I've recently moved into a new apartment. It's nice, but I've been quickly found my upstairs neighbors are loud and refuse to consider surrounding neighbors. All day and all night their music and television is echoing into the hallways and also into my unit beneath them. I've called the apartment management multiple times and they've just put out toothless emails about "remember to be considerate" with no mention of consequences. I've called the non-emergency police, but the neighbors just refuse to answer their door and the officer tells me that he doesn't have a legal right to force entry so he can't do anything. I've also knocked and left notes on their door and even waited for them in the entryway to ask them to be considerate, they avoid me and have even turned up the music in response to me knocking, they aren't willing to change. I've noticed when my AC runs, it's enough to block out most of the noise unless they're being especially loud. Which made me think, would a white noise machine help with this? I can't run my AC 24/7 to block them out, but a white noise machine could create a similar effect. But I'm lost as far as looking into types of white noise machines, where is the ideal placement in the unit to block out sound, etc. Does anyone gave any knowledge with using something like this?

Been watching some stuff on YouTube from the states. May be a bit of a dumb question but got nothing to lose by asking - are binary triggers legal in QLD for cat c or cat d? Or are they classified as machine guns? Even if they are legal, could you import them?

Hi everyone,
I was selling excavator for $38k .I recently sold my excavator on Facebook Marketplace. The excavator was functioning normal and I wasn't aware of any issues with it.
Many people showed interest in the excavator, and most of them asked various questions, which I happily answered. Some potential buyers even came to view the machine themselves.
The person who ended up purchasing the excavator sent me a message saying they had $27,000 and agreed to the price. I was hoping they would ask more questions or schedule a time to view the machine, but they didn't. We then agreed that they would send a deposit, which they did, and the remaining balance would be paid upon pickup. The deal went through smoothly.
The buyer then decided to send a transportation company to pick up the excavator. Four days later, the buyer texted me, saying the excavator had a leak and they wanted a refund or send them $7500 back to fix the leak. I told them that the machine was now theirs, and I wasn't aware of the oil leak.
The buyer then texted me, saying they wouldn't take legal action but would do something else that's not legal action.I'm not sure what to do in this situation. What do you all think I should do?
He is texting words like " it's in your best interests to refund me the money" "it won't be legal advice I will use "

There is any extra-questions I should consider asking before taking this offer? What do you think?
1. PERSONALIA

• Age: 36
• Education: PhD Machine Learning
• Work experience : 6 years (4 PhD + 2 Postdoc) + 6 years (Database Admin Web Developper)
• Civil status: Single
• Dependent people/children: 1

2. EMPLOYER PROFILE

• SectoIndustry: Consultancy
• Amount of employees: 10-20 in company, 1-150 in the group it's a part of
• Multinational? YES

3. CONTRACT & CONDITIONS

• Current job title: AI engineer, but it's more a blend of AI and data engineering
• Seniority: ?
• Official hours/week : 38
• Average real hours/week incl. overtime: 40
• Shiftwork or 9 to 5 (flexible?): 9 to 5, should also be flexible
• On-call duty: NO
• Vacation days/year: 32 (20 legal holidays, 12 compensation days, 10 Belgian Public Holidays)

4. SALARY

• Gross salary/month: 4500
• Net salary/month: should be around 2900
• Netto compensation: 115
• Mobility budget/cabike/...: €450 net/month leasing budget for+ card
• 13th month: Full
• Meal vouchers: 6
• Group insurance: Included
• Other insurances: Included
• Other benefits: Sectorpremium Industry Committee 200 (what is that?)

5. MOBILITY

• City/region of work: Brussels, Depends on the customer
• Distance home-work: 60 minutes one way
• How do you commute?: Car
• How is the travel home-work compensated: company car OR public transport (even with mobility budget)
• Telework days/week: Depends on the customer, but should be 3

6. OTHER

• How easily can you plan a day off: unknown, but shouldn't be all to difficult and again, depends on the customer
• Is your job stressful? I hope not
• Responsible for personnel (reports): No

Good day folks,
I will try to be as brief as possible.
Am from India. Not only education but very high education here's not a choice or passion but a mandate. Almost everybody's a masters or a PhD. People here only studies things that yields great income and that's the only criteria. I wasn't great at it but was told I had brilliance. Anyways, dragged my way through sub par education and be done with it (atleast formally).
Always had great interest in Art and it's intricacies. Apparently security (Physical and Cyber) interested me greatly. Grabbed knowledge from wherever I got and it after many short runs here and there, finally got me to a huge firm as a cybersecurity analyst. I was removed from probation very early and was promoted within the next year. Now I am from a premium team within the team where I consult on high severity cases etc. etc.
Problem is, being in India managers and leadership take great pride in "order". They love when everybody dances to their whim. I am not lying when I say I heard these sentences "You are taking too many leaves" (for 3 leaves against severe medical emergency), "For your own good I will make your life miserable and you can't say no to me", "Being a family here is a mandate" (but I heard from the same guy that he will take care of him/her in a condescending manner), "I want everybody in the office tomorrow" (Said in the tone of when a contractor order his labors). Also once I was directly asked to choose between arts and job and the answer better be the job. Nobody complains aswell as everybody has their dependencies. Some has to take care of parents or families or BOTH. Nobody wants to take the chance of legal/formal/informal/verbal/manipulative measures to fix these things and literally these companies are literally responsible for the country's GDP hence, a formal/legal complaint WON'T SOLVE A THING.
Though I love security, I now completely disagree with the phrase "Do what you love and you won't ever work again" as WORK is basically a businessman scouting for profits by any means necessary and we are just disposable foot soldiers. We may say we are intelligent and technical people but to them we are just another production machine. So, if even I start working in the music industry I will suffer there aswell. So in short, Passion or not, Work is a severely frustrating thing especially here in India as the TOP literally fears nothing.
I want to get out of it and just be. Issue is my fathers' suffering from cancer and my mom's also there and they are dependent on me. I had a choice to marry or establish a family which I didn't choose to go through. But still, I won't ever save enough money to truly retire and my parents are common people and they think it's my problem that I can't fit in. If everyone can do their Jobs and not complain then who am I. So ofcourse I get Zero support and dirt for even talking about quitting the job.
I have the amount of money that will run me 6-8 months maximum but then I would literally come to the streets. I know I am not the only one with these problems. So I am blabbering here. Please help with whatever you got.

In the ever-evolving world of technology, face image datasets have emerged as a cornerstone for advancements in facial recognition, biometrics, and artificial intelligence. These datasets, collections of annotated facial images, are instrumental in training and evaluating algorithms for various applications, from security systems to personalized user experiences. This blog delves into the significance, types, challenges, and ethical considerations surrounding face image datasets.

Understanding Face Image Datasets

Face image datasets are curated collections of facial images, often accompanied by annotations such as facial landmarks, expressions, and identity labels. These datasets serve as the foundation for developing and refining algorithms in facial recognition, emotion detection, age estimation, and more. The diversity and quality of these datasets directly impact the performance and accuracy of the algorithms trained on them.

Expanding on Diversity and Representation

One of the critical challenges in creating face image datasets is ensuring they represent the global population’s diversity. This includes not only a range of ethnicities but also variations in age, gender, facial expressions, and environmental conditions. The lack of diversity can lead to biased algorithms that perform poorly for underrepresented groups. Efforts are being made to address this issue, such as the creation of more inclusive datasets like the Diversity in Faces (DiF) dataset by IBM.

Advancements in Dataset Creation and Annotation

Technological advancements have led to more sophisticated methods for dataset creation and annotation. For example, 3D face datasets, like the 300W-LP and Multi-PIE, provide more comprehensive data, including depth information and varying poses. Automated annotation tools, powered by AI, are also being developed to reduce the time and effort required for manual labeling, improving the accuracy and consistency of annotations.

The Role of Synthetic Data

Synthetic data is becoming increasingly important in addressing the limitations of real-world datasets. By using computer-generated images, researchers can create diverse and balanced datasets without privacy concerns. Additionally, synthetic data can be used to simulate challenging or rare scenarios, such as extreme lighting conditions or occlusions, which are crucial for testing the robustness of algorithms.

Ethical Frameworks and Regulations

As the use of face image datasets grows, so does the need for ethical frameworks and regulations to guide their creation and use. Organizations and governments are developing guidelines to ensure that facial recognition technologies are used responsibly. For instance, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) imposes strict rules on the processing of biometric data, including facial images.

Future Directions

The future of face image datasets lies in addressing their current limitations and ethical challenges. This includes creating more diverse and representative datasets, developing more efficient annotation tools, and ensuring that facial recognition technologies are used ethically and responsibly. Additionally, as privacy concerns continue to grow, the use of synthetic data and privacy-preserving techniques, such as federated learning, are likely to become more prevalent.

Types of Face Image Datasets

1. Public Datasets: These are freely available for research and development purposes. Examples include the Labeled Faces in the Wild (LFW), CelebA, and CASIA-WebFace.
2. Private Datasets: Owned by organizations or companies, these datasets are often larger and more diverse but restricted in access due to privacy and proprietary concerns.
3. Synthetic Datasets: Generated using computer graphics or deep learning techniques, these datasets can offer a controlled environment for specific scenarios not easily captured in real-world data.

Challenges in Face Image Datasets

1. Diversity: Ensuring a dataset represents a wide range of ethnicities, ages, and expressions is crucial for developing unbiased algorithms.
2. Privacy: With increasing concerns over data privacy, obtaining and using face images ethically and legally has become a significant challenge.
3. Annotation Quality: Accurate annotations are vital for effective training, but manual labeling is time-consuming and prone to errors.

Applications of Face Image Datasets

Face image datasets are pivotal in various applications:

1. Security and Surveillance: Enhancing security systems with facial recognition for identity verification and threat detection.
2. Healthcare: Assisting in patient monitoring, diagnosing conditions, and personalizing treatment plans based on facial analysis.
3. Entertainment and Media: Creating realistic digital avatars and enhancing user interaction in virtual reality and gaming.

Ethical Considerations

The use of face image datasets raises ethical concerns, including:

1. Consent: Ensuring individuals in the datasets have given informed consent for their images to be used.
2. Bias: Addressing potential biases in datasets that can lead to discriminatory outcomes in algorithms.
3. Data Security: Protecting the privacy and security of individuals’ facial data from unauthorized access or misuse.

Conclusion

image annotation services are invaluable resources in the field of computer vision and artificial intelligence. Their applications span across various industries, from enhancing security measures to revolutionizing healthcare. However, the development and use of these datasets must be approached with caution, considering the ethical implications and challenges involved. As technology advances, the importance of diverse, high-quality, and ethically sourced face image datasets will continue to grow, shaping the future of facial recognition and beyond.
For a deeper understanding of the role of machine learning datasets in computer vision, consider exploring “Unlocking the Potential: Why ML Datasets for Computer Vision Are Crucial” at gts.ai.

when i first met my MIL she was legally blind. i have personally seen her eye scans and having studied medicine to the point where i am able to make sense of eye exams, i can truthfully say she is indeed blind. the other medical problems she has dont seem to make any sense and its sometimes insulting. I have Juvinile Idiopathic Arthritis and i have been diagnosed since i was 12. i have flare ups and when i have flare ups i tend to dislocate my joints easily. its painful, its a huge mobility issue when it happens and if it happens to my arms for example, i cant carry even remotely heavy things like a glass of water without support. while trying to explain this to my MIL i showed her a youtuber who has EDS and similar issues with her joints dislocating and mobility issues. I dont have EDS, i dont qualify for anything outside of joint dislocations. My MIL commented on how painful that must be and a week later said she has always had EDS and had been battling doctors for years for a diagnosis. While looking at videos of service dogs in preparation for her guide dog, she found a youtuber with POTS. she comments on how she too has problems with feeling dizzy standing up. the following week she says she has POTS aswell. I recently brought up my concerns for PCOS to my doctor and was formally diagnosed with it for meeting criteria to which she says shes suffered from PCOS and endometriosis for years. this year alone she has been given a cpap machine which she claims doesnt work for her sleep apnea which a year ago wasnt a medical concern until i mentioned i had sleep apnea as a child. she has had a prolapsed uterus, a hystorectomy, cysts in her uterus, Endometriosis, has done an elimination diet to determine if she is allergic to anything that is preventing her from losing weight, tested for adhd, had a colonoscopy and has spontaneously lost 20lbs which changes to 5 when her husband is around. she doesnt look like shes lost any weight. when mentioning my most recent flareup she said she has had rheumatoid arthritis for years and hasnt been able to do housechores in over a week from the pain but prior to bringing it up she said she had been working out more and was able to use a new exercise equipment that would make no sense with her supposed arthritis.
i really dont know what to do anymore. im 99% certain she has munchausen and doesnt have any of these health problems, especially considering her supposed tests for these diagnoses never line up with the actual tests used to diagnose these medical conditions. I feel like i am unable to share my own experiences with her on what is going on in my life without her trying to one-up me or take over the conversation with her own health problems. its also become difficult to support her when she says things like she went for a hike and felt great and i say wow how was your POTS? then she turns around and says she had a terrible time and that she had to stop a lot and shes still exhausted. sometimes i feel like i should call her out on it but idk if that would be rude. any advice?

I’m going to start off with saying that this is in Texas and I will appreciate all advice I get.
Bit of context first: I have a personal mechanic that comes to my house and helps me with my semi trucks, cars, machines, etc. known him for around 3-4 years. One day he asked me if he could leave his truck parked on my land for 2 months and he said he will have someone pick it up and I would get some discounted repairs and free repairs depending on the issues for the trouble. I let him do so but after the first month he brings another car without saying anything while I was gone and leaves it on my land as well but I didn’t say anything because I have the space and thought it would also be gone at the same time that the truck would be.
It’s been 5 months now since his truck has been here and now he isn’t answering any calls or messages from me and I haven’t had contact with him now for 2 months. My question is can I somehow get in legal trouble if I get his vehicles towed away or should I do some type of report to the police or anything? I was fine with just 2 months because I would get some free and discounted repairs if anything came up but it’s been 3 months over what he said. What would be my best options? To mention it as well, we didn’t put anything in writing

Myrtle Beach SC News article dated May 15, 2024
Documents Invalid & A.I. Endorsement
FOR REDDITORS UNABLE TO OPEN LINKS
Mica Miller mental health documents not legally notarized
Members of Attorney Tom Winslow’s team sent us a statement that legal medical filings surrounding the Mica Miller mental health issues were not legally notarized.
Mica Miller died of what has been ruled a suicide at Lumber River State Park on April 27th. The FBI is now investigating the case.
Suicide Claims, Mica Miller Mental Health Records, And Notary Issues
Despite the fact Pastor JP Miller admitted from the pulpit to being suicidal in October 2023, just two months later JP was able to receive a health care power of attorney from Mica signed Dec. 5. Tom Winslow, of Winslow Law, was the attorney that orchestrated this legal filing.
Texts received by MyrtleBeachSC News show that Power of Attorney documents were supposedly signed by Mica Miller on December 4th at the Solid Rock church. However, those documents were not notarized by Winslow Law employees (Briyana and Tiffany) until the next day at Winslow’s law office.
According to the S.C. Secretary of State, a notary must be present at the actual signing of such documents to prevent fraud.
Two months later, according to the Myrtle Beach Police Department, Mica was “involuntarily hospitalized” on Feb. 8, 2024. But what makes the case even more odd is that JP’s power of attorney documents were not filed until March 20, 2024, despite having been signed and notarized three months prior.
Is Tom Winslow An Expert At Artificial Intelligence - Deep Fake Voice Audio?
Today, we report on Tom Winslow A.I. claims as he touts the importance of A.I. in his law practice. At the bottom of this article, readers can view terrifying texts sent out by J.P. Miller to Mica in November 2022.
We recently published that Pastor JP Miller, and his attorney, Tom Winslow were persons of interest in the Mica Miller “Suicide” FBI probe. Some readers questioned how we could report this with such confidence at that time.
We need to point out that Tom Winslow and JP Miller are not charged with any crimes, and even if they should be, they are considered innocent until proven guilty.
JP Millers Documented Sexual Encounters
According to DailyMail: “Miller’s first wife, Alison, filed for divorce in 2015 after discovering he was having an affair with Mica, who was 14 years his junior.” Alison also claimed that “Miller had an addiction to prostitutes and had ‘sexual encounters’ with underage girls.” She continued, “He had also confessed to me and other staff members of the church that he had sexual encounters with young females from the church, who were under the age of 16.”
The lawyer representing JP Miller in his first divorce case was S.C. State Representative Val Guest.
Mica's Statements About Suicide
Mica’s sister, Sierra Francis, said, “Mica stated to me on many occasions, ‘If I end up with a bullet in my head’, it was JP,” referring to her husband, John Paul Miller. In a written affidavit, Seirra writes, “I know my sister to have expressed the abuse and violence against her by her husband to others, including family members and members of the church congregation. My sister also expressed to me that she was fearful that she would not make it to the divorce and that her life would be taken from her.”
JP Miller Attorney Tom Winslow A.I Endorsement
In the video above, Tom Winslow touts that his law practice is an advocate for the use of Artificial Intelligence. Winslow makes it a part of his practice.
Winslow is a member of Solid Rock Church. His wife is part of the praise team.
Also, as we reported yesterday, Attorney Tom Winslow owns 200 acres of land that backs up to the state park area where Mica’s body was found.
All of this is circumstantial, at best, but it is also very curious.
*The Call Made By Mica At Lumber River State Park?
Mica wrote to her attorney: “Since the day we became husband and wife, I have been abused in every way I can think of. Emotionally, sexually, spiritually, financially and physically. He has harassed me physically and electronically with letters, phone calls, emails and texts, hacking my emails, hacking my personal Facebook and impersonating me. Using my stolen phone to send texts and emails out to church members pretending to be me, texting friends and family saying that I am sleeping with teenagers from our church, and showing up in person at places around town … to having installed three different tracking devices on my vehicle.”
MyrtleBeachSC News learned that JP was in possession of a mobile phone he had stolen from Mica. Anyone who has left an outgoing, “I am not available now” message on their phone, knows that a recorded version of her voice was likely on that mobile phone.
According to the Robeson County Sherriff, at 2:54 p.m., a 911 call was made from Lumber River State Park parking lot.
Miller is calm throughout the call, asking a dispatcher if her phone can be tracked. The operator asks for Miller’s phone number and location, and then why she was calling.
“I’m about to kill myself, and I just want my family to know where to find me,” she replies.
How Deep Fake A.I. Voice Works
Was the Tom Winslow A.I. knowledge put to use in this matter?
Audio Capture And Signal Processing
The first step in AI voice recognition is audio capture. This is where the spoken words are recorded.
The audio is then processed to remove any background noise. This ensures that the system can clearly hear the spoken words.
Signal processing also involves enhancing the quality of the audio. This makes it easier for the system to recognize the speech patterns.
Pattern Recognition And Machine Learning
Pattern recognition is the core of AI voice recognition. It’s the process of identifying the spoken words in the audio signal.
Machine learning plays a crucial role in this process. It helps the system learn and improve its ability to recognize speech patterns.
Over time, the system becomes more accurate. It learns to understand different accents, dialects, and even nuances in speech.
Real-World Examples Of Deep Fake A.I.
AI voice recognition is not a futuristic concept. It’s already a part of our daily lives.
You may have interacted with it without even realizing. It’s present in many devices and applications we use every day.
Miller Says Church Services Are As Usual
In a social media post yesterday, Miller states, “Solid Rock is alive and well and we are moving forward with our new building project. We are excited to see all members at our meeting May 19th at 5 p.m.
The FBI is just starting this investigation and no one knows where it will lead. The Tom Winslow A.I. practices may only prove to be circumstantial. The Mica Miller mental health records are sure to play a roll in this saga. Time will tell where this leads.
Question: Were Public Posts Like This One From JP Miller Abusive?
Miller, pastor at Solid Rock Church in Myrtle Beach, told his sister-in-law that he would be arriving at her house at 1 a.m. on November 17, 2022, where Mica was visiting.
After Sierra warned that he wouldn’t be allowed in their home, he challenged her, saying ‘you can call the cops’.
A few moments later, he replied: “I’m armed. I’m ready. Mica can fix all of this“, to which Sierra replied: “THIS doesn’t help anything. Threats and intimidation only make things worse.”
‘I don’t care (idc) Driving. I can’t text. Thanks.’ said the disgraced pastor.
In response, Miller replied, “Hahaha” when told cops wouldn’t be called if he stayed home.

For the first time since his incarceration, Bankman-Fried described his daily life in a detailed interview with journalist William D. Cohan of Puck:

On a recent Tuesday, I went to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn for an intimate chat with America’s most famous prisoner, Sam Bankman-Fried. During our 75-minute conversation, we discussed everything from Caroline Ellison and the travails of his new life, to his regrets about the demise of FTX and his forthcoming appeal.
I got the distinct impression that Sam still doesn’t believe he committed any crimes, only that he was the one responsible for putting FTX in a position where it was vulnerable to a bank run and the devious actions of its competitors

WILLIAM D. COHAN -- May 9, 2024
On Tuesday afternoon, I found myself in the most unusual circumstances—sitting on a small plastic chair at a cramped table in the Metropolitan Detention Center, the federal prison on 29th Street in Sunset Park, in Deep Brooklyn. Outside, it was a gorgeous day, the sort of picturesque and slightly humid one that inevitably reminds longtime New Yorkers of the weather on the morning of September 11th. Inside the prison’s visiting room, however, there was no natural light, no sunshine, only the Hitchcockian buzz of fluorescent bulbs and three vending machines standing in a corner. Posters on the wall attempted to compensate for the bleak atmosphere by buoyantly welcoming visiting families.
I first met Sam Bankman-Fried in December 2021, during the height of his power and influence, when he was the richest person in the world under 30. My friend Anthony Scaramucci, a.k.a. The Mooch, had connected us. On a cold winter night at the One Hotel, on Sixth Avenue, I interviewed him for a documentary I am part of making about Bitcoin and its developer, Satoshi Nakamato. Sam showed up an hour late, in a black t-shirt and cargo shorts, apparently having just flown in via private jet from the Bahamas. A month later, Sam’s cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, would raise its final $400 million round of financing from a group of highfalutin investors—led by Softbank, Temasek, and Paradigm—at a valuation of $32 billion, making the company one of the most valuable in the sector. At that moment, Sam was said to be worth $26 billion.
This week, we reconnected amid very different circumstances. Sam and I arranged for this visit through his Corrlinks email account, at the suggestion of his mother, Barbara Fried, and the family’s prison advisor. We met on Tuesday around 1 p.m. because that was the only day that visiting hours are permitted at MDC, a hangover from the Covid era. Prisoners can have visitors for one of two sessions, either starting at noon or at five in the afternoon.
We were meeting later than noon because of the staffing shortage at the facility. I was allowed to bring in $1 or $5 bills, up to a total of $30, in case I wanted to buy Sam some water, soda, or snacks from the humming vending machines. I was told to put my $20 bill as well as my wallet and iPhone into a locker. Sam was not permitted to buy anything himself.
Following about an hour of bureaucratic snafus (I went to the wrong building at first, and I wasn’t wearing dark pants—although an exception was made for me) and other forms of prison processing (shoes and belt off, metal detection, sticking my hand in a scanner) I was finally allowed inside the prison, without a phone, a watch, a recording device, or even a pad of paper and a pencil. (I knew this in advance, of course, and set about preserving my recollections of our conversation immediately after leaving the facility.)
After a few minutes of waiting, I looked up to see Sam Bankman-Fried, over in the corner, dressed head to toe in a chocolate-brown prison jumpsuit, along with the still-wild frizzy hair that has been his trademark. These days, Sam looks considerably thinner than the last time we met—it appeared he’d lost 25 pounds, at least. But he looked better and fitter than I thought he would, to be honest—less pudgy, less manic, less fidgety, no bags under his eyes.
He was sustaining himself on rice and beans, he said, because the prison food was unsurprisingly inedible, especially the vegan entrées he was served, which his fellow inmates thought literally smelled like shit. He wasn’t complaining, mind you; he noted that he was just trying to make the best of a bad situation. The rice he buys at the prison commissary has become one of the currencies of the realm inside MDC. We joked briefly about how the arbitrage opportunities in jail were better than anything he experienced trading crypto at Jane Street Capital or buying and selling assets at Alameda. He looked me in the eye pretty much the whole time, something he rarely did with people in the old days.
After we shook hands, he sat down in his own plastic chair as a camera watched us from the ceiling. We were surrounded by a couple of other inmates, dressed similarly, facing their visitors. Sam declined my initial offer to buy him some snacks but ultimately agreed to a $4 bottle of water and a small $2 package of Wheat Thins, which he eagerly consumed.
We talked for the next 75 minutes or so, the first in-person interview he has given to a journalist since he was locked up in the MDC last August and then subsequently convicted of two counts of wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, securities fraud, commodities fraud, and money-laundering at his federal trial in November. In March, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Our chat, under these rather drastic circumstances, was a profoundly jarring and fascinating experience.

Prison Diaries

Sam began by answering my question about his life in prison. According to him, he lives in an area of the jail that was dedicated mostly to incarcerated women, save for the 35 men with whom he shares a dormitory-style existence in a big open room—bunk beds, no privacy, extreme boredom, and four television sets tuned to ESPN, Telemundo, BET, and a news channel. Sam said he could try to persuade his fellow inmates to change up the channel selection, but television bores him, so he has no interest in that challenge. He prefers watching a small selection of movies or playing some inferior video games on a tablet, without an internet connection, that the prison provides him and other inmates.
When I told him he seemed better than I had anticipated, he replied that he’d become good at faking it. So, yes, life inside the MDC is not the Bahamas. But, truly, I had expected to see him coping less well. At the MDC, Sam has mostly been permitted his prescription medications, and the cocktail he’s been allowed has him thinking clearly, he said, and energized for the legal battle he plans to wage soon against the verdict.
In the meantime, he told me, he doesn’t fear for his safety. He can use the bathroom and shower a couple of times a week in peace. He’s always been a light sleeper, and he’s still not sleeping soundly at the MDC, but mostly because people sometimes bug him during the night about those bags of rice, which they intend to use to barter. He has not been touched or abused, and he seemed notably thankful for that.
He acknowledged that he has a unique rap sheet at MDC, and his fellow prisoners indeed recognize him. He estimated that about half of the other 35 men in his unit were murderers who had been turned into cooperating witnesses for the prosecution in exchange for not serving a life sentence. In prison, many inmates consider cooperating witnesses the lowest form of vermin, lower even than child molesters. Sam also told me that some of the other prisoners tried to get close to him, thinking they would benefit financially from the proximity to a former billionaire. He doesn’t play along, he said.
We didn’t talk about his trial strategy or whether he intentionally siphoned off the $8 billion of FTX customer funds into Alameda. Both topics seemed moot at this point. We did discuss his onetime girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, whom he selected to run Alameda after lawyers kept hounding him about the inherent conflicts in him running both FTX and the hedge fund. (He chose to run FTX.) He acknowledged that he had asked a few other people if they would be interested in the role, but they turned him down. Ellison, he said, was a good manager of people and a good administrator but didn’t like making big investments and didn’t like taking risks. (Obviously, this seems like a bizarre aversion for a hedge fund manager, but I didn’t belabor the point.) In any event, Alameda ended up doing both.
He regretted that he had not tried harder to find another executive. He also said he should have ignored the lawyers and just kept running both FTX and Alameda, conflicts be damned, sort of like how Elon Musk oversees his various companies. Wishing he had ignored his lawyers’ advice emerged as a theme of Sam’s during our visit.

Legal Therapy

We did talk a fair amount about his appeal and about how he believed he was set up to be the fall guy—the victim of the old build-’em-up-only-to-tear-’em-down narrative arc. His theory of the case was that by the fall of 2022, it was every man for himself on a boat that looked to be sinking. By early November 2022, FTX was facing a liquidity crunch. Sam first sought a deal with Binance, which quickly fell apart or was never truly real, and was in the process of trying to raise billions in capital when his lawyers advised him to turn the keys of FTX over to John J. Ray III, which he did. Ray quickly filed FTX for bankruptcy and installed Sullivan & Cromwell, the company’s outside counsel, as counsel to the debtor.
Sam became the target of federal prosecutors, he told me, soon after FTX’s outside counsel at Sullivan & Cromwell made a presentation to them, on November 9, 2022, a day or so before the bankruptcy filing, about what they believed Sam may have engineered between FTX and Alameda, which has been described as the theft of $8 billion of customer money. In a sworn declaration about that meeting, S&C attorney Andrew Dietderich said he reported to the D.O.J. only what Ryne Miller, FTX’s U.S. general counsel, told him about a problem of “reconciling digital assets with entitlements” on FTX’s U.S. exchange, and nothing about Sam and his alleged transgressions.
Sam told me that had he not been persuaded by Sullivan & Cromwell and then by his personal attorneys to relinquish his job as C.E.O. to Ray, the company would not have filed for bankruptcy, and it would still be a thriving enterprise, worth $80 billion now. In this alternate reality, he would be worth $40 billion and he certainly wouldn’t be at the MDC. (S&C declined to comment on Sam’s theory of the case. It’s also fair to reiterate here that Sam was sentenced to 25 years in prison after a jury convicted him of the crimes described above.)
I got the distinct impression that Sam still doesn’t believe he committed any crimes, only that he was the one responsible for putting FTX in a position where it was vulnerable to a bank run and the devious actions of its competitors, not unlike how both Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers failed in 2008. Why, Sam wondered, was he prosecuted when no one at either Bear or Lehman faced criminal prosecution? During our chat, Sam was contrite and certainly chastened, but not exactly apologetic: He was adamant about his innocence, aside from a few degrees of negligence—punishable, in his view, perhaps by civil consequences, not criminal penalties and a quarter-century sentence.
According to Sam’s theory, he isn’t in prison for commingling assets of FTX and Alameda. Instead, he’s an innocent guy who didn’t get a chance to negotiate a deal with the federal prosecutors, and wonders why he was even prosecuted at all for what he believes was a form of a bank run. Instead, they just presented him with his indictment and told him he could eat it— accept it and plead guilty and then get sentenced, or go to trial and try to fight it. Since there was no plea bargain on the table, he said, he fought the charges at trial, and lost. Unlike his fellow inmates, he told me, Sam speaks to his new attorney nearly every weekday for an hour or so, as the focus of his appeal comes into view. He expects to file it this fall. Yes, he will appeal, but most people think he faces long odds of success.
On the day of my visit, Sullivan & Cromwell, still counsel to the debtor-in-possession in FTX’s bankruptcy case, filed a first draft of a plan of reorganization that appears to give its customers and creditors all of their money back, plus a little more—a return of $15 billion on $12 billion of claims—in large part because of the investments Sam made through Alameda. The plan, which still has a long way to go before being confirmed, also gives Sullivan & Cromwell, along with other FTX advisors, “exculpation” from future lawsuits related to its conduct in the matter. This is not unusual in a plan of reorganization. But Sam has exhaustive thoughts on this subject, which I may explore with him in a follow-up conversation.

Go West, Young Man

I’m not sure how much longer Sam will be at the MDC, and neither is he. He has asked to remain in Brooklyn at least until the fall, when his appellate brief will be filed. But that’s not up to him, of course. If he gets moved, which could come at any moment without warning or explanation, I’m told, it would probably be to California, closer to Palo Alto, where he grew up, the son of two Stanford Law professors. At that point, the question will be whether he gets to spend his incarcerated years in a federal penitentiary, which are mostly nasty places filled with hardened criminals, or in more of a minimum security prison, as Mike Milken once did.
If he does get moved out of Brooklyn, his family and legal team worry, he could spend as long as four months on a bus, handcuffed to the seat, making his way, slowly, across the country. Such prison buses make frequent stops—picking up new prisoners, dropping off others—which explains why they take so long to reach their final destinations. There’s also a remote possibility that he could be placed on one of the many planes operated by the U.S. Marshals Service, a.k.a. “Con Air.” But he’s more likely to get the infamous “diesel therapy,” they fear. Either way, during this hypothetical cross-country journey, Sam would be completely incommunicado with both his family and his lawyers until he reaches his new home in California, deprived of the minimal access to the internet and email he now enjoys in Brooklyn.
Just as we were getting ready to discuss some knotty issues, such as his choices during his trial or the fact that many of the people who once worked for him had turned against him to save themselves, our visiting time was up. It was non-negotiable. We quickly shook hands again. Then Sam went back to his dormitory and I went back outside into a glorious spring afternoon.
Credits/Via: https://puck.news/exclusive-prison-chat-with-sam-bankman-fried/

I tried to write down every single movie available on my flights in March 2024. I handwrote some of my notes to pass the 13 hours which is why there are ??? when I couldn't read my own writing/abbreviations. Note that not all titles were available on all flights, and my list is missing a chunk of them (especially titles beginning with "S" for some reason). Hope someone finds it useful! Maybe someone will get to creating a Letterboxd list of them all before me! [Posted this in movies and thought delta users might find it useful too]

10 Things I Hate About You
101 Dalmatians
12 Angry Men
13 Going on 30
17 Again
2001: A Space Odyssey
27 Dresses
500 Days of Summer
80 for Brady
A Beautiful Mind
A Bug's Life
A Cinderella Story
A Compassionate Spy
A Fantastic Woman
A Few Good Men
A Good Year
A Haunting in Venice
A League of Their Own
A Room with a View
A Separation
A Simple Plan
A Simple Wish
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Abominable
Adam's Rib
Airheads
Akeelah and the Bee
Aladdin
Alice Through the Looking Glass
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
American Graffiti
American Street Kid
Amores Perros
An Inconvenient Truth
Anatomy of a Fall
Angels in the Outfield
Aquaman
Assassin Club
Asteroid City
Avatar: Way of Water
Avengers: Infinity War
Back to the Future
Bad Company
Barb and Star: Vista del Mar
Barbie
Batman
Batman Begins
Batman Returns
Batman vs. Superman Dawn
Battle of the Sexes
Beauty and the Beast
Beetlejuice
Being Mary Tyler Moore
Bend it Like Beckham
Better Luck Tomorrow
Big
Big George Foreman
Billy Elliott
Birds of Prey: Harley Quinn
Birthright Outlaw
Blackberry
Blade
Blade II
Blade Runner 2049
Blade Trinity
Blended
Blinded by the Light
Blue Beetle
Bolt
Bottoms
Brave
Brazil
Bridesmaids
Bridget Jones' Diary
Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason
Bring It On
Brown Sugar
Buoyancy
But I'm a Cheerleader
Call Me by Your Name
Carmen Jones
Central Intelligence
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Cheaper by the Dozen
Chevalier
Chicken Run
Child's Play
Children of a Lesser God
Chinatown
Cinderella
Clifford the Big Red Dog
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Clueless
Colossal
Condor's Nest
Cool Hand Luke
Coraline
Couples Retreat
Crazy Rich Asians
Crazy Stupid Love
Creed
Creed II
Crooklyn
Cruella
Chr. G
Dark Waters
Darkest Hour
Dawnland
Dazed and Confused
DC: League of Super Pets
Dear White People
Dee. Boys
Delivery Man
Desperately Seeking Susan
Despicable Me
Despicable Me 2
Despicable Me 3
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Dret ard
Dr. Doolittle
Down with Love
Dr. Seuss Horton Hears a Who
Dr. Seuss The Grinch
Dr. Grinch The Lorax
Dreamgirls
Drop Dead Gorgeous
Drumline
Due Date
Dumb and Dumber
Dumb Money
Dune
Dunkirk
E.T.
Edge of Tomorrow
Eggs Over Easy
Elemental
Enter the Dragon
E????
Erin Brockovich
Eternals
Evan Almighty
Everest
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Evil Dead Rises
Expendables 4
F9: Fast Saga
Fallen
Fantastic Beasts
Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindewald
Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore
Fargo
F&F: Hobbes and Shaw
Fast X
Father of the Bride
Feramana???
Ferner????
Field of Dreams
Finding Dory
Finding Nemo
First Man
Focus
Following
Fools Rush In
Forrest Gump
Freaky
Freaky Friday
Freelance
Frida
Friday
Frozen 2
Frozen River
Game Night
Gangster Squad
Garfield
Garfield: Tail of 2 Kitties
Get Smart
Ghostbusters
Glass
Glory
Godzilla vs Kong
Going in Style
Good Morning Vietnam
Gosford Park
Grand Torino
Gran Turismo
Gravity
Grease
Grease 2
Gremlins
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3
Guy Richie's The Covenant
Hacksaw Ridge
Half Nelson
Hanna
Happy Death Day
Happy Feet 2
Harlan County USA
Harold and Kumar: White Castle
Harry Potter 1-8
Haunted Mansion
He's Just Not That Into You
Her
Hereafter
Hocus Pocus
Honor Society
Horrible Bosses
Hotel Transylvania
House Party
How to Be Single
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
How to Train your Dragon
Hypnotic
I Am Legend
I Didn't See You There
I, Tonya
Ice Age: Collision Course
Ice Age: Continental Drift
Ice Age: Dawn of Dinosaurs
Ice Age: Meltdown
Ice on Fire
If Beale Street Could Talk
In the Heart of the Sea
In the Heights
In the Name of the Father
Inception
Incredibles 2
Indiana Jones: Dial of Destiny
Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom
Insidious: The Red Door
Insomnia
Instructions not INcluded
It
Jerry & Marge Go Large
Jersey Boys
John Wick
John Wick 2
John Wick 3
Joker
Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Judas and the Black Messiah
Jules
Jumanji
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
Jurassic Park
Jurassic World
Just Married
Just my Luck
Kazaam
Kit Kittredge
Kramer vs Kramer
Kubo and the Two Strings
Kung Fu Panda
Kung Fu Panda 2
Kung Fu??????
La La Land
Labyrinth
Lady in the Water
Lakota Nation vs United States
Legally Blonde
Liar Liar
Life of the Party
Lightyear
Lilo and Stitch
Lion
Little Women
Living
Lo------
Lone Survivor
Love and Basketball
Love Again
Love Jones
Ma-d_____ ?
Madagascar
Madagascar Escape
Made of Honor
Mafia Mamma
Magic Mike's Last Dance
Malt------
Momma's Boy
Mamma Mia
Mamma Mia Here We Go Again
March of the Penguins
Mat------
Mean Girls
Meet the Parents?
Memento
Michael Clayton
Milk
Minions
Minions: Rise of Gru
Misery
Miss Congeniality
Missing Link
Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning
Mississippi Masala
Moana
Monster In Law
Monsters Inc
Monsters University
Moonlight
Mortal Enemies
Mr. Malcolm's List
Mulan
Mummies
Murder by Numbers
Murder on the Orient Express
Muriel's Wedding
My Animal
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
My Family
My Girl
National Lampoon's Vacation
Neighbors 2
Neruda
New Year's Eve
News of the World
Nights in Rodanthe
Nine Queens
No
No Country for Old Men
No Murches Frida??
Nomadland
Notting Hill
Ocean's 8
Ocean's 13
October Sky
Of tn age??
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Onward
Oppenheimer
Origin
Over the Hedge
Pacific Rim
Pandas
Pan's Labyrinth
ParaNorman
Paris is Burning
Past Lives
Paw Patrol: Mighty
Paw Patrol: More
Pee Wee's Big Adventure
Perfect Strangers
Persepolis
Phantom Thread
Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game
Pitch Perfect
Pitch Perfect 3
Planes
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Pokemon: Detective Pikachu
Practical Magic
Pride and Prejudice
Primal Fear
Priscilla
Psycho
Pulp Fiction
Puppy Love
Puss in Boots
Queen and Slim
Radical
RRadi--- Wwi?/
Raging Bull
Ra the Breata?
Rat Race?
Ratatouille
Ready Player One
Real Women Have Curves
Red Tails
Reforge
Renfield
Repo Man
Rocky
Ruby Gillman
Rumor Has It
Rush Hour 2
RV
Róise & Frank
Sacfint??
Saving Face
Saving Private Ryan
School Daze
Scoob!
Scooby Doo
Scrapper
Scream VI
Searching
Selena
Selma
Semi Pro
Seven
Shaft
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
Significant Other
?
?
Skyfall
Smallfoot
Smoke?
Snowpiercer
?
Something's Gotta Give
?
?
Soul Surfer
Space Jam
Space Oddity
Sp Ra ????
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse
Split
Spy Game?
Spy Kids
Stone and D????
Ste W s5t?
Stomp the Yard
Storks
Sweet Home Alabama
Tag
Talk to Me
Tangled
Tee as Go!??
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Tenet
The Adia Prse?
The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
The Baby-Sitters Club
The Best Man
The Big Lebowski
The Big Short
The Biggest Little Farm
The Bird Cage
The Blind Side
The Blues Brothers
The Bodyguard
The Boogeyman
The Book of Life
The Boss Baby: Family Business
The Bourne Identity
The Boxer
The Breakfast Club
The Bucket List
The Caine Mutiny
The Campaign
The Castle
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia 2
The Chronicles of Narnia 3
The Creator
The Croods New Age
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight Rises
The Dark Side
The Dead Don't Die
The Dry?
The Equalizer
The Exorcist: Believer
The Fabulous Filipino Brothers
The Fast and Furious (#1)
The S Heartbeats?
The Has???
The Gentlemen
The Good Nurse
The Goonies
The Great Wall
The Guard
The Harvest (La Cosecha)
The H????
The Hobbit
The Hobbit 2
The Hobbit 3
The Holdovers
The Hunger Games: Ballad of Snakes and Songbirds
The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games 2
The Hunger Games 3
The Hunger Games 4
The Hunt for Red October
The Huntsman: Winter’s War
The Incredibles
The Intern
The Invention of Lying
The Iron Giant
The Island
The Jungle Book
The Karate Kid
The Kids are Alright
The Lake House
The Land Before Time
The Last Out
The Last Samurai
The Lego Batman Movie
The Lego Movie
The Lesson
The Lion King
The Lion King
The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship
The Losers
The Man from UNCLE
The Marsh King’s Doughter
The Marvels
The Matrix: Resurrections
The Mitchells vs The Machines
The Mummy
The Neverending Story
The Nice Guys
The Nun II
The Odd Life of Timothy Green
The Other Zoey
The Outsiders
The Peanuts Movie
The Persian Version
The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything
The Place Beyond the Pines
The Popes Exorcist
The Pre--?
The Purge: Election Year
The Replacements
The Ring
The Secret Garden
The Secret Life of Pets
The Silence of the Lambs
The S --------
The ?
The ?
The ?
The ?
The ?
The Take
The Time Traveler's Wife
The True Cost
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
The Un---- Country
The Usual Suspects
The ???
The ????
The ?????
The Wedding Singer
The Wizard of Oz
The Wood
The Zookeeper's Wife
Theater Camp
Them---?
There Will Be Blood
Thurs?
Titanic
To Kill a Mockingbird
Tooooo?
Tom ??
Tommy Boy
Top Gun
Top Gun: Maverick
Toy Story 2
Toy Story 3
Toy Story 4
Train to Busan
Training Day
Transformers Rise
Trolls
Trolls World Tour
Troy
Tully
Turning Red
Umami
Us
??
V for Vendetta
V????
VeggieTales: Abe and the Amazing Promise
VeggieTales: Merry Larry and the True Light of Christmas
Vindicta
Vivo
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
War Dogs
We Were Soldiers
We're the Millers
Wedding Crashers
West Side Story
Wet Hot American Summer
Where the Wild Things Are
Wildhood
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Winters Bone
Wonder
Wonder Woman 1984
Wonka
Wreck It Ralph
Yes, Man
Yesterday
Young Punx: A Punk Parable
Zombieland

I tried to write down every single movie available on my Delta flights in March 2024. I handwrote some of my notes to pass the 13 hours which is why there are ??? when I couldn't read my own writing/abbreviations. Note that not all titles were available on all flights, and my list is missing a chunk of them (especially titles beginning with "S" for some reason). Hope someone finds it useful! Maybe someone will get to creating a Letterboxd list of them all before me!

10 Things I Hate About You
101 Dalmatians
12 Angry Men
13 Going on 30
17 Again
2001: A Space Odyssey
27 Dresses
500 Days of Summer
80 for Brady
A Beautiful Mind
A Bug's Life
A Cinderella Story
A Compassionate Spy
A Fantastic Woman
A Few Good Men
A Good Year
A Haunting in Venice
A League of Their Own
A Room with a View
A Separation
A Simple Plan
A Simple Wish
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Abominable
Adam's Rib
Airheads
Akeelah and the Bee
Aladdin
Alice Through the Looking Glass
Alvin and the Chipmunks
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked
American Graffiti
American Street Kid
Amores Perros
An Inconvenient Truth
Anatomy of a Fall
Angels in the Outfield
Aquaman
Assassin Club
Asteroid City
Avatar: Way of Water
Avengers: Infinity War
Back to the Future
Bad Company
Barb and Star: Vista del Mar
Barbie
Batman
Batman Begins
Batman Returns
Batman vs. Superman Dawn
Battle of the Sexes
Beauty and the Beast
Beetlejuice
Being Mary Tyler Moore
Bend it Like Beckham
Better Luck Tomorrow
Big
Big George Foreman
Billy Elliott
Birds of Prey: Harley Quinn
Birthright Outlaw
Blackberry
Blade
Blade II
Blade Runner 2049
Blade Trinity
Blended
Blinded by the Light
Blue Beetle
Bolt
Bottoms
Brave
Brazil
Bridesmaids
Bridget Jones' Diary
Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason
Bring It On
Brown Sugar
Buoyancy
But I'm a Cheerleader
Call Me by Your Name
Carmen Jones
Central Intelligence
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Cheaper by the Dozen
Chevalier
Chicken Run
Child's Play
Children of a Lesser God
Chinatown
Cinderella
Clifford the Big Red Dog
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Clueless
Colossal
Condor's Nest
Cool Hand Luke
Coraline
Couples Retreat
Crazy Rich Asians
Crazy Stupid Love
Creed
Creed II
Crooklyn
Cruella
Chr. G
Dark Waters
Darkest Hour
Dawnland
Dazed and Confused
DC: League of Super Pets
Dear White People
Dee. Boys
Delivery Man
Desperately Seeking Susan
Despicable Me
Despicable Me 2
Despicable Me 3
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Dret ard
Dr. Doolittle
Down with Love
Dr. Seuss Horton Hears a Who
Dr. Seuss The Grinch
Dr. Grinch The Lorax
Dreamgirls
Drop Dead Gorgeous
Drumline
Due Date
Dumb and Dumber
Dumb Money
Dune
Dunkirk
E.T.
Edge of Tomorrow
Eggs Over Easy
Elemental
Enter the Dragon
E????
Erin Brockovich
Eternals
Evan Almighty
Everest
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Evil Dead Rises
Expendables 4
F9: Fast Saga
Fallen
Fantastic Beasts
Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindewald
Fantastic Beasts: Secrets of Dumbledore
Fargo
F&F: Hobbes and Shaw
Fast X
Father of the Bride
Feramana???
Ferner????
Field of Dreams
Finding Dory
Finding Nemo
First Man
Focus
Following
Fools Rush In
Forrest Gump
Freaky
Freaky Friday
Freelance
Frida
Friday
Frozen 2
Frozen River
Game Night
Gangster Squad
Garfield
Garfield: Tail of 2 Kitties
Get Smart
Ghostbusters
Glass
Glory
Godzilla vs Kong
Going in Style
Good Morning Vietnam
Gosford Park
Grand Torino
Gran Turismo
Gravity
Grease
Grease 2
Gremlins
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3
Guy Richie's The Covenant
Hacksaw Ridge
Half Nelson
Hanna
Happy Death Day
Happy Feet 2
Harlan County USA
Harold and Kumar: White Castle
Harry Potter 1-8
Haunted Mansion
He's Just Not That Into You
Her
Hereafter
Hocus Pocus
Honor Society
Horrible Bosses
Hotel Transylvania
House Party
How to Be Single
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
How to Train your Dragon
Hypnotic
I Am Legend
I Didn't See You There
I, Tonya
Ice Age: Collision Course
Ice Age: Continental Drift
Ice Age: Dawn of Dinosaurs
Ice Age: Meltdown
Ice on Fire
If Beale Street Could Talk
In the Heart of the Sea
In the Heights
In the Name of the Father
Inception
Incredibles 2
Indiana Jones: Dial of Destiny
Indiana Jones: Temple of Doom
Insidious: The Red Door
Insomnia
Instructions not INcluded
It
Jerry & Marge Go Large
Jersey Boys
John Wick
John Wick 2
John Wick 3
Joker
Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Judas and the Black Messiah
Jules
Jumanji
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
Jurassic Park
Jurassic World
Just Married
Just my Luck
Kazaam
Kit Kittredge
Kramer vs Kramer
Kubo and the Two Strings
Kung Fu Panda
Kung Fu Panda 2
Kung Fu??????
La La Land
Labyrinth
Lady in the Water
Lakota Nation vs United States
Legally Blonde
Liar Liar
Life of the Party
Lightyear
Lilo and Stitch
Lion
Little Women
Living
Lo------
Lone Survivor
Love and Basketball
Love Again
Love Jones
Ma-d_____ ?
Madagascar
Madagascar Escape
Made of Honor
Mafia Mamma
Magic Mike's Last Dance
Malt------
Momma's Boy
Mamma Mia
Mamma Mia Here We Go Again
March of the Penguins
Mat------
Mean Girls
Meet the Parents?
Memento
Michael Clayton
Milk
Minions
Minions: Rise of Gru
Misery
Miss Congeniality
Missing Link
Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning
Mississippi Masala
Moana
Monster In Law
Monsters Inc
Monsters University
Moonlight
Mortal Enemies
Mr. Malcolm's List
Mulan
Mummies
Murder by Numbers
Murder on the Orient Express
Muriel's Wedding
My Animal
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
My Family
My Girl
National Lampoon's Vacation
Neighbors 2
Neruda
New Year's Eve
News of the World
Nights in Rodanthe
Nine Queens
No
No Country for Old Men
No Murches Frida??
Nomadland
Notting Hill
Ocean's 8
Ocean's 13
October Sky
Of tn age??
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Onward
Oppenheimer
Origin
Over the Hedge
Pacific Rim
Pandas
Pan's Labyrinth
ParaNorman
Paris is Burning
Past Lives
Paw Patrol: Mighty
Paw Patrol: More
Pee Wee's Big Adventure
Perfect Strangers
Persepolis
Phantom Thread
Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game
Pitch Perfect
Pitch Perfect 3
Planes
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Pokemon: Detective Pikachu
Practical Magic
Pride and Prejudice
Primal Fear
Priscilla
Psycho
Pulp Fiction
Puppy Love
Puss in Boots
Queen and Slim
Radical
RRadi--- Wwi?/
Raging Bull
Ra the Breata?
Rat Race?
Ratatouille
Ready Player One
Real Women Have Curves
Red Tails
Reforge
Renfield
Repo Man
Rocky
Ruby Gillman
Rumor Has It
Rush Hour 2
RV
Róise & Frank
Sacfint??
Saving Face
Saving Private Ryan
School Daze
Scoob!
Scooby Doo
Scrapper
Scream VI
Searching
Selena
Selma
Semi Pro
Seven
Shaft
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
Significant Other
?
?
Skyfall
Smallfoot
Smoke?
Snowpiercer
?
Something's Gotta Give
?
?
Soul Surfer
Space Jam
Space Oddity
Sp Ra ????
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse
Split
Spy Game?
Spy Kids
Stone and D????
Ste W s5t?
Stomp the Yard
Storks
Sweet Home Alabama
Tag
Talk to Me
Tangled
Tee as Go!??
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Tenet
The Adia Prse?
The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster
The Baby-Sitters Club
The Best Man
The Big Lebowski
The Big Short
The Biggest Little Farm
The Bird Cage
The Blind Side
The Blues Brothers
The Bodyguard
The Boogeyman
The Book of Life
The Boss Baby: Family Business
The Bourne Identity
The Boxer
The Breakfast Club
The Bucket List
The Caine Mutiny
The Campaign
The Castle
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Chronicles of Narnia 2
The Chronicles of Narnia 3
The Creator
The Croods New Age
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight Rises
The Dark Side
The Dead Don't Die
The Dry?
The Equalizer
The Exorcist: Believer
The Fabulous Filipino Brothers
The Fast and Furious (#1)
The S Heartbeats?
The Has???
The Gentlemen
The Good Nurse
The Goonies
The Great Wall
The Guard
The Harvest (La Cosecha)
The H????
The Hobbit
The Hobbit 2
The Hobbit 3
The Holdovers
The Hunger Games: Ballad of Snakes and Songbirds
The Hunger Games
The Hunger Games 2
The Hunger Games 3
The Hunger Games 4
The Hunt for Red October
The Huntsman: Winter’s War
The Incredibles
The Intern
The Invention of Lying
The Iron Giant
The Island
The Jungle Book
The Karate Kid
The Kids are Alright
The Lake House
The Land Before Time
The Last Out
The Last Samurai
The Lego Batman Movie
The Lego Movie
The Lesson
The Lion King
The Lion King
The Little Mermaid
The Little Mermaid
The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship
The Losers
The Man from UNCLE
The Marsh King’s Doughter
The Marvels
The Matrix: Resurrections
The Mitchells vs The Machines
The Mummy
The Neverending Story
The Nice Guys
The Nun II
The Odd Life of Timothy Green
The Other Zoey
The Outsiders
The Peanuts Movie
The Persian Version
The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything
The Place Beyond the Pines
The Popes Exorcist
The Pre--?
The Purge: Election Year
The Replacements
The Ring
The Secret Garden
The Secret Life of Pets
The Silence of the Lambs
The S --------
The ?
The ?
The ?
The ?
The ?
The Take
The Time Traveler's Wife
The True Cost
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
The Un---- Country
The Usual Suspects
The ???
The ????
The ?????
The Wedding Singer
The Wizard of Oz
The Wood
The Zookeeper's Wife
Theater Camp
Them---?
There Will Be Blood
Thurs?
Titanic
To Kill a Mockingbird
Tooooo?
Tom ??
Tommy Boy
Top Gun
Top Gun: Maverick
Toy Story 2
Toy Story 3
Toy Story 4
Train to Busan
Training Day
Transformers Rise
Trolls
Trolls World Tour
Troy
Tully
Turning Red
Umami
Us
??
V for Vendetta
V????
VeggieTales: Abe and the Amazing Promise
VeggieTales: Merry Larry and the True Light of Christmas
Vindicta
Vivo
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
War Dogs
We Were Soldiers
We're the Millers
Wedding Crashers
West Side Story
Wet Hot American Summer
Where the Wild Things Are
Wildhood
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Winters Bone
Wonder
Wonder Woman 1984
Wonka
Wreck It Ralph
Yes, Man
Yesterday
Young Punx: A Punk Parable
Zombieland

England
I just want to know how is it legal for my landlord to charge me an entire weeks rent for a single day in the case of this year being a leap year?
With the follow up how does dwp get away with only paying my housing of 361 days out of the year which is what they just informed me after I questioned them about what exactly I should do about my landlord claiming this.
so now It's down to me to pay not only the week that dwp do not cover but then an entire other week for a single day my landlord is claiming they need.
This last part isn't as relevant but it really irks me so I'm just gonna take the chance as I'm on here and mention it anyway - sorry in advance its gonna be a long kinda rant
When I first moved into my property I had both my landlord and the dwp agree that they would pay them directly it would not go through me because I have mental health problems and I just wouldn't be able to manage, I don't even know when I get paid or when rent is due it just wouldn't work
so that was all fine and dandy until about I dunno two months into living here they started sending me you owe X money letters and I just ignored it as I know they pay on arrears and presumed this was just an artifact of that and I don't actually owe money
But as the months went by the number went up and up and up until they sent a final warning one recently so I decided I should call and find out wtf is happening
Apparently the dwp missed the payment for the first month and have never paid it back- I have tried numerous times go tell them this and they basically say "no- your lying that isn't possible"
So then I call peabody and they say the same thing and we just go round and round so I had to pay them £687 last month aswell as agreeing to just pay £20 presumably just forever because they charge more interest than that a month
So my question is, how the fuck is it my responsibility to pay this money, it had nothing to do with me, I wasn't involved in the slightest- thankfully I'm good with my money/purposefully eat only one meal a day in order to conserve as much as I can for emergencies like this otherwise I would of just been evicted over the fault of the government - like again they pay it directly it doesn't even connect to me in anyway so it's down to their machine or a human error one month, so if it was a machine thing im betting its widespread and happend to hundreds maybe thousands of people that same month.
Like how is that okay?- and now they expect me to cover two additional weeks rent every year like what if I just spent my money, what then? I'm damn well sure most people on benefits probably do and don't just have savings they can break into.

1. My pain, My light

When you knew me, I was about to fall down into the pit of pain I had been running from while also looking at, my whole life. You knew this. I thought having a degree, being a provider type girlfriend (like my dad was) and someone who heals others would shield me from it. I was wrong. I know this pain now, I know the dark corners of my mind and the beautiful sunlight of my soul. The happy is not gone. It's a part of me. You don't have access to it. I guard that part of me dearly because it's been taken from me before. It's been rained down on in ways you have done to me. I think you didn't recognize me in the tunnel of my feelings, you focused on the manifestations and punished me for them and what they represented to you. You didn't have the recovery of yourself to meet me there but still expected that from me.
I had to guard it from you. I had to try to Frankenstein it together for the world and you tried to take off the pins and needles that held me together when you pleased. That felt violating. I was not done with my BIG TASK. I told you immediately when we met. When we discovered we had feelings, I said to you, "Let's be friends because I'm in the middle of nursing school. Right now isn't the best time." Because I knew I was growing love for YOU and actually wanted it to work. When you shared that might not actually work, I held on despite my better judgement, I should have let you walk. You are wrong to think I preyed on your love. You saw me fighting the fight of my life and at many times, you joined in on the other side of the ring. Whatever unconscious things I did to you, I'm sorry. They were unconscious. I don't doubt that I unintentionally gaslight you often, that's what was done to me. That would make sense. And for that, I'm very sorry.

1. Yes, I'm a Flirt

I will say, I did not kiss another man, sleep with another, touch another man, nothing. Am I flirt? Yes. I always have been. I am a harmless flirt, remember, in your own words-I push away people who actually are into me...That freaks me out. I walk into a room and at least one person is attracted me, since forever. That's not my fault.

1. Only Fans

I saw that a character with a really unattractive voice on Love is Blind (which is a show I watched) got an only fans and I was curiously fucking around and finding out what that was about. No intention of acting on the impulse to look.

1. Sean I and Sean II

That guy Sean DID have a crush on me. No we never got together. There was a Sean from 2020 I had a little thing with and I ended things with him back then. The screen shot was for Sandi.

1. Pushing away people who care about me

Yes, I have an impulse to push away people that care about me. The open channel where care and help is was foreign and scary to me. Now it's just like walking past a hornet at an aqua park. I know it’s there but I can go enjoy the day. You tried to give it faster than I can process. I DID want to melt into your arms and feel safe and in those spaces and we did many times. You would get very defensive about religion or other hot topics that I needed to hold onto. I also felt how you were ashamed of my emotional bruises before you started to make fun of them. That made me close off to you. I felt you pop my mental floats and told me to hold onto you. So I was mad but, I held on. I thought I was supposed to. That's how I felt. I am an independent person but a physical touch/quality time/acts of service type of romantic. I know you felt it. I offered to literally be the workhorse so we could live somewhere beautiful together and give you a chance to start something, even if it was just painting. That is a sacrifice that never got acknowledged even while I was in the school stage of that process. But I learned you were into “ the salary lol”

1. Your Pain, Your Shame

There were times you were not well and I gave you some of my *touch* and warmed you with my soul. I did it far more often than you noticed. I loved you just as much as you loved me. I had to compartmentalize this when you wanted more from me than I could give. Before I did the inner work I have done now, I didn't know I went deeper, that there was deeper. I was abandoned. You were reaching into the lost girl in me and scaring her then getting mad at her. She was just trying to not drown. That made more of my defenses come out. I did feel you may have wanted to be with me for the nursing salary which would turn out to be true. It would turn out to be true you thought very little of me. It would turn out to be true you lied about friends like Boon & Megan who were never together because Megan dated my friend Alex, I met them through the local music scene I'm now a part of. You lied about a lot, I think because you were embarrassed to admit you didn't have friends. People will not stick around people who are needy, even though you need basic things, people are just trying to survival at the most basic level and will never put you before themselves. You tried to do that for me, which I don't think is love because the result was a dysfunctional relationship. It was idealizing me into someone that when I fell short of being her, I paid for it. You held contempt and resentment for me because of this which think birthed your contempt and suspiciousness. We were on different levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of needs. I needed basics, you were ready for more. That's why I forced myself to finish school. The way I've seen you talk about women sounds like a "nice guy". You think very highly of yourself, in a way that makes others shrink. You rise up by stepping on people. You were going to step on me and use my money and my innocence. I got wise and angry. I know when you are in a better place you will see the field you assess yourself and others on, isn't always accurate. You have empathy but you don't have experience to know how to make space for others to bloom. You did not allow for this in me. You kept showering me with your insecurities, apathy for my feelings and machine gun style attacks at me doing the best I could with what I had at the time. That is cruel. I saw a lot of that. Women are not perfect. The ones that you claim are crazy for saying they are neurodivergent or men have hurt them, are sometimes that stereotype and scorching the earth with their pain. I've had times in my life where I've gone through that phase. It's part of grief. You have sounded very elitist and looked that way when I saw you both times. You think you are the prime example of manhood, you need to look at how you are not the hot shit you think you are. You are very disrespectful to people without warning, you also need to look at that. You are impulsive, which sets in motion all of this. I had no problem showing you were not the hottest shit around and I think that, to you, that meant I was cheating or that I didn't appreciate you. It meant, you needed a dose of humble and to learn how to actually listen. Not just for what you want to hear.
You lied in court several times. You did tell me to go die, you did call the cops on me for making my knuckles. You filed a police report on me for the bike. You spoke about me like trash and you have for a long time. You are not loving savior type. You are cunning and malicious. I believe you are very selfish and misled by your impulses. I don't know everything you did but I saw just how incredibly manipulative you can be. The judge fell for it.

1. When you decided to cross my boundaries here's what happened

Whatever it is you saw in me and wanted me to face, the rate you were pushing me to face it was faster than I could handle and that made you a threat to me, subconsciously and emotionally. That made my defenses come up. It was not on your time for me to heal from my life's pain, no matter how ready you were for your dream girl, I needed shelter you COULD NOT give. So I was very unhappy and SCARED of you. You hurt my inside. I was scared of how far you would go based on your selfish impulses and for that I needed legal help to keep you away from me. You were going to push me into a mental hell. You would not validate my inner world. You just picked through it. That felt like awake surgery to me, so it was dangerous.

1. The Truth of your Posts

You thought very little of me and liked the emotional rollercoaster more than the love. Because when the love was there, you didn't know how to engage. You would leave me hanging morning after morning. Days of it. I had every right to be as cold with you because your inner belief system thought I was scum. How wrong you are.

1. Closure

I don't think there's any good conversation to have with you until life throws some stuff at you that makes you open your heart more and talk less/listen more. That will take years. I wish you a happy life, a loving marriage and family and hope you finally learn that it's insides of people that count. That's who they are, not their muscles, job, money, talent-it's the inner person who put those things together to survive. I love myself, I have made a life out of being left in a dumpster for people. You see as the person who belongs back in that box while also seeing me as someone worth more. So you are confused about who I am. I am not. I don't fit in a box. I refuse to be put in a box. Boxes mean pain. But I will love the person I'm supposed to love with every beat of my heart and I know this about myself. I feel it. I felt it with you. You missed it. My fear, my PTSD was never yours to announce or bring up. Conversations could be had at any moment if they are open and two way streets. You are not a sorry, weak person. You know this. You played that very well. I chose not to. You see I am strong now. whatever you want to throw at me will wash off with the rain of my tears and I will bloom and bloom into a garden so big it will give my family I build a beautiful thing. I'm not ready yet. Letting go of you is the next thing on my list. So you are free. I don't hate you. I believe you won't hurt me. I hope you unbury your imperfect self and accept him so you can accept others for their wrinkles/bald spots/weakness/emotional holes and all. That's loving someone, to me. Like the velveteen rabbit. It's inside out. Non-verbals to verbals. I wish you learn what lessons you need to learn and your heart gets so full it starts singing. Yes, I loved you first. I said it first too. You forgot that part. You expected me to believe you didn't flash a group of women when the police said that about you too. Whatever was proven or you fell like you "won", I hope it's what you wanted. You showed me you would have tore into me the whole way through. I don't trust you. I just wish you peace. You are the most manipulative person I have ever met. More than my mother. That’s what this whole thing was. You manipulated the shit out of me & my boundaries are not leaving. Ever. I am blessed with them.
Moral of the story: Ex would not listen to my boundaries. Would push my buttons to peer into the person I was at my worst and then neglect her further. The boundaries I have in place now are staying. This needed to come off my chest to acknowledge my feelings which have been long ignored. Keep the boundaries. Stay no contact. Love yourself more the darkness they seduce you with. It’s click bait. It’s click bait love. He was a virus to my hard drive.

So i was curious why everyone thinks the Cathay dragon Yin-Yin is going to have lore of beasts, so i decided to look up the og theory by and i realized it lined up a lot with the theories i made based off of the in game mechanics, so i decided to add in some of the mythology into my post. Also while we are here, i started writing this before shadows of change, then decided to wait until Yuan Bo was released to see how it impacted by speculative nonsense. Was kinda disillusioned with Cathay after Yuan Bo was fairly different to what everyone expected and so i took a break from Cathay for a while. As a result some of this might sound weird due to it being rewritten several times.
(https://www.reddit.com/totalwacomments/ppg76c/theories\_about\_the\_dragon\_princesprincesses\_the/)
----HEADS UP: there is gonna be a TLDR after each specific LL, You will thank me later----
The Mythological inspirations for the dragons
So for anyone who didn't click on the link to the mythology post that inspired this (for shame). The Dragon siblings seem to be inspired by the 4 symbols (don't worry there are 5 of them). Each of the 4 symbols (again of which there are 5) is associated with a direction and one of the 5 elements from the Wuxing cycle.
The wuxing cycle is made up of 5 elements, the mechnanics of the cycle themselves don't seem to matter too much (yet?) just the actual elements since each of the 5 elements matches up with what lores of magic the dragons favour so far.
The in-game and lore Harmony of magic (so far)
Lore wise (the "facts" lore not the term for magic lore), the Yin and Yang lores of magic are each made up of 4 of the elemental winds. Yin is formed from the winds of beasts, metal, death, shadows while Yang is formed from Life, fire, heavens, light. Each lore is effectively one half of high magic (the lizardmen and high/wood elf lore of magic) since High magic is made from using all 8 winds at once. Probably not worth noting but in my research i also found that high elves have a
The Dragons siblings (until Yuan Bo) have had a 50/50 split between Yin and Yang spells with 3 of each. Miao Ying has 3 life spells (a sub lore of yang) and 3 yin spells, While Zhao Ming has 3 metal spells (a sub lore of Yin) and 3 yang spells. Interestingly it seems that the Dragon siblings use the elemental sub-lore of the parent they get along with more, Miao Ying has a Yang sub lore and gets on great with her father, the master of yang while Zhao has the opposite, favouring a sub-lore of Yin while being his mother's favourite.
As for Yuan Bo, while he uses a mix of 4 lores of magic unlike Zhao and Miao, 2 light, 1 heavens, 2 Yin and 1 Yang, He does still loosely follow the pattern still. Yuan Bo still uses 3 elemental spells and 3 Yin/Yang spells so while he isn't split along the lines of Yin/Yang evenly, he does still have a 50/50 split in his spells. Interstingly even tho Yuan Bo has 4 different lores on hand, he only has the lore atrributes for 2 of those lores, heavens (his "main" lore given he runs is incharge of the astromancers) and the lore of Yin passive (sub lore of yang and the lore of Yin).
Overall it seems that there is a pattern of dragons having a 50/50 mix of elemental spells and Yin/Yang lores with only the spell atrribute from their favourite elemental lore and the Yin/Yang atrribute from the lore that their favourite elementl lore doesn't contribute too.
TLDR: The dragons (so far) have a themed pattern in what spells they can use and their lore passives.
Who are the other Dragons?
In case You haven't dug through the Cathay lore, the 2 dragon siblings not missing/dead in lore and not yet in game are: Li Dao the fire dragon and Yin Yin the sea dragon. There is also the Monkey King coming alongside them at some point, so without further a do, lets get into it.
Miao Ying The Storm Dragon
So according to the mythology theory, each of the dragons is inspired by one of the 4 symbols. Miao Ying is theorised to be inspired by the Black Tortoise. The Black Tortoise is associated with Water, the north, endurance and protecting the previously mentioned north. It's easy to see why the black dragon Miao Ying is likely inspired by said symbol, even more so when you look into warhammer lore.
In warhammer lore, Cathay refers to the lore of life as the lore of water. That is because wizards who use the lore of life can manipulate freshwater due to it's necessity and connection to life, the wind of life it's self is also described to move like water by those with witch sight. Hence the reason Miao Ying, uses lore of life spells, due to her being the storm dragon.
As for Miao Ying's actual lore, she is the oldest of the Dragon siblings and said to be the Emperor's favourite. Her main job is guarding the Great Bastion in the north since that is where the first threats to Cathay came from and she was the first of the dragons. The other main thing Miao Ying is in charge of is the forges of Nan-Gau and it's development of war machines. Miao Ying doesn't seem to be very involved with the process of inventing and gives the master artificers a great deal of personal freedom leading to some infighting. Miao seems to take a direct yang styled approach to problems, putting any rebel lords in their place and just throwing bodies and artillery at chaos incursions. Miao is described as cold and aloof perhaps because she has had to shoulder burdens on her own without any siblings.
Mechanically Miao Ying focuses on buffing ranged units which fits well with her Capital being Cathay's main source of guns as well as her Yin focus. Miao Ying also gets bonuses for fighting the forces of chaos and corruption which fits with her being in charge of holding the big wall. The starting Cathay rebels nearby is thematic for the scheming human lords but there isn't really a mechanic that does deeper than that. Nothing too fancy, she's a base game lord.
TLDR: Miao Ying is the (self-proclaimed?) favourite child of the Emperor, she is in charge of defending the great bastion and most of Cathay's gun/war machine construction. Lore of Life and Yin, tho there is a chance CA will revisit her down the line and give her a more diverse spell list or more mechanics. Miao Ying keeps her people in line with brute force and open threats but as long as the artificer lords serving her don't rebel or disobey her orders, she leaves them to their own devices.
Zhao Ming The Iron Dragon
A reminder i have the flair "alchemist of Zhao Ming" so you know, expect some simping bias in this next section.
In the mythology department, Zhao Ming appears to be inspired by the "White Tiger". Like all of the 4 symbols the White Tiger is associated with both a cardinal direction and an element/phase of the Wuxing cycle. In the White Tiger's case this is the West direction, where Zhao Ming guards and the element of metal which Zhao Ming champions. The White Tiger is believed to symbolise power and armies, accordingly Zhao Ming is shown to be much more involved with his soldiers than the other Dragons. It's also been theorised that since his troops are seemingly recruited from the much more rowdy desert clans, than the cities and villages where the other Dragons get their troops, thus requiring more military focus.
Zhao Ming's love of warpstone is inspired by mixing the mythology of the White Tiger and warhammer lore. As previously mentioned the White Tiger is associated with metal and in warhammer lore, wizards who practice the lore of metal, also known as alchemists in some circles, usually develop an obsession with warpstone. Warpstone's nature as being literally pure condensed chaos/warp gives it many abilities including the power to turn other metals into gold which is one of the key end-goals of all alchemy.
Speaking of alchemists, Zhao Ming controls the "house of secrets" said to be a dark mirror of the celestial court where illegal magics are used in place of the lore of heavens. While in game the house of secrets is only formed of lore of metal wizards, Zhao Ming's lore blurb in the expanded unit browers states he shealters lore of Fire wizards as well.
Since the SOC dlc showed us that several units in the Cathay army hail from the banner of the Celestial Court and that the House of secrets is said to be a dark mirror, there may be some units not yet in game that are house of secrets themed. What could those units be? Beyond the fire version alchemists, i have no clue it's called the house of secrets for a reason. The biggest possible curveball i can think of would be the elemental incarnate of fire, we already have the incarnate of beasts so it's safe to assume that the other 2 incarnates (death and fire) will show up at some point and Zhao likes fire wizards too. Zhao Ming could also have some nomadic units missing since most of his people are nomads but we haven't seen any of those in game yet.
Interestingly the lore of metal is the elemental lore of magic most connected to Tzeentch as it is all about changing metals into other metals (lead to gold, etc) and Tzeentch is all about change. The lore of fire on the other hand is one of the other 3 lores of magic used by chaos warbands. Shadows and death are both connected to Slannesh and Nurgle respectively but fire is different. The Lore of Fire would be Khornes favoured lore because he loves flames and stuff but he hates magic so the lore of fire is considered to be the generic chaos lore that all the gods dip into using. Meaning the 2 types of elemental wizards Zhao Ming protects are the 2 types that Tzeentch armies would tradditionally recruit for open warfare.
Is Zhao Ming's protection giving the wizards most at risk of Tzeentch corruption a way out from the persecution and not be driven into the arms of Tzeentch? Or is he just letting Tzeentch agents hide in plain sight? Honestly it's prob a bit of both. Yuan Bo may be right about a decent number of those wizards but those he is wrong about, would be forced to join chaos or perish if it weren't for Zhao Ming's House of Secrets.
Zhao in terms of lore is (despite being a mad scientist who snorts warpstone and one of the only Dragons to regularly drink,) somehow the most subtle of the dragons. Unlike Miao Ying, Zhao Ming favours diplomatic solutions over just throwing bodies at problems. The main example of this is his treaties with the ogres however the way he interacts with his soldiers is also potentially diplomatic. Zhao Ming as many of you may know likes to join his troops for a drink and even laughs at jokes at his own expense unlike the other dragon siblings.
Some have suggested that this means Zhao acts more human than the other dragons, however personally when i first read his actual lore, i got the impression Zhao Ming is not more human than the other Dragons, simply better at faking it. That Zhao thinks his troops, recruited mostly from the nomadic tribes won't take him seriously or work at their full potential if stifled by the iron handed discipline of main Cathay, so he meets them on their level. Zhao Ming is a people person, he makes concessions for the nomads joining his forces, talks out deals with ogres, runs the main (at least in terms of land routes so far) trade hub in Cathay, plays host and sets up areas to cater to dogs of war visiting his city and speaks out for some of the non heavens elemental wizards in Cathay. He talks his way through most problems and reads people to try and get the most benefit for Cathay.
Zhao Ming while reckless and likely overexposed to warpstone, is far more cunning and manipulative than most people give him credit. Turning pillaging ogres into peaceful neighbours and mercenaries for his cause, even setting up a dedicated visitors district in is capital for them. Using rogue outcast wizards to strengthen the great bastion's stone work via alchemical secrets. Making nomads who would have little identity as part of central Cathay see him as one of their own and not some stuffy upstart who looks down on them and needs to be overthrown. Only the more indirect threats to his rule, the cults and skaven who spend most of their time hiding from the Dragons remain in Zhao Ming's land, everyone who poses a direct or open threat has been slowly subverted into one of Zhao Ming's pawns. I can kind of understand why the Emperor might not like him, every chance he gets, he talks his problems out instead of throwing a meteor at it like a true wizard of Cathay. But despite his favour of the diplomatic approach, Zhao Ming has an iron grasp on the western provinces. It looks like Miao Ying and Zhao Ming are the favourite children because they have absolute authority in their domains, one through the direct, disciplined Yang style of the Emperor and the other through the Yin cunning of the Empress
For Zhao's gameplay he is pretty straight forward. The Iron dragon focuses on ogre mercs and bonuses to cargo convoys, again supporting his more subtle diplomatic approaches from lore. He also has bonuses to getting magical items and wields the same abilities as his alchemists representing the fruit of his House of secrets. Beyond that Zhao Ming supports melee units to counter balance Miao Ying's ranged support and pushing that whole harmony thing. He is a bit basic but he is also a base game lord so that's kinda to be expected, his gameplay does seem to back up his lore and mythological inspirations tho.
TLDR: Cathay's mad scientist and suprisingly great diplomat, he solves as many of his problems as he can through his wits and cunning, perfering to talk his problems away, hence why the Moon Empress loves him and the bolder face-on yang loving Emperor cares less for him. He leads the nomadic people of the western provinces and the house of secrets, shealtering lore of fire and metal wizards from Yuan Bo. Tho he lacks any units specific to his faction in game, like Miao Ying CA could revisit down the line for unique mechanics.
Yuan Bo the Jade dragon
Yuan Bo is mythologically inspired by the 5th symbol of the 4 symbols (don't worry it's the optional one). The Yellow dragon is associated with the centre, rather than a cardinal direction like the other 4 symbols, as well as the element of Earth. He is said to represent the Emperor in mythology which fits Yuan Bo perfectly.
Yuan Bo of course runs Cathay's central government when the Emperor is away and is often confused for the Emperor by outsiders in lore. So that tracks, he is also incharge of the celestial court aka the astromancers of cathay, the only legal wizards besides the dragonblooded elite. His also makes sense with the Yellow dragon being associated with stone as in warhammer lore Cathay calls the lore of heavens, lore of stone.
Why is it called the lore of stone, perhaps because the Emperor used it heavily while he created the great bastion and terracotta sentinels out of stone? personally i choose to believe it's because GW didn't want people confused on Cathay's magic pre-game 3 and so told every writier that mentioned Cathay doing magic to make it explicitly clear that Cathay only uses magic never seen before in the west and lore of heavens. Then as a result of that, writiers only used the most iconic lore of heavens spell when ever Cathay fought, the comet of casandora, every single fight, giving Cathay a "chuck a rock at it till it goes away mentality". The Emperor and bastion option is more likely but my headcanon Cathay's love of throwing rocks amuses me.
In terms of his other lores, like Miao Ying and Zhao Ming, he only has passives for heavens and Yin, which follows their pattern of one sub-lore of yin/yang for their main element and the reverse yin/yang lore as well. Tho Yuan Bo mixes things up by having both Yang/Yin spells and the lore of light as well which makes sense since it's the anti-daemon lore and he is incharge of rooting out tzeentch cults.
As the leader of the celestial court, Yuan Bo fields mostly astromancers and their associated units, constructs. If you didn't know; the lore blurbs on Cathay techs imply that the celestial court is incharge of maintaining and repairing the terracotta sentinels in the base game and are actively searching for ways to restore them to their full power. Another reason why Cathay might call the lore of heavens; the lore of stone, those who use it repair the stone warriors of Cathay. His other units include the Great Moonbirds which Astromancers have been known to tame, the purified manficores are in a similar situation. The final celestial court unit is the crowmen, which are elementals of Yin and act as spies for Yuan Bo.
There could be more celestial court units in a future DLC as the spies/hidden Yin side of the celestial court hasn't really been shown outside of the crowmen. Besides the celestial court, Yuan Bo also uses wardrums and gate guards which are part of Yuan Bo's bureaucratic duties. CA stated that they had to look outside of the celestial court when adding new units to SOC with the greatmoon bird because nothing in the celestial court fit the role of a big flier which is what CA and the community felt Cathay needed at the time. So that implies there are other units under the celestial court's banner just none who are single entity fliers.
For Yuan Bo's gameplay, he uses his matters of state and manipulates his foes through covert and administrative actions. Just like his lore, he manages Cathay's government and spy network, he mostly spends his time however trying to hijack the geomantic web to improve the Wu Xing compass and empower whatever ritual the Dragon Emperor is working on. Little weird he focuses on Lizardmen so much but eh?
TLDR: Yuan Bo is the central administrator of Cathay, spymaster and leader of the celestial court. He believes himself to be the favoured child dispite what Miao Ying claims. He appears to be the dragon sibling that gets called into sort out the other dragon's messes. He likes to use subterfuge to achive his goals but he likes to use brute force to solve issues when he can. The celestial court that he over sees probably has more unseen units so we might see those in the future for other dragons siblings.
Welp reaching the character limit and only about half way, to the comment section i guess?

So in our CBA we have multiple sections stating how deciding who gets what shift works. The contract states you can choose the structure of shift by seniority, but not which shift (A,B,C,D), and that if movement is required then the most junior employee is moved.
Well some people aren't happy about that, and today our officers let someone move to different shift because there was an "opening". I questioned this and they said they're going to do a departmental agreement which will override our CBA.
My issues are:
1) They're making multiple "departmental agreements" which overrides our contract, which I'm not sure they're allowed to do 2) They're not doing votes for these agreements. Our contract says agreements our settled by "negotiating parties" of each the union and the company, does this mean our officers can make whatever kind of agreements they want with the company? 3) They've already broken the contract by doing this move beforehand. Can I/is it worth filing complaints with the department of labor, NLRB, or anyone else?
Yes I know legal complaints are an extreme route, but our officers are all high seniority and friends, which is why they've been making new agreements and breaching the contract in favor of high seniority people, screwing over the mid and low seniority folks. And our president has said privately he doesn't really care about breaking the contract (probably no way of getting him to say this publicly)
What are my options? (They are very popular so chances of voting them out are slim)
Edit for automod: WA/US Public Sector Steel CNC/Machining

Club Vlad sat near the confluence of Central Avenue and Washington Avenue, Albany’s two main thoroughfares. Two stories with blackout windows and a box office from when it used to be a movie theater, it was swarmed with people when Dom first spotted it ahead. He was somewhat familiar with it: He passed it every day on his way to work, and it was always busy around his time of evening, even on weeknights. Part of him always wanted to go inside and be a part of the scene, but he never did.
The man in sunglasses - his name was Joe - led Dom toward the club, and even before Joe spoke, Dom somehow knew that it was their destination. “There,” Joe said. “We’ll go around back.”
Dom and Joe had been walking for what seemed like an hour but couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes. Dom stuck as close to Joe as possible as if for protection, and had become accustomed to his pungent smell. It was noticeable only at extremely close range, part sickly sweet and part…something else, something Dom could not place but still somehow recognized. They were two blocks from the club, maybe three, and Dom could hear the pulsing techo/house/whatever music as clearly as if he were standing in the middle of the dancefloor. He could hear the chatter of the people inside, or at least he imagined he could. He could smell them too: Beneath the odors of perfume, desperation, and spiritual rot was something richer, something blissful. Dom realized for the first time that he was parched - so parched - and drool filled his mouth.
A crowd of people waited outside Club Vlad, talking and laughing; some vaped, some stared down at their cellphones like Gollum with his precious ring. Dom’s first reaction was to avoid them. Perhaps sensing this…or perhaps feeling it himself…Joe ducked into an alleyway two doors down from the club. “We’ll go in the back,” Joe explained.
The back entrance to Club Vlad was a single door underneath a bare bulb. The music was so loud that Dom’s head began to throb. Inside, a dark hallway terminated in an archway filled with throbbing white light. Dread filled Dom as they approached it - he didn’t want to be around people - but thankfully they went into a room off the hall instead. An office. A cramped desk, a filing cabinet. A set of stairs disappeared into shadows.
“Sit,” Joe said.
Dom obeyed, sitting in the swivel chair.
Joe went up the stairs and Dom was alone. The deep coldness that had long settled into his bones made itself known again, and Dom leaned forward, wrapping his arms around his chest for warmth. The muffled music vibrated in his skull, setting his teeth on edge, and the various smells wafting in from the main room assaulted his senses. He was alternately repulsed and aroused by the crashing din of scents: The good, the bad, and the mouth watering. A sharp pain cut through his stomach like the killing edge of a knife, and Dom hugged himself tighter. Had his throat always been this dry? His throat felt like sandpaper; his tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth and getting it unstuck hurt so badly that tears sprang to his eyes.
Dom rubbed his arms with his hands and tried to still his chattering teeth. He looked around for a blanket, a discarded jacket, something to cover himself with, but there was nothing. Only drifts of glitter on the floor and walls. He supposed it came from a party or something. He’d never been to a night club but it seemed fitting.
A sound drew his attention to the door leading back into the hall. A woman - no older than a girl - stood there, looking confused and unsteady. She was dressed in black, wore glow sticks around her wrists and neck, and held a red solo cup. “I have to pee,” she said drunkenly and laughed. “I thought this was the bathroom.”
A cold wind washed over Dom, and Joe was standing next to him. “The bathroom’s up here,” he said.
“Oh, good,” the girl laughed, “I thought it was here but I didn’t know. This is my first time here.” She held her cup aloft. “Take me to it.”
Joe glanced at Dom. “Come on.”
They formed a party as they climbed the stairs, Dom in the tear and Joe at the head. The girl stumbled and held onto the railing, talking incessantly. Her voice hurt Dom’s head, but the hot smell wafting from her was intoxicating. Drool coursed down his chin and his breathing came in short, hot bursts. Another sharp pain rent his stomach, and he winced.
At the top of the stairs, where the lights were cold and white, a woman in black stood by a doorway, her back ramrod straight and her eyes vacant. Her face was gaunt, her white flesh pulled tight across her skull. She wore a black dress and her black hair long and straight. Dom only caught a glance at her before looking away again.
She looked like a ghost.
“Show her the bathroom,” Joe said.
The woman’s eyes slowly, ponderles, went from Joe to the drunk girl. Her expression, like Joe’s, was dead. She had no expression. “This way.”
She and the drunk girl disappeared down the hall, and Joe led Dom into a room. Though it was pitch black, Dom could still see; not very well…but he could see. Suddenly, a blinding white light flicked on in front of him, causing him to stop and fall back a step. Ahead, through an archway, sat a vaulted chamber, at the center of which sat a man. To Dom’s light dazzled eyes, he seemed a proud king perched upon a throne, the skulls of his many enemies piled around him. Dom blinked and turned his head slightly to the side. His eyes began to adjust, and the world came into focus.
The man was not, as it had first seemed, sitting on a throne. Instead, he was esconded in a motorized wheelchair. The piles of skulls were actually various pieces of machinery, the kind you’d find in a hospital room. A clear tube extended from one of them to the side of the man’s neck: Yellow liquid flowed from the machine and into the man. Another tube, this one in the other side of his neck, filtered out a mixture of what looked like yellow pus and black sludge. An infected malodor filled the air, and the machines whirred softly as they worked.
As for the man himself, his appearance was normal at first glance, Dressed in a flowing red velvet robe, a blue and green blanket with a plaid pattern draped over his shoulders, he was portly, about fifty, and had shoulder length grayish hair with a bald spot in the middle. If the local theater put on a production of Hamilton, they could cast a worse Ben Franklin than him.
On closer inspection, he was not normal at all. His complexion was yellow and waxy, like a statue, and his body was lumpy, misshapen, resembling an overfilled trash bag stuffed with cotton. His eyes were sick and yellow, and something about his posture seemed…off. It didn’t make sense, but the only thing Dom could think was: He looks impossible.
Joe stopped at the edge of the shadows, where the line between light and darkness lay. He seemed to stand up a little straighter, a general greeting his king. “Here he is,” Joe said.
The man squinted slightly against the glare of the light and motioned with one gnarled hand. “Step into the light,” he said. His voice was soft and kind, that of a senile though loving grandmother. Dom imagined he felt a pull toward the man, and did as he was bidden, wincing as the light stung his eyes.
For a moment, the man stared at him, his waxen features frozen fast as stone. Then, a subtle look of compassion flickered across his face. Dom did not believe in God, but he suddenly felt like a man standing before God, his every thought, feeling, and transgression laid bare. He had never felt so naked in his life, so exposed. He had the sense that the man before him could see everything, knew everything.
“You’ve been through a lot,” the man said. It was not a question, but a statement.
Everything Dom had been through over the past couple of days came back to him in a rush, and hot tears filled his eyes. He nodded.
The man nodded slightly, more to himself than to Dom. “Kneel down,” he said, “I want to look at you.”
Dom knelt without question.
The man lifted one hand and touched Dom’s face, tilting Dom’s head from one side to the other like a farmer appraising a horse. His fingers were long and bony, his nails ragged and unkempt; his touch was like ice. He brushed his knuckles over the purple bruise on Dom’s cheek, and there was such gentleness in that one act that Dom broke down sobbing. He leaned into the man’s touch like a cat and gave voice to his misery.
“Shhh,” the man said, “it’s all over now.”
“W-What’s happening to me?” Dom asked.
In his heart of hearts, however, he already knew.
“You died,” the man said patiently. “And you came back.”
Hearing it stated so plainly, Dom cried even harder.
“Only a handful of people throughout history can claim to have defeated death,” the man said, stroking Dom’s hair, “and you’re one of them. You should be proud.”
“How?” Dom asked between sobs. “What am I?”
The man stroked Dom’s cheek. “You’re the same thing I am.”
At that, Dom looked up at the man. “What are you?” he asked.
A little, knowing smile touched the man’s lips, and when he spoke, his canine teeth were longer and sharper than before. “I’m a vampire.”
“No,” Dom moaned and shook his head, “no, no, no.” He grabbed the man’s hand and held tight, his tears coming faster. He trembled like a frightened animal and squeezed his eyes closed, as if by doing so he could escape the hell his life had become.
But there was no escape.
“You have a lot of questions,” the man said, monologuing now rather than speaking directly to Dom, “I had the same questions when I was your age. I have spent the last forty-two years of my life trying to answer them, but every answer I find leads me to still more questions. There’s one thing I’m certain of, though.”
Dom blinked the tears from his eyes. The last of them had been squeezed from his dead tear ducts and he had no more to give. He simply stared into space, trying to come to grips with his situation.
“There is freedom in death,” the man said. “Death is easy. It’s simple. Once it’s over, you feel no pain, no sadness, no grief. It’s living that’s hard.”
As he spoke, he brushed his long nails across Dom’s scalp. It was a soothing feeling, and served to calm him. “People have so many troubles.” A note of revulsion crept into his voice. “So many needs, so many desires. People are complex but we’re not. We’re easy to please. A vampire wants only two things: A little blood and one more night.”
The combination of his touch and his voice had pacified Dom to the point of almost tranquility. “I’m scared,” Dom heard himself mumble.
Nodding almost reluctantly, the man said, “Fear is one of the only emotions a vampire can’t escape. Everything feels fear. Do you want to know a secret?”
Dom nodded.
“I’m afraid too,” the man confessed. “I’m afraid of death. Well…death as it were. I’m terrified that my body will rot away and leave me a pile of bones somewhere, unable to move but still aware”
A shudder went through Dom.
“As I’m sure you’ve seen yourself, the movies lied. We rot just like any other dead thing. Our flesh decays, our organs turn to sludge, and we go from rational men to monsters whose only thought is feeding.”
Now it was his turn to shiver.
“But…you’re not like that,: Dom said.’
The man smiled. “I’m lucky, I guess” A thin yellow fluid began to drip from his nostrils. He did not seem to notice. “What is your name?”
“Dominick,” Dom said.
“I’m Merrick,” the man said, “and this is my family.”
Dom realized that they were now surrounded by others, ten in all. They stood ramrod straight, their eyes vacant and their faces devoid of humanity. They were mainly men, though one was a woman. Some were pale, others were blue or black, and one was little more than a skeleton clad in withered brown skin, a white button up and jeans hanging from its frame.
A thought occurred to Dom. “You said my brain was going to rot…”
“Not necessarily,” Merrick cautioned, “though it’s possible.”
“Am I going to be…?”
“Like them?” Merrick asked. “Braindead and staring?”
Sheepishly, Dom nodded.
“Maybe,” Merrick allowed. “But these people are free of everything that troubles humanity. You were human just a short time ago. I’m sure you remember all too well what it was like. The constant politics, the moral quandaries, the philosophical pontificating. Human beings - and make no mistake, we are humans - were not meant for all of that. We’re animals. We were made to hunt, fuck, and sleep. Somewhere along the way, we got pretentious and started complicating things.” He looked at Dom, sizing him up, seeming to read him. “Things that animals take for granted, people work their entire lives to achieve. If an animal wants to fornicate, it fornicates. If a man wants to fornicate, he needs to be tall, handsome, rich, funny, progressive when it suits women but traditional when it doesn’t. If a man wants a home, he has to work thirty years for it. An animal has only to dig a hole in the ground.”
Every word struck a chord with Dom.
Because every word was true.
“Unfortunately, the living won’t allow us to live that freely, so we have to hide. These people here - my children - need a guiding hand, a protector, someone who can lead them. And I, an old man, need help.” Here he smiled playfully and patted his bulging stomach. “My body is mostly sawdust and cotton balls at this point, so I can’t do much. I share my wisdom and my knowledge with them, and they take care of me.”
“Why haven’t you…rotted?” Dom asked.
“Embalming fluid,” Merrick said. “Blood doesn’t sustain you. Embalming fluid does.” He smiled at Dom. “It can sustain you as well. If you’ll stay with us. We’re not the most attractive bunch, but we’re a family, and we really wish you’d join us.”
A family.
Dom’s parents had broken up and he lived with his mother. He had never had a family before, and had always wanted one, a real one, like in the movies. Even as a grown man, he sought the love, acceptance, and belonging that a family brings. He sought it in the wrong ways, but that - and not sex, not romantic love - is what he had really wanted all along.
This is what he had wanted all along.
“I want to,” Dom said.
Working quickly, Merrick slashed his wrist open with his thumbnail. An ugly mixture of stale blood, siphoned from someone else, and embalming fluid leaked out. “If you choose to drink, my blood will be in you. You will be my son and I will be your father. You will obey me as your father. You will do whatever is asked of you for this family, as this family will do for you. You will not reveal the secrets of this family to anyone outside of it. You will protect this family from all threats, both inside and out. Do you accept?”
He held his bleeding wrist out to Dom.
Dom did not question, nor did he hesitate. He grabbed the hand of his father, brought it to his mouth, and drank from the seeping wound. The fluid was cold, thick, and vile.
It tasted like belonging.
“Have you fed yet?”
“No,” Dom said.
“Before you do, I have a question for you. Who did this to you? Who made you?”
Dom thought. Everything was hazy. “Was it someone in this room?” Merrick asked.
Dom shook his head. “Her name is…” he wracked his brain. “Heather.”
Merrick nodded. “So there’s another out there.” He looked at Joe. “Did you turn her?”
“Yes,” Joe said.
Merrick looked annoyed. “I’ve told you not to go out and feed on your own. You have no self-control. You drink too much and create others, which creates headaches for the family. Tomorrow night, I want you and Dom to find her and bring her here.” “Okay,” Joe said.
Merrick looked over Dom’s shoulder. “Jess? Can you come here?”
The black haired woman from earlier came out of the shadows, the drunk girl with her, arms tied behind her back. The girl looked dazed. “Max,” Merrick said to the skeletal corpse-thing, “help her.”
Max, Jessie, and another vampire named Matt tied chains around the girl’s ankles and hoisted her aloft via a pulley system. Upside down, she swung back and forth. Merrick instructed the others to leave the room. “Max,” he said.
On his way out, the corpse-thing produced a knife and dragged it across the girl’s throat, slicing her skin; blood spurted out. Max leaned in to taste it, but Merrick shooed him away. When he and Dom were alone, Merrick told Dom, “Go to her.”
But Dom was already on his feet, his eyes transfixed by the crimson life flowing from her pumping throat. The hot, rich smell filled his nostrils and tantalized his senses. Saliva filled his mouth and his stomach panged with hunger. Some small, human part of his decaying brain screamed at him to stop, but he did not listen to it. He had been human for almost thirty years, and he had been miserable. Now, in this chamber of the undead, he gave himself over to his dark thirst. Like a man in a dream, he shuffled to her, inhaled the sweet scent of her blood, and shivered. He was so lost in lust that he hardly noticed the strange, cumbersome feeling of his descended fangs.
“Drink,” Merrick said.
Opening his mouth wide, Dom sank his teeth into the girl’s neck. Her blood filled his mouth and splashed down his throat. Warmth thawed the ice in his marrow and spread through him. His dead heart began to flutter, then to pound. His knees shook, his body trembled, and his mind rolled away on a tide of ecstasy.
As it was his first meal, he couldn’t drink much. Before long, his stomach was hard and distended and his body burned with fire. He collapsed to a heap on the floor and twitched as random nerve endings, stimulated by the blood, began to misfire. He felt full, warm, and drunk. He closed his eyes and let himself drift.
Dominick Mason had died.
And this…
This was heaven.
***
With all that was happening in the city of Albany, the last thing Bruce Kenner needed on Thursday morning was a visit from Bertha the bitch, but that’s exactly what he got. She flew into his office like she owned the place and instantly started in on him. Young man this and have you talked to Joe Rossi that. You’d think she was his boss. And if she were his boss, he’d quit and find another line of work. He heard McDonald’s was hiring.
Bruce almost snapped at her. He’d been up most of last night riding around Albany and looking for Dominick Mason. He and Vanessa expected him to drop dead somewhere close to the medical examiner’s office, but if he had, he’d done so in a super secret location.
“I’ve been busy,” Bruce said, “but I’m going to go by his place of work today.”
Tired and still confused over that bullshit from last night, he had no energy to argue with the old crone. He could spare a few minutes to talk to Joe Rossi, he figured. He assumed that Jessie was safe but he owed it to her to check. If he found the girl, he’d take her back to her grandmother (sorry, kid, really) and try to avoid arresting the guy. Unless he came off as a creep, then he’d bust his ass. See, people assumed that an older guy with a younger girlfriend was some master manipulator hell bent on evil deeds. Sometimes they were, but hell, his grandparents married when his grandpa was twenty-one and his grandma sixteen. They were married for fifty-five years and loved each other to the end. Maybe it was innocent, maybe not. It wasn’t his job to judge either way. Just gimme the girl so I can get her grandma off my back and no one gets hurt.
“It’s about time you started doing your job,” Bertha said, “I heard on the police scanner last night that you people lost a body. What kind of town is this? Your coroner is a drunk who makes up stories about bodies walking away. He probably sold it to black people.”
Bruce couldn’t help it; he snorted laughter.
“Now what would black people want with a dead body?”
“Probably to use it as a prop in one of their rap videos.”
Bruce didn’t know much about music videos, but he was pretty sure that the people who made them didn’t like the smell of corpse any more than the rest of us. “I’ll be sure to round up all the local rappers for questioning. Is there anything else I can help you with?”
Luckily for him, there was not, and Bertha left shortly thereafter. Alone and able to hear himself think, Bruce sat back in his chair and went over his mental checklist for the day. First order of business, go to Club Vlad. Second, find Dominick Mason. There were others, but that was the most important. He wanted the body found so someone could get to work explaining this whole weird thing. There had to be an explanation. The thought that there wasn’t, that a dead guy literally rose from the grave and disappeared into the night, deeply disturbed Bruce, and the more this whole thing remained ongoing, the more disturbed he would become.
Needing some fresh air, he decided to hit up Club Vlad.
Outside, the day was hot and sunny. Waves of heat shimmered from the pavement and not a single breath of air stirred in the whole world. Bruce slipped on a pair of sunglasses and drove over to Club Vlad. It occurred to him that the place might be closed during the day; it was the only place Joe Rossi was associated with. His address in the computer system was Glens Falls, far to the north. The messages he sent Jessie indicated that he lived onsite at Club Vlad.
The build, wedged between a corner store and a check cashing place, was as grimy and dumpy looking as it had always been. The front windows were blacked out and covered with posters and fliers for punk concerts, house bands, and far left political organizations: The Albany Social Justice Center, something called Bash the Fash 2025, and Bruce’s favorite. ACAB. He caught some kid spraying that on the side of the police station once, and under extreme police torture (ie, a good tongue lashing), the kid told him it meant All Cops Are Barnacleheads.
Bruce shot the kid on the spot and planted a gun on him.
How's that for barnaclehead?
Calm down, he didn’t really do that. He made him clean the graffiti off with a toothbrush. LOL he was out there for hours.
The sidewalk in front of the former theater was empty save for some little. The box office was abandoned. There was no open sigh, but then again, there was no closed sign either. He parked his cruiser at the curb, killed the engine, and got out, sweat instantly springing to his brow.
To his surprise, the door opened. Inside, a couple steps led down to a dance floor. A bar lined the wall to his right, and a couple more sets led up to a railed platform filled with tables. Above, a huge balcony looked down on him. A giant disco ball hung from the ceiling like a pair of glittery nuts and there were cages here and there. Presumably where girls danced go-go style. Oh yeah, nothing hotter than a woman behind bars. Why do you think Bruce became a cop in the first place?
Speaking of glittery nuts, there was glitter everywhere. On the floor, on the tables, on the bar. It twinkled like flecks of diamond and swirled around your feet when you walked. Bruce imagined big buckets of the stuff raining down on the dance floor at midnight and he shuddered. Imagine having glitter stuck in your hair. That shit would never come out.
Music played from the sound system, not as loud as it would be during operating hours. It sounded like ‘80s metal, not exactly what he expected from a place like this.
Some say life she's a lady
Kinda soft, kinda shady
I can tell you life is rich
She's no lady, she's a bitch
Being morning, the place was deserted except for a man behind the bar, busy at cleaning the countertop in anticipation for the night’s events. He was tall, Hispanic or Italian, and feminine, with a single earring and a tank top.
Bruce moseyed over to the bar and the barkeep looked up, missing a beat when he realized the fuzz was here. He sat down his rag and walked over. “Can I help you?” he asked in a whispy voice.
“Yeah,” Bruce said, “I’m looking for Joe Rossi. Is he here?”
“I don’t know,” the bartender said. He looked nervous. “I can check.”
Before Bruce could answer, he scurried off, leaving him alone.
They suck my body out
But friend there is no doubt
I'm gonna pay the devil his dues
Cause I'm sick of being abused
Bruce looked around, his fingers absently drumming on the countertop. Club Vlad was a clashing mix of grunge and glam that made his head hurt. He imagined what the place must be like at midnight, packed and noisy, and nodded to himself. Yeah, this was the spot, he guessed, the place all the cool kids went, if they went anywhere anymore. Hell, if he was thirty years younger, he might come here.
He had been waiting for almost twenty minutes when a voice spoke behind him. He turned with a start, and beheld the strangest man he had ever seen in his life. Short and plump - lumpy, even - he sat in a wheelchair, a red blanket draped over his shoulders and his hands resting on his knees. He was about fifty with sparse gray hair falling to his shoulders and a plastic-looking face. He looked like a wax statue of Ben Franklin come to life, and a deep sense of disquiet stirred in the pit of Bruce’s stomach.
Just can't fight the temptation
It's become my inspiration
Gonna get myself an axe
Break some heads, break some backs
It was only then that Bruce noticed the sickly sweet smell of death.
It seemed to come from the man in waves.
“I didn’t mean to frighten you,” the man said, “my name is Merrick Garvis and I own Club Vlad. Maybe I can be of assistance.”
Bruce grew up in the south where manners and saving face were paramount. His mother and his grandmother both taught him that it was impolite to stare. Maybe he'd been in New York so long that he’d forgotten himself, or maybe Merrick Garvis was just the strangest looking man in the world. Either way, Bruce couldn’t help gaping at his strange appearance. Recovering, he shook his head. “I’m sorry, I -”
Merrick smiled and waved one hand. Why was it so goddamn skeletal? “Don’t worry. I was injured in a fire a long time ago and this is the best they could do for me. To be honest, I’d stare too. What can I help you with, officer?”
“I’d like to talk to Joe Rossi,” Bruce said. “I understand he works for you.”
“He did,” Merrick said, “but I had to let him go. Did he do something wrong?”
Bruce sighed. “Well, yeah, he’s shacked up with a sixteen year old runaway.”
A look of concern crossed Merrick’s features, such as they were. “Oh, my, that is concerning. I haven’t seen him in several days. I assume he went home. He lives in Glens Falls.”
Bruce nodded, his mind working. If Rossi really was in Glens Falls, that meant the whole mess was someone else’s problem. He could send Bertha up there to bother some other poor barnacle head and be rid of her. Yet…he didn’t think Rossi was in Glens Falls. Bruce had a knack for knowing when people were lying, and he was certain that Merrick Garvis was doing just that. It couldn’t be a facial tick, as his features were largely unmoving, like clay. Maybe it was something in his cloudy eyes. Maybe it was the tone of his voice. Or maybe Bruce had the shining and knew things just for the hell of it. In any event, the certainty that Merrick Garvis was lying grew stronger with each passing second.
“Why’d you fire him?”
“He got drunk and hit one of the customers.”
“What did he do?” Bruce asked. “What was his position?”
“He was a bouncer.”
“Aren’t bouncers supposed to hit people?”
Merrick fumbled. “Well…not to punch them in the face for bumping into them.”
“How long did he work for you?”
“Six months.”
“Did you ever see him with an underage girl?”
“Of course not,” Merrick said, “you have to be twenty-one to get in. I make sure everyone’s ID is checked at the door.”
“What if she had a fake ID?”
“Then I guess she’d get in, but I’d assume she was of legal age.”
“You said he shoved someone, when did this happen?”
“Last week,” Merrick said.
“I thought you said he hit someone.”
Merrick again fumbled. “I did.” Now his face seemed to darken a little. A strange yellowish liquid, too thin to be snot, began to drip from his nostrils. Bruce barely suppressed a smear of disgust. “I understand you have a job to do but playing mind games with me isn’t going to solve anything. I can give you his address. Other than that, I can’t help you further.”
“Fair enough,” Bruce said. “But I’d like to see your ID please.”
Merrick glared at him. “I suppose you want my name, rank, and serial number as well.”
“Actually, yeah, I’d love that.”
Merrick drew a deep sigh. “Okay.”
In five minutes, Bruce had Merrick’s ID, social, and all other relevant information. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn’t have bothered, even though he was well within his rights to ask for this information from someone he was questioning. But something about Merrick Garvis was off, and not just his weird face or strangely bulbous body. Bruce was just smart enough to realize that something was going on here, but not quite smart enough to even begin to imagine what.
When he had everything he needed and saw no reason to stick around, Bruce bid Merrick farewell and left the club. Before he could do anything else, he got a call from dispatch: Officer needed assistance in Pine Hills. Bruce slipped behind the wheel and went forth to help, momentarily putting Merrick Garvis out of his mind.
But soon or later, he would get back to him.
Oh yes he would.

Key Points About Legal Ontologies- https://betterinternet.law.stanford.edu/2019/10/18/ontologies-for-lawyers/

• A legal ontology aims to capture the core concepts, categories, and relations that make up the legal domain in a hierarchical, taxonomical manner.
• It defines the basic types or building blocks of law, such as legal entities, acts, facts, rights, obligations, etc. and how they relate to each other.
• Developing interoperable, standardized legal ontologies can enhance access to justice by making legal information more accessible and understandable to both humans and machines.
• Legal ontologies can facilitate knowledge engineering, extraction, and consistency checking within the legal field.
• There have been various efforts to develop formal ontologies for law, such as the Functional Ontology of Law and Frame-Based Ontology.
• The ontological question of "what is law?" and modeling law's fundamental nature is a key issue in legal philosophy and theory.

So in essence, legal ontologies aim to formally represent the conceptual structure, key elements, and relations that constitute the legal domain in a machine-readable way to improve legal knowledge management and reasoning.Key Points About Legal Ontologies
Check out a cool github repo here: https://github.com/Liquid-Legal-Institute/Legal-Ontologies

Writing a post about what strongly seems like a scam ( I don’t want to say it’s a scam for legal reasons but…) I am seeing a lot of my CS peers fall for this on linkedIn and I wanted to warn others to be weary.
The company goes by the name of Radical AI and was ALLEGEDLY (more on this below) founded by
Joseph F. Krause, LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/josephfkrause/
&&
Jorge Colindres, Linkedin:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcolindres/
&&
Gerbrand Ceder:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerbrand-ceder-9b1b5721/
This the company website:
https://lab.radicalai.app/
company linked in page:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/radicalai-li/about/
Job postings on their website (all unpaid):
https://lab.radicalai.app/careers/ai-engineer
https://lab.radicalai.app/careers/software-engineer https://lab.radicalai.app/careers/ai-product-manager
https://lab.radicalai.app/careers/ai-product-designer
Here is a LinkedIn job posting for an intern position (unpaid of course):
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/ai-engineer-intern-at-radical-ai-3921496808/
Allegedly claim to be a part of radical ventures which are a legit business:
https://radical.vc/teams/
But not listed as part of Radical Venture's companies:
https://radical.getro.com/companies
One of the "cofounders" of RadicalAI (Joseph F. Krause) posted this:
link to post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7193987173241520129/
"
Big update: I have co-founded a new company with Jorge Colindres and Gerbrand Ceder that is changing the way materials are designed, developed, and discovered through the integration of artificial intelligence, engineering, materials science, and applied research. Jorge and I bring deep expertise in materials science, engineering, and building technical teams, and Gerd is world-renowned for his pioneering research in high-throughput computational materials design, and in the development of autonomous labs for materials discovery. Radical’s goal is to build self-driving labs: from AI-generated materials to autonomous, high-throughput experimentation.
We are thrilled to be supported by Kevin Ryan and the AlleyCorp team, who bring world-class experience in starting, building, and investing in startups. We incubated Radical AI at AlleyCorp, and are excited to remain in their portfolio.
We are hiring: if you work at the intersection of machine learning and materials science, please reach out.
“
Interesting 😒 that they created this company recently but so did another guy: Talha Sabri (more him below) several years prior.
It seems this company use to go by the name of RadicalX but they became known for their scam and had to rebrand with new faces as the CEO. Here are some posts on the original company:
Here’s a post talking about how they used to be Radical x: https://www.reddit.com/csMajors/comments/1cno28c/radical_ai/
Some past reddit posts discussing RadicalX:
https://www.reddit.com/nyu/comments/wuclrb/what_is_radicalx/
https://www.reddit.com/csMajors/comments/1856knw/radicalx/
https://www.reddit.com/webdev/comments/17akjvh/wtf_has_this_ever_happened_to_you/
The radicalX CEO: Talha Sabri (typing out names so that if someone googles any of them, they see this post and are aware)
Seems to work with:
Areeb Tariq
Ines Prates
Yunus Jamal
some info I found on Talha: https://theorg.com/org/radicalx/org-chart/talha-sabri
AND Here is his linked in with RadicalAI as his job Listing himself as chairman and CEO: https://www.linkedin.com/in/talhasabri/
Interesting that Joseph, Jorge, and Gerbrand claim they started the company yet Talha also started it 7 years ago…. and yes it is the same company Talhas page links to the same company page as Joseph and Jorge. They have the same logo and they use the same shitty AI art (you would think 7 years would give them more time to better their blender skills).
Note that Talha continues to say he works there, but he also now works at a new company RealityAI. I’m guessing now Talha felt the need to expand his scamming under the name RealityAI. I don’t know if we will be seeing unpaid job postings for reality or if it is the final product under a different name so that people who will use the service will not know its background.
Here is Reality AI’s website: https://www.realityai.tech/
(Notice the same art as RadicalAI)
Also I found this. But, I am nsure if it has anything to do with any of this: https://listingspy.net/token/0x8b762ca4746b342d131b64670a3a3a866326fb46/
In conclusion, this honestly all seems really scammy and predatory. A friend told me they are promising visa’s and college credit to foreign workers/ students, I don’t know if they are actually going through with it, but if they aren’t it is extremely messed up and all of these people should be black listed.
As an aside i found this comment in another post about radicalx and thought it was good advice to keep this in mind
Taken from a comment by u/beginning-comedian-2:
Red flags in job interviews (and sometimes dating):

• They ask you to send money.
• They won't talk on the phone.
• They are very interested but never want to meet you.
• They require a 2-day take-home assignment before they'll get on the phone.
• "We're a fast-paced shop." (meaning you'll be working all hours.)
• When you ask what they like about working there, they say "the insurance".
• They want to pay you all in stock.
• All the devs have been there less than a year.
• Beds in the office.
• When you talk to ex-employees and they start with "It might be different now, but when I was there..."
• They say, "We're like family" (meaning, we'll likely expect more from you than 9-5 work.)
• "We often buy dinner for everyone as a perk." = you'll be working late.