How to cite a documentary in mla

MLA Citation

2012.05.11 18:54 mrnojuststopit MLA Citation

For getting help with and discussing the nuances of MLA-style citations.
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2013.07.10 01:29 Phylogenizer Whatsthissnake - Your Source for Snake Identification, Phylogeography and Taxonomic Updates

The authoritative source on Reddit for your snake identification needs. Please post your rough geographic location [in square brackets] in your title. If you're just sharing, also include your ID! Operated by Snake Evolution and Biogeography [SEB]. Join our Discord by following the link at either the pinned post or tab at the top of the page.
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2008.11.20 09:45 Archeology

This is a subreddit for all things archeology and history.
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2024.05.15 18:19 jonte2221 How to paraphrase research work for your dissertation

How to paraphrase research work for your dissertation
Paraphrasing research effectively in your dissertation is crucial to avoid plagiarism and demonstrate your understanding of the field. Here's how to achieve this:
https://preview.redd.it/0ji99p8i8m0d1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=b905f830d9a4e9962c8f05e8ff4ce37822ca02ff
Deep Comprehension:
  • Read and Analyze: The foundation lies in thoroughly reading and understanding the original research work. Highlight key points, identify the author's arguments, and analyze the evidence presented.
Rephrasing and Restructuring:
  • Express in Your Own Words: Don't simply substitute synonyms for individual words. Aim to rephrase the entire sentence or passage using your own vocabulary and sentence structure.
  • Vary Sentence Structure: Avoid mimicking the original sentence structure too closely. Change the order of clauses, use active voice instead of passive voice, or break down long sentences into shorter ones.
Integration and Citation:
  • Integrate with Your Argument: Weave the paraphrased information seamlessly into your dissertation, connecting it to your overall argument. Briefly explain the significance of the research to your work.
  • Proper Citation: Always give credit to the original source using an appropriate citation style (APA, MLA, etc.). This ensures academic integrity and allows readers to find the original work.
Additional Tips:
  • Focus on Key Points: Don't paraphrase every detail. Focus on the most relevant information that supports your research question or argument.
  • Use Quotation Marks for Key Phrases: If a specific phrase or sentence is essential and cannot be effectively rephrased, use quotation marks and cite the source.
  • Paraphrasing Tools (Use with Caution): Online paraphrasing tools can be helpful for suggesting alternative phrasings, but don't rely solely on them. Always double-check the output for accuracy and ensure it conveys the intended meaning.
Benefits of Effective Paraphrasing:
  • Deeper Understanding: The process of paraphrasing reinforces your understanding of the research and helps solidify key concepts.
  • Demonstrates Critical Thinking: By skillfully paraphrasing, you show your ability to analyze, interpret, and synthesize information from various sources.
  • Originality and Credibility: Properly integrating and citing research fosters academic integrity and strengthens the credibility of your dissertation.
[By following these steps](usaonlineessays.com) and focusing on comprehension and integration, you can effectively paraphrase research work while maintaining academic integrity and enriching your dissertation. Remember, paraphrasing is about conveying the meaning in your own words, not simply copying and pasting with minor changes.
submitted by jonte2221 to Usaonlineessays1 [link] [comments]


2024.05.13 17:35 jonte2221 Ace Those Business Projects

 Ace Those Business Projects
University business projects test your understanding and application of business concepts. Here's how to dominate them:
https://preview.redd.it/ql1mi3nqq70d1.png?width=1170&format=png&auto=webp&s=9c1540dd7ea8a69b717a919c6b8619ff2dfa8ac2
Preparation is Key:
  • Grasp the Project: Read the assignment sheet thoroughly. Identify key points like deliverables (what to submit), deadlines, and evaluation criteria (how you'll be graded).
  • Research & Plan: Research the topic thoroughly using credible sources like academic journals, business publications, and government websites. Develop a clear plan outlining research phases, writing tasks, and deadlines for each team member (if applicable).
Building a Strong Project:
  • Focus & Structure: Clearly define your project's scope and stick to it. Organize your work logically, often using a structure like introduction, problem statement, analysis, recommendations, and conclusion.
  • Data & Evidence: Support your arguments with relevant data like market research, financial reports, or case studies. Use tables, charts, and graphs to present complex information effectively.
Collaboration & Delivery:
  • Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: If working in a team, divide tasks clearly, communicate regularly, and ensure everyone contributes fairly.
  • Presentation Polish: Craft a clear and concise presentation that highlights key findings and recommendations. Practice your delivery beforehand to ensure smooth flow and audience engagement.
Extra Tips for Success:
  • Proofread & Edit: Ensure your writing is free of grammatical errors and typos. Get a friend or teammate to proofread your work for an extra set of eyes.
  • Cite Your Sources: Properly cite all references using your university's preferred style guide (e.g., APA, MLA).
  • Meet Deadlines: Don't procrastinate! Submit your project well before the deadline to avoid penalties.
By following these steps and putting in the effort, you can turn in business projects that not only pass, but truly impress your professor. Remember, [utilizing academic resources like writing centers](usaonlineessays.com) can also be a huge help. Good luck!
submitted by jonte2221 to Usaonlineessays1 [link] [comments]


2024.05.12 10:40 smileglysdi Question for ELA teachers?

Hi. I am a teacher, but I teach Kindergarten and it’s been a loooooong time since I wrote a research paper. I’m arguing with my son (who did NOT pay attention in class) about citations. If you are citing journal articles, do you use a number that coresponds to the bibliography? The assignment sheet does say MLA style. My son says this is not how it is done, but he can’t say how it is supposed to be done.
submitted by smileglysdi to AskTeachers [link] [comments]


2024.05.11 21:13 SanderSo47 Directors at the Box Office: Wes Craven

Directors at the Box Office: Wes Craven
https://preview.redd.it/5jhcjegtjuzc1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=71a26f361e87730152e07e12f1bc76322db0b023
Here's a new edition of "Directors at the Box Office", which seeks to explore the directors' trajectory at the box office and analyze their hits and bombs. I already talked about a few, and as I promised, it's Wes Craven's turn.
Craven earned a master's degree in philosophy and writing from Johns Hopkins University. He subsequently bought a 16mm film camera and began making short movies. His friend Steve Chapin informed him of a messenger position at a New York City film production co, where his brother, future folk-rock star Harry Chapin worked. He started in the industry as a sound editor, before transitioning as a porn director. He said he made "many hardcore X-rated films" under pseudonyms. And then he transitioned into directing for the big screen.
From a box office perspective, how reliable was he to deliver a box office hit?
That's the point of this post. To analyze his career.

It should be noted that as he started his career in the 1970s, some of the domestic grosses here will be adjusted by inflation. The table with his highest grossing films, however, will be left in its unadjusted form, as the worldwide grosses are more difficult to adjust.

The Last House on the Left (1972)

"Mari, seventeen, is dying. Even for her, the worst is yet to come."
His directorial debut. The film stars Sandra Peabody, Lucy Grantham, David Hess, Fred J. Lincoln, Jeramie Rain, and Marc Sheffler. The plot follows Mari Collingwood, a teenager who is abducted, raped, and tortured by a family of violent fugitives led by Krug Stillo on her seventeenth birthday. When her parents discover what happened to her, they seek vengeance against the family, who have taken shelter at their home.
Craven, who had no money at the time, was put on the job of synchronizing dailies for Sean S. Cunningham's Together. They became friends, and Hallmark Releasing gave them $90,000 to make another film. Craven considered a hardcore film, but decided to tone it down a bit. The idea for this film came from Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring, and Craven wanted to make a film in which the violence would be shown in detail onscreen, as he felt that many popular films of the era, such as Westerns, glamorized violence and the "vigilante hero", and gave the public a misleading representation of death in the wake of the Vietnam War.
The film attracted negative media attention for its heavy graphic content, and there were calls for some theaters to drop the film. But you know, bad buzz is still buzz and that translated to a pretty good run in theaters, earning up to $3 million in its initial run. Even to this day, the film is polarizing due to its violence and themes. But Craven just made his name well known.
  • Budget: $90,000.
  • Domestic gross: $3,100,000. ($23.1 million adjusted)
  • Worldwide gross: $3,100,000.

The Hills Have Eyes (1977)

"A nice American family. They didn't want to kill. But they didn't want to die."
His second film. The film stars Susan Lanier, Michael Berryman and Dee Wallace. The film follows the Carters, a suburban family targeted by a family of cannibal savages after becoming stranded in the Nevada desert.
Craven wanted to make a non-horror, but he found that his investors only wanted films with graphic content. At the New York Public Library, Craven checked the library's forensics department, and learned of the legend of Sawney Bean - the alleged head of a 48-person Scottish clan responsible for the murder and cannibalization of more than one thousand people. He drew influences from this, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and The Grapes of Wrath. Craven also had to cut a lot of scenes to avoid getting an X rating.
The film once again drew negative attention for its violence. But it made over $25 million at the box office, which was an even bigger success than House. It subsequently earned a cult following.
  • Budget: $700,000.
  • Domestic gross: $25,000,000. ($128.8 million adjusted)
  • Worldwide gross: $25,000,000.

Deadly Blessing (1981)

"Pray you're not blessed."
His third film. It stars Ernest Borgnine, Maren Jensen, Susan Buckner, and Sharon Stone, and tells the story of a strange figure committing murder in a contemporary community that is not far from another community that believes in ancient evil and curses.
It received negative reviews, but it was another box office success for Craven.
  • Budget: $3,000,000.
  • Domestic gross: $8,279,042. ($28.4 million adjusted)
  • Worldwide gross: $8,279,042.

Swamp Thing (1982)

"Science transformed him into a monster. Love changed him even more!"
His fourth film. Based on the DC Comics character created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson, it stars Louis Jourdan and Adrienne Barbeau. It tells the story of scientist Alec Holland who is transformed into the monster known as Swamp Thing through laboratory sabotage orchestrated by the evil Anton Arcane. Later, he helps a woman named Alice Cable and battles the man responsible for it all, the ruthless Arcane.
The film made $2.5 million domestically, despite mixed reviews.
  • Budget: N/A.
  • Domestic gross: $2,500,000. ($8 million adjusted)
  • Worldwide gross: $2,500,000.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

"If Nancy doesn't wake up screaming, she won't wake up at all."
His fifth film. It stars Heather Langenkamp, John Saxon, Ronee Blakley, Johnny Depp, and Robert Englund. The film's plot concerns a group of teenagers who are targeted by Freddy Krueger, an undead child killer who can murder people through their dreams, as retribution against their parents who burned him alive.
The film was inspired by several newspaper articles printed in the Los Angeles Times in the 1970s about Hmong refugees, who, after fleeing to the United States because of war and genocide in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, suffered disturbing nightmares and refused to sleep. Some of the men died in their sleep soon after. This, along with the song "Dream Weaver" by Gary Wright, motivated Craven to craft a horror film focused on people dying through their sleep.
The film's villain, Freddy Krueger, is drawn from Craven's early life. One night, a young Craven saw an elderly man walking on the sidepath outside the window of his home. The man stopped to glance at a startled Craven and walked off. This served as the inspiration for Krueger. Initially, Fred Krueger was intended to be a child molester, but Craven eventually characterized him as a child murderer to avoid being accused of exploiting a spate of highly publicized child molestation cases that occurred in California around the time of the film's production. He settled on the name Freddy Krueger, which was based on a childhood bully of his.
The process of writing the film went smoothly, the real problem was finding a studio. Craven sent it to most studios, and all rejected it. The first studio to show interest was Disney, but Craven declined their offer as they wanted a more toned-down kid-friendly PG-13 flick. When Paramount and Universal also turned it down, Craven decided to go to the independent studio New Line Cinema. The studio only distributed films, but they agreed in financing the film. As they lacked the financial resources for the production, New Line had to turn to external financiers.
Despite opening in just 165 theaters, the film earned $1.2 million in its opening weekend, making it clear that it would be an immediate box office success. It eventually closed with $25 million domestically, and $57 million worldwide. It received critical acclaim, and has been referred as one of the best and most influential slashers ever made. Freddy Krueger would soon be hailed as one of the most emblematic figures of horror, and Craven quickly earned a reputation as a horror legend. But most importantly, it was the beginning of New Line Cinema as a studio, which is why it's referred as "the house that Freddy built."
The film would later spawn a franchise, although Craven wouldn't direct any of the "sequels." Why the quotation marks? We'll get to that later on.
  • Budget: $1,100,000.
  • Domestic gross: $25,624,448. ($77 million adjusted)
  • Worldwide gross: $57,185,134.

The Hills Have Eyes Part II (1985)

"So you think you're lucky to be alive."
His sixth film. The sequel to The Hills Have Eyes, it stars Tamara Stafford, Kevin Spirtas, John Bloom, Michael Berryman, Penny Johnson, Janus Blythe, John Laughlin, Willard E. Pugh, Peter Frechette and Robert Houston. It follows a group of bikers who become stranded in the desert and find themselves fighting off a family of inbred cannibals who live off the land.
The film was shot on a very low budget, and it simply ended prematurely because they ran out of funds. There are no box office numbers available, but it received awful reviews.

Deadly Friend (1986)

"There's no one alive who'll play with the girl next door."
His seventh film. Based on the novel Friend by Diana Henstell, it stars Matthew Laborteaux, Kristy Swanson, Michael Sharrett, Anne Twomey, Richard Marcus, and Anne Ramsey. Its plot follows a teenage computer prodigy who implants a robot's processor into the brain of his teenage neighbor after she is pronounced brain dead; the experiment proves successful, but she swiftly begins a killing spree in their neighborhood.
Craven wanted to make a PG-rated science fiction film, with a similar tone to Starman, hoping to prove that he could make something that wasn't horror-themed. An unfinished version of the film was screened to a test audience of Craven's fanbase, and it was poorly received for its lack of violence and gore like his previous films. So WB decided to rewrite the film, adding more scenes with tons of gore. This made the final film appear tonally jumbled, and it went from easy PG to struggling to not get an X rating.
The film was poorly received for its story and inconsistent tone. It also marked a huge flop at the box office, not even hitting $10 million. Craven lost interest in the film after WB inserted their own version, and he has since disowned the film.
  • Budget: $11,000,000.
  • Domestic gross: $8,988,731. ($25.6 million adjusted)
  • Worldwide gross: $8,988,731.

The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)

"Don't bury me, I'm not dead!"
His eighth film. It stars Bill Pullman, and is loosely based on the life of ethnobotanist Wade Davis, recounting his experiences in Haiti investigating the story of Clairvius Narcisse, who was allegedly poisoned, buried alive, and revived with a herbal brew which produced what was called a zombie.
The film received mixed reactions, but it was a much needed box office success for Craven.
  • Budget: $7,000,000.
  • Domestic gross: $19,595,031. ($51.7 million adjusted)
  • Worldwide gross: $19,595,031.

Shocker (1989)

"No more Mr. Nice Guy."
His ninth film. It stars Michael Murphy, Peter Berg, Cami Cooper, and Mitch Pileggi, and follows a serial killer who uses electricity to come back from the dead and carry out his vengeance on the football player who turned him in to the police.
Another mixed bag for Craven, but it was still profitable.
  • Budget: N/A.
  • Domestic gross: $16,554,699. ($41.6 million adjusted)
  • Worldwide gross: $16,554,699.

The People Under the Stairs (1991)

"In every neighborhood, there's one house that adults whisper about and children cross the street to avoid."
His tenth film. It stars Brandon Adams, Everett McGill, Wendy Robie, and A. J. Langer. The plot follows a young boy and two adult robbers who become trapped in a house belonging to a neighborhood's crooked landlords after breaking in to steal their collection of gold coins as the boy learns a dark secret about them and what also lurks in their house.
After a slate of mixed performers, the film received Craven's best reviews since Elm Street. To the surprise of Universal, it was also a box office success.
  • Budget: $6,000,000.
  • Domestic gross: $24,204,154. ($55.5 million adjusted)
  • Worldwide gross: $31,347,154.

Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)

"This time, the terror doesn't stop at the screen."
His 11th film. The installment in the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, it stars Robert Englund, Heather Langenkamp, Miko Hughes and John Saxon. The film is not part of the same continuity as previous films, and it portrays Freddy Krueger as a fictional movie villain who invades the real world and haunts the cast and crew involved in the making of the films about him.
While Craven co-wrote the franchise's third installment, Dream Warriors, he wasn't that involved with the rest of the franchise. He wanted to make a deliberately more cerebral film than recent entries to the franchise, as he considered them as being cartoonish, and not faithful to his original themes. Specifically, he wanted Freddy to resemble his original vision: far darker and less comical. To reinforce this, the character's make-up and outfit were enhanced, with one of the most prominent differences being that he now wears a long blue/black trenchcoat. In addition, the signature glove was redesigned for a more organic look, with the fingers resembling bones and having muscle textures in between.
The film received high praise, and was considered as the best film in the franchise since the original (it was Englund's favorite). But the franchise has been bleeding interest at the box office, and New Nightmare unfortunately had to suffer. It was profitable, but it became the lowest grossing film in the franchise.
  • Budget: $8,000,000.
  • Domestic gross: $18,090,181. ($38.1 million adjusted)
  • Worldwide gross: $19,721,741.

Vampire in Brooklyn (1995)

"A comic tale of horror and seduction."
His 12th film. It stars Eddie Murphy, Angela Bassett, Allen Payne, Kadeem Hardison, John Witherspoon, Zakes Mokae, and Joanna Cassidy. It follows a Caribbean vampire who seduces a Brooklyn police officer who has no idea that she is half-vampire.
The film had awful reviews, and despite the presence of a huge star like Eddie Murphy, it disappointed at the box office. Craven really needed a hit.
  • Budget: $8,000,000.
  • Domestic gross: $19,751,736. ($40.4 million adjusted)
  • Worldwide gross: $34,951,736.

Scream (1996)

"Someone has taken their love of scary movies one step too far."
His 13th film. It stars David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan, Skeet Ulrich and Drew Barrymore. Set in the fictional town of Woodsboro, California, Scream's plot follows high school student Sidney Prescott and her friends, who, on the anniversary of her mother's murder, become the targets of a costumed serial killer known as Ghostface.
As he was trying to make it in the industry, Kevin Williamson watched a Turning Point documentary about serial killer Danny Rolling which he said left him unsettled. Williamson later noticed an open window, armed himself with a knife, and called his friend for support. The pair began discussing horror characters that had resonated with them such as Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. This experience prompted Williamson to start developing a concept wherein a girl is haunted by a caller.
He started writing a film titled Scary Movie, and even left an outline for possible sequels. The concept was part of an era where there was debate over the influence of cinematic violence on audience, with Williamson coming up with a brilliant line "movies don't create psychos, movies make psychos more creative." It was inspired by many 1980s slashers, even though the genre was on decline by that point. His characters were intentionally designed to be knowledgeable about these horror films and their typical elements, with the intention of creating a unique killer who was not only aware of horror film clichés but also exploited them for his own advantage.
While Williamson struggled with his previous films, this script was part of a bidding war with the studios, to the point that Oliver Stone himself wanted to direct it. Miramax (through Dimension Films) bought the script, and Williamson made some rewrites to scale back the violence. Bob Weinstein also wanted to change the name, as he believed the audiences would think the film is a comedy.
The studio considered Danny Boyle, Tom McLoughlin, Sam Raimi, Robert Rodriguez, George A. Romero, Quentin Tarantino, and Anthony Waller as prime candidates to direct the film, but they all preferred to view the film as a comedy. Wes Craven was considered, but the studio believed he couldn't direct a satire. Craven also wasn't planning on directing it, as he wanted to focus on more mainstream films to salvage his career. Craven's assistant Julie Plec (who would collaborate with Williamson on The Vampire Diaries) convinced him in helming the project. By signing, Craven decided to get back some of the gore that was missing in the previous drafts.
A huge contrast to the horror films of the era was that the film had established actors as the leads, as Craven and Williamson wanted to prove that no character was safe. Drew Barrymore had already starred in a few recognizable names, Neve Campbell was on the hit show Party of Five, Rose McGowan was known for Encino Man and The Doom Generation, David Arquette, Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich were recognizable supporting characters, and Courteney Cox obviously was known for Friends. Vince Vaughn and Natasha Lyonne were the preferred choices for Billy and Tatum, but external problems caused them to drop out.
After viewing the dailies raw footage, the Weinsteins criticized the quality of Craven's work as "workmanlike at best", believing it lacked tension and had an inconsistent tone. The Weinsteins also disliked the mask design, and said Barrymore lacked sex appeal because of the pageboy hairstyle she had chosen. While filming the final fight, Campbell's stuntwoman accidentally stabbed Ulrich with an umbrella tip, missing the protective vest he was wearing and hitting the site of an open heart surgery Ulrich had as a child. During post-production, Harvey Weinstein decided to name the film as Scream based on the Michael and Janet Jackson song.
In a surprising move, the Weinsteins decided to release the film during the holiday season as counter-programming, offering teenagers an alternative to more traditional holiday fare. The decision was unpopular with the cast and crew, with Williamson expecting the film to fail. The film opened with $6.4 million and finishing in fourth place, leading analysts to consider the film as a bomb.
But the film just kept growing.
Buoyed by positive word of mouth, the Weinsteins increased marketing and the film managed to increase in its second and third weekends. It closed with $103 million domestically and $173 million worldwide, becoming the highest grossing slasher film ever and Craven's highest grossing film ever. The film received critical acclaim for its characters and writing, and has since been deemed as one of the most influential horror films of all time. It rekindled interest in horror, resurrected Craven's career and launched the careers of Williamson and the cast.
  • Budget: $15,000,000.
  • Domestic gross: $103,046,663. ($245.4 million adjusted)
  • Worldwide gross: $173,046,663.

Scream 2 (1997)

"Someone has taken their love of sequels one step too far."
His 14th film. The sequel to Scream, it stars David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jamie Kennedy, Laurie Metcalf, Jerry O'Connell, Elise Neal, Timothy Olyphant, Jada Pinkett, and Liev Schreiber. The film takes place two years after the first film and again follows the character of Sidney Prescott, along with other survivors of the Woodsboro massacre, at the fictional Windsor College in Ohio where they are targeted by a copycat killer using the guise of Ghostface.
As Williamson already had plans for sequels, the idea was for Sidney to attend college while being stalked by a copycat Ghostface killer. As filming began, Williamson's script had four killers: Derek, Hallie, Cotton Weary, and Nancy Loomis. But after Williamson transferred his script to the production, it was leaked onto the Internet in full, revealing the identity of the killers and a large amount of the involved plot. This resulted in the production continuing to film with only a partial script while Williamson conducted extensive rewrites, changing much of the film's finale, the identities of the film's killers and drastically altering the roles of other characters such as Randy Meeks and Joel. With a short deadline, Williamson couldn't fully compromise on the final script, forcing Craven to fill in the gaps himself. So the film was one of the very first cases where the Internet leaked major aspects of a film.
As the Weinsteins wanted the film ready for December, it was able to capitalize on the audience's word of mouth to the original. It opened with $32 million in its first weekend, almost five times as big as the original, and the biggest December debut. It didn't hold as great as the original due to the competition, such as Titanic, but it still made $172.3 million worldwide, almost matching the original's gross. It also received very positive reviews, and so a profitable franchise was already underway.
  • Budget: $24,000,000.
  • Domestic gross: $101,363,301. ($237.2 million adjusted)
  • Worldwide gross: $172,363,301.

Music of the Heart (1999)

"She gave them a gift they could never imagine. They gave the system a fight it would never forget."
His 15th film. The film stars Meryl Streep, Aidan Quinn, Angela Bassett, Gloria Estefan, Jane Leeves, Kieran Culkin and Jay O. Sanders. The film is a dramatization of the true story of Roberta Guaspari, who co-founded the Opus 118 Harlem School of Music and fought for music education funding in New York City public schools.
After seeing the documentary Small Wonders, Craven was inspired to make a full-length film about Guaspari. Madonna was originally signed to play the role of Guaspari, but left the project before filming began, citing "creative differences" with Craven. When she left, Madonna had already studied for many months to play the violin. Streep learned to play Bach's Concerto for 2 Violins for the film. The project marked a huge departure for Craven; it was his first and only film to be rated PG, and his only one to not be horror or thriller.
It received generally positive reviews, but it bombed at the box office. It received 2 Oscar nominations for Best Actress and Best Original Song, the only Craven film to get any noms.
  • Budget: $27,000,000.
  • Domestic gross: $14,859,394. ($27.8 million adjusted)
  • Worldwide gross: $14,936,407.

Scream 3 (2000)

"The most terrifying scream is always the last."
His 16th film. The third installment in the Scream franchise, it stars David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox Arquette, Parker Posey, Patrick Dempsey, Scott Foley, Lance Henriksen, Matt Keeslar, Jenny McCarthy, Emily Mortimer, Deon Richmond, and Patrick Warburton. The film's story takes place one year after the previous film's events and follows Sidney Prescott, who has gone into self-imposed isolation following the events of the previous two films but is drawn to Hollywood after a new Ghostface begins killing the cast of the film within a film Stab 3.
The plans for a sequel were already underway since Williamson sold the script, although Williamson still didn't write a script yet. When the Weinsteins approached him to write the film, Williamson was already busy with many projects (including his directorial debut), and was unavailable to perform his duties. He only made a 20-page outline wherein Ghostface would return just as production on a fictional film Stab 3 would be filmed. His plan was to show the killers were part of a Stab fan club (this idea would later be adapted into his show, The Following). With Williamson not available, Ehren Kruger was tasked in writing.
Shortly before production began on the film, the Columbine High School massacre took place, and many parties began looking for reasoning behind the shooters' actions and there came an increased scrutiny on the role of the media in society, including video games and film, and the influence it could have on an audience. With production of Scream 3 not yet underway, there were considerations about whether the film should be made at that time, aware of the potential for negative attention but the studio decided to press forward, albeit with changes.
The Weinsteins demanded to scale back on the gore and emphasize its satiric humor, as well as moving the setting to Hollywood. At one point in the production, the studio went as far as demanding that the film feature no blood or on-screen violence at all, a drastic departure for the series, but Craven directly intervened. One of the aspects changed was that the killer would be revealed to be Stu Macher, having survived the original film. The Weinsteins changed it after Columbine, as they didn't want to associate violence and murder with a high school setting.
The film opened with $34.7 million, a franchise record and the biggest February debut ever. But it had weak legs, although it still made a very profitable $161.8 million worldwide. While the previous films were well-received, this film received negative reviews, who lambasted the film for becoming the very own thing it satirizes.
  • Budget: $40,000,000.
  • Domestic gross: $89,143,175. ($178.2 million adjusted)
  • Worldwide gross: $161,834,276.

Cursed (2005)

"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger."
His 17th film. It stars Christina Ricci, Joshua Jackson, Jesse Eisenberg, Judy Greer, Scott Baio, Milo Ventimiglia, Shannon Elizabeth and Mýa, and follows two orphaned siblings attacked by a werewolf loose in Los Angeles.
Kevin Williamson started working on a script that followed the exploits of a New York City serial killer who discovers that his lethal tendencies are due to his lycanthrope nature. When one of his projects was scrapped, Craven decided to direct, teaming them up again for another Scream reunion. But it wasn't planned like that. Craven was making a film, Pulse, when Bob Weinstein abruptly pulled the movie from the schedule ten days before shooting and cut through all the slow lanes, wanting Craven to get to Cursed as soon as possible. Craven was reportedly not pleased so Weinstein doubled his pay in order for him to direct the film. The director deemed the script too tonally similar to his film Vampire in Brooklyn, but felt pressured by the studio, leading him to ultimately sign on.
The film started filming in January 2003, hoping to get the film released in August. In June, they only had six days left for filming. Suddenly, Dimension Films decided to put the movie on hold because top executives at the company weren't happy with the film's ending or how the special effects were progressing, specifically the look of the film's lead lupine. Rick Baker was preparing the final transformation effects when production stopped and asked Weinstein to let his team finish the work in order for it to be ready for the reshoot, but he refused. Patrick Lussier was brought in for massive rewrites, and the film didn't return to production until November. Baker was fired, and the prosthetic make-up was replaced with CGI. Skeet Ulrich filmed his scene as one of the leads, but chose to drop out following the reshoots as he disliked the new direction. It was also heavily edited to get the R rating down to PG-13. The budget was originally $35 million, yet some reports suggest it ballooned all the way to $100 million, making it one of the most expensive horror films ever.
With that budget, it was clear it was not going to be a box office success. It flopped with just $29 million worldwide, and was panned by critics. Craven himself dislikes the final product, and a director's cut was never an option because his original ending was never filmed.
  • Budget: $100,000,000.
  • Domestic gross: $19,297,522. ($30.8 million adjusted)
  • Worldwide gross: $29,621,722.

Red Eye (2005)

"Fear takes flight."
His 18th film. It stars Rachel McAdams, Cillian Murphy, and Brian Cox. The story follows a hotel manager ensnared in an assassination plot by a terrorist while aboard a red-eye flight to Miami.
The film received Craven's best reviews in years, and was a box office success, earning almost $100 million. While he is fine with people loving it, Cillian Murphy is not really fond of the film, "I love Rachel McAdams and we had fun making it but I don’t think it's a good movie. It’s a good B movie."
  • Budget: $26,000,000.
  • Domestic gross: $57,891,803. ($92.5 million adjusted)
  • Worldwide gross: $96,258,201.

My Soul to Take (2010)

"Only one has the power to save their souls."
His 19th film. It stars Max Thieriot, Denzel Whitaker, Raul Esparza, and Shareeka Epps. It follows Adam "Bug" Hellerman, who is one of seven teenagers chosen to die following the anniversary of a serial killer's death.
This was Craven's first film in almost two decades where he would be directing, producing and writing. But that didn't pan out to a success: it was a critical and commercial dud.
  • Budget: $25,000,000.
  • Domestic gross: $14,744,435. ($21.1 million adjusted)
  • Worldwide gross: $21,500,813.

Scream 4 (2011)

"New decade. New rules."
His 20th and final film. The fourth installment in the Scream franchise, it stars David Arquette, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox, Emma Roberts, Hayden Panettiere, Anthony Anderson, Alison Brie, Adam Brody, Rory Culkin, Marielle Jaffe, Erik Knudsen, Mary McDonnell, Marley Shelton, Nico Tortorella, and Roger L. Jackson. The film takes place on the fifteenth anniversary of the original Woodsboro murders from Scream and involves Sidney Prescott returning to the town after ten years, where Ghostface once again begins killing students from Woodsboro High.
In 2010, Williamson and Craven confirmed their plans for a new film. Craven said that endless sequels, the modern spew of remakes, film studios, and directors are the butts of parodies in the film. The main characters have to figure out where the horror genre is in current days to figure out the modern events happening to and around them. This was the first film in the franchise to use CGI, with the knife's blade added in post-production.
Even though the franchise was profitable, it seemed like its glory days were long behind it by the time it hit theaters. The film disappointed in its opening weekend with just $18 million, and closed with a weak $97 million worlwide, far less than the previous films. It also received mixed reviews, particularly for its writing and new characters. It was the last film directed by Craven before his death in 2015.
  • Budget: $40,000,000.
  • Domestic gross: $38,180,928. ($53 million adjusted)
  • Worldwide gross: $97,231,420.

MOVIES (FROM HIGHEST GROSSING TO LEAST GROSSING)

No. Movie Year Studio Domestic Total Overseas Total Worldwide Total Budget
1 Scream 1996 Dimension Films $103,046,663 $70,000,000 $173,046,663 $15M
2 Scream 2 1997 Dimension Films $101,363,301 $71,000,000 $172,363,301 $24M
3 Scream 3 2000 Dimension Films $89,143,175 $72,691,101 $161,834,276 $40M
4 Scream 4 2011 Dimension Films $38,180,928 $59,050,492 $97,231,420 $40M
5 Red Eye 2005 DreamWorks $57,891,803 $38,366,398 $96,258,201 $26M
6 A Nightmare on Elm Street 1984 New Line Cinema $25,624,448 $31,560,686 $57,185,134 $1.1M
7 Vampires in Brooklyn 1995 Paramount $19,751,736 $15,200,000 $34,951,736 $14M
8 The People Under the Stairs 1991 Universal $24,204,154 $7,143,000 $31,347,154 $6M
9 Cursed 2005 Miramax $19,297,522 $10,324,200 $29,621,722 $100M
10 The Hills Have Eyes 1977 Vanguard $25,000,000 $0 $25,000,000 $700K
11 My Soul to Take 2010 Universal $14,744,435 $6,756,378 $21,500,813 $25M
12 Wes Craven's New Nightmare 1994 New Line Cinema $18,090,181 $1,631,560 $19,721,741 $8M
13 The Serpent and the Shadow 1988 Universal $19,595,031 $0 $19,595,031 $7M
14 Shocker 1989 Universal $16,554,699 $0 $16,554,699 N/A
15 Music of the Heart 1999 Miramax $14,859,394 $77,013 $14,936,407 $27M
16 Deadly Friend 1986 Warner Bros. $8,988,731 $0 $8,988,731 $11M
17 Deadly Blessing 1981 United Artists $8,279,042 $0 $8,279,042 $3M
18 The Last House on the Left 1972 Hallmark Releasing $3,100,000 $0 $3,100,000 $90K
19 Swamp Thing 1982 Embassy $2,500,000 $0 $2,500,000 N/A
He made 20 films, but only 19 have reported box office numbers. Across those 19 films, he made $994,016,071 worldwide. That's $52,316,635 per film.

The Verdict

Quite inconsistent, but a very iconic figure in the horror genre. You know you made it big when your creations include Elm Street and Scream. Craven often struggled with difficult productions (you can blame the Weinsteins for that), but he still managed to make competent and scary films, even if some are better than others. Some even see critical re-appraisal as time passes; even Scream 3 and Scream 4 have their fans. We don't know what he would've done with the franchise after the fourth film, but he made it clear he was exhausted by having to film without finished scripts. Rest in Peace to a horror legend.
Hope you liked this edition. You can find this and more in the wiki for this section.
The next director will be Clint Eastwood. I think I'll have to make two posts, given that he directed 42 films.
I asked you to choose who else should be in the run and the comment with the most upvotes would be chosen. Well, we'll later talk about... Ang Lee. A legendary Asian director.
This is the schedule for the following four:
Week Director Reasoning
May 13-19 Clint Eastwood Great actor. Great director.
May 20-26 Robert Zemeckis Can we get old Zemeckis back?
May 27-June 2 Richard Donner An influential figure of the 70s and 80s.
June 3-9 Ang Lee What happened to Lee?
Who should be next after Lee? That's up to you. And there's a theme.
And that theme is: controversial directors. I'm talking directors who have attained a polarizing response to their films (like Zack Snyder), or the directors themselves are also controversial figures in real life (like Oliver Stone). Basically, a director that has as many fans as haters.
submitted by SanderSo47 to boxoffice [link] [comments]


2024.05.11 05:46 kievazoumy Randomly & falsely accused of using AI by a professor

UPDATE: She believes me, I’m good 🙏🏼
Original: Hi all! I would love some advice. I'm in a D4 GE class and I've gotten mostly 100s on every assignment this year. The biggest one was a research paper assignment. I received a 100 on it when it was graded a month ago. Cool. Finished all the work for this class last week, woohoo! No more GEs for my undergraduate career!
This afternoon, I got a Canvas notification saying my assignment grade was changed. Like bro you graded this a month ago wdym. And what do I find? By golly, a 0! That must have been a mistake! Why would I be concerned if I did the assignment correctly.
I scrolled down to see why and it was because "there was a high probability" it had been written by AI. I have to redo it by May 17. Honestly, I wasn't going to but it actually dropped my grade to a B and I would like to apply for grad school next year.
Ma'am. I graduate in aerospace engineering on the 18th. Why do you want to singlehandedly bring my GPA down for this year? You didn't even provide any proof that I wrote it with AI. And I didn't! I wasn't sure whether to be insulted or flattered. I write concisely, and most AI bots don't. Honestly, the most annoying this about this paper was learning to cite in APA. I have been doing MLA for the past 8 years so having APA shoved in my face was new.
But yeah, it would be nice to know how to approach this so I don't have to rewrite it. I wrote via Word on my PC. And yes, I've considered just throwing my work into ChatGPT and asking it to redo it. I've also considered bargaining for my grade to be the probability it isn't AI because that would save my grade. But what are some ethical solutions lol
submitted by kievazoumy to CalPolyPomona [link] [comments]


2024.05.11 00:34 Fujoooshi Citing Government Documents with Multiple Publishers?

First, I know I can email my professor for this, but I figured I'd ask here too!
Also, I'm trying to use the MLA format.
I'm working on my final paper for my International Relations Theory class, and for it I used a bunch of government documents to analyze Japan's defense budget increase.
I'm having trouble figuring out how to cite Japan's defense budget overviews for 2022 and 2023 because they have multiple "publishers" listed at the bottom.
Published by: Finance Division, Minister’s Secretariat Defense Planning and Programming Division, Bureau of Defense Buildup Planning Equipment Policy Division, Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency, the Ministry of Defense
Anyone know how am I supposed to cite this in my Works Cited page at the end? Am I supposed to put ALL of that into my citation?
Right now I just have the first listed publisher and my citation looks like this:
Japan, Ministry of Defense. “Defense Programs and Budget of Japan: ‘First Year’ Budget for Fundamental Reinforcement of Defense Capabilities. Overview of FY2023 Budget.” Finance Division, Minister’s Secretariat, Dec. 2022, www.mod.go.jp/en/d_act/d_budget/pdf/20220420.pdf. Accessed May 3, 2024.
submitted by Fujoooshi to IRstudies [link] [comments]


2024.05.09 15:10 jonte2221 Ditch Plagiarism, Build Strong Academics

Ditch Plagiarism, Build Strong Academics
Plagiarism is a serious offense in academic work. Here's how to steer clear and showcase your own understanding:
https://preview.redd.it/g879eq88hezc1.png?width=1200&format=png&auto=webp&s=6d2b8123fe4958e83873939f87c8d67901128259
1. Grasp What Needs Citation: Not everything requires a citation. Facts widely considered common knowledge (e.g., the earth revolves around the sun) generally don't need one. However, when in doubt, err on the side of caution and cite.
2. Master the Art of Paraphrasing: Don't just copy and paste! Read and understand your source. Then, rephrase the ideas in your own words. This demonstrates your comprehension and avoids verbatim copying.
3. Quotation Marks Are Your Friend: Need to use the exact wording from a source? Use quotation marks and cite the source properly. This ensures you're crediting the original author and not presenting their words as your own.
4. Maintain Organized Notes: Keep track of your sources meticulously. Jot down bibliographic details and page numbers as you research. This saves you time later when constructing your reference list.
5. Utilize Citation Guides: There are different citation styles like APA or MLA. Choose the one your instructor requires and use a citation guide or online tool to ensure your citations are formatted correctly.
6. Consider Paraphrasing Tools (with Caution): Online paraphrasing tools can be helpful for rephrasing short passages. However, rely on them for guidance, not a magic solution. Always double-check their output for accuracy and ensure it conveys your intended meaning.
7. Proofread and Check for Unintentional Plagiarism: Sometimes, unintentional plagiarism occurs due to poor paraphrasing or forgetting to cite. Use plagiarism checkers offered by your institution or online tools (with caution) as a final safety net to identify areas needing attention.
Remember, strong academic work comes from demonstrating your own understanding. I would advise for seeking help since many reputable online services have come up with ways in helping students ace their academic work free from plagiarism and also enhances quality work
submitted by jonte2221 to Usaonlineessays1 [link] [comments]


2024.05.08 20:05 Ok_Web_1877 Review: GIRL FAKES As Guy To PLAY FOOTBALL, What Happens Is Shocking

For this week's review, I will be going back to the very first Dhar Mann video I ever watched! Sometime last year, my school (I have since graduated) made national headlines for controversy over trans athletes. I fell asleep one night while watching news stories about it. I woke up in the middle of the night, and my phone was still auto-playing YouTube videos. This is the video I woke up to. I was like 90% asleep, so I couldn't tell if it was an actual news story or documentary or what. Turns out, this video has nothing to do with trans people. I clicked on the channel name after and the rest is history.
I haven't watched this video since then. I obviously didn't know the cast, tropes, or clichés of Dhar Mann at the time, so I thought it would be fun to go back to this!
Our story begins outside of (presumably) Bookside Highschool. We have our lead, Kate (Callie Walker) alongside her boyfriend and female bestie. Tbh I don't even recognize the actors for the friend or boyfriend. Straight out of the gate, we get an exposition dump from the obligatory best friend.
Already, I would like to digress for a moment. Dhar Mann is not a good writer. Not even factoring the many flaws with his messages and predictable plots, the dialogue is always so contrived. Show don't tell, Dhar Dhar. If your banter is thinly veiled exposition, go back to the drawing board. You shouldn't have to write dialogue such as "hey what's up, cousin?" in order to establish character dynamics.
Anyway, best friend is bummed because Kate is giving up cheerleading to try out for the football team. Kate has been playing football since she was 5, and now it's her time to shine! They're seniors in highschool and Kate won't get this chance again! Boyfriend objects to Kate trying out. At first I was about to rip into this guy, but come to think of it... yeah idk how I'd feel about my partner playing on the same football team as me. Like for me the gender aspect isn't a factor, but having your partner play on the same team... I can see why that would be weird. So I'll spare boyfriend... for now.
Boyfriend (I'm sorry, nicknames aren't jumping out to me this time) and Kate approach the coach. The coach is an asshole to Kate but lets her tryout anyway. Montage of her out-performing every male athlete ensues.
The next day at school, Kate and her friend check the board to see who made the football and cheerleading teams. Friend made the cheer team, but Kate didn't make the football team. Already, this video loses me. Why did the coach even have Kate tryout if he was just going to cut her? Was it just to placate her? She very clearly outperformed everyone, so the coach cutting her just makes him look sus. Is anybody in 2024 really this astonished at the idea of a girl trying out for a sport's team where no female-only alternatives exist? This discrimination case seems extra ironic considering that the coach (played by Melvin Ward) is a black man. What if some asshole didn't want him playing on a team?
Boyfriend and his way cooler best friend, Ben, arrive in time to comfort Kate on not making the team. Boyfriend seems sweet and supportive at first, but his true feelings start to show with little bits of dialogue he says. There is also an arguable continuity error. Boyfriend tells Kate "there's always next year, right?" even though they established that this is their senior year. Maybe it's supposed to imply that the boyfriend is feigning compassion or is just a bit dumb, but given the quality of Dhar's storytelling, I'm considering it a continuity error. Kate and her friend walk off, leaving Ben and Donny (Kate's boyfriend) to mourn over the tragedy that just took place.
Based on the music change, this is where we're supposed to see the true colors of Donny.... but what he said isn't that bad tbh. He said "It's too bad, but she's a big girl, she'll move on from this. At least we made the team, right?" Calling your girlfriend a "big girl" is a bit weird, but other than that, the sentiment isn't too awful.
We're treated to a few minutes of a football game with Kate cheering from the sidelines (in the crowd, not as a cheerleader). Their team sucks, Donny is bad, and they even get booed! This is almost Dhar Mann karmic retribution, because the quarterback gets injured too!
We fluctuate once again back to school, and there are flyers for a... quarterback tryout? Why? Wouldn't they just have somebody else on the team be the interim quarterback? Ben encourages Kate to tryout, but this time Donny actively objects. Later that day, Kate is helping her friend with her cheer moves, and they refer to the coach by a different name than he had earlier. Friend gets this silly idea to have Kate pretend to be a guy to tryout and make the team. This is where the video goes off the rails...
Kate agrees, taking on the info of friend's out-of-state cousin and enrolling as a transfer student. Meanwhile, Kate pretends to be sick. Before I even get into how bad the makeover is, let's discuss the many flaws with this plan:
  1. "Kyle" would need academic transcripts. Good luck bullshitting those.
  2. Given that the tryouts are yearly, is Kate going to be sick FOR THE WHOLE DAMN SCHOOL YEAR????
  3. This is identity theft, and is a legit fucking crime.
  4. There is ZERO indication that this actual person named Kyle is aware of this plan. What a good cousin you are...
  5. Is Kate basically doing double school work the entire year? Who is to say that Kyle is even in the same classes as her? They could have very different schedules!
  6. Kate is white and her friend is black. So unless there's some adoption or something going on, friend's cousin is not going to be white.
There are more issues I could discuss with this plan, but let's move on.
We get to the moral of the video, and.... it's not applicable. Friend says "If you set your mind to something, you can do anything. This is your chance to show that even a girl can kick their butts!" But that's the thing: This isn't an issue of her being non-committal. She has ALREADY demonstrated to be better than the male players, and they realize that. This is a matter of discrimination, which is mostly out of her control.
Second montage, and this time Kate gets a makeover. I didn't realize Dhar was already doing double montages. As you'd expect, it's not remotely convincing. It's on the same level of obvious as Katherine Norland in that recent video with Neela Jolene. It's completely unrealistic that nobody would recognize Kate, but I'm going to suspend my disbelief for the sake of continuing this review.
sigh once again, we fluctuate back to the field. This video seriously lacks set variety. "Kyle" outperforms the guys once again, and we continue that weird subplot about Donny's true colors slowly being revealed. Ben is actually concerned about Kate being sick, but Donny is all nah she's fine bro.
Flip flop back to school. Kyle is sitting with friend. I was about to comment how Kate is blowing her cover by sitting with her best friend anyway, but I guess it makes sense since Kyle is friend's cousin and he's new. But again, I emphasize, how would anybody even believe they are cousins? Come to think of it, schools in Dhar Mann only have like 12 people, so this would get sussed out even faster than it normally would at a huge state school. Kyle laments to friend that Donny is an asshole and saw a whole new side of him while on the field. Dhar Mann coincidence occurs, because Donny comes in and bumps into Kyle. He even goes supervillain and brags about how Kate isn't there, so he can do what he wants! Ben helps Kyle up, and goes on about how awesome of a person Kate is. It's pretty obvious where this is going.
We finally get a breath of fresh air with a new set change! Kate is outside of her house, changing out of her Kyle costume. Uh oh, Donny is here! They have an awkward run in, and Donny shows what a buffoon he is. He literally narcs on himself, telling his girlfriend that he's only checking in FOR THE FIRST TIME IN WEEKS because Ben told him to. Negative rizz, my guy.
Donny isn't the only stupid one though, because Kate makes the bad decision of breaking up with him right there. On an a super impromptu meeting. Not a good time. But that's not even the worst part! Kate cites her friend telling her how Donny has been treating "some new kid named Kyle" and uggggghhhh Kate you fuuuuucked uuuuup! Talk about blowing your cover, the LAST thing you want to do is mention your alter ego, even in passing. Not to mention, you're citing hearsay about some complete stranger you've never heard of before! She even missed the chance to play the whole cousin angle! She could've very easily have said "my friend says you've been an asshole to her cousin, and I don't appreciate that one bit. She's my best friend so picking on her cousin is like picking on family!" or some shit like that. Anything would have been better!
Donny tries to gaslight Kate into thinking she's just being sensitive, but at least she's smart enough to not fall for it. Donny asks for his hoodie back... what? What hoodie? This wasn't a plot point... Chekov items happen all the time in Dhar Mann but this is the opposite. There was ZERO mention or significance of any hoodie in this video whatsoever. It's just another example of abysmal Dhar Mann writing. He introduced this hoodie as a random excuse for Kate to temporarily leave so Donny can find Kate's backpack with the Kyle costume in it.
We cut to the team preparing for the big game in the locker room. Donny arrives late, with a big shit-eating grin on his face. He predictably exposes Kate right before the big game, and he comes damn close to unironically saying "There is an imposter among us". Kate comes clean, and the coach benches her. For some reason Donny becomes QB... even though he never was to begin with.
Coach is all "Just wait until the school finds out you lied to play on the team!" ummm dumbass, that's hands down the LEAST problematic thing of this whole scheme. Not even going to mention the identity theft or faulty physicals/paperwork/transcripts or anything like that???
Donny sucks, and the team is getting rekt. There's a bit of dialogue I find amusing. The coach says "unless Tom Brady shows up, we can't do much else." I'm from New England, so hyperbolic praise for Brady isn't unusual in the slighest, but this is in Cali... it's just weird to hear other parts of the country praise him considering anytime I ever travel anywhere I hear nothing but disdain for him.
Anyway, Ben finally convinces the coach to let Kate play, as herself. This video really came out in the wrong decade. I have a hard time believing there would be much pushback over a girl playing.
They win with Kate's help. The coach promises not to narc her out to the school on the condition that she plays for them again ne- ... really? Again?! The same continuity error has happened twice in this video?! And again, this scandal would be something way beyond the hands of the coach. He has no say.
We cut to next year, and..... I'm at a loss for words. This is now the THIRD TIME we've run into the continuity error over them still being at the school despite seniors and hammering that point home many many many times. I am astonished that the same continuity error was made less than 20 seconds later. Anyway, some freshman are there to tryout, and thank Kate for breaking the glass ceiling. They repeat the inapplicable moral of the video, and we see that Ben and Kate have become a couple.
Outro:
I saw this video in Dhar's Extended cut playlist. There is no extended cut. I watched this video twice looking for changes. Needless to say, this video was much more enjoyable when my brain was 90% shut off in the middle of the night. I'm honestly surprised that this was the video that introduced me to Dhar Mann. The first half is boring, the second half goes way off the fucking rails. It's not even enjoyably bad, just tedious.
I'll be posting a review every Wednesday! If you have any suggestions for what to review next, please comment below. My only exceptions are that I will not review videos about race or autism. See you in the next one!
submitted by Ok_Web_1877 to dharmann [link] [comments]


2024.05.06 09:41 RamonTaylor3206 Academic Writing 101: Tips for Crafting Clear and Cohesive Essays

Academic Writing 101: Tips for Crafting Clear and Cohesive Essays
In the realm of academia, mastering the art of essay writing is crucial. Whether you're a seasoned scholar or a freshman navigating your first college assignments, the ability to express your ideas clearly and cohesively is paramount. Academic writing demands precision, clarity, and structure to effectively communicate your arguments. So, let's delve into some essential tips to enhance your essay writing prowess while also exploring how assignment help services can aid your academic journey.
Architecture assignment Help
Understanding the Assignment
Before diving into writing, it's vital to grasp the assignment's requirements thoroughly. Take note of the topic, word count, formatting guidelines, and any specific instructions provided by your instructor. Understanding what is expected of you will help you tailor your essay accordingly.
Developing a Strong Thesis Statement
A clear thesis statement serves as the foundation of your essay. It encapsulates the main argument or point of view you'll be presenting and guides the reader on what to expect. Ensure your thesis is specific, debatable, and relevant to the topic at hand.
Structuring Your Essay
Organize your essay into a coherent structure that flows logically from introduction to conclusion. Typically, essays comprise an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Start with an attention-grabbing introduction that provides context for your topic and ends with a strong thesis statement. Each body paragraph should focus on a single idea or argument supported by evidence and analysis. Finally, the conclusion should summarize your main points and reiterate the significance of your thesis.
Using Clear and Concise Language
Avoid ambiguity and verbosity in your writing. Opt for clear, concise language to convey your ideas effectively. Be wary of jargon or overly complex terminology that might confuse your readers. Remember, clarity is key to ensuring your message is understood.
Citing Sources Properly
In academic writing, it's essential to give credit to the sources you've used to support your arguments. Whether you're paraphrasing or directly quoting, cite your sources according to the appropriate citation style (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago). Failure to acknowledge sources can lead to accusations of plagiarism, so always cite responsibly.
Seeking Assistance When Needed
Despite your best efforts, there may be times when you find yourself struggling with an assignment. This is where assignment help services can be invaluable. Whether you're grappling with complex concepts in architecture or wrestling with AutoCAD assignments, seeking assistance from professionals can provide the clarity and guidance you need to succeed.
Navigating Architecture Assignments
Architecture assignments often require a blend of creativity and technical expertise. From designing structures to analyzing architectural theories, students face a myriad of challenges. If you find yourself stuck with your architecture assignments, don't hesitate to seek help. Whether it's understanding architectural principles or tackling design projects, expert assistance can alleviate your concerns and enhance your understanding.
Conquering AutoCAD Assignments
AutoCAD, a ubiquitous software in the field of design and engineering, presents its own set of challenges for students. From drafting intricate diagrams to mastering 3D modeling, proficiency in AutoCAD is highly sought after. If you're struggling to do your AutoCAD assignment, consider reaching out to assignment help services. These professionals possess the expertise to guide you through the intricacies of the software and ensure your assignments meet the required standards.
In conclusion, mastering academic writing is an essential skill for students across disciplines. By adhering to the tips outlined above and leveraging the assistance of assignment help services when needed, you can craft clear, cohesive essays that showcase your intellect and understanding. Remember, academic success is within your reach with the right guidance and support.
submitted by RamonTaylor3206 to u/RamonTaylor3206 [link] [comments]


2024.05.04 17:18 MerariVonGen Can we be more skeptical of claims like Ace of Base Nazi connections?

I really enjoyed the recent episode on Savitri Devi and was stunned by the idea that Ace of Base could have been crypto Nazis. I found the Cracked article, read it, and figured that, if Robert cited it and it's been around since 2015, maybe there's something to it. To be clear, I was a bit convinced and wanted to be sure that this was valid, so I was open to the idea.
From looking around, it looks like the only valid thing from the Cracked article was that the keyboardist was a part of a vile band in his teens, which he admitted to as much in a '97 documentary. Everything else seems seems like confirmation bias that started from watching a Hitler doc that mentioned the Base of Aces. From the videos and lyrics, everything mentioned just appears to be a combination of confirmation bias and ignoring that these are Swedes writing in English.
I love entertaining these kinds of ideas, but we do need to be far more suspicious of especially things that sound right or are shocking.
I'd recommend the below criticism from Steven Gamble. It really does go through the claims and also goes through the rest of the band's material that really calls the Nazi interpretation into question.
https://stevengamble.com/on-musical-meaning-as-messages-or-why-ace-of-base-probably-arent-nazis/
submitted by MerariVonGen to behindthebastards [link] [comments]


2024.05.04 15:22 WinbuzzerMaria How to do a Hanging Indent in Microsoft Word

How to do a Hanging Indent in Microsoft Word

https://preview.redd.it/7sotv5cvueyc1.png?width=768&format=png&auto=webp&s=ad86b1d80d72498b7a80b34fb2e32ded8bfa1dc1
Table of Contents:
Creating a hanging indent in Microsoft Word is essential for formatting documents according to various style guides such as APA, MLA, and Chicago. This tutorial will guide you through the steps to create a hanging indent in Word, ensuring your documents meet academic or professional standards.
What is a hanging indent?
A hanging indent is where the first line of a paragraph is not indented, but subsequent lines are. This style is commonly used in bibliographies and reference lists, making it easier for readers to distinguish between entries.
submitted by WinbuzzerMaria to winbuzzer [link] [comments]


2024.04.30 17:50 Lady_Aya B1665.2 - Smoking Elimination Bill - 2nd Reading

Smoking Elimination Bill

A
BILL
TO
Create a statutory duty to eliminate most smoking by 2030, implement licensing for the sale of tobacco and nicotine-containing products, regulate e-cigarettes and for connected purposes
BE IT ENACTED by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:--

Chapter I: Smoke Free by 2030

Section 1: Smoke Free Target

(1) It is the duty of the Secretary of State to ensure that by 2030, less than 5% of the United Kingdom population are regular smokers. This shall be referred to as the “Smoke Free Target”.
(2) The Secretary of State must publish an annual smoking elimination plan, which must include:
(a) an action plan demonstrating the actions to be taken by the Secretary of State to achieve the Smoke Free Target,
(b) measurable objectives to be achieved by the time of the publication of the next annual smoking elimination plan,
(c) the best available data regarding smoking within the United Kingdom, and
(d) a summary of failures to achieve targets set out in all previous smoking elimination plans until such time as they have been achieved, alongside remedial measures to ensure ascertainment of the relevant target.

Section 2: Definitions

(1) For the purposes of this act, a regular smoker is a person who usually consumes at least one tobacco product per week
(2) For the purposes of this act, a tobacco product is a product primarily intended for the consumption of nicotine, including but not limited to:
(a) smoked tobacco products such as cigarettes, cigars and hookah tobacco,
(b) smokeless tobacco products such as dipping tobacco, chewing tobacco or snus,
(c) heated tobacco products, or
(d) any other product as designated by regulations by the Secretary of State.
(3) For the purposes of this act, a nicotine-containing product is any product given under subsection (3), or an electronic cigarette, or any other product as designated by regulations by the Secretary of State.

Chapter II: Introduction of Licensing of Sale

Section 3: Licensing Requirement for sale

(1) A person commits an offence if they—
(a) sell nicotine-containing products by retail without a licence, or
(b) sell nicotine-containing products by retail from premises other than premises in respect of which they have been granted a licence, unless that licence is granted for online sales.
(2) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—
(a) on summary conviction, to a fine, or
(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or a fine, or both.
(3) For the purposes of subsection (1), a person is considered to have sold a nicotine-containing product by retail if they provide the item for free.
(4) This Subsection shall come into force upon either the 1st of January 2025, or on a date appointed by regulation by the Secretary of State not later than the 1st of January 2027.

Section 4: Regulations Regarding Licensing

(1) A body known as the Tobacco Licensing Agency is to be formed.
(2) The Secretary of State must by regulations make provision about the granting of licences for the sale by retail of nicotine-containing products, and such regulations as the Secretary of State deems reasonably necessary for the orderly function of the Tobacco Licensing Agency.
(3) Regulations under subsection (2) must provide that—
(a) the licensing authority for the sale by retail of nicotine-containing products is the Tobacco Licensing Agency,
(b) the licensing authority may place conditions on persons to whom licences have been granted,
(c) no licence may be issued to or held by a person who has been convicted of an offence under section 7 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933.
(d) licences will be issued on an individual basis for a specific address, or online point of sale, and subject to compliance inspection by the licensing authority.
(3) Regulations under subsection (2) must further ensure that the licensing authority may to such an extent compliant with other legislation regulate product standards with respect to products under their remit, including but not limited to:
(a) Restrictions of the marketing and advertising of tobacco products
(b) Requirements regarding health warning and information displays with respect to the sale of tobacco products

Section 5: Age Verification Conditions

(1) Regulations under section 4 must—
(a) require holders of a licence to operate an age verification policy,
(b) enable the licensing authority to issue fines in respect of a failure to operate an age verification policy,
(c) create criminal offences in respect of a failure to operate an age verification policy.
(2) The Secretary of State may publish guidance on matters relating to age verification policies, including guidance about—
(a) steps that should be taken to establish a customer's age,
(b) documents that may be shown to the person selling a tobacco product or related goods as evidence of a customer's age,
(c) training that should be undertaken by the person selling the tobacco product or related goods,
(d) the form and content of notices that should be displayed in the premises,
(e) the form and content of records that should be maintained in relation to an age verification policy.
(3) A person who carries on a business involving the retail sale of tobacco products must have regard to guidance published under subsection (2) when operating an age verification policy.

Chapter III: Regulations Regarding E-Cigarettes

Section 6: Extension of Plain Packaging to all “nicotine-containing products”

(1) Within the Plain Packaging Act 2016, the following amendments are to be made:-
(a) replace all instances of tobacco products with nicotine-containing products
(b) replace Section 1 subsection c with:
“c) Nicotine-containing products shall have the same meaning as that given in the Smoking Elimination Act 2023”.

Section 10: Ban of disposable e-cigarettes

(1) A person commits an offence if they sell disposable e-cigarettes (where intended for use as a nicotine-containing product) by retail.
(2) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—
(a) on summary conviction, to a fine, or-
(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or a fine, or both.
(3) For the purposes of this section, an e-cigarette shall be considered disposable if it is intended only for a single use, and lacks capacity either to be refilled or recharged by the user.
(4) This Subsection shall come into force upon either the 1st of January 2025, or on a date appointed by regulation by the Secretary of State not later than the 1st of January 2027.

Chapter IV: Implementation

Section 11: Commencement, Extent and Short Title

(1) This Act shall come into force one year after receiving Royal Assent.
(2) This Act shall extend to England only unless—
(a) a Legislative Consent Motion is passed in the Pàrlamaid na h-Alba, in which case it shall also apply to Scotland, or
(b) a Legislative Consent Motion is passed in the Senedd Cymru, in which case it shall also apply to Wales, or
(c) a Legislative Consent Motion is passed in the Northern Ireland Assembly, in which case it shall also apply to Northern Ireland.
(3) This Act may be cited as the Smoking Elimination Act 2024.
This bill was written by the Right Honourable Dame SpectacularSalad KG KP GCB OM GCMG GBE CT PC MP MLA FRS and the Right Honourable Sir weebru_m CT KT PC MP on behalf of His Majesty’s Government
Chapter 2 was largely sourced from the real life Sale of Tobacco (Licensing) Bill.
This Legislation amends the Plain Packaging Act 2016.
Opening Speech:
Deputy Speaker,
The house recently read the Advertisement of Vape Products (Regulation) Bill, one I was happy to welcome to this house and support at division. I believe that we in this house must do more to regulate vaping, and also to do what we can to eliminate smoking more generally.
Recalling also the Plain Packaging Bill read earlier this year (and subsequently withdrawn), I was spurred into action to propose the following legislation. I have sought to propose a package of world-leading, comprehensive measures.
Firstly, this bill will create a statutory duty for the Secretary of State to reduce the number of regular smokers to 5% of the population by 2030. In 2021 it was 13.3%, and below this threshold the UK will be considered “smoke free”. This 5% target is inspired by New Zealand’s health measures, but I must make clear that this bill does not go as far as a total ban for certain ages as seen in Aotearoa.
To support this goal, the bill will introduce two new licences. These are a licence on the sale of nicotine products (meaning tobacco products, and vapes), and a licence on the purchase of tobacco products specifically, but not vapes.
The nicotine-containing products licence will come into effect a year after passage of the bill, and this will require any business selling either tobacco or vapes to be licensed. This will also ban online sales of these products, making them only available in brick and mortar stores.
This effort is aimed at cracking down on the sale of tobacco and particularly vapes to young people, as the 25 years of age check will apply as a part of the terms of the licence itself. The NHS estimates that 9% of secondary school pupils either regularly or occasionally vape. This is 9% too many.
Eliminating online sale of tobacco or vaping products will close the online sales loophole, and by controlling which businesses are able to sell these products, we can implement better checks and controls to ensure that young people are unable to access them.
The second measure is the Tobacco Purchase Licence, which will come into force no earlier than the beginning of 2027. This is a licence to be required for an individual to buy tobacco containing products (but explicitly not vapes).
This will be a free, renewable, annual licence. Everyone who is 18 or older will be able to get one, but they will need an application signed by their GP, with the licences themselves issued by NHS bodies, who may issue guidance to the GP on how to support the individual in question.
The aim here is twofold, firstly to ensure that all active smokers have some interaction with the NHS relating to smoking, giving us a greater ability to support cessation. Individuals will retain the right to choose to smoke tobacco, but they will be unable to renew their licence to purchase without a GP’s awareness.
The second aim is simply to make smoking tobacco more hassle than vaping. We do not know how harmful vaping is, but the NHS’ own guidance is that vapes are far less harmful than cigarettes, exposing users to fewer toxins and at lower levels than smoking cigarettes. By creating a licence required to buy tobacco but not vaping, it is hoped that individuals will be nudged away from cigarettes and towards vaping as a substitute. Due to the nature of the licence, this will be a passive incentive built into the nicotine-products market.
And that brings me neatly onto the fourth key strand of this legislation, that is the extension of plain packaging and out-of-view laws to vapes, and banning disposable vapes. The first component is intended to crack down on bright packaging intended especially to appeal to young people. The second component is intended to tackle both the ease of access to addictive nicotine products, and also to reduce the environmental impact of vaping.
Overall, this represents a comprehensive package of measures that will fit well with the Government’s existing proposals. I hope they will see fit to provide cross-bench support for these measures, aimed at the substantive elimination of smoking in the UK.
This reading shall end on Friday 3rd May at 10PM.
submitted by Lady_Aya to MHOC [link] [comments]


2024.04.29 01:51 6KrombopulosMichael9 Active Duty Reducing Credit Card Interest

Hello all, I am freshly active duty in the military of about 3 months and had some basic questions regarding credit cards. I have 5 cards through Chase, Amex, and BoA. I've only contacted Amex so far so will just start with them.
I reached out through online chat with Amex and asked some questions about MLA and SCRA benefits. To keep it simple, this is what I inquired about:
Reopening my Amex Platinum I cancelled about 8 months ago due to the annual fee spike. I want it back eventually as I know the annual fee will be waived.
Waiving the annual fee on my Blue Cash Preferred.
Reducing the APR on my Blue Cash Preferred to hopefully around 6%
What occurred:
They could not reopen a platinum account for me. They had no reason other than try again in 90 days.
They waived the annual fee on my Blue Cash, citing MLA benefits
They could not reduce the APR on my Blue Cash, citing something along the lines that MLA doesn't impact APR, and SCRA benefits are not for active duty members, they are for people who opened the account before service but are no longer in the military. At least that's how they worded it.
If anyone has any helpful info on what is the best approach to contact all my credit card companies to get annual fees removed, and APR reduced, it would be much appreciated!
submitted by 6KrombopulosMichael9 to MilitaryFinance [link] [comments]


2024.04.27 03:09 Aware-Dog6636 The Beatles albums ranked pt. 2

I would like to preface this by saying that I don't hate any Beatles album in fact I'm of the very original opinion that even their worst material is a lot better than most artists best. So please view this with an open mind.✌️
  1. Yellow Submarine
I don't really know if this should even count as an official album as it's mostly a soundtrack album but I'll include it anyway for good measure. While the six actual Beatles songs on it are really good, just in terms of quantity of material this album has to go last. I much prefer the Yellow Submarine songtrack album as it just includes more material and also features great newer mixes of the songs.
  1. Please Please Me
PPM is a good starting point for the band as it showcases both their early songwriting talents and their cover band abilities very well. However, even though I want to place this album higher, it does somewhat represent the vanilla of the Beatles canon and that's not to say it's bad just not quite as exciting as most of what followed. Having said that it's definitely a good base to build upon.
  1. With The Beatles
This album is pretty interchangeable with the previous one as it pretty much repeats the same exact formula. The reason as to why I placed this one slightly higher is probably because the band feels a bit more at home with this one whereas the previous one felt a bit more rushed. The quality of the material is also slightly better with songs like It Won't Be Long, All My Loving and Till There Was You and it features George's first song so that's definitely a step up from PPM. The album cover is also iconic and a favorite of mine so extra points for that.
  1. MMT
This is probably the first big controversial opinion on this list and I'll try to explain this blasphemy as best I can. So first of all I can't really see this one as being a proper album as the second half is just the singles from that period and the Beatles didn't intend to release this as an official album. Secondly I don't really like the first side of the album as much as I like other material from this period. I mean Magical Mystery Tour is a great opener and The Fool On The Hill is definitely one of my all time favorite songs but the rest of the songs are in my opinion just good verging on ok, yes even Walrus😬. Also, while I'm at it, the rest of side two is phenomenal, but I've never been a big fan of Hello, Goodbye.
  1. Beatles For Sale
Now this album gets quite a lot of hate in the Beatles community and to a degree I understand it. I mean being the follow up to A Hard Day's Night is a hard feat to accomplish especially seeing as the band were incredibly weary by this point in their career and still expected to churn out material on the regular. I think this album has a lot more merit than people give it credit for as it acts as a bit of a bridge between their early rock 'n' roll sound and their mid sixties folk/Dylan leanings and I think that it accomplishes this merger quite well. All of the original material is really great with nothing that I would consider even remotely bad and the covers are also really good, yes even Mr. Moonlight🙄. All in all, considering the circumstances under which it was made, this album just gives me a very good early sixties vibe.
  1. The White Album
I was slightly surprised to place this album below the midpoint of this ranking as it's usually considered to be among the top 5 Beatles albums by most people and while I agree that it does feature some of their best ever material it also features, as is universally accepted, some of their worst. While I do appreciate the sheer scope of different genres that the band delves into on this album I feel as though I hardly ever listen to this album fully through as it's so long and tends to drag here and there. Also I don't appreciate how a lot of the album feels less cohesive than their previous efforts and feels more like four solo projects which is a trait often attributed to this album. So all in all a pretty mixed bag as most double albums inevitably are.
  1. Help!
The Beatles movie soundtrack albums have kind of an unfair advantage compared to the other albums in that you get another dimension through the segments in the movies that feature the songs. Having watched the movie multiple times the songs seem to transport me visually as well as sonically, which definitely adds to the experience. Now even if we take away this visual element from the music it's still incredibly good and marks a clear continuation of the folk/Dylan influence of Beatles For Sale. The album features Beatles classics like the title track, Ticket To Ride and Yesterday but there are also quite few underrated gems like YGTHYLA, YGLTG and I've Just Seen A Face to name a few. Where the album falls slightly short for me is towards the middle from It's Only Love to Tell Me What You See. In addition, while the cover tracks are well done and Act Naturally fits in with the movie theme it feels like they should be past the use of covers by this point. However all things considered the good definitely outweighs the bad.
  1. Sgt. Pepper
To start off the top half of my list we have an album that is deemed by most to be one of the greatest ever albums and rightfully so. The concept of the Beatles becoming an altogether different band and creating music that someone else might create is great and executed well. However this is also maybe my main problem with the album as sometimes I want my Beatles to sound a bit more Beatly than they do here. For instance songs like She's Leaving Home, Mr. Kite, Within You Without You and When I'm Sixty-Four don't have too many traditional Beatles elements which, to be fair, is probably what they were going for. And also the other half of the concept of making the album feel as though it was a live show seems to disappear after WALHFMF only to reappear for the reprise after which it isn't mentioned again which is a bit of a shame as that was also a great concept imo. Having said all that it's very clear to me why this album is hailed as one of the best as no other album can depict so vividly the times in which it was made while also sounding so timeless.
  1. Let It Be
This album usually doesn't rank very highly for most and I think that a big factor in why it isn't as liked as the rest is that the final product wasn't necessarily what the Beatles intended initially. Also it understandably has a slightly down vibe as it's release coincided with the official break up of the band. However, I think there is a lot of joy to be found and after watching the Get Back documentary my appreciation for this album has definitely grown. I really like the fact that most of the tracks are just the four of them, occasionally with the addition of Billy Preston who's contributions are immeasurable, playing together. Songs like Two of Us, Dig A Pony, I've Got A Feeling, One After 909, For You Blue and Get Back really show the unity and chemistry that the band still possessed after playing together for so many years. Also I don't really mind most of Phil Spector's additions as I think that the brass, strings and choirs add a bit more weight to songs like Across The Universe, I Me Mine, Let It Be and even The Long And Winding Road. The talking between tracks is also a nice touch as it achieves the live feel that they were going for with Sgt. Pepper only a bit more effectively imo and the fact that some tracks were actually performed live is also a plus. The only slight quibble I have is the fact that Don't Let Me Down wasn't included on the album as it's one of my favorite Beatles songs://. But other than that Let It Be is definitely a top tier Beatles albums.
  1. Rubber Soul
This album is definitely the pinnacle of the folk/Dylan journey that was started with Beatles For Sale. Songs like Norwegian Wood, Nowhere Man, Girl and In My Life are still very much in that singesongwriter vein while showing significant growth lyrically. In addition a new r&b/soul element is added with tracks like Drive My Car, You Won't See Me, The Word and I'm Looking Through You which works incredibly well to diversify the bands sound even further. Rubber Soul is often cited as the beginning of the bands experimental journey which is a fair assessment as there has clearly been huge musical leap compared to previous efforts. The only track that I think is slightly skippable is What Goes On as it's just a bit too country and repetitive for my liking://. Other than that I like/love just about every track on this album, yes even Run For Your Life🫣.
  1. A Hard Day's Night
This is perhaps an odd choice to start off the top 3 but I have my reasons. First of all there is the visual element as I mentioned in my Help! review. As I've watched the movie multiple times I am instantly transported to the Beatles performances of these songs, which yet again gives it a slightly unfair advantage. Secondly even if we remove the visual element again I think that this album showcases the bands early sound perfectly. Songs like the title track, And I Love Her and Can't Buy Me Love are certified Beatles classics and there's underrated gems to spare like ISHKB, If I Fell, IHJTDWY, Tell Me Why, I'll Cry Instead, Things We Said Today and I'll Be Back. I really love the fact that none of these songs overstay their welcome as they're all suitably short and sweet. Also worth a mention is the fact that this was their first entirely self written album and, while Paul's songs are all amazing, this album best showcases John as the leader of the band as he wrote just about every song on it apart from 3 songs so it's pretty unique in that sense. All in all I can't really fault this album much as it's just pure beatlemania and I love it.
  1. Abbey Road
This is a slightly less controversial album to put towards the top as it's pretty universally deemed as one of the bands best efforts and for good reason. I think that this album pretty much encapsulates just about everything the Beatles learned throughout their musical journey in the sixties. It contains traditional rock 'n' roll, pop, experimental verging on progressive elements, ballads, tight three-part harmonies, dueling guitar solos and a medley to top it all off. Just about everything you could want from a Beatles album. I also think that this album is a highlight for George's and Ringo's abilities as they both contribute some excellent work, with the former writing two of the most iconic Beatles songs and the latter contributing some of his most inspired drum work. The only slight problem I have with this album is that there's quite a lot of material where John contributes very little and some where he doesn't appear at all, which is a shame even though it's understandable since he was recuperating from a car crash at the time. But other than that it's pretty much the perfect send off to the band.
  1. Revolver
The first two spots are pretty interchangeable for me as both of them are albums where just about every element seems to align. Where this album has a slight edge is in the sense of unity and collaboration throughout and how everybody in the band and the production team contibutes heavily to the album as a whole, which makes for a very inviting atmosphere. Also, while there's a lot of experimentation happening, the band always manage to keep their traditional sound which makes it feel like the perfect bridge between two very different periods in the band's career. The songs are, of course, amazing and incredibly diverse containing elements of garage rock, baroque pop, pop, ballad, Indian-influenced, acid rock, r&b and avant-garde. The band is playing great especially Ringo who's contributions are incredibly innovative and original on this album. I could go on, but there's really nothing I can fault about this album so for all intents and purposes it's the best Beatles album. Also I have to mention the cover art which suits the vibe of the album perfectly and stands as it's own piece of art.
Feel free to share your opinions and/or rankings.
submitted by Aware-Dog6636 to TheBeatles [link] [comments]


2024.04.25 12:40 Only-Entertainer-992 Can you plagiarize yourself?

I write the articles about originality and plagiarism and here on Reddit I see many students being surprised that reusing their own work is considered self-plagiarism.Well, it does, and it’s considered a serious academical misconduct as well as other forms of plagiarizing. As I noticed some lack of awareness on this issue, I decided to clarify all these moments. it is better to be safe than sorry and figure out how to deal with this bother instead of denying it.
So, can you plagiarize yourself?
Officially, the dictionaries say plagiarism is “taking someone's work without attribution and passing it off as one's own.” That's why many students don't realize that taking their own writing can also be problematic. However, the rule is that one should cite the sources used in the papers, even if it is their own work. That is, if you have once published or submitted the work, you can't reuse it without attribution.
Why self-plagiarism is a problem?
First and foremost, when crafting a paper or submitting an article for publication, the author is supposed to produce something original. If you need to refer to some of your previous discoveries, why not attribute the sources where you have described them? It will be even easier for the reader to find more details if they need to. However, if you have just retold your previous work without any original contribution, the problem is obvious, and it's not the “stealing from yourself” but the lack of effort.
Secondly, purely technically, your work can be flagged as plagiarised by the system used in the university or any other institution receiving your paper. In education, different tools are used to check for plagiarism, AI, and other forms of cheating. The systems contain databases, including not only online resources but also the papers submitted to the particular school. So, if you present the paper you have already submitted – no matter whether it was years ago or the same finals week – the system will find the matches and mark your work as plagiarised, influencing the professor to make the relevant conclusions.
What to do to avoid self-plagiarism accusations?
First of all, attribute. There is nothing weird about self-citing; doing so will eliminate many problems. Just make sure you add original value to your paper, and feel free to reference your own works as the sources according to the needed citing format (APA/MLA or whatever your university requires).
Some students advise to talk to the professor before basing an assignment on already submitted research. It doesn't mean you can present the same paper to multiple subjects. However, if the task sounds tricky (like getting the same research topic from different teachers), discussing it with the professor is definitely a better way than simply sending in the same assignment.
Last but not least, it may be a good idea to check your work for plagiarism before you submit it. There are tons of checkers, I personally use this one (PlagiarismCheck.org), if you ask. It’s quite efficient for me.
Even if you don't copy or retell, plagiarism often occurs unintentionally, and you may get into trouble. So, scanning the text and editing some parts that can match someone's writing may help you feel more confident and get better results.
What’s your opinion here? Have any of you ever faced self-plagiarism problems? Do you reckon self-plagiarism is even a thing?
submitted by Only-Entertainer-992 to studytips [link] [comments]


2024.04.23 09:16 model-kyosanto B1665 - Tobacco and Vapes Bill - Final Division

B1665 - Smoking Elimination Bill - Final Division

A
BILL
TO
Create a statutory duty to eliminate most smoking by 2030, implement licensing for the sale of tobacco and nicotine-containing products, regulate e-cigarettes and for connected purposes
BE IT ENACTED by the King’s most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:--

Chapter I: Smoke Free by 2030

Section 1: Smoke Free Target

(1) It is the duty of the Secretary of State to ensure that by 2030, less than 5% of the United Kingdom population are regular smokers. This shall be referred to as the “Smoke Free Target”.
(2) The Secretary of State must publish an annual smoking elimination plan, which must include:
(a) an action plan demonstrating the actions to be taken by the Secretary of State to achieve the Smoke Free Target, (b) measurable objectives to be achieved by the time of the publication of the next annual smoking elimination plan, (d) a summary of failures to achieve targets set out in all previous smoking elimination plans until such time as they have been achieved, alongside remedial measures to ensure ascertainment of the relevant target.

Section 2: Definitions

(1) For the purposes of this act, a regular smoker is a person who usually consumes at least one tobacco product per week
(2) For the purposes of this act, a tobacco product is a product primarily intended for the consumption of nicotine, including but not limited to:
(a) smoked tobacco products such as cigarettes, cigars and hookah tobacco, (b) smokeless tobacco products such as dipping tobacco, chewing tobacco or snus, (c) heated tobacco products, or (d) any other product as designated by regulations by the Secretary of State.
(3) For the purposes of this act, a nicotine-containing product is any product given under subsection (3), or an electronic cigarette, or any other product as designated by regulations by the Secretary of State.

Chapter II: Introduction of Licensing of Sale

Section 3: Licensing Requirement for sale

(1) A person commits an offence if they—
(a) sell nicotine-containing products by retail without a licence, or
(b) sell nicotine-containing products by retail from premises other than premises in respect of which they have been granted a licence, unless that licence is granted for online sales.
(2) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—
(a) on summary conviction, to a fine, or
(b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or a fine, or both.
(3) For the purposes of subsection (1), a person is considered to have sold a nicotine-containing product by retail if they provide the item for free.
(4) This Subsection shall come into force upon either the 1st of January 2025, or on a date appointed by regulation by the Secretary of State not later than the 1st of January 2027.

Section 4: Regulations Regarding Licensing

(1) A body known as the Tobacco Licensing Agency is to be formed.
(2) The Secretary of State must by regulations make provision about the granting of licences for the sale by retail of nicotine-containing products, and such regulations as the Secretary of State deems reasonably necessary for the orderly function of the Tobacco Licensing Agency.
(3) Regulations under subsection (2) must provide that—
(a) the licensing authority for the sale by retail of nicotine-containing products is the Tobacco Licensing Agency,
(b) the licensing authority may place conditions on persons to whom licences have been granted,
(c) no licence may be issued to or held by a person who has been convicted of an offence under section 7 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933.
(d) licences will be issued on an individual basis for a specific address, or online point of sale, and subject to compliance inspection by the licensing authority.
(3) Regulations under subsection (2) must further ensure that the licensing authority may to such an extent compliant with other legislation regulate product standards with respect to products under their remit, including but not limited to:
(a) Restrictions of the marketing and advertising of tobacco products
(b) Requirements regarding health warning and information displays with respect to the sale of tobacco products

Section 5: Age Verification Conditions

(1) Regulations under section 4 must—
(a) require holders of a licence to operate an age verification policy, (b) enable the licensing authority to issue fines in respect of a failure to operate an age verification policy, (c) create criminal offences in respect of a failure to operate an age verification policy.
(2) The Secretary of State may publish guidance on matters relating to age verification policies, including guidance about—
(a) steps that should be taken to establish a customer's age, (b) documents that may be shown to the person selling a tobacco product or related goods as evidence of a customer's age, (c) training that should be undertaken by the person selling the tobacco product or related goods, (d) the form and content of notices that should be displayed in the premises, (e) the form and content of records that should be maintained in relation to an age verification policy.
(3) A person who carries on a business involving the retail sale of tobacco products must have regard to guidance published under subsection (2) when operating an age verification policy.

Chapter III: Regulations Regarding E-Cigarettes

Section 6: Extension of Plain Packaging to all “nicotine-containing products”

(1) Within the Plain Packaging Act 2016, the following amendments are to be made:-
(a) replace all instances of tobacco products with nicotine-containing products (b) replace Section 1 subsection c with: “c) Nicotine-containing products shall have the same meaning as that given in the Smoking Elimination Act 2023”.

Section 10: Ban of disposable e-cigarettes

(1) A person commits an offence if they sell disposable e-cigarettes (where intended for use as a nicotine-containing product) by retail.
(2) A person guilty of an offence under this section is liable—
(a) on summary conviction, to a fine, or- (b) on conviction on indictment, to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years, or a fine, or both.
(3) For the purposes of this section, an e-cigarette shall be considered disposable if it is intended only for a single use, and lacks capacity either to be refilled or recharged by the user.
(4) This Subsection shall come into force upon either the 1st of January 2025, or on a date appointed by regulation by the Secretary of State not later than the 1st of January 2027.

Chapter IV: Implementation

Section 11: Commencement, Extent and Short Title

(1) This Act shall come into force one year after receiving Royal Assent.
(2) This Act shall extend to England only unless—
(a) a Legislative Consent Motion is passed in the Pàrlamaid na h-Alba, in which case it shall also apply to Scotland, or (b) a Legislative Consent Motion is passed in the Senedd Cymru, in which case it shall also apply to Wales, or (c) a Legislative Consent Motion is passed in the Northern Ireland Assembly, in which case it shall also apply to Northern Ireland.
(3) This Act may be cited as the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2024.
This bill was written by the Right Honourable Dame u/SpectacularSalad KG KP GCB OM GCMG GBE CT PC MP MLA FRS and the Right Honourable Sir u/weebru_m CT KT PC MP on behalf of His Majesty’s Government
Chapter 2 was largely sourced from the real life Sale of Tobacco (Licensing) Bill.
This Legislation amends the Plain Packaging Act 2016.
Opening Speech:
Deputy Speaker,
The house recently read the Advertisement of Vape Products (Regulation) Bill, one I was happy to welcome to this house and support at division. I believe that we in this house must do more to regulate vaping, and also to do what we can to eliminate smoking more generally.
Recalling also the Plain Packaging Bill read earlier this year (and subsequently withdrawn), I was spurred into action to propose the following legislation. I have sought to propose a package of world-leading, comprehensive measures.
Firstly, this bill will create a statutory duty for the Secretary of State to reduce the number of regular smokers to 5% of the population by 2030. In 2021 it was 13.3%, and below this threshold the UK will be considered “smoke free”. This 5% target is inspired by New Zealand’s health measures, but I must make clear that this bill does not go as far as a total ban for certain ages as seen in Aotearoa.
To support this goal, the bill will introduce two new licences. These are a licence on the sale of nicotine products (meaning tobacco products, and vapes), and a licence on the purchase of tobacco products specifically, but not vapes.
The nicotine-containing products licence will come into effect a year after passage of the bill, and this will require any business selling either tobacco or vapes to be licensed. This will also ban online sales of these products, making them only available in brick and mortar stores.
This effort is aimed at cracking down on the sale of tobacco and particularly vapes to young people, as the 25 years of age check will apply as a part of the terms of the licence itself. The NHS estimates that 9% of secondary school pupils either regularly or occasionally vape. This is 9% too many.
Eliminating online sale of tobacco or vaping products will close the online sales loophole, and by controlling which businesses are able to sell these products, we can implement better checks and controls to ensure that young people are unable to access them.
The second measure is the Tobacco Purchase Licence, which will come into for https://www.reddit.com/MHOC/comments/1bskb2u/b1665_smoking_elimination_bill_2nd_reading/ no earlier than the beginning of 2027. This is a licence to be required for an individual to buy tobacco containing products (but explicitly not vapes).
This will be a free, renewable, annual licence. Everyone who is 18 or older will be able to get one, but they will need an application signed by their GP, with the licences themselves issued by NHS bodies, who may issue guidance to the GP on how to support the individual in question.
The aim here is twofold, firstly to ensure that all active smokers have some interaction with the NHS relating to smoking, giving us a greater ability to support cessation. Individuals will retain the right to choose to smoke tobacco, but they will be unable to renew their licence to purchase without a GP’s awareness.
The second aim is simply to make smoking tobacco more hassle than vaping. We do not know how harmful vaping is, but the NHS’ own guidance is that vapes are far less harmful than cigarettes, exposing users to fewer toxins and at lower levels than smoking cigarettes. By creating a licence required to buy tobacco but not vaping, it is hoped that individuals will be nudged away from cigarettes and towards vaping as a substitute. Due to the nature of the licence, this will be a passive incentive built into the nicotine-products market.
And that brings me neatly onto the fourth key strand of this legislation, that is the extension of plain packaging and out-of-view laws to vapes, and banning disposable vapes. The first component is intended to crack down on bright packaging intended especially to appeal to young people. The second component is intended to tackle both the ease of access to addictive nicotine products, and also to reduce the environmental impact of vaping.
Overall, this represents a comprehensive package of measures that will fit well with the Government’s existing proposals. I hope they will see fit to provide cross-bench support for these measures, aimed at the substantive elimination of smoking in the UK.
Lords may vote either Content, Not Content or Present to the Bill.
This Division ends on the 25th of April at 10PM BST.
submitted by model-kyosanto to MHOLVote [link] [comments]


2024.04.23 08:34 Miserable_Donut8261 group member not doing their part properly so I had to re-do them

Feel free to read or skip my rant:
The group project was actually due last Thursday but I'm still very bothered by this even now so imma rant it out here on reddit :/
It's a group project for literature class. So this group member "did" his part, but he didn't cite all the sources properly and it looks like it's on purpose too. There's no excuse for that considering the weekly assignments/discussion we had to do were heavily graded on citation, and it's just MLA so it shouldn't be THAT complicated. But he somehow managed to screw it all up and inconsistent with where the period goes, and he doesn't seem to know when to cite?? Like seriously, the modules made by our prof made it soooo damn clear how to cite in MLA and there's a comment function on google docs so he could've asked one of us for clarification?? basically he's like *I did my part so Imma eff off and you can't do anything about it cuz I DID my part*
So I had to proofread his writing and let him know which sentences needs to be cited using the "suggesting" mode because I didn't want to be a dick at first. But this isn't even the bad part. The worst is when I found out he copied and pasted one of my drafts to write as our group project's "intro section" paragraph. Like what the hell man, he didn't even bother to paraphrase it. This time I got pissed and rewrote 90% of what he already wrote.
Aside from working on the project itself, he never showed up to any required schedule meetings. He brushed it off with "oh sorry I was too focused on one of my final papers" for the 2nd meeting, the first was "oh sorry I overslept." Fine. But he's also barely active on group chat, even if google doc shows he's "online" cuz we all see his profile pic.
I really wanted to email our prof but these are the things that's stopping me from emailing our prof:
  1. he tEcHniCaLLy contributed.
  2. he copied and pasted a portion of my draft onto his part, but I've rewrote it before submitting so the prof would only see the re-written parts.
At this point idek if these are something worthy to email our prof about but I feel like I should have emailed sooner. And idk if I'm doing the right thing if I sent an email now. Is there a point?
edit/update: I sent an email to the prof and now I'm just waiting for a reply!
submitted by Miserable_Donut8261 to UBC [link] [comments]


2024.04.23 00:10 adventurepaul What's new in e-commerce? 🔥 Week of Apr 22nd, 2024

Hi ShopifyeCommerce - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of the week's top stories, which I cover in depth in the newsletter. Let's dive in...
STAT OF THE WEEK: 90% of Americans know about Temu. However despite the brand awareness, more than 56% have never made a purchase. More than half the survey respondents said they heard of Temu because of ads for the online marketplace. — According to DigitalCommerce360
The Wall Street Journal published a massive exposé last week about the secret and borderline illegal ways that Amazon has gathered trade secrets on its competitors during the past decade. The operation, called Big River Services International, is a company owned by Amazon that sells around $1M a year of products through competing platforms such as Walmart, eBay, Best Buy, Overstock, and Flipkart, so that Amazon can get an inside glimpse into how these marketplaces operate. By posing as a seller on competing marketplaces, Big River has been able to obtain proprietary information about their pricing data, logistics, and payment services, which they then shared with Amazon higher ups to incorporate into decisions about its own business. Although all companies research their competitors, lawyers say there is a fine line between normal corporate intelligence gathering of publicly available information and corporate espionage.
TikTok Shop is launching a secondhand luxury category in the U.K., putting it in direct competition with Poshmark, The RealReal, Vestiaire Collective, Depop, Mercari, and other secondhand marketplaces. The category has already existed in TikTok Shop U.S. for over six months. The new category allows customers in the U.K. to purchase pre-owned high-end clothing, handbags, and accessories, beginning with just five brands initially including Sellier, Luxe Collective, Sign of the Times, HardlyEverWornIt, and Break Archive. Like other resale marketplaces, TikTok Shop has an anti-counterfeit policy that guarantees a full refund if a buyer is sold a counterfeit product. All secondhand brands in the U.S. are required to have certificates from third-party authenticators such as Entrupy and Real Authentication, but initially in the U.K., partner brands will be using their own in-house authentication process.
In other TikTok news… The House of Representatives passed legislation (again) that could trigger a nationwide ban of the app if its Chinese owner does not sell. This time the ban was attached to a sweeping foreign aid bill that provides support for Ukraine and Israel, so now the Senate has to choose between helping allies and keeping TikTok unbanned. Can't have both apparently.
Meta announced that its newest large language model, Llama-3, is the “most capable” and “best open source model” currently available on the market. The company's blog post minced no words about claiming it was the best. Meta also says that its new model creates “sharper and higher quality” images and has a “better ability to include text in images.”
Wix is now allowing freelancers and agencies who are part of its Studio platform to sell their website templates directly within the Wix Marketplace. All available templates for sale must pass a review for quality and usability before being listed. Wix has historically offered a selection of free templates provided by the company itself. Additionally Wix users could code their own templates by themselves or with the help of Wix's AI Site Generator which launched last July. Now with the new ability to sell templates, Wix can increase its selection of ready-to-publish site templates via leveraging its partner network, as well as create new revenue opportunities for them.
Following its successful debut in Europe, Klarna is now preparing to extend its credit card offering to consumers in the U.S. The card, which will be issued by Utah-based WebBank, will allow customers to buy products in any brick-and-mortar or e-commerce store that accepts Visa with the ability to pay for the purchase in either three or six month installments. On other words, Klarna's credit card brings its BNPL payment option to any store that accepts Visa, even if the store doesn't offer its own dedicated BNPL offering.
The EU's Data Protection Board told very large online platforms, particularly looking in Meta's direction, that they cannot offer users a binary choice between paying for a service and consenting to their personal data being used to provide targeted advertising. The opinion published last week follows complaints by consumer and privacy organizations about Meta's decision to introduce a €9.99/month (or €12.99/month on iOS and Android) premium plan for users who do not want their personal data used for targeted advertising. Meta believes that the EDPB's opinion is contrary to what the EU courts ruled last year, and doesn't plan on changing its model solely based on this new opinion. So it looks like the Data Protection Board is going to have to fight this battle in court if that opinion is to be enforced, as Meta won't be doing it voluntarily.
Two weeks ago, I reported that Amazon is removing its Just Walk Out cashierless checkouts from its Fresh supermarkets in the US and instead will rely more heavily on Dash Carts. Amazon said that it will continue to license the Just Walk Out cashierless system to third parties, to which I commented that as a retailer, I personally wouldn't invest in a technology that Amazon is removing from its own stores, as it doesn't show much confidence in the tech. However apparently Amazon doesn't think it'll be a problem that it's shuttering the tech in its own stores because last week the company said that it plans to push its Just Walk Out technology into more third-party stores this year, increasing its count from the 140 stores that currently use it.
Amazon also said that it's planning on bringing its Dash Carts to more supermarkets, including all of its own Amazon Fresh stores in the U.S. and selected Whole Foods locations, as well as third-party grocers. Amazon claims that customers who use Dash Carts spend 10% more than normal shoppers in Amazon Fresh stores, and that more than 80% of daily Dash Cart transactions are from repeat users. In a blog post, Amazon also discredited The Information's report that its AI cashierless tools relied on thousands of humans behind the scenes. They wrote, “The erroneous reports that Just Walk Out technology relies on human reviewers watching from afar is untrue. Most AI systems, including the underlying ML models behind these technologies, are continuously improved by annotating synthetic (AI generated) and real shopping data.”
BigCommerce announced over 100 significant platform enhancements, new features, and integrations as part of its first ever BigCommerce Editions Summer '24 Next Big Thing product launch, which breaks down which features are currently available, coming soon, or on a waitlist. The company says in its video that these features are designed to enable “commerce without compromise, helping you to grow and stand out from your competition.” Upcoming features include multi-address shipping, localized blog content, new Google Retail AI integrations, and more. Lots in store for the newly profitable BigCommerce 2.0!
Shopify is taking an unconventional approach to raises by making its 8,300 employees compete against each other to qualify for more pay. According to The Information, Shopify assigns employees a numerical score to represent their skill level, which can only increase if their skill level improves faster than colleagues. Feels a little Squid Game-ish.
Amazon will account for 40.4% of U.S. retail e-commerce sales, or a total of $491B this year, according to an eMarketer report. Among major U.S. retailers, only Walmart is growing its e-commerce sales faster than Amazon at 13.6% compared with Amazon's 10.5%.
This makes sense given that Amazon Prime had 180M members in March, which accounts for 75% of all U.S. shoppers, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. This represents an 8% increase from 2023.
The share of consumers carrying cash is on the decline, at 81% as of April 2023, down from 84% in August 2020 and 94% in July 2018. The most common reason given for not carrying cash is that other payment methods are easier or more convenient to use.
commercetools made three announcements at its Elevate conference: 1) They integrated PayPal's new Fastlane feature, a one-click guest checkout experience designed to speed up the checkout process for consumers. 2) They launched a new B2B offering called Blueprint for B2B Manufacturing, which streamlines implementation and speed time-to-market for manufacturers. 3) They launched Community, a platform designed to foster enhanced support, communication, and collaboration among customers and partners.
Walmart Marketplace and Cart.com teamed up to allow customers using Cart.com's multichannel management platform to access special incentives across Walmart's shipping, advertising, and repricing services, as well as support for onboarding and customer success. Cart will use its multichannel selling capabilities and Constellation AI features to make it more efficient for brands to sell and list products on the marketplace and leverage Walmart's customer base, infrastructure, and fulfillment network.
Amazon introduced a free, shoppable, ad-supported channel to its Prime Video and Freevee streaming service, which allows U.S. consumers to browse, shop, and engage with content they're watching on their TV screen via mobile devices. The channel utilizes Amazon's “shop the show” technology, which integrates its mobile app with onscreen content to showcase a carousel highlighting the featured products being depicted on television in real time.
None of the ad transparency tools created by 11 of the world's largest tech companies operate as effectively as needed, according to a report by Mozilla and CheckFirst research. The study, which tested the transparency of tools using over 20 parameters regarding functionality, data accessibility, and accuracy, found that the repositories are plagued by missing data, bugs, shoddy features, and unacceptable shortfalls.
Post News, the Twitter alternative founded by Noam Bardin, the previous CEO of Waze, and backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Scott Galloway, is shutting down just a year and a half after launching in beta. Bardin said in a statement, “At the end of the day, our service is not growing fast enough to become a real business or a significant platform.. we have not managed to find the right product combination to make it happen.”
MercadoLibre plans to increase total staff by 30% this year by hiring 18,000 people as it seeks to grow its business in Mexico and other Latin American countries, a hiring spree which will bring its headcount to around 76,000 full time workers. The company has been seeking to expand operations in Mexico, which was its number three market by revenue in 2023, behind only Brazil and Argentina.
Target is reducing the selection and quantity of DVDs it will sell in its retail stores, transitioning most of the sales online, with the physical stores only carrying new releases during key times of the year moving forward. Best Buy made a similar move last October, abolishing all physical media from its stores other than video games, leaving Walmart as the physical media king with over 45% market share.
Best Buy launched an AR app called Best Buy Envision, designed exclusively for the Apple Vision Pro that offers real-time product previews. The app allows consumers to see how a product would appear in their space in terms of size, style, and color before making a purchase, showcasing products in 3D and providing essential information like ratings, reviews, and pricing.
Kraft Heinz Co. and Mattel Inc are teaming up to produce a “Barbiecue” sauce — a limited edition pink colored sauce with Barbie branding on the label. The company first gauged interest on social media last summer, when a Facebook post generated 464k likes and 71k comments. From there, product development took about six months.
The House Financial Services Committee voted to block a rule that would cap credit card late fees as soon as next month. Chairman Patrick McHenry said in a statement, “The credit card late fee rule fails to acknowledge the role certain fees play in encouraging timely payments. It will harm consumers by shifting costs to responsible consumers who pay on time in the form of higher annual fees and higher interest rates.” I call BS on that though. The credit card landscape is still very competitive and “responsible consumers” wouldn't sit back, do nothing, and absorb higher fees — they'd move on to a different card with better fees / rates. Capping late fees would've only protected consumers who need a break.
Grubhub teamed up with Mercato, an online marketplace for independent grocery stores, to bring its inventory of more than 950 merchants across the US to the Grubhub Marketplace. This is the first time Mercato has teamed up with a third-party delivery company.
Last week I reported that Coupang was raising its monthly membership fee for new users by 58%. Now its biggest competitors, Naver and Shinsegae Group, are going all-out to take advantage of the decision by running promotions on their own paid membership programs. However Coupang isn't worried because neither competitor can match its ultra-fast Rocket Delivery service.
Here's what Coupang should actually worry about… Amazon introduced free shipping benefits for South Korean consumers last week for orders exceeding $49. While delivery times fluctuate depending on the product, and even Amazon can't beat Coupang's fast delivery network, Amazon ensures that it'll hit the estimated delivery times indicated during checkout.
Dollar General opened its 20,000th store in February with the opening of its latest store in southeastern Texas. The company plans to complete 2,385 real estate related projects this year including opening 800 new stores, remodeling 1,500 locations, and relocating 85 stores. There's currently about one Dollar General for every 16k Americans.
MarketForce, the Y Combinator-backed Kenyan startup founded in 2018, is shutting down RejaReja, its B2B e-commerce platform, citing the razor-thin margins of B2B e-commerce businesses and profitability struggles as contributing factors to the decision. The company's co-founder, Tesh Mbaabu, shared that he and his co-founder will be pivoting to a company called Chpter, which focuses on empowering online merchants through conversational commerce in Africa.
Amazon's packaging has been getting more efficient in recent years thanks to its multimodal AI model called the Package Decision Engine, which is tasked with selecting the right box, bag, or wrapper for each package it ships. The AI model interprets pictures and text to choose the best shipping materials, which has helped the company cut out 2M tons of plastic and cardboard since 2015.
Tesla confirmed that it spent $200k to advertise on X so far, despite Elon Musk famously saying that he despises advertising and that Tesla doesn't pay to advertise. X users reported starting to see Tesla ads on X starting in February 2024.
Meta may launch ads on its Threads platform as early as the second half of this year, likely to be integrated into Meta's ad platform, Advantage+, alongside existing options for Facebook and Instagram. Initial ad formats are anticipated to include in-feed placements, with potential expansions to trends and topic selections.
Alibaba Group announced that its CEO, Eddie Wu, would now be directly overseeing its domestic e-commerce arm which includes Taobao and Tmall Group. Wu has been CEO since September, when he also took over the company's cloud business, which means he will now be leading the company's two most important divisions.
Seven amateur criminals rented heavy equipment from Home Depot locations in Washington and Colorado using stolen credit cards, and then sold the machinery on Facebook Marketplace. The funniest part is that the criminals would often use their real driver's licenses for the required identification to rent the machines, so they were easy to find!
TAKE HER DOWN: eBay Stalking Scandal, a documentary short that tells the story of when eBay executives threatened and stalked Ina and David Steiner of EcommerceBytes for publishing blog posts critical of the company, is set to be released on April 25th. Filmmakers Ray and Nicole Ward ,a brother and sister production team, are initially releasing the 15 minute short on YouTube, with the possibility of developing it into a feature length version later this year. You can watch the teaser on YouTube.
U.S. parcel volumes reached 21.65B shipments in 2023, a 0.5% increase from the year prior. Amazon and alternative carriers posted strong volume gains, while FedEx and UPS both saw a decline.
I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!
For more details on each story and sources, see the full edition: https://www.shopifreaks.com/project-curiosity-secondhand-wars-consent-or-pay/
What else is new in e-commerce? Share stories of interesting in the comments below (including in your own business) or on shopifreaks.
-PAUL Editor of Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter
PS: Want the full editions delivered to your Inbox each week? Join free at www.shopifreaks.com
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2024.04.23 00:02 adventurepaul E-commerce Industry News Recap 🔥 Week of Apr 22nd, 2024

Hi ecommerce - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of the week's top stories, which I cover in depth with sources in the full edition. Let's dive in...
STAT OF THE WEEK: 90% of Americans know about Temu. However despite the brand awareness, more than 56% have never made a purchase. More than half the survey respondents said they heard of Temu because of ads for the online marketplace. — According to DigitalCommerce360
The Wall Street Journal published a massive exposé last week about the secret and borderline illegal ways that Amazon has gathered trade secrets on its competitors during the past decade. The operation, called Big River Services International, is a company owned by Amazon that sells around $1M a year of products through competing platforms such as Walmart, eBay, Best Buy, Overstock, and Flipkart, so that Amazon can get an inside glimpse into how these marketplaces operate. By posing as a seller on competing marketplaces, Big River has been able to obtain proprietary information about their pricing data, logistics, and payment services, which they then shared with Amazon higher ups to incorporate into decisions about its own business. Although all companies research their competitors, lawyers say there is a fine line between normal corporate intelligence gathering of publicly available information and corporate espionage.
TikTok Shop is launching a secondhand luxury category in the U.K., putting it in direct competition with Poshmark, The RealReal, Vestiaire Collective, Depop, Mercari, and other secondhand marketplaces. The category has already existed in TikTok Shop U.S. for over six months. The new category allows customers in the U.K. to purchase pre-owned high-end clothing, handbags, and accessories, beginning with just five brands initially including Sellier, Luxe Collective, Sign of the Times, HardlyEverWornIt, and Break Archive. Like other resale marketplaces, TikTok Shop has an anti-counterfeit policy that guarantees a full refund if a buyer is sold a counterfeit product. All secondhand brands in the U.S. are required to have certificates from third-party authenticators such as Entrupy and Real Authentication, but initially in the U.K., partner brands will be using their own in-house authentication process.
In other TikTok news… The House of Representatives passed legislation (again) that could trigger a nationwide ban of the app if its Chinese owner does not sell. This time the ban was attached to a sweeping foreign aid bill that provides support for Ukraine and Israel, so now the Senate has to choose between helping allies and keeping TikTok unbanned. Can't have both apparently.
Meta announced that its newest large language model, Llama-3, is the “most capable” and “best open source model” currently available on the market. The company's blog post minced no words about claiming it was the best. Meta also says that its new model creates “sharper and higher quality” images and has a “better ability to include text in images.”
Wix is now allowing freelancers and agencies who are part of its Studio platform to sell their website templates directly within the Wix Marketplace. All available templates for sale must pass a review for quality and usability before being listed. Wix has historically offered a selection of free templates provided by the company itself. Additionally Wix users could code their own templates by themselves or with the help of Wix's AI Site Generator which launched last July. Now with the new ability to sell templates, Wix can increase its selection of ready-to-publish site templates via leveraging its partner network, as well as create new revenue opportunities for them.
Following its successful debut in Europe, Klarna is now preparing to extend its credit card offering to consumers in the U.S. The card, which will be issued by Utah-based WebBank, will allow customers to buy products in any brick-and-mortar or e-commerce store that accepts Visa with the ability to pay for the purchase in either three or six month installments. On other words, Klarna's credit card brings its BNPL payment option to any store that accepts Visa, even if the store doesn't offer its own dedicated BNPL offering.
The EU's Data Protection Board told very large online platforms, particularly looking in Meta's direction, that they cannot offer users a binary choice between paying for a service and consenting to their personal data being used to provide targeted advertising. The opinion published last week follows complaints by consumer and privacy organizations about Meta's decision to introduce a €9.99/month (or €12.99/month on iOS and Android) premium plan for users who do not want their personal data used for targeted advertising. Meta believes that the EDPB's opinion is contrary to what the EU courts ruled last year, and doesn't plan on changing its model solely based on this new opinion. So it looks like the Data Protection Board is going to have to fight this battle in court if that opinion is to be enforced, as Meta won't be doing it voluntarily.
Two weeks ago, I reported that Amazon is removing its Just Walk Out cashierless checkouts from its Fresh supermarkets in the US and instead will rely more heavily on Dash Carts. Amazon said that it will continue to license the Just Walk Out cashierless system to third parties, to which I commented that as a retailer, I personally wouldn't invest in a technology that Amazon is removing from its own stores, as it doesn't show much confidence in the tech. However apparently Amazon doesn't think it'll be a problem that it's shuttering the tech in its own stores because last week the company said that it plans to push its Just Walk Out technology into more third-party stores this year, increasing its count from the 140 stores that currently use it.
Amazon also said that it's planning on bringing its Dash Carts to more supermarkets, including all of its own Amazon Fresh stores in the U.S. and selected Whole Foods locations, as well as third-party grocers. Amazon claims that customers who use Dash Carts spend 10% more than normal shoppers in Amazon Fresh stores, and that more than 80% of daily Dash Cart transactions are from repeat users. In a blog post, Amazon also discredited The Information's report that its AI cashierless tools relied on thousands of humans behind the scenes. They wrote, “The erroneous reports that Just Walk Out technology relies on human reviewers watching from afar is untrue. Most AI systems, including the underlying ML models behind these technologies, are continuously improved by annotating synthetic (AI generated) and real shopping data.”
BigCommerce announced over 100 significant platform enhancements, new features, and integrations as part of its first ever BigCommerce Editions Summer '24 Next Big Thing product launch, which breaks down which features are currently available, coming soon, or on a waitlist. The company says in its video that these features are designed to enable “commerce without compromise, helping you to grow and stand out from your competition.” Upcoming features include multi-address shipping, localized blog content, new Google Retail AI integrations, and more. Lots in store for the newly profitable BigCommerce 2.0!
Shopify is taking an unconventional approach to raises by making its 8,300 employees compete against each other to qualify for more pay. According to The Information, Shopify assigns employees a numerical score to represent their skill level, which can only increase if their skill level improves faster than colleagues. Feels a little Squid Game-ish.
Amazon will account for 40.4% of U.S. retail e-commerce sales, or a total of $491B this year, according to an eMarketer report. Among major U.S. retailers, only Walmart is growing its e-commerce sales faster than Amazon at 13.6% compared with Amazon's 10.5%.
This makes sense given that Amazon Prime had 180M members in March, which accounts for 75% of all U.S. shoppers, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. This represents an 8% increase from 2023.
The share of consumers carrying cash is on the decline, at 81% as of April 2023, down from 84% in August 2020 and 94% in July 2018. The most common reason given for not carrying cash is that other payment methods are easier or more convenient to use.
commercetools made three announcements at its Elevate conference: 1) They integrated PayPal's new Fastlane feature, a one-click guest checkout experience designed to speed up the checkout process for consumers. 2) They launched a new B2B offering called Blueprint for B2B Manufacturing, which streamlines implementation and speed time-to-market for manufacturers. 3) They launched Community, a platform designed to foster enhanced support, communication, and collaboration among customers and partners.
Walmart Marketplace and Cart.com teamed up to allow customers using Cart.com's multichannel management platform to access special incentives across Walmart's shipping, advertising, and repricing services, as well as support for onboarding and customer success. Cart.com will use its multichannel selling capabilities and Constellation AI features to make it more efficient for brands to sell and list products on the marketplace and leverage Walmart's customer base, infrastructure, and fulfillment network.
Amazon introduced a free, shoppable, ad-supported channel to its Prime Video and Freevee streaming service, which allows U.S. consumers to browse, shop, and engage with content they're watching on their TV screen via mobile devices. The channel utilizes Amazon's “shop the show” technology, which integrates its mobile app with onscreen content to showcase a carousel highlighting the featured products being depicted on television in real time.
None of the ad transparency tools created by 11 of the world's largest tech companies operate as effectively as needed, according to a report by Mozilla and CheckFirst research. The study, which tested the transparency of tools using over 20 parameters regarding functionality, data accessibility, and accuracy, found that the repositories are plagued by missing data, bugs, shoddy features, and unacceptable shortfalls.
Post News, the Twitter alternative founded by Noam Bardin, the previous CEO of Waze, and backed by Andreessen Horowitz and Scott Galloway, is shutting down just a year and a half after launching in beta. Bardin said in a statement, “At the end of the day, our service is not growing fast enough to become a real business or a significant platform.. we have not managed to find the right product combination to make it happen.”
MercadoLibre plans to increase total staff by 30% this year by hiring 18,000 people as it seeks to grow its business in Mexico and other Latin American countries, a hiring spree which will bring its headcount to around 76,000 full time workers. The company has been seeking to expand operations in Mexico, which was its number three market by revenue in 2023, behind only Brazil and Argentina.
Target is reducing the selection and quantity of DVDs it will sell in its retail stores, transitioning most of the sales online, with the physical stores only carrying new releases during key times of the year moving forward. Best Buy made a similar move last October, abolishing all physical media from its stores other than video games, leaving Walmart as the physical media king with over 45% market share.
Best Buy launched an AR app called Best Buy Envision, designed exclusively for the Apple Vision Pro that offers real-time product previews. The app allows consumers to see how a product would appear in their space in terms of size, style, and color before making a purchase, showcasing products in 3D and providing essential information like ratings, reviews, and pricing.
Kraft Heinz Co. and Mattel Inc are teaming up to produce a “Barbiecue” sauce — a limited edition pink colored sauce with Barbie branding on the label. The company first gauged interest on social media last summer, when a Facebook post generated 464k likes and 71k comments. From there, product development took about six months.
The House Financial Services Committee voted to block a rule that would cap credit card late fees as soon as next month. Chairman Patrick McHenry said in a statement, “The credit card late fee rule fails to acknowledge the role certain fees play in encouraging timely payments. It will harm consumers by shifting costs to responsible consumers who pay on time in the form of higher annual fees and higher interest rates.” I call BS on that though. The credit card landscape is still very competitive and “responsible consumers” wouldn't sit back, do nothing, and absorb higher fees — they'd move on to a different card with better fees / rates. Capping late fees would've only protected consumers who need a break.
Grubhub teamed up with Mercato, an online marketplace for independent grocery stores, to bring its inventory of more than 950 merchants across the US to the Grubhub Marketplace. This is the first time Mercato has teamed up with a third-party delivery company.
Last week I reported that Coupang was raising its monthly membership fee for new users by 58%. Now its biggest competitors, Naver and Shinsegae Group, are going all-out to take advantage of the decision by running promotions on their own paid membership programs. However Coupang isn't worried because neither competitor can match its ultra-fast Rocket Delivery service.
Here's what Coupang should actually worry about… Amazon introduced free shipping benefits for South Korean consumers last week for orders exceeding $49. While delivery times fluctuate depending on the product, and even Amazon can't beat Coupang's fast delivery network, Amazon ensures that it'll hit the estimated delivery times indicated during checkout.
Dollar General opened its 20,000th store in February with the opening of its latest store in southeastern Texas. The company plans to complete 2,385 real estate related projects this year including opening 800 new stores, remodeling 1,500 locations, and relocating 85 stores. There's currently about one Dollar General for every 16k Americans.
MarketForce, the Y Combinator-backed Kenyan startup founded in 2018, is shutting down RejaReja, its B2B e-commerce platform, citing the razor-thin margins of B2B e-commerce businesses and profitability struggles as contributing factors to the decision. The company's co-founder, Tesh Mbaabu, shared that he and his co-founder will be pivoting to a company called Chpter, which focuses on empowering online merchants through conversational commerce in Africa.
Amazon's packaging has been getting more efficient in recent years thanks to its multimodal AI model called the Package Decision Engine, which is tasked with selecting the right box, bag, or wrapper for each package it ships. The AI model interprets pictures and text to choose the best shipping materials, which has helped the company cut out 2M tons of plastic and cardboard since 2015.
Tesla confirmed that it spent $200k to advertise on X so far, despite Elon Musk famously saying that he despises advertising and that Tesla doesn't pay to advertise. X users reported starting to see Tesla ads on X starting in February 2024.
Meta may launch ads on its Threads platform as early as the second half of this year, likely to be integrated into Meta's ad platform, Advantage+, alongside existing options for Facebook and Instagram. Initial ad formats are anticipated to include in-feed placements, with potential expansions to trends and topic selections.
Alibaba Group announced that its CEO, Eddie Wu, would now be directly overseeing its domestic e-commerce arm which includes Taobao and Tmall Group. Wu has been CEO since September, when he also took over the company's cloud business, which means he will now be leading the company's two most important divisions.
Seven amateur criminals rented heavy equipment from Home Depot locations in Washington and Colorado using stolen credit cards, and then sold the machinery on Facebook Marketplace. The funniest part is that the criminals would often use their real driver's licenses for the required identification to rent the machines, so they were easy to find!
TAKE HER DOWN: eBay Stalking Scandal, a documentary short that tells the story of when eBay executives threatened and stalked Ina and David Steiner of EcommerceBytes for publishing blog posts critical of the company, is set to be released on April 25th. Filmmakers Ray and Nicole Ward ,a brother and sister production team, are initially releasing the 15 minute short on YouTube, with the possibility of developing it into a feature length version later this year. You can watch the teaser on YouTube.
U.S. parcel volumes reached 21.65B shipments in 2023, a 0.5% increase from the year prior. Amazon and alternative carriers posted strong volume gains, while FedEx and UPS both saw a decline.
I hope you found this recap helpful. See you next week!
PAUL
Editor of Shopifreaks E-Commerce Newsletter
PS: If I missed any big news this week, please share in the comments.
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2024.04.22 15:58 Cryptocasinos_online How the Pelayos Broke the Roulette Wheel: The Story of Human Endurance and Mathematics.

Few stories in the casino gambling world can fire the imagination as strongly as the legend of the Pelayo family from Spain.
By some small coincidence, this seemingly typical family in the 1990s turned out to be extraordinary in something: they managed to use mathematical analysis combined with careful observation to outplay the world's leading casinos legally. The story of their lives is a story not of success, but of an intellectual, brilliant plan that can triumph over chance. At the center of this incredible story is Gonzalo García-Pelayo. He is a record producer and director by profession. His love of mathematics and probability theory soon turned into a burning desire to scrutinize possible deformations in roulette wheels.
Gonzalo realizes that not all roulette wheels are completely random; mechanical imperfections, wear and tear in the slightest form, or structural imbalance can lead to deviations where certain numbers appear more times than others.
With this theory, Gonzalo and his family begin to prepare and go, such as to the Gran Madrid Casino. They then engage in a very laborious process: collecting data, recording thousands of spins, and noting where the ball landed each time. The rest, as they say, is history.
With such vast data at his disposal, he developed a computer program to process the results. His analysis finds patterns and biases in roulette wheels and indicates that statistically certain numbers appear more often. This is a pretty important discovery. This gives the Pelayos the boost they need to tip the scales in their favor. After determining what the goals are, the family begins making strategic bets on random numbers. Their strategy can be described as part patience, part precision - waiting for the right conditions and making bets that capitalize on the wheel's biases without attracting unwanted attention. His approach worked brilliantly. Over time, the Pelayos have amassed millions of dollars from expanding their operations from Madrid to the casinos of Las Vegas, Australia, and across Europe.
The Pelayo family's success did not go unnoticed.
However, the casinos, whenever they lost money and felt that their impeccable reputation was threatened, started suing the family to ban the family from their premises. Their argument is quite simple. Their strategy is tantamount to fraud.
However, the courts upheld the case in favor of the Pelayos, who stated that their path was through the intelligent application of analytical skills and research, which was not illegal.
Stories like the Pelayo family are what makes them part of gambling folklore and even inspire authors to write books, researchers to make documentaries, or movie producers to make movies. Their story is quite often cited as one of the prime examples of how a deep understanding of probability combined with meticulous research can bear fruit and lead to phenomenal success in an environment that is highly hostile.
Today, their legacy continues in the casino industry, which is becoming more vigilant in the care and inspection of gaming equipment. For gamblers and mathematicians, the story of the Pelayo family is an example of what hard work, teamwork, and human intelligence can do. The Pelayo family not only changed their financial situation but also how the casino was played in many ways. It's a reminder of the fact that sometimes it's not best to play the game but to understand it better than anyone else. This story of the Pelayo family is a powerful, inspiring account of how an intuitive understanding of mathematics and a sense of team spirit can help push boundaries and thus make the seemingly impossible possible.
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2024.04.22 11:50 wiklr The Wall Between Brian Peck and Dan Schneider

IMO one of the reasons why people try to compare Dan & Brian's offenses is because the documentary separated them in story telling, rather than intertwined in their history.
https://i.imgur.com/aAh1kn1.png

Two Pickles in a Pod

Early in their careers, both Dan & Brian worked on sex comedies, Last American Virgin and Hot Resort. Both films were written by the same person. Dan later worked with Brian's co-star and admitted to having a crush on her in a 2004 blog interview about Better Off Dead.
Their paths would cross in 1993 in ABC's Home Free, where Dan was part of the main cast and Brian was an extra. After working as a writer in All That, Dan briefly left Nickelodeon to make his own show, Guys Like Us at UPN. Brian was also in an episode as Happy Pants the Clown. And in 2002, LA Times cited Dan & Brian running comedy boot camps for kids while working for Nickelodeon.

Who hired Brian Peck?

Tollin/Robbins Production was not involved in Home Free & Guys Like Us where Dan and Brian Peck worked together.
In Dan's youtube video, he claimed it was Tollin/Robbins Productions who hired Brian Peck. In the Hollywood Reporter exclusive, it clarified Dan did not hire Peck on All That. Sources at Paramount said Brian Robbins (of Tollin/Robbins) was not involved in hiring Peck at Nickelodeon. This distinction is important because Brian Peck also appeared in Dan's first show as creator: The Amanda Show.
The Amanda Show ran between 1999-2002 and lasted 3 seasons. However it presented multiple problems each passing year. For one, splitting the salary of female writers Jenny Kilgen and Christy Straton where the issue was reported to the union. And in 2000, Jenny Kilgen sued the show's production company alleging gender discrimination, harassment and hostile work environment. Dan was said to behave inappropriately in the writer's room, asking female crew for massages and showing pornography from his computer. Raquel Lee left the series in the beginning of the 2nd season. In the Quiet on Set documentary, she talked about being neglected by the show when she raised her concerns about being disrespected & demeaned as a child actor. Then in 2001, Brian Peck's abuse against Drake Bell began. And finally in 2002, Amanda Bynes, the star of the show would decide to leave Nickelodeon to start in a new show What I Like About You at Warner Brothers.
(Brian Peck appeared in 2 episodes of What I like About You, and Dan Schneider wrote one episode he appeared in: S01E02)
Despite Amanda's parents firing her manager at Tollin/Robbins in 2003, Tollin/Robbins continued producing her show What I Like About You. Based on Taran Killam's Vulture interview, he said he shared the same manager as Amanda. Goldman was hired by Tollin/Robbins in 1997, then moved to Power Entertainment in 2004 taking Dan Schneider along with him. And in 2010, People Magazine reported that Amanda was spending a lot of time with Dan and his wife during the plans to emancipate her from her parents in 2003.
Also in 2003, two employees who both worked on The Amanda Show and All That were arrested for child sexual abuse.
Tollin/Robbins were still credited as executive producers on All That until 2005 but the collaboration between the network and the creator halted after. These series of events seemed to have severed the production company's relationship with Nickelodeon and also Dan Schneider.

"Drake & Josh" and the Letters of Support

After Brian Peck was arrested, Drake & Josh continued to be developed with now Schneider's Bakery producing. Here's where things become peculiar about Dan denying hiring Brian Peck.
Three people who wrote letters of support for Brian Peck, also worked on Drake & Josh:
Both Kimmy and Beth would use their letters to testify against Drake:
Kimmy worked with Brian Peck since his first movie, Last American Virgin. While Beth worked with Brian on Boy Meets World.
Beth wrote 2 letters. The first was dated June 17, 2004. And the second one, containing the quote above was written October 5, 2004 - a mere two days before Brian was sentenced.
Taran did not have an extensive relationship with Brian compared to other letter writers. He wrote them when he was 22, before his career took off. According to SNLinReview, it was Dan who got Taran an agent while he was still at UCLA. In his case, he not only owes Brian, he also owes Dan. On top of also sharing the same manager as Dan.
Not only did Kimmy, Beth and Taran worked on a show created by Dan Schneider, they were also under his production company: Schneider's Bakery.
When asked whether Nickelodeon executives reached out, Drake said only Dan was there for him. And Dan said Drake's mom asked him for help to write her letter to the judge. Dan seemed to be a confidant for mother and son, but did he also know Brian Peck's friends and supporters were on set?

Child Actors in the Courtroom

The story doesn't end there.
In Quiet on Set episode 5, they played a clip of Will Friedle from the Pod Meets World podcast stating:
(Brian) then asked us to support him and go to court with him, which a lot of us did, and we're sitting that courtroom, on the wrong side of everything, of course having no idea of this, filled with child actors. To the point where the victim's mother turned to us and said, "Look at all the famous people you brought with you ..."
In this interview with the producers, they talked about the reason why not all letters of support were made public. They said:
They didn't release the names of folks who were minor when they wrote. They redacted the names of minors who wrote the letters.
And in the KCRW interview, the host mentioned Nickelodeon stars.
We do know that Brian made friends with a lot of people. But Drake also said this:
... many people turned away and said no I won't write a letter ...
Through the course of investigating Dan Schneider's inappropriate behavior on set & sexualizing kids on screen, the documentary found out about the letters of support from sources who rejected supporting Brian Peck. They raised questions on what conditions the minors were put under, and if there were undue pressure or influence involved in making them support Brian Peck.

That's All

There was little to no coverage of Brian Peck throughout the years, up until the documentary An Open Secret named him to have abused a Nickelodeon star in 2014. And the Daily Mail put him back on the news in 2015. And in 2017, Dan Schneider would post on his instagram, a signed poster of All That season 8, filled with messages of appreciation:
Oh Dan - You can dip my pickle in dill juice any time! I owe you!!! xxoo Love always, Pickle Boy aka Brian Peck
For someone who is desperate to disassociate himself from Brian Peck, he had no problem reposting this for the public to see. Even more curious, is how Quiet on Set never used this information. And instead placed a separation between Brian Peck and Dan Schneider, as if they never interacted, as if they were never friends.
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2024.04.21 20:40 YolkyBoii Long Covid Action Project is dangerous, and are actively hurting the Long Covid community

TLDR: Long Covid Action Project (LCAP) brands itself as an organisation fighting for long covid research. But the organisation is built upon misinformation and distortion of facts (whether intentionally or unintentionally). Its actions are more harmful to the long covid community than beneficial.
The problem with them can be summarised as: “They take opinions on what the cause and cure of Long Covid is, before it has been proven by research, and claim them as fact. They try to push governments to only study what they believe causes and cures long covid while neglecting all the rest”.
Summary of sections: * They claim long covid is like AIDS and solely caused by viral persistence. Which is a harmful way to present the disease and not backed by research. * They disrupted the long covid moonshot and asked it to focus nearly only on viral persistence and no other issue related to long covid, which neglects the majority of patients. * They claim that antivirals will be the cure (without scientific evidence) and try to make all research funding go to antivirals. * They claim to be made up of scientists experts and researchers, but none of the people listed on the website are. * They have harassed, doxxed, sent death threats, and misogynistic insults to members of the long covid community.

“Viral persistence and nothing else”

Long covid action project claims that Long Covid is a disease with “AIDS-like immune dysregulation which researchers attribute to SARS-CoV-2 viral persistence.” (this is a quote taken straight from the front page). This quote says many things that are untrue and/or unproven and claims them as fact. * Immune dysregulation has been found in large subsets of long covid patients (but not all). This immune dysregulation is not even near to being similar to AIDS. AIDS causes a near destruction of the immune system, which before treatment was found, was a death sentence. * Viral persistence has been found upto a year in a subset of long covid patients. Saying all long covid patients have viral persistence is false. Saying that viral persistence is the cause of all long covid is misinformation as no research has proven this and much research points to other possible factors. It may however be a mechanism in some people. * Long covid is comprised of/can cause many different conditions: from POTS, MCAS, and dysautonomia to ME/CFS, IBS, and autoimmune diseases. (and much more.)
Classifying long covid as a single distinct disease caused exclusively by viral persistance is not only contrary to current research, but also neglects the large long covid population presenting diverse symptoms.

Long covid moonshot disruption

But these people are sure of what they are doing. Therefore they have made a campaign to ask the Long covid moonshot bill to not put any effort into diseases which are a part of long covid such as Dysautonomia (which affects a large majority of LC patients source) and ME/CFS (which affects 50% of long covid patients source ). Claiming the focal point of the long covid bill should be viral persistence. In effect, instead of letting scientists study where there science points to, focalising efforts on viral persistence and ignoring the rest.
This campaign has gone around long covid communities and has received many signatures. It was however presented in a malicious manner. For example in this reddit community (before mods removed the post for disinformation) there was a post with 120 upvotes linking to the signature with the title as “Sign this letter requesting treatment!! Bernie is requesting billions for us” with no additional context. Which is not what the letter actually suggests. The actual letter is under the place where you sign so people will sign before reading the letter or won’t read the letter at all. They have managed to gather 8’000 signatures this way.
This letter also suggests 28 billion dollars of funding for LC per year (which is ridiculous, given that that is half the NIH yearly budget.) It would mean long covid gets more funding than all cancers, all genetic diseases, and AIDS put together. Fundamentally, this is simply unserious and shows a shocking lack of pragmatism, which will hurt perceptions of the long covid community. At the HELP hearing on Long Covid, two LCAP activists shouted "Moonshot kills" in front of the Senators.

“Antivirals are the cure”

Another problem is an inherent obsession with antivirals. No evidence points to the fact that antivirals are a cure/treatment for long covid. They should be studied but not focused on solely. There exists many more promising potential treatments such as ampligen, BC007 and drugs attacking oxidative stress. However in their proposed changes to senator Sander’s bill they want long covid research to be nearly solely focused on antivirals to cure and treat long covid. A “documentary” they made which is prominent on their front page is called “ANTIVIRALS NOW”.

Inconsistencies

The project claims to be “developed by people with Long Covid who are journalists, professors, scientists and experts”. However only three names come up on their website. One of these people is a documentary filmmaker, another is an artist, and a third is of unknown profession, though no university pages or linkedin profiles show anyone with that name being a researcher or professor.

Harassment against fellow long haulers

There have been multiple accusations of harassment from LCAP allies. They demonise anyone who says that there may be a link between long covid and ME/CFS, while they themselves comparing Long Covid to AIDS. They claim that anyone that doesn’t see viral persistence as the only possible cause and mechanism of long covid, are malevolent people trying to steal from long covid patients (even though many of the people saying this are long covid patients).
I spoke to a longhauler who has been a target of harassment from LCAP and their allies for views that they have published alongside many others in the long covid community. They agreed to let me quote them on the condition of anonymity due to recieving death threats from LCAP allies in the past. Here are some quotes: * “Key LCAP allies have doxxed mainstream activists, sent serious misogynistic abuse. After I published [redacted for anonymity], one of LCAP's most prominent allies (who spoke at their recent small protest and who doesn't actually have Long Covid himself) wrote 2 public death threats against us on twitter.” * “Intellectually and scientifically, they're fundamentally unserious. Whereas there are a lot of people with scientific backgrounds in the mainstream advocacy community, hence organisations like patient-led research collaborative, LCAP is made up of people who are not only scientifically and academically ignorant, but are unaware of their own ignorance.” * “They are convinced that viral persistence is the be all and end all, and anyone who disagrees is described as saying that Long Covid is "nothing new." Of course, the mainstream position is far more complex than Long Covid being "nothing new," the mainstream positions being something like; there is a large subset that overlaps with ME/CFS both in terms of symptoms and underlying mechanisms, though that doesn't discount the importance of viral persistence; viral persistence may well play a big role in Long Covid, but its importance may vary from subset to subset and it may just be one of many mechanisms.” * “They're not a group that deserves to be taken seriously [their main achievement being] making Long Covid twitter incredibly toxic.”
Hoping my fellow longhaulers a wonderful day. Love u/yolkyboii.
Edit: A fellow user in the comments below has informed me of an occurrence where LCAP was openly misleading. LCAP claimed they sent 500k letters to the government but what actually happened is they got 1’000 signatures. Twitter thread showing this
Edit 2: A small minority of completely new reddit accounts have shown exactly why it was necessary to write this post. I was insulted and called a [tw] retard in one comment. Which was thankfully removed by the mods for breaking rule three. Another new reddit user reported my account for being suicidal and I got a message from the reddit suicide hotline (minutes after I replied to an argument claiming I was silencing LCAP.) I am not sure how but the founder of LCAP found out my first name maybe I mentioned in past comments. To you LCAP people or allies, if you want to bully me you can but I will just add it to this post. Cheers.
Edit 3: This post somehow made it to LCAP. An hour ago there were 60 comments the large majority of which agreed with the post. An hour later there are 120 comments and most of the new comments are spammed copy paste by the LCAP founder.
Edit 4: This paper (the most cited long covid paper) is a great review of long covid treatment and research. I recommend everyone give it a read.
Edit 5: LCAP founder has accused me of being hateful. I don’t think it is hateful to bring up criticisms of an organisation. I hope he will respond to my criticisms instead.
shameless plug
Edit 6: Since the founder of LCAP shared my identity without my consent. You can follow my twitter account here. I am pretty new to twitter but plan on continuing sharing stuff like this.
submitted by YolkyBoii to covidlonghaulers [link] [comments]


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