An hour after getting back from the Mason apartment, Bruce Kenner had the distinct misfortune of meeting Bertha Henderson.
A plump, gaudy woman with wrinkles and sun beaten skin only an alligator could love, Bertha Henderson wore bright red lipstick, bright red rouge, and way too much mascara. Her tangled hair was a dull red color and her clothes - pink pants and a white floral top - stretched tight across her bulbous frame. She looked like the kind of woman who lived in a trailer with velvet pictures of Elvis on the wall and pink flamingos in the front yard.
She acted like one too.
From the moment she stormed into his office, she hadn’t shut up once. She scolded, chided, accused, and badgered, sometimes even wagging one fat finger in his face like he was a naughty little boy. Ten minutes into the dressing down and Bruce was beginning to fantasize about police brutality.
It took him another ten minutes to find out what the hell she even wanted.
“It’s my granddaughter,” she shot back, “she’s missing in your town.”
My town? Lady, this is barely my office. I share it with three other people.
“Well, if you’ll calm down, maybe I can help.”
Jesus Christ was that the wrong thing to say. She hit the roof and didn’t come down again until Bruce was this close to arresting her for assault on a police officer. “Young man, I do not appreciate the way you’re talking to me. My tax dollars are the only reason you have a job. If it wasn’t for me, you’d be working at a car wash.”
At least I wouldn’t have to deal with you.
Bruce took a deep breath and held his tongue in check. “How can I help you?” he asked.
“I told you, my granddaughter is missing. If you listened to me, you’d know this already.”
Bertha produced a picture and slid it across the desk. Bruce studied it. A girl, roughly sixteen with black hair, blue eyes, and dimples smiled back at him. “She;’s with that Rossi man, I just know it,” she said bitterly.
“Who?” Bruce asked.
Rolling her eyes like he was stupid, the old woman told him the story. Jessie - the dimple faced girl - had the rotten luck of having to live with Grandma Bertha after her parents went to jail on drug charges. They lived in Sand Lake, a little town in the mountains outside Albany, where Bertha was no doubt loved and admired by all. One day, Jessie, who her grandmother lovingly described as “A little troublemaker”, ran off. Bruce didn’t blame her. He’d known Bertha for half an hour and he wanted to run off. Bertha did some snooping on Jessie’s laptop and found that the “little whore” had been chatting with an older man, Joe Rossi. Rossi, or so Facebook said, lived in Albany and worked at Club Vlad.
“I want him arrested for pedophilia,” Bertha said and crossed her arms defiantly over her chest. “He’s a dog just like all men. She’s probably pregnant already. Another mouth I have to feed.”
Behind the old battle ax, Vanessa appeared in the doorway and lifted her brows as if to say What a piece of work. Knowing her, she’d probably been standing just out of sight this whole time with McKenny, the elderly evidence clerk, and snickering into her hand like a little girl. LOL she called him young man.
Bertha noticed him looking over her shoulder and started to turn. Vanessa’s face went white and she ducked out of the way, narrowly avoiding detection. “I’m glad you think this is funny,” Bertha said to Bruce. “Meanwhile, if I don’t get Jessie back, the state’s going to stop sending me my checks. I need that income. I can’t work, you know. I have gout.”
Too bad being an asshole isn’t a job, you’d be world-famous
“I’ll go talk to him,” Bruce said.
“I want more than talk, young man, I want action.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
When Bertha finally decided to waddle off and ruin someone else’s day, Vanessa came in and sat in the chair the old woman had so recently occupied. “Oh, my God,” she said, “that was intense. I was this close to radioing in a 1015.”
1015 was code for officer down.
“Funny,” Bruce said without a trace of humor. He had kids going missing, a dead guy someone moved around like a goddamn Barbie doll, and now this. What next, hemorrhoids?
“What do you think? Code 1 or code 2?”
Code 1 meant top priority. Code 2 meant not a top priority. Bruce thought for a moment. It didn’t sound like Jessie Henderson was in danger. It sounded like she met a guy - granted, one too old for her - and decided to hide out with him from her psycho grandma. Maybe it could be something more, but he had a gut feeling that it wasn’t…and his gut feelings were usually right. “2,” he finally said. “I got shit to do.”
By shit, he meant “Talk to the families of those missing boys again.” He’d been interviewing them for two days looking for clues, but there was nothing. It’s like they just vanished. Bruce didn’t like this. He didn’t like it at all.
“Well, I’ll leave you to it,” Vanessa said and slapped the desk.
When she was gone, Bruce sighed.
Never a dull moment, he thought.
***
Ed Harris - no relation to the Hollywood actor - had been the medical examiner for the City of Albany since 2002, and in all that time, he had never seen anything quite like this.
It was Wednesday evening and Ed was locked away in the cold, sterile space beneath the city offices that comprised his domain. With its puke green tiles, harsh lights, and cloying smells of disinfectant, the .coroner's office creeped most people out, but not Ed. He was at home here, as comfortable surrounded by toe-tagged bodies as a cactus was surrounded by desert. A thin man in his fifties with curly, steel gray hair thinning in the middle, he wore a white smock, blood stained over his clothes that made him look like a butcher instead of a low level government functionary. He had a dark and dry sense of humor, but then again, so do all people who play with dead bodies for fun and profit.
The coroner’s office was a vast, utilitarian vault segmented into multiple different rooms. Here, where the magic happened, three stainless steel tables stood in a row; a bank of refrigerated drawers kept watch, making sure nothing funny happened. One of the cold fluorescent lights overhead flickered with a hum of electricity, and water dripped rhythmically from a faucet. It was a cold, eerie place, but to Ed, it was home.
On most nights, only one of the tables was occupied, but tonight, two were. On one lay an old lady who died of what appeared to be cyanide poisoning. On the other was Dominick Mason.
Naked save for a white cloth draped over his groin to protect his dignity, Dom was the most corpsy corpse you’d ever hope to see. In fact, if you looked up dead guy in the dictionary, you’d see a picture of him. His body was pale and sunken, one side covered in purple splotches where his blood had pooled, and his eyes were closed. His abdomen was slightly distended with the expected build up of gas, and his flesh stuck fast to the bones beneath. In other words, he was text book. A normal corpse.
Mostly normal.
As men of his trade are wont to do when strange bodies mysteriously appear, Ed had opened Dom up, making a Y shaped incision from his neck to his groin. He hummed to himself as he did so, his hands wielding his sharp and shiny tools with the deft assuredness of a seasoned surgeon. Done cutting, he dipped his gloved hands into the cavity and started removing organs. A spleen here, a liver there, nothing Dom would miss. When he got to the heart, however, he stopped.
There was something…off…about it. At first glance, it was black and withered like an oversized raisin. An odd and putrid odor emanated from it and though he was familiar with the various smells and stenches the human body produced after death, this wasn’t one of them. Try as he might, he couldn’t place it, couldn’t even compare it to anything. Plucking a magnifying glass from the metal cart next to the table, he peeled back part of Dom’s chest and examined the heart closer.
That’s when things got really weird.
Dominick Mason’s heart was, indeed, shriveled, but it was not black. Instead, it was almost entirely covered by an interlacing crisscross of what appeared to be black mold. Here and there, Ed could glimpse flashes of the heart beneath: It was wrinkled and a sickly gray color. “What is this?” Ed asked himself at length. He grabbed a pair of tweezers from the tray and carefully, very carefully, attempted to remove a piece of the mold for analysis. The moment the cold metal tips touched the heart, it gave a violent spasm that sent Ed falling back with a shocked gasp, the tweezers falling from his hand and clinking to the tiled floor.
The heart began to pulse like an alien egg sac, slowly at first, then more rapidly. For a moment, Ed was frozen in place, unable to comprehend what he was seeing. Once you die, your heart ceases beating. That’s that. Only living hearts beat, and Dominick Mason was certainly dead. He was dead from the moment Ed first laid eyes on him earlier that day and he was dead now. Yet there was his heart, beating anyway.
It could be a muscle spasm. They usually aren’t that violent and consistent, but dead bodies sometimes do strange things. As he watched the blackened muscle expanding and contracting, however, Ed had the most eerie feeling. He went to rub the back of his neck, realized he was still wearing blood soaked gloves, and stripped them off. He was spooking himself out; he needed a break and a hot cup of coffee. He’d come back fresh and start over again.
With that mold.
Could you really blame him for being creeped out? That stuff wasn’t normal. He’d never seen anything like that before, not even in textbooks. Dom was scrawny and didn’t get enough vitamins in life, but overall, he was healthy; that mold…or whatever it was…had no business being there.
Going over to the coffee pot, which stood in the same room to save travel time, Ed grabbed a styrofoam cup. When he was done here, he planned to go home and -
A terrible, metallic clatter rang out, and Ed jumped. He turned around, and when he saw Dominick Mason standing next to the table, hunched slightly over and staring at him, an electric burst of fright shot up his spine and exploded in his brain, so strong it made the edges turn gray. Pale, hands hooked into talons, and the flaps of his chest hanging open to reveal the cavity beneath, Dominick Mason looked for all the world like a boy who’d been caught sneaking out to meet his girlfriend. A weak, involuntary, “Oh, God,” slipped from Ed’s trembling lips, and the spell was broken. Dom came alive and ran toward the door leading out to the parking lot. He slammed through it, and the sound of it crashing open and then falling closed again echoed through the empty chamber.
Shaking, panting for air, and soaked in piss, Ed sank to the floor in a sitting position, his eyes wide and staring like those of a soldier returning damaged from the front.
It was a long time before he composed himself enough to call the police.
***
Dazed and caught in a nightmarish twilight realm where nothing made sense, Dominick Mason limped painfully down the sidewalk, a stranger lost in a strange land filled with danger and hostile creatures. Barefoot and shrouded in a white sheet, he trembled with cold and struggled to ignore the dark, threatening shapes looming from the fog in his brain, shapes that would turn into unspeakable truths if he let them.
Passersby openly stared at him, their expressions either morbidly curious, disgusted, or alarmed. A man put his arm protectively around his girlfriend; a woman pulled her little boy to her breast, and another man sneered at him, his nose crinkling. Dom, his glazed eyes narrowed against the harsh glare of the many street lamps, headlights, and storefronts, lumbered headlong toward nowhere, his fear growing until he was shambling. He imagined he could hear every cough, every whisper; smell the odor of every unwashed body. Each car horn was deafening, every whiff of ass or armpits sent his stomach churning. The rustle of a passing pedestrian’s jacket jammed into his ears like icepicks, and the approaching globes of LED headlamps burned his eyes. He gritted his teeth and groaned against the pain.
The dense mist wrapping his brain made it hard to think. Like a frightened animal, he made his way on instinct alone. Home. He needed to get home. Out here, on the street, he was exposed. At home, locked away in his small apartment, he would be safe.
A car passed in the street, bass heavy rap music blaring from its open windows, and Dom’s brain exploded with agony. He threw himself against a street sign and held on for dear life, his legs weak. Dizziness overwhelmed him, and he almost went down. He was also cold.
So, so cold.
People around him quickened their step; they never took their eyes off him, as though he were a venomous snake that would strike at any moment. He needed to get away from them. They were going to hurt him; people always hurt him.
Pushing away from the sign, he began to hobble once more toward home, wherever home was. He looked over his shoulder several times as he made his way down Central Avenue, and each time, he saw that no one was following him as he had feared.
No one, that is, except for the man in sunglasses.
Tall and lank with curly hair, he wore dark Aviators and a leather motorcycle jacket over a button up shirt. His hands were thrust deep into his pockets and his face showed no expression. He was always there, always a few steps closer. Outside Capital Fried Chicken, a group of people openly stared at him, He heard their whispers as he passed. What’s wrong with him? Dude’s straight tweakin. And the one that struck him the most. That guy looks dead.
Dom hobbled faster, as if to outrun the realization that he was, in fact, dead. The man in sunglasses was closer now, his footsteps so loud that Dom winced. He turned around, and the man was impossibly in front of him. Dom ran into him and bounced backward, going ass over tea kettle and landing on the former. They were in front of a church on a darkened corner, the lights here either burned out or shot out - you could never tell in Albany. Even though it was dark, Dom could see everything with crystal clarity. Dom tried to scurry away, but he was too weak to escape. Right there and then, he decided to give up. Come what may, he just wanted this nightmare to be over.
The man stared down at him, emotionless, unspeaking.
Dom squirmed.
“You’re real lucky I came along,” the man said. His tone was flat, even.
Dead.
“Get up,” he said, “I’ll take you home.”
Home?
Yes.
Dom wanted to go home.
The man helped him up, and Dom followed him into the night.
***
Bruce Kenner stood in the middle of the medical examiner’s office at half past nine that evening with his hands on his hips and stared doubtfully down at Ed Harris. The lonely cavern was alive with activity as cops went over everything, all of them looking either bemused or a mused. Bruce was neither. He’d been at home, sitting in his chair and having a beer in front of AEW Dynamite when Vanessa called. “You might wanna get down here,” she said, sounding confused, “something really strange is going on.”
Ed Harris - no relation to that one guy - sat in a straight back chair beside his cluttered desk and gripped a styrofoam cup of coffee in both hands, putting Bruce - for some reason - in mind of a monkey. When Bruce came in, the old man was white as a sheet and shook like a leaf. In the last half hour, little had changed.
“Tell me again,” Bruce said.
He and Ed were pretty good friends. He knew that Ed knew standard police procedure. Cops don’t ask you to repeat your story a thousand times over because they’re forgetful fucks, they do it because telling it again and again helps to jog loose details that you might have forgotten. Ed, therefore, did not protest. “I turned my back,” he said and chopped the chair like Jackie Chan, “and I heard the noise.”
His voice was thick, unsteady, and halting. He sounded as squirrely as he looked…and he looked pretty damn squirrelly right now.
“I turned around…and he was looking at me. He was standing there and he was looking at me.”
This was the fourth time he’d had Ed go through the story, and nothing had changed. Bruce felt something stirring deep inside his gut. It was either disquiet…or he had to fart. He opened his mouth to speak, but sighed.
“You don’t believe me,” Ed said.
“I dunno, Ed. Dead bodies don’t just get up and walk away.”
Ed flashed. “I know that, goddamn it, but this one did.”
Bruce glanced at Vanessa. She looked uncomfortable.
“Are you sure he was dead?” Bruce asked.
Ed opened his mouth, closed it again, and said, “I did the autopsy.” His voice broke on the last word, and he sounded almost like he was pleading. “His fucking liver’s on the floor. He stepped on it. The man has nothing in him. I-I’m telling you, there’s no way he’s alive.”
During the autopsy, Ed had sat Dominick Mason’s organs on the little tray table where he kept his pointy things. Mason knocked it over while getting up. Indeed, there were human organs on the floor, and one of them did look kind of squished. Bare, bloody footprints led to the exit door, up a set of concrete steps, and then disappeared in the alley behind the office.
“You said you left his heart,” Bruce said.
“And his brain,” Vanessa helpfully added.
Ed pinched the bridge of his nose like a put upon professor dealing with two particularly stupid students. “Even with his heart and his brain, he’s dead. You saw the livor mortis. He was cold, he was stiff. His heart wasn’t beating, he wasn’t breathing. He was in one of those drawers for nine hours, not breathing, no blood flow - it’s impossible. It’s just…it’s impossible. I don’t care what you think, he was dead. And even if somehow he wasn’t, I cut out almost everything. I opened his stomach, I took his spleen - you don’t just get up from that. You don’t walk away from that, much less run.”
Bruce chewed the inside of his bottom lip because he didn’t have a Twix. He didn’t look like the smartest man in the world…and he wasn’t…but he knew a dead body when he saw one, and the body they took out of Dominick Mason’s apartment was D.E.A.D. And like Ed said, even if by some freak fluke of nature he wasn’t, he couldn’t just get up and go about his day with no liver, spleen, or kidneys. Hell, Bruce had his gallbladder out and he couldn’t even walk away from that.
“You said there was something funny about his heart,” Vanessa said.
Ed finished off his coffee. “Yeah. It was…moldy. I-I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Is it possible that…has something to do with it?”
“Unless the rules of biology have changed overnight, no,” Ed stated.
While Ed poured himself another cup of Joe, spilling some because he was still shaking, Vanessa took Bruce aside. “So what do you think?” she asked. “Is he telling the truth?”
For that, Bruce did not have an immediate answer. All else aside, he was a cop. He followed the evidence - and his gut instinct - wherever it led him. Ed was a sober man - he was not a drunk, insane, or stupid - and no man on earth could fake the look of trauma in his eyes. Bruce’s eyes went to the bloody footprints leading away from the exam table and his stomach roiled. It might be cliched, but there had to be a rational explanation. “Yeah,” he finally said. “The kid got up like he said, but there’s no way he was dead. Maybe…I dunno, he had a surge of adrenaline or something. I’m not a doctor.”
“That’ll only get him so far,” Vanessa said. “We’ll probably find him on the street somewhere.”
He went back to the purple splotches on Dom’s face, to his cold stiffness. There’s no way he was dead?
Bruce was confused, and he hated being confused.
“I dunno,” he said, “maybe.”
But he had the gnawing feeling that they wouldn’t. They would never find him…and Bruce would be confused forever.
Goddamn it, Mason, he thought, where are you?

I am a dental hygienist. Since I have been licensed, I have worked for 4 different dental offices. While the dental offices and locations have changed, the job duties are almost exactly the same at each job (maybe the number of patients I will see has changed; for example, 6 at one office, 8 at another). IMO, my resume looks weird because I am basically repeating the same job duties in 4 different paragraphs - for example:
Dental Hygienist 2010-2015 Office 1, Location -Performed duties -Exposed X-rays
Dental Hygienist 2015-2018 Office 2, Location -Completed duties -Took radiographs
…this is not what my resume says, but wanted to give examples. I try to use synonyms to switch up the exact wording, but literally the duties are the same.
What is the best way to list the same exact job duties but different employers at different offices?
Thanks!

I just thought of this one video and i cant find it anywhere when i search for it so i came here to see if anyone could help.
All I remember about it is it looks like it was made in the 2000’s or 2010’s and its her and her bf in a room and hes filming her i think. Shes really frustrated for some reason, then at some point she knocks over this plastic cup and says something like “you almost made me break my hannah montana cup”

Hi Everyone!
This is my first write-up of any kind of unresolved mystery, on any platform, so I apologize for any formatting errors and my storytelling ability. Today I would like to hear your thoughts on the very mysterious death of Noah Presgrove, a 19 year old from Comanche Oklahoma. I have tried to be as thorough as possible with the details, but there is a great deal of conflicting information in the news reports, so I primarily used facts stated by Noah's family in interviews. With that said, let's begin...
Noah Presgrove was a handsome, athletic 19 year old from Comanche Oklahoma, which is located just south of Oklahoma City in the middle of the state. Noah had recently graduated high school in the spring of 2023 and was waiting for his cousin to do the same the following year so they both could enlist in the Marine Corp together and serve our country. By all accounts Noah was a ladies man, standing at 6'2" with an athletic build, in high school he was a 4-sport athlete with American Football and Wrestling among them. His family also says he was adventurous, kind and very much a jokester who would happily play pranks on his family. Last Labor Day weekend, the first weekend of September 2023, Noah was deciding between attending Rocklahoma, an annual 3-day hard rock and metal festival held in Pryor, Oklahoma, with family members or attending a 4-day Labor Day weekend bash/22nd birthday party of a friend. Noah considered going to Rocklahoma, but changed his mind when the family members he'd be attending with said they didn't think it was a good idea for Noah's 16 year old friend to join them there, since they didn't know this friend's family and Rocklahoma is big for consuming alcohol. With that, everyone went their own way to celebrate the holiday weekend.
The Labor Day/Birthday party was for a female friend of Noah's who was turning 22. It had been advertised on Snapchat, even containing the address, so quite a few people were expected to attend. Noah drove himself to the party on Saturday and by all accounts enjoyed himself. He did text his family member who was at Rocklahoma and express regret at not going with them, but it doesn't appear that this put too much of a damper on his attitude at the house party. After spending Saturday at the birthday girl's house, Noah returned home Sunday, probably to freshen up and take care of any outstanding errands or just check in with his grandmother, with whom he lived. Also, Noah's car was leaking from the oil pan, so it sounds like part of the reason to return home was to leave it there so he wouldn't have to worry about it. There are two stories about what happened next: The first is that one of Noah's friends picked him up from his house on Sunday, but took him to a truck stop so he could grab some food from the Sonic there. Oddly, the friend who took him there says he left him there and Noah was then given a ride to the party by the birthday girl, who had to come pick him up. The other story is that his best friend picked him up from his house and took him directly to the party, leaving him in the driveway. Either way, Noah was back at the party on Sunday and according to those present, was very much enjoying himself. There were videos from the party showing Noah and his friends doing "guy things" like the Slap Game, where two people try to slap each other across the face as hard as they can. Just "macho" drunken teenage guy things. There was also video from the party of the guests playing "classic" party games such as beer pong.
With all the drinking going on, some issues were bound to arise. A confrontation happened between Noah and his best friend. Noah had been in a corner with his best friend's girlfriend and apparently they had their backs to everyone else while talking. The best friend took exception to this and an argument ensued. Luckily, it did not become physical and they made up shortly after, but this event with the best friend and his girlfriend is important for later. A second confrontation occurred between Noah and a 16 year old guest that did become physical. The 16 year old accused Noah of hiding his phone, although the reasons why he thought Noah did it have not been stated. During the argument the kid "fishhooked" Noah and Noah returned the favor by biting his finger. It seems like the other people there were able to diffuse the situation and the kid's phone was found underneath another guest who was sleeping on a couch. As the day went on, things continued to become crazier as the people at the party drank more and more. At one point girls at the party started signing their names on Noah's torso and buttocks, writing things such as "Noah's hot!" and drawing a cartoon penis on his rear-end. Noah and the best friend he had the argument with even drove a John Deere "Gator" UTV "Side by Side" around the property, but stopped when Noah scrapped his hand almost flipping it over. Some people even say that Noah was tossed from the UTV, but he was checked out by a nurse at the party and she said he had nothing to worry about. Another event worth mentioning is that the birthday girl seemed to have a crush on Noah. Noah realized this, or was told this, and while talking to her about it called her a "fat, nasty b*tch". I assume that they were close friends and this is just a drunken teen being a drunken teen. An odd thing to mention is that this girl's mother, who also lives in the home, had told Noah's family that she believed Noah wanted her sexually. Whether this is true or not, I have no clue, but it seems a very weird thing to say to the family of a 19 year old your daughter is friends with.
So here's where the mystery comes in. Early Monday morning (September 4th, 2023), after 2:00am, the guests say that Noah was upset about something and that it might have had to do with sleeping in either the birthday girl's or her mother's bed. One of them either heard, or saw, Noah attempting to sleep in their bed and demanded that he go on the floor. This apparently upset Noah so much that he said he needed to go out for a walk, completely drunk, very early in the morning. The guests say Noah was wearing his best friend's shorts (we'll get to his clothes later) and could only find one of his shoes, so he grabbed another shoe lying around the house and took off out the front door. The house had a 1/2 mile long driveway that then went out to US-81, a major North-South highway that runs for 1,200+ miles through the central US. At 3:41am, a friend of Noah's posted a weird Snapchat: a photo of a girl at the party smiling, with the caption "well, Noah's missing". This was the last Snapchat posted by any of the partygoers after days of constant videos and pics. Around 5:00am, a semi-truck driving along US-81 saw something he believed to be a body lying on the shoulder of the road. After driving past, he became concerned and turned around to confirm what he saw. By the time he got back, two other vehicles had stopped in front of the lifeless body of Noah on the shoulder. He was completely naked wearing only 2 mismatched shoes and curled up in a fetal position. He appeared to have blunt force trauma to the back of his head. He had small scrapes on his left shoulder and left hip and his fingertips on both hands were reported as being "shredded", down to the bone. Noah's front top and bottom teeth had also been knocked out and they were found scattered at the scene. There was no blood found at the scene, other than a small amount around Noah's injuries. Very concerning was the fact that there was no writing on his body anywhere. Not on his torso and not on his buttocks. The shorts Noah was wearing were found folded up next him. The people at the party said "They must've been knocked off when he was hit.", which obviously does not make sense.
Around 6:00am, with the police already notified by the people who found Noah, all Snapchat's/social media from people at the party was deleted. His friends and acquaintances at the party say they have no idea what led up to his death and they were unaware of it. The police did not search the house because they said: "Noah wasn't found there.". They did eventually conduct a "mass" interview with all the partygoers. During this interview, Noah's best friend's girlfriend, the one that led to his first confrontation, told police she had never met Noah. She had wiped her phone so completely that even her boyfriend's number had been deleted. When the guests were asked about Noah being naked, the girls said they gave Noah a "shower", but Noah's mental state at the time, whether mildly drunk or completely inebriated, has been an area of dispute among the guests. Some say he was joking around and being himself while being showered, other accounts state that he was barely conscious. Noah's clothing he wore to the party that night has never been located. Police were told that after Noah showered his clothes were dirty, so he wore his friend's shorts. There is a rumor that his best friend's father found Noah's shirt from the party, which was then cut-up and distributed to the party attendees as a "memento". In addition to this event with his shirt, there is also information that his best friend's father had some of Noah's teeth in his pocket. He stated he "accidentally" picked them up from the crime scene. It's worth stating that this particular individual has been on Noah's family's Facebook memorial page for months, arguing with others on there. Just very odd behavior from an adult father who's son's best friend died mysteriously. But, on this same topic, NONE of the partygoers or their families have ever visited Noah's family to express their condolences. Never once.
Since Noah's friends and others at the party said they didn't know what happened, the police had their work cut out for them. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol obtained a "geofence" warrant covering a 1-1/2 mile radius around the party house. What they found was a bit disturbing. Around the time it is believed Noah died, 2 phones were traced as having left the house, heading to the location of his body. After briefly staying there, the two phones returned to the house. People at the party told a private investigator hired by Noah's family that they went out looking for Noah in the UTV/Gator that Noah and his friend had been on earlier. If they had really done this, they would have found him since the phones were at the spot Noah was found. It has not been released who exactly this was. Also revealed when police searched phones was a video of the birthday girl and her sister on their front porch, screaming at each other about Noah leaving the party. It is believed that this could be relevant. The Texas Rangers also became involved, due to the fact that two men at the party were from Texas. It is not known if these men are persons of interest. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol also quietly issued a warrant for a "black pick-up truck" believed to have been used to dump his body, but it is unknown why they are looking for this particular vehicle. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol has unequivocally stated that this was 100% NOT a hit-and-run. They have now also said that this is NOT a murder investigation. The Medical Examiner's report released on Monday, May 13th 2024 stated that Noah died from "Multiple Blunt Force injuries", but list the manner in which this happened as "unknown". His report also detailed extensive injuries to the teen's upper body, including 10 broken ribs, serious skull, neck, and spine fractures, internal bleeding, brain and organ damage, and cuts and grazes all over his body. The autopsy also revealed air in both his cranial cavity and spinal cord, extremely rare conditions only caused by massive head trauma. The family has heard rumors that a golf club from the set in his best friend's truck may have been involved, but nothing else has come of this.
The family has engaged with a private investigator, who did uncover previously unknown information, and gave that to the police. They have also said that there is much more which has not been publicly released and that the search of the phones did uncover good information. Also according to the family, some evidence has been covered-up or lost and that the day after the party, the birthday girl's house and property reeked of bleach. Despite this, his family says good things are going on behind the scenes.
So, with all of the above information, it doesn't seem to be a stretch to say that someone from the party knows something. It is my personal belief that this case will be resolved, but I think three things will have to happen: Time, Pressure and Guilt. At some point in the future, someone from the party will feel guilty, or media pressure will get to them and they will talk. Unfortunately, it may take some time unless the police uncover new evidence sooner. Thank you very much for reading this, but please let me know your thoughts on this case and feel free to ask questions.
Sources:
Podcast (Interview w/ Noah's family): https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/jimny-carpenteepisodes/The-Suspicious-Murder-Of-Noah-Presgrove-Part-1-e2dchac
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13421341/Oklahoma-teen-Noah-Presgrove-beaten-death-gang-doctor-claims.html
https://kfor.com/news/local/m-e-releases-more-details-in-19-year-olds-death/
https://www.foxnews.com/us/oklahoma-teen-military-hopefuls-family-cant-imagine-was-murdered-offers-theory-about-last-hours

Apologies ahead for what might be a bit of a rambly post, but I had a thought about box office that generally and I guess I wanted some feed back on weather or not I'm right or not.
So there's been a lot of analysis in the past few weeks about the merit of theatrically released original mid-budget movies, the kinds of movies that Hollywood "Doesn't make anymore". I want to center this idea around "Challengers" specifically as it's box office has felt like a rorschach test for it's box office, some people say that's it numbers are impressive for what it is, some people are saying that it's doing poorly considering it's nowhere near completing the 2.5x rule of thumb for it's box office considering it's 55 mil budget. Currently the movie is at 69.2 million (nice) and will probably get no where it's needed 137.5 million. Objectively, in many ways it's a flop. However a couple of things

1. It's by far the most successful erotic tennis drama of all time, not sure if there are literally any other movies in that sub-genre but it's still an achievement.
2. And much more importantly, Challengers domestic and international number have been solid and okay for a drama, combined with the fact that it's generated a ton of buzz on social media, this leads to one conclusion; Challengers is going to make a killing on streaming.

Challengers is going to be insanely big on VOD, and rentals, and it's going to get an insane amount of viewership when it comes to Prime Video, it might even be Amazon's biggest movie on there (though I'm not sure how much that would mean, I honestly can't name what movie might actually be Amazon's biggest release)
All of this is to say is that Challengers is probably going to make it's money back or at least break even by the time it's done. Which like, on it's own, who cares ? Plenty of movies make their money back later. Well it got me thinking about that oft quoted Matt Damon quote, when he was on Hot Ones, and was talking about why the types of movies Hollywood makes has changes
"Well what happened was the DVD was a huge part of out business, of our revenue stream, and technology has just made that obsolete. So the movies we used to make, you could afford to not make all of your money when it played in the theatre because you had the DVD coming behind the release and six months later you would get a whole 'nother chunk, it be like opening the movie again almost. And when that went away it changed the type of movies we would make."
Why is this important, because, I would argue that Challengers is the exact type of movie Damon is talking about here. Challengers won't make it money back in theatres, theatrically it's a flop, but it's not a failure because theoretically that can be okay because it will make it money back down the line in Streaming/VOD.
Is this cope, possibly, I haven't seen Challengers, and am not invested in it's particular success but I'd like to see more movies like this succeed so in that way I am. My point in this is simply a desire to see more mid-budget films like Challengers in theatres and that maybe we just might be roping back around to how things were in the 80's and 90's when you sometimes you didn't have to make all of your money in theatres to make your money, and if true Hollywood could look at a movie like Challengers and decided that make more movies like it, not less.
Now I now there are couple of major caveats to my argument one being the smaller pie in general. Challengers is making significantly less, especially when you adjust for inflation, than adult dramas in the 80's and 90's made, AND worse still VOD and streaming probably isn't as profitable as DVD's and VHS's were, some of that is information not disclosed to the public so we don't know for sure, for sure, but we can surmise. So this isn't an everything is actually fine post. Hollywood still has a lot, like A LOT to do if wants to get back to where it was in the past if that's even possible
All I am is suggesting is an alternative way to look at things, and that this way of looking at the state of the box office, could mean that we end up with more unique and interesting theatrical releases and not less.
TL;DR - Hollywood might be going full circle back to the days of DVD's and VHS's with streaming now and this could still lead to more mid-budget theatrical releases like Challengers.
Addendum - A couple of other first though, A) Is VOD different from when Damon was talking about it ? That video was only from 2 years ago, but I believe Damon was talking about the general transition from DVD to Netflix in the early 2000's to 2010's. These were messy transitional years from Hollywood with a massive emphasize on simply subscribing to streaming services. PVOD is faster now as well as streaming hits like Saltburn proving to be MASSIVE for these services though it's impossible to tell just how much money a movie like that generated for Amazon since no one subscribes to a service like that for one movie, I have a feeling that Amazon and Netflix would rather have massive hits like that than not. This leads to my second important point
B) Challengers had to be in theatres to achieve whatever success it might have. While plenty of streaming exclusive movies do well, a lot of the MASSIVE streaming hits tend to be theatrical releases. Challengers couldn't have just gone to VOD or Netflix and been a hit, it's only the combination of a buzzy moderately successful theatrical release and then VOD/ streaming that any of this works. Okay bye now !

Before I begin, I will preface this by saying that I have never been in a REAL committed relationship. I have had several brief\longterm experiences in my first two years of college, but nothing that amounted to anything long term or made me feel any different than my baseline feelings. TLDR, I've never been in mutual love.
Enter my long-term friend, I'll call Iris (19-F). Met in freshman year of high-school, were inseparable, we were there for each other through very hard times emotionally for each other. It developed into us having feelings for each other, but because I was deeply insecure and not ready for a relationship (did not know this at the time, which led to me projecting a lot of unfair emotions onto her, pushing her away) she and I quit talking. I spent the rest of my high-school in deep regret because I had immense feelings for her. They eventually were suppressed by the passing of time. We reconnected briefly throughout HS anytime her long-term boyfriend and her were having issues (he forbade her from interacting with me out of fear she would leave him for me). They broke up senior year, Iris and I reconnected once more. We would talk for hours a day over text, and any chance we saw each other during school we would spend talking. All the feelings I had been suppressing for years as well as all the regret from not saying everything I wanted to as a freshman came rushing back; they overwhelmed me to the point that I was breaking down emotionally to my family members. The only fix for this that I saw was coming clean to her, which I did, over text (boo). I essentially, confessed my love for her without actually saying the word 'love.' She said she felt the same way, but was not ready for anything.
For the sake of keeping things brief, I won't get into every minutiae of detail about how we once more went our separate ways, but by the end of senior year because a multitude of reasons -- including me overwhelming her post-heartbreak\breakup, and some things she did\said to me (a rumor was spread about us that led to her having disdain for me), we graduated HS once again, strangers.
Fast-forward to April 2024, it's the end of both our sophomore year of college. We went to colleges in different states. I was reminiscing on my past, and with the confidence of some friends behind me, I messaged her just asking how she was. She responded, and for the following weeks we would spend hours at night texting. We both came home for college, and we hung out for the first time since HS. Everything came rushing back, we spend 4+ hours sitting and talking. We talked about our self-growth and development into young adulthood, our past and how we were just at different points in our lives romantically, joking about old times, and telling crazy stories of our college experiences. It felt like some anachronistic fever dream, everything I had been wanting to tell her, about what my headspace was like and how I had always felt about her, and her the same, all came out. It was amazing. Later that night, we went to stargaze. Under the stars, listening to music, cuddled under a blanket trying to keep warm, we kissed for the first time. After we left that field, we talked about the future of what we would be, because of our distance and her love language, that we would never be able to do long distance. I told her that it was the beginning of the summer, and that we should focus on now. She agreed. That was less than a week ago. We've hung out almost every day since then, but nothing too physical has happened. Mostly just going to the gym together. (She made it clear the day we kissed that, "this was something that we should do more often") Problem is, she has strict parents, and she is passionate about maintaining their trust. I want to respect that, while also respecting her boundaries, but at the same time, not remaining unfair to myself.
Now onto what I want advice on. No one has ever made me feel this way, it's something that I am unfamiliar with, and it scares me. I spend every waking moment thinking about this girl. She's the only girl I've been able to be my true self with, someone who understands my humor through and through. Every second that I am not with her, I overthink on all the things I said when we were last together. When she doesn't respond, I think that she is ignoring me because I have done something or said (this stems from the past when I've said too much and it effected the illusive 'us') . I hate being so overcritical of myself, it's not fair for me or her. Furthermore, I just want to kiss and hold her in my arms once again, but I don't want to mess things up and say the wrong thing. I don't want to overwhelm her into thinking that I want something long-term, even though I would do anything for her. How do I approach this going forward? Why does she, and only her, make me feel this way?
Additionally, it might be important to note, that a lot of my loved ones and friends don't trust or like her because of the past, but I am a forgiving person in nature, as well as a lot of their reasoning for such is because I fed them a one-sided picture of who she is years back. I might come off as overcritical, overthinking, and-or paranoid, but I can't help myself considering the past. I've started communicating more, because that's what we both value in a relationship, but I don't know if I should table certain conversations. ANY advice is good advice RN, and would help me gain perspective.
TLDR: Recently reconnected with long term friend that was once a romantic interest, she makes me feel things I've never felt before, do not know how to digest or interpret them and need assistance on where to go going forward.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/galehead-development-collaborate-rivian-automotive-171500675.html
BOSTON, May 15, 2024--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Galehead Development, LLC ("Galehead") and Rivian Automotive, LLC ("Rivian") have entered into an agreement to collaborate on the development of renewable energy resources tailored to Rivian’s locational and environmental priorities.
Galehead will develop solar projects with specific consideration for Rivian’s "3C" Framework. The 3C Framework is a progressive procurement standard that commits Rivian to sourcing renewable energy from projects that have a measurable positive impact on Climate, environmental Conservation, and local Communities. The Framework was launched by Rivian in 2023 in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy.
Galehead will leverage LandCommand®, its proprietary market intelligence technology, to convert Rivian’s 3C Framework into development campaigns and new projects, allowing Rivian to influence the earliest "upstream" phase of project development. Galehead will fund and manage projects resulting from the engagement until they’ve matured for off-take agreements.
"The relationship represents Galehead’s ability to tailor renewable energy solutions for enterprise customers," Galehead CEO Matt Marino said. "Rivian is transforming renewable energy procurement with its innovative 3C Framework, and we are thrilled to support its growth as a leading corporate off-taker."
"By partnering with Galehead to develop projects from the ground up, we maximize the full value of each megawatt of renewable energy we add to the grid, while simplifying the path to an off-take agreement," says Erik Nielsen, Senior Manager of Energy Sourcing at Rivian, "This is a model we hope can be widely adopted to enable more projects with the greatest potential for positive system-wide climate, conservation, and community impact."
Galehead is the leading upstream development platform for planning, managing and delivering renewable generation resources and low carbon infrastructure. Galehead is powered by its proprietary LandCommand® software with a proven track record for reducing project development risk, costs and timelines. Since 2016 Galehead has successfully developed and monetized 7 GW of solar PV, wind and co-located storage projects and is actively developing new greenfield projects and LandCommand® applications with its network of downstream partners across the U.S. The company has 65 full-time employees and is headquartered in Boston, MA. More information on Galehead is available at www.galeheaddev.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240515026757/en/

Hello! I have a friend who works for an NGO, who are constantly crying poverty and not paying staff fairly - but the directors and senior staff wont disclose their own pay.
At the same time they are saying things are so bad that the peons must be satisfied with a pay cut this year, after having a pay cut the past three years.
I was wondering if there is any legal way of forcing them to reveal what they are paying themselves - as we are sure the pay cut's will only be for the peons!
Thanks!

I know people say get oversized, how oversized would you say? I’m a men’s M/L in normal fit clothing and S in oversized. I was looking at getting a range of oversized M and normal fit XL.
Also how long were you wearing shirt and zip up hoodies for post op?

I've known I've had sleep apnea since 2010 when I was around 245 pounds. I first tried to get it treated with a mouth guard-type device (I forget the brand name) and I didn't like it. I then got a CPAP in 2018. Everything was working great and I felt a lot better and wasn't drifting off while driving or randomly during the day. Flash forward to March of 2023. I'm 345 pounds and my wife tells me she wants a divorce and is leaving the house in August. From June to October I lose 23 pounds to be 318 pounds without making any lifestyle changes (I'm guessing it's because she wasn't cooking for me anymore lol). This convinces me that it is possible to lose weight and I start taking my weight loss seriously from then on. On November 30th (when I was around 295 pounds), I remember waking up and feeling like I had a really dry mouth with my CPAP, which was odd because that's never happened before. Then, I would wake up an hour before my alarm was set for and even though I wanted to go back to sleep I couldn't (so I was getting 6-7 hours of sleep each night and some nights I would only get 3-4 hours of sleep). I also felt like my CPAP wasn't giving me enough air when I woke up. I also noticed that I couldn't get to sleep WITHOUT a CPAP anymore when before I lost weight I could. In addition, I also feel a sort of "flutter" in m chest area (which I think might actually be my throat but I'm not sure) that feels almost like I'm having an apnea (I've gotten this checked and my doctors say everything with my heart looks OK; even had a cardiac echo just to make sure). Also, I now need to take a melatonin in order to fall asleep. I was thinking my machine may have been malfunctioning so I was eligible for a new machine. I got a new CPAP (Resmed AirSense 10 Auto-the same one I was using before just a slightly different model) and it made no difference. In December and January, I felt more tired and I think my AHI was around 10. I'm not sure because I didn't really pay attention to it but I did get a mask fitting to try and relieve the issues from my supplier (I decided not to make any changes, though) In February and March, my AHI stabilized to a really good normal rate (average of around 3 AHI) and I contacted my doctor about the other sleeping issues and he said the CPAP was working great. I was just concerned because I was still waking up after 5-6 hours and not able to go back to sleep all the time (sometimes I was able to for an hour or two, which was good). In April, that's when things started to get messy again and is where my concern lies. Keep in mind that during this time I've been losing weight (around 10 pounds a month). I'm currently at around 238 pounds, which means I've lost over 100 pounds in less than a year (in June 2023 I was 341 pounds)! (I'm 5 foot 5 male by the way so I have a ways to go to get to a "healthy" weight).
In April, I noticed that in order to get a good fit, my mask had to be on pretty tight. So I scheduled another mask fitting with my supplier. They basically said to go with a mediumheadgear and mask. Which I tried but my AHI went way up with those. So I went back to the large mask and headgear. The next week, I was having higher than usual AHI (it was around 8-12 each night but then it got up to 20 at one point) and I was pretty tired. This made me appreciate the fact that I was getting good quality sleep, even if it was for 5-6 hours. My doctor then lowered my pressure from 12 to 8 which seemed to help a little (I can't change the pressure myself). However, now my problem is that sometimes I can't fall asleep because I'm jolted awake by apneas and my AHI is around a 10-13 sometimes. Once I can get a good fit with my mask, I can get to sleep and my AHI lowers to a normal range (from 3-5, sometimes lower if I'm lucky). Then, when I wake up after 5-6 hours and want to go back to sleep, I have trouble doing falling back to sleep because I get jolted awake by apneas. My AHI slowly rises the longer I try to go back to sleep and will go up (for example, today my AHI was 4.4 but I wanted to go back to sleep and in an hour it raised to 8.0-sometimes it's more and sometimes it's slightly less) but I feel like the AHI should be a lot more and it's not calculating it correctly. The frustrating part about all this is that I've contacted my doctor and he says that no adjustments are needed because my average is low enough from the 5 hours of good sleep (I even explained what was happening, too). I also feel like it might be beneficial to get another sleep study but if I keep losing weight (which I plan on doing) it might change anyway. I still have a slightly dry mouth from time to time but that has improved. The "flutter" still is going on and I'm not sure if that's related to CPAP. I'm not sure what to do. I almost regret losing the weight because now I have so much trouble sleeping but that's also my motivation to keep on losing more so I can fix it. Does anybody have any suggestions on what I should do?

One of the fascinating aspects of outsider reports and analysis is what they see. Given that at this point (1992) the internet was not yet widely available/accessible, this sort of thing would have been difficult to find. And of course SGI wasn't ever going to tell us the truth!
This will show you that SGI-USA (then called "NSA") was failing in recruiting far earlier than perhaps most of us in the US realized. SGI in the USA was basically a flash in the pan; it fizzled fast; and now it's just that rank stale smoke smell that lingers long after the fire's been put out.
This comes from Cults and Nonconventional Religious Groups: A Collection of Outstanding Dissertations and Monographs, "Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism and the Soka Gakkai in America: The Ethos of a New Religious Movement", Jane Hurst, 1992, pp. 150-151. Jane Hurst has some interesting research out there; while she tends toward being uncritically supportive of SGI, anyone who is making statistics available is a big help.

NSA members in the 1960s and 1970s were young (52% below age 30), more than half female (59%), and from a variety of occupations and social classes.

The Baby Boom generation were at most age 19 in, say, 1965 and at most age 24 in 1970.
This youthfulness is largely reflected in the early organization's origins in the American servicemen who returned from being stationed in Japan with their Japanese war-brides - those servicemen tended to be young and from a variety of ethnicities and backgrounds, as the draft was still in effect during that time period (ended March 1975). In addition, the first General Director of the US organization, Masayasu Sadanaga, initially targeted college campuses for recruitment by offering lectures on Buddhism. Sadanaga changed his name to George M. Williams in 1972, in obedience to the (short-lived) direction back then of Japanese leaders adopting American-sounding names (first AND last) in order to appeal more broadly to non-Japanese Americans.

The percentage of Oriental members steadily decreased as more and more white and black Americans joined NSA as seen in Figure 10, above.

Figure 10 (I'll get to that line in another post.)
Most of the original "Oriental members" were those Japanese war-brides, whose first efforts to recruit new SGI members were directed toward other Japanese individuals.

NSA members came from the major religious traditions of Protestantism (30%), Catholicism (30%), and Judaism (6%). At the time these 1971 statistics were compiled, all areas of American society. By 1983, the age span was even more broad, with 11% of the members age 50 and above, 62% ages 30-49, 24% ages 20-29, and 3% below age 19.

For reference, here are the age ranges for the existing generations in 1983:

• Greatest: Ages 59-82
• Silent: Ages 38-58
• Baby Boomers: Ages 19-37
• Generation X: Ages 4-18
• Generation Y (Millennials): Age 3 or younger.

While these 1983 statistics aren't broken down by generation, here's what is clear:

• 11% of the SGI-USA membership was MUCH OLDER than Baby Boomers
• 62% was either Baby Boom generation or older (though younger than that oldest group)
• 24% was Baby Boomers
• 3% was younger than Baby Boomers.

This means that 97% of the membership of SGI-USA was Baby Boom generation OR OLDER!

IN 1983!!

Notice how this affirms the demographic estimate from this other research: "Soka Gakkai in America": Little appeal/interest outside of Baby Boom generation

Take a look at Table 4.
Specifically, the Age cohort (%) category.
For the Converts, 26% are older than Baby Boomers; 61% are Baby Boomers. That makes 87% Boomer and older. Only 14% are younger than Boomers.
No wonder SGI-USA is aging and dying, with these kinds of numbers!
We are seeing, like, 90% Baby Boomers in the group photos we've looked at.
The pictures back this up.
Also, this comment by an SGI-USA leader a few years ago during Minoru Harada's visit (anyone know what year that was?):

They [top SGI-USA leaders] then went off on how when we create these big-ass meetings, we shouldn't have to look into the crowd and see, and I quote, "A bunch of old-ass motherfuckers" The words of my "superiors", not mine. I think this is when they brought up the idea of 50K to my co-leaders and me. Source

"Old-ass motherfuckers" is all they have. How 'bout showing a little of that appreciation and gratitude SGI bangs on about??
Worse, "old-ass motherfuckers" is all SGI-USA can get.
Further, again referring to Table 4, SGI-USA's membership is solidly 2/3 women. That means it's going to be very difficult for women in SGI-USA to find mates to marry, which means childlessness will be more of a norm than an exception. Child-free is a valid and respect-worthy decision, don't get me wrong, but a religion's most reliable source of younger members is its own membership's children. Since SGI-USA's female members don't feel any responsibility or obligation to bear multiple children (like those poor, stupid Mormon sheepwomen do), there won't be any next generation to take over.
There's a reason so many religions have traditionally exhorted their membership to have lots of babies, why they condemn birth control and abortion. A big part of it is to keep their own numbers up! Source

It's the same problem happening in Japan within the Soka Gakkai:

On the other hand, aging is relentless. In terms of the Soka Gakkai's membership demographics, the "volume zone" where most members fall is the baby boomer generation who joined by the 1960s. They are now late elderly. In the past, the management of centers in various places was handled by the "Gajokai" consisting of Young Men's Division members, but it is no longer possible to secure personnel. Instead, in 2009, the Soka Gakkai launched the "Ojokai'' consisting of "middle-aged divisions,'' scolding them as "young people in their 50s'' and rushing to mobilize them. Source

GOOD LUCK!

For perspective, note that SGI-USA was managing to recruit just "1,000 per YEAR" - including all ages - between 1991 and 1999. Eight years of only 1,000 members added per year, with no accounting for the deaths or defections. Were the years after that more successful, recruiting-wise? I doubt it.

[Then-SGI-USA's public-relations director for the East Coast Bill] Aiken says SGI-USA has attracted about 1000 new members per year for the past eight years. - from 1999. Only 1,000 new members - across the ENTIRE 360+ million-person strong USA - in an ENTIRE year. And this extremely low level of success for EIGHT YEARS IN A ROW!! Source

From 2018:

In recent years, the number of young Soka Gakkai members has been decreasing rapidly . Looking at the participants in the simultaneous broadcasts and roundtable discussions, the majority are of the grandparents' generation, with only a small number of young people in their 20s and 30s, and the number of teenage boys and girls is almost an endangered species .
Therefore, what I am interested in is the population of Soka Gakkai by age group. This time, I would like to estimate the current population of Soka Gakkai by age , based on information I have personally seen and heard and verification from others . Please note that this estimate is very rough.
First, the largest number of Soka Gakkai members are baby boomers (born between 1947 and 1949 [Japan's Baby Boom]). This seems almost certain considering the history of the development of Soka Gakkai .
Also, the total number of members has already been verified by many people, and is estimated to be around 3 to 5 million people. This time we assume about 4 million people .
And this is what I heard directly from a staff member at headquarters last year, who said , `` The number of activists decreases by about 1/3 with each generation.'' I think this is a reasonable rate of decline that can be felt by looking at participants in simultaneous broadcasts and roundtable discussions. It seems that members who have stopped being activists are less likely to have their children join, so this time we will use a value of 1/3 per generation as the member decline rate .
Also, regarding the number of years it takes for generational change, the average age for men and women to give birth to their first child is currently 30 years old. Considering that the average age of childbearing for both men and women when the baby boomer generation was born was 24 years old, and that there are cases where not only the first child but also the second and third children are born, the generational shift will take 30 years. Let's calculate it as if it would take a year . In that case, the annual membership attrition rate would be (1/3)^1/30 = 0.964, or 3.6% .
It is unclear when this trend of declining membership started, but this time we will assume that it started in the year following the baby boom generation (1950). Source

And "Soka Gakkai is like an old people's club":

Regarding the problem of a decline in Komeito votes, or in other words, a decline in active Soka Gakkai members, many people concerned point out that the primary cause is the aging of Soka Gakkai members. The enthusiastic members of the generation who supported the growth of the society along with charismatic Honorary President Daisaku Ikeda are now elderly across the board. Most of the current new members are second- or third-generation members who join because their parents are members of Soka Gakkai, and they are not very enthusiastic about Soka Gakkai's activities. Today, many of Soka Gakkai's daily events are even derided by insiders as "like an old people's party."

And a more recent report (this year):

Back about 20 years ago a good friend and good guy, now deceased, from ChiTown, was commissioned by SGI Central Command to survey every contactable member of SGI in every district in America. The number he came up with was 5% of the number of Gohonzon passed out since, I guess whenever Gohonzon started to be passed out. The total number was about a million give or take, 20 years ago. These were contactable people, not practicing members. I remember going through lists of people we had on the books and trying to see if they could be reached. So the number we came up with was reported. Hearing nothing about it, I happened to run into my friend at some event at Soka U. He mentioned that he did the survey, and gave me the results. I believe he told me the facts. (Not everyone who practiced was a lying asshole.) So about 20 years ago SGI had about 50,000 “contactable“ people who had received Gohonzon. My estimate that about half of that number had zero interest in SGI. Thus 20 years ago, SGI had about 25,000 members still interested in SGI in some capacity. I think it’s the same number today. (2500 districts x 10=25,000.) Like I said before I went to FNCC twice last year, and everyone, including me, were old zany seniors. Neither conference was for old people. Conclusion: SGI is a senior citizen support group. When I joined in1969, we were all hippie ish, rejecting all the old shit, looking for something new and hip. Now SGI looks like old shit. Source

And another (this year or last):

When I joined 50+ years ago the ratio of youth to MD and WD was about 80:20. Now it's the reverse. Our goal is to move steadily back to a youth focus again. Source

Except it's obvious that SGI-USA doesn't HAVE "20% youth":

Youth? They've got to be fooling themselves!!! When I was still with the SGI last February (2023), I went to the kosen-rufu gongyo meeting at the center in my area. Mind you, the state I live in closed its center in 2021 for undisclosed reasons. That aside, the one I went to was in another state, and at that meeting, they had no byakuren, Gajokai, or Soka Group in attendance. Additionally, the only youth at the meeting were a few small children. Source
I feel that SGI is out of touch with anyone who’s younger than 60. The leaders are retired, have a lot of time on their hands and completely disregard the fact that people may work or have families. For young people it’s the old people taking nonsense. Source

The PROBLEM was already evident in 1983 - and none of the SGI-USA's big "Recruit-Youth-A-Thons", like "Victory over Violence" and "Rock The Ego Era" and "50K Liars of Just-Us" (everybody wants to forget the epic fail that was the "Gandhi, King, Ikeda" exhibit), has made the slightest difference in this demographic disaster. In fact, preparing for the 2018 "50K" event, SGI-USA likely had only 2,451 members in the 12-35 (or perhaps 11-39) age group, just 9% of the most generous SGI-USA active membership total (~30,000).

Ikeda could have preserved a "youthful" Soka Gakkai by passing the Presidency to a younger candidate, but Ikeda refused, because Ikeda was too focused on and obsessed with HIMSELF - his power, his prestige, his wealth, his status, his fame, his renown, HIM becoming leader of the world, his PERMANENCY, and his legacy. He refused to let anyone else come anywhere CLOSE to the power and control - he greedily, selfishly clutched it all tightly to himself and refused to share.
THAT is why the Ikeda cult Soka Gakkai/SGI is aging and dying. It's ALL Ikeda's fault, Ikeda's responsibility. IKEDA DID THAT.
Some "mentor". Source

SGI-USA has never managed to recover from that demographic bottleneck that happened no later than 1983.

Serious question, been out of the fursuit-buying scene for a while. In 2010 my first suit came together with bits and pieces and cost like $400. I sold a used partial in 2014 for $300. My second partial in 2015 was like $600. I’d say they were all middle quality with some parts being made by popular makers. The same thing today, just ten years later would cost $1000 or more. I know prices increased for everything all over the world, but why in particular did fursuit prices double and triple?

I’m a diehard fan of J Cole since like 2010 , and since then I’ve been pretty sure that Cole was destined for greatness. Seeing his rise to the top was super satisfying for me, someone who’s spoken in his defense for a long time against those people who called his music boring, and sleepy.
Either way I don’t care what people think, his music has helped me through some tough times and he’ll forever have a place in my heart for that. After Cole’s FPS feature and even after listening to the ‘Scary Hours 3’ tape , they were clearly working together a lot. They were even on tour together (I think ? I’m not sure) But after these allegations against Drake, what does that say about the people who’ve worked with Drake. Did they know and turn a blind eye? J Cole seemed like he was in close quarters with Drake for a while , maybe they were in the studio together while recording FPS and ‘Evil Ways’ . They even recorded a video together.
But J Cole strikes me as someone who’s friends for everyone and just in it for the art and the craft… idk if it’s reasonable to say he’s complicit in all the stuff Drake is doing behind closed doors, especially if it involves Lucien Grange and the higher ups in Universal Music Group. But idk, what do yall think about this ?
TLDR : Kendrick alleges Drake is a pdf file and everything , but as someone who’s worked closely with Drake for a while , did J Cole know ? I’m a huge fan and am not on a mission to defame Cole but I just couldn’t help but wonder this

This past weekend was a lazy weekend due to mothers day. We for the most part stayed at home (wife, daughter, and I) When I'm at home I wear for the most part graphic T shirts and when I'm out in public I prefer different clothing. Most of my graphic T's are video game related with some DBZ, religion, and political ones splashed in. On Saturday I was wearing my funny religious shirt. It a that has a sayings for different religions with shit happens mixed in.
For instance:
Catholicism - Shit happens because you're bad
TV Evangelism - Send more shit
Jehova's Witness - Knock Knock, shit happens
Rastafarianism - Lets smoke this shit
My wife's sister and family showed up unannounced. Just like normal I was happy to see them and let them in the house. I had gone to use the bathroom and before I got out of the room my wife asked me to change my shirt. I asked why and she said my shirt is making her sister and husband uncomfortable because of the funny quotes for the different religions. I told my wife that is their problem not mine and I wont be changing my shirt, I'm in my home and they can deal with it. I don't tell them what to wear in their home and if it was something I didn't like I would just be a grownup and deal with it. After company leaves my wife gets mad at me and said I should have just changed my shirt to be nice.

I had a boyfriend like 5 years ago in 9th grade but he was an older senior because he had failed to graduate I still talk to him even though I never loved him we ended relatively well. I agreed to have a date with him (knowing he was a bit pushy and sexual)
he stole me a kiss and I felt really guilty I didn’t know what to do and I kept seeing him to not have him say bad things about me we lived in small town in the country side when even something like specially from someone like him that already has a reputation could mean a big thing so I stayed with him hoping to change his mind and having him fell in love or realize that I’m not easy during the relation he suddenly started bombarding me with gifts but every time we would see each other he would judge something like “if your boob were bigger, if your ass was bigger, if you were fatter, if you exercised more, if you knew how to make your eye browns, etc” which I mean is true I get what he meant but it always made me mad. He would be at least to my standards at the time overly sexual he would touch me a lot and tongue kisses in front of people but I didn’t know if that was normal for a relationship or if it was being overly pushy at the time I was extremely shy so I never said anything and I also had the idea that to look better to society I guess I had to date guy for at least a year no matter what .well later later I moved out and till this day he keeps saying he is waiting for me and that he loved me more than he is loved anyone etc. so I just exploded and told him that he can’t love me because I never loved him now I feel bad like all those gifs don’t mean I love him but if he did was I a bitch for saying it like that? Should apologize ?is there anything to do?

I have a very senior cat (18 yr old) who has dementia. We have had him checked out and nothing is wrong except for a little inflammation, so we have been able to rule out a lot of things. In the last 3 months we have started giving him anxiety meds. The first one caused a seizure (at least I think so as it was the first he ever had and he hasn't had one since). Now he is on gabapentin for anxiety which helps but basically just means he is out of it all the time.
But here is my question. I am finding it hard to tell when he is having a "bad day" or how much discomfort he has. He obviously is anxious. He has been pacing around and meowing loudly at me this morning (not unusual). When I just came home he was sitting in the doorway to the bathroom which is odd for him and makes me think he was lost. And now, I am having trouble even writing this because he is trying to climb on me. When I push him away he just walks around the coffee table and comes back. He has done this 5 times now. I basically have to be mean to him for him to stop which I hate but I can't have a cat on my 24/7 either.
He does eat and drink, but I really can't tell about his quality of life. I would really appreciate any insight from others who have dealt with a cat with dementia.
We are planning to be away for about 3 weeks this summer and normally I would have a cat sitter but I feel bad and worry that he will just be very distressed. I guess all of this is to say, when do you put a cat down for dementia? What is a "bad day"? How far do you let it go?

Hey guys, I am working in TCS and I have resigned, but I think my manager did not told this to anyone, I have joined this project few month ago and all my colleagues thinks that they doing my work because I made some escalation last week, since then manager assigning me less work but they did not know about my resignation. My colleague keep assigning me their task, if I did not complete they complaining about this to senior manager, so I can't say no to this one. I don't mind working, but I am taking more time to complete things as I need time for personal things. Did manager tell anyone in team, that I am on notice period? Also how should I respond to colleague who are rude, every task they talk vauguely so I would make mistake.

A couple of projection clicks kick off the next trailer before the footage is shown. as shots of a college campus appear, while kids are walking around,a narration opens with "This is story of five young women, A rocker, (showing footage of her and a band performing karaoke on stage at a rec center) an athlete (showing footage of her running hurdles on a track), a cheerleader (rooting for her team and her boyfriend during a football game), an outcast (basically a goth kid), and an academic (showing footage of her study for a book report on the novel "the most dangerous game"). "They were college students, sorority sisters, and the best of friends since childhood (which shows footage of them as kids,teenagers, then the adults they became later in life) until the night their perfect worlds were shattered beyond repair". "What started as an innocent practical joke drew the ire of a dangerous gang who followed them home (while the narration is going on they slashed the tires and disabled the motor to the gangs car in retaliation/defense of an uncle and two four year old children who were being bullied by the gang, then it's cuts to the gang breaking in to the sorority house and while try as they may,the girls are no match for the gang) and savagely beat and kill their housemother" ( one gang members holds the other residents at gunpoint in a corner of the house, five others pin the five girls down to the floor and make them watch whole the gang leader (who has a scar in the shape of a hook from his eyebrow to his ear ) and his second in command beat the housemother almost to death) you see and hear the girls crying and pleading not to kill her and offer to fix the car in exchange for her life but to no avail, the housemother tries to comfort the girls, knowing that she's about to die "there,there now. Everything's going to be ok, you girls be good you hear me?" Then hook-scar blows her face off with a shotgun and blood and brains splatter all over the girls while they're bawling their eyes out as he coldly says ".....and to all a goodnight " one gang member wants to waste the other girls but hook-scar grabs his shirts and forcefully reminds him "WE'RE DONE HERE!!!!, no lets get outta here before campus police show up". The next morning the girls are interviewed by police, but they don't tell them what caused the attack, after the housemother's funeral the girls are confronted by one of their fellow sisters and gives them a key that one of the gang members left behind. "What's this? ", "I don't know ", "Looks to me like a storage key, there's a storage area downtown let's go take a look later tonight". Later in the night the match the key with a storage unit, and they open it up to find all kinds of firearms (shotguns, M-16's, 9mm's, you name it) "What does this mean?" "Isn't it obvious?, if the police can't do anything we'll do it ourselves, we have all the weapons we'll ever need to defend ourselves, but where to start?" "Hey,do you guys remember Mr. Gomez's class reports on the most dangerous game?" Next few shots would be the five girls loading ammo mags, strap on ammunition belts and loading their new found guns "NOW..,these five young women are on safari, hunting their quarry in the most dangerous environment know to man.............the criminal underworld", on this night they would be known as,THE MAN-HUNTERS!!!" and it would be a bloody and violent montage of them killing pimps,drug-dealers, etc. setting traps,lures and snares for perverts, child molesters, and rapists and when word got around that the girls were using weapons from their own storage unit,hook-scar beats the gang member who dropped the key to death and declares they were going on a hunt of their own, second to final shot shows and a kidnapped athlete held prisoner by hook-scar who starts cutting off her fingers one by one (because he "doesn't like sticky fingers touching his property") followed by her bloodcurdling scream of pain while blood splashes in her face, final shot shows the four girls breaking in to rescue the athlete and killing the remaining gang members while hook scar takes a shot to the side and a deep laceration to the side of his neck. While he's crawling towards the exit the four girls patch up the athlete's hand (who's missing a thumb and half a pinky finger) and walk straight towards him with gun barrels pointed at him, and while spitting blood in his face the athlete mocking taunts hook-scar with his own phrase ".......and to all a goodnight". And while he gives the girls his own bloodcurdling scream of defiance, flashes of light from the gunshots and smoke fill the theater screen and freeze frame with the narration returning, "The Man-Hunters,.......pray you're not on their endangered species list"
A 70's title card appears "COMING SOON"
The grindhouse theme returns while another title card appears, "OUR FEATURE PRESENTATION"

I saw the other post on here and wanted to share my experience.
I took my truck (2010 Tacoma) in around April 8th or so for a grinding noise that was occurring when coming to a stop. Firestone took a look at said "oh it's the head gaskets and your steering column. All repairs and labor costs will come to around $2,650" so I okayed it. Come pickup day a few days later, they said they did the repairs but when they test drove it, THAT was when they realized the noise was coming from my drive shaft bearing. So I paid for everything for them NOT to fix the issue. I went back and complained saying they fixed everything EXCEPT the one thing I brought it in for. They apologized and said usually they don't do drive shaft repairs, but because this was their mistake, they'd fix it for free. I allowed it to see if they could make it right. Got my truck back later that day and everything was fine.
A month later, May 2nd, I noticed a choppy noise coming, once again, from my drive shaft but this time when accelerating from a stop. I immediately took it back in and asked they check if the bearing they replaced was still good because I know faulty parts happen. They checked out my truck and said the drive shaft wasn't the issue and what I was hearing was most likely my motor mount and that I needed another $2,100 worth of work done. I thought it was a bit sketchy so I took my truck to my parents' house so they can take it to their mechanic. I drove all the way across a major city (roughly an hour drive) and dropped off my truck, traded vehicles with my parents, and went on my way. I got newd that it was NOT my motor mount and my parents were taking my truck to a transmission shop. Got a call a couple days later from my parents saying they were just with the mechanic and he showed them my drive shaft was MOVING UP AND DOWN ABOUT FOUR INCHES INSIDE THE BEARING.
Firestone allowed me to drive with a potentially fatal drive shaft issue. I called corporate (May 10th, the day I got the info about the drive shaft) and filed a claim. Just got a call today (May 15th) and was told because I got the truck repaired, they couldn't do an investigation and were unable to follow through with my claim.
Fuck Firestone.