Second occ lawsuite
George Washington University faces $10mn disinformation lawsuit – "A leading American university was sued Wednesday over a disinformation campaign allegedly financed by the United Arab Emirates, accused of seeding false narratives that linked academics to a radical group in the Middle East"
2024.05.29 05:06 PopCultureNerd George Washington University faces $10mn disinformation lawsuit – "A leading American university was sued Wednesday over a disinformation campaign allegedly financed by the United Arab Emirates, accused of seeding false narratives that linked academics to a radical group in the Middle East"
Farid Hafez, an Austrian political scientist, filed the $10 million lawsuit against George Washington University and Lorenzo Vidino, the director of its program on extremism.
It's the second such case in US courts this year that sheds light on what researchers call a lucrative "disinformation for hire" industry that peddles false information and influence operations on behalf of paying clients.
Foreign governments have long been accused of buying influence with large donations to US universities and think tanks. But Hafez's lawsuit takes it further, accusing a premier higher education institution of involvement in damaging reputations on behalf of a sovereign state.
The suit, which was filed in District Court in Washington, alleges that "GWU and Vidino engaged in a well cloaked conspiracy to defraud authorities, academia and the fourth estate," a term used to refer to the press, while "holding themselves out as independent and objective academic actors."
It also names as a defendant Alp Services, a Geneva-based private intelligence firm said to be on the UAE's payroll, accusing it of shadowy activities such as paying journalists and academics including Vidino to smear the Gulf state's enemies.
Vidino is accused of using his influential position at the university to target academics such as Hafez, businesses and charities by publishing false reports that linked them to the Muslim Brotherhood, designated as a terrorist organization by the UAE.
"Vidino was a hired gun selling and repackaging unverified rumor and gossip with the veneer of academic objectivity and scholarship, and with a mind toward ruining individuals and institutions," the suit said.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240327-george-washington-university-faces-10mn-disinformation-lawsuit
submitted by PopCultureNerd to BreakingPoints [link] [comments]
It's the second such case in US courts this year that sheds light on what researchers call a lucrative "disinformation for hire" industry that peddles false information and influence operations on behalf of paying clients.
Foreign governments have long been accused of buying influence with large donations to US universities and think tanks. But Hafez's lawsuit takes it further, accusing a premier higher education institution of involvement in damaging reputations on behalf of a sovereign state.
The suit, which was filed in District Court in Washington, alleges that "GWU and Vidino engaged in a well cloaked conspiracy to defraud authorities, academia and the fourth estate," a term used to refer to the press, while "holding themselves out as independent and objective academic actors."
It also names as a defendant Alp Services, a Geneva-based private intelligence firm said to be on the UAE's payroll, accusing it of shadowy activities such as paying journalists and academics including Vidino to smear the Gulf state's enemies.
Vidino is accused of using his influential position at the university to target academics such as Hafez, businesses and charities by publishing false reports that linked them to the Muslim Brotherhood, designated as a terrorist organization by the UAE.
"Vidino was a hired gun selling and repackaging unverified rumor and gossip with the veneer of academic objectivity and scholarship, and with a mind toward ruining individuals and institutions," the suit said.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240327-george-washington-university-faces-10mn-disinformation-lawsuit
2024.05.29 03:14 redlight886 February 1998 PLAYBOY Interview with Conan O'Brien [additional content]
PLAYBOY Interview With Conan O'Brien Interview by Kevin Cook For Playboy Magazine February 1998
A candid conversation with the preppie prince of "Late Night" about his rocky start, his show's secret one-day cancellation and how David Letterman saved the day.
He was polite. He was funny. He gave us a communicable disease.
At 34 Conan O'Brien is hotter than the fever he was running when we met in his private domain above the "Late Night" sound stage. A gangly freckle-faced ex-high school geek he is "one of TV's hottest properties" according to "People" magazine. The host of "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" has become his generation's king of comedy.
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. Congested too, but O'Brien has far more to worry about than his head cold. A perfectionist who broods over one bad minute in an otherwise perfect hour of TV, he worries he might be anhedonic, "I have trouble with success," he says, "I was raised to believe that if something good happens something bad is coming." Sure things look good now "Rolling Stone" calls "Late Night" "the hottest comedy show on TV." Ratings are better than ever, particularly among 18- to 34-year-olds, the viewers advertisers crave.
But O'Brien only works harder. Despite his illness he taped two shows in 26 hours on three hours' sleep. He smoothly interviewed Elton John then burst into coughing fits during commercials. Later in his crammed corner office overlooking Manhattan traffic Conan the Cool gulped Dayquil gel caps. He coughed spewing microbes.
"Sorry, sorry," he said. Of course O'Brien can't complain. He came seriously close to falling to being banished behind the scenes as just another failed talk show host.
At his first "Late Night" press conference he corrected a reporter who called him a relative unknown, "Sir I am a complete unknown," he said. That line got a laugh, but soon O'Brien looked doomed. His September 13, 1993 debut began with O'Brien in his dressing room preparing to hang himself only to be interrupted by the start of his show. Before long his career was hanging by a thread. Ratings were terrible. Critics hated the show. Tom Shales of "The Washington Post" called it as "lifeless and messy as roadkill." Shales said O'Brien should quit.
Network officials held urgent meetings discussing the Conan O'Brien debacle. Should they fire him? How should they explain their mistake?
In the end of course he turned it around. The network hung with him long enough for the ratings to improve and the host of the cooler-than-ever "Late Night" now defines comedy's cutting edge just as Letterman did ten years ago.
Even Shales loves "Late Night" these days. He calls O'Brien's turnaround "one of the most amazing transformations in television history."
O'Brien was born on April 18, 1963 in Brookline, Massachusetts. His father, a doctor, is a professor at Harvard Medical School. His mother, a lawyer, is a partner at an elite Boston Law firm. Conan, the third of six children became a lector at church and a misfit at school. Tall and goofy, bedeviled with acne, he tried to impress girls with jokes. That plan usually bombed, but O'Brien eventually found his niche at Harvard where he won the presidency of the "Harvard Lampoon" in 1983 and again in 1984 - the first two-time "Lampoon" president since humorist Robert Benchley held the honor 85 years ago.
After graduating magna cum laude with a double major in literature and American history he turned pro. Writing for HBO's "Not Necessarily The News." O'Brien was earning $100,000 a year before his 24th birthday. But writing was never enough.
He honed his performance skills with the Groundlings, a Los Angeles improv group. There he worked with his onetime girlfriend Lisa Kudrow, now starring on "Friends." But Conan was not such a standout. In 1988 he landed a job at "Saturday Night Live" - but as a writer, not as on-air talent. In almost four years on the show O'Brien made only fleeting appearances, usually as a crowd member or security guard. His writing was more memorable. He wrote (or co-wrote) Tom hanks' "Mr Short-Term Memory" skits as well as the "pump you up" infosatire of Hanz and Franz and the nude beach sketch in which Matthew Broderick and "SNL" members played nudists admiring one another's penises. With dozens of mentions of the word that hit was the most penis-heavy moment in TV history. It helped O'Brien win an Emmy for comedy writing.
In 1991 he quit "SNL" and moved on to "The Simpsons" where he worked for two years. His urge to perform came out in wall-bouncing antics in writers' meetings. "Conan makes you fall out of your chair" said "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening. O'Brien's yen to act out was so strong that he spurned Fox's reported seven-figure offer to continue as a writer. He was driving for the spotlight.
By then David Letterman had announced he was turning shin - leaving NBC taking his ton-rated act to CBS. Suddenly NBC was up a creek without a host. The network turned to Lorne Michaels, O'Brien's "Saturday Night Live" boss. Michaels enlisted Conan's help in the host search planning to use him in a behind-the-scenes job. But when Garry Shandling, Dana Carvey and almost every other star turned down the chore of following Letterman, Michaels finally listened to Conan's crazy suggestion, "Let me do it!" Michaels persuaded the network to entrust it's 12:30 slot which Letterman had turned into a gold mine to an untested wiseass from Harvard.
O'Brien was working on one of his last "Simpsons" episodes when he got the news. He turned "paler than usual," Groening recalled. The Conan moseyed back to where the other writers were working, "I'll come back with the Homer Simspon joke later. I have to go replace Letterman," he said.
NBC executives now get credit for their foresight during those dark days of 1993 and 1994. They snared the axe and now reap the multimillion-dollar spoils of that decision. In fact, the story is not so simple. We sent Contributing Editor Kevin Cook to unravel the tale of O'Brien's survival, which he tells here for the first time. Cook reports:
"His office is chock-full of significa. There's a three-foot plastic pickle the Letterman staff left behind in 1993 - perhaps to suggest what a predicament he was in. There's a copy of Jack Paar's 'I Kid You Not' and a coffee-table book called 'Saturday Night Live: The First 20 Years.' His bulletin board features letters from fans such as John Watters and Bob Dole and an 8" x 10" glossy of Andy Richter with the inscription: "To Conan - Your bitter jealousy warms my black heart. Love and Kisses Andy."
"Of course it's all for show. From the photos of kitch icons Adam West and Robert Stack to the framed Stan Laurel autograph, from the deathbed painting of Abraham Lincoln, to the ironic star taped to Conan's door - they're all clever signals that tell a visitor how to view the star. Lincoln was his collegiate preoccupation: stardom is his occupation. Somewhere between the two I hoped to find the real O'Brien.
"As a Playboy reader he wanted to give me a better-than-average interview. I wanted something more - a definitive look at the guy who may end up being the Johnny Carson of his generation."
"Here's hoping we succeeded. If not I carried his germs 3000 miles and infected dozens of Californians for no good reason.
O'Brien: Yes, this is how to do a Playboy Interview -- completely tanked on cold medicine. I'll pick it up and read, "Yes, I'm gay."
Playboy: We could talk another time. O'Brien: (coughing) No, it's OK. I memorized Dennis Rodman's answers. Can I use them?
Playboy: You sound really sick. Do you ever take a day off? O'Brien: No. The age of talk show hosts taking days off is over. Johnny Carson could go to Africa when he was the only game in town -- "See you in two weeks!" But nobody does that now. I will give you a million dollars on the first day Jay takes off for illness.
Playboy: Do you ever slow down and enjoy your success? O'Brien: If anything, the pace is picking up. Restaurateurs insist on giving me a table even if I'm only passing by, so I'm eating nine meals a night. Women stop me on the street and hand me their phone numbers.
Playboy: So you have groupies? O'Brien: Oh yes. And other fans. Drifters. Prisoners. Insomniacs. Cab Drivers, who must watch a lot of late night TV, seem to love me lately. They keep saying, "You will not pay, you will not pay, you make me happy!"
Playboy: How happy did your new contract make you? O'Brien: Terrified. The network said, "We're all set for five years." I said, "Shut up, shut up! I can't think that far ahead." Tonight, for instance, I do my jokes, then interview Elton John and Tim Meadows. We finished taping about 6:30. By 6:45 my memory was erased and my only thought was, Tomorrow: John Tesh. And I started to obsess about John Tesh. Sad, don't you think?
Playboy: Not too sad. You got off to a rocky start but now you're so hot that People magazine recently said, "that was then, this is wow." O'Brien: I try not to pay much attention. Since I ignored the critics who said I should shoot myself in the head with a German Luger, it would be cheating to tear out nice reviews now and rub them all over my body, giggling. Though I have thought about it.
Playboy: Tell us about your trademark gag. You interview a photo of Bill Clinton or some other celeb, and a pair of superimposed lips provide outrageous answers. O'Brien: We call it the Clutch Cargo bit, after that terrible old cartoon series. They saved money on animation by superimposing real lips on the cartoons. I wanted to do topical jokes in a cartoony way -- not just Conan doing quips at a desk. TV is visual; I want things to look funny. But we're not Saturday Night Live; we couldn't spend $100,000 on it. Hence, the cheap, cheesy lips, You'd be surprised how many people we fool.
Playboy: Viewers believe that's really the president yelling, "Yee-haw! Who's got a joint?" O'Brien: It's strange. You may know intellectually that Clinton doesn't talk like Foghorn Leghorn. Ninety-eight percent of your brain knows the president wouldn't say, "Whoa Conan get a load of that girl!" But there are a few brain cells that aren't sure. When Bob Dole was running for president we had him doing a past-life regression: "My cave, get away." And then back further, "Must form flippers to crawl on to rocky soil," he says. There may be people out there who believe that Bob Dole was the first amphibian.
Playboy: Do you ever go too far? O'Brien: The fun is in going too far. It's a nice device because you get Bill Clinton to do the nastiest Bill Clinton jokes. We'll have Clinton making fart noises while I say "Sir! Please!"
Playboy: Are you enjoying your job now, with your new success? O'Brien: Well, there are surprises. I hate surprises. Like most comics, I'm a control freak. But I am learning that the show works best when things are out of control. Tonight I ask Elton John if he likes being neighbors with Joan Collins. He says he isn't neighbors with Joan Collins. He lives next door to Tina Turner. So I panic -- huge mistake! But Elton saves the day. "Joan Collins, Tina Turner, it doesn't matter. Either way I could borrow a wig," he says. Huge laugh, all because I fucked up. Later he surprised me by blurting out that he's hung like a horse. The camera cuts to me shaking my head: That crazy Elton. What can I do? Of course, I'm delighted that he went too far.
Playboy: That "What can I do?" look resembles a classic take of Jack Benny's. O'Brien: There's an old saying in literature: "Good poets borrow; great poets steal." I think T.S. Eliot stole it from Ezra Pound. Comics steal, too. Constantly. When I watched Johnny Carson, I noticed that he got a few takes from Benny and Bob Hope. When a comedy writer told me how much Woody Allen had borrowed from Hope, I thought, What? They're nothing alike. Then I went back and watched Son of Paleface, and there's Hope, the nervous city guy backing up on his heels, wringing his hands and saying, "Sorry, I'll just be moving along." Now look at early Woody Allen. You see big authority figures and Woody nervously saying, "Look, I'll just be on my way." Of course Woody made it his own, but he must have watched and loved Bob Hope.
Playboy: Who are your role models? O'Brien: Carson. Woody Allen. SCTV. Peter Sellers. When Peter Sellers died I felt such a loss, thinking, There won't be anymore of that. There's some Steve Martin in my false bravado with female guests: "Why, hel-lo there!" And I won't deny having some Letterman in my bones.
Playboy: You were surprise as Letterman's successor. At first you seemed like the wrong choice. O'Brien: I didn't get ratings. That doesn't mean I didn't get laughs. Yes, I had a giant pompadour and I looked like a rockabilly freak. I was too excited, pushed too hard, and people said, "That guy isn't a polished performer." Fine! But it isn't my goal to be Joe Handsomehead cool, smooth talk show host. Late Night with Conan O'Brien is supposed to be a work in progress, and now that we've had some success there's a danger of our getting too polished and morphing into something smoothly professional. Which would suck.
Do you know why I wanted this show? Because Late Night with David Letterman played with the rules and it looked like fun. Here was a place where people did risky comedy every night for millions of people. We had to keep this thing alive. There should be a place on a big network where people are still messing around.
Playboy: How bad were your early days on the show? O'Brien: Bad. Dave left here under a cloud: his fans and the media were angry with NBC. Then NBC picks a guy with crazy hair and a weird name. And the world says, "Harvard? Those guys are assholes." I sincerely hope that the winter of December 1993, our first winter, was the worst time I will ever have. I'd go out to do the warm up and the back two rows of seats would be empty. That's hard to look at. I would tell a joke and then hear someone whisper, "Who's he? Where's Dave?"
Playboy: You had trouble getting guests. O'Brien: Bob Denver canceled on us. We shot a test show with Al Lewis of The Munsters. We did the clutch cargo thing with a photo of Herman Munster. Unfortunately, Fred Gwynne, who played Herman, had recently died, and Al Lewis kept pointing at the screen, saying, "You're dead! I was at your funeral!"
Playboy: For months you got worried notes from network executives. What did they say? O'Brien: They were worried. The fact that Lorne Michaels was involved bought me some time. But Lorne had turned to me at the start and said, "OK, Conan. What do you want to do?" Now television critics were after me and the network was starting to realize what a risk I was. Suggestions came fast and furious. I kept the note that said, "Why don't you just die?"
Playboy: Did they suggest ways to be funnier? O'Brien: They were more specific and tactical. The network gets very specific data. Say there was a drop in ratings between 12:44 and 12:48 when I was talking to Jon Bon Jovi. I'll be told, "Don't ever talk to him again" Or they'll want me to tease viewers into staying with us: "You should tease that -- say, 'We'll have nudity coming up next!'"
Playboy: You did come close to being cancelled. O'Brien: We were cancelled.
Playboy: Really? You have never admitted that. O'Brien: This is the first time I've talked about it. When I had been on for about a year, there was a meeting at the network. They decided to cancel my show. They said, "It's cancelled." Next day they realized they had nothing to put in the 12:30 slot, so we got a reprieve.
Playboy: Were you worried sick? O'Brien: I went into denial. I tried hard not to think, Yes, I'm bad on the air and my show has none of the things a TV show needs to survive. We had no ratings. No critics in our corner. Advertisers didn't like us. Affiliates wanted to drop us. Sometimes I'd meet a programming director from a local station where we had no rating at all. The guy would show me a printout with no number for Late Night's rating, just a hash mark or pound sign. I didn't dare think about that when I went out to do the show.
Playboy: Are you defending denial? O'Brien: How else does anyone get through a terrible experience? The odds were against me. Rationally, I didn't have much chance. Denial was my only friend. When I look back on the first year, it's like a scene from an old war movie: Ordinary guy gets thrown into combat, somehow beats impossible odds, staggers to safety. His buddy say, "You could have been killed!" The guy stops and thinks. "Could have been killed?" he says. His eyes cross and he faints.
Playboy: How did you dodge the bullet? O'Brien: There were people at NBC who stood up for me. I will always be indebted to Don Ohlmeyer, who stuck to his guns. Don said, "We chose this guy. We should stick with him unless we get a better plan." He was brutally honest. He came to me and said, "Give me about a 15 percent bump in the ratings and you'll stay on the air. If not, we're going to move on."
Playboy: Ohlmeyer started his career in the sports division. O'Brien: Exactly, his take was, "You're on our team." Of course, it wasn't exactly rational of Don to hope I'd be 15 percent funnier. It was like telling a farmer, "It better rain this week or we'll take your farm away."
Playboy: What did you say to Ohlmeyer? O'Brien: There wasn't time. I had to go out and do a monologue. But I will always be indebted to Don because he told me the truth. Wait a minute -- you have tricked me into talking lovingly about an NBC executive. Let me say that there were others who were beneath contempt -- executives who wouldn't know a good show if it swam up their asses and lit a campfire.
Playboy: Finally the ratings went your way. Hard work rewarded? O'Brien: Well, I also paid off the Nielsen people. That was $140,000 well spent.
Playboy: Ohlmeyer plus bribery saved you? O'Brien: There was something else. Just when everyone was kicking the crap out of the show, Letterman defended me.
Playboy: Letterman had signed off on NBC saying, "I don't really know Conan O'Brien, but I heard he killed someone." O'Brien: Then I pick up the paper and he's saying he thinks I am going to make it. "They do some interesting, innovative stuff over there," he says. "I think Conan will prevail." And then he came on as a guest. Remember, this was when we were at our nadir. There was no Machiavellian reason for David Letterman, who at the time was the biggest thing in show business, to be on my show.
Playboy: Why did he do it? O'Brien: I'm still not sure. Maybe out of a sense of honor. Fair play. And it woke me up. It made me think. Hey, we have a real fucking television show here.
Of six or seven pivotal points in my short history here, that was the first and maybe the biggest. I wouldn't be sitting here -- I probably wouldn't even exist today -- if he hadn't done our show.
Playboy: The Late Night wars were hardly noted for friendly gestures. O'Brien: How little you understand. Jay, Dave and I pal around all the time. We often ride a bicycle built for three up to the country. "Nice job with Fran Drescher!" "Thanks, pal. You weren't so bad with John Tesh." We sleep in triple-decker bunk beds and snore in unison like the Three Stooges.
Playboy: You talk more about Letterman than your NBC teammate Leno. O'Brien: I hate the "Leno or Letterman, who's better?" question. I can tell you that Jay has been great to me. He calls me occasionally.
Playboy: To say what? O'Brien: (Doing Leno's voice) "Hey, liked that bit you did last night." Or he'll say he saw we got a good rating. I call him at work, too. It can be a strange conversation because we're so different. Jay, for instance, really loves cars. He's got antique cars with kerosene lanterns, cars that run on peat moss. He'll be telling me about some classic car he has, made entirely of brass and leather, and I'll say, "Yeah, man, I got the Taurus with the vinyl." One thing we have in common is bad guests. There are certain actors, celebrities with nothing to say, who move through the talk show world wreaking havoc. They lay waste to Dave's town and Jay's town, then head my way.
Playboy: You must be getting some good guests. Your ratings have shown a marked improvement. O'Brien: Remember, when you're on at 12:30 the Nielsens are based on 80 people. My ratings drop if one person has a head cold and goes to bed early.
Playboy: Actually, you're seen by about 3 million people a night. Your ratings would be even higher if college dorms weren't excluded from the Nielsens. How many points does that cost you? O'Brien: I told you I'm an idiot. Now I have to do math too?
Playboy: Do you still get suggestions from NBC executives? O'Brien: Not as many. The number of notes you get is inversely proportional to your ratings.
Playboy: What keeps you motivated? O'Brien: Superstition. We have a stagehand, Bobby Bowman, who holds up the curtain when I run out for the monologue. He is the last person I see before the show starts, and I have to make him laugh before I go out. It started with mild jabs: "Bobby, you're drunk again." Bobby laughs, "Heehee."" Then it was, "Still having trouble with the wife, Bobby?" But after hundreds of shows, you find yourself running out of lines. It's gotten to where I do crass things at the last second. I'll put his hand on my ass and yell, "You fucking pervert!" Or drop to my knees and say, "Come on, Bobby, I'll give you a blow job!"
"Ha-ha. Conan, you're crazy," he says. But even that stuff wears off. Soon, I'll be making the writers work late to give me new jokes for Bobby.
Playboy: Did you plan to be a talk show host or did you fall into the job? O'Brien: I was an Irish Catholic kid from St. Ignatius parish in Brookline, outside of Boston. And that meant: Don't call attention to yourself. Don't ask for too much when the pie comes around. Don't get a girl pregnant and fuck up your life.
Playboy: Were you an alter boy? O'Brien: I wanted to be an alter boy, but the priest at St. Ignatius said, "No, no. You're good on your feet, kid," and made me a lector. A scripture reader at Mass. He was the one who spotted my talent.
Playboy: What did you think of sex in those days? O'Brien: I was sexually repressed. At 16 I still thought human reproduction was by mitosis.
Playboy: How did you get over your sexual repression? O'Brien: Who says I got over it? My leg has been jiggling this whole time.
Playboy: What were you like in high school? O'Brien: Like a crane galumphing down the hall. A crane with weird hair, bad skin and Clearasil. Big enough for basketball but lousy at it. My older brothers were better. I would compensate by running around the court doing comedy, saying, "Look out, this player has a drug addiction. He's incredibly egotistical."
I was an asshole at home, too. My little brother Justin loved playing cops and robbers, but I kept tying him up with bureaucratic bullshit. When he'd catch me, I'd say, "I get to call my lawyer." Then it was, "OK, Justin, we're at trial and you've been charged with illegal arrest. Fill out these forms in triplicate." Justin was eight; he hated all the lawsuits and countersuits. He just cried.
Playboy: Were you a class clown? O'Brien: Never. I was never someone who walked into a room full of strangers and started telling jokes. You had to get to know me before I could make you laugh. The same thing happened with Late Night. I needed to get the right rhythm with Andy and Max and the audience.
Playboy: So how did you finally learn about sex? O'Brien: My parents gave me a book, but it was useless. At the crucial moment, all it showed was a man and a woman with the bed covers pulled up to their chins. I tried to find out more from friends, but it didn't help. One childhood friend told me it was like parking a car in a garage. I kept worrying about poisonous fumes. What if the fumes build up? Should you shut off the engine?
Playboy: For all your talk about being repressed, you can be rowdy on the air. O'Brien: The show is my escape valve. When I tear off my shirt and gyrate my pelvis like Robert Plant, feigning orgasm into the microphone, that shows how repressed I am -- a guy who wants to push his sex at the lens but can only do it as a joke.
Playboy: Aren't you tempted to live it up? O'Brien: I always imagined that if I were a TV star I would live the way I pictured Johnny Carson living. Carousing, stepping out of a limo wearing a velvet ascot with a model on my arm. Now that I have the TV show, I drive up to Connecticut on the weekends and tool around in my car. I could probably join a free-sex cult, smoke crack between orgies and drive sports cars into swimming pools, and my Catholic guilt would still be there, throbbing like a toothache. Be careful. If something good happens, something bad is on the way.
Playboy: Yet you don't mind licking the supermodels. O'Brien: At one point a few of them lived in my building, women who are so beautiful they almost look weird, like aliens. To me, a woman who has a certain approachable amount of beauty becomes almost funny. It's the same with male supermodels. They look like big puppets. So while I admire their beauty I probably won't be "romantically linked" with a model. I'd catch my reflection in a ballroom mirror and break up laughing.
Playboy: The horny Roy Orbison growl you use on gorgeous guests sounds real enough -- O'Brien: Oh, I've been doing that shit since high school. It just never worked before.
Playboy: Your father is a doctor, your mother an attorney. What do they think of their son the comedian? O'Brien: My dad was the one who told me denial was a virtue. "Denial is how people get through horrible things," he said. He also cut out a newspaper article in which I said I was making money off something for which I should probably be treated. So true, he thought. But when I got an Emmy for helping write Saturday Night Live, my parents put it on the mantel next to the crucifix. Here's Jesus looking over, saying, "Wow, I saved mankind from sin, but I wish I had an Emmy."
Playboy: Ever been in therapy? O'Brien: Yes. I don't trust it. I have told therapists that I don't particularly want to feel good. "Repression and fear, that's my fuel." But the therapists said that I had nothing to worry about. "Don't worry Conan you will always be plenty fucked up."
Playboy: When a female guest comes out, how do you know whether to shake her hand or kiss her? Is that rehearsed O'Brien: No, and it's awkward. If you go to shake her hand and her head starts coming right at you, you have to change strategy fast. I have thought about using the show to make women kiss me, but that would probably creep out the people at home. I decided not to kiss Elton John.
Playboy: Do you get all fired up if Cindy Crawford or Rebecca Romijn does the show? O'Brien: I like making women laugh. Always have, ever since I discovered you can get girls' attention by acting like an ass. That's one of the joys of the show -- I'm working my eyebrows and going grrr and she's laughing, the audience is laughing. It's all a big put-on and I'm thinking. This is great. Here is a beautiful woman who has no choice but to put up with this shit.
But it's not always put on. Sometimes they flirt back. Sometimes there's a bit of chemistry. That happened with Jennifer Connelly of The Rocketeer.
Playboy: One guest, Jill Hennessy, took off her pants for you. Then you removed yours. Even Penn and Teller took off their pants. O'Brien: Something comes over me. It happened with Rebecca Romijn -- I was practically climbing her. Those are the times when Andy and the audience seem to disappear and it's just me and this lovely woman sitting there flirting. I keep expecting a waiter to say, "More wine, Monsieur?"
Playboy: Would you lick the wine bottle? O'Brien: It's true, there's a lot of licking on the show. I have licked guests. I have licked Andy. Comedy professionals will read this and say, "Great work, Conan. Impressive." But I have learned that if you lick a guest, people laugh. If I pick this shoe off the floor, examine it, Hmmm, and then lick it, people laugh. I learned this lesson on The Simpsons, where I was the writer who was forever trying to entertain the other writers. I still try desperately to make our writers laugh, which is probably a sign of sickness since they work for me now. Licking is one of those things that look funny.
Playboy: Johnny Carson never licked Ed McMahon. O'Brien: We are much more physical and more stupid than the old Tonight Show. Even in our offices before the show there's always some writer acting out a scene crashing his head through my door. A behind-the-scenes look at our show might frighten people.
Playboy: One night you showed a doctored photo of Craig T. Nelson having sex with Jerry Van Dyke. Did they complain about it? O'Brien: I haven't heard from them. Of course I'm blessed not to be a part of the celebrity pond. I have a television show in New York, an NBC outpost. I don't run with or even run into many Hollywood people.
Playboy: You also announced that Tori Spelling has a penis. O'Brien: I did not. Polly the Peacock said that.
Playboy: Another character you use to say the outrageous stuff. O'Brien: Polly is not popular with the network.
Playboy: You mock Fabio, too. O'Brien: If he sues me, it'll be the best thing that ever happened. A publicity bonanza: Courtroom sketches of Fabio with his man-boobs quivering, shaking his fist, and me shouting at him across the courtroom. I'm not afraid of Fabio. He knows where to find me. I'm saying it right here for the record: Fabio, let's get it on.
Playboy: Ever have a run-in with an angry celeb? O'Brien: I did a Kelsey Grammar joke a few years ago, something about his interesting lifestyle, then heard through the network that he was upset. He had appeared on my show and expected some support. At this point my intellect says, "Kelsey Grammar is a public figure. I was in the right." Then I saw him in an airport. Kelsey didn't see me at first: I could have kept walking. But there he was, eating a cruller in the airport lounge. I thought I should go over. I said hello and then said, "Kelsey, I'm sorry if I upset you." And he was glad. He looked relieved. He said, "Oh, that's OK." We both felt better.
....See my other post with the last third of the interview
submitted by redlight886 to conan [link] [comments]
A candid conversation with the preppie prince of "Late Night" about his rocky start, his show's secret one-day cancellation and how David Letterman saved the day.
He was polite. He was funny. He gave us a communicable disease.
At 34 Conan O'Brien is hotter than the fever he was running when we met in his private domain above the "Late Night" sound stage. A gangly freckle-faced ex-high school geek he is "one of TV's hottest properties" according to "People" magazine. The host of "Late Night With Conan O'Brien" has become his generation's king of comedy.
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. Congested too, but O'Brien has far more to worry about than his head cold. A perfectionist who broods over one bad minute in an otherwise perfect hour of TV, he worries he might be anhedonic, "I have trouble with success," he says, "I was raised to believe that if something good happens something bad is coming." Sure things look good now "Rolling Stone" calls "Late Night" "the hottest comedy show on TV." Ratings are better than ever, particularly among 18- to 34-year-olds, the viewers advertisers crave.
But O'Brien only works harder. Despite his illness he taped two shows in 26 hours on three hours' sleep. He smoothly interviewed Elton John then burst into coughing fits during commercials. Later in his crammed corner office overlooking Manhattan traffic Conan the Cool gulped Dayquil gel caps. He coughed spewing microbes.
"Sorry, sorry," he said. Of course O'Brien can't complain. He came seriously close to falling to being banished behind the scenes as just another failed talk show host.
At his first "Late Night" press conference he corrected a reporter who called him a relative unknown, "Sir I am a complete unknown," he said. That line got a laugh, but soon O'Brien looked doomed. His September 13, 1993 debut began with O'Brien in his dressing room preparing to hang himself only to be interrupted by the start of his show. Before long his career was hanging by a thread. Ratings were terrible. Critics hated the show. Tom Shales of "The Washington Post" called it as "lifeless and messy as roadkill." Shales said O'Brien should quit.
Network officials held urgent meetings discussing the Conan O'Brien debacle. Should they fire him? How should they explain their mistake?
In the end of course he turned it around. The network hung with him long enough for the ratings to improve and the host of the cooler-than-ever "Late Night" now defines comedy's cutting edge just as Letterman did ten years ago.
Even Shales loves "Late Night" these days. He calls O'Brien's turnaround "one of the most amazing transformations in television history."
O'Brien was born on April 18, 1963 in Brookline, Massachusetts. His father, a doctor, is a professor at Harvard Medical School. His mother, a lawyer, is a partner at an elite Boston Law firm. Conan, the third of six children became a lector at church and a misfit at school. Tall and goofy, bedeviled with acne, he tried to impress girls with jokes. That plan usually bombed, but O'Brien eventually found his niche at Harvard where he won the presidency of the "Harvard Lampoon" in 1983 and again in 1984 - the first two-time "Lampoon" president since humorist Robert Benchley held the honor 85 years ago.
After graduating magna cum laude with a double major in literature and American history he turned pro. Writing for HBO's "Not Necessarily The News." O'Brien was earning $100,000 a year before his 24th birthday. But writing was never enough.
He honed his performance skills with the Groundlings, a Los Angeles improv group. There he worked with his onetime girlfriend Lisa Kudrow, now starring on "Friends." But Conan was not such a standout. In 1988 he landed a job at "Saturday Night Live" - but as a writer, not as on-air talent. In almost four years on the show O'Brien made only fleeting appearances, usually as a crowd member or security guard. His writing was more memorable. He wrote (or co-wrote) Tom hanks' "Mr Short-Term Memory" skits as well as the "pump you up" infosatire of Hanz and Franz and the nude beach sketch in which Matthew Broderick and "SNL" members played nudists admiring one another's penises. With dozens of mentions of the word that hit was the most penis-heavy moment in TV history. It helped O'Brien win an Emmy for comedy writing.
In 1991 he quit "SNL" and moved on to "The Simpsons" where he worked for two years. His urge to perform came out in wall-bouncing antics in writers' meetings. "Conan makes you fall out of your chair" said "Simpsons" creator Matt Groening. O'Brien's yen to act out was so strong that he spurned Fox's reported seven-figure offer to continue as a writer. He was driving for the spotlight.
By then David Letterman had announced he was turning shin - leaving NBC taking his ton-rated act to CBS. Suddenly NBC was up a creek without a host. The network turned to Lorne Michaels, O'Brien's "Saturday Night Live" boss. Michaels enlisted Conan's help in the host search planning to use him in a behind-the-scenes job. But when Garry Shandling, Dana Carvey and almost every other star turned down the chore of following Letterman, Michaels finally listened to Conan's crazy suggestion, "Let me do it!" Michaels persuaded the network to entrust it's 12:30 slot which Letterman had turned into a gold mine to an untested wiseass from Harvard.
O'Brien was working on one of his last "Simpsons" episodes when he got the news. He turned "paler than usual," Groening recalled. The Conan moseyed back to where the other writers were working, "I'll come back with the Homer Simspon joke later. I have to go replace Letterman," he said.
NBC executives now get credit for their foresight during those dark days of 1993 and 1994. They snared the axe and now reap the multimillion-dollar spoils of that decision. In fact, the story is not so simple. We sent Contributing Editor Kevin Cook to unravel the tale of O'Brien's survival, which he tells here for the first time. Cook reports:
"His office is chock-full of significa. There's a three-foot plastic pickle the Letterman staff left behind in 1993 - perhaps to suggest what a predicament he was in. There's a copy of Jack Paar's 'I Kid You Not' and a coffee-table book called 'Saturday Night Live: The First 20 Years.' His bulletin board features letters from fans such as John Watters and Bob Dole and an 8" x 10" glossy of Andy Richter with the inscription: "To Conan - Your bitter jealousy warms my black heart. Love and Kisses Andy."
"Of course it's all for show. From the photos of kitch icons Adam West and Robert Stack to the framed Stan Laurel autograph, from the deathbed painting of Abraham Lincoln, to the ironic star taped to Conan's door - they're all clever signals that tell a visitor how to view the star. Lincoln was his collegiate preoccupation: stardom is his occupation. Somewhere between the two I hoped to find the real O'Brien.
"As a Playboy reader he wanted to give me a better-than-average interview. I wanted something more - a definitive look at the guy who may end up being the Johnny Carson of his generation."
"Here's hoping we succeeded. If not I carried his germs 3000 miles and infected dozens of Californians for no good reason.
O'Brien: Yes, this is how to do a Playboy Interview -- completely tanked on cold medicine. I'll pick it up and read, "Yes, I'm gay."
Playboy: We could talk another time. O'Brien: (coughing) No, it's OK. I memorized Dennis Rodman's answers. Can I use them?
Playboy: You sound really sick. Do you ever take a day off? O'Brien: No. The age of talk show hosts taking days off is over. Johnny Carson could go to Africa when he was the only game in town -- "See you in two weeks!" But nobody does that now. I will give you a million dollars on the first day Jay takes off for illness.
Playboy: Do you ever slow down and enjoy your success? O'Brien: If anything, the pace is picking up. Restaurateurs insist on giving me a table even if I'm only passing by, so I'm eating nine meals a night. Women stop me on the street and hand me their phone numbers.
Playboy: So you have groupies? O'Brien: Oh yes. And other fans. Drifters. Prisoners. Insomniacs. Cab Drivers, who must watch a lot of late night TV, seem to love me lately. They keep saying, "You will not pay, you will not pay, you make me happy!"
Playboy: How happy did your new contract make you? O'Brien: Terrified. The network said, "We're all set for five years." I said, "Shut up, shut up! I can't think that far ahead." Tonight, for instance, I do my jokes, then interview Elton John and Tim Meadows. We finished taping about 6:30. By 6:45 my memory was erased and my only thought was, Tomorrow: John Tesh. And I started to obsess about John Tesh. Sad, don't you think?
Playboy: Not too sad. You got off to a rocky start but now you're so hot that People magazine recently said, "that was then, this is wow." O'Brien: I try not to pay much attention. Since I ignored the critics who said I should shoot myself in the head with a German Luger, it would be cheating to tear out nice reviews now and rub them all over my body, giggling. Though I have thought about it.
Playboy: Tell us about your trademark gag. You interview a photo of Bill Clinton or some other celeb, and a pair of superimposed lips provide outrageous answers. O'Brien: We call it the Clutch Cargo bit, after that terrible old cartoon series. They saved money on animation by superimposing real lips on the cartoons. I wanted to do topical jokes in a cartoony way -- not just Conan doing quips at a desk. TV is visual; I want things to look funny. But we're not Saturday Night Live; we couldn't spend $100,000 on it. Hence, the cheap, cheesy lips, You'd be surprised how many people we fool.
Playboy: Viewers believe that's really the president yelling, "Yee-haw! Who's got a joint?" O'Brien: It's strange. You may know intellectually that Clinton doesn't talk like Foghorn Leghorn. Ninety-eight percent of your brain knows the president wouldn't say, "Whoa Conan get a load of that girl!" But there are a few brain cells that aren't sure. When Bob Dole was running for president we had him doing a past-life regression: "My cave, get away." And then back further, "Must form flippers to crawl on to rocky soil," he says. There may be people out there who believe that Bob Dole was the first amphibian.
Playboy: Do you ever go too far? O'Brien: The fun is in going too far. It's a nice device because you get Bill Clinton to do the nastiest Bill Clinton jokes. We'll have Clinton making fart noises while I say "Sir! Please!"
Playboy: Are you enjoying your job now, with your new success? O'Brien: Well, there are surprises. I hate surprises. Like most comics, I'm a control freak. But I am learning that the show works best when things are out of control. Tonight I ask Elton John if he likes being neighbors with Joan Collins. He says he isn't neighbors with Joan Collins. He lives next door to Tina Turner. So I panic -- huge mistake! But Elton saves the day. "Joan Collins, Tina Turner, it doesn't matter. Either way I could borrow a wig," he says. Huge laugh, all because I fucked up. Later he surprised me by blurting out that he's hung like a horse. The camera cuts to me shaking my head: That crazy Elton. What can I do? Of course, I'm delighted that he went too far.
Playboy: That "What can I do?" look resembles a classic take of Jack Benny's. O'Brien: There's an old saying in literature: "Good poets borrow; great poets steal." I think T.S. Eliot stole it from Ezra Pound. Comics steal, too. Constantly. When I watched Johnny Carson, I noticed that he got a few takes from Benny and Bob Hope. When a comedy writer told me how much Woody Allen had borrowed from Hope, I thought, What? They're nothing alike. Then I went back and watched Son of Paleface, and there's Hope, the nervous city guy backing up on his heels, wringing his hands and saying, "Sorry, I'll just be moving along." Now look at early Woody Allen. You see big authority figures and Woody nervously saying, "Look, I'll just be on my way." Of course Woody made it his own, but he must have watched and loved Bob Hope.
Playboy: Who are your role models? O'Brien: Carson. Woody Allen. SCTV. Peter Sellers. When Peter Sellers died I felt such a loss, thinking, There won't be anymore of that. There's some Steve Martin in my false bravado with female guests: "Why, hel-lo there!" And I won't deny having some Letterman in my bones.
Playboy: You were surprise as Letterman's successor. At first you seemed like the wrong choice. O'Brien: I didn't get ratings. That doesn't mean I didn't get laughs. Yes, I had a giant pompadour and I looked like a rockabilly freak. I was too excited, pushed too hard, and people said, "That guy isn't a polished performer." Fine! But it isn't my goal to be Joe Handsomehead cool, smooth talk show host. Late Night with Conan O'Brien is supposed to be a work in progress, and now that we've had some success there's a danger of our getting too polished and morphing into something smoothly professional. Which would suck.
Do you know why I wanted this show? Because Late Night with David Letterman played with the rules and it looked like fun. Here was a place where people did risky comedy every night for millions of people. We had to keep this thing alive. There should be a place on a big network where people are still messing around.
Playboy: How bad were your early days on the show? O'Brien: Bad. Dave left here under a cloud: his fans and the media were angry with NBC. Then NBC picks a guy with crazy hair and a weird name. And the world says, "Harvard? Those guys are assholes." I sincerely hope that the winter of December 1993, our first winter, was the worst time I will ever have. I'd go out to do the warm up and the back two rows of seats would be empty. That's hard to look at. I would tell a joke and then hear someone whisper, "Who's he? Where's Dave?"
Playboy: You had trouble getting guests. O'Brien: Bob Denver canceled on us. We shot a test show with Al Lewis of The Munsters. We did the clutch cargo thing with a photo of Herman Munster. Unfortunately, Fred Gwynne, who played Herman, had recently died, and Al Lewis kept pointing at the screen, saying, "You're dead! I was at your funeral!"
Playboy: For months you got worried notes from network executives. What did they say? O'Brien: They were worried. The fact that Lorne Michaels was involved bought me some time. But Lorne had turned to me at the start and said, "OK, Conan. What do you want to do?" Now television critics were after me and the network was starting to realize what a risk I was. Suggestions came fast and furious. I kept the note that said, "Why don't you just die?"
Playboy: Did they suggest ways to be funnier? O'Brien: They were more specific and tactical. The network gets very specific data. Say there was a drop in ratings between 12:44 and 12:48 when I was talking to Jon Bon Jovi. I'll be told, "Don't ever talk to him again" Or they'll want me to tease viewers into staying with us: "You should tease that -- say, 'We'll have nudity coming up next!'"
Playboy: You did come close to being cancelled. O'Brien: We were cancelled.
Playboy: Really? You have never admitted that. O'Brien: This is the first time I've talked about it. When I had been on for about a year, there was a meeting at the network. They decided to cancel my show. They said, "It's cancelled." Next day they realized they had nothing to put in the 12:30 slot, so we got a reprieve.
Playboy: Were you worried sick? O'Brien: I went into denial. I tried hard not to think, Yes, I'm bad on the air and my show has none of the things a TV show needs to survive. We had no ratings. No critics in our corner. Advertisers didn't like us. Affiliates wanted to drop us. Sometimes I'd meet a programming director from a local station where we had no rating at all. The guy would show me a printout with no number for Late Night's rating, just a hash mark or pound sign. I didn't dare think about that when I went out to do the show.
Playboy: Are you defending denial? O'Brien: How else does anyone get through a terrible experience? The odds were against me. Rationally, I didn't have much chance. Denial was my only friend. When I look back on the first year, it's like a scene from an old war movie: Ordinary guy gets thrown into combat, somehow beats impossible odds, staggers to safety. His buddy say, "You could have been killed!" The guy stops and thinks. "Could have been killed?" he says. His eyes cross and he faints.
Playboy: How did you dodge the bullet? O'Brien: There were people at NBC who stood up for me. I will always be indebted to Don Ohlmeyer, who stuck to his guns. Don said, "We chose this guy. We should stick with him unless we get a better plan." He was brutally honest. He came to me and said, "Give me about a 15 percent bump in the ratings and you'll stay on the air. If not, we're going to move on."
Playboy: Ohlmeyer started his career in the sports division. O'Brien: Exactly, his take was, "You're on our team." Of course, it wasn't exactly rational of Don to hope I'd be 15 percent funnier. It was like telling a farmer, "It better rain this week or we'll take your farm away."
Playboy: What did you say to Ohlmeyer? O'Brien: There wasn't time. I had to go out and do a monologue. But I will always be indebted to Don because he told me the truth. Wait a minute -- you have tricked me into talking lovingly about an NBC executive. Let me say that there were others who were beneath contempt -- executives who wouldn't know a good show if it swam up their asses and lit a campfire.
Playboy: Finally the ratings went your way. Hard work rewarded? O'Brien: Well, I also paid off the Nielsen people. That was $140,000 well spent.
Playboy: Ohlmeyer plus bribery saved you? O'Brien: There was something else. Just when everyone was kicking the crap out of the show, Letterman defended me.
Playboy: Letterman had signed off on NBC saying, "I don't really know Conan O'Brien, but I heard he killed someone." O'Brien: Then I pick up the paper and he's saying he thinks I am going to make it. "They do some interesting, innovative stuff over there," he says. "I think Conan will prevail." And then he came on as a guest. Remember, this was when we were at our nadir. There was no Machiavellian reason for David Letterman, who at the time was the biggest thing in show business, to be on my show.
Playboy: Why did he do it? O'Brien: I'm still not sure. Maybe out of a sense of honor. Fair play. And it woke me up. It made me think. Hey, we have a real fucking television show here.
Of six or seven pivotal points in my short history here, that was the first and maybe the biggest. I wouldn't be sitting here -- I probably wouldn't even exist today -- if he hadn't done our show.
Playboy: The Late Night wars were hardly noted for friendly gestures. O'Brien: How little you understand. Jay, Dave and I pal around all the time. We often ride a bicycle built for three up to the country. "Nice job with Fran Drescher!" "Thanks, pal. You weren't so bad with John Tesh." We sleep in triple-decker bunk beds and snore in unison like the Three Stooges.
Playboy: You talk more about Letterman than your NBC teammate Leno. O'Brien: I hate the "Leno or Letterman, who's better?" question. I can tell you that Jay has been great to me. He calls me occasionally.
Playboy: To say what? O'Brien: (Doing Leno's voice) "Hey, liked that bit you did last night." Or he'll say he saw we got a good rating. I call him at work, too. It can be a strange conversation because we're so different. Jay, for instance, really loves cars. He's got antique cars with kerosene lanterns, cars that run on peat moss. He'll be telling me about some classic car he has, made entirely of brass and leather, and I'll say, "Yeah, man, I got the Taurus with the vinyl." One thing we have in common is bad guests. There are certain actors, celebrities with nothing to say, who move through the talk show world wreaking havoc. They lay waste to Dave's town and Jay's town, then head my way.
Playboy: You must be getting some good guests. Your ratings have shown a marked improvement. O'Brien: Remember, when you're on at 12:30 the Nielsens are based on 80 people. My ratings drop if one person has a head cold and goes to bed early.
Playboy: Actually, you're seen by about 3 million people a night. Your ratings would be even higher if college dorms weren't excluded from the Nielsens. How many points does that cost you? O'Brien: I told you I'm an idiot. Now I have to do math too?
Playboy: Do you still get suggestions from NBC executives? O'Brien: Not as many. The number of notes you get is inversely proportional to your ratings.
Playboy: What keeps you motivated? O'Brien: Superstition. We have a stagehand, Bobby Bowman, who holds up the curtain when I run out for the monologue. He is the last person I see before the show starts, and I have to make him laugh before I go out. It started with mild jabs: "Bobby, you're drunk again." Bobby laughs, "Heehee."" Then it was, "Still having trouble with the wife, Bobby?" But after hundreds of shows, you find yourself running out of lines. It's gotten to where I do crass things at the last second. I'll put his hand on my ass and yell, "You fucking pervert!" Or drop to my knees and say, "Come on, Bobby, I'll give you a blow job!"
"Ha-ha. Conan, you're crazy," he says. But even that stuff wears off. Soon, I'll be making the writers work late to give me new jokes for Bobby.
Playboy: Did you plan to be a talk show host or did you fall into the job? O'Brien: I was an Irish Catholic kid from St. Ignatius parish in Brookline, outside of Boston. And that meant: Don't call attention to yourself. Don't ask for too much when the pie comes around. Don't get a girl pregnant and fuck up your life.
Playboy: Were you an alter boy? O'Brien: I wanted to be an alter boy, but the priest at St. Ignatius said, "No, no. You're good on your feet, kid," and made me a lector. A scripture reader at Mass. He was the one who spotted my talent.
Playboy: What did you think of sex in those days? O'Brien: I was sexually repressed. At 16 I still thought human reproduction was by mitosis.
Playboy: How did you get over your sexual repression? O'Brien: Who says I got over it? My leg has been jiggling this whole time.
Playboy: What were you like in high school? O'Brien: Like a crane galumphing down the hall. A crane with weird hair, bad skin and Clearasil. Big enough for basketball but lousy at it. My older brothers were better. I would compensate by running around the court doing comedy, saying, "Look out, this player has a drug addiction. He's incredibly egotistical."
I was an asshole at home, too. My little brother Justin loved playing cops and robbers, but I kept tying him up with bureaucratic bullshit. When he'd catch me, I'd say, "I get to call my lawyer." Then it was, "OK, Justin, we're at trial and you've been charged with illegal arrest. Fill out these forms in triplicate." Justin was eight; he hated all the lawsuits and countersuits. He just cried.
Playboy: Were you a class clown? O'Brien: Never. I was never someone who walked into a room full of strangers and started telling jokes. You had to get to know me before I could make you laugh. The same thing happened with Late Night. I needed to get the right rhythm with Andy and Max and the audience.
Playboy: So how did you finally learn about sex? O'Brien: My parents gave me a book, but it was useless. At the crucial moment, all it showed was a man and a woman with the bed covers pulled up to their chins. I tried to find out more from friends, but it didn't help. One childhood friend told me it was like parking a car in a garage. I kept worrying about poisonous fumes. What if the fumes build up? Should you shut off the engine?
Playboy: For all your talk about being repressed, you can be rowdy on the air. O'Brien: The show is my escape valve. When I tear off my shirt and gyrate my pelvis like Robert Plant, feigning orgasm into the microphone, that shows how repressed I am -- a guy who wants to push his sex at the lens but can only do it as a joke.
Playboy: Aren't you tempted to live it up? O'Brien: I always imagined that if I were a TV star I would live the way I pictured Johnny Carson living. Carousing, stepping out of a limo wearing a velvet ascot with a model on my arm. Now that I have the TV show, I drive up to Connecticut on the weekends and tool around in my car. I could probably join a free-sex cult, smoke crack between orgies and drive sports cars into swimming pools, and my Catholic guilt would still be there, throbbing like a toothache. Be careful. If something good happens, something bad is on the way.
Playboy: Yet you don't mind licking the supermodels. O'Brien: At one point a few of them lived in my building, women who are so beautiful they almost look weird, like aliens. To me, a woman who has a certain approachable amount of beauty becomes almost funny. It's the same with male supermodels. They look like big puppets. So while I admire their beauty I probably won't be "romantically linked" with a model. I'd catch my reflection in a ballroom mirror and break up laughing.
Playboy: The horny Roy Orbison growl you use on gorgeous guests sounds real enough -- O'Brien: Oh, I've been doing that shit since high school. It just never worked before.
Playboy: Your father is a doctor, your mother an attorney. What do they think of their son the comedian? O'Brien: My dad was the one who told me denial was a virtue. "Denial is how people get through horrible things," he said. He also cut out a newspaper article in which I said I was making money off something for which I should probably be treated. So true, he thought. But when I got an Emmy for helping write Saturday Night Live, my parents put it on the mantel next to the crucifix. Here's Jesus looking over, saying, "Wow, I saved mankind from sin, but I wish I had an Emmy."
Playboy: Ever been in therapy? O'Brien: Yes. I don't trust it. I have told therapists that I don't particularly want to feel good. "Repression and fear, that's my fuel." But the therapists said that I had nothing to worry about. "Don't worry Conan you will always be plenty fucked up."
Playboy: When a female guest comes out, how do you know whether to shake her hand or kiss her? Is that rehearsed O'Brien: No, and it's awkward. If you go to shake her hand and her head starts coming right at you, you have to change strategy fast. I have thought about using the show to make women kiss me, but that would probably creep out the people at home. I decided not to kiss Elton John.
Playboy: Do you get all fired up if Cindy Crawford or Rebecca Romijn does the show? O'Brien: I like making women laugh. Always have, ever since I discovered you can get girls' attention by acting like an ass. That's one of the joys of the show -- I'm working my eyebrows and going grrr and she's laughing, the audience is laughing. It's all a big put-on and I'm thinking. This is great. Here is a beautiful woman who has no choice but to put up with this shit.
But it's not always put on. Sometimes they flirt back. Sometimes there's a bit of chemistry. That happened with Jennifer Connelly of The Rocketeer.
Playboy: One guest, Jill Hennessy, took off her pants for you. Then you removed yours. Even Penn and Teller took off their pants. O'Brien: Something comes over me. It happened with Rebecca Romijn -- I was practically climbing her. Those are the times when Andy and the audience seem to disappear and it's just me and this lovely woman sitting there flirting. I keep expecting a waiter to say, "More wine, Monsieur?"
Playboy: Would you lick the wine bottle? O'Brien: It's true, there's a lot of licking on the show. I have licked guests. I have licked Andy. Comedy professionals will read this and say, "Great work, Conan. Impressive." But I have learned that if you lick a guest, people laugh. If I pick this shoe off the floor, examine it, Hmmm, and then lick it, people laugh. I learned this lesson on The Simpsons, where I was the writer who was forever trying to entertain the other writers. I still try desperately to make our writers laugh, which is probably a sign of sickness since they work for me now. Licking is one of those things that look funny.
Playboy: Johnny Carson never licked Ed McMahon. O'Brien: We are much more physical and more stupid than the old Tonight Show. Even in our offices before the show there's always some writer acting out a scene crashing his head through my door. A behind-the-scenes look at our show might frighten people.
Playboy: One night you showed a doctored photo of Craig T. Nelson having sex with Jerry Van Dyke. Did they complain about it? O'Brien: I haven't heard from them. Of course I'm blessed not to be a part of the celebrity pond. I have a television show in New York, an NBC outpost. I don't run with or even run into many Hollywood people.
Playboy: You also announced that Tori Spelling has a penis. O'Brien: I did not. Polly the Peacock said that.
Playboy: Another character you use to say the outrageous stuff. O'Brien: Polly is not popular with the network.
Playboy: You mock Fabio, too. O'Brien: If he sues me, it'll be the best thing that ever happened. A publicity bonanza: Courtroom sketches of Fabio with his man-boobs quivering, shaking his fist, and me shouting at him across the courtroom. I'm not afraid of Fabio. He knows where to find me. I'm saying it right here for the record: Fabio, let's get it on.
Playboy: Ever have a run-in with an angry celeb? O'Brien: I did a Kelsey Grammar joke a few years ago, something about his interesting lifestyle, then heard through the network that he was upset. He had appeared on my show and expected some support. At this point my intellect says, "Kelsey Grammar is a public figure. I was in the right." Then I saw him in an airport. Kelsey didn't see me at first: I could have kept walking. But there he was, eating a cruller in the airport lounge. I thought I should go over. I said hello and then said, "Kelsey, I'm sorry if I upset you." And he was glad. He looked relieved. He said, "Oh, that's OK." We both felt better.
....See my other post with the last third of the interview
2024.05.29 01:15 healthmedicinet Health daily news May 27 2024
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The research, by a team from Finland’s University of Helsinki, National Institute for Health and Welfare, and Turku University of Applied Sciences, is published in
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5-27-2024
THE CASE FOR OMEGA-3 SUPPLEMENTATION TO LOWER AGGRESSION
People who regularly eat fish or take fish oil supplements are getting omega-3 fatty acids, which play a critical role in brain function. Research has long shown a basis in the brain for aggressive and violent behavior, and that poor nutrition is a risk factor for behavior problems. Penn neurocriminologist Adrian Raine has for years been studying whether omega-3 supplementation could therefore reduce aggressive behavior, publishing five randomized controlled trials from different countries. He found significant effects but wanted to know whether these findings extended beyond his laboratory.5-27-2024
WHAT ARE ALTERNATIVES TO OZEMPIC AND WEGOVY AND ARE THEY SAFE?
With summer around the corner, telehealth outlets and medical spas are going into hyperdrive advertising the sale of semaglutide, the active ingredient in popular weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy. Recent shortages of the brand-name drugs have opened the door to copycat versions that, while legal, also raise some concerns for consumers, says Kelly Ann Barnes, Northeastern professor of pharmacy law. The copycat drugs are made by specialized pharmacies known as compounding pharmacies, which are allowed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to make off-label5-27-2024
FIVE BASIC HABITS MAY HOLD THE KEY TO GOOD MENTAL HEALTH
Professor Nick Titov’s professional goal is to make himself redundant. he wants to empower more people with mild to moderate anxiety and depression to understand what they can do each day to care for their mental health. As part of this mission, Professor Titov and his team developed The Big 5, an evidence-based program encouraging five broad types of activities that are strongly linked with good mental health when performed regularly. Everyone’s5-27-2024
COVID-19 FORECASTING TOOL ALLOWED HOSPITAL TO MANAGE PATIENT CAPACITY, RESOURCES AMID PANDEMIC’S THIRD WAVE
During the peak of the third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, the health-care system’s capacity was stretched and hospitals across Canada relied on each other to share resources and provide care. Experts from5-27-2024
RESEARCHERS IDENTIFY IMMUNE DYSFUNCTION AS A POSSIBLE ASPECT OF POLYCYSTIC OVARY SYNDROME PATHOLOGY
The peripubertal DHT-induced mouse model is a non-obese but insulin-resistant model of PCOS. a) Experimental design. b) Fat mass. c) Insulin levels at baseline and 15 min following glucose administration. d) Blood glucose levels during oGTT. e) HOMA-IR, calculated from fasted glucose and insulin levels. f) Glycosylated hemoglobin levels (HbA1c). A new study shows that hyperandrogenism—a key characteristic of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)—affects immune cell populations in reproductive, metabolic and immunological tissues in a PCOS-like mouse model. These findings are of great importance as5-27-2024
RESEARCH IDENTIFIES BRAIN NETWORK LINK TO STUTTERING
Common acquired neurogenic stuttering network. Common areas that were sensitive and specific across both neurogenic stuttering cohorts. Amy = amygdala; ASt = amygdalostriatal transition area; Cl = claustrum; Pall = Pallidum; Put = putamen. A new study published in the journal Brain has identified a specific brain network hub that plays a key role in stuttering. The research, by Te Whare W?nanga o Waitaha University of Canterbury (UC) Associate Professor Catherine Theys, examines two different types of stuttering—developmental and acquired—to show a clear neural5-27-2024
THYROID DISEASE ISN’T THE END FOR YOUR CAREER PROSPECTS, REPORT FINDS
How employers behave toward workers experiencing thyroid dysfunction could play a critical part in addressing the UK’s labor market challenges. With long-term sickness on the rise in the UK, researchers at the University of Aberdeen Business School have marked World Thyroid Day (May 25) by releasing new findings which, for the first time, explore the relationship between employer sympathy and the labor market prospects of people with thyroid conditions. One in 20 people in the UK have a thyroid problem, with a significant majority of sufferers being women. Posing serious5-27-2024
STUDY FINDS HIGH-INCOME EARNERS AT LOWER RISK OF DYING FROM STROKE
High-income earners have a 32% lower risk of dying after a stroke compared to low-income earners. The equivalent for high education is 26% lower risk. The differences in stroke survival linked to socioeconomics are striking, according to a study at the University of Gothenburg.5-27-2024
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE COULD ALLEVIATE LONELINESS, SAYS EXPERT
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology could offer companionship to lonely people amid an international epidemic of loneliness, says a robotics expert. Tony Prescott, a professor of cognitive robotics at the University of Sheffield, argues in his new book “The Psychology of Artificial Intelligence” that “relationships with AIs could support people” with forms of social interaction. Loneliness has been found to seriously impair human health, and Professor Prescott makes a case that advances in AI technology could offer a partial solution. He argues that people can spiral into loneliness, becoming5-27-2024
ALZHEIMER’S REPORT HIGHLIGHTS IMMENSE CAREGIVER BURDEN—AND POTENTIAL WAYS FORWARD
Some 7 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s, and about 11 million provide unpaid care for them. Dementia caregiving can present unique challenges, including financial burdens and time constraints, as well as health complications. A report this year from the Alzheimer’s Association demonstrates the true cost of caregiving for those with the disease and calls to establish dementia care navigation throughout the U.S. to lift this burden. Not only is the estimated value of unpaid care near $14 billion in Pennsylvania alone, the report also revealed emotional and physical tolls. Nearly5-27-2024
US FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION APPROVES ARTIFICIAL PANCREAS SYSTEM
An artificial pancreas developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge has been granted approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use by individuals with type 1 diabetes aged 2 and older, including during pregnancy. This means that even more people living with the disease will be able to use this life-changing app. For the first time, the FDA authorized the use of the artificial pancreas system in pregnancy. CamAPS FX, produced by Cambridge spinout company CamDiab, is an Android app that can5-27-2024
RESEARCH SAYS POMEGRANATES COULD OFFER A SOLUTION TO FATTY LIVER DISEASE
Researchers at Edith Cowan University (ECU) are investigating the effects ellagic acid, an antioxidant found in some fruits and vegetables, could have on halting and potentially reversing the damage caused by fatty liver disease. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the physiological manifestation of obesity in the liver. The prevalence of NAFLD has increased from 25.24% in 2015 to 29.38% in 2021, and this condition now accounts for 45.8% of all cases of chronic-liver-disease-related deaths worldwide. There currently exists no treatment for the long-term management of NAFLD; however, dietary interventions5-27-2024
MAGIC MUSHROOMS MAY ONE DAY TREAT ANOREXIA, BUT NOT JUST YET
Anorexia nervosa is a severe mental health disorder where people fear weight gain. Those with the disorder have distorted body image and hold rigid beliefs their body is too big. They typically manage this through restricted eating, leading to the serious medical consequences of malnutrition. Anorexia has one of the highest death rates of any mental illness. Yet there are currently no effective drug treatments and the outcomes of psychotherapy (talk therapy) are poor. So we’re desperately in need of new and improved treatments. Psilocybin, commonly known as magic mushrooms,5-27-2024
STUDY FINDS FEEDING INFANTS PEANUT PRODUCTS PROTECTS AGAINST ALLERGY INTO ADOLESCENCE
Feeding children peanuts regularly from infancy to age five reduced the rate of peanut allergy in adolescence by 71%, even after many years when the children ate or avoided peanut as desired. The new findings provide conclusive evidence that introducing peanuts into babies’ diets early will achieve long-term prevention of peanut allergy. Lead investigator Professor Gideon Lack from King’s College London said, “Decades of advice to avoid peanuts has made parents fearful of introducing peanuts at an early age. The evidence is clear that early introduction of peanut in infancy5-27-2024
EATING MORE FRUITS AND VEGETABLES MAY LEAD TO OPTIMAL SLEEP DURATION
Good health depends on a healthy diet and sufficient exercise and sleep. There are clear associations among these components; for example, good nutrition provides energy for exercise, and many people report that getting enough exercise is important to their ability to get enough sleep. So how might nutrition affect sleep? A new study looks at the connection between fruit and vegetable intake and sleep duration.5-27-2024
MONITORING THE H5N1 AVIAN INFLUENZA, BIRD FLU, OUTBREAK
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to actively monitor the ongoing outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza, also known as bird flu, and says that the public health risk remains low. Dr. Matthew Binnicker, director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory at Mayo Clinic, says scientists and public health officials have known about avian influenza for decades. “What’s different today is that since 2020, we’re seeing the largest outbreak of avian influenza among wild birds, poultry and backyard bird flocks,” he says. “The virus has also been found in certain5-27-2024
INTERNATIONAL STUDY REVEALS SURPRISING TWIST IN HOW DIABETES DRUGS HELP THE HEART
A randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial has revealed surprising new insights into how SGLT2 inhibitor drugs, originally developed for diabetes, benefit patients with heart failure. Contrary to common assumptions, these drugs may improve cardiac outcomes and heart health without acting as diuretics. Heart failure is a condition where the heart cannot pump enough blood to meet the body’s demands, often leading to fluid5-27-2024
FIRST SEIZURE CLINICS REDUCE THE NEED FOR FUTURE HEALTH CARE, RESEARCHERS FIND
Clinics specializing in first seizures reduce the need for patients to present at emergency departments or be admitted to hospital later, Monash University-led research has found. Timely attendance, particularly within 14 days of the seizure, was associated with reduced subsequent all-cause emergency presentations and all-cause hospital admission. Later hospital admissions were reduced by about 25%. First author Dr. Yingtong Li, an adjunct5-27-2024
CELL-TARGETING TECHNOLOGY CAN ISOLATE NEURONAL SUBPOPULATIONS AND LINK THEM TO BEHAVIORAL STATES
As gene sequencing technologies become more powerful, our understanding of cellular diversity has grown in parallel. This led scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to5-27-2024
WATCH OUT FOR THESE HIGH HEAT DANGER SIGNS
Climate change is pushing daytime summer temperatures higher for longer periods of time, and that can spell real danger for folks who work outside, like gardeners and landscapers. Protecting yourself in the heat and knowing the warning signs of heat-related illness is crucial, said Chris Enroth, horticulture educator at University of Illinois Extension. He should know: It happened to him. “When I was working as a landscaper, we had to sod a large backyard during a day when the temperature was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit,” Enroth said. “We were hustling5-27-2024
STAY SAFE FROM THE SUN AND THAT BACKYARD GRILL THIS MEMORIAL DAY
Memorial Day means firing up that backyard grill for the season, hopefully under warm, sunny skies. You can be sure to enjoy the day without hazards by taking a few simple precautions, said Dr. Mike Ren, an associate professor of family and community medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. Watch out for rising heat and humidity If Memorial day is a scorcher, hydration is key, Ren said. “A good rule of thumb is to drink water regularly throughout the day, aiming for 12 or more cups; when in5-27-2024
HAD A JOINT REPLACED? STUDY SUGGESTS INFECTION RISK MAY RISE AFTER CHEMOTHERAPY
If you’re one of the millions of Americans walking around with a new knee or hip, your odds for an infection in that joint rise if you ever have to undergo cancer chemotherapy, researchers report. “Given the number of people of receiving total joint replacements each year, as well as the cost both physically, emotionally and financially for those who develop an infection and may need subsequent treatment, we need to understand what factors may increase the risk for postoperative infections,” said study author Dr. Janet Conway. She’s an orthopedic5-27-2024
ANTIHYPERTENSIVES LINKED TO ECZEMATOUS DERMATITIS IN SENIORS, STUDY FINDS
Antihypertensive drugs are associated with an increased risk for eczematous dermatitis in older adults, and the effect sizes are largest for diuretics and calcium channel blockers, whether antihypertensive drug use is associated with eczematous dermatitis in a longitudinal cohort study of individuals aged 60 years and older without eczematous dermatitis at baseline. The researchers found that the overall prevalence of eczematous dermatitis was 6.7% among 1,561,3585-27-2024
RESEARCH INDICATES KIDNEYS FROM DECEASED DONORS WHO WERE ON DIALYSIS ARE SUBOPTIMAL
Receipt of a kidney from a deceased donor who underwent dialysis is associated with an increased incidence of delayed graft function, compared outcomes of transplant recipients who received kidneys from deceased donors who underwent dialysis prior to kidney donation versus recipients of kidneys from deceased donors who did not undergo dialysis in a retrospective cohort study using data from 58 U.S. organ procurement organizations. Among the donors with5-27-2024
NEW THERAPY PROVEN EFFECTIVE AGAINST REJECTION IN KIDNEY TRANSPLANTATION
Antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) is one of the most common causes of kidney transplant failure. To date, however, no treatment has proven effective in combating this complication in the long term. As part of an international and multidisciplinary clinical study led by Georg Böhmig and Katharina Mayer, Clinical Division of Nephrology and Dialysis, Department of Medicine III at MedUni Vienna and University Hospital Vienna, a new therapeutic principle in transplant medicine has been found to be both safe and highly effective. The results were recently published in the New England Journal5-27-2024
SHARJAH UNIVERSITY PATENTS APPLICATION FOR DISTANCE COVID-19 DIAGNOSIS
Smart Identification of Health Status based on QR Code and User Health Data. Credit: author’s own creation The University of Sharjah has been granted a patent for inventing a smart gadget with the ability to filter user information that will allow doctors to diagnose COVID-19 and other ailments from a distance. The patent, granted by United States Patent and Trademark Office on 1 August 2023, comprises “a display unit, a color code detection unit, an image filter, an optical character recognition unit, a code detection unit and an elimination unit,”5-27-2024
STUDY REVEALS WHERE DELAYS ARE WORST
When it comes to responding to a stroke, speed is a crucial factor; the longer it takes for someone experiencing a stroke to get to a hospital, the worse the outcome will be. Yet across the United States, delays to treatment can be significant. A Yale study uncovers new insights into factors associated with treatment delays and where in the United States patients are more likely to experience slower responses. The findings, which were published May 24 in the journal Stroke, highlight where interventions shouldNEW STUDY SHOWS HEAT WAVES INCREASE RISK OF PRETERM, EARLY-TERM BIRTH
The increased frequency and intensity of heat waves due to climate change puts women at a higher risk of experiencing preterm and early-term labor—jeopardizing the health and well-being of their babies. An analysis of 53 million births that occurred in the 50 most populous U.S. metropolitan areas during the 25-year period 1993–2017, showed5-27-2024
NOISE-CANCELLING HEADPHONES, EARPLUGS AND EARMUFFS—DO THEY REALLY HELP NEURODIVERGENT PEOPLE?
Noise can make it hard to concentrate, especially for people who are extra sensitive to it. Neurodivergent people (such as those who are autistic or have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder—ADHD) can experience different sensory sensitivities. Their nervous system may process information differently when they are exposed to sensory experiences such as bright lights, loud noise, strong smells or busy environments. Decreased sound tolerance is estimated to affect up to 70% of autistic people and is described in three ways: hyperacusis (perceiving everyday sounds as loud or painful), misophonia (an aversion to5-27-2024
MASSACHUSETTS SHELLS OUT NEARLY $400,000 FOR VACCINE RECORD CHECKS IN STATE-RUN SHELTERS
State officials have pumped nearly $400,000 into a program to review the vaccine records of families entering the emergency shelter system, including migrants from other countries who may have foreign documentation, according to the Healey administration. Officials at Boston-based John Snow, Inc., which has long worked with the state, have been contracted to review immunization documents. Since January, more than 1,200 children in state-run shelters have had their records checked, according to the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, or HHS. Vaccine record checks have occurred since September 20235-27-2024
LAWSUIT ACCUSES FLORIDA’S PALM BEACH COUNTY HOSPITAL NETWORK OF SHARING PATIENTS’ PRIVATE DATA
The Palm Beach Health Network has become the latest health provider accused of illegally sharing identities and private health information of its patients with the social media company Meta, owner of Facebook. A lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in West Palm Beach says the health network’s websites share code with Meta that enables patients to be targeted with advertising on Facebook based on “highly sensitive personal information” they share. It names as defendants the Palm Beach Health Network Physicians Group, doing business as Palm Beach Health Network, and5-27-2024
CAN THE PLACEMENT OF DENTAL IMPLANTS IN HEAD AND NECK CANCER PATIENTS BE DONE BEFORE RADIATION THERAPY?
Globally, head and neck cancer accounts for 5% of all cancer types, with a mortality rate of 50%. However, in the Nordic countries, head and neck cancer accounts for only 2.6% of all cancers, with a mortality rate of just 30%. But more survivors mean that many must live with extensive damage and side effects5-27-2024
STUDY FINDS CLIMATE CHANGE INCREASES RISK OF CRYPTOSPORIDIOSIS OUTBREAKS IN NEW ZEALAND
More cryptosporidiosis outbreaks could be on the cards for Aotearoa New Zealand as extreme rainfall events become more frequent, causing higher levels of the diarrhea-causing parasite to be washed into waterways, public health researchers warn. The researchers studied clusters of cryptosporidium outbreaks around the country between 1997 and 2015 and found 13 coincided with severe weather events. Their research is published in the journal Epidemiology & Infection. It is the first study to compare clusters of outbreaks of cryptosporidiosis to severe weather events in Aotearoa.5-27-2024
RESEARCHERS EVALUATE IMPACT OF NEW FILM’S MESSAGE ON CHILDREN’S AND ADULTS’ BODY IMAGE, SELF-COMPASSION
Unrealistic expectations about what our bodies should look like—whether from the media, friends or family—make adults and children of all ages more vulnerable to body dissatisfaction, eating disorders and other mental health challenges. In a new study published in Body Image, Flinders University experts assessing the program’s usefulness in classrooms highlight the potential for the film “Embrace Kids,” directed by 2023 Australian of the Year Taryn Brumfitt, to achieve large-scale improvements in body image5-27-2024
STUDY FINDS INCREASED SUICIDAL THOUGHTS, SUICIDE ATTEMPTS AMONG ADOLESCENTS EXPOSED TO EARLY PHASE OF WAR IN UKRAINE
Data Collection in the War-Affected Donetsk Region and Non-War Kirovograd Region. A new study carried out by a multinational research group showed high levels of suicidal thoughts and attempts in adolescents, which were strongly associated with wartime traumatic experiences, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety. Dr. Sanju Silwal from the Research Center for Child Psychiatry in the University of Turku, Finland, one of the lead authors, says that the study was conducted in two regions that5-27-2024
STUDY FINDS SIGNIFICANT DISPARITIES IN THE DELIVERY OF CANCER-RELATED CARE
It’s important to ensure that care provided at US hospitals that predominantly serve Black and Hispanic populations is as high-quality as the care provided at other US hospitals. New research reveals significant disparities in the delivery of cancer-related care at minority serving hospitals (MSHs) compared with non-MSHs, however. The findings are published in Cancer. For the study, investigators analyzed information from the National Cancer Database (which accrues approximately 70% of US cancer diagnoses) to identify patients eligible for definitive treatment for breast, prostate, non-small cell lung, and colon cancers between5-27-2024
WHO SEEKS $7 BN WITH FUND-RAISING REVAMP
The World Health Organization launched Sunday a new financing mechanism that aims to raise $7 billion of funds that can be deployed more quickly and flexibly. The UN agency has traditionally relied on commitments from its 194 member states, but often these are apportioned to specific projects with several conditions attached, including deadlines that can prove too short. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said commitment increases would contribute $4 billion to the agency’s budget of $11.1 billion over the four years through 2028. “The Investment Round aims to mobilize the5-27-2024
SECOND PERSON DIES OF CHOLERA ON FRENCH ISLAND OF MAYOTTE
Scanning electron microscope image of Vibrio cholerae. Credit: Wikipedia A 62-year-old woman has died of cholera in Mayotte, bringing to two the death toll from the epidemic on the French island in the Indian Ocean, health authorities said on Sunday. The woman died on Saturday at her home in Mamoudzou, the capital, the ARS health authority said in a statement. “Response teams went to the scene to disinfect the home and take care of the deceased’s family and friends”, the statement added. In May, the disease claimed its first life5-27-2024
ALTERING CELLULAR INTERACTIONS AROUND AMYLOID PLAQUES MAY OFFER NOVEL ALZHEIMER’S TREATMENT STRATEGIES
Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have made a significant breakthrough in Alzheimer’s disease research by identifying a novel way to potentially slow down or even halt disease progression. The study, which focuses on the role of reactive astrocytes and the plexin-B1 protein in Alzheimer’s pathophysiology, provides crucial insights into brain5-27-2024
BRAIN DAMAGE STUDY REVEALS PART OF THE BRAIN NECESSARY FOR HELPING OTHERS
Our willingness to help others is governed by a specific brain region pinpointed by researchers in a study of patients with brain damage to that region. Learning about where in the brain “helping” decisions are made is important for understanding how people might be motivated to tackle large global challenges, such as climate change, infectious disease and international conflict. It is also essential for finding new approaches to treating disorders of social interactions. The study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, was carried out by researchers at the University of Birmingham5-27-2024
IMPROVING AI LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS HELPS THEM BETTER ALIGN WITH HUMAN BRAIN ACTIVITY
NSP as a computational account of discourse comprehension. (A) Humans integrate words and sentences to achieve a full understanding of discourse. In LLMs, the NSP task proposed by BERT can serve as a computational account of human discourse comprehension. (B) Illustration of the MLM task. (C) Illustration of the NSP task and its relevance to the Mason and Just model. (D) Illustration of Mason and Just’s neurocognitive model of discourse processing. Credit: Science Advances (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adn7744 With generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) transforming the social interaction landscape in recent years,5-27-2024
STUDY EXAMINES METABOLIC REPROGRAMMING OF BREAST CANCER TUMORS DURING NEOADJUVANT CHEMOTHERAPY
In a study published in Nature Communications, scientists have made significant strides in understanding the complex interplay between the immune system and cancer metabolism in breast cancer treatment. The research5-27-2024
RESEARCHERS EXAMINE EVIDENCE FOR A NOVEL NEURONAL MECHANISM DRIVING ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE
An international team of clinicians and neuroscientists have published a new perspective on the process of neurodegeneration. Their findings review evidence for a mechanism upstream of amyloid including the key neurochemical driving this process. The paper, published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, focuses on a selective group of neurons (“the isodendritic core”). These cells have a different provenance from neurons in the rest of the brain and have previously been identified as primarilyThe research, by a team from Finland’s University of Helsinki, National Institute for Health and Welfare, and Turku University of Applied Sciences, is published in
5-27-2024
WHO CHIEF URGES COUNTRIES TO QUICKLY SEAL PANDEMIC DEAL
WHO countries have spent two years seeking an agreement on tackling pandemics. The World Health Organization chief on Monday urged countries to nail down a landmark global agreement on handling of future pandemics after they missed a hard deadline. Scarred by COVID-19—which killed millions, shredded economies and crippled health systems—nations have spent two years trying to forge binding commitments on pandemic prevention, preparedness and response. Negotiators failed to clinch a deal ahead of this week’s World Health Assembly—the annual gathering of WHO’s 194 member states—the deadline for concluding the talks.5-27-2024
STUDY DEMONSTRATES HOW GUT MICROBES PROCESS STEROIDS—USING FLATULENCE
It turns out flatulence can serve a purpose beyond being uncomfortable or funny: Gas released by some gut bacteria stimulates other gut bacteria to produce a hormone involved in pregnancy and in an FDA-approved treatment for postpartum depression, according to new research led by Harvard Medical School scientists. The work shows how gut bacteria can produce new hormones from steroids in bile and, in doing so, act like an endocrine organ. This research adds to the growing list of ways gut microbiota may influence human5-27-2024
PHYSICAL FRAILTY MAY PUT PEOPLE AT GREATER RISK OF DEPRESSION, STUDY FINDS
Individuals who meet at least one of the criteria for physical frailty are at higher risk of also developing depression, a new Yale study finds. The findings—which also include insights into the specific inflammatory molecules and changes in brain structure that could underlie this association between frailty and depression—point to a need for routine assessment of physical frailty in clinical practice, researchers said. The study was published May 23 in Nature Communications. In clinical settings, physical5-27-2024
RESEARCH TEAM RESOLVES STRUCTURE OF CRUCIAL ENZYME FOR THE FIRST TIME
For the first time, a team co-led by CHU Sainte-Justine researcher and professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Université de Montréal, Alexey Pshezhetsky has succeeded in resolving the unique structure of the HGSNAT enzyme, a deficiency of which causes Sanfilippo syndrome, a rare pediatric disease affecting the central nervous system. Through collaboration with a team from Shanghai University, the structure of this enzyme and the mechanism of its function were revealed using high-performance2024.05.28 22:02 QueasyTemporary778 Struggling and need advice
*throwaway account * Backstory I’ve been doing hair for 7 years now. I was doing really well at a salon in downtown where I live. Worked there for 5 years but after the pandemic and a few riots that happened on the same street. (A building on the same street was set on fire and first floor businesses were broken into, not the salon since it was on the second floor) after that a lot of clients stopped coming to the salon either for financial reasons or Not feeling safe downtown anymore.
After that the salon kind of stopped caring about employees and focused on getting money no matter what. Honestly they even hired way too many stylists for the amount of chairs. They ended up cutting our shifts in half to the point none of use were making a living wage. They let clients treat us horribly and wanted us to do services that they didn’t even offer education on but still wanted us to do, etc.
After 2 years waiting for it to get better like we were promised, I decided to leave. Us stylists were making about or less than $13,000 a year. (I lived back at home from 2018-2022) I was done and they offered no help at all for gaining the salon’s reputation back after they ruined it during the pandemic.
I shadowed a different salon that was more of a luxury salon. Meet a lot of the girls there and at the time they all seemed like they were all thriving. Making $40,000+ their first year working there. Seemed like the perfect place, payed for continuing education, stylist werent struggling financially, everyone seemed nice/supportive. The owner was going to let me current clients keep the prices they were use to and have new clients pay the new salon prices.
Boy was I wrong. Ended up being the worst decision Ive ever made. The first 2 months seemed fine but after that I lost a lot of my clientele due to my bosses lies and how toxic the environment was. My family keep telling me to just keep at the new place and things will work out.
My boss started bullying me and my clients. Gave me food that i was highly allergic to and said it was free of my allergens. Have black outs for an entire week or more. Would throw away my things, talk shit about me to my clients, had other girls bully me, had one girl physically run over my body in the parking lot, started stealing money from my paychecks. We only got 1 day off a week and even then she had mandatory team builds on that one day off. I could write a novel on all the things she did to me but thats not the point of this story.
I didn’t know what to do at the point because i was finally making a somewhat livable wage for the first time in 2 years. Plus i had just moved out of my family’s house and in with my boyfriend. It got so bad To the point she was threatening me and i would leave crying every day. (She literally made so many of us suicidal and often body shamed us, etc)
Finally 2 days before my one year anniversary there I noticed my upcoming appointments were being cancelled like crazy. I went in to look and apparently the boss was canceling all my appointments. That day I packed up my shit and left for good. Sent out emails that night letting my clients know and that until i found a new home I was more than willing to do home calls or rent a spot on days of there appointments.
I had over 60+ clients being super supportive and wanting to follow me. It ended up taking me a month before I found a place and another month of sharing with someone until they were able to move into a bigger place. I decided to do a salon suite because I honestly could not deal with the abuse from working at a salon. Plus had a large number of clients willing to follow. Turns out my old boss had been bad mouthing me on the salons social media, was sending out emails stating that I no longer do hair or telling clients that I was absolutely unstable. Had currently employees posted pictures of me on their business social medias making fun of me and telling people not to visit me, etc. I suddenly had a few old clients messaging me saying to block their number and never contact them.
Old boss just shut down the salon 3 months ago after everyone left to open up suites as well because of her abuse. Currently has lawsuits against her and might possibly be a flight risk.
She really made my business suffer a lot. Clients are slowly coming back upon seeing the way she treated me. But the damage has been done. I haven’t been getting anything that is social media worthy so I haven’t been posting a lot of before and afters but im still posting availability, tips and tricks and open up the salon with me.
I’ve also been posting in facebook groups in the area as well. Im not sure what else to do. A lot of people in my area just care if their stylist is insta or tiktok famous so they can get clout.
Im not sure what to do, ive taken out a loan to pay for the rent and my significant other as taken on alot of the bills around the apartment but I feel almost worthless at this point. I had such a good clientele until the last salon. I feel like its really taken a toll on the relationship. Though he says it hasn’t but i feel like I cant help contribute like i use to. Any ideas for marketing or bring in more clientele? Should i re brand or should i give up the industry? I’ve had my salon suite since October.
TLDR: old boss abused and ruined my reputation and now im in a suite struggling and old salon has been shut down due to all employees leaving/ has lawsuits against her.
submitted by QueasyTemporary778 to hairstylist [link] [comments]
After that the salon kind of stopped caring about employees and focused on getting money no matter what. Honestly they even hired way too many stylists for the amount of chairs. They ended up cutting our shifts in half to the point none of use were making a living wage. They let clients treat us horribly and wanted us to do services that they didn’t even offer education on but still wanted us to do, etc.
After 2 years waiting for it to get better like we were promised, I decided to leave. Us stylists were making about or less than $13,000 a year. (I lived back at home from 2018-2022) I was done and they offered no help at all for gaining the salon’s reputation back after they ruined it during the pandemic.
I shadowed a different salon that was more of a luxury salon. Meet a lot of the girls there and at the time they all seemed like they were all thriving. Making $40,000+ their first year working there. Seemed like the perfect place, payed for continuing education, stylist werent struggling financially, everyone seemed nice/supportive. The owner was going to let me current clients keep the prices they were use to and have new clients pay the new salon prices.
Boy was I wrong. Ended up being the worst decision Ive ever made. The first 2 months seemed fine but after that I lost a lot of my clientele due to my bosses lies and how toxic the environment was. My family keep telling me to just keep at the new place and things will work out.
My boss started bullying me and my clients. Gave me food that i was highly allergic to and said it was free of my allergens. Have black outs for an entire week or more. Would throw away my things, talk shit about me to my clients, had other girls bully me, had one girl physically run over my body in the parking lot, started stealing money from my paychecks. We only got 1 day off a week and even then she had mandatory team builds on that one day off. I could write a novel on all the things she did to me but thats not the point of this story.
I didn’t know what to do at the point because i was finally making a somewhat livable wage for the first time in 2 years. Plus i had just moved out of my family’s house and in with my boyfriend. It got so bad To the point she was threatening me and i would leave crying every day. (She literally made so many of us suicidal and often body shamed us, etc)
Finally 2 days before my one year anniversary there I noticed my upcoming appointments were being cancelled like crazy. I went in to look and apparently the boss was canceling all my appointments. That day I packed up my shit and left for good. Sent out emails that night letting my clients know and that until i found a new home I was more than willing to do home calls or rent a spot on days of there appointments.
I had over 60+ clients being super supportive and wanting to follow me. It ended up taking me a month before I found a place and another month of sharing with someone until they were able to move into a bigger place. I decided to do a salon suite because I honestly could not deal with the abuse from working at a salon. Plus had a large number of clients willing to follow. Turns out my old boss had been bad mouthing me on the salons social media, was sending out emails stating that I no longer do hair or telling clients that I was absolutely unstable. Had currently employees posted pictures of me on their business social medias making fun of me and telling people not to visit me, etc. I suddenly had a few old clients messaging me saying to block their number and never contact them.
Old boss just shut down the salon 3 months ago after everyone left to open up suites as well because of her abuse. Currently has lawsuits against her and might possibly be a flight risk.
She really made my business suffer a lot. Clients are slowly coming back upon seeing the way she treated me. But the damage has been done. I haven’t been getting anything that is social media worthy so I haven’t been posting a lot of before and afters but im still posting availability, tips and tricks and open up the salon with me.
I’ve also been posting in facebook groups in the area as well. Im not sure what else to do. A lot of people in my area just care if their stylist is insta or tiktok famous so they can get clout.
Im not sure what to do, ive taken out a loan to pay for the rent and my significant other as taken on alot of the bills around the apartment but I feel almost worthless at this point. I had such a good clientele until the last salon. I feel like its really taken a toll on the relationship. Though he says it hasn’t but i feel like I cant help contribute like i use to. Any ideas for marketing or bring in more clientele? Should i re brand or should i give up the industry? I’ve had my salon suite since October.
TLDR: old boss abused and ruined my reputation and now im in a suite struggling and old salon has been shut down due to all employees leaving/ has lawsuits against her.
2024.05.28 19:27 seraleev_viktor How to Generate $3,000 Per Day with Mobile Apps, and Lose Everything in a Flash Thanks to Apple
Four years ago, I decided to launch a startup and began creating my own mobile apps. On September 20 last year, they started bringing in over $3,000 a day (90% of which was on iOS). The very next day, Apple removed all my apps from the App Store and blocked my account.
I sent appeals, showed evidence, screenshots, and even sent a pre-trial claim, but was mostly ignored. Now I've filed a lawsuit against Apple, and for now, the iOS market is a no-go fpr me.
I want to speak out, but I don’t want to complain. Instead, I can share how simple ideas brought me good profits. Maybe someone will be interested and avoid making my mistakes.
First idea
The first app was super simple - you upload two before/after images and get a short video with a slide effect.
First version of the app
My wife, who was a nail tech at the time, suggested the idea because she wanted to create content to attract clients. She couldn't find any apps for creating before/after videos in the App Store. I didn’t believe her, we almost ended up arguing, and I went searching to prove her wrong. Turns out, she was right (as always).
I persuaded a friend to help develop the app. It was 2019, we spent a couple of months developing it, and within a year, it was bringing in $100-200 a month. My friend thought the idea was unworkable, so I bought out his share for a token amount.
This happened on February 26, 2020, right at my 30th birthday party. I sold a stake in a common startup and used part of the money to buy out my partner’s share in the before/after app. I had about $10k in my pocket.
The next day after the party, I sat down to redesign the app and think through new functionality.
First takeoff
I was lucky to quickly find a talented and affordable freelancer. We rebuilt the app almost from scratch in 1.5 months, costing me $2,000.
What we did:
Before this update, the app gained a couple of hundred montly downloads in its first year. But a week after the new version was released, there was a surge in organics.
Around the same time, I hired a marketing specialist for $400/month who launched the first ad. And boy, did it take off. We spent $200-300 on the first campaign, and within a month, I was maxing out my credit card to buy ads. All campaigns paid off. We used only one source, Apple Search Ads.
Search Ads doesn't have extensive targeting options, so we didn't fully understand who our target users were. Then we were contacted by an influencer saying “let’s launch a dog grooming contest.” It wasn’t very clear who would be interested in that, but no problem, let’s do it.
As a prize, we gave away premium access to our app, just three promo codes. The return from the contest was phenomenal. It brought in $2,000 net, and I discovered a whole new world. A huge number of people are willing to invest any amount in their beloved doggos to brag about the results through our app. I was shocked that a simple idea like this one worked SO well.
After the contest, we doubled for three more months in a row, and then reached a stable growth of 20-30% per month.
Screenshot from App Store Connect
I still remember the moment I woke up, picked up my phone, and the app had earned a thousand dollars overnight for the first time. I was psyched, thanking the universe, the users, Apple, and the iPhone itself.
Six months after the redesign, the app was bringing in about 200 times more than the original mark, $34k instead of $100-200 a month. $25k on iOS and $9k on Android (the Android version was made three months after the redesign).
As a result, I started receiving offers to purchase the app. I refused until I heard, “name the price.” I don’t know why, but I said $410k and after five days, I received that amount into my account.
It seemed like an unimaginable amount of money to me; I couldn’t believe what was happening. Only two years later did I realize the real value of the app at that time was at least $1 million. You know how it goes, do as I say, not as I do.
To tell you more, the app’s still alive and it’s making good money without any updates. It paid for itself in 8 months and has been deep in the green ever since.
I planned to continue making apps with this money, thinking I could expand. It’s going to be smooth sailing from here on out, right? Absolutely not.
Landing
In 2021, my family and I moved to Chile, where we still live. We like it here, it's a beautiful country, pur children are growing up here, our daughter was born here, and we want to get Chilean passports. I sold everything back home - a car, an apartment, a plot of land, all my stuff.
I started chasing my dream of making a serious video editing app. I thought, now I have money, I'll start figuring out a "real" app. Life is beautiful and amazing.
I hired new devs and went to work for a year and a half. The first release turned out to be a failure: organic users never came, and the cost of attracting one user never fell below $10. Competing with the free CapCut was impossible.
There were also parallel attempts to make other things. For example, an app for designing your Instagram feed. The first version of the app was growing great, but I thought with new features like collaboration and delayed auto-publishing, I'd find the key to success.
However, reality was harsh. I spent six months just communicating with Facebook to gain access to the API methods I needed, only to find that Facebook kept changing things on the inside, making the app’s features unusable.
In the end, I didn’t even earn $1,000. I spent almost all my money working tirelessly, but nothing ever took off.
Insights and the crash
Crisis makes you think. I realized my strength was in niche apps and decided to return to where I started: small apps covering specific needs without any unnecessary noise.
I made the Boomerang app, regardless of the fact that Instagram already had this feature. But I made a separate app, and it started to grow.
There was also an app filled with beautiful fonts for designing social media posts. An app for creating Reels. Once I realized my strengths, things started to look up again. I returned to the idea of collages. Every app began to make money. Whew!
Screenshot from my company website
Overall, the account had six apps with an above 4.5 stars average App Store rating. On August 21, 2023, I received a notification from Apple that they had removed my app from the App Store and were going to shut down my account if I did not correct the violations within 30 days. Not any specific violations, just “violations.”
I sent Apple evidence, screenshots, and offered access to the source files, but I was either ignored completely pr got an auto-reply. I was sure this was just some kind of mistake and waited for an answer. We continued to make updates and worked on new features. On September 20, the apps earned more than $3,000 in 24 hours for the first time and were removed by Apple the next day.
Payments were suspended, and I had $110,000 left in my account.
I was stunned.
The first appeal was rejected, the reasons for the blocking were unknown, and it was unclear what to do. I immediately submitted a second appeal. Eight weeks of silence and again a refusal.
I lost everything I worked for in a single day..
I started a petition on Change.org and shared my story in a tweet that gained significant traction. Someone from Twitter published my story on Hacker News; it became #1, collecting more than 400 comments. I received hundreds of support messages in my dms, and only then did Apple finally send an explanation.
According to them, my account was frozen “for association with a previously closed fraudulent account.” Of course, I had no connection with fraudulent accounts, otherwise I wouldn’t even be sharing the story in the first place. The only positive reaction to the hype was the return of $110,000.
I started my little investigation. The “fraudulent” account may have turned out to be my old account, which once contained the first app for creating before/after videos. The very same thing that started it all. I continued to pay $99 for this account because it is dear to me, it’s nostalgic and a part of my life.
Just before it was closed, I tried to publish a card game based on the popular game Never Have I Ever on this account. This concept seemed ideal for me to master interface solutions when moving from Swift UIKit to Swift UI.
But recently, other things have come to light. We found a company of former partners with an identical name to mine. Apparently, Apple connected me with this company that I didn't even know existed. But I can’t know for sure because there is no feedback from the corporation. Any letters with any arguments and documents are ignored.
I had to sue, but that’s a whole other big story. Communication with Apple is gfar from being related to development; maybe I’ll tell you about it someday.
What's next and what about other stores
90% of our profits came through Apple. We're now fully focused on Android and have grown 4x in 8 months, but it's still not enough to cover all development costs. I don’t make enough money to continue supporting the team. We're holding out for now because finding developers who understand graphics and video is difficult (by the way, a good niche for devs who are not sure what to try next).
The growth on Android is also related to the market's quirks: the Android audience is many times larger than the number of iPhone users, but not every Android can render a new video from 12 frames.
Back to my story. Next will be a trial, petitions, and pleas. I hope my experience will be useful to someone because I am not the first and, most likely, not the last to find myself in this situation. Corporations don't care about individual developers. Even if they are left with nothing.
It might sound trivial, but don’t put all your eggs in one basket. The larger the corporation, the less attention it will pay to you. With Apple, after blocking, you lose the opportunity to even talk to support on the phone. Text appeals only.
In fact, I communicated with the answering machine for a whole month until I was blocked. At any moment, you can lose everything you have - your account, apps, users. With the snap of a finger, what you thought belonged to you will disappear.
The only thing I realized is that only public discussion of the problem and the courts can somehow induce them to change their policy towards developers.
In the meantime, I’ll go get ready for the next update.
submitted by seraleev_viktor to Entrepreneur [link] [comments]
I sent appeals, showed evidence, screenshots, and even sent a pre-trial claim, but was mostly ignored. Now I've filed a lawsuit against Apple, and for now, the iOS market is a no-go fpr me.
I want to speak out, but I don’t want to complain. Instead, I can share how simple ideas brought me good profits. Maybe someone will be interested and avoid making my mistakes.
First idea
The first app was super simple - you upload two before/after images and get a short video with a slide effect.
First version of the app
My wife, who was a nail tech at the time, suggested the idea because she wanted to create content to attract clients. She couldn't find any apps for creating before/after videos in the App Store. I didn’t believe her, we almost ended up arguing, and I went searching to prove her wrong. Turns out, she was right (as always).
I persuaded a friend to help develop the app. It was 2019, we spent a couple of months developing it, and within a year, it was bringing in $100-200 a month. My friend thought the idea was unworkable, so I bought out his share for a token amount.
This happened on February 26, 2020, right at my 30th birthday party. I sold a stake in a common startup and used part of the money to buy out my partner’s share in the before/after app. I had about $10k in my pocket.
The next day after the party, I sat down to redesign the app and think through new functionality.
First takeoff
I was lucky to quickly find a talented and affordable freelancer. We rebuilt the app almost from scratch in 1.5 months, costing me $2,000.
What we did:
- Redesign
- New transitions, like diagonal ones
- Ability to customize animation speed
- Added effects settings: transition thickness, color, neon, etc.
- Ability to add music
- Ability to add text
- Added support for stickers
- Updated the store page: description, screenshots, icon
- Localized the app for all available languages in the App Store
Before this update, the app gained a couple of hundred montly downloads in its first year. But a week after the new version was released, there was a surge in organics.
Around the same time, I hired a marketing specialist for $400/month who launched the first ad. And boy, did it take off. We spent $200-300 on the first campaign, and within a month, I was maxing out my credit card to buy ads. All campaigns paid off. We used only one source, Apple Search Ads.
Search Ads doesn't have extensive targeting options, so we didn't fully understand who our target users were. Then we were contacted by an influencer saying “let’s launch a dog grooming contest.” It wasn’t very clear who would be interested in that, but no problem, let’s do it.
As a prize, we gave away premium access to our app, just three promo codes. The return from the contest was phenomenal. It brought in $2,000 net, and I discovered a whole new world. A huge number of people are willing to invest any amount in their beloved doggos to brag about the results through our app. I was shocked that a simple idea like this one worked SO well.
After the contest, we doubled for three more months in a row, and then reached a stable growth of 20-30% per month.
Screenshot from App Store Connect
I still remember the moment I woke up, picked up my phone, and the app had earned a thousand dollars overnight for the first time. I was psyched, thanking the universe, the users, Apple, and the iPhone itself.
Six months after the redesign, the app was bringing in about 200 times more than the original mark, $34k instead of $100-200 a month. $25k on iOS and $9k on Android (the Android version was made three months after the redesign).
As a result, I started receiving offers to purchase the app. I refused until I heard, “name the price.” I don’t know why, but I said $410k and after five days, I received that amount into my account.
It seemed like an unimaginable amount of money to me; I couldn’t believe what was happening. Only two years later did I realize the real value of the app at that time was at least $1 million. You know how it goes, do as I say, not as I do.
To tell you more, the app’s still alive and it’s making good money without any updates. It paid for itself in 8 months and has been deep in the green ever since.
I planned to continue making apps with this money, thinking I could expand. It’s going to be smooth sailing from here on out, right? Absolutely not.
Landing
In 2021, my family and I moved to Chile, where we still live. We like it here, it's a beautiful country, pur children are growing up here, our daughter was born here, and we want to get Chilean passports. I sold everything back home - a car, an apartment, a plot of land, all my stuff.
I started chasing my dream of making a serious video editing app. I thought, now I have money, I'll start figuring out a "real" app. Life is beautiful and amazing.
I hired new devs and went to work for a year and a half. The first release turned out to be a failure: organic users never came, and the cost of attracting one user never fell below $10. Competing with the free CapCut was impossible.
There were also parallel attempts to make other things. For example, an app for designing your Instagram feed. The first version of the app was growing great, but I thought with new features like collaboration and delayed auto-publishing, I'd find the key to success.
However, reality was harsh. I spent six months just communicating with Facebook to gain access to the API methods I needed, only to find that Facebook kept changing things on the inside, making the app’s features unusable.
In the end, I didn’t even earn $1,000. I spent almost all my money working tirelessly, but nothing ever took off.
Insights and the crash
Crisis makes you think. I realized my strength was in niche apps and decided to return to where I started: small apps covering specific needs without any unnecessary noise.
I made the Boomerang app, regardless of the fact that Instagram already had this feature. But I made a separate app, and it started to grow.
There was also an app filled with beautiful fonts for designing social media posts. An app for creating Reels. Once I realized my strengths, things started to look up again. I returned to the idea of collages. Every app began to make money. Whew!
Screenshot from my company website
Overall, the account had six apps with an above 4.5 stars average App Store rating. On August 21, 2023, I received a notification from Apple that they had removed my app from the App Store and were going to shut down my account if I did not correct the violations within 30 days. Not any specific violations, just “violations.”
I sent Apple evidence, screenshots, and offered access to the source files, but I was either ignored completely pr got an auto-reply. I was sure this was just some kind of mistake and waited for an answer. We continued to make updates and worked on new features. On September 20, the apps earned more than $3,000 in 24 hours for the first time and were removed by Apple the next day.
Payments were suspended, and I had $110,000 left in my account.
I was stunned.
The first appeal was rejected, the reasons for the blocking were unknown, and it was unclear what to do. I immediately submitted a second appeal. Eight weeks of silence and again a refusal.
I lost everything I worked for in a single day..
I started a petition on Change.org and shared my story in a tweet that gained significant traction. Someone from Twitter published my story on Hacker News; it became #1, collecting more than 400 comments. I received hundreds of support messages in my dms, and only then did Apple finally send an explanation.
According to them, my account was frozen “for association with a previously closed fraudulent account.” Of course, I had no connection with fraudulent accounts, otherwise I wouldn’t even be sharing the story in the first place. The only positive reaction to the hype was the return of $110,000.
I started my little investigation. The “fraudulent” account may have turned out to be my old account, which once contained the first app for creating before/after videos. The very same thing that started it all. I continued to pay $99 for this account because it is dear to me, it’s nostalgic and a part of my life.
Just before it was closed, I tried to publish a card game based on the popular game Never Have I Ever on this account. This concept seemed ideal for me to master interface solutions when moving from Swift UIKit to Swift UI.
But recently, other things have come to light. We found a company of former partners with an identical name to mine. Apparently, Apple connected me with this company that I didn't even know existed. But I can’t know for sure because there is no feedback from the corporation. Any letters with any arguments and documents are ignored.
I had to sue, but that’s a whole other big story. Communication with Apple is gfar from being related to development; maybe I’ll tell you about it someday.
What's next and what about other stores
90% of our profits came through Apple. We're now fully focused on Android and have grown 4x in 8 months, but it's still not enough to cover all development costs. I don’t make enough money to continue supporting the team. We're holding out for now because finding developers who understand graphics and video is difficult (by the way, a good niche for devs who are not sure what to try next).
The growth on Android is also related to the market's quirks: the Android audience is many times larger than the number of iPhone users, but not every Android can render a new video from 12 frames.
Back to my story. Next will be a trial, petitions, and pleas. I hope my experience will be useful to someone because I am not the first and, most likely, not the last to find myself in this situation. Corporations don't care about individual developers. Even if they are left with nothing.
It might sound trivial, but don’t put all your eggs in one basket. The larger the corporation, the less attention it will pay to you. With Apple, after blocking, you lose the opportunity to even talk to support on the phone. Text appeals only.
In fact, I communicated with the answering machine for a whole month until I was blocked. At any moment, you can lose everything you have - your account, apps, users. With the snap of a finger, what you thought belonged to you will disappear.
The only thing I realized is that only public discussion of the problem and the courts can somehow induce them to change their policy towards developers.
In the meantime, I’ll go get ready for the next update.
2024.05.28 19:01 seraleev_viktor How to create mobile apps that make $3,000 a day
 | Four years ago, I decided to launch a startup and began creating my own mobile apps. On September 20 last year, they started bringing in over $3,000 a day (90% of which was on iOS). The very next day, Apple removed all my apps from the App Store and blocked my account. submitted by seraleev_viktor to iOSProgramming [link] [comments] I sent appeals, showed evidence, screenshots, and even sent a pre-trial claim, but was mostly ignored. Now I've filed a lawsuit against Apple, and for now, the iOS market is a no-go fpr me. I want to speak out, but I don’t want to complain. Instead, I can share how simple ideas brought me good profits. Maybe someone will be interested and avoid making my mistakes. First idea The first app was super simple - you upload two before/after images and get a short video with a slide effect. First version of the app My wife, who was a nail tech at the time, suggested the idea because she wanted to create content to attract clients. She couldn't find any apps for creating before/after videos in the App Store. I didn’t believe her, we almost ended up arguing, and I went searching to prove her wrong. Turns out, she was right (as always). I persuaded a friend to help develop the app. It was 2019, we spent a couple of months developing it, and within a year, it was bringing in $100-200 a month. My friend thought the idea was unworkable, so I bought out his share for a token amount. This happened on February 26, 2020, right at my 30th birthday party. I sold a stake in a common startup and used part of the money to buy out my partner’s share in the before/after app. I had about $10k in my pocket. The next day after the party, I sat down to redesign the app and think through new functionality. First takeoff I was lucky to quickly find a talented and affordable freelancer. We rebuilt the app almost from scratch in 1.5 months, costing me $2,000. What we did:
Before this update, the app gained a couple of hundred montly downloads in its first year. But a week after the new version was released, there was a surge in organics. Around the same time, I hired a marketing specialist for $400/month who launched the first ad. And boy, did it take off. We spent $200-300 on the first campaign, and within a month, I was maxing out my credit card to buy ads. All campaigns paid off. We used only one source, Apple Search Ads. Search Ads doesn't have extensive targeting options, so we didn't fully understand who our target users were. Then we were contacted by an influencer saying “let’s launch a dog grooming contest.” It wasn’t very clear who would be interested in that, but no problem, let’s do it. As a prize, we gave away premium access to our app, just three promo codes. The return from the contest was phenomenal. It brought in $2,000 net, and I discovered a whole new world. A huge number of people are willing to invest any amount in their beloved doggos to brag about the results through our app. I was shocked that a simple idea like this one worked SO well. After the contest, we doubled for three more months in a row, and then reached a stable growth of 20-30% per month. Screenshot from App Store Connect I still remember the moment I woke up, picked up my phone, and the app had earned a thousand dollars overnight for the first time. I was psyched, thanking the universe, the users, Apple, and the iPhone itself. Six months after the redesign, the app was bringing in about 200 times more than the original mark, $34k instead of $100-200 a month. $25k on iOS and $9k on Android (the Android version was made three months after the redesign). As a result, I started receiving offers to purchase the app. I refused until I heard, “name the price.” I don’t know why, but I said $410k and after five days, I received that amount into my account. It seemed like an unimaginable amount of money to me; I couldn’t believe what was happening. Only two years later did I realize the real value of the app at that time was at least $1 million. You know how it goes, do as I say, not as I do. To tell you more, the app’s still alive and it’s making good money without any updates. It paid for itself in 8 months and has been deep in the green ever since. I planned to continue making apps with this money, thinking I could expand. It’s going to be smooth sailing from here on out, right? Absolutely not. Landing In 2021, my family and I moved to Chile, where we still live. We like it here, it's a beautiful country, pur children are growing up here, our daughter was born here, and we want to get Chilean passports. I sold everything back home - a car, an apartment, a plot of land, all my stuff. I started chasing my dream of making a serious video editing app. I thought, now I have money, I'll start figuring out a "real" app. Life is beautiful and amazing. I hired new devs and went to work for a year and a half. The first release turned out to be a failure: organic users never came, and the cost of attracting one user never fell below $10. Competing with the free CapCut was impossible. There were also parallel attempts to make other things. For example, an app for designing your Instagram feed. The first version of the app was growing great, but I thought with new features like collaboration and delayed auto-publishing, I'd find the key to success. However, reality was harsh. I spent six months just communicating with Facebook to gain access to the API methods I needed, only to find that Facebook kept changing things on the inside, making the app’s features unusable. In the end, I didn’t even earn $1,000. I spent almost all my money working tirelessly, but nothing ever took off. Insights and the crash Crisis makes you think. I realized my strength was in niche apps and decided to return to where I started: small apps covering specific needs without any unnecessary noise. I made the Boomerang app, regardless of the fact that Instagram already had this feature. But I made a separate app, and it started to grow. There was also an app filled with beautiful fonts for designing social media posts. An app for creating Reels. Once I realized my strengths, things started to look up again. I returned to the idea of collages. Every app began to make money. Whew! Screenshot from my company website Overall, the account had six apps with an above 4.5 stars average App Store rating. On August 21, 2023, I received a notification from Apple that they had removed my app from the App Store and were going to shut down my account if I did not correct the violations within 30 days. Not any specific violations, just “violations.” I sent Apple evidence, screenshots, and offered access to the source files, but I was either ignored completely pr got an auto-reply. I was sure this was just some kind of mistake and waited for an answer. We continued to make updates and worked on new features. On September 20, the apps earned more than $3,000 in 24 hours for the first time and were removed by Apple the next day. Payments were suspended, and I had $110,000 left in my account. I was stunned. The first appeal was rejected, the reasons for the blocking were unknown, and it was unclear what to do. I immediately submitted a second appeal. Eight weeks of silence and again a refusal. I lost everything I worked for in a single day.. I started a petition on Change.org and shared my story in a tweet that gained significant traction. Someone from Twitter published my story on Hacker News; it became #1, collecting more than 400 comments. I received hundreds of support messages in my dms, and only then did Apple finally send an explanation. According to them, my account was frozen “for association with a previously closed fraudulent account.” Of course, I had no connection with fraudulent accounts, otherwise I wouldn’t even be sharing the story in the first place. The only positive reaction to the hype was the return of $110,000. I started my little investigation. The “fraudulent” account may have turned out to be my old account, which once contained the first app for creating before/after videos. The very same thing that started it all. I continued to pay $99 for this account because it is dear to me, it’s nostalgic and a part of my life. Just before it was closed, I tried to publish a card game based on the popular game Never Have I Ever on this account. This concept seemed ideal for me to master interface solutions when moving from Swift UIKit to Swift UI. But recently, other things have come to light. We found a company of former partners with an identical name to mine. Apparently, Apple connected me with this company that I didn't even know existed. But I can’t know for sure because there is no feedback from the corporation. Any letters with any arguments and documents are ignored. I had to sue, but that’s a whole other big story. Communication with Apple is gfar from being related to development; maybe I’ll tell you about it someday. What's next and what about other stores 90% of our profits came through Apple. We're now fully focused on Android and have grown 4x in 8 months, but it's still not enough to cover all development costs. I don’t make enough money to continue supporting the team. We're holding out for now because finding developers who understand graphics and video is difficult (by the way, a good niche for devs who are not sure what to try next). The growth on Android is also related to the market's quirks: the Android audience is many times larger than the number of iPhone users, but not every Android can render a new video from 12 frames. Back to my story. Next will be a trial, petitions, and pleas. I hope my experience will be useful to someone because I am not the first and, most likely, not the last to find myself in this situation. Corporations don't care about individual developers. Even if they are left with nothing. It might sound trivial, but don’t put all your eggs in one basket. The larger the corporation, the less attention it will pay to you. With Apple, after blocking, you lose the opportunity to even talk to support on the phone. Text appeals only. In fact, I communicated with the answering machine for a whole month until I was blocked. At any moment, you can lose everything you have - your account, apps, users. With the snap of a finger, what you thought belonged to you will disappear. The only thing I realized is that only public discussion of the problem and the courts can somehow induce them to change their policy towards developers. In the meantime, I’ll go get ready for the next update. |
2024.05.28 16:21 KateVirginiaLivin New York Times Historical Archives - The Same Articles Over the Decades
I've gone down the rabbit hole on the New York Times online archive and it's amazing how little is there before the big "expose" in 2017. There are ZERO articles relating to some of the most widely reported UFO stories like Kenneth Arnold's Mount Ranier sighting. The first reference to the Roswell crash is a 1987 article is a culture piece about people's interest in UFOs.
Below is a long article from 1979 that could have been written today. The same misinformation from the government, the same promise to make a more scientific study (while promising that that study had not already been taking place....)
The Defense Department message bears the classification CONFIDENTIAL. “Subject: Suspicious Unknown Air Activity.” Dated Nov. 11, 1975, it reads:
“Since 28 Oct 75 numerous reports of suspicious objects have been received at the NORAD COC [North American Air Defense Combat Operations Center]. Reliable military personnel at Loring AFB [Air Force Base], Maine, Wurtsmith AFB, Michigan, Malmstrom AFB, [Montana], Minot AFB, [North Dakota], and Canadian Forces Station, Falconbridge, Ontario, Canada, have visually sighted suspicious objects.
“Objects at Loring and Wurtsmith were characterized to be helicopters. Missile site personnel, security alert teams and Air Defense personnel at Malmstrom Montana reported object which sounded like a jet aircraft. FAA advised ‘There were no jet aircraft in the vicinity.’ Malmstrom search and height finder radars carried the object between 9,000 ft and 15,600 ft at a speed of seven knots. ... F‐106s scrambled from Malmstrom could not make contact due to darkness and low altitude. Site personnel reported the objects as low as 200 ft and said that as the interceptors approached the lights went out. After the interceptors had passed the lights came on again. One hour after the F‐106s returned to base, missile site personnel reported the object increased to a high speed, raised in altitude and could not be discerned from the stars....
“I have expressed my concern to SAFOI [Air Force Information Office] that we come up soonest with a proposed answer to queries from the press to prevent overreaction by the public to reports by the media that may be blown out of proportion. To date efforts by Air Guard helicopters, SAC [Strategic Air Command] helicopters and NORAD F‐106s have failed to produce positive ID.”
Though officials have long denied that they take ‘flying saucers’ seriously, declassified documents now reveal extensive Government concern over the phenomenon.
Numerous daily updates kept the Joint Chiefs of Staff informed of these incursions by U.F.O.'s in the fall of 1975. Representatives of the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency as well as a handful of other Government desks received copies of the National Military Command Center's reports on the incidents. One report said that an unidentified object “demonstrated a clear intent in the weapons storage area.” Though Air Force records show that the C.I.A. was notified several times of these penetrations over nuclear missile and bomber bases, the agency has acknowledged only one such notification. Subsequent investigations by the Air Force into the sightings at Loring Air Force Base, Maine, where the remarkable series of events began, did not reveal a cause for the sightings.
Despite official pronouncements for decades that U.F.O.'s were nothing more than misidentified aerial objects and as such were no cause for alarm, recently declassified U.F.O. records from the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and other Federal agencies indicate that, ever since U.F.O.'s made their appearance in our skies in the 1940's, the phenomenon has aroused much serious behind‐the‐scenes concern in official circles. Details of the intelligence community's protracted obsession with the subject of U.F.O.'s have emerged over the past few years with the release of long‐withheld Government records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Though these papers fail to resolve the U.F.O. enigma, they do manage to dispel many popular notions about the U.F.O. controversy, as well as give substance to a number of others. Official records now available appear to put to rest doubts that the Government knew more about U.F.O.'s than it has claimed over the past 32 years. From the start, it has been convinced that most U.F.O. sightings could be explained in terms of misidentified balloons, cloud formations, airplanes, ball lightning, meteors and other natural phenomena.
But the papers also show that the Government remains perplexed about the nagging residue of unexplained U.F.O. sightings, which amount to approximately 10 percent of all U.F.O. sightings reported. Do they pose a threat to national security? Are they just a funny‐looking cover for an airborne Soviet presence? Even the possibility that these unknowns could be evidence of extraterrestrial visitations has been given serious attention in Government circles. While official interest in U.F.O.'s has long been thought to be strictly the concern of the Air Force, the bulk of whose records has been open to public view for nearly a decade, the recently released papers on U.F.O.'s indicate otherwise. The Departments of the Army, Navy, State and Defense, and the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the F.B.I., the C.I.A. and even the Atomic Energy Commission produced U.F.O. records over the years. Many of these agencies still do, and many of their documents remain classified. But it is the C.I.A. that appears to have played the key role in the controversy, and may even be responsible for the Government's conduct in U.F.O. investigations throughout the
U.F.O's have been the province of the nation's intelligence community ever since the beginning of the cold war, when the notion took hold that some flying saucers might actually represent a secret, technologically advanced, foreign weapons system. “Every time we were concerned,” recalls Herbert Scoville Jr., a former chief of the C.I.A.'s Office of Scientific Intelligence, “it was because we wanted to know: Did the Russians do it?”
As the cold war gave rise to the fears of the McCarthy era, official concern over U.F.O.'s even led to the surveillance of several private U.F.O. organizations (as many of their members have long insisted) and to the scrutiny of dozens of individuals suspected of subversive U.F.O. activities.
Perhaps most telling of all, the Government documents on U.F.O.'s reveal that despite official denials to the contrary, Federal agencies continue to monitor the phenomenon to this day.
The monumental task of unearthing the newest batch of records on U.F.O.'s from a bureaucracy that has for years denied their existence can be traced to the efforts of a handful of inquisitive individuals who, armed with the Freedom of Information Act, set off in the mid‐70's on a paper chase of U.S. Government documents on U.F.O.'s. They include Bruce S. Maccabee, a Silver Spring, Md., physicist working for the Navy, who has managed to obtain the release of more than 1,200 pages of documents on U.F.O.'s from the F.B.I.; W. Todd Zechel of Prairie du Sac, Wis.; Robert Todd of Ardmore, Pa.; Larry W. Bryant of Arlington, Va.; and Brad C. Sparks, a student la astrophysics at Berkeley whose five‐year pursuit of the C.I.A.'s U.F.O. file eventually provided the foundation for a 3round‐breaking Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by Ground Saucer Watch (G.S.W.), an Arizona‐based U.F.O.
At the request of G.S.W. director William H. Spaulding, Peter Gersten, an attorney in the New York firm of Rothblatt, Rothblatt & Seijas, filed a civil action against the C.I.A. in December 1977 demanding all U.F.O. records in the agency's possession. The suit seemed to have achieved its goal when late last year the agency released about 900 documents — nearly 900 pages of memos, reports and correspondence that attest to the agency's long involvement in U.F.O. matters. But the civil action has not seen its final day in court.
By Gersten's account, the agency has arbitrarily withheld documents, made deletions without merit, and failed to conduct a proper search for U.F.O. materials. The agency's current actions, he says, perpetuate its 30‐year policy of deliberate deception and dishonesty about U.F.O.'s. “What has been released to us seems to have been rather carefully selected,” says Gersten. “We suspect that the agency is withholding at least 200 more documents than the 57 they have admitted they are keeping from us to protect intelligence sources.” Victor Marchetti, a former executive assistant to the agency's deputy director, agrees with Gersten. The entire exercise, Marchetti wrote recently in a magazine article, “has the same aroma of the agency's previous messy efforts to hide its involvement in drugs and mind‐control operations, both prime examples of a successful intelligence cover‐up.”
The first sighting to be labeled a “flying saucer” by the press occurred on June 24, 1947, when an Idaho businessman flying his plane near Mount Rainier observed nine disc‐shaped objects making undulating motions “like a saucer skipping over water.” As early as World War II, Allied bomber pilots had told of “balls of light” that followed their flights over Japan and Germany. A U.S. Eighth Army investigation concluded that the of “mass hallucination.”
These and other incidents were reported in a 1973 book by David Michael Jacobs, “The UFO Controversy in America,” which until the recent release of Government documents was the most comprehensive reconstruction of the Government's U.F.O. involvement. When Scandinavians reported cigar‐shaped objects in 1946, U.S. Army intelligence suspected that the Russians had developed a secret weapon with the help of German scientists from Peenemiinde. The C.I.A., then known as the Central Intelligence Group, secretly began keeping tabs on the subject. When the unknown objects returned to the skies, this time over the United States in the summer of 1947, the Army Air Force set out to determine what the objects were. Within weeks, Brig. Gen. George F. Schulgen of Army Air Corps Intelligence requested the F.B.I.'s assistance “in locating and questioning the individuals who first sighted the so‐called flying discs....” Undoubtedly swayed by flaring cold‐war tensions, Schulgen feared that “the first reported sightings might have been by individuals of Communist sympathies with the view to causing hysteria and fear of a secret Russian weapon.” J. Edgar Hoover agreed to coopreau have “full access to discs recovered.” The Air Force's behind‐thescenes interest contrasted sharply with its public stance that the objects were products of misidentifications and imaginative populace. A security lid was imposed on the subject in July 1947, hiding potentially “embarrassing situation” the following month, when both the Air Force and the F.B.I. began suspecting they might actually be investigating our own secret weapons. High‐level reassurances were obtained that this was not so.
By the end of the summer, the F.B.I. had “failed to reveal any indication of subversive individuals being involved in any of the reported sightings.” A RESTRICTED Army letter that found its way to Hoover's desk said that the bureau's services actually had been enlisted to relieve the Air Forces “of the task of tracking down all the many instances which turned out to be ashcan covers, toilet seats and whatnot.” Incensed, Hoover moved quickly to discontinue the bureau's U.F.O. investigations.
In September of that year, the Commanding General of the Army Air Force received letter from the Army Chief of Staff Lieut. Gen. Nathan F. Twining, saying that “the phenomenon reported is of something real and not visionary or fictitious,” that the objects appeared to be disc‐shaped, “as large as man‐made aircraft,” and “controlled either manually, automatically or remotely.” At Twining's request, project “Sign” was established.
“Sign” failed to find any evidence that the objects were Soviet secret weapons and before long submitted an unofficial “Estimate of the Situation,” classified TOP SECRET, which indicated that U.F.O.'s were of interplanetary origin. The estimate eventually reached Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, who rejected it for lack of proof. “Sign's” inconclusive final report remained classified for the next 12 years.
After “Sign,” the Air Force continued to collect U.F.O. data under the code name “Grudge.” This six‐month project found no evidence of foreign scientific development and therefore no direct threat to national security. It did, however, stress that the reported sightings could be dangerous. “There are indications that the planned release of related psychological propaganda would cause a form of mass hysteria,” the report stated. “Employment of these methods by or against an enemy would yield similar results ... governmental agencies interested in psychological warfare should be informed of the results of this study."
A press release following the termination of “Grudge” allowed the public to believe that the Air Force was no longer interested in U.F.O.'s. But the Air Force continued to collect reports through normal intelligence channels until a dramatic sighting of a U.F.O. at the Army Signal Corps radar center in Fort Monmouth, N.J., in 1951 led to the reactivation of “Grudge.” The Air Force project was renamed “Blue Book” in 1952, a year that saw a record number of U.F.O. reports.
The situation got out of hand during the summer of 1952. On the morning of July 28, the Washington Post revealed that U.F.O.'s had been tracked on radar at Washington National Airport, the second such incident in a week. Reporters stormed Air Force headquarters in the Pentagon, where switchboards were jammed for days with U.F.O. inquiries. Military installations across the country handled such a volume of reports that “regular intelligence work had been affected,” reported The New York Times.
These events prompted action at C.I.A. headquarters, apparently at a request “from the Hill.” From the start, the agency's involvement was to be kept secret. An August 1 C.I.A. memo recommended that “no indication of C.I.A. interest or concern reach the press or public, in view of their probable alarmist tendencies to accept such interest as ‘confirmatory’ of the soundness of ‘unpublished facts’ in the hands of the U.S. Government.”
The C.I.A.'s Office of Scientific Intelligence (O.S.I.) found that the Air Force's investigation of the U.F.O. phenomenon was not sufficiently rigorous to determine the exact nature of the objects in the sky. Neither did the Air Force deal adequately with the potential danger of U.F.O.‐induced mass hysteria, or the fact that our air vulnerability was being seriously affected by the U.F.O. problem. O.S.I. chief H. Marshall Chadwell thought that our nation's defenses were running the increasing risk of false alert and, worse yet, “of falsely identifying the real as phantom.” He suggested that a national policy be established “as to what should be told the public” and, furthermore, that immediate steps be taken to improve our current visual and electronic identification techniques so that “instant positive identification of enemy planes or missiles can be made.” Ever vigilant, the C.I.A. was keeping an eye on the possibility that U.F.O.'s could be of Soviet origin.
By the winter of 1952, Chadwell had drafted National Security Council proposal calling on program to solve the problem of instant positive identification of U.F.O.'s. In a memo that accompanied the proposal, Chadwell urged that the reports be given “immediate attention.” He thought that “sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense installations are of such nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or known types of aerial vehicles.” He said that O.S.I. was proceeding with the establishment of a consulting group “of sufficient competence and stature to ... convince the responsible authorities in the community that immediate research and development on this subject must be undertaken.”
But C.I.A. Director Gen. Walter B. Smith's interest apparently lay elsewhere. In a letter to the Director of the Psychological Strategy Board, he expressed a desire to discuss “the possible offensive and defensive utilization of these phenomena for psychological warfare purposes.” Only later did Director Smith authorize recruiting an advisory committee of outside consultants.
The scientific panel met for four days beginning Jan. 14, 1953. Chaired by Dr. H.P. Robertson, an expert in physics and weapons systems, the panel essentially bestowed the scientific seal of approval on previously established official policy regarding U.F.O.'s. The distinguished panelists felt that all the sightings could be identified once all the data were available for a proper evaluation — in other words, the phenomena, according to the panel's report, were not “beyond the domain of present knowledge of physical sciences.” Neither did the panelists find U.F.O.'s to be a direct threat to national security, though they believed that the volume of U.F.O. reports could clog military intelligence channels, precipitate panic, and lead defense personnel to ignore real indications of hostile action. The panel worried about Soviet manipulation of the phenomenon; that the reports could make the public vulnerable to “possible enemy psychological warfare.” The real danger, they concluded, was the reports themselves.
Fearing that the myth of U.F.O.'s might lead to inappropriate actions by the American public, the panelists decided that a “broad educational program integrating efforts of all concerned agencies” must be undertaken. They sought to strip U.F.O.'s of their “aura of mystery” through this program of “training and ‘debunking.’ “ The program would result in the “proper recognition of unusually illuminated objects” and in a “reduction in public interest in ‘flying saucers.’ “ The panelists recommended that their mass‐media program have as its advisers psychologists familiar with mass psychology and advertising experts, while Walt Disney Inc. animated cartoons and such personalities as Arthur Godfrey would help in the educational drive. To insure complete control over the situation, the panel members suggested that flying‐saucer groups be “watched because of their potentially great influence on mass thinking if widespread sightings should occur. The apparent irresponsibility and the possible use of such groups for subversive purposes should be kept in mind.”
The panel's recommendations called for nothing less than the domestic manipulation of public attitudes. Whether these proposals were acted upon, the C.I.A. will not say. But the report was circulated among the top brass at the Air Technical Intelligence Center, the C.I.A.'s Board of National Estimates (of which Hoover was a member), the C.I.A.'s bureau chiefs, the Secretary of Defense, the chairman of the National Security Resources Board, and the director of the Federal Civil Defense Administration, who eventually sent a representative to meet with C.I.A. officials in order to “implement the appropriate aspects of the Panel's Report as applicable to Civil Defense.”
The Government's efforts in the 50's and 60's to squelch public apprehension over U.F.O.'s went beyond debunking and even touched the fiber of constitutionally protected free speech. According to author David Michael Jacobs, in 1953 the Air Force pressured Look magazine into publishing disclaimers throughout an article by retired Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe entitled “Flying Saucers From Outer Space.” Then again, in 1965, the Army — in a prepublication review denied clearance for a U.F.O.related article by one of its employees, Larry W. Bryant, a technical editor, until he took the issue to court.
Meanwhile, the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. proceeded routinely in the surveillance of U.F.O. organizations and U.F.O. enthusiasts. People with U.F.O. interests were checked out by the F.B.I. at the request of the C.I.A., the Air Force, or private citizens inquiring about possible subversive activities. None caused as much consternation as the case of Major Keyhoe and the organization he directed, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). The C.I.A. appears to have had a protracted interest in NICAP, which was founded in 1956 and utilized by Keyhoe as an organizational tool for challenging the alleged Air Force cover‐up on U.F.O.'s. Both the C.I.A. and the Air Force were upset by NICAP's wide‐ranging influence. Its prestigious board of directors included, among others, Vice Adm. Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the first C.I.A. Director (1947‐1950). “The Air Force representatives believe that much of the trouble ... with Major Keyhoe ... could be alleviated,” states a C.I.A. memo dated May 16, 1958, “if the Major did not have such important personages as Vice Admiral R. H. Hillenkoetter, U.S.N. (Ret.) ... on the board. ...” The Air Force suggested that if the Admiral were shown the SECRET panel report he might understand and take “appropriate actions.” Whether or not the Air Force got through to the admiral, Hillenkoetter
The 60's saw further C.I.A. interest in NICAP. After flurry of Washington‐area sightings in 1965, the agency contacted NICAP about seeing some of its case files on the matter. Richard H. Hall, then NICAP assistant director, chatted with a C.I.A. agent in the NICAP office about the sightings, NICAP's methodology, and Hall's background. The agent's memo on the visit suggests that the C.I.A. had some role in mind for Hall, predicated upon his being granted a security clearance. Nothing apparently came of the suggestion. A later set of C.I.A. papers reveals an inter. est in NICAP's organizational structure and notes that “this group included some ex‐C.I.A. and Defense Intelligence types who advise on investigative techniques and NICAP‐Government relations.” There are presently three former C.I.A. employees on the NICAP board of directors, including Charles Lombard, a congressional aide to Senator Barry Goldwater, who is himself a NICAP board member; and retired U.S. Air Force Col. Joseph Bryan III. Bryan feels, as he did back in 1959 when he joined the board, that U.F.O.'s are interplanetary. NICAP's current president is Alan Hall, a former C.I.A. covert employee for 30 years.
In 1966, mounting discontent from members of the press. Congress and the scientific community compelled the Air Force to commission an 18month scientific study of U.F.O.'s under the direction of Edward U. Condon, professor of physics at the University of Colorado. The politically expedient study, in which onethird of the 91 cases examined remained unidentified, reiterated official policy with one novel twist: U.F.O.'s “educationally harmed” schoolchildren who were allowed to use science study time to read books and magazine articles about U.F.O.'s. Condon wanted teachers to withhold credit from any student U.F.O. project. The Air Force took the cue and disbanded project “Blue Book” in 1969.
Less than a decade later, the White House, perhaps in an attempt to make good Jimmy Carter's campaign promise to tell all about U.F.O.'s, suggested via science advisor Frank Press that possibly NASA could undertake a review of any significant new findings since Condon's study. NASA examined the offer, but saw no way to attack the problem on a scientific basis without physical evidence. They envisioned a public‐relations nightmare if they were to accept such a project, and so rejected it. A frank, in‐house evaluation of NASA's options, however, noted that a handsoff attitude only begged the question. So in good spirit, the space agency offered to examine any piece of physical evidence brought to its attention. That position led one Federal aviation official to comment: “If you get a piece of the thing, fine. But don't bother me with anything else.”
These days, the Air Force admits to nothing more than a “transitory interest” in the phenomenon, although military directives still exist for reporting U.F.O.'s.
The C.I.A. is still wary of the possibility that U.F.O.'s. may be of Soviet origin. “The agency's interest,” says Katherine Pherson, a public‐affairs officer for the C.I.A., “lies in its responsibility to forewarn principally of the possibility that a foreign power might develop a new weapons system that might exhibit phenomena that some might categorize as a U.F.O. But there is no program to actively collect information on U.F.O.'s.” The agency's interest cannot be denied, however, as two 1976 memos reveal.
The first, dated April 26, states: “It does not seem that the Government has any formal program in progress for the identification/solution of the U.F.O. phenomena. Dr. [name deleted] feels that the efforts of independent researchers, [phrase deleted], are vital for further progress in this area. At the present time, there are offices and personnel within the agency who are monitoring the U.F.O. phenomena, but again, this is not currently on an official basis.”
Another memo, dated July 14, and routed to the deputy chief in the Office of Development and Engineering, reads: “As you may recall, 1 mentioned my own interest in the subject as well as the fact that DCD [Domestic Collection Division] has been receiving U.F.O. related material from many of our S & T (Science and Technology] sources who are presently conducting related research. These scientists include some who have been associated with the Agency for years and whose credentials remove them from the ‘nut’ variety.”
If nothing else, the success of the U.F.O. paper chase may have lent U.F.O.'s a measure of respectability that has eluded the subject for the past third of a century. Though it appears that no U.F.O. sighting has ever represented an airborne Soviet or foreign threat, the possibility that such an event could occur remains foremost in the coldwar‐conscious Government mind. Should that threat come to pass, military officials believe, our nation's sophisticated defense system would know about it before someone getting a glass of milk in the middle of the night sees the threat hovering outside the kitchen window. Or so we are made to understand the Air Force's seemingly nonchalant advice to the public: “If you see a U.F.O. and you feel the situation warrants it, call your local police.”
submitted by KateVirginiaLivin to UFOs [link] [comments]
Below is a long article from 1979 that could have been written today. The same misinformation from the government, the same promise to make a more scientific study (while promising that that study had not already been taking place....)
U.F.O. FILES: THE UNTOLD STORY
By Patrick Huyghe- Oct. 14, 1979
The Defense Department message bears the classification CONFIDENTIAL. “Subject: Suspicious Unknown Air Activity.” Dated Nov. 11, 1975, it reads:
“Since 28 Oct 75 numerous reports of suspicious objects have been received at the NORAD COC [North American Air Defense Combat Operations Center]. Reliable military personnel at Loring AFB [Air Force Base], Maine, Wurtsmith AFB, Michigan, Malmstrom AFB, [Montana], Minot AFB, [North Dakota], and Canadian Forces Station, Falconbridge, Ontario, Canada, have visually sighted suspicious objects.
“Objects at Loring and Wurtsmith were characterized to be helicopters. Missile site personnel, security alert teams and Air Defense personnel at Malmstrom Montana reported object which sounded like a jet aircraft. FAA advised ‘There were no jet aircraft in the vicinity.’ Malmstrom search and height finder radars carried the object between 9,000 ft and 15,600 ft at a speed of seven knots. ... F‐106s scrambled from Malmstrom could not make contact due to darkness and low altitude. Site personnel reported the objects as low as 200 ft and said that as the interceptors approached the lights went out. After the interceptors had passed the lights came on again. One hour after the F‐106s returned to base, missile site personnel reported the object increased to a high speed, raised in altitude and could not be discerned from the stars....
“I have expressed my concern to SAFOI [Air Force Information Office] that we come up soonest with a proposed answer to queries from the press to prevent overreaction by the public to reports by the media that may be blown out of proportion. To date efforts by Air Guard helicopters, SAC [Strategic Air Command] helicopters and NORAD F‐106s have failed to produce positive ID.”
Though officials have long denied that they take ‘flying saucers’ seriously, declassified documents now reveal extensive Government concern over the phenomenon.
Numerous daily updates kept the Joint Chiefs of Staff informed of these incursions by U.F.O.'s in the fall of 1975. Representatives of the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency as well as a handful of other Government desks received copies of the National Military Command Center's reports on the incidents. One report said that an unidentified object “demonstrated a clear intent in the weapons storage area.” Though Air Force records show that the C.I.A. was notified several times of these penetrations over nuclear missile and bomber bases, the agency has acknowledged only one such notification. Subsequent investigations by the Air Force into the sightings at Loring Air Force Base, Maine, where the remarkable series of events began, did not reveal a cause for the sightings.
Despite official pronouncements for decades that U.F.O.'s were nothing more than misidentified aerial objects and as such were no cause for alarm, recently declassified U.F.O. records from the C.I.A., the F.B.I. and other Federal agencies indicate that, ever since U.F.O.'s made their appearance in our skies in the 1940's, the phenomenon has aroused much serious behind‐the‐scenes concern in official circles. Details of the intelligence community's protracted obsession with the subject of U.F.O.'s have emerged over the past few years with the release of long‐withheld Government records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. Though these papers fail to resolve the U.F.O. enigma, they do manage to dispel many popular notions about the U.F.O. controversy, as well as give substance to a number of others. Official records now available appear to put to rest doubts that the Government knew more about U.F.O.'s than it has claimed over the past 32 years. From the start, it has been convinced that most U.F.O. sightings could be explained in terms of misidentified balloons, cloud formations, airplanes, ball lightning, meteors and other natural phenomena.
But the papers also show that the Government remains perplexed about the nagging residue of unexplained U.F.O. sightings, which amount to approximately 10 percent of all U.F.O. sightings reported. Do they pose a threat to national security? Are they just a funny‐looking cover for an airborne Soviet presence? Even the possibility that these unknowns could be evidence of extraterrestrial visitations has been given serious attention in Government circles. While official interest in U.F.O.'s has long been thought to be strictly the concern of the Air Force, the bulk of whose records has been open to public view for nearly a decade, the recently released papers on U.F.O.'s indicate otherwise. The Departments of the Army, Navy, State and Defense, and the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the F.B.I., the C.I.A. and even the Atomic Energy Commission produced U.F.O. records over the years. Many of these agencies still do, and many of their documents remain classified. But it is the C.I.A. that appears to have played the key role in the controversy, and may even be responsible for the Government's conduct in U.F.O. investigations throughout the
U.F.O's have been the province of the nation's intelligence community ever since the beginning of the cold war, when the notion took hold that some flying saucers might actually represent a secret, technologically advanced, foreign weapons system. “Every time we were concerned,” recalls Herbert Scoville Jr., a former chief of the C.I.A.'s Office of Scientific Intelligence, “it was because we wanted to know: Did the Russians do it?”
As the cold war gave rise to the fears of the McCarthy era, official concern over U.F.O.'s even led to the surveillance of several private U.F.O. organizations (as many of their members have long insisted) and to the scrutiny of dozens of individuals suspected of subversive U.F.O. activities.
Perhaps most telling of all, the Government documents on U.F.O.'s reveal that despite official denials to the contrary, Federal agencies continue to monitor the phenomenon to this day.
The monumental task of unearthing the newest batch of records on U.F.O.'s from a bureaucracy that has for years denied their existence can be traced to the efforts of a handful of inquisitive individuals who, armed with the Freedom of Information Act, set off in the mid‐70's on a paper chase of U.S. Government documents on U.F.O.'s. They include Bruce S. Maccabee, a Silver Spring, Md., physicist working for the Navy, who has managed to obtain the release of more than 1,200 pages of documents on U.F.O.'s from the F.B.I.; W. Todd Zechel of Prairie du Sac, Wis.; Robert Todd of Ardmore, Pa.; Larry W. Bryant of Arlington, Va.; and Brad C. Sparks, a student la astrophysics at Berkeley whose five‐year pursuit of the C.I.A.'s U.F.O. file eventually provided the foundation for a 3round‐breaking Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by Ground Saucer Watch (G.S.W.), an Arizona‐based U.F.O.
At the request of G.S.W. director William H. Spaulding, Peter Gersten, an attorney in the New York firm of Rothblatt, Rothblatt & Seijas, filed a civil action against the C.I.A. in December 1977 demanding all U.F.O. records in the agency's possession. The suit seemed to have achieved its goal when late last year the agency released about 900 documents — nearly 900 pages of memos, reports and correspondence that attest to the agency's long involvement in U.F.O. matters. But the civil action has not seen its final day in court.
By Gersten's account, the agency has arbitrarily withheld documents, made deletions without merit, and failed to conduct a proper search for U.F.O. materials. The agency's current actions, he says, perpetuate its 30‐year policy of deliberate deception and dishonesty about U.F.O.'s. “What has been released to us seems to have been rather carefully selected,” says Gersten. “We suspect that the agency is withholding at least 200 more documents than the 57 they have admitted they are keeping from us to protect intelligence sources.” Victor Marchetti, a former executive assistant to the agency's deputy director, agrees with Gersten. The entire exercise, Marchetti wrote recently in a magazine article, “has the same aroma of the agency's previous messy efforts to hide its involvement in drugs and mind‐control operations, both prime examples of a successful intelligence cover‐up.”
The first sighting to be labeled a “flying saucer” by the press occurred on June 24, 1947, when an Idaho businessman flying his plane near Mount Rainier observed nine disc‐shaped objects making undulating motions “like a saucer skipping over water.” As early as World War II, Allied bomber pilots had told of “balls of light” that followed their flights over Japan and Germany. A U.S. Eighth Army investigation concluded that the of “mass hallucination.”
These and other incidents were reported in a 1973 book by David Michael Jacobs, “The UFO Controversy in America,” which until the recent release of Government documents was the most comprehensive reconstruction of the Government's U.F.O. involvement. When Scandinavians reported cigar‐shaped objects in 1946, U.S. Army intelligence suspected that the Russians had developed a secret weapon with the help of German scientists from Peenemiinde. The C.I.A., then known as the Central Intelligence Group, secretly began keeping tabs on the subject. When the unknown objects returned to the skies, this time over the United States in the summer of 1947, the Army Air Force set out to determine what the objects were. Within weeks, Brig. Gen. George F. Schulgen of Army Air Corps Intelligence requested the F.B.I.'s assistance “in locating and questioning the individuals who first sighted the so‐called flying discs....” Undoubtedly swayed by flaring cold‐war tensions, Schulgen feared that “the first reported sightings might have been by individuals of Communist sympathies with the view to causing hysteria and fear of a secret Russian weapon.” J. Edgar Hoover agreed to coopreau have “full access to discs recovered.” The Air Force's behind‐thescenes interest contrasted sharply with its public stance that the objects were products of misidentifications and imaginative populace. A security lid was imposed on the subject in July 1947, hiding potentially “embarrassing situation” the following month, when both the Air Force and the F.B.I. began suspecting they might actually be investigating our own secret weapons. High‐level reassurances were obtained that this was not so.
By the end of the summer, the F.B.I. had “failed to reveal any indication of subversive individuals being involved in any of the reported sightings.” A RESTRICTED Army letter that found its way to Hoover's desk said that the bureau's services actually had been enlisted to relieve the Air Forces “of the task of tracking down all the many instances which turned out to be ashcan covers, toilet seats and whatnot.” Incensed, Hoover moved quickly to discontinue the bureau's U.F.O. investigations.
In September of that year, the Commanding General of the Army Air Force received letter from the Army Chief of Staff Lieut. Gen. Nathan F. Twining, saying that “the phenomenon reported is of something real and not visionary or fictitious,” that the objects appeared to be disc‐shaped, “as large as man‐made aircraft,” and “controlled either manually, automatically or remotely.” At Twining's request, project “Sign” was established.
“Sign” failed to find any evidence that the objects were Soviet secret weapons and before long submitted an unofficial “Estimate of the Situation,” classified TOP SECRET, which indicated that U.F.O.'s were of interplanetary origin. The estimate eventually reached Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, who rejected it for lack of proof. “Sign's” inconclusive final report remained classified for the next 12 years.
After “Sign,” the Air Force continued to collect U.F.O. data under the code name “Grudge.” This six‐month project found no evidence of foreign scientific development and therefore no direct threat to national security. It did, however, stress that the reported sightings could be dangerous. “There are indications that the planned release of related psychological propaganda would cause a form of mass hysteria,” the report stated. “Employment of these methods by or against an enemy would yield similar results ... governmental agencies interested in psychological warfare should be informed of the results of this study."
A press release following the termination of “Grudge” allowed the public to believe that the Air Force was no longer interested in U.F.O.'s. But the Air Force continued to collect reports through normal intelligence channels until a dramatic sighting of a U.F.O. at the Army Signal Corps radar center in Fort Monmouth, N.J., in 1951 led to the reactivation of “Grudge.” The Air Force project was renamed “Blue Book” in 1952, a year that saw a record number of U.F.O. reports.
The situation got out of hand during the summer of 1952. On the morning of July 28, the Washington Post revealed that U.F.O.'s had been tracked on radar at Washington National Airport, the second such incident in a week. Reporters stormed Air Force headquarters in the Pentagon, where switchboards were jammed for days with U.F.O. inquiries. Military installations across the country handled such a volume of reports that “regular intelligence work had been affected,” reported The New York Times.
These events prompted action at C.I.A. headquarters, apparently at a request “from the Hill.” From the start, the agency's involvement was to be kept secret. An August 1 C.I.A. memo recommended that “no indication of C.I.A. interest or concern reach the press or public, in view of their probable alarmist tendencies to accept such interest as ‘confirmatory’ of the soundness of ‘unpublished facts’ in the hands of the U.S. Government.”
The C.I.A.'s Office of Scientific Intelligence (O.S.I.) found that the Air Force's investigation of the U.F.O. phenomenon was not sufficiently rigorous to determine the exact nature of the objects in the sky. Neither did the Air Force deal adequately with the potential danger of U.F.O.‐induced mass hysteria, or the fact that our air vulnerability was being seriously affected by the U.F.O. problem. O.S.I. chief H. Marshall Chadwell thought that our nation's defenses were running the increasing risk of false alert and, worse yet, “of falsely identifying the real as phantom.” He suggested that a national policy be established “as to what should be told the public” and, furthermore, that immediate steps be taken to improve our current visual and electronic identification techniques so that “instant positive identification of enemy planes or missiles can be made.” Ever vigilant, the C.I.A. was keeping an eye on the possibility that U.F.O.'s could be of Soviet origin.
By the winter of 1952, Chadwell had drafted National Security Council proposal calling on program to solve the problem of instant positive identification of U.F.O.'s. In a memo that accompanied the proposal, Chadwell urged that the reports be given “immediate attention.” He thought that “sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense installations are of such nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomena or known types of aerial vehicles.” He said that O.S.I. was proceeding with the establishment of a consulting group “of sufficient competence and stature to ... convince the responsible authorities in the community that immediate research and development on this subject must be undertaken.”
But C.I.A. Director Gen. Walter B. Smith's interest apparently lay elsewhere. In a letter to the Director of the Psychological Strategy Board, he expressed a desire to discuss “the possible offensive and defensive utilization of these phenomena for psychological warfare purposes.” Only later did Director Smith authorize recruiting an advisory committee of outside consultants.
The scientific panel met for four days beginning Jan. 14, 1953. Chaired by Dr. H.P. Robertson, an expert in physics and weapons systems, the panel essentially bestowed the scientific seal of approval on previously established official policy regarding U.F.O.'s. The distinguished panelists felt that all the sightings could be identified once all the data were available for a proper evaluation — in other words, the phenomena, according to the panel's report, were not “beyond the domain of present knowledge of physical sciences.” Neither did the panelists find U.F.O.'s to be a direct threat to national security, though they believed that the volume of U.F.O. reports could clog military intelligence channels, precipitate panic, and lead defense personnel to ignore real indications of hostile action. The panel worried about Soviet manipulation of the phenomenon; that the reports could make the public vulnerable to “possible enemy psychological warfare.” The real danger, they concluded, was the reports themselves.
Fearing that the myth of U.F.O.'s might lead to inappropriate actions by the American public, the panelists decided that a “broad educational program integrating efforts of all concerned agencies” must be undertaken. They sought to strip U.F.O.'s of their “aura of mystery” through this program of “training and ‘debunking.’ “ The program would result in the “proper recognition of unusually illuminated objects” and in a “reduction in public interest in ‘flying saucers.’ “ The panelists recommended that their mass‐media program have as its advisers psychologists familiar with mass psychology and advertising experts, while Walt Disney Inc. animated cartoons and such personalities as Arthur Godfrey would help in the educational drive. To insure complete control over the situation, the panel members suggested that flying‐saucer groups be “watched because of their potentially great influence on mass thinking if widespread sightings should occur. The apparent irresponsibility and the possible use of such groups for subversive purposes should be kept in mind.”
The panel's recommendations called for nothing less than the domestic manipulation of public attitudes. Whether these proposals were acted upon, the C.I.A. will not say. But the report was circulated among the top brass at the Air Technical Intelligence Center, the C.I.A.'s Board of National Estimates (of which Hoover was a member), the C.I.A.'s bureau chiefs, the Secretary of Defense, the chairman of the National Security Resources Board, and the director of the Federal Civil Defense Administration, who eventually sent a representative to meet with C.I.A. officials in order to “implement the appropriate aspects of the Panel's Report as applicable to Civil Defense.”
The Government's efforts in the 50's and 60's to squelch public apprehension over U.F.O.'s went beyond debunking and even touched the fiber of constitutionally protected free speech. According to author David Michael Jacobs, in 1953 the Air Force pressured Look magazine into publishing disclaimers throughout an article by retired Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe entitled “Flying Saucers From Outer Space.” Then again, in 1965, the Army — in a prepublication review denied clearance for a U.F.O.related article by one of its employees, Larry W. Bryant, a technical editor, until he took the issue to court.
Meanwhile, the C.I.A. and the F.B.I. proceeded routinely in the surveillance of U.F.O. organizations and U.F.O. enthusiasts. People with U.F.O. interests were checked out by the F.B.I. at the request of the C.I.A., the Air Force, or private citizens inquiring about possible subversive activities. None caused as much consternation as the case of Major Keyhoe and the organization he directed, the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP). The C.I.A. appears to have had a protracted interest in NICAP, which was founded in 1956 and utilized by Keyhoe as an organizational tool for challenging the alleged Air Force cover‐up on U.F.O.'s. Both the C.I.A. and the Air Force were upset by NICAP's wide‐ranging influence. Its prestigious board of directors included, among others, Vice Adm. Roscoe Hillenkoetter, the first C.I.A. Director (1947‐1950). “The Air Force representatives believe that much of the trouble ... with Major Keyhoe ... could be alleviated,” states a C.I.A. memo dated May 16, 1958, “if the Major did not have such important personages as Vice Admiral R. H. Hillenkoetter, U.S.N. (Ret.) ... on the board. ...” The Air Force suggested that if the Admiral were shown the SECRET panel report he might understand and take “appropriate actions.” Whether or not the Air Force got through to the admiral, Hillenkoetter
The 60's saw further C.I.A. interest in NICAP. After flurry of Washington‐area sightings in 1965, the agency contacted NICAP about seeing some of its case files on the matter. Richard H. Hall, then NICAP assistant director, chatted with a C.I.A. agent in the NICAP office about the sightings, NICAP's methodology, and Hall's background. The agent's memo on the visit suggests that the C.I.A. had some role in mind for Hall, predicated upon his being granted a security clearance. Nothing apparently came of the suggestion. A later set of C.I.A. papers reveals an inter. est in NICAP's organizational structure and notes that “this group included some ex‐C.I.A. and Defense Intelligence types who advise on investigative techniques and NICAP‐Government relations.” There are presently three former C.I.A. employees on the NICAP board of directors, including Charles Lombard, a congressional aide to Senator Barry Goldwater, who is himself a NICAP board member; and retired U.S. Air Force Col. Joseph Bryan III. Bryan feels, as he did back in 1959 when he joined the board, that U.F.O.'s are interplanetary. NICAP's current president is Alan Hall, a former C.I.A. covert employee for 30 years.
In 1966, mounting discontent from members of the press. Congress and the scientific community compelled the Air Force to commission an 18month scientific study of U.F.O.'s under the direction of Edward U. Condon, professor of physics at the University of Colorado. The politically expedient study, in which onethird of the 91 cases examined remained unidentified, reiterated official policy with one novel twist: U.F.O.'s “educationally harmed” schoolchildren who were allowed to use science study time to read books and magazine articles about U.F.O.'s. Condon wanted teachers to withhold credit from any student U.F.O. project. The Air Force took the cue and disbanded project “Blue Book” in 1969.
Less than a decade later, the White House, perhaps in an attempt to make good Jimmy Carter's campaign promise to tell all about U.F.O.'s, suggested via science advisor Frank Press that possibly NASA could undertake a review of any significant new findings since Condon's study. NASA examined the offer, but saw no way to attack the problem on a scientific basis without physical evidence. They envisioned a public‐relations nightmare if they were to accept such a project, and so rejected it. A frank, in‐house evaluation of NASA's options, however, noted that a handsoff attitude only begged the question. So in good spirit, the space agency offered to examine any piece of physical evidence brought to its attention. That position led one Federal aviation official to comment: “If you get a piece of the thing, fine. But don't bother me with anything else.”
These days, the Air Force admits to nothing more than a “transitory interest” in the phenomenon, although military directives still exist for reporting U.F.O.'s.
The C.I.A. is still wary of the possibility that U.F.O.'s. may be of Soviet origin. “The agency's interest,” says Katherine Pherson, a public‐affairs officer for the C.I.A., “lies in its responsibility to forewarn principally of the possibility that a foreign power might develop a new weapons system that might exhibit phenomena that some might categorize as a U.F.O. But there is no program to actively collect information on U.F.O.'s.” The agency's interest cannot be denied, however, as two 1976 memos reveal.
The first, dated April 26, states: “It does not seem that the Government has any formal program in progress for the identification/solution of the U.F.O. phenomena. Dr. [name deleted] feels that the efforts of independent researchers, [phrase deleted], are vital for further progress in this area. At the present time, there are offices and personnel within the agency who are monitoring the U.F.O. phenomena, but again, this is not currently on an official basis.”
Another memo, dated July 14, and routed to the deputy chief in the Office of Development and Engineering, reads: “As you may recall, 1 mentioned my own interest in the subject as well as the fact that DCD [Domestic Collection Division] has been receiving U.F.O. related material from many of our S & T (Science and Technology] sources who are presently conducting related research. These scientists include some who have been associated with the Agency for years and whose credentials remove them from the ‘nut’ variety.”
If nothing else, the success of the U.F.O. paper chase may have lent U.F.O.'s a measure of respectability that has eluded the subject for the past third of a century. Though it appears that no U.F.O. sighting has ever represented an airborne Soviet or foreign threat, the possibility that such an event could occur remains foremost in the coldwar‐conscious Government mind. Should that threat come to pass, military officials believe, our nation's sophisticated defense system would know about it before someone getting a glass of milk in the middle of the night sees the threat hovering outside the kitchen window. Or so we are made to understand the Air Force's seemingly nonchalant advice to the public: “If you see a U.F.O. and you feel the situation warrants it, call your local police.”
2024.05.28 14:21 WTXNews Ed Sheeran is triumphant in second Thinking Out Loud copyright lawsuit weeks after court victory
 | submitted by WTXNews to UK_News24 [link] [comments] |
2024.05.28 11:34 FriendlyHedgehog1999 Are we the new Florida down under?
Roofing scams put Florida’s property insurance market ‘on the verge of collapse’ (nbcnews.com)
The scam works like this: Contractors knock on doors offering to inspect homeowners’ roofs for storm damage. They say they can help get a roof replacement covered by insurance, and they persuade the homeowners to sign away their rights to file the claims themselves. The contractors then file fraudulent damage claims, and when the insurance companies balk, the contractors sue. The insurance companies usually settle the disputed claims for many times more than the original claim. Most of that money goes to the contractors’ lawyers in the form of a “contingency fee multiplier.” Some lawyers file hundreds of such lawsuits a year.
Complaints about roofer highlight loophole in Florida insurance law (news4jax.com)
Northern/Eastern Australia has a lot of similarities to Florida now. Climate change or not - there are cyclones, floods and bushfires etc.
Now every year, I'm being told by strata managers that the cost of insurance has increased and that increasing levies are for that. I then went and got individual quotes from individual insurance brokers. Turns out the cost of underwritten quotes had decreased ~ half of what their brokers quoted the previous year (exclusive of commissions).
With the broker chosen/provided by the strata manager, the brokers lodgment of claims is basically managed by the strata manager. All payouts go back into the strata manager's account. No don't give me some sh*t about that it is a statutory trust and that the accounts are for the owners corporation. I don't believe that even for a second because I do not see the individual account fees charged by Macquarie Bank for recorded in any statement.
This means that the strata manager is just like the contractor in the above Florida example. The strata manager takes over the individual strata insurance policies of owners (because they go beyond common property and also include contents damage as a result of common property damage) and can file or not file however they want. It doesn't make it any better that there is a specific industry called strata lawyers which predominately also deals with strata insurance claims easily accessible to the strata management companies themselves.
If an owner then tries to claim the benefits of the policy, they have to go through the owners corporation/body corporate/strata committee. But that right has pretty much been signed away when all your neighbours signed with the strata manager now hasn't it?
Why don't we make a tracker of how much the quoted insurance premium by our strata mangers increases or decreases every year by in each state. Let's track that with the time of each state's Premier's office time.
Why should Americans be the only ones be able to scrutinize the heads of state quantitatively?
Florida Insurance Premiums Have Soared 206% Since DeSantis Became Governor (newsweek.com)
Hell, let's add all the relevant regulators and judicial members in as well. Soon enough there might be a title in the format: "[Your state's] Strata Insurance Premiums Soared 200% Since [Your state's Commissioner or Premiere] Came Into Office"
Realistically, has the underwritten strata insurance premiums really increased dramatically? If they are at such rates as the strata managers describe, I'm sure the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACC) would have pulled up the big major player in strata insurance underwriting who also sponsors the Strata Community Association (SCA) award nights for cartel activity - wouldn't they?
Interest rates are at decades highs, it's getting easier for underwriters to manage their policy payouts.
submitted by FriendlyHedgehog1999 to StrataComplaints [link] [comments]
The scam works like this: Contractors knock on doors offering to inspect homeowners’ roofs for storm damage. They say they can help get a roof replacement covered by insurance, and they persuade the homeowners to sign away their rights to file the claims themselves. The contractors then file fraudulent damage claims, and when the insurance companies balk, the contractors sue. The insurance companies usually settle the disputed claims for many times more than the original claim. Most of that money goes to the contractors’ lawyers in the form of a “contingency fee multiplier.” Some lawyers file hundreds of such lawsuits a year.
Complaints about roofer highlight loophole in Florida insurance law (news4jax.com)
Northern/Eastern Australia has a lot of similarities to Florida now. Climate change or not - there are cyclones, floods and bushfires etc.
Now every year, I'm being told by strata managers that the cost of insurance has increased and that increasing levies are for that. I then went and got individual quotes from individual insurance brokers. Turns out the cost of underwritten quotes had decreased ~ half of what their brokers quoted the previous year (exclusive of commissions).
With the broker chosen/provided by the strata manager, the brokers lodgment of claims is basically managed by the strata manager. All payouts go back into the strata manager's account. No don't give me some sh*t about that it is a statutory trust and that the accounts are for the owners corporation. I don't believe that even for a second because I do not see the individual account fees charged by Macquarie Bank for recorded in any statement.
This means that the strata manager is just like the contractor in the above Florida example. The strata manager takes over the individual strata insurance policies of owners (because they go beyond common property and also include contents damage as a result of common property damage) and can file or not file however they want. It doesn't make it any better that there is a specific industry called strata lawyers which predominately also deals with strata insurance claims easily accessible to the strata management companies themselves.
If an owner then tries to claim the benefits of the policy, they have to go through the owners corporation/body corporate/strata committee. But that right has pretty much been signed away when all your neighbours signed with the strata manager now hasn't it?
Why don't we make a tracker of how much the quoted insurance premium by our strata mangers increases or decreases every year by in each state. Let's track that with the time of each state's Premier's office time.
Why should Americans be the only ones be able to scrutinize the heads of state quantitatively?
Florida Insurance Premiums Have Soared 206% Since DeSantis Became Governor (newsweek.com)
Hell, let's add all the relevant regulators and judicial members in as well. Soon enough there might be a title in the format: "[Your state's] Strata Insurance Premiums Soared 200% Since [Your state's Commissioner or Premiere] Came Into Office"
Realistically, has the underwritten strata insurance premiums really increased dramatically? If they are at such rates as the strata managers describe, I'm sure the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACC) would have pulled up the big major player in strata insurance underwriting who also sponsors the Strata Community Association (SCA) award nights for cartel activity - wouldn't they?
Interest rates are at decades highs, it's getting easier for underwriters to manage their policy payouts.
2024.05.28 10:14 Ill_Excitement_9719 It's just so hard
First time posting and finding this group, and thank God I did, because dealing with this alone is agonizing. I am a 25F ACON (Nmom, e-dad). Due to culture, I have to live at home til I'm married. I wish I could move out. She's taken my money and my sisters money and I don't want to count on e-dad to support me. Also don't want to leave my 16 year old brother alone with hethem.
I just need to vent.
I have an older sister who is 30 who has gone LC/NC after years of abuse, toxic manipulation, the whole list of things everyone here has probably experienced and also not being allowed to marry who she wanted to. She now lives far away, on the other side of the world. Me and her secretly still talk everyday. She's gone NC with e-dad and VLC with Nmom (only when Nmom reaches out does she very civilly respond because she knows it'll keep more peace for me and my 16yo brother) she blames e-dad for everything. I blame both Nmom and e-dad. Nmom can't take any accountability, blames my sister for keeping her granddaughter away from her, etc, etc etc.
I'm getting married soon to the love of my life who has somehow stuck by me despite my egg-donor. Within our 12 year long on again off again relationship (2 break ups once because I was acting like Nmom which I realized, apologized, relearned from and the second because she didn't want us to be back together) she has tormented me with how she can rescind her blessing and therefore (in her mind) stop us from being together again like dangling a carrot over my head. I would choose him anyday. She's sick and doing that to someone is sick. Every day the negative talk non-stop either about myself, my bf and his family, my sister, Nmom's in laws, our helpers at home, her friends who have all turned their back on her, her remaining family (brothers, cousins etc) who have all turned their back on her, it's too much. She is so unhappy in life. She has everything financially, she has good kids, a good husband - Why can't they ever see that they are the common denominator of all of the problems in everyones eyes? If they are a narc why don't they choose to be happy and then make it all about them?
Dad is too scared to stand up to her and often leaves the country for work (at least once a month, for at least a week) leaving me all alone with her. She complains about everything. EVERYTHING. We have one very lovely helper at home, after 8 years, she's suddenly turned her back on her and takes her frustration and anger out on her by screaming at her everyday. She's so nervous all of the time. Everytime it's just me and her I comfort her. She complains about lifting a finger at home becasue she cooks for her family when that's the bare minimum she can do since she doesn't do anything else all day long. Like truly all day long she does absolutely nothing. She then blames my dad for taking her social life away, even though it has NOTHING to do with him and everything to do with her friends having enough of her.
She claims to know what financial instability is because depsite my dad having a hard time financially these past few years DUE TO HER CONSTANT WANTS AND NEEDS and his inherent ability to not be able to say 'no' to her she has still lived with a BMW, Mercedes, Bentley, private driver, helpers - we own tons of property worldwide, have a summer home in London, and when we rented we spent 50k USD a month on a 10,000 sqft property with a 23,000 sqft garden which is unheard of in our city. Despite her borrowing money from me, my sister, her father in law, the bank and tons of other people. Her definitiion of financial instability is not receiving additional gifts for bdays, anniversarys, v-day etc even though my dad has given her gifts worth up to $15,000 USD they don't count because it's not up to her usual standard.
She has constantly tried cutting people off from our lives (I have individual relationships with all of them), she mocks people, controls people, verbally abuses them, sometimes physically abuses us (because how else is she meant to get her anger out), taunts people, the worst thing is the look in her eyes, it's like she switches. In front of others she acts nice, tries to act normal, she has never gotten formally diagnosed because she refuses to accept help because despite people subtly telling her she is the problem she is never the problem. It's never her fault. She controls the way we talk to our dad, and controls his ability to parent us and because he's too scared to go against her for his own wellbeing he just accepts that. I don't know why he hasn't left and that isn't my problem. I have a dog. I got her 4 years ago and she is the love of my life, she is my child. She constantly holds her against me even though she orders me to keep the dog locked up in a room when I'm at work and says that she's her dog even though she does absolutely nothing for her. Doesn't know what food she eats, what medicine, when she's fed, what vet she goes to, what her fav treats are, or her favourite toy, she holds her against me and says that because she initially 'paid' for her and because she lives under her roof currently my dog is hers. Thank GOD the paperwork is under my name. I can't wait to give my dog the best life ever when I move out. I've moved her to friends places that she loves and my grandparents house a few times where she can have more freedom and where she feels loved.
She is jealous and gatekeeps from us kids. My sister was struggling financially. In our culture and society and in this economy people that have gotten married rely a lot on generational wealth even after working. She torments my brother in law for not 'being a man'. She 'gave' my sister a home where she now lives that we already own but didn't transfer it under her name. Everything was conditional. Don't sleep in the master bedroom, we're allowed to eat meat in the house (my sister and BIL are strictly veg), it's MY house so i'll be picking everything up to the bedsheets, towels etc. My sister's MIL who has now sadly passed on (lovely, lovely lady) was not allowed in the house as well as anyone else without my mother's explicit permission. My sister spent $40,000 USD of her own savings doing up the house for good, for life or as long as it could stand and Nmom ended up selling it and not giving my sister a dime because 'we need the cash'. Right before my niece was born, she almost sent my sister into labour because she started fighting with her and throwing fits before she gave birth to her first child. After my sister gave birth, my sister, who is financially unstable, got a gift from our paternal grandma (who Nmom hates, Nmom's parents have now passed but she had shit relationships with them in the living - now that they're gone she glorifies both of them like their gods favourite and when she's upset says 'they would be disappointed in you' like she's talking about God himself. Maternal Grandma passed 12 years ago now and paternal grandpa 5 years ago now, still has random breakdowns and fits and blames it on missing them) the gift was a cheque for a certain dollar amount. Nmom kept the cheque and never even cashed it because she told my sister it was her fault her and my dad have been financially unstable and that she should keep the money. Plus my grandma's not a good person... so why should she even want to accept it? From that logic, why would she then keep the cash for herself? Anyways, it was a classic narc move since she never even cashed the cheque.
I love my grandparents, they are the parents I wish I had and they live not too far from us. She was upset because my Grandma went for a family event that she wasn't invited to, even though Nmom excludes her from everything. I offered that maybe if they met they could have a chat and fix their relationship. From that she didn't talk to me for 3 months after. Completely isolated me, didn't talk to me at all. Called me a b***h, said 'who needs a daughter like you', when I wished her happy mothers day called me a traitor, secluded me completely from meal times, brainwashed my brother into not talking to me (until she kicked my dad out one night and started pounding on his door and screaming bloody murder bc she needs her 16 year olds support (she doesn't she just wants to make everyones life a living hell and scar her children for life instead of protecting them)), she'd leave the country without a word and expect me to run the house while she was gone. When I finally couldn't take it and made a plan to leave and go do my masters abroad (taking my dog with me) she tried holding my dog against me. I told her I'll slap her with a lawsuit. They'll try anything. Finally e-dad had enough and told me to patch things up with her. I met her for a coffee and negotiated, fine I won't go abroad and do my masters (She said I don't deserve to go abroad and do my masters because when she wanted to move countries a few years ago when I was already 20 years old and self-sustaining I said sure you move but I won't come - because how can I move countries way from everything I know and love and be isolated with only her - they didn't end up moving after buying a $12 million USD house because she couldn't bring her helpers/maids with her, she'd have to pay extraordinate tax etc but she blames it on me - total definition of walking on egg shells) but then I get to get back together with my boyfriend (who she didn't like because his family's wealth is not to her standard even though she has made him be my best friend since I was born - same school, group of frineds, playgroup etc and our families have known each other for generations). She agreed.
It's amazing me and my sister have ended up normal having this as our living example. I want to scream at e-dad and tell him how grateful he should be that he has normal kids that excel at life despite the odds when we could be anything based on how we grew up and how I continue to live. To stop wanting us to excel more when our priority is just simply survival. My sister is a mother (to me and my brother and now her own little one), a wife, a teacher and married into an extremely prominent family. I am an author (4 published books) with my own charitable fund and I run my own business (that she now thinks is hers too- when I said it's not, she said I'll slap your face, to which I got up and said I'll slap yours then too-which resulted to 3 days of room isolation with no food or water), with a loving partner and wanting to get married soon. Both of us are college graduates, my brother is 16 but runs his own business and will attend college next year. They should be grateful. It infuriates me.
Sorry everything is all over the place. And if you've read so far, thank you for reading, we'll all see a shining light one day.
submitted by Ill_Excitement_9719 to raisedbynarcissists [link] [comments]
I just need to vent.
I have an older sister who is 30 who has gone LC/NC after years of abuse, toxic manipulation, the whole list of things everyone here has probably experienced and also not being allowed to marry who she wanted to. She now lives far away, on the other side of the world. Me and her secretly still talk everyday. She's gone NC with e-dad and VLC with Nmom (only when Nmom reaches out does she very civilly respond because she knows it'll keep more peace for me and my 16yo brother) she blames e-dad for everything. I blame both Nmom and e-dad. Nmom can't take any accountability, blames my sister for keeping her granddaughter away from her, etc, etc etc.
I'm getting married soon to the love of my life who has somehow stuck by me despite my egg-donor. Within our 12 year long on again off again relationship (2 break ups once because I was acting like Nmom which I realized, apologized, relearned from and the second because she didn't want us to be back together) she has tormented me with how she can rescind her blessing and therefore (in her mind) stop us from being together again like dangling a carrot over my head. I would choose him anyday. She's sick and doing that to someone is sick. Every day the negative talk non-stop either about myself, my bf and his family, my sister, Nmom's in laws, our helpers at home, her friends who have all turned their back on her, her remaining family (brothers, cousins etc) who have all turned their back on her, it's too much. She is so unhappy in life. She has everything financially, she has good kids, a good husband - Why can't they ever see that they are the common denominator of all of the problems in everyones eyes? If they are a narc why don't they choose to be happy and then make it all about them?
Dad is too scared to stand up to her and often leaves the country for work (at least once a month, for at least a week) leaving me all alone with her. She complains about everything. EVERYTHING. We have one very lovely helper at home, after 8 years, she's suddenly turned her back on her and takes her frustration and anger out on her by screaming at her everyday. She's so nervous all of the time. Everytime it's just me and her I comfort her. She complains about lifting a finger at home becasue she cooks for her family when that's the bare minimum she can do since she doesn't do anything else all day long. Like truly all day long she does absolutely nothing. She then blames my dad for taking her social life away, even though it has NOTHING to do with him and everything to do with her friends having enough of her.
She claims to know what financial instability is because depsite my dad having a hard time financially these past few years DUE TO HER CONSTANT WANTS AND NEEDS and his inherent ability to not be able to say 'no' to her she has still lived with a BMW, Mercedes, Bentley, private driver, helpers - we own tons of property worldwide, have a summer home in London, and when we rented we spent 50k USD a month on a 10,000 sqft property with a 23,000 sqft garden which is unheard of in our city. Despite her borrowing money from me, my sister, her father in law, the bank and tons of other people. Her definitiion of financial instability is not receiving additional gifts for bdays, anniversarys, v-day etc even though my dad has given her gifts worth up to $15,000 USD they don't count because it's not up to her usual standard.
She has constantly tried cutting people off from our lives (I have individual relationships with all of them), she mocks people, controls people, verbally abuses them, sometimes physically abuses us (because how else is she meant to get her anger out), taunts people, the worst thing is the look in her eyes, it's like she switches. In front of others she acts nice, tries to act normal, she has never gotten formally diagnosed because she refuses to accept help because despite people subtly telling her she is the problem she is never the problem. It's never her fault. She controls the way we talk to our dad, and controls his ability to parent us and because he's too scared to go against her for his own wellbeing he just accepts that. I don't know why he hasn't left and that isn't my problem. I have a dog. I got her 4 years ago and she is the love of my life, she is my child. She constantly holds her against me even though she orders me to keep the dog locked up in a room when I'm at work and says that she's her dog even though she does absolutely nothing for her. Doesn't know what food she eats, what medicine, when she's fed, what vet she goes to, what her fav treats are, or her favourite toy, she holds her against me and says that because she initially 'paid' for her and because she lives under her roof currently my dog is hers. Thank GOD the paperwork is under my name. I can't wait to give my dog the best life ever when I move out. I've moved her to friends places that she loves and my grandparents house a few times where she can have more freedom and where she feels loved.
She is jealous and gatekeeps from us kids. My sister was struggling financially. In our culture and society and in this economy people that have gotten married rely a lot on generational wealth even after working. She torments my brother in law for not 'being a man'. She 'gave' my sister a home where she now lives that we already own but didn't transfer it under her name. Everything was conditional. Don't sleep in the master bedroom, we're allowed to eat meat in the house (my sister and BIL are strictly veg), it's MY house so i'll be picking everything up to the bedsheets, towels etc. My sister's MIL who has now sadly passed on (lovely, lovely lady) was not allowed in the house as well as anyone else without my mother's explicit permission. My sister spent $40,000 USD of her own savings doing up the house for good, for life or as long as it could stand and Nmom ended up selling it and not giving my sister a dime because 'we need the cash'. Right before my niece was born, she almost sent my sister into labour because she started fighting with her and throwing fits before she gave birth to her first child. After my sister gave birth, my sister, who is financially unstable, got a gift from our paternal grandma (who Nmom hates, Nmom's parents have now passed but she had shit relationships with them in the living - now that they're gone she glorifies both of them like their gods favourite and when she's upset says 'they would be disappointed in you' like she's talking about God himself. Maternal Grandma passed 12 years ago now and paternal grandpa 5 years ago now, still has random breakdowns and fits and blames it on missing them) the gift was a cheque for a certain dollar amount. Nmom kept the cheque and never even cashed it because she told my sister it was her fault her and my dad have been financially unstable and that she should keep the money. Plus my grandma's not a good person... so why should she even want to accept it? From that logic, why would she then keep the cash for herself? Anyways, it was a classic narc move since she never even cashed the cheque.
I love my grandparents, they are the parents I wish I had and they live not too far from us. She was upset because my Grandma went for a family event that she wasn't invited to, even though Nmom excludes her from everything. I offered that maybe if they met they could have a chat and fix their relationship. From that she didn't talk to me for 3 months after. Completely isolated me, didn't talk to me at all. Called me a b***h, said 'who needs a daughter like you', when I wished her happy mothers day called me a traitor, secluded me completely from meal times, brainwashed my brother into not talking to me (until she kicked my dad out one night and started pounding on his door and screaming bloody murder bc she needs her 16 year olds support (she doesn't she just wants to make everyones life a living hell and scar her children for life instead of protecting them)), she'd leave the country without a word and expect me to run the house while she was gone. When I finally couldn't take it and made a plan to leave and go do my masters abroad (taking my dog with me) she tried holding my dog against me. I told her I'll slap her with a lawsuit. They'll try anything. Finally e-dad had enough and told me to patch things up with her. I met her for a coffee and negotiated, fine I won't go abroad and do my masters (She said I don't deserve to go abroad and do my masters because when she wanted to move countries a few years ago when I was already 20 years old and self-sustaining I said sure you move but I won't come - because how can I move countries way from everything I know and love and be isolated with only her - they didn't end up moving after buying a $12 million USD house because she couldn't bring her helpers/maids with her, she'd have to pay extraordinate tax etc but she blames it on me - total definition of walking on egg shells) but then I get to get back together with my boyfriend (who she didn't like because his family's wealth is not to her standard even though she has made him be my best friend since I was born - same school, group of frineds, playgroup etc and our families have known each other for generations). She agreed.
It's amazing me and my sister have ended up normal having this as our living example. I want to scream at e-dad and tell him how grateful he should be that he has normal kids that excel at life despite the odds when we could be anything based on how we grew up and how I continue to live. To stop wanting us to excel more when our priority is just simply survival. My sister is a mother (to me and my brother and now her own little one), a wife, a teacher and married into an extremely prominent family. I am an author (4 published books) with my own charitable fund and I run my own business (that she now thinks is hers too- when I said it's not, she said I'll slap your face, to which I got up and said I'll slap yours then too-which resulted to 3 days of room isolation with no food or water), with a loving partner and wanting to get married soon. Both of us are college graduates, my brother is 16 but runs his own business and will attend college next year. They should be grateful. It infuriates me.
Sorry everything is all over the place. And if you've read so far, thank you for reading, we'll all see a shining light one day.
2024.05.28 09:24 Porodicnostablo Area of Axis control on the day surrender, May 8th 1945
 | submitted by Porodicnostablo to europe [link] [comments] |
2024.05.28 08:43 SevenTwoEight They're demanding money from me knowing I'm barely scrapping by.
I never thought this day would come. Just got a long text message demanding money and teling me how much they supported me throughout my life - how much I owed them. They know my financial situation, and they know I'm finally managing to save money for career training. But they want a large cut of my check. They're asking for nearly all of the extra money I make to put into my own future. The frustrating part of this whole situation is this inherited apartment I'm living in now. My grandparents have gifted me this apartment and my sister also got her share. My mother in particular even said it was mine. But now, she's changing the story and saying the place is hers. The situation gets much more complicated than that.
I didn't realize this when I was little but my family started off pretty well off. They had enough to own a large 3/2 home and a restaurant business. Neither of them knew how to save or manage money however. My father who wanted the restaurant, poorly managed the money and used alcohol to cope with his failing business. It failed quickly and things just fell apart in the family. After numerous bankruptcies and other issues related to the alcoholism, we ended up living poor. The only way we managed to survive was from my mother's side of the family and her owned properties in another country. We managed to stay floating above poverty due to that.
My father worked a couple years and then stopped. My mother refuses to work and insists on being a stay at home mom. She would constantly tell us how terrible her life was, and how much better we had it. Growing up, my sister and I would try to give them both advice but neither wanted any of it. Eventually, even my father stopped working and went on government assitance. I won't go into detail but he also began to refuse doing any work.
The situation doesn't sound too bad, right? Well this only worsens for all of us because my parents refuse to save money. They spend, and spend, and spend. My mother spends to continue living the lavish life style she believes she deserves. She loves to accuse the rest of us with how we spend our own money. She even keeps a notebook on the exact amount of money she gives us and constantly reminds us. I started to notice that my mother would get upset with us if we're happy or having a good time; She would immediately ask us to do something for her. It felt like smiling around her wasn't allowed. My father wastes his government assisted money by giving it away to other people he thinks are "poor or needy" but they're taking advantage of him. He occasionally goes back to drinking himself stupid.
Where was I in the later years? I went to college for two years on a scholarship with the remaining amount paid for by my mother. I got my AA degree but did poorly when I transferred to a university. I lived back home for two years while working and helping out when I could. This was when I found a better career choice and started to work towards making the money to pay for the training. I eventually moved to another city and lived from rental apartment to shared housing a couple of times. This is around the time I was informed I would have some inheritance. So, I purchased an apartment that was at a great price. The mistake I made was adding my mother's name to the place alongside mine. I didn't think I would have to be worried about my mother.
And this is where I am now. I'm finally making some profit through working, and now I'm apparently not allowed to think for myself. I'm constantly being asked if I'm going to sell the property and if I'm making a lot of money at my job. My parents LOVE to call my workplace or friends to find out exactly what I'm doing. It's gotten to the point where I have to hide all that information from them. With their money issues worsening, they've been constantly on my back about how much they've been supporting me and helping me since I was born. They remind me of all the toys and such they've bought for me. I tried to help by telling them what they NEED to do to save money or even earn some but they won't have it. They like being codependent. They like not working and pretending they're rich. The past years, they started to even bring my hopes and dreams down by reminding me of all my failures.
Here's where I'm at. I got that text message with the long drawn out list of things they did for me, a couple days ago. I told them I would think about it until my payday. Normally, I wouldn't think much of it and help a little but the reasoning for the money was a little strange. She wouldn't tell me specifics and gave me an outlandish reason for wanting so much money. That, along with the guilt tripping message started to make me second guess helping them. With the way she is, I have a feeling she will bring up selling the apartment she believes is hers alone. With my foolish decision to include her name on it, she could probably force a partition action. I'm also starting to worry that they might use my credit to draw out more money without my permission. The partition action lawsuit would cost me a lot of money and I'll be stuck to fend for myself while my parents have a fully paid off home and car.
If I tell them no, they will definitely argue and fight and call me ungrateful. I'm already stressed enough as it is. I live a couple hours away so they might see me in person.
The funny thing is, my sister went no-contact with them during a christmas dinner a year or so back. She sent my parents a letter saying she no longer wants to be in contact with them - a letter a therapist told her to write.
I don't know what to do you guys. I don't want to lose contact and I am grateful for how they raised me, but I can't afford to give away money like that right now. And even if I did help, they would never stop asking for more.
submitted by SevenTwoEight to raisedbynarcissists [link] [comments]
I didn't realize this when I was little but my family started off pretty well off. They had enough to own a large 3/2 home and a restaurant business. Neither of them knew how to save or manage money however. My father who wanted the restaurant, poorly managed the money and used alcohol to cope with his failing business. It failed quickly and things just fell apart in the family. After numerous bankruptcies and other issues related to the alcoholism, we ended up living poor. The only way we managed to survive was from my mother's side of the family and her owned properties in another country. We managed to stay floating above poverty due to that.
My father worked a couple years and then stopped. My mother refuses to work and insists on being a stay at home mom. She would constantly tell us how terrible her life was, and how much better we had it. Growing up, my sister and I would try to give them both advice but neither wanted any of it. Eventually, even my father stopped working and went on government assitance. I won't go into detail but he also began to refuse doing any work.
The situation doesn't sound too bad, right? Well this only worsens for all of us because my parents refuse to save money. They spend, and spend, and spend. My mother spends to continue living the lavish life style she believes she deserves. She loves to accuse the rest of us with how we spend our own money. She even keeps a notebook on the exact amount of money she gives us and constantly reminds us. I started to notice that my mother would get upset with us if we're happy or having a good time; She would immediately ask us to do something for her. It felt like smiling around her wasn't allowed. My father wastes his government assisted money by giving it away to other people he thinks are "poor or needy" but they're taking advantage of him. He occasionally goes back to drinking himself stupid.
Where was I in the later years? I went to college for two years on a scholarship with the remaining amount paid for by my mother. I got my AA degree but did poorly when I transferred to a university. I lived back home for two years while working and helping out when I could. This was when I found a better career choice and started to work towards making the money to pay for the training. I eventually moved to another city and lived from rental apartment to shared housing a couple of times. This is around the time I was informed I would have some inheritance. So, I purchased an apartment that was at a great price. The mistake I made was adding my mother's name to the place alongside mine. I didn't think I would have to be worried about my mother.
And this is where I am now. I'm finally making some profit through working, and now I'm apparently not allowed to think for myself. I'm constantly being asked if I'm going to sell the property and if I'm making a lot of money at my job. My parents LOVE to call my workplace or friends to find out exactly what I'm doing. It's gotten to the point where I have to hide all that information from them. With their money issues worsening, they've been constantly on my back about how much they've been supporting me and helping me since I was born. They remind me of all the toys and such they've bought for me. I tried to help by telling them what they NEED to do to save money or even earn some but they won't have it. They like being codependent. They like not working and pretending they're rich. The past years, they started to even bring my hopes and dreams down by reminding me of all my failures.
Here's where I'm at. I got that text message with the long drawn out list of things they did for me, a couple days ago. I told them I would think about it until my payday. Normally, I wouldn't think much of it and help a little but the reasoning for the money was a little strange. She wouldn't tell me specifics and gave me an outlandish reason for wanting so much money. That, along with the guilt tripping message started to make me second guess helping them. With the way she is, I have a feeling she will bring up selling the apartment she believes is hers alone. With my foolish decision to include her name on it, she could probably force a partition action. I'm also starting to worry that they might use my credit to draw out more money without my permission. The partition action lawsuit would cost me a lot of money and I'll be stuck to fend for myself while my parents have a fully paid off home and car.
If I tell them no, they will definitely argue and fight and call me ungrateful. I'm already stressed enough as it is. I live a couple hours away so they might see me in person.
The funny thing is, my sister went no-contact with them during a christmas dinner a year or so back. She sent my parents a letter saying she no longer wants to be in contact with them - a letter a therapist told her to write.
I don't know what to do you guys. I don't want to lose contact and I am grateful for how they raised me, but I can't afford to give away money like that right now. And even if I did help, they would never stop asking for more.
2024.05.28 07:29 lommenabdo Net Winners in Madoff Ponzi Scheme Lose
The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld that investors in the Madoff Ponzi scheme, who withdrew more money than they invested net winners are not entitled to rely on fictitious profits shown in their last statements. Instead, the court ruled that losses and gains should be based on the actual money invested minus withdrawals. This decision aligns with other Ponzi scheme rulings, ensuring net winners cannot claim distributions as victims and are subject to claw-back lawsuits for their excess withdrawals plus interest.
submitted by lommenabdo to u/lommenabdo [link] [comments]
2024.05.28 03:48 capresesalad1985 Driving anxiety after car accident
I’ve always had bad luck with driving, had my fair share of gender benders. In 2015 I had a highway collision where I slammed into the guard rail and broke 4 ribs. I saw a therapist, got some meds to help me sleep, and it never really got all the way better but I’m at least functional. I’ve always had generalized anxiety and had taken Wellbutrin for about a decade.
Fall of last year I was rear ended at a red light. The other driver was going about 40-50 mph and there were no skid marks. I saw him coming for a split second so I clenched and broke 3 ribs, herniated 11 discs, cracked a tooth and I have a feeling tore something in my right hip (they originally thought it was coming from my low back but I’m getting a hip MRI to make sure it’s not something else). So it’s clear I’m really banged up and 6 months later I’m still in daily extreme pain.
I hate driving. Thankfully my route to work is early in the am so it’s not trafficy and it’s two straight roads that total 2 miles. But if it’s optional to drive somewhere I won’t do it. If it’s 10 mins to go hang out with a friend I’ll come up with an excuse. My husband will drive us to the grocery story and I still get very anxious being a passenger (it doesn’t help that I also think he drives pretty aggressively).
This accident snapped something in my brain because I’m still in so much pain. I’ve tried to get a therapist but everyone I’ve contacted wants up front payment and then I have to file for payment and between all the drs appts and pt and chiro I already have plus dealing with a lawsuit, I just don’t need another task on top of everything. Could a therapist even help this? Or should I look for a driving course? I’m scared to do simple things like take left hand turns where the visibility may be slightly reduced and I know an anxious driver is more likely to cause accidents.
Thoughts? Thank you :)
submitted by capresesalad1985 to Anxiety [link] [comments]
Fall of last year I was rear ended at a red light. The other driver was going about 40-50 mph and there were no skid marks. I saw him coming for a split second so I clenched and broke 3 ribs, herniated 11 discs, cracked a tooth and I have a feeling tore something in my right hip (they originally thought it was coming from my low back but I’m getting a hip MRI to make sure it’s not something else). So it’s clear I’m really banged up and 6 months later I’m still in daily extreme pain.
I hate driving. Thankfully my route to work is early in the am so it’s not trafficy and it’s two straight roads that total 2 miles. But if it’s optional to drive somewhere I won’t do it. If it’s 10 mins to go hang out with a friend I’ll come up with an excuse. My husband will drive us to the grocery story and I still get very anxious being a passenger (it doesn’t help that I also think he drives pretty aggressively).
This accident snapped something in my brain because I’m still in so much pain. I’ve tried to get a therapist but everyone I’ve contacted wants up front payment and then I have to file for payment and between all the drs appts and pt and chiro I already have plus dealing with a lawsuit, I just don’t need another task on top of everything. Could a therapist even help this? Or should I look for a driving course? I’m scared to do simple things like take left hand turns where the visibility may be slightly reduced and I know an anxious driver is more likely to cause accidents.
Thoughts? Thank you :)
2024.05.28 02:51 masterofpiss The MK News Media Conspiracy Part 2/2
 | Link to part one for those who haven't seen it: https://www.reddit.com/SMG4/s/gX6dRctOxm submitted by masterofpiss to SMG4 [link] [comments] Now before I begin part two of this theory, I'd like to disclose something. You see, one of the major goals in this theory is setting up a foundation for future theories to build off of, meaning that while some parts of this theory might be shaky, just know that it's partially due to this point as some things currently don't have answers due to the limited amount of info on the MK News Media at the tine of writing this. However, this theory is still incredibly solid as a whole, so don't let this one point ruin the theory as a whole for you. Alright, with that out of the way, let's begin. Now in order to understand the role of the MK News Media we need to go back quite a bit in the smg4 timeline, specifically to late 2018. You see, at this point in the timeline, a news company in the mushroom kingdom, fittingly called the MK News Media has been struggling to stay in business after the decline in viewers caused by both the Waluigi and Rapper Bob arcs. You see, they didn't achieve all that much success during these arcs due to the infamous T-pose apocalypse (top left of image 2) and Rapper Bob's immense fame (left upper middle of image 2). This would lead to them declaring bankruptcy and nearly going under around a month or two prior to the anime arc. However, their near bankruptcy would attract a group of entities that mysteriously came from another universe (note: it's possible that the entities in question potentially came the great beyond, and could be the in-universe equivalent of the show's writers. However there is also evidence against this possibility, despite there being genuine evidence for it, so this could go either way). Now, you're probably wondering what this group of entities from another universe actually is. However, my answer for this is quite vague because I'm currently a bit unsure where they came from. However, Despite my vague description of where they came from, I'm actually pretty certain that this group of entities is HIGHLY dangerous because they have the ability to influence future events in the smg4 timeline itself (even more than mr.puzzles) through things like yellow journalism and misinformation. Now a few potential examples of them using this ability (after taking over MK News) are causing smg4 to directly go after smg3 in "Mario's Spicy Day," after a bit of static plays when he starts smg3's spicy ones video (bottom left of image 2), making peach ban anime by discussing that anime is destroying the mushroom kingdom (top right of image 2), and causing lawyer kong go after smg4 after giving him info about smg4's origins (bottom right of image 2). Now while those are just a few examples, there are way more of these that I didn't mention, but we'd be here all day if I went over all of these examples, so let's continue from where we left off. Now, this group of entities would tell the original heads of MK News that they are interested in buying out their dying news company, telling them that they'll make sure that MK News is successful in the long run, and that all they have to do is let the entities buy them out, even offering to give the original company heads a HEFTY sum of cash in the process. Unfortunately, the heads of the company would accept this deal because the only other option they had would be to go out of business. However, they would eventually come to regret this decision. You see, the mysterious group of entities from a different universe would fire ALL of the current staff and replace them with brand new employees that have similar mindsets as the new heads of the MK News Media, this mindset in particular being that of yellow journalism. Now, for those of you wondering what yellow journalism is: yellow journalism is removing or editing certain parts of information in a news story in order to sell a great story to the masses, and THIS is massively important when regarding the MK News Media, because the idea of yellow journalism would result in them causing certain events in the smg4 timeline (as mentioned earlier), and potentially even changing certain parts of smg4 canon, like the origins of Axol Jr and the Toast Guy (image 3) (Note: this ability is currently speculative due to the lack of evidence towards this being the case. However, considering that the MK News Media seems to take a lot of inspiration from the concept of yellow journalism, it would be a genuine possibility to consider). This would, in-turn, strengthen the story that the MK News Media wants smg4 to tell. Now, They would also use yellow journalism to cause the events of IMWTLMOE (by creating a series of events started by through getting mario drunk with milk containing alcohol, and this would result in Mario's friends leaving him (top left of image 4)), and Clown Fever (by introducing the depresso's "girlfriend" to the biggest clown in town, aka, us (bottom left of image 4)) before scrapping these potential news stories/smg4 arcs because they thought the stories weren't good enough, as well as the negative fan reception to the start of said stories (image 5). However, they still had a use for clown fever, because one of the heads in the company mentioned the idea of a puppet master villain manipulating the smg4 cast, and considering they knew that an individual known as mr.puzzles had recently taken an interest in the smg4 show around this time through a local newspaper featuring his logo (which meggy would see around this time, as shown in the upper top left of image 6) (upper bottom right of image 4), they would go with this idea and start the preparations for it. Now, their preparations for this storyline would begin by causing the carnival in the showgrounds to be abandoned through the use of fake news and yellow journalism (lower top right of image 4), as well as using said yellow journalism to close down the circus that depresso was a part of (upper top right of image 4) (evidence for this is shown in the lower bottom right of image 4, where we can see that depresso is acting like he's genuinely homeless while in the showgrounds). Next, they created a series of events that would cause the grand door to be opened (lower top left of image 6). From there, they'd trap the cosmic horror from the grand door inside a sealing keyboard (upper bottom left of image 6) (note: mr.puzzles may not have been the one responsible for trapping the cosmic horror in his keyboard due to his lack of power outside of the digital realm, as well as him running away from mario in the puzzlevision movie (lower bottom left of image 6). However, he was able to trap the smg4 crew in his head, so it's still at least somewhat possible that he trapped the cosmic horror in the eldritch keyboard.) and set smg4 into his pursuit of the perfect video by using mr.yeast to make smg4 obsessed with making far more content with way lower quality (upper top right of image 6), and helping smg3 cancel smg4 without realizing it later on in the episode (lower top right of image 6). Afterwards, they'd make sure mr.puzzles would get the demonic keyboard, which would set the events of the puppet master storyline in motion. Meanwhile, The MK News Media would start the first phase of their plan, that being, disposing of Princess Peach. You see, one of the major goals of the current MK News Media is to have COMPLETE control over the spread of information in the smg4 universe, so they could continue making yellow journalism esc. stories without having to worry about governmental figures like Princess Peach (upper bottom right of image 6) (note:while there isn't any evidence for this at the moment, there is the possibility that Peach could have gotten suspicious of the MK News Media around this point in the timeline, which would make this plan feel more logical in the long run), so disposing of Peach would be essential to this plan. Hell, the destruction of peach's castle would also make for a great headline with great character development for the smg4 cast (lower bottom right of image 6), as well as a massive change in the smg4 universe. Now, unfortunately for the smg4 cast, the MK News Media would succeed in getting rid of princess peach through using the demonic keyboard and mr.puzzles, which would lead into phase two of their plan, making sure the smg4 crew doesn't learn about the true intentions of the MK News Media, or in other words, making sure they aren't a threat. You see, phase two of this plan would involve mr.puzzles and the showgrounds, with mr.puzzles serving as a distraction for the smg4 cast. This is because despite not being all that powerful outside of his domain, he was still the mastermind behind the events of western spaghetti and wotfi 2023 (top left of image 7). Now, aside from serving as a distraction, mr.puzzles would also sell the smg4 crew the showgrounds (upper bottom left of image 7), a place that would be ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL TOWARDS THE PLAN OF THE MK NEWS MEDIA. You see, in the showgrounds, the smg4 cast would begin construction on a new castle, and this castle would have a boarded-up room (lower bottom left of image 7) that potentially contains an object that gives The MK News Media NEAR COMPLETE control over EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING in the smg4 universe. Except for two characters, those being Tari and Mr.Puzzles (my reasoning as to why Tari wouldn't be affected by the MK News Media at this time is mainly due to what I believe the role of clench is in the greater story, which I'll be discussing shortly. As for my reasoning regarding mr.puzzles not being affected, it mainly has to do with his reactions at the start of the puzzlevision movie, as well as his actions throughout the adware saga, because him being under the MK News Media's control throughout the entire saga wouldn't make that much sense). Now, when the Smg4 Castle was finished being built, The MK News Media would start affecting both the characters and even the very writing of the smg4 universe itself by giving the background characters specific roles in mr.puzzles's shows (like wotfi 2023 (upper top right of image 7)), and causing certain characters like Mario to behave VERY OUT OF CHARACTER, with a few examples of this being shown during the events of both Mario goes coo-coo crazy (lower top right of image 7), and Wotfi 2023 (upper bottom right of image 7). Now in these episodes, Mario would act in a controlled and somewhat malicious manner in the former episode, and in a completely malicious manner in the latter episode, with these behaviors being caused by The MK News Media controlling him like a puppet on strings, while mario is no longer in control of his own actions. Now, while everything was going perfectly for the MK News Media at this point in their plan, one of their employees ABSOLUTELY DESPISED what they were doing, and would hack into Tari's arm one day, calling himself "Clench" (lower bottom right of image 7). You see, through this persona, he would start his plan to take down the MK News Media by helping Tari while keeping a low profile so that MK News Media doesn't figure out who he is (evidence for this point is clearly shown when we see clench turn himself off twice in "No TV Makes Mario No Okie Dokie" when mr.puzzles makes himself known near the start of the episode (upper top left of image 8), and when the rest of the smg4 cast is running away from mario while heading towards the basement near the episode's end (lower top left of image 8)). Later on in his plan, he would try to convince Tari to go through the boarded-up door and destroy the object behind it, so that all of this insanity can FINALLY come to an end. However, the second half of clench's plan hasn't happened just yet, BUT we can look at all of the events that lead up to where we are now at the time of writing this, so with this in mind, let's begin by going over the 5-part puzzlevision event. Now, sometime after clench would start the first part of his plan, mr.puzzles would begin to finish executing his own plan by sucking the smg4 cast into his head so he can make his puzzlevision tv shows. During which, he would ask for great reviews for his shows (upper bottom left of image 8), and while he'd get really good reviews, it wasn't the 5 star rating he wanted, and the MK News Media wasn't helping matters whatsoever, because their news headlines and control over the smg4 universe would slowly cause mr.puzzles to hit his limit at the time of MPIGSS. You see, we're made to believe that we are the ones slowly lowering mr.puzzles's ratings throughout the episode (lower bottom left of image 8). However, we are unable to rate puzzlevision episodes until AFTER they come out (upper top right of image 8), so it's more than likely that the MK News Media is rating mr.puzzles's show here, and considering that it's likely them rating MPIGSS, it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if mr.puzzles made a deal with them in order to continue making entertainment after the smg4 crew would defeat him, and this potential deal is something we can see being hinted towards in the puzzlevision movie. You see, while the movie starts out with him going crazy while hearing the review by the MK News Media, he somehow maintains his composure to an eerie degree throughout the puzzlevision movie (bottom right of image 8), and strangely, mario spends most of the film not really doing all that much (lower top right of image 8), almost as if a higher power won't let him defeat mr.puzzles. Hell, Mr. Puzzles LITERALLY makes Luigi into a meat mallet despite him intending to kill the cast (top left of image 9), which potentially hints towards him playing a bigger role than we thought with the MK News Media, and there's more still going with these two entities potentially working together, but for now, let's head into the role that MK News Media had in the events of "SMG4 doesn't meme for one second", a seemingly innocent smg4 episode that hides a lot of potential evidence beneath the surface. You see, in this episode we see multiple instances of things in this episode that don't just feel off, they feel, VERY off. You see, this episode starts out with the episode's opening showing a horror movie esc sequence (bottom left of image 9) right before we see smg4 coming across a meme of a spinning fish that causes him to go completely bonkers (top right of image 9). All the while, glitching and static briefly appear and dissappear on screen (bottom right of image 9). Now I shouldn't have to explain why this instance of both glitching and static is important at this point, because we all now that it's an indicator of mr.puzzl- WAIT A DAMN SECOND..... Mr.Puzzles is inactive at the time of this episode, meaning that this couldn't have been him, which also means that.... OH.... OH GOD! Mr.puzzles wasn't the only entity behind the static and glitching in the smg4 universe, and considering that the MK News Media is STILL ACTIVE at this point, then it means that the MK News Media is more than likely responsible for the glitching and static here as well as some other instances of it in the smg4 universe, which is valid evidence towards my earlier point regarding IMWTLMOE and the static at the start of the youtube arc. Now with this in mind, we can head into the next off feeling moment in the episode, which is the behavior of the smg4 cast towards smg4 in the episode's first half (upper top left of image 10). You see, the smg4 cast treats smg4 in a pretty similar way to how mario was treated in IMWTLMOE (as shown in the scene at the lower top left of image 10), and considering just how many times I've talked about this episode before, I seriously don't think I have to go over it again, so let's head into the next off instance in the episode. Now the third off instance in this episode occurs when meggy is showing smg4 some rorschach tests, and when she shows smg4 one of them, we see the subtitles show the extra words "crowd clap" between the words remind and of (upper bottom left of image 10), which is bizarre to say the least, even by smg4 standards, and I already know that some of you are saying that this is just an error on smg4's end, but here’s the thing my dear reader, I know errors in entertainment VERY well. In-fact, I have personal experience as an animator myself, and I can CONFIDENTLY say that I've never seen an "error" like this before in any sort of media I've seen or made, and believe it or not, the closest thing I've seen to an error like this is usually a translation error (examples at the lower bottom left of image 10), or someone typing out a story in English after using their first learned language (that isn't English), but there's a difference between a translation error and the supposed error we're seeing here. You see, translation errors and second language english versions of media tend to have more than one spelling or grammar error throughout its sentences or paragraphs, meaning that this supposed error has nothing to do with translation. Now this leaves another question, "if this isn't that kind of error, then what about it potentially being an auto-correct/auto-fill or dictation error (examples of dictation errors at the upper top right of image 10)? Well that would've potentially been the case if it wasn't for the fact that not only are the words crowd and clap way more different than remind and of, but also due to the fact that THERE ISN'T A SPACE AFTER THE WORD CLAP, meaning that it likely isn't a dictation or autocorrect/auto-fill error either. Meaning that this MUST be completely intentional on smg4's part (aside from the missing space between clap and of, for obvious reasons), but here’s the thing, aside from potentially asking us to clap (for some reason), I'm completely unsure as to what the significance of this is, but I'll definitely be keeping it for future use if needed. Anyways, the final off instance in this episode is that the plot of the episode contradicts itself in the final act as boopkins says that his grandma had died (lower bottom right of image 10), and not his aunt as stated earlier on in this episode (upper bottom right of image 10), which, like the supposed error mentioned earlier, is bizarre, even by smg4 standards. However, I have a slightly crazy, yet plausible explanation for this. You see, I believe that this scene, and by extension, the episode itself are a sort of hidden warning as to what the quality of smg4 episodes will end up being like with the MK News Media in control, with the quality in particular being very bad with plot contradictions, unnecessary "fan service" (as shown with smg4 being abused (upper top left of image 11) (keep in mind that smg4 is now the most hated smg4 character in the fandom (evidence for smg4 being hated is shown at the lower bottom right of image 10)) instead of mario (lower top left of image 11)), and bad humor (upper bottom left of image 11) while still featuring new ideas, which is definitely a horrifying concept if you ask me. Anyways, that should cover the role that MK News Media had in that episode, meaning that we can now discuss the other episode that would cause me to get off of my break early to begin with, "Mario The Exploro." Now this episode surprisingly only has two major points of note, the first of which being at the very start of the episode itself. During which, we see mario suddenly bring in the puzzlevision TV (lower bottom left of image 11) DESPITE EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED IN THE SAGA'S 4TH ACT! Now I'm pretty sure I REALLY don't need to explain why this is a MASSIVE PLOT CONTRADICTION, so I'll go ahead and explain why mario was behaving like this at the start of the video. You see, I believe the reason as to why mario was behaving like this at the start of the episode mainly involves not only the boarded-up door, but also the deal between mr.puzzles and the MK News Media. Now, as I discussed earlier, the object of power behind the boarded-up door allows the MK News Media to control almost every single element in the smg4 universe, including mario, and the deal that mr.puzzles and the MK News Media made would let mr.puzzles continue to make entertainment after the events of the puzzlevision movie. This means that the MK News Media used mario to grab mr.puzzles's TV head after the events of the puzzlevision movie, which finished the deal that the two entities agreed on, but there's something else I should mention before getting onto the other point of interest in this episode, this being that mr.puzzles is still interested in taking over smg4's channel (upper top right of image 11). Now with this in mind I have two equally plausible predictions as for what this could lead into. You see, explanation/prediction one is that the MK News Media knew that this would happen, meaning that mr.puzzles would be nothing but a distraction for the smg4 cast so that they don't learn what's truly going on from behind the scenes. Now, explanation/prediction number 2 is far more interesting because it suggests that mr.puzzles could be trying to takeover the smg4 channel this time around, so he can destroy the MK News Media out of revenge for the ratings that MK News gave his shows. This would give mr.puzzles a kind of semi-redemption arc where despite being a reoccurring antagonist, he would not only get potential closure over his past (if foul play was involved in his past), but it would also prove to the smg4 cast that he isn't 100% evil, giving a great ending to a fan favorite smg4 character. Now currently, I'm unsure about which explanation is more likely, but I'll hopefully bring up one of these ideas again in a future theory once more evidence is available. Speaking of which, I should move onto the other major point of note in this episode, that being mr.puzzles's character feeling off, almost as if he's a different character altogether. You see, when we see mr.puzzles, he acts far less malicious than he ever was during the adware saga, and instead of being a complete control-freak like how he was before (lower top right of image 11), he is now obsessive over smg4 and wants to give him ideas (upper bottom right of image 11) instead of forcing smg4 to do these ideas against his will, which is a complete 180 from what we saw in the adware saga. Now, this could potentially mean that mr.puzzles MIGHT have been replaced by somebody else entirely. However I believe that this is too much of a stretch, even by my standards, so I'll be leaving this point up for discussion later on if it EVER becomes relevant in the future. Anyways, with that one last point of discussion finished in what I believe the role of the MK News Media has been in the smg4 timeline, we can move onto the evidence for everything that I've discussed in this section of the theory, so let's begin. Now when discussing the evidence for this section of the theory, I want to start by continuing a kind of tradition in my theories, that being similarities between some of the points of discussion, the predictions for them, and certain well known pieces of media, and yes, we're going over The Truman Show yet again, but for different reasons than you may expect. You see, one of the main reasons why I made this theory the way I did actually involves a certain element of The Truman Show, this being the media shown on the set of The Truman Show itself. Now, there's quite a bit of media in The Truman Show, which ranges from things that are very common nowadays like news segments on tv (Note: APPARENTLY, some nutcase at youtube made it so you can't screenshot certain moments from the film, meaning that I'm unable to supply images for some of these points), or things as old as newspapers (lower bottom right of image 11), BUT they all served the same purpose, MAKING SURE THAT TRUMAN DOESN'T FIGURE OUT WHAT'S TRULY GOING ON. Now, normally I'd bring up how the MK News Media is doing something similar by making sure that the smg4 cast doesn't figure out what's truly going on. HOWEVER, in order to better line it up with the stronger details shown in and after the adware saga, I have decided that instead, I'm going to compare it to the intentions of the MK News Media when regarding the ratings that mr.puzzles recieves throughout the 5-part finale to the adware saga. You see, as I've explained earlier, at the time of the 5-part adware saga finale, the MK News Media was trying to push mr.puzzles into acting the way he does at the time of the puzzlevision movie through the use of news, other media and ratings, which is very similar if not, near identical to what I was explaining earlier when regarding the truman show, which further strengthens my prediction regarding how the MK News Media is using their control over information to cause certain events in the smg4 universe, but this isn't the only similarity that the evidence and my predictions have to The Truman Show. You see, the other major similarity to the truman show that I'd like to discuss is how similar mr.puzzles's return is to that of the return of Truman's "father." You see, in the latter half of the Truman Show's second act, we see Truman's "father", re-appear out of nowhere for ratings (upper top left of image 12) despite the fact that TRUMAN LITERALLY SAW HIM "DIE" WHEN HE WAS A KID (lower top left of image 12), as well as his return genuinely not making that much sense when you consider that truman saw his supposed "father" earlier on in the film (upper bottom left of image 12). Now, you're probably wondering why I'm bringing up this VERY specific scene of the truman show up in my evidence for this theory, and my answer to this is that the return of Truman's "father" is pretty similar to how mr.puzzles returned in the episode "Mario The Exploro." You see, when mr.puzzles returned in Mario The Exploro, his return didn't make all that much sense when you begin to think about it, because not only did mr.puzzles return through the use of mario, a character who actively antagonized him in his shows and wanted to beat the snot out of him during the events of the puzzlevision movie (upper top right of image 12), but also because of the fact that he returned A SINGLE MONTH AFTER THE PUZZLEVISION MOVIE (lower top right of image 12) with barely any build-up towards his return outside of a few community posts (which I'm sure you've seen), which makes his return feel forced, but considering that mr.puzzles's return is pretty similar to what I described earlier regarding the return of Truman's "father," then what if it being forced was the ENTIRE point. After all, if mr.puzzles was just meant to be a distraction for the smg4 cast in order to make sure that they don't figure out that The MK News Media is truly responsible for the events of the adware saga, then mr.puzzles's return a mere month after the adware saga would make perfect sense, strengthening my prediction regarding mr.puzzles's true role in the The MK News Media's grand plan. Anyways, that should cover all the similarities to The Truman Show, so let's head into the rest of the evidence for my predictions in this theory. Now, you might be wondering why I chose VERY SPECIFIC dates when discussing the fall of the original MK News Media, and believe it or not, I specifically chose the dates in-question (the anime, Rapper Bob, and waluigi arc) because of not only the amount of presence the mushroom kingdom news media had at these times, but also due to some other lesser details that go with it as well. You see, The MK News Media had a decent presence in the waluigi arc, as shown in the waluigi apocalypse, where we see a news reporter discussing the waluigi apocalypse at the start of the episode (upper bottom right of image 12). Now, when it comes to the Rapper Bob arc, we actually don't see the MK news media show up at any point during the arc. Which hints towards them potentially being at risk of bankruptcy at this point in time, which would make a whole lot of sense considering that Rapper Bob was quite literally, the most famous person in the mushroom kingdom during that arc. Now, the anime arc is definitely the most interesting when it comes to the evidence for this theory. This is because we not only see the MK News Media going over how anime is destroying the mushroom kingdom right before peach makes anime illegal, but also because of a small yet very important detail being shown here: THE NEWS REPORTER IS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT THAN THE LAST ONE! (Lower bottom of image 12) The fact that the old news reporter is completely absent during the news discussing anime is a massive red flag for me personally, because if the original employees weren't replaced, then why is KERMIT THE FLIPPING FROG DOING THE NEWS?! It almost seems intentional on smg4's part, which could be the case given that the genesis arc would happen a year or two later, where we'd learn what happened to the multicolored marios. However, the news reporter no longer being there still does strengthen my theory, meaning that it can be used as genuine evidence. Alright, that should finish off the evidence for the dates discussing the fall of the MK News Media, so let's get into the next category of evidence in this section. Now, when it comes to my evidence as to why the MK News Media would be responsible for mr.puzzles's origins (as mentioned in part one), it mainly involves two inconsistencies with his backstory. You see, mr.puzzles stated that he got his tv head because he apparently decapitated himself before putting a TV where his head used to be (top left of image 13), but there's one major problem with this. You see, when someone is decapitated, they aren't able to control their body (upper bottom left of image 13) (note: it's also implied in the film that mr.puzzles came from a reality like ours, which is makes this inconsistency STAND OUT EVEN MORE (lower bottom left of image 13)), meaning that mr.puzzles wouldn't have been able to put a tv where his head once was, which also means that it's pretty unlikely that he was the person who put the tv in the place of his decapitated head. However, if the MK News Media was somehow able to put the tv where his head used to be, instead of mr.puzzles himself, then mr.puzzles surviving his decapitation would make way more sense in the long run. Now, this brings me into the other inconsistency with mr.puzzles's backstory: If mr.puzzles's tv head was just an average tv that he managed to hook up to where his head used to be, then why does it have ELDRITCH POWERS?! (upper top right of image 13) My answer for this question is that I believe it's HIGHLY likely that The MK News Media gave mr.puzzles his eldritch head to begin with, because it not only would line up perfectly with what I was describing earlier on in this theory regarding the MK News Media, but also because it would explain why the word "Puzzlevision" is on his head to begin with (lower top right of image 13), because it wouldn't make that much sense for mr.puzzles to name his streaming service after the word on his head (uppwd bottom of image 13). Further proving that mr.puzzles's head came from the MK News Media, as well as strengthening my theory. Now when it comes to my evidence regarding the involvement the MK News Media had in prior events, it mainly lies with how the specific events in question play out. You see, in the first example I mentioned, "Mario's Spicy day," smg4 doesn't try to stop smg3 until he sees smg3's spicy ones video. Now, normally, this wouldn't be all that suspicious. HOWEVER, smg3's video was the only video in his feed (aside from the video he was watching beforehand), which is insanely suspicious, because it subtly implies potential foul play by another entity, which is further strengthened by the glitch that shows up on his computer right before the video plays. Originally, I thought that the static in this scene was caused by mr.puzzles. However, considering that there's evidence towards the MK News Media also being a culprit of the glitches, then it's highly likely that they were the ones responsible for the glitching shown in this scene. Now I've already explained the example with peach and the anime ban, so let's discuss how the MK News Media was responsible for lawyer kong's knowledge of smg4's origins. You see, as I discussed in one of my last theories before I went on break, we NEVER truly learn how lawyer kong obtained his knowledge of smg4's past, or why he didn't decide to go after the meme guardian until after the genesis arc. However, there's a subtle hint towards how he gained his knowledge when we see him show Miyamoto a video while explaining to him what smg4's arrival in the mushroom kingdom caused. You see, right before the video plays we can catch a brief instance of static on lawyer kong's smart device (lower bottom right of image 13), which hints towards another entity potentially giving lawyer kong this information, and like the previous example, I originally thought that mr.puzzles was responsible for this instance, but with the MK News Media also being responsible for some of the static instances in the smg4 timeline, then it's likely that they are responsible for this one as well. Now, when it comes to the last 2 prior events that I connected to the MK News Media earlier on in this theory (IMWTLMOE, and Clown Fever), I actually don't want to discuss how the MK News Media would be responsible for these events because I've gone over these two episodes many times before (especially the former). However, I do want to discuss why the MK News Media would eventually choose to scrap these potential storylines because it actually involves us, aka the viewers. You see, the viewers or in other words, us, seem to be the strongest entities in the smg4 universe because our negative reactions to the lawsuit arc and character redesigns (top of image 14) would end up changing the smg4 universe forever by setting the events of IGBP, and the adware saga in motion (bottom of image 14), and considering that we caused IGBP to happen in the first place, then it's highly likely that our negative reactions to IMWTLMOE and Clown Fever would cause their potential arcs to be scrapped. After all, IMWTLMOE is literally the second lowest rated (on IMDB) smg4 episode ever made, and clown fever was criticized because the clown fever in the episode was too similar to the T-Pose Virus, so it would genuinely make a ton of sense that our negative reactions would cause these storylines to be scrapped. Now, that should cover all of the other pieces of evidence that I have for this theory, but I do want to mention some final predictions that I have for the next major arc/saga in the greater current storyline that we're in. You see, I believe that the next major part in the current greater storyline is going to be an arc and not a saga. You see, if I'm right about what I mentioned earlier on in this theory, then the story that's going to be told will be too short for it to be a saga, due to it likely being somewhat similar to how the revelations arc played out. In other words, the story will be shorter, building upon what came before in the adware saga, will close up any remaining loose ends from the adware saga, introduce a threat greater than that of the original antagonist, and end the storyline on a very satisfying note. Now, I also believe that this arc is likely going to be 7 episodes long, mainly because it feels like the right amount of episodes needed for this final chapter of the greater storyline, which would give ample time to close off the remaining loose ends while also building off of what we already have from the adware saga. Finally, I believe that the true finale of this storyline will probably be a movie instead of meme games or wotfi 2024. This is because the meme games happens in July, and considering that it's late may as I'm currently writing this, then it's pretty unlikely that the greater storyline will conclude with meme games 2024. As for wotfi 2024, it'd likely be too far off for it to be the saga's finale due to Wotfi usually happening in October, and considering that mr.puzzles has returned already, then it'd be pretty unlikely for the finale to be wotfi 2024, meaning that the finale being a movie is the most likely option. And that should be everything that I wanted to cover, thank you for reading. |
2024.05.28 00:43 healthmedicinet Health Daily News May 26 2024
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5-26-2024
AI CHATBOTS ARE INTRUDING INTO ONLINE COMMUNITIES WHERE PEOPLE ARE TRYING TO CONNECT WITH OTHER HUMANS
A parent asked a question in a private Facebook group in April 2024: Does anyone with a child who is both gifted and disabled have any experience with New York City public schools? The parent received a seemingly helpful answer that laid out some characteristics of a specific school, beginning with the context that “I have a child who is also 2e,” meaning twice exceptional. On a Facebook group for swapping unwanted items near Boston, a user looking for specific items received an offer of a “gently used” Canon camera5-26-2024
MICROSOFT’S AI CHATBOT WILL ‘RECALL’ EVERYTHING YOU DO ON A PC
Microsoft wants laptop users to get so comfortable with its artificial intelligence chatbot that it will remember everything you’re doing on your computer and help figure out what you want to do next. The software giant on Monday revealed a new class of AI-imbued personal5-26-2024
AI RELIES ON MASS SURVEILLANCE, WARNS SIGNAL BOSS
The AI tools that crunch numbers, generate text and videos and find patterns in data rely on mass surveillance and exercise concerning control over our lives, the boss of encrypted messaging app Signal told AFP on Thursday. Pushing back against the unquestioning enthusiasm at VivaTech in Paris, Europe’s top startup conference where industry players vaunt the merits of their products, Meredith Whittaker said concerns about surveillance and those about AI were “two framings5-26-2024
THE ‘DEAD INTERNET THEORY’ MAKES EERIE CLAIMS ABOUT AN AI-RUN WEB. THE TRUTH IS MORE SINISTER
An example of a shrimp Jesus image on Facebook with no caption or context information included in the post. Credit: Facebook If you search “shrimp Jesus” on Facebook, you might encounter dozens of images of artificial intelligence (AI) generated crustaceans meshed in various forms with a stereotypical image of Jesus Christ. Some of these hyper-realistic images have garnered more than 20,000 likes and comments. So what exactly is going on here? The “dead internet theory” has an explanation: AI and bot-generated content has surpassed the human-generated internet. But where did5-26-2024
WHAT ARE DEEPFAKES AND SHOULD WE BE WORRIED?
Deepfakes are creating havoc across the globe, spreading fake news and pornography, being used to steal identities, exploiting celebrities, scamming ordinary people and even influencing elections. Yet a worldwide survey found 71% of people have no idea what deepfakes are. Deepfakes are digital photos, videos or voices of real people that have either been synthetically created or manipulated using artificial intelligence (AI) and can be hard to distinguish from the real thing. You’ve probably seen a deepfake video or photo without even realizing it. Computer-generated Tom Cruises,5-26-2024
META INTRODUCES CHAMELEON, AN EARLY-FUSION MULTIMODAL MODEL
Chameleon represents all modalities—images, text, and code, as discrete tokens and uses a uniform transformer-based architecture that is trained from scratch in an end-to-end fashion on ?10T tokens of interleaved mixed-modal data. As a result, Chameleon can both reason over, as well as generate, arbitrary mixed-modal documents. Text tokens are represented in green and image tokens are represented in blue. AI researchers at Meta, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and many other products, have designed and built a multimodal model to compete with5-26-2024
ELECTRIC SCHOOL BUSES MAY YIELD SIGNIFICANT HEALTH AND CLIMATE BENEFITS, COST SAVINGS
Replacing diesel school buses with electric school buses may yield up to $247,600 in climate and health benefits per individual bus, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The researchers found that these benefits—including fewer greenhouse gas emissions and reduced rates of adult mortality and childhood asthma—and their associated savings are strongest in large cities and among fleets of old (2005 and before) buses. The study, “Adopting electric school buses in the United States: health and climate benefits,” was published in the5-26-2024
WEARABLE DEVICES GET SIGNAL BOOST FROM NEW MATERIAL
Strain-invariant stretchable wireless system enabled by dielectro-elastic composite. A new material that moves like skin while preserving signal strength in electronics could enable the development of next-generation wearable devices with continuous, consistent wireless and battery-free functionality. According to a study published today in Nature, an international team of researchers from Rice University and Hanyang University developed the material by embedding clusters of highly dielectric ceramic nanoparticles into an elastic polymer. The material was reverse-engineered to not only mimic skin elasticity and motion types, but also5-26-2024
AI DOMINATES ANNUAL PARIS STARTUP EVENT VIVATECH
Vivatech will host more than 150,000 guests, 11,000 startups and 450 speakers over four days. Thousands of tech enthusiasts filed into Europe’s self-declared biggest startup event VivaTech in Paris on Wednesday, with artificial intelligence stealing the show this year. Over four days, the event, now in its eighth year, will host more than 150,000 guests, 11,000 startups and 450 speakers, according to the organizers. The star turns will take to the stage on Thursday—former US climate envoy and secretary of state John Kerry is expected to make a push for5-26-2024
AI POISED TO USHER IN NEW LEVEL OF CONCIERGE SERVICES TO THE PUBLIC
AI concierge’s fundamental forms. Credit: Journal of Service Management (2024). Concierge services built on artificial intelligence have the potential to improve how hotels and other service businesses interact with customers, a new paper suggests. In the first work to introduce the concept, researchers have outlined the role an AI concierge, a technologically advanced assistant, may play in various areas of the service sector as well as the different forms such a helper might embody. Their paper envisions a virtual caretaker that, by combining natural language processing, behavioral data5-26-2024
AGE VERIFICATION FOR SOCIAL MEDIA WOULD IMPACT EVERYONE—RESEARCHERS ASK PARENTS AND KIDS IF THEY ACTUALLY WANT IT
by Justine Humphry, Catherine Page Jeffery, Jonathon Hutchinson and Olga Boichak, The Conversation This month the Australian government announced a A$6.5 million commitment to trial an age-verification program that will restrict children’s exposure to inappropriate online content, including pornography and potentially social media. The announcement came out of a National Cabinet meeting geared towards addressing gender-based violence in Australia. Much has been said about age-checking technologies in the weeks since. Experts point out implementing these tools effectively (so they aren’t easily by-passed) will be complicated—and any such system could come5-26-2024
IS IT SAFE TO FLY? AIRLINE SAFETY EXPERT ON MODERN COMMERCIAL FLIGHT
In light of recent news regarding congressional action on aviation safety, Penn State News spoke with Amy Pritchett, department head of aerospace engineering and professor in Penn State’s College of Engineering. Pritchett previously served as the director of NASA’s Aviation Safety Program and currently chairs the National Academies committee chartered to research and advise federal regulators on emerging trends in aviation safety. In5-26-2024
USING SMART DEVICES TO SCHEDULE ON-DEMAND PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION CAN SAVE TIME AND MONEY
Suburban residents often face challenges receiving reliable and accessible bus transit—riders often complain about infrequent schedules and long waiting times. Often, transit agencies are unable to provide additional buses because population density in such areas is usually low. On-demand transit (ODT) is an innovative transportation approach that enhances the accessibility and quality of service while reducing operating costs. Despite the rapid growth of ODT services in various cities across Canada and the United States, the mechanism of5-26-2024
UNDERWATER SIGNALS GENERATED BY OPEN SEA AIRPLANE CRASHES COULD BE KEY TO DETECTING FINAL RESTING PLACE OF MH370
Location of the CTBTO’s hydroacoustic stations H11N and H11S (white triangles); the impact location of three aircrafts (indicated in yellow): F-35a, Transair Flight 810, and Asiana Flight 991; and the distances and bearings relative to the hydroacoustic stations (presented in magenta). The cyan star shows the location of earthquake M 4.8–9 km S of Y?kaichiba, Japan, 2014-03-07 18:34:20 (UTC) 35.611o N 140.552o E 23.9 km depth. Signals captured on underwater microphones could be key to locating airplanes such as MH370 when they crash into5-26-2024
SURVEY INVESTIGATES AI TECHNOLOGIES IN THE CLASSIFICATION AND CREATION OF ART
A comprehensive survey has looked at the intersection of art and artificial intelligence (AI). The team has focused on how AI technologies are employed in the classification and also the creation of artworks. Andrej Šimi? and Marina Bagi? Babac of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing at the University of Zagreb have analyzed and categorized a number of research papers in this field to understand the methodologies, techniques, and outcomes in this emerging field. They discuss5-26-2024
CYBERSECURITY LABELING FOR SMART DEVICES AIMS TO HELP PEOPLE CHOOSE ITEMS LESS LIKELY TO BE HACKED
Smart devices like baby monitors, fitness trackers and internet-connected appliances will soon be eligible for labels certifying that they meet federal cybersecurity standards. Federal officials said Wednesday that the first “Cyber Trust” labels could appear in time for the holiday shopping season. The White House announced the labels last year to help consumers avoid devices that are vulnerable to hacking. Credit: AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File Consumer labels5-26-2024
WORLD LEADERS STILL NEED TO WAKE UP TO AI RISKS, SAY LEADING EXPERTS AHEAD OF AI SAFETY SUMMIT
Leading AI scientists are calling for stronger action on AI risks from world leaders, warning that progress has been insufficient since the first AI Safety Summit in Bletchley Park six months ago. Then, the world’s leaders pledged to govern AI responsibly. However, as the second AI Safety Summit in Seoul (21–22 May) approaches, 25 of the world’s leading AI scientists say not enough is actually being done to protect us from the technology’s risks. In an expert consensus paper published in Science, they outline urgent policy priorities that global leaders5-26-2024
MICROSOFT’S AI CHATBOT WILL ‘RECALL’ EVERYTHING YOU DO ON A PC
Microsoft wants laptop users to get so comfortable with its artificial intelligence chatbot that it will remember everything you’re doing on your computer and help figure out what you want to do next. The software giant on Monday revealed a new class of AI-imbued personal5-26-2024
AI TRAINED TO DRAW INSPIRATION FROM IMAGES, NOT COPY THEM
Powerful new artificial intelligence models sometimes, quite famously, get things wrong—whether hallucinating false information or memorizing others’ work and offering it up as their own. To address the latter, researchers led by a team at The University of Texas at Austin have developed a framework to train AI models on images corrupted beyond recognition. DALL-E, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion are among the text-to-image diffusion generative AI models that can turn arbitrary user text into highly realistic images. All three are now facing lawsuits from artists who5-26-2024
AI CHIPS COULD GET A SENSE OF TIME WITH MEMRISTOR THAT CAN BE TUNED
Tunable composition and structural disorder in single-crystalline ESO thin films on epitaxial YBCO electrodes. Credit: Nature Electronics (2024). Artificial neural networks may soon be able to process time-dependent information, such as audio and video data, more efficiently. The first memristor with a “relaxation time” that can be tuned is reported today in Nature Electronics, in a study led by the University of Michigan. Memristors, electrical components that store information in their electrical resistance, could reduce AI’s energy needs by about a factor of 90 compared to today’s graphical5-26-2024
WHAT GOOGLE AI MEANS FOR YOU—AND YOUR SEARCH RESULTS
Google recently unveiled plans to integrate its search engine with artificial intelligence (AI). The company is debuting a new search engine feature called A.I. Overviews, which generates an overview of the topic a user searches and displays links to learn more. Traditional search results still appear underneath, but A.I. Overviews, Google says, will parse various pieces of information to give you a quicker answer. The new feature has raised concerns from some web publishers, who worry it will deal a heavy blow to their site traffic. Currently, A.I. Overviews don’t5-26-2024
RESEARCHERS ANALYZE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF AI-GENERATED DEEPFAKES
Credit: AI-generated image Most of the deepfakes (videos with fake hyper-realistic recreations) generated by artificial intelligence (AI) that spread through social media feature political representatives and artists and are often linked to current news cycles. This is one of the conclusions of research by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) that analyzes the formal and content characteristics of viral misinformation in Spain arising from the use of AI tools for illicit purposes. This advance represents a step towards understanding and mitigating the threats generated by hoaxes in our society.5-26-2024
INTERDISCIPLINARY GROUP SUGGESTS GUIDELINES FOR THE USE OF AI IN SCIENCE
(AI) generates texts, videos and images that can hardly be distinguished from those of humans—with the result that we often no longer know what is real. Researchers and scientists are increasingly being supported by AI. Therefore, an international task force has now developed principles for5-26-2024
IMPERCEPTIBLE SENSORS MADE FROM ‘ELECTRONIC SPIDER SILK’ CAN BE PRINTED DIRECTLY ON HUMAN SKIN
Researchers have developed a method to make adaptive and eco-friendly sensors that can be directly and imperceptibly printed onto a wide range of biological surfaces, whether that’s a finger or a flower petal. Credit: University of Cambridge Researchers have developed a method to make adaptive and eco-friendly sensors that can be directly and imperceptibly printed onto a wide range of biological surfaces, whether that’s a finger or a flower petal. The method, developed by researchers from the University of Cambridge, takes its inspiration from spider silk, which can conform and5-26-2024
BREAKTHROUGH OR BOAST? THE QUEST FOR COMPARABLE RESEARCH RESULTS
More international attention is being paid to the importance of common standards for performing scientific experiments and measuring their results—a field called metrology. In late 2019, physicist Dr. Lorenzo Pattelli was part of an Italian-Chinese scientific team working on a cooling technology that is fast gaining attention as the Earth gets hotter from climate change. Called passive daytime radiative cooling, or PDRC, the technology uses engineered materials to reflect away the sun’s radiation. The idea is that, amid heat waves, PDRC panels would cool buildings without the need for energy-intensive5-26-2024
AI-ENHANCED COLLECTIVE BARGAINING TOOLS COULD HELP GIG WORKERS SOLVE PROBLEMS
Researchers at Northeastern University have created artificial intelligence tools to help gig workers organize, collect their own job-related data, analyze their work problems and come up with a strategy to implement solutions. “Building solid AI-enhanced solutions to enable gig workers’ collective action will pave the way for a fair and ethical gig economy—one with fair wages, humane working conditions and increased job security,” says Saiph Savage, assistant professor and director of the Civic A.I. Lab at Northeastern’s Khoury College of Computer Sciences. Gig work is typically performed by a freelancer5-26-2024
AI-POWERED TRADING STRATEGIES TAME MARKET SWINGS
Average financial indicators feature importance. Credit: Quantitative Finance and Economics (2024). DOI: 10.3934/QFE.2024007 The dynamic landscape of cryptocurrencies, marked by rapid growth and high volatility since Bitcoin’s inception in 2009, has attracted significant attention from investors and traders. The emergence of new digital currencies challenges traditional financial models, necessitating advanced analytical tools to navigate the market’s unpredictability. The quest for effective trading strategies has led to the exploration of AI and machine learning techniques, which promise to enhance decision-making in this speculative yet lucrative field. Researchers from the University of5-26-2024
NEW ROBOTIC PALM USES SOPHISTICATED TACTILE SENSORS TO MIMIC HUMAN TOUCH
“I’ll have you eating out of the palm of my hand” is an unlikely utterance you’ll hear from a robot. Why? Most of them don’t have palms. If you have kept up with the protean field, gripping and grasping more like humans has been an ongoing Herculean effort. Now, a new robotic hand design developed in MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) has rethought the oft-overlooked5-26-2024
SCARLETT JOHANSSON SAYS A CHATGPT VOICE IS ‘EERILY SIMILAR’ TO HERS AND OPENAI IS HALTING ITS USE
Scarlett Johansson poses for photographers at the photo call for the film “Asteroid City” at the 76th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, May 24, 2023. OpenAI plans to halt the use of one of its ChatGPT voices after some drew similarities to Johansson, who famously portrayed a fictional AI assistant in the (perhaps no longer so futuristic) film “Her.” File OpenAI on Monday said it plans to halt the use of one of its ChatGPT voices that “Her” actor Scarlett Johansson says sounds5-26-2024
AI HEADPHONES LET WEARER LISTEN TO A SINGLE PERSON IN A CROWD BY LOOKING AT THEM JUST ONCE
A University of Washington team has developed an artificial intelligence system that lets a user wearing headphones look at a person speaking for three to five seconds and then hear just the enrolled speaker’s voice in real time even as the listener moves around in noisy places and no longer faces the speaker. Pictured is a prototype of the headphone system: binaural microphones attached to off-the-shelf noise canceling headphones. Credit: Kiyomi Taguchi/University of Washington Noise-canceling headphones have gotten very good at creating an auditory blank slate. But allowing certain sounds5-26-2024
NVIDIA’S PROFIT SOARS, UNDERSCORING ITS DOMINANCE IN CHIPS FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Nvidia reports earnings on Wednesday, May 22, 2024. Credit: AP Photo/Eric Risberg Nvidia on Wednesday overshot Wall Street estimates as its profit skyrocketed, bolstered by the chipmaking dominance that has made the company an icon of the artificial intelligence boom. Its net income rose more than sevenfold compared to a year earlier, jumping to $14.88 billion in its first quarter that ended April 28 from $2.04 billion a year earlier. Revenue5-26-2024
EIT-BASED TACTILE SENSOR PROVIDES NEW APPROACH TO FINE MOTOR SKILLS ASSESSMENT
Researchers from SIT Japan showed a peg-shaped sensor for classifying adult pinching motions. Reconstructed images reach 79.4% accuracy, while voltage vectors achieve 91.4%, hinting at automated finger motion analysis potential. a) The microcontroller and sensing device are connected by a wire. (b) Hand model pinching the sensing device with two fingers from the horizontal direction and the reconstructed image. Credit: Hiroki Sato from SIT, Japan. Fine motor skills play a crucial role in human cognition, influencing everything from daily activities to the development of advanced tool-based civilizations. Yet, quantifying and5-26-2024
EUROPE’S CLIMATE LAWS COULD SPELL THE END TO LOW-COST FLIGHTS—BUT WHAT ABOUT PRIVATE JETS?
The era of low-cost air travel in Europe may be over for good, thanks in part to recent EU environmental policies. All in all, this is good news for the climate. But many low- and middle-income people who used to travel around the EU will no longer be able to do so, or at least will be able to do so much less often. Yet the same policies will have little or no impact on the use of much more polluting private jets, which typically cover distances served by commercial5-26-2024
ROBOT-PHOBIA COULD EXASPERATE HOTEL, RESTAURANT LABOR SHORTAGE
Using more robots to close labor gaps in the hospitality industry may backfire and cause more human workers to quit, according to a Washington State University study. The study, involving more than 620 lodging and food service employees, found that “robot-phobia”—specifically the fear that robots and technology will take human jobs—increased workers’ job insecurity and stress, leading to greater intentions to leave their jobs. The impact was more pronounced with employees who had real experience working with robotic technology. It also affected managers in addition to frontline workers. The findings5-26-2024
TWO TYPES OF LLMS FOUND ABLE TO EQUAL OR OUTPERFORM HUMANS ON THEORY OF MIND TESTS
Performance of human (purple), GPT-4 (dark blue), GPT-3.5 (light blue) and LLaMA2-70B (green) on the battery of theory of mind tests. a, Original test items for each test showing the distribution of test scores for individual sessions and participants. b, Interquartile ranges of the average scores on the original published items (dark colors) and novel items (pale colors) across each test. An international team of psychologists and neurobiologists has found via experimentation that two types of LLMs are able to equal or outperform5-26-2024
SANOFI ALLIES WITH OPENAI, FORMATION BIO FOR AI USE IN DRUG DEVELOPMENT
AI is playing an ever greater role in developing new medicines, as well as identifying new applications for existing drugs. French pharmaceutical company Sanofi announced Tuesday a partnership with ChatGPT-founder OpenAI and US biotech firm Formation Bio to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence in developing drugs. AI is playing an ever greater role in developing new medicines, as well as identifying new applications for existing drugs. It can be used for example to find new molecules more quickly and to improve clinical tests by vetting which patients would be5-26-2024
USING AI, MASTERCARD EXPECTS TO FIND COMPROMISED CARDS QUICKER, BEFORE THEY GET USED BY CRIMINALS
A sign indicating MasterCard credit cards are accepted is posted at a New York business, Jan. 21, 2015. Mastercard said Wednesday, May 21, 2024, that it expects to be able to discover that your credit or debit card number has been compromised well before it ends up in the hands of a cybercriminal. Credit: AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File Mastercard said Wednesday that it expects to be able to discover that your credit or debit card number has been compromised well before it ends up in the hands of a cybercriminal.5-26-2024
NEW FLEXIBLE FILM DETECTS EYELASH PROXIMITY IN BLINK-TRACKING GLASSES
When attached to eyeglasses, a clear, flexible sensor can detect how close eyelashes are to the lens, enabling blink tracking. When another person’s finger hovers over your skin, you may get the sense that they’re touching you, feeling not necessarily contact, but their proximity. Similarly, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have designed a soft, flexible film that senses the presence of nearby objects without physically touching them. The study features the new sensor technology to detect5-26-2024
GAMERS SAY THEY HATE ‘SMURFING,’ BUT ADMIT THEY DO IT
Online video game players believe the behavior known as “smurfing” is generally wrong and toxic to the gaming community—but most admit to doing it and say some reasons make the behavior less blameworthy, new research finds. The new study suggests that debates about toxicity in gaming may sometimes be more complex and nuanced than is often acknowledged, according to the researchers. Online video games use what are called “matchmaking systems” to pair players based on skill. “Smurfing” is when players cheat these systems by creating new accounts so that they5-26-2024
HUMANS BARELY ABLE TO RECOGNIZE AI-GENERATED MEDIA
AI-generated images, texts and audio files are so convincing that people are no longer able to distinguish them from human-generated content. This is the result of an online survey of about 3,000 participants from Germany, China, and the U.S. This is the first time that a large transnational study has examined this particular form of media literacy.5-26-2024
CAN AIRPLANE TURBULENCE REALLY KILL YOU? AIRCRAFT PROPULSION EXPERT WEIGHS IN ON SINGAPORE AIRLINES DEATH
One person was killed and several dozen more injured Tuesday when a flight from London to Singapore encountered “sudden extreme turbulence” and plummeted roughly 6,000 feet in a matter of minutes, according to The Washington Post. All told, there were 211 passengers and 18 crew on board, according to Singapore Airlines. The deceased passenger reportedly suffered a heart attack during the mid-air tumult. The Boeing 777-300ER operated by Singapore Airlines diverted to Bangkok, where it landed at 3:45 p.m. local time on Tuesday following the in-flight incident. The New York5-26-2024
HOW INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES’ ARE CAUTIOUSLY EMBRACING GENERATIVE AI
U.S. intelligence agencies are scrambling to embrace the AI revolution, convinced they’ll otherwise be smothered in data as sensor-generated surveillance tech further blankets the planet. They also need to keep pace with competitors, who are already using AI to seed social media platforms with deepfakes. But the tech is young and brittle, and officials are acutely aware that generative AI is anything but tailor-made for a trade steeped in danger and deception. Years before OpenAI’s ChatGPT set off the current generative AI marketing frenzy, U.S. intelligence and defense officials were5-26-2024
3D PRINTING ROBOT USES AI MACHINE LEARNING TO CREATE A SHOCK-ABSORBING SHAPE NO HUMAN EVER COULD
Inside a lab in Boston University’s College of Engineering, a robot arm drops small, plastic objects into a box placed perfectly on the floor to catch them as they fall. One by one, these tiny structures—feather-light, cylindrical pieces, no bigger than an inch tall—fill the box. Some are red, others blue, purple, green, or black. Each object is the result of an experiment in robot autonomy. On its own, learning as it goes, the robot is searching for, and trying to make, an object with the most2024.05.27 19:04 TridactylMummies Jois Mantilla via X: a Peruvian Congressman will request Peru's Ministry of Culture information about Muassan's lawsuit
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2024.05.27 18:28 Available_Arm343 Fraudulent/Negligent Billing/Business Practices @ Local Gym Using ABC Fitness?
I purchased a "Month to Month" membership "Billed monthly until cancelled" on a local gym's busted website and triggered automatic monthly subscription-charges via. Stripe. Received a receipt with two broken links to undisclosed key/annual fees and a message reading "If you would like to cancel this order, please email or call". After bringing this issue to staff/the owner in person, it was concluded that Stripe was outdated and out of sync with the gym's active billing/key management system. They waived the undisclosed fees, gave me a key (Several days later), and sent me on my way promising that they would make the necessary changes to my billing. Fast forward a month, I try my key (Which previously worked) on the gym and discover that the key does not work. I notify staff at the nearest opportunity and they tell me that I have incurred late fees/haven't paid the monthly fee. I show them that Stripe is still billing me, and they waive the late fees/next two months of monthly payments... Again promising that they will fix this billing issue. Another month goes by, and I am still getting billed by Stripe. I will get kicked out again once the 2-month waive subsides forcing me to renotify staff. They are stalling by manually waiving fees in the new billing system. Unfortunately, I have reason to believe that when I initially brought the Stripe charges to the owner's attention in person, he may have roped me into blindly signing an ABC fitness contract that holds me liable for 12 months of payments with this gym, but I have reason to believe they are in violation of this contract on the account of my key deactivating despite payment/due to these billing errors among many other antics. How the fuck do I get out of this shit? They never even gave me a copy of anything that I filled out so I can only speculate it was ABC Fitness based off of some adjacent/separate shady links on their website. I have since been reading horror-stories about ABC Fitness and I am concerned about the long-term implications of what I have outlined. Their website falsely advertises the nature of the membership and there was no contract to review when I made the payment, just four fields for card info and a "Buy Now" button. I have managed to get them to tell me over email that they have "Canceled my membership" but they don't seem to know how their website works because they think that I can also cancel the Stripe charges via. their website. NOWHERE can this be done and I've repeated myself about that point twice now. I only have the option of purchasing a second Stripe-subscription. It's almost like they're playing dumb so that they can grab more money from me! I fully expect to see another Stripe-charge next month. All of the staff are very difficult to reach and I have had to pull teeth at every stage in order to speak with them. This is by far the most asinine experience I have ever had with a business and it baffles me how little the owner seems to care about the lawsuit he's about to walk into!!!
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2024.05.27 16:24 Prestigious_Bear_535 Liquidating auction house can't identify consignors of items in inventory
A family member has owned a small antique auction company for many years, incorporated and registered in Massachusetts. Over time a back inventory of consignments has accumulated from items that were passed at auction or never brought to sale for one reason or another. Now they are retiring and would like to close the business - however, they didn't have a good inventory system and much of the information tying items in the inventory to the original consignors has been lost. (They have a database of consignors but not who consigned what.) This presents a dilemma, because the items can't be easily returned to the consignors, but they are also unsure about the legal ramifications of liquidating the inventory when the consignors can't be identified.
My main question is, can these items be sold - either through online retail or liquidated through a third-party auction house? My family member would not be producing another auction themselves to sell these items. Keep in mind the original consignment agreement was for these items to be sold at auction by my family member.
On that note, is there anything they should do to legitimize the sale of these items? One suggestion was to place an ad in the paper giving 2 weeks notice for consignors to retrieve their items before sale (or send out a mass email, but not all the consignors have email addresses).
Secondly - are there any statutes of limitations that might apply here? Many of these items were consigned years, possibly decades ago, and the consignors may not be reachable at their original contacts or may not even be alive anymore. (This is especially true for items that were left over from large estate sales.)
Finally - is there anything my family member would need to do to protect themselves from being personally liable during or after the close of the business? They are worried about personal lawsuits. They have invested a fair amount of personal funds into the business over the years and would like to recoup that investment from the closing and liquidation if possible.
submitted by Prestigious_Bear_535 to legaladvice [link] [comments]
My main question is, can these items be sold - either through online retail or liquidated through a third-party auction house? My family member would not be producing another auction themselves to sell these items. Keep in mind the original consignment agreement was for these items to be sold at auction by my family member.
On that note, is there anything they should do to legitimize the sale of these items? One suggestion was to place an ad in the paper giving 2 weeks notice for consignors to retrieve their items before sale (or send out a mass email, but not all the consignors have email addresses).
Secondly - are there any statutes of limitations that might apply here? Many of these items were consigned years, possibly decades ago, and the consignors may not be reachable at their original contacts or may not even be alive anymore. (This is especially true for items that were left over from large estate sales.)
Finally - is there anything my family member would need to do to protect themselves from being personally liable during or after the close of the business? They are worried about personal lawsuits. They have invested a fair amount of personal funds into the business over the years and would like to recoup that investment from the closing and liquidation if possible.
2024.05.27 14:44 Acceptable_Egg5560 Legal Legends [1]
Thank you u/SpacePaladin15 for inspiring us all!
And thank you, u/TheManwithaNoPlan for all your help in creating this wonderful project with me! I don’t know where I would be without you!
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Memory transcript: Venric, Venlil Lawyer Extraordinaire. Date: [Standardized human time] November 13th, 2136.
The comparatively small Dossur continued to squeak and complain as I packed up my files. “I cannot believe you convinced me to take that deal!” Motsul scurried back into my line of sight as I turned away in my attempts to ignore her verbal beratement. “House arrest! Fines! Sqesh!! Why did I even hire you in the first place? All that posturing and advertisement and you can’t even drop the charges? You’re an awful lawyer!”
I had to suppress some amused whistles. They liked to throw these tantrums almost every time we were in private. Just an outlet for their bruised ego having to deal with losing. “You truly think that?” I responded, shutting off my data pad and placing it in my case stiffly. “Your charges were for being an equal co-conspirator with direct ties to a murderer. I managed to shield you from permanent internment in prison or even in a Correctional Facility, depending on whether or not they decided they thought your relations with Halvone had tainted you enough to require you to be lobotomized.”
She went quiet at my use of that unpleasant word, which was more than alright with me. The sooner I can get this strayu loaf of a Dossur’s money, the better. “To recap: I was able to turn an effective death sentence to just living in your home while things fade away. Not like you need any more sitting around.” I bent down so we were at eye level with one another and looked her straight in the eyes, my tail wagging. “So no - to clarify - I am not an awful lawyer. I’m a Fantastic lawyer.”
I sealed my case with a hiss and grabbed the handle. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must be getting back to my office. Officers will be by to escort you home within the Claw. If I do not receive my payment in a timely manner, I will be pursuing legal action.” I looked back and flashed my teeth at her in an imitation of a human smile, hoping to intimidate the chunky rodent. “Good luck finding anyone willing to represent you in that event.”
Motsul attempted to say something to me, but the door clicked shut behind me, leaving her words muffled by the walls behind me. As soon as I was out of earshot, I breathed a sigh of relief. Due to her previous connections, she had been more than willing to pay for my premium services, and now that she knew the consequences of shorting me, I doubted I’d see a millicredit less than she offered. As I walked through the hallways of the Magisterial building, I passed by many different species. Notably so were a pawful of humans, a very new sight for this district of the Province. One of High Magister Gaerhun’s last acts before stepping down was support for the refugee housing initiative. Surprising for this area, and all the more surprising when his replacement, a Harchen named Yalinua, not only followed through on the promise but expanded it a bit as well.
Given my standard investigation, though somewhat mitigated that surprise, I found out she had a daughter diagnosed with Predator Disease. A daughter who just so happened to be on Motsul’s payroll, meaning they would get more compensation from the fine than the direct imprisonment. Always good to find ways to get on the judge’s good side.
Still, the continued presence of humans had been a bit of a shock at first, but I had since grown accustomed to their presence. Whether or not that meant I was diseased I wasn’t sure, but I wasn’t about to ruin that superposition. Not when I had finally managed to make it big!
So I made my way out of the building towards the parking garage, letting my legs guide me to the elevator as I began to dream of what I would spend or invest this newest paycheck upon. Oh, I was always one to tease about more hover cars, but an actual third one was more than I really needed. I had practical use for two, as they were legitimately good for intimidation and travel. They were essentially a midpoint between a personal shuttle and personal vehicle, allowing travel to just about anywhere in a reasonable time so long as they’re fully charged. So what should I set my money towards next? More advertisements? With the Gubernatorial elections coming up, I could always do a few campaign contributions to get on the candidates' good sides. Perhaps I… will…
My thoughts trailed to a halt as my elevator to the top of the parking garage opened. There was a Venlil with floppy ears standing next to my hover car, her tail swaying with nervous energy. She looked like she was looking for someone, a suspicion that was confirmed as soon as she caught sight of me. Normally I would pass such people with only a passing of my card as, if they truly wished for my assistance, they would make an appointment. Yet this woman wasn’t posed as a standard client, for she wore around her neck the frilled collar of an Ipsom-Sprig Lawyer. Now that is surprising.
It was through that momentary surprise that she marched up to me, very clearly bracing herself to make a presentation. “Good Paw, Mister Venric, my name is Serl. Your reputation has preceded you, so I believe you are the best option for me to turn to.” Her voice was quick, a bit nervous, but still holding an energy that betrayed her passion for the profession hadn’t beaten out of her. She lifted up a file case in her paws, making to open it. Oh, I think she has that backwards. “I have a-”
My suspicion was proven correct as when she unlocked the second latch, her file case swung open towards me instead of towards her as she had so very clearly expected. Her professional bravado melted in an instant as she witnessed the paperwork spill out onto the ground, a couple getting swept up in the garage’s breeze.
“Speh! No! I needed-! Brahk!!”
She leapt upon the ground, scrambling to gather her papers back into their files. Out of pity, I strolled over to one that had gotten tossed into the wind, picking it up in my paws. On it was a picture of a Kholsian woman with a pleasant smile on her face dressed in a medical uniform. Why would an Ipsom-Sprig lawyer approach me about a nurse? Despite my better judgment, I had actually become curious as to what she had meant to ask me before her fumble.
She was still scooping up papers off the ground by the time I returned to her, a few errant tears in her eyes. She thought I had walked off no doubt, which was proven correct by the surprise on her face when I handed her paper back. “Impressive work on staking out your target’s car, but a little sloppy on the presentation. Now, what do you have to tell me? Considering that all your documentation is in order, that is.”
“Y-yes! Okay!” She swallowed away some phlegm as she fumbled with her papers. They were rather obviously not in order, which meant she ended up choosing that very same picture of the Kholshian. “Mister Venric, you are famous, or, er, infamous depending on who you ask, for taking on cases that no other Lawyer would dream of taking to court, and getting the best possible outcomes for those that don’t get to court. You took on the Exterminator Office, defended the first human to go through our courts, and have been defending a participant in a mass conspiracy.”
“Had been defending, and allegedly participated,” I corrected her. “My services with that client have just concluded, pending payment.”
“Ah, er, yes.” She coughed, trying to recover her professionalism. “It- It is because of that reputation that I have sought you out. My client has been accused of murder, and you are the best person I can think of to ask for assistance.”
I perked up my ears slightly, but I wasn’t fully convinced yet. “If you’ll let me make a small deduction here; You have a Kolshian as a client who, due to recent events, has suffered a lot of arising prejudice.” I whistled in amusement. “A galaxy-wide conspiracy to manipulate predators and prey isn’t exactly something that can be easily overlooked by the public. Though, if that were the only problem, you could find plenty of lawyers who would still defend. You didn’t do that, though. You came to me.”
“Yes!” She swayed her tail in the positive. “Because you’re by far the most skilled in cases such as these!”
I huffed and readjusted my jacket. “Flattery, and rather transparent flattery at that. So, I am going to make another deduction: you aren't here because of me being the best, but because you are desperate.”
“Desperate?” She asked, “I-”
“Yes, desperate.” I interrupted. “You wore your collar to give yourself credibility, a collar that kept the pin of your law office.” I pointed at the sigil upon her lapel. It depicted a gavel held within the curled tail of a Venlil. “Tail Guard Legal Firm. I used to work in one of their subsidiary offices, up until they tossed me out for taking on the Tarlim lawsuit. I can guarantee that any reputation they would have of me would not be positive, as you’ve implied.”
The woman’s form looked to have deflated during my speedy breakdown of their motivations. However, I wasn’t quite done. “However, as I used to work with them, I know how they operate. They prefer to send the predspeh cases to be handled by the Seed or Sprig lawyers in the Firm. Now let’s put this all together: you are coming to an independent lawyer that your firm despises, with a case of a Kholshian Murderer, and the outlook is so dim that you feel that relating with me would have less of a blowback than taking it on yourself.”
She was completely dumbstruck by my complete deconstruction of her reasoning and situation, a look that I did enjoy, especially considering I didn’t have to break her down afterwards. Quite the opposite, actually, as during my speech, I had made up my mind about hearing her out. “It-its not… fully because of the blowback. The firm is already, uh, punishing me with this case.”
“Oh, those are the best ones!” I clapped my hands together, now eager to hear what mess this young lawyer had gotten herself into. “Tell me: did you also show up Iklivez and Yipilion? Those dumbbrahk cronies could never take someone correcting their cases, even if it did get their clients off.”
“Oh they… they don’t work at the firm anymore…” I gave her an expectant look and she gave a light grumble before continuing. “Because I told the Magistratta I feared they had excessive bias towards exterminators.”
I whistled. I think I can make a final guess here. “And so the firm decided that since you are so against bias, you might as well take the client everyone hates. Am I correct?”
The little lawyer deflates even more under my words. My ability to skillfully read people had to be suppressed most of my life. It felt so good to be in a profession that allowed me to let loose so easily! However, Serl was correct in one aspect: I was interested in seeing what the case had to offer, but only if the terms were presented in a more transparent manner.
As I was about to ask, I noticed a couple of Exterminators glaring at me from the corner of the parking lot. I remember hearing about the so-called “True Exterminators” that had gotten their start in Dawn Creek. A horrible situation, one Rolem took charge in prosecuting, and causing the formation of a group that was just the worst of an already horrible institution. Given my personal history with them, and the fact there wasn’t even an office in this district any longer, I had a feeling that they weren’t too happy with my presence. More so than normal given their detour, meaning this meeting should likely take place elsewhere. Placing a paw on her slumped shoulder, I decided to give her one last chance. “Now, with all of that out of the way, would you like to present your pitch again in less fabricated terms? Preferably somewhere more private.”
The bases of her ears perked up, indicating her surprise. Anticipating her eventual answer, I pulled her along and started guiding her through the garage towards my vehicle. The Hovertransit was an absolutely brilliant purchase on my part. Spacious enough to store my work supplies and to act as a home away from home. I had more than enough money to purchase property, but I’d rather leave that until after I’m certain it won’t burn down in a “service-related accident.” I’ve had more than enough near misses with my old grounded vehicle.
Once in the vehicle, I set the automatic piloting system on a loop around the Sidestar city and ensured that Serl was properly secured in the back. She looked confused by my actions, but that would serve a valuable purpose. Those confused are less likely to tell lies, meaning that whatever came out of her mouth now would hopefully be the full truth.
I flicked a lever on my chair and spun it around, allowing me to face the legal student directly. It was another feature I adored about this vehicle, as it made meetings feel more professional and natural. I sat up straight, ears forward in attention. “So, I understand you desire my services on a case.”
I tilted my head in a gesture for Serl to start her pitch. A proper one this time, one that would let me gauge her professional ability. One fitting of a conversation between practitioners of the law. She adjusted her frilly collar and sat her suitcase on her lap. Her ears suddenly pressed back against her head, what would usually be a sign of sadness or fear, but the rest of her body language was that of someone steeling themselves to be as serious as possible. Setting themselves to show nothing, an inverse of my preferred tactic.
“Mister Venric, I represent a client who is under extreme scrutiny and undue prejudice due to circumstances beyond her control. She’s…she’s been charged with murder, and the evidence is almost overwhelmingly against her, but I-I just don’t think they have the right person.” She spoke with a decidedly more sincere attitude, as opposed to the flattery she had attempted to pile upon me. I appreciated how quickly she adapted to the circumstances, but if I had a credit for every plaintiff that others were certain was innocent, I’d have two Hovertransits by now. I need to be sure of what I’m getting into.
“And you’re sure of this, why?” I postulated, letting her process my question. If she had any hope of successfully defending her client, she needed to start from a bedrock. Feelings don’t cut it alone, something has to substantiate them in order to hold water. I’ve defended long enough to know that, along with most of Venlil Prime’s legal statutes.
“There are details in the evidence that just don’t quite fit together right,” she responded with notable difficulty in elaborating on her state of mind. “There are inconsistencies in the evidence that could be chalked up to coincidence, but I just- I don’t think they are! Please, I brought a dossier of everything that’s been submitted so far and all that I’ve been able to scrounge up. They’re all yours if you agree to help in this case. I…I don’t want to lose my career over this.”
She reached into her briefcase and retrieved a disorganized set of papers, the same set that had fallen out in the parking lot. Now that we were in a more controlled environment, I was content to look over the paperwork in a more substantial manner. However, my perusal was immediately halted at the very first lines.
“Name: Nhilasi”
“Occupation: Nursing Practitioner, former Exterminator”
“Charges Pending: Medical Malpractice, Murder by Poison, Terrorism”
I knew that name. She had been the acting Head Exterminator when the Dawn Creek Incident happened. To my remembrance, she stood up for the omnivorous species and was nearly killed for it. During her recovery, she had been awarded a Medal of Honor for her bravery once camera footage surfaced of her attempts to stop the fuel explosion the “True Exterminators” set off. By all accounts, she was a hero.
So why is she getting charged on terrorism counts?
“Mister Venric?” Serl asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. I lowered the paper and looked back at her. She was noticeably more nervous than she had been, which meant I was likely looking at that paper for longer than I intended. “Will you- uh, can you help me?”
I glanced between her and the paper a few times before sighing and swiveling my chair around. I replaced the circling command with the penitentiary’s coordinates before returning to face her. “I believe that discussion of my compensation is in order before continuing further.” From how her tail swayed behind her, I could tell she knew what that meant. At least I wasn’t getting a complete newbie to accompany me.
Hopefully I’m not getting in over my head…oh who am I kidding. If all goes well, I absolutely will be!
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submitted by Acceptable_Egg5560 to NatureofPredators [link] [comments]
And thank you, u/TheManwithaNoPlan for all your help in creating this wonderful project with me! I don’t know where I would be without you!
[Next]
Memory transcript: Venric, Venlil Lawyer Extraordinaire. Date: [Standardized human time] November 13th, 2136.
The comparatively small Dossur continued to squeak and complain as I packed up my files. “I cannot believe you convinced me to take that deal!” Motsul scurried back into my line of sight as I turned away in my attempts to ignore her verbal beratement. “House arrest! Fines! Sqesh!! Why did I even hire you in the first place? All that posturing and advertisement and you can’t even drop the charges? You’re an awful lawyer!”
I had to suppress some amused whistles. They liked to throw these tantrums almost every time we were in private. Just an outlet for their bruised ego having to deal with losing. “You truly think that?” I responded, shutting off my data pad and placing it in my case stiffly. “Your charges were for being an equal co-conspirator with direct ties to a murderer. I managed to shield you from permanent internment in prison or even in a Correctional Facility, depending on whether or not they decided they thought your relations with Halvone had tainted you enough to require you to be lobotomized.”
She went quiet at my use of that unpleasant word, which was more than alright with me. The sooner I can get this strayu loaf of a Dossur’s money, the better. “To recap: I was able to turn an effective death sentence to just living in your home while things fade away. Not like you need any more sitting around.” I bent down so we were at eye level with one another and looked her straight in the eyes, my tail wagging. “So no - to clarify - I am not an awful lawyer. I’m a Fantastic lawyer.”
I sealed my case with a hiss and grabbed the handle. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I must be getting back to my office. Officers will be by to escort you home within the Claw. If I do not receive my payment in a timely manner, I will be pursuing legal action.” I looked back and flashed my teeth at her in an imitation of a human smile, hoping to intimidate the chunky rodent. “Good luck finding anyone willing to represent you in that event.”
Motsul attempted to say something to me, but the door clicked shut behind me, leaving her words muffled by the walls behind me. As soon as I was out of earshot, I breathed a sigh of relief. Due to her previous connections, she had been more than willing to pay for my premium services, and now that she knew the consequences of shorting me, I doubted I’d see a millicredit less than she offered. As I walked through the hallways of the Magisterial building, I passed by many different species. Notably so were a pawful of humans, a very new sight for this district of the Province. One of High Magister Gaerhun’s last acts before stepping down was support for the refugee housing initiative. Surprising for this area, and all the more surprising when his replacement, a Harchen named Yalinua, not only followed through on the promise but expanded it a bit as well.
Given my standard investigation, though somewhat mitigated that surprise, I found out she had a daughter diagnosed with Predator Disease. A daughter who just so happened to be on Motsul’s payroll, meaning they would get more compensation from the fine than the direct imprisonment. Always good to find ways to get on the judge’s good side.
Still, the continued presence of humans had been a bit of a shock at first, but I had since grown accustomed to their presence. Whether or not that meant I was diseased I wasn’t sure, but I wasn’t about to ruin that superposition. Not when I had finally managed to make it big!
So I made my way out of the building towards the parking garage, letting my legs guide me to the elevator as I began to dream of what I would spend or invest this newest paycheck upon. Oh, I was always one to tease about more hover cars, but an actual third one was more than I really needed. I had practical use for two, as they were legitimately good for intimidation and travel. They were essentially a midpoint between a personal shuttle and personal vehicle, allowing travel to just about anywhere in a reasonable time so long as they’re fully charged. So what should I set my money towards next? More advertisements? With the Gubernatorial elections coming up, I could always do a few campaign contributions to get on the candidates' good sides. Perhaps I… will…
My thoughts trailed to a halt as my elevator to the top of the parking garage opened. There was a Venlil with floppy ears standing next to my hover car, her tail swaying with nervous energy. She looked like she was looking for someone, a suspicion that was confirmed as soon as she caught sight of me. Normally I would pass such people with only a passing of my card as, if they truly wished for my assistance, they would make an appointment. Yet this woman wasn’t posed as a standard client, for she wore around her neck the frilled collar of an Ipsom-Sprig Lawyer. Now that is surprising.
It was through that momentary surprise that she marched up to me, very clearly bracing herself to make a presentation. “Good Paw, Mister Venric, my name is Serl. Your reputation has preceded you, so I believe you are the best option for me to turn to.” Her voice was quick, a bit nervous, but still holding an energy that betrayed her passion for the profession hadn’t beaten out of her. She lifted up a file case in her paws, making to open it. Oh, I think she has that backwards. “I have a-”
My suspicion was proven correct as when she unlocked the second latch, her file case swung open towards me instead of towards her as she had so very clearly expected. Her professional bravado melted in an instant as she witnessed the paperwork spill out onto the ground, a couple getting swept up in the garage’s breeze.
“Speh! No! I needed-! Brahk!!”
She leapt upon the ground, scrambling to gather her papers back into their files. Out of pity, I strolled over to one that had gotten tossed into the wind, picking it up in my paws. On it was a picture of a Kholsian woman with a pleasant smile on her face dressed in a medical uniform. Why would an Ipsom-Sprig lawyer approach me about a nurse? Despite my better judgment, I had actually become curious as to what she had meant to ask me before her fumble.
She was still scooping up papers off the ground by the time I returned to her, a few errant tears in her eyes. She thought I had walked off no doubt, which was proven correct by the surprise on her face when I handed her paper back. “Impressive work on staking out your target’s car, but a little sloppy on the presentation. Now, what do you have to tell me? Considering that all your documentation is in order, that is.”
“Y-yes! Okay!” She swallowed away some phlegm as she fumbled with her papers. They were rather obviously not in order, which meant she ended up choosing that very same picture of the Kholshian. “Mister Venric, you are famous, or, er, infamous depending on who you ask, for taking on cases that no other Lawyer would dream of taking to court, and getting the best possible outcomes for those that don’t get to court. You took on the Exterminator Office, defended the first human to go through our courts, and have been defending a participant in a mass conspiracy.”
“Had been defending, and allegedly participated,” I corrected her. “My services with that client have just concluded, pending payment.”
“Ah, er, yes.” She coughed, trying to recover her professionalism. “It- It is because of that reputation that I have sought you out. My client has been accused of murder, and you are the best person I can think of to ask for assistance.”
I perked up my ears slightly, but I wasn’t fully convinced yet. “If you’ll let me make a small deduction here; You have a Kolshian as a client who, due to recent events, has suffered a lot of arising prejudice.” I whistled in amusement. “A galaxy-wide conspiracy to manipulate predators and prey isn’t exactly something that can be easily overlooked by the public. Though, if that were the only problem, you could find plenty of lawyers who would still defend. You didn’t do that, though. You came to me.”
“Yes!” She swayed her tail in the positive. “Because you’re by far the most skilled in cases such as these!”
I huffed and readjusted my jacket. “Flattery, and rather transparent flattery at that. So, I am going to make another deduction: you aren't here because of me being the best, but because you are desperate.”
“Desperate?” She asked, “I-”
“Yes, desperate.” I interrupted. “You wore your collar to give yourself credibility, a collar that kept the pin of your law office.” I pointed at the sigil upon her lapel. It depicted a gavel held within the curled tail of a Venlil. “Tail Guard Legal Firm. I used to work in one of their subsidiary offices, up until they tossed me out for taking on the Tarlim lawsuit. I can guarantee that any reputation they would have of me would not be positive, as you’ve implied.”
The woman’s form looked to have deflated during my speedy breakdown of their motivations. However, I wasn’t quite done. “However, as I used to work with them, I know how they operate. They prefer to send the predspeh cases to be handled by the Seed or Sprig lawyers in the Firm. Now let’s put this all together: you are coming to an independent lawyer that your firm despises, with a case of a Kholshian Murderer, and the outlook is so dim that you feel that relating with me would have less of a blowback than taking it on yourself.”
She was completely dumbstruck by my complete deconstruction of her reasoning and situation, a look that I did enjoy, especially considering I didn’t have to break her down afterwards. Quite the opposite, actually, as during my speech, I had made up my mind about hearing her out. “It-its not… fully because of the blowback. The firm is already, uh, punishing me with this case.”
“Oh, those are the best ones!” I clapped my hands together, now eager to hear what mess this young lawyer had gotten herself into. “Tell me: did you also show up Iklivez and Yipilion? Those dumbbrahk cronies could never take someone correcting their cases, even if it did get their clients off.”
“Oh they… they don’t work at the firm anymore…” I gave her an expectant look and she gave a light grumble before continuing. “Because I told the Magistratta I feared they had excessive bias towards exterminators.”
I whistled. I think I can make a final guess here. “And so the firm decided that since you are so against bias, you might as well take the client everyone hates. Am I correct?”
The little lawyer deflates even more under my words. My ability to skillfully read people had to be suppressed most of my life. It felt so good to be in a profession that allowed me to let loose so easily! However, Serl was correct in one aspect: I was interested in seeing what the case had to offer, but only if the terms were presented in a more transparent manner.
As I was about to ask, I noticed a couple of Exterminators glaring at me from the corner of the parking lot. I remember hearing about the so-called “True Exterminators” that had gotten their start in Dawn Creek. A horrible situation, one Rolem took charge in prosecuting, and causing the formation of a group that was just the worst of an already horrible institution. Given my personal history with them, and the fact there wasn’t even an office in this district any longer, I had a feeling that they weren’t too happy with my presence. More so than normal given their detour, meaning this meeting should likely take place elsewhere. Placing a paw on her slumped shoulder, I decided to give her one last chance. “Now, with all of that out of the way, would you like to present your pitch again in less fabricated terms? Preferably somewhere more private.”
The bases of her ears perked up, indicating her surprise. Anticipating her eventual answer, I pulled her along and started guiding her through the garage towards my vehicle. The Hovertransit was an absolutely brilliant purchase on my part. Spacious enough to store my work supplies and to act as a home away from home. I had more than enough money to purchase property, but I’d rather leave that until after I’m certain it won’t burn down in a “service-related accident.” I’ve had more than enough near misses with my old grounded vehicle.
Once in the vehicle, I set the automatic piloting system on a loop around the Sidestar city and ensured that Serl was properly secured in the back. She looked confused by my actions, but that would serve a valuable purpose. Those confused are less likely to tell lies, meaning that whatever came out of her mouth now would hopefully be the full truth.
I flicked a lever on my chair and spun it around, allowing me to face the legal student directly. It was another feature I adored about this vehicle, as it made meetings feel more professional and natural. I sat up straight, ears forward in attention. “So, I understand you desire my services on a case.”
I tilted my head in a gesture for Serl to start her pitch. A proper one this time, one that would let me gauge her professional ability. One fitting of a conversation between practitioners of the law. She adjusted her frilly collar and sat her suitcase on her lap. Her ears suddenly pressed back against her head, what would usually be a sign of sadness or fear, but the rest of her body language was that of someone steeling themselves to be as serious as possible. Setting themselves to show nothing, an inverse of my preferred tactic.
“Mister Venric, I represent a client who is under extreme scrutiny and undue prejudice due to circumstances beyond her control. She’s…she’s been charged with murder, and the evidence is almost overwhelmingly against her, but I-I just don’t think they have the right person.” She spoke with a decidedly more sincere attitude, as opposed to the flattery she had attempted to pile upon me. I appreciated how quickly she adapted to the circumstances, but if I had a credit for every plaintiff that others were certain was innocent, I’d have two Hovertransits by now. I need to be sure of what I’m getting into.
“And you’re sure of this, why?” I postulated, letting her process my question. If she had any hope of successfully defending her client, she needed to start from a bedrock. Feelings don’t cut it alone, something has to substantiate them in order to hold water. I’ve defended long enough to know that, along with most of Venlil Prime’s legal statutes.
“There are details in the evidence that just don’t quite fit together right,” she responded with notable difficulty in elaborating on her state of mind. “There are inconsistencies in the evidence that could be chalked up to coincidence, but I just- I don’t think they are! Please, I brought a dossier of everything that’s been submitted so far and all that I’ve been able to scrounge up. They’re all yours if you agree to help in this case. I…I don’t want to lose my career over this.”
She reached into her briefcase and retrieved a disorganized set of papers, the same set that had fallen out in the parking lot. Now that we were in a more controlled environment, I was content to look over the paperwork in a more substantial manner. However, my perusal was immediately halted at the very first lines.
“Name: Nhilasi”
“Occupation: Nursing Practitioner, former Exterminator”
“Charges Pending: Medical Malpractice, Murder by Poison, Terrorism”
I knew that name. She had been the acting Head Exterminator when the Dawn Creek Incident happened. To my remembrance, she stood up for the omnivorous species and was nearly killed for it. During her recovery, she had been awarded a Medal of Honor for her bravery once camera footage surfaced of her attempts to stop the fuel explosion the “True Exterminators” set off. By all accounts, she was a hero.
So why is she getting charged on terrorism counts?
“Mister Venric?” Serl asked, snapping me out of my thoughts. I lowered the paper and looked back at her. She was noticeably more nervous than she had been, which meant I was likely looking at that paper for longer than I intended. “Will you- uh, can you help me?”
I glanced between her and the paper a few times before sighing and swiveling my chair around. I replaced the circling command with the penitentiary’s coordinates before returning to face her. “I believe that discussion of my compensation is in order before continuing further.” From how her tail swayed behind her, I could tell she knew what that meant. At least I wasn’t getting a complete newbie to accompany me.
Hopefully I’m not getting in over my head…oh who am I kidding. If all goes well, I absolutely will be!
[Next]
2024.05.27 13:27 Anarkistik Advice legal or recommendation
So a few questions. If someone is handcuffed , read there rights while being detained and not under arrest , during a questionable home, vehicle ,and persons search , which no copies of warrants or inventory seized were ever given after asking several times , and then the "good guys" decide since they have already gotten one bogus search warrant for a item they themselves literally said did not match the description , destroying all propable cause I believe , but decide to double down and obtain a second warrant for finding CBD with all paperwork and notice to law enforcement and receipts, in a completely different area then where the item they were specifically looking for was described to be , and use this CBD to go get a second warrant for drugs which allows them alot more coverage to search , however also again do not provide a copy when asked and no reciept, but during that time of obtaining the 2nd warrant , the cuffs were put on earlier and rights were advised then are removed from and not placed back on for hours 3-4 total .
Does the removal of cuffs signify or suggest Miranda rights would have needed to be read again if questioned or any statement would be attempted to be used against you ?
So in short . Cuffs were placed on, detained and read rights . Then cuffs were removed . 3 or so hours later cuffs were then put back on and arrested . . Total time of incident 9-10 hours on a weekend at home . Significant time passed between removing cuffs and arresting . Miranda rights were not read after cuffs were removed and replaced back on about 3+ hours later . Additionally would not providing warrants and inventory or receipts be cause for constitution violation lawsuit ? Not to mention the significant information I assume would have to be missing making the officer purposely leave info out in order to convince a warrant to be issued . Or even that there was no propable cause to begin with since the item "did not match description " directly from there mouths moments before deciding to place cuffs and read rights and take hours to obtain a warrant , not allow 4 people in there home for , restroom , food , water , medicine . State of WV , now over 1.5 years long still no preliminary (tho I was forced to file a waiver for 10 days prelim on my first appearance as my lawyer was not available , and still as of today , have not been given copies of these documents . Could these things (among others but these seem to be the bigger ones ) be a case for violating my rights ? For illegal search and seizure , Additionally under WV statutes it states the government has no right at any time unless I'm a convicted criminal or suffering mental illness I believe ,(don't quote me on the. Mental part ) to restrict the access of any firearms. Considering I'm Innocent until proven otherwise , it seems that has been violated since my bond had the condition that I'm not allowed to be near or own firearms . Which I believe is specifically outlined in the 2024 version stating it is not justified to do . I am needing help trying to find anyone like on contingency as criminal charges emptied my bank account and the state bar doesn't ever answer my calls on Tuesdays 6-8 Thank you ahead of time . All info is good info.
submitted by Anarkistik to legal [link] [comments]
Does the removal of cuffs signify or suggest Miranda rights would have needed to be read again if questioned or any statement would be attempted to be used against you ?
So in short . Cuffs were placed on, detained and read rights . Then cuffs were removed . 3 or so hours later cuffs were then put back on and arrested . . Total time of incident 9-10 hours on a weekend at home . Significant time passed between removing cuffs and arresting . Miranda rights were not read after cuffs were removed and replaced back on about 3+ hours later . Additionally would not providing warrants and inventory or receipts be cause for constitution violation lawsuit ? Not to mention the significant information I assume would have to be missing making the officer purposely leave info out in order to convince a warrant to be issued . Or even that there was no propable cause to begin with since the item "did not match description " directly from there mouths moments before deciding to place cuffs and read rights and take hours to obtain a warrant , not allow 4 people in there home for , restroom , food , water , medicine . State of WV , now over 1.5 years long still no preliminary (tho I was forced to file a waiver for 10 days prelim on my first appearance as my lawyer was not available , and still as of today , have not been given copies of these documents . Could these things (among others but these seem to be the bigger ones ) be a case for violating my rights ? For illegal search and seizure , Additionally under WV statutes it states the government has no right at any time unless I'm a convicted criminal or suffering mental illness I believe ,(don't quote me on the. Mental part ) to restrict the access of any firearms. Considering I'm Innocent until proven otherwise , it seems that has been violated since my bond had the condition that I'm not allowed to be near or own firearms . Which I believe is specifically outlined in the 2024 version stating it is not justified to do . I am needing help trying to find anyone like on contingency as criminal charges emptied my bank account and the state bar doesn't ever answer my calls on Tuesdays 6-8 Thank you ahead of time . All info is good info.
2024.05.27 06:00 Choice_Evidence1983 My entitled mom wants me to pay my creep step-brother's student debt
I am NOT OOP, OOP is u/MoneyPhotograph4176
Originally posted to entitledparents
My entitled mom wants me to pay my creep step-brother's student debt
Trigger Warnings: emotional abuse and manipulation, bullying, mentions of child neglect, verbal abuse, animal abuse, peeping tom, stalking, sexual abuse, pedophilia, death of a loved one
Original Post: May 11, 2024
I (29F) have an older Step-brother, Chris (42M) who has been a nightmare since the day my mom married his dad.
Let me give a bit of background: Our parents married when I was 4 and he was 17. Both our parents were widowed. After their wedding, we moved to the US since my mom had American citizenship through marriage. I was born in the US too, but after my dad died when I was 1, my mom and I moved back to Colombia. Step-dad got his residency through marriage and my step-brother because he was a minor.
My step-brother wasn't a big fan of me. My only memories of him are just constant bullying. He would be left in charge of me since he was studying locally and lived with my parents, but mostly his 'babysitting' really meant things like locking me in the guest bathroom or the shed outside. He would steal my lunchbox whenever he was the one who dropped me off at school. He even began to harm my pets. I have an old cat that has been with me for almost 22 years. He tried more than once to run her over with his car. My parents never believed any of it. He's the classic golden child. My mom absolutely wanted a son instead of a daughter, so my step-brother took priority over me.
The bullying just kept getting worse and creepier. He had this long key for the bathroom. The door was designed in case it got locked by accident, one could open them by inserting a long stick or key through a small hole on the outside. He would use it to walk in on me showering. My underwear would disappear sometimes and I know for a fact it was him. He also started taking pictures of me sleeping. One night I woke up to him taking care of himself next to me while I slept. I yelled obviously. My parents came over, but he wasn't in trouble. I was for 'tempting him'. I was 14 when this happened. He was 27.
No one helped me and he got bolder until he did something I am still in therapy for when I was 16. It got to a point where I called my biological half-older brother Sam(48M and son of my biological father's first wife) to see if I could live with him and his wife, Sandy, during my last two years of high school. When Sam found out what was going on, he confronted my mom. My mom didn't care and just told him to take me so long he never asked her for money. Done and done. My brother and his wife became my legal guardians and took me in with my cat and the old family dog since I didn't trust leaving any living creature with Chris around.
My parents never checked on me. My extended family from my father's side knew what happened and they immediately got together to ensure I could finish school well and go to college. I don't know my maternal family at all.
Thanks to my paternal family, including Sam's mother and her family, I got my bachelor's and master's, no student debt, and work as a nurse practitioner. I still live with Sam, his wife, and their two kids, and I pay a small rent. Neither Sam nor his wife expected me to pay anything, but that's the least I can do for the two people who have taken care of me for 13 years. For anyone wondering why I didn't move, it's incredibly expensive where I live and Sam insisted I stay with them until I save enough to buy my own home.
Things seemed okay until my mom messaged me recently. She had not messaged me since I was 18 when she told me she no longer had any responsibility to me. In this message, she sounded overly friendly, telling me how she missed me and asking how I was doing. I was a bit creeped out but decided to be nice, telling her about what I had done since leaving her care. She seemed very interested since apparently she knew I was a nurse, but not what kind I was. She began asking me about my salary. I didn't tell her anything about it, but that it was enough to pay the bills.
My mom then began texting about Chris and how he was barely making any money due to his student debt. Apparently, Chris never finished a degree, jumping from career to career. He is now working in my stepdad's used cars business as a salesman, but most of his pay went to pay the substantial student debt he got over the year.
I told my mom how sorry I was that Chris was having a hard time and wished him luck. That's when my mom finally got to what she wanted: She texted me I needed to pay his student debt so he could finally begin to 'make the money he deserves like the man of the family'. I just turned off my phone.
When I got home, Sam was surprised since I was usually the last to arrive. Sandy wasn't home yet. I told Sam what happened and showed him my mom's text messages. I don't think I've seen Sam this angry ever. He told me to block my mom, stepdad, and Chris if I had not done so yet.
After talking with Sam and Sandy, I called my boss to ask the next day and the one after off. This gave me a 4 day weekend including the days I'm normally off shift. My boss was more than okay with this and told me to just take it easy and let her know if she could help.
This backfired because the next day my mom and Chris decided to come to Sam's house to speak to me. I was alone since Sam and Sandy were at work, and the kids were at school. I immediately called Sam and told him what was going on. He told me not to open the door and that he was on his way.
My mom spent the whole time screaming that I 'owed them' for raising me and that my 'sweet brother' deserved the money. Chris was going around trying to find a window or door unlocked. There wasn't any since the windows have safety bars and the only other door is in the closed garage and one in the yard. The yard one was locked and just in case I locked the one in the garage.
I won't post what he called me when he saw me from one of the windows, but basically, he pretty much told me they should have thrown me away when I was a baby since I grew to be a 'b'. He pounded in one of the windows so hard, he actually cracked the glass.
Eventually, he gave up and went back to the front door, clearly trying to kick it down. I didn't have anything to worry about, the door was a security door, but I was still very scared. Between yelling, threatening, pleading, and insults, I finally heard Sam screaming to them to get lost.
I only saw things from the window; Sam pretty much dragged them both off the porch. They got to a point I couldn't hear, but I saw my mom and Chris pale and look scared before they pretty much ran to their car and drove off way past the legal speed limit.
Sam came in a bit after and immediately went full overprotective brother mode, asking me if I was okay. He kept saying sorry and hugging me. Sandy arrived almost immediately after and she looked like she was about to commit a felony.
Apparently, Sam threatened him with filing charges for what he did to me when I was 16. My brother's ace: my stepdad was willing to testify against his own son. That seemed enough to get Chris off our backs, but not my mom.
Since then, it's been 3 days, and my mom has sent texts, called non-stop with various numbers, and rallied a group of people who are supposedly my maternal family to harass me for money. She claims that money should legally be hers since she's my mother. That it's my late father's missed child support.
Sam is helping me find a lawyer to get a restraining order on my mom and I plan to take my step-dad's offer to testify by pressing charges against Chris. I can't say I can forgive him for not stopping his son, but I appreciate he's at least trying. I don't know the details, but Chris did something to a relative of his dad and since then they had a really bad fallout. I took my boss' offer and will be on vacation for a few more days.
But here it is. My vacation days are getting eaten up and my therapist might need a therapist after. Thankfully my dark sense of humor and supportive paternal family are keeping me somewhat sane.
Relevant Comments
United-Manner20: Change your phone number- it’s super easy. You can either do it from an app on your phone or call customer service to your phone provider. She can’t harass you if she doesn’t have your telephone number even if she calls from unknown numbers she’d have to know your number first.
Update: May 14, 2024
I didn't think I would be making an update so soon, but my mother is unrelenting.
To the people that were so kind and gave me advice earlier, thank you so much. It really helps to have people show kindness in difficult days. I follow with the advice to freeze my credit and I will be getting a new phone for personal use. Will have to keep my old phone for work for a little.
Now to update on the situation: We are going through with pressing charges and might do a civil lawsuit for two years of child support my mother owns. We are not sure yet of our chances on it, but my brother San wants to go scorch earth.
As for my mother, she began a new campaign. She's been posting about me false accusing my step-brother Chris of SA. She's been accussing me of being a 'temptress that tried for years to sleep with my brother' and even got a few relatives, who I just found out are my aunts, to join in saying they were witnesses. I never met these women in my life.
My step-father actually commented in her post saying my mom was lying and accusing his own son of being a p*do. That's how I found out what was the big fallout between them. Step-brother went after one of Step-father's nieces. I don't know the girl's age, but she has to be about my age if I'm thinking of the right person. If not, she's younger than me.
A lot of my biological father's relatives have also gone into social media to call out my mother, saying she had always claimed she was an orphan and had no family, while now she has three sisters.
It's a mess, I'm just watching for now and being a stay-at-home aunt. My nephews love it since we go out after they finish homework for crazy shenanigans. My boss has helped me with some paperwork for leave of absence and I should be off for about 6 weeks. After I'll be mostly working from home for a few weeks.
Not the greatest update, and to be sincere things are not fun. But its nice to spend time with the kiddos at least.
Also, forgot this: No, my mom is not likely sleeping or in a relationship with my stepbrother. Some people had mention this. My mom always wanted a son. I was a disappointment because I was born a girl. She treats my brother like he's her real son and I think she truly loves him as a mother. She made sure to tell me how disappointing it was for her when I was born.
Relevant Comments
gemmygem86: Screenshot all she says and save it
Update #2: May 17, 2024
I was recommended to post here but wasn't sure were to start. My mother was widowed when I was 1 years old. My biological father was much older than her, she was a second wife with 20+ age difference. After that she remarried her hometown sweetheart and adopted his 17-years-old son.
My dad was American, mom is Colombian. I was born in the US, then we moved for a few years back to Colombia, and we returned to the US when I was 4.
My whole life my mother constantly complained about the fact I was a girl. She would say things like: "If you were a boy, maybe we could have gotten more from you father' or 'girls are so useless'. All I was for her was the problem child. She took my inheritance and squandered it. Mostly on things for my step-brother.
Whenever she had guests, she would always introduce me and joke how I ruined her body and wasn't even worth it since I was a girl. Most her friends thought I had some kind of mental illness because of her lies about me being mentally 'behind' (she used the r word). She would often blame it on my gender, though. Saying because I was born a girl, I was clearly inferior.
During holidays, I would be left behind with a sitter. I was just too much of a 'problem child' and would ruin things for my 'sweet brother'. We only have one family picture from when I was 5.
If I got anything nice with my own money, my mother would take it from me if it was something like make up or clothes, saying I wasn't attractive enough or worthy enough to have such nice things. I should just stick with a plain face since it will make it easier for me to find a job when I was done with high school. She had no intentions of letting me go to college.
But the worst part is she never protected me. My stepbrother is a predator. At first he just bullied me. Stealing my food, locking me in dark places. When I hit puberty though, he began to do worst things. Walking on me when I showered, even if I locked the door, stealing my underwear, watching me sleep, and he even SAed me when I was 16 and he was 29.
My mother blamed it on me, saying I was tempting her poor sweet boy.
I was saved by my biological half-brother and his wife. They took me in at 16, finished raising me and put me through college with the help of my paternal family. Even my father's first wife pitched in and has always been kind to me. She's more a mother to me than my mother was.
Now I'm 29 years old, I have a good career as a nurse practioner and I'm saving to buy my own home. My mother found out about this and has been demanding I give her my money because she is my mother and my money should be hers. She also demands that I pay my abusive step-brother's student loans.
Since I refused to fall on my dear mother's demands, she has now gone online to post I am a 'temptress' that is trying to ruin her son's life and that I refuse to pay her back for all the care and love she gave me over the years. She even had some women that are supposedly my aunts join her in this. I never met any of my maternal family. As far as I knew, my mother was an orphan. Now I suddenly have three aunts that have seen how bad a person I am.
My entitled mom steals my inheritance, now she probably is going to prison: May 20, 2024
So, this might be my last update on the mess with my mother and step-brother since we're finally starting the legal fights, but I finally had a good laugh.
In my previous posts, I haven't said a lot about my biological father. He died when I was one year old, so I never really met him. I have one picture of him holding me when I was an infant. I mostly know him from stories from his family. What I do know is he was a man of means. He had a lot of assets that he had carefully divided in his will. Not like so rich I'll never have to work type. Just rich enough that I would be able to live comfortable so long I worked and did right by my finances.
I was not aware he had made sure to leave me with anything. Neither did my half-brother Sam, his son with his first wife, I'm the daughter of an affair partner turned second wife. My understanding was that anything I inherited was wasted by my mother to buy things for her predator step-son Chris who she prefers to me. He was my abuser growing up. In her words: "Daughters don't need inheritance. Just marry a wealthy old man like me."
Well, since my mother and Chris have been harrassing me lately, we drove to my dad's lawyer to get some things we need from my dad's records for the lawsuit we are planning. He's a sweet older man, kinda looks like my dad a bit, and was my dad's best friend. When we met, he received me with a hug and told me how happy he was to finally meet with him. His wife was there too and she also gave me a big hug and told me we needed to have dinner at their place.
Once we all caught up, we found my mother had been faking receipts to get money from my trust. A lot of it. Some of it from when I was under Sam's guardianship. And she's not the executor of my trust, she had to provide receipts for anything. She's been sending receipts 'for me because I'm still in medical school'. I finished school in 2021.
Well, her meal ticket not only got torn, and now she's in big trouble. Because this is fraud and basically my hands are tied about pressing charges or not. She claims me as a dependant on her taxes, so my dad's lawyer would refund her for her expenses. He basically told me there's just no way we can keep this just in civil court. He had to contact IRS and the police. Doesn't help she's been using my social security number for some things she shouldn't. (Thank you for the people that advised me to freeze my credit. You guys saved me for sure.)
I probably won't be able to post for quite a while. And I'm going to be incredibly busy. I'm just mentally exhausted about how much has happened. I wouldn't have done anything about my mom using my trust if she had left me alone. I wouldn't even know about it because the trust is set for me to take over it with proof of marriage or graduating college. And since I didn't know about it, I never sent the required paperwork to take control. She could have milk it dry if she left me alone and just kept sending fake information.
I am in the process to get what's left of my trust. There's quite a bit in it and should be enough for me to get a house or condo if I mix it with my savings, and still have left over to invest or do other things safely. I might wait for a while to buy anything though. I don't know how safe it would be since my mom still has my social security number.
Relevant Comments
m2cwf: It doesn't sound like OP can drop any charges - mom didn't just defraud OP, she defrauded the IRS and the executor of the trust (or the trust itself, not sure if that's a thing), she committed identity theft. She's in trouble for sure, as OP says it's largely out of her hands and the big guns are going after mom now.
OP I hope she gets all the consequences she deserves, and you get all the justice that you deserve for dealing with all the mess and harassment!
Op, I can only recommend that you use some of that money to outfit your new home with the top notch security system.
Once you have access to your trust , you’ve cut off her money and that matters more anything , it may tip her over the edge.
submitted by Choice_Evidence1983 to BestofRedditorUpdates [link] [comments]
Originally posted to entitledparents
My entitled mom wants me to pay my creep step-brother's student debt
Trigger Warnings: emotional abuse and manipulation, bullying, mentions of child neglect, verbal abuse, animal abuse, peeping tom, stalking, sexual abuse, pedophilia, death of a loved one
I (29F) have an older Step-brother, Chris (42M) who has been a nightmare since the day my mom married his dad.
Let me give a bit of background: Our parents married when I was 4 and he was 17. Both our parents were widowed. After their wedding, we moved to the US since my mom had American citizenship through marriage. I was born in the US too, but after my dad died when I was 1, my mom and I moved back to Colombia. Step-dad got his residency through marriage and my step-brother because he was a minor.
My step-brother wasn't a big fan of me. My only memories of him are just constant bullying. He would be left in charge of me since he was studying locally and lived with my parents, but mostly his 'babysitting' really meant things like locking me in the guest bathroom or the shed outside. He would steal my lunchbox whenever he was the one who dropped me off at school. He even began to harm my pets. I have an old cat that has been with me for almost 22 years. He tried more than once to run her over with his car. My parents never believed any of it. He's the classic golden child. My mom absolutely wanted a son instead of a daughter, so my step-brother took priority over me.
The bullying just kept getting worse and creepier. He had this long key for the bathroom. The door was designed in case it got locked by accident, one could open them by inserting a long stick or key through a small hole on the outside. He would use it to walk in on me showering. My underwear would disappear sometimes and I know for a fact it was him. He also started taking pictures of me sleeping. One night I woke up to him taking care of himself next to me while I slept. I yelled obviously. My parents came over, but he wasn't in trouble. I was for 'tempting him'. I was 14 when this happened. He was 27.
No one helped me and he got bolder until he did something I am still in therapy for when I was 16. It got to a point where I called my biological half-older brother Sam(48M and son of my biological father's first wife) to see if I could live with him and his wife, Sandy, during my last two years of high school. When Sam found out what was going on, he confronted my mom. My mom didn't care and just told him to take me so long he never asked her for money. Done and done. My brother and his wife became my legal guardians and took me in with my cat and the old family dog since I didn't trust leaving any living creature with Chris around.
My parents never checked on me. My extended family from my father's side knew what happened and they immediately got together to ensure I could finish school well and go to college. I don't know my maternal family at all.
Thanks to my paternal family, including Sam's mother and her family, I got my bachelor's and master's, no student debt, and work as a nurse practitioner. I still live with Sam, his wife, and their two kids, and I pay a small rent. Neither Sam nor his wife expected me to pay anything, but that's the least I can do for the two people who have taken care of me for 13 years. For anyone wondering why I didn't move, it's incredibly expensive where I live and Sam insisted I stay with them until I save enough to buy my own home.
Things seemed okay until my mom messaged me recently. She had not messaged me since I was 18 when she told me she no longer had any responsibility to me. In this message, she sounded overly friendly, telling me how she missed me and asking how I was doing. I was a bit creeped out but decided to be nice, telling her about what I had done since leaving her care. She seemed very interested since apparently she knew I was a nurse, but not what kind I was. She began asking me about my salary. I didn't tell her anything about it, but that it was enough to pay the bills.
My mom then began texting about Chris and how he was barely making any money due to his student debt. Apparently, Chris never finished a degree, jumping from career to career. He is now working in my stepdad's used cars business as a salesman, but most of his pay went to pay the substantial student debt he got over the year.
I told my mom how sorry I was that Chris was having a hard time and wished him luck. That's when my mom finally got to what she wanted: She texted me I needed to pay his student debt so he could finally begin to 'make the money he deserves like the man of the family'. I just turned off my phone.
When I got home, Sam was surprised since I was usually the last to arrive. Sandy wasn't home yet. I told Sam what happened and showed him my mom's text messages. I don't think I've seen Sam this angry ever. He told me to block my mom, stepdad, and Chris if I had not done so yet.
After talking with Sam and Sandy, I called my boss to ask the next day and the one after off. This gave me a 4 day weekend including the days I'm normally off shift. My boss was more than okay with this and told me to just take it easy and let her know if she could help.
This backfired because the next day my mom and Chris decided to come to Sam's house to speak to me. I was alone since Sam and Sandy were at work, and the kids were at school. I immediately called Sam and told him what was going on. He told me not to open the door and that he was on his way.
My mom spent the whole time screaming that I 'owed them' for raising me and that my 'sweet brother' deserved the money. Chris was going around trying to find a window or door unlocked. There wasn't any since the windows have safety bars and the only other door is in the closed garage and one in the yard. The yard one was locked and just in case I locked the one in the garage.
I won't post what he called me when he saw me from one of the windows, but basically, he pretty much told me they should have thrown me away when I was a baby since I grew to be a 'b'. He pounded in one of the windows so hard, he actually cracked the glass.
Eventually, he gave up and went back to the front door, clearly trying to kick it down. I didn't have anything to worry about, the door was a security door, but I was still very scared. Between yelling, threatening, pleading, and insults, I finally heard Sam screaming to them to get lost.
I only saw things from the window; Sam pretty much dragged them both off the porch. They got to a point I couldn't hear, but I saw my mom and Chris pale and look scared before they pretty much ran to their car and drove off way past the legal speed limit.
Sam came in a bit after and immediately went full overprotective brother mode, asking me if I was okay. He kept saying sorry and hugging me. Sandy arrived almost immediately after and she looked like she was about to commit a felony.
Apparently, Sam threatened him with filing charges for what he did to me when I was 16. My brother's ace: my stepdad was willing to testify against his own son. That seemed enough to get Chris off our backs, but not my mom.
Since then, it's been 3 days, and my mom has sent texts, called non-stop with various numbers, and rallied a group of people who are supposedly my maternal family to harass me for money. She claims that money should legally be hers since she's my mother. That it's my late father's missed child support.
Sam is helping me find a lawyer to get a restraining order on my mom and I plan to take my step-dad's offer to testify by pressing charges against Chris. I can't say I can forgive him for not stopping his son, but I appreciate he's at least trying. I don't know the details, but Chris did something to a relative of his dad and since then they had a really bad fallout. I took my boss' offer and will be on vacation for a few more days.
But here it is. My vacation days are getting eaten up and my therapist might need a therapist after. Thankfully my dark sense of humor and supportive paternal family are keeping me somewhat sane.
Relevant Comments
United-Manner20: Change your phone number- it’s super easy. You can either do it from an app on your phone or call customer service to your phone provider. She can’t harass you if she doesn’t have your telephone number even if she calls from unknown numbers she’d have to know your number first.
OOP: It's something I plan to do, but I can't immediately. I use my phone for work.DryBite9885: Love, take a breath. You’ve been through a lot in a very small amount of time. Breathe. I know you need it. I’m so sorry your own mother is doing this to you. It sounds like Sam and Sandy are helping you do everything correctly though. I’m so glad you have them to back you up.
Update: May 14, 2024
I didn't think I would be making an update so soon, but my mother is unrelenting.
To the people that were so kind and gave me advice earlier, thank you so much. It really helps to have people show kindness in difficult days. I follow with the advice to freeze my credit and I will be getting a new phone for personal use. Will have to keep my old phone for work for a little.
Now to update on the situation: We are going through with pressing charges and might do a civil lawsuit for two years of child support my mother owns. We are not sure yet of our chances on it, but my brother San wants to go scorch earth.
As for my mother, she began a new campaign. She's been posting about me false accusing my step-brother Chris of SA. She's been accussing me of being a 'temptress that tried for years to sleep with my brother' and even got a few relatives, who I just found out are my aunts, to join in saying they were witnesses. I never met these women in my life.
My step-father actually commented in her post saying my mom was lying and accusing his own son of being a p*do. That's how I found out what was the big fallout between them. Step-brother went after one of Step-father's nieces. I don't know the girl's age, but she has to be about my age if I'm thinking of the right person. If not, she's younger than me.
A lot of my biological father's relatives have also gone into social media to call out my mother, saying she had always claimed she was an orphan and had no family, while now she has three sisters.
It's a mess, I'm just watching for now and being a stay-at-home aunt. My nephews love it since we go out after they finish homework for crazy shenanigans. My boss has helped me with some paperwork for leave of absence and I should be off for about 6 weeks. After I'll be mostly working from home for a few weeks.
Not the greatest update, and to be sincere things are not fun. But its nice to spend time with the kiddos at least.
Also, forgot this: No, my mom is not likely sleeping or in a relationship with my stepbrother. Some people had mention this. My mom always wanted a son. I was a disappointment because I was born a girl. She treats my brother like he's her real son and I think she truly loves him as a mother. She made sure to tell me how disappointing it was for her when I was born.
Relevant Comments
gemmygem86: Screenshot all she says and save it
OOP: My brother got it. I have her blocked. I would post them, but there's a lot of personal information that will be hard to blur. She put the whole rant over a picture of us as a 'family'. So it would be hard to blur faces.
Update #2: May 17, 2024
I was recommended to post here but wasn't sure were to start. My mother was widowed when I was 1 years old. My biological father was much older than her, she was a second wife with 20+ age difference. After that she remarried her hometown sweetheart and adopted his 17-years-old son.
My dad was American, mom is Colombian. I was born in the US, then we moved for a few years back to Colombia, and we returned to the US when I was 4.
My whole life my mother constantly complained about the fact I was a girl. She would say things like: "If you were a boy, maybe we could have gotten more from you father' or 'girls are so useless'. All I was for her was the problem child. She took my inheritance and squandered it. Mostly on things for my step-brother.
Whenever she had guests, she would always introduce me and joke how I ruined her body and wasn't even worth it since I was a girl. Most her friends thought I had some kind of mental illness because of her lies about me being mentally 'behind' (she used the r word). She would often blame it on my gender, though. Saying because I was born a girl, I was clearly inferior.
During holidays, I would be left behind with a sitter. I was just too much of a 'problem child' and would ruin things for my 'sweet brother'. We only have one family picture from when I was 5.
If I got anything nice with my own money, my mother would take it from me if it was something like make up or clothes, saying I wasn't attractive enough or worthy enough to have such nice things. I should just stick with a plain face since it will make it easier for me to find a job when I was done with high school. She had no intentions of letting me go to college.
But the worst part is she never protected me. My stepbrother is a predator. At first he just bullied me. Stealing my food, locking me in dark places. When I hit puberty though, he began to do worst things. Walking on me when I showered, even if I locked the door, stealing my underwear, watching me sleep, and he even SAed me when I was 16 and he was 29.
My mother blamed it on me, saying I was tempting her poor sweet boy.
I was saved by my biological half-brother and his wife. They took me in at 16, finished raising me and put me through college with the help of my paternal family. Even my father's first wife pitched in and has always been kind to me. She's more a mother to me than my mother was.
Now I'm 29 years old, I have a good career as a nurse practioner and I'm saving to buy my own home. My mother found out about this and has been demanding I give her my money because she is my mother and my money should be hers. She also demands that I pay my abusive step-brother's student loans.
Since I refused to fall on my dear mother's demands, she has now gone online to post I am a 'temptress' that is trying to ruin her son's life and that I refuse to pay her back for all the care and love she gave me over the years. She even had some women that are supposedly my aunts join her in this. I never met any of my maternal family. As far as I knew, my mother was an orphan. Now I suddenly have three aunts that have seen how bad a person I am.
My entitled mom steals my inheritance, now she probably is going to prison: May 20, 2024
So, this might be my last update on the mess with my mother and step-brother since we're finally starting the legal fights, but I finally had a good laugh.
In my previous posts, I haven't said a lot about my biological father. He died when I was one year old, so I never really met him. I have one picture of him holding me when I was an infant. I mostly know him from stories from his family. What I do know is he was a man of means. He had a lot of assets that he had carefully divided in his will. Not like so rich I'll never have to work type. Just rich enough that I would be able to live comfortable so long I worked and did right by my finances.
I was not aware he had made sure to leave me with anything. Neither did my half-brother Sam, his son with his first wife, I'm the daughter of an affair partner turned second wife. My understanding was that anything I inherited was wasted by my mother to buy things for her predator step-son Chris who she prefers to me. He was my abuser growing up. In her words: "Daughters don't need inheritance. Just marry a wealthy old man like me."
Well, since my mother and Chris have been harrassing me lately, we drove to my dad's lawyer to get some things we need from my dad's records for the lawsuit we are planning. He's a sweet older man, kinda looks like my dad a bit, and was my dad's best friend. When we met, he received me with a hug and told me how happy he was to finally meet with him. His wife was there too and she also gave me a big hug and told me we needed to have dinner at their place.
Once we all caught up, we found my mother had been faking receipts to get money from my trust. A lot of it. Some of it from when I was under Sam's guardianship. And she's not the executor of my trust, she had to provide receipts for anything. She's been sending receipts 'for me because I'm still in medical school'. I finished school in 2021.
Well, her meal ticket not only got torn, and now she's in big trouble. Because this is fraud and basically my hands are tied about pressing charges or not. She claims me as a dependant on her taxes, so my dad's lawyer would refund her for her expenses. He basically told me there's just no way we can keep this just in civil court. He had to contact IRS and the police. Doesn't help she's been using my social security number for some things she shouldn't. (Thank you for the people that advised me to freeze my credit. You guys saved me for sure.)
I probably won't be able to post for quite a while. And I'm going to be incredibly busy. I'm just mentally exhausted about how much has happened. I wouldn't have done anything about my mom using my trust if she had left me alone. I wouldn't even know about it because the trust is set for me to take over it with proof of marriage or graduating college. And since I didn't know about it, I never sent the required paperwork to take control. She could have milk it dry if she left me alone and just kept sending fake information.
I am in the process to get what's left of my trust. There's quite a bit in it and should be enough for me to get a house or condo if I mix it with my savings, and still have left over to invest or do other things safely. I might wait for a while to buy anything though. I don't know how safe it would be since my mom still has my social security number.
Relevant Comments
m2cwf: It doesn't sound like OP can drop any charges - mom didn't just defraud OP, she defrauded the IRS and the executor of the trust (or the trust itself, not sure if that's a thing), she committed identity theft. She's in trouble for sure, as OP says it's largely out of her hands and the big guns are going after mom now.
OP I hope she gets all the consequences she deserves, and you get all the justice that you deserve for dealing with all the mess and harassment!
OOP: You pretty much said almost word by word what was explained to me. I could drop the civil lawsuit, but I won't. The criminal stuff is out of my hands.Vegetable-Cod-2340: Honestly I’m a little surprised she hadn’t already used any of the money she already stole to pay off his student loans.
In the wise words of every person with two braincells to rub together: Don't f with the IRS.
Op, I can only recommend that you use some of that money to outfit your new home with the top notch security system.
Once you have access to your trust , you’ve cut off her money and that matters more anything , it may tip her over the edge.
OOP: In part the reason why I plan to stick with living with my brother Sam until we have a better idea of what is t he safest way for me to move on.SalisburyWitch: Question: is she a US citizen? Any legal problems could lead to deportation.
OOP: She is. I know my step-dad isn't. Not sure if my step-brother went for naturalization. He was a resident since he came to the US as a minor.