teaching experience in are Algebra, Trigonometry, Geometry, Calculus I, and General Chemistry.
I encourage students to learn based on their individual learning styles by using special tips, monikers, etc, that maker learning for fun and memorable. I allow any suggestions from students or parents, that would benefit the student as much as possible. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions. I am easy to contact and readily available!
Rate details: Contact for group rates (tutoring sessions for multiple children) and special pricing for 3 or more days per week. Availability on the weekend by request, hours will vary.
I currently have seven years experience with tutoring Algebra 1. I have tutored on the middle school, high school, and college level. During my middle and high school tutoring experience, I prepared students to re-take a mandated state-wide test during remedial sessions. While a student at Delaware state, I was an official campus tutor for Algebra I, Trigonometry, and Calculus I. I was also employed as a teacher's assistant for these courses and during my employment, I developed practice problems and quizzes for the sessions that I lead.
Ashley is a great tutor; she was able to teach concepts my daughter was not able get in class very quickly. Ashley is very nice and had some great advice on how to be better prepared.


text:
The Pearson problems
Posted by Kathleen
on "\/Date(1537988007343)\/"
This Is Us premiered last night. We are now in season three of the show I have hailed as the best drama on network television. I think that's still true but it's going to have to fix some major problems that have plagued the show since episode one if it wants to hang on to its top spot. After a rough start to season two, This Is Us recovered with a heart-wrenching Super Bowl episode and a solid season two finale. I hope season three is following the same trajectory. I hope the best is yet to come because last night was not the best of This Is Us.
I got into a minor fight with my friends Kayla and Allya last night because they started messaging me spoilers before I started watching the premiere. They wouldn't stop. I almost friendship broke up with both of them over text. I was ready. My point is that I HATE spoilers. I will cut a bitch, no questions, if you ruin one of my favourite shows for me. Y'all have been warned. I realize that many of you may have This Is Us waiting for you on your PVRs. If you haven't watched it yet, bookmark this page and come back when you do. Spoilers ahead. You're welcome for that considerate and extensive Spoiler Warning. Ahem, Kayla and Allya.
Last year, Duana broke down the major problem with This Is Us. Her thesis was that everything on the show is from a man's perspective. As usual, Duana was not wrong. The show recovered slightly with Rebecca's evolving storylines and there have been glimpses of Kate's growth and depth but for the most part, Duana is still right. The Pearson women face problems but they are told through the eyes of the Pearson men. Last night, Duana was very right. Almost everything was from a man's perspective and it was FRUSTRATING.
Think about who we were supposed to feel sympathy for in last night's episode. We were supposed to feel sorry for Jack Pearson, on his first date with his future wife with nine dollars in his pocket. We saw the beginning of the date through his eyes as he first spots Rebecca in the bar and collects his nine dollars from his buddy. We saw the day after the date through Jack's perspective as he watched Rebecca kiss another man. We didn't get to judge Jack for acting like a dick on his date without context. We knew it was because he had no money. We don't know Rebecca's reasoning for kissing that random dude at her door, we just know that our hearts are supposed to be breaking for Jack, fresh from Vietnam and fragile.
We are supposed to feel sorry for Toby. The Kate and Toby baby storyline is supposed to be from Kate's perspective. I'm sure that's what the writer's room intended. This is Kate's plot. Toby is just her sidekick. Is he, though? Every time something went wrong with Kate's plan to try for a baby through IVF, we saw Toby's face. The camera was on Toby's reaction, which was pained and full of concern. We were supposed to see that Kate is being unreasonable in her desire for a child while Toby is the one who can see that she's putting herself in danger. The episode was also very preoccupied with foreshadowing that Toby is going off his anti-depressant meds which will cause serious problems in the future for Kate. But we're not given insight into Kate's perspective, aside from an exhausting and confusing monologue in the middle of her birthday party in front of all her friends (since when does Kate have so many friends?). Also, once again, Kate can't get through an episode without her weight being the singular focus. I understand that the medical aspects of Kate's weight are real but I just want more for her. I don't want to watch her journey through the eyes of her anxious husband.
In the season three premiere of This Is Us, we were also supposed to feel sympathy for Randall Pearson. Deja is one of the better written teen girls I've ever seen on television but still, her struggles are shown through the lens of Randall's past trauma. I love that Deja called him out for his selfishness and the unfair comparisons between her life and his but in that moment, we were supposed to feel sad for Randall. And I did. Obviously, I was crying. At this point in the series, I'm very well acquainted with This Is Us's emotional manipulation. Randall is a character that is KING of the manipulated tears. Usually, it works. I love Randall. But in this case, it wasn't about him. Deja's great moment of independence was still very much linked to Randall and how "exceptional" he thinks she is. I think that's OK. It was a very nice scene that I SOBBED through but when the show rarely gives us moments where the women get to have their own moments, I wished Deja could have come to that conclusion on her own.
Finally, Beth and Zoe clearly have some cousinly drama to work through but all we got was a whole lot of Kevin. I actually really like the Beth/Kevin/Zoe drama because Susan Kelechi Watson is a spectacular talent and she shined bright in every scene but once again, who did we feel sorry for throughout that storyline? Kevin. Who were we rooting for? Kevin. I hope as we move forward in the season, we learn why Beth is so convinced that Zoe will chew Kevin up and spit him out but until then, Zoe gets no say in that "maneater" stereotype they've pegged her with. I loved Beth's monologue about how much she loves Kevin. Again, Susan Kelechi Watson is incredible. I want more for her. I want more of Beth's backstory. I want them to explore her relationship with Zoe aside from how it relates to Kevin.
As for the twists, we're also seeing those from the men's perspectives. WHO IS SHE? Kate? So far, we know that Randall and Tess are visiting "she" and Toby is upstairs looking rough not wanting to see her. "She" remains an off-camera mystery with no dialogue or story of her own… yet. I want to know who "she" is and I want the women of This Is Us to be the lead in their own stories.
TAGS: Chrissy Metz Mandy Moore Milo Ventimiglia Sterling Brown TV Smut
Mimi returns
Posted by Lainey on September 26, 2018 19:53:27
Smutty Social Media, September 26, 2018
Posted by Maria on September 26, 2018 18:33:10
Cedric the Entertainer's open and the ever-changing back drop were good parts of the 2021 Emmys
Sterling K Brown as Leo McGarry in trailer for The West Wing Special to Benefit When We All Vote
Posted by Lainey on October 9, 2020 15:43:15
Intro for October 8, 2020
Mandy Moore addresses her past with Ryan Adams as she promotes upcoming album, Silver Landings
Posted by Lainey on March 3, 2020 19:54:00
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