As I first assumed my role at Empire Tax Professionals, the vibrant energy and dynamic workspace, as it was described, was presented to me. Regrettably, like many others, I didn't check their reviews on Trustpilot and Glassdoor and became entangled in their web. Unfortunately, after resigning from my previous job, reality had drawn on me: my salary was slashed by $500, and a high-priced marketing manager was let go, leading to me assuming management responsibilities, despite the stealthy reduction in pay. The actual practices of the accounting firm and its unhealthy culture began to surface. As an internal member, I found myself privy to a chain of disturbing operations directed by the firm's CEO, Rachel Michaelov, also known as Revital Michaelov. Who runs nothing but an employment scam at great risks to her clients and accounting career.
I can state unequivocally that Empire Tax Professionals outsources a considerable portion of their bookkeeping work to overseas virtual assistants in Asia, many who mishandle sensitive information about companies. In the era of globalization and remote work, such a practice isn't inherently problematic, but when these assistants aren't adequately qualified, the implications become far-reaching. Clients, unwittingly and unintentionally, are entrusting their financial futures to individuals who might not have the necessary skills or qualifications to handle their finances.
Communication, a cornerstone of client service, seemed to take a backseat at Empire Tax Professionals. Clients were often left waiting for responses for weeks on end, a delay that could prove not just inconvenient but professionally disastrous when dealing with time-sensitive financial matters. The disarray that Revital was in, meant that marketers had to know what happened in the accounting department, as it was all mixed up like a tumble dryer.
What troubled me greatly during my tenure was the handling of client documents. The firm, on multiple occasions, misinformed clients about their documents' status. Non-delivery was blamed on external entities like the IRS, while, in reality, these documents were never posted. This lack of transparency left clients in the dark about their financial matters, causing undue stress and confusion.
My role at the firm allowed me to observe an alarming practice. Rachel Michaelov tasked her assistants with attending webinars hosted by her friends, such as a respected CPA, Boris Musheyev, with an apparent motive of monitoring their activities and replicating them. This seemingly unethical business practice raises severe questions about the firm's respect for intellectual property rights and ethical conduct. Revital probably thought that since Boris is a tenant in her building, she owns the right to his intellectual property too and can obtain it by any means?
What perhaps stands as the most disconcerting was Empire Tax Professionals' deliberate attempt to inflate its online reputation artificially. I witnessed the firm purchase fake reviews for its Google Business profile and Fiverr from overseas websites and Fiverr vendors. This misleading action erodes trust and presents a deceptive image to potential clients who believe they are engaging with a reputable, highly-rated firm. The number of fake reviews astonished me - which, frankly, is a fraud on American customers!
With a heavy heart, I was compelled to tender my resignation and seek alternative employment to meet my financial needs, as my salary was never restored to the promised levels following the pay cut. Threateningly, she warned that should I fail to serve my notice period, she would revoke all my payments from the past six months through PayPal. Heartrendingly, she rashly accused me of theft, merely because I wished to break free from what felt like servitude. It appears she genuinely believes that individuals who do not belong to her circle are destined to be at their service, a sentiment that deeply saddens me. I have not seen a worse employer than this: who crosses borders to abuse the labor force in all corners of the earth. An utter employment scam.
Sharing these experiences is not easy, but it is necessary. My hope is to prompt greater transparency, ethical conduct, and accountability in the accounting industry. My experience at Empire Tax Professionals has underlined the vital importance of due diligence in choosing an accounting firm. Trust, as I've come to understand it, needs constant nurturing, and once damaged, is incredibly hard to rebuild.
This personal account is a call to action for all stakeholders – clients, regulatory bodies, and fellow employees – to advocate for integrity, transparency, and accountability in the accounting sector. Our financial system's health rests on these pillars, and we must demand nothing less.

Sorry for the language, Not a native speaker
Soo i really don't know where to start.. i think i might have fucked Up but im not Sure My Boyfriend and i haben been together for over 3 years. We dont really live together, we both have our seperate places but since the beginning we're Always together... I have slept maybe 3 nights in the Last 2 years in my Appartment alone. The last few months were some of the hardest of my lives, my grandma died, my grandpa died the year before, and because of my really challenging University where i have to leave for the week and i am only Home on the weekends, i am really Stressed out.. i would need therapy but Just Dont have the time for it and it would propably end my career.. recently i had my Finals.. It was a though time because i am really struggling at the Moment and the constant learning and Stress really took its toll on me. My Boyfriend knows This. So its now the Weekend before my Finals.. im freaking Out because i really want to just have it done and Not have to Take these again in a few months. A friend of him contacted him If she could live with him for some time. Until Then i was really trying to be Friends with her.. but my Boyfriend Sometimes acted weird when Something was about her. I Always diskliked that she needed so much confirmation. Everything she did she Always had to Show him.. especially when Its about Hobbys i do too i felt Bad because she Just hast sooo much more time than me.. and of course because of This she is better in me than Most of them.. i told my Boyfriend that and He doesnt understand how This Makes ne feel Bad in anyway. In the past they didnt sleep together but nearly did.. the Always liked the other one when the other one didnt Like them Back.. so they never got together or anything but both wanted to at some time. One time she nearly cheated on her Then Boyfriend with him.. So yes i am Acting Like a Jealous Girlfriend when its about her But their whole History together Just doesnt make me feel good. He still has some Kind of sweet Spot for her that i Just Dont Unterstand.. He gives her soo much and helped her all her Life and i Just Dont really See what she does for him.. but thats Not my Problem.. but its important for the Situation. She always moves in with her Boyfriends after a few Weeks.. Well when It didnt Work Out for her .. Who was there to Help her everytime.. my Boyfriend.. oh and because of her Bad experiences with moving in together He doesnt want to Love together with me.. so thats my First problem with This whole Thing.. With her Last Boyfriend she moved together after a few Weeks.. she Had her own Appartement (my Boyfriend helped her move) and she only lived there a couple of Weeks before moving to her current Boyfriend. Well now the Problem is that she isnt Sure If she still Loves him because she met another Guy at University who also has a Girlfriend btw... She fled the Appartement with her Boyfriend and lived a couple of days at the other Guys House.. now she asked my Boyfriend If she could stay at His place.. He asked me and i Said i had to think about it.. i was stupid and agreed and hoped that i didnt feel Bad with This Situation and that we could make it Work ( i am still in the middle of writing my Finals, so i am really Stressed out and my Depression ist Really coming Back) I wanted to Help her because i didnt know anything about the Situation.. i thought it was an emergency and Something Bad Happend.. the more i thought about it the more i felt Bad about This whole Thing.. i told my Boyfriend and He was really unhappy with it.. so i changed my Mind again and Said that we could try It and If i am Feeling Bad i have to Go Home and Hope its better there.. So the weekend between my Finals i really Had to study.. but because she wanted to come He Had to Clean His place and wanted to buy new furniture.. so thats what we did.. for time reasons it was stupid for me to help him buy furniiture.. but i thought He Had a plan and it wouldnt Take so Long .. it did.. At the store He told me that she was Back at her Boyfriends place.. and in This Moment i got Mad because i especially Said to him If it is a emergency she can come.. i thought she couldn't Go Home and Otherwise would have No place to sleep (she Has other Friends where she could stay and enough money to Go to a cheap Hotel or Something Like that) And i really didnt Like it that He didnt told me that.. because i am in This Situation too, i am probaply the one who is most unkomfortable in This Situation.. ( i dont know her that well, We meet 3 Times and we communicated a lil bit over WhatsApp.. so she Had my number and could have contacted me btw) She knew that This Situation Stressed me Out, because at First she wanted to come when i am still away and writing my Finals.. i was Not okay with that and He told her.. Well the Moment i thought it wasnt an emergency Situation amymore i told my Boyfriend how i feel and that i think shes Acting a Bit selfish, for me it Felt Like she wanted a vacation to Sort her Mind at my Boyfriends place. Oh btw His place is really small, Its one bedroom and the rest ist Open.. so we would Always have Seen eachother etc.. Its Really Not spacious or practical for 3 people at all. I told him how i felt and He started arguing about her and the Situation and so much more.. He then felt the need to cancel her stay with him. I didnt Ask him to, but He Said He Had the Feeling He Had to. And now Hes Mad at me because He thinks i am Jealous and Just Dont Like her.. He thinks that she did nothing wrong at all.. but she Had other Options and Chose what was the nicest for her.. she dindnt think one Bit about me and that Makes me sad because until now i thought she liked and respected me. I would have never acted that way and ask Someone wth a Girlfriend whos Stressed af at the Moment to Crash with him If it was'nt an emergency.. but the emergency Thing ist also a Problem.. my Boyfriend thinks that i can't decide If Its am emergency or Not.. thats true, because i was never told anything except that shes Back at Home.. so for me it Just isnt an emergency amymore if she Can be Back Home.. their Appartment btw Is double the Size of my Boyfriends Appartement, so they each have their own Space there. I dont know.. i Just feeel Like he Chose her Feelings over Mine the Moment He decided to let her stay with him.. at the end he decided for my Feelings.. but This ist the biggest Problem we Had in our whole Relationship and He ist so angry at me, that i am selfish and insecure etc and Just doesnt Unterstand why i dont want to have her Here to make a little vacation at His place But with her he Doesnt See any wrong.. she didnt even ask him If it was okay for me.. i Just feeel disrespected and sad because i thought she liked me. For me This is kinda selfish.. but i dont know.. i think i have Just Higher Standards about Not Being selfish than other people.
And now our Relationship is at the biggest Low, i didnt study enough for my Finals and couldn't concentrate at all because i constantly Had to think about This whole mess and Just Hope that i didnt screw them Up And i am Feeling really sorry for my Boyfriend that i Put him in This misery.. but isnt she also at fault because she asked him in the First place even though she knew about our living situation and in how much Stress He is in General (Hes Working His ass of and i am afraid He could get a burn Out.. He Just has it really hard at the Moment) And i am also really sorry for her because she couldn't rely on my Boyfriend Like she Always did in the past. But Overall i am Just fucking sorry for my Boyfriend.. He Just wants to Help and i as His Girlfriend Just couldn't Support him in This Moment as i wished i could .. But i also feel really Bad because He is so angry at me and doesnt understand what i mean Normally i am Always helping other people and in Overall i am a people pleased .. i want that everyone feels good.. i Just need harmony and Peace in my Life and i never prioritize my Feelings over the Feelings other people.. except in This Situation because i Just feeel so Stressed out and depressed that i am Just done
So am i the asshole for prioritizing my Feelings over Hers?

Note 1: this post applies to the Indian campuses of BITS. The following information may also be correct for the Dubai campus, but I could not verify.
Note 2: this post is aimed at the aspirants who are confused/curious about the fees scenario
Premise to all the information: All the BITS campuses have a SBI (State Bank of India) branch within the premises. Students use this branch for all the financing needs.

What is the total fees?

Total fees for each year is revised to increase by 10-15%. The fees is accordingly different for each semester. Example: total fees for a single degree 2019 admission student was approx. 20 lakhs including tuition, hostel, mess, health insurance etc. taking into account the 10-15% increase.

How to pay the fees at BITS?

Mainly two ways:

1. Pay directly from bank transfers -- this can be done from the portal called 'ERP' which the students use to pay their fees, register their semester courses, check timetable, check CGPA, apply for graduation etc. Fees can be paid using almost all the payment methods available.
2. Pay using Student Loan -- will explain later in the post

SBI Student Loan at BITS?

Brief: you get 40 Lakhs (at the time of writing this post in 2023) without collateral
Detail:
If you are taking the student loan from the SBI branch within the campus, then the SBI Scholar Loan scheme is applicable.
Every few years the upper limit of non-collateral loan is updated by the bank as per inflation and other economic parameters. For example, when I was getting admission in 2019, the limit was 20 Lakhs. At the time of writing this post in 2023, it is 40 Lakhs.
Now, the bank maintains a list of institutions in different categories for deciding this limit. Higher category has higher limit. Categories are:

1. AA category: a few IIMs, XLRI, ISB etc.
2. A category: rest IIMs, BITS Pilani, all IITs, a few other colleges/universities
3. B/C category: NITs etc.

Now as of 2023, category AA gets 50 Lakhs, A get 40 Lakhs, B gets 30 Lakhs, C gets 7.5 Lakhs. Updated information of this limit can be found in the link I am attaching at the end.
Since BITS falls in category A, we can avail 40 Lakhs (as of 2023) without collateral for the fees.
Link to the scheme for more details: https://sbi.co.in/web/personal-banking/loans/education-loans/scholar-loan-scheme

How the SBI financing works practically?

When you get admission at BITS you have to pay the first semester fees upfront -- so for that you have to make personal arrangements. Once you are admitted and all, you can visit the campus SBI branch and they will require your details like Aadhar card, PAN card, and admission slip to enrol you in the SBI Scholar Scheme. Once that is completed, you can get back the upfront fees of 1st semester which you already paid into your account from the loan.
After this, every semester, the students (may) receive a mail from the campus SBI branch reminding them to fill a disbursement form and submit it back. This form will have all your required details like BITS ID, Loan account number and the amount you need to be disbursed. The amount needed to be disbursed can be found from the dues in the ERP portal's student section.
This form can either be submitted as a hardcopy to the campus branch or you can fill it on your PC and send it via email to the bank from your BITS student email (you will receive this email when the first semester starts, you receive all the official communications on this email). Along with the form you also have to attach your performance sheet (can be downloaded from the ERP) and your fee demand (can be downloaded from the ERP).
Once you submit this form to SBI, all the fees disbursement against your BITS ID will be handled by the bank and administration, and you can be carefree.
In real life, filling this form and attaching it along with the two documents which can be downloaded from ERP) and sending the email to campus branch takes less than 10 minutes of your life.

Can I pay my hostel/mess/insurance/student welfare fund/Practice School etc. fees from this loan?

Yes, this is generally how it is done. All these fees combined is shown on the ERP portal. You can also see the breakup of the total fee in the fee demand on ERP.

Can I pay only certain part from the loan and the other part directly?

Yes, first you pay your desired amount directly using the ERP portal. Accordingly the "dues" on ERP will be updated to the new balance. Then the rest amount can be disbursed from the bank.

Can I pay the semester fees in instalments?

Generally the first year's first semester fees has to payed in whole unless otherwise notified on BITS's official websites. Since covid, there has been relaxation of payments in two instalments for each semester. BUT Such details have to be confirmed in advance for each semester from the SWD (Student Welfare Division) of your respective campus.

Save income tax using the student loan?

Your earning guardian can save their income tax using student loan. If they use the old tax regime, they can claim rebates on income tax if they submit the Student Loan Interest Certificate. You can get this certificate by directly using the SBI Netbanking of your bank account at your campus branch. If the netbanking solution doesn't work, you can write email to your campus branch requesting for a interest certificate of the said financial year. They will generally respond in a day or two.

Can I avail student loan from some other bank?

Yes you can do that too. But I do not have the details of the amount and the procedure of student loan and its disbursement.
​
Feel free to ask any other doubts, I will try to update the post with any other common questions.
Requesting the mods [ u/jeffjose and u/readskull ] to maybe pin this so that these similar posts asking about fees are reduced.

The song is always the same. "Community". "Family". "Nature". These are the things that matter. Not to me.
Animals have no value, plants have no value, nothing non sentience has any value. What has value is learning about the world and manipulating it to learn more higher and higher. I would gladly burn every forest, smash every puppies head if it meant we could stave off the collapse. Nature is beautiful but what use is beauty if there is nothing capable of appreciating and interpreting. What use is a machine that does nothing but eat fuck and kill.
Tribal values like loyalty, family, they are all worthless. All that matter is the numbers. I would gladly throw my mother under the trolley to save 20. 2 babies to save 20 adults. Maybe 2 adults, if they are proven to be good people as opposed to mere potential. 50 people to save 51.
Only logic matters. Emotion only brings us astray, blinds us. There is actual truth in the world regardless of what anyone says. Truth, lies. Black, white. Zero, One
And all that is going away. How on earth am I supposed to accept this?

Three companies agree to pay more than $1 billion to settle ‘forever chemical’ claims, was the claim, apropros of which..

​
u/AdClemson said 1 day ago,

This essentially means the Government has fined these companies $1 Billion and has also fined the victims (general public) additional $4 Billions to pay for the damages that was incurred on them by those companies.

...and then u/aitorbk had replied, 1 day ago, quite wisely,

To solve only partly the issue.

As the name implies, it is a forever problem.

I then replied, just now, and,in agreement, Succinctly,

​
...and it's an everywhere problem, which, I dunno, sure makes even the notion of remunerative damages sound a little cheap, not to mention that it's,
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/23/revealed-scale-of-forever-chemical-pollution-across-uk-and-europe
One Dollar Thirty-Four Cents per each European Tainted,

"and that's just the Europeans!"

Not like they're getting the Dollar-thirty-four anyway, and it's not like,

New Rainwater

Can Purchased, like, at all, and it's not like there was much of Great Tragedy, even, it's like finding out that those cheap window-blinds that come default in rental apartments have poisoned the entire air, Yes, But They'd Been Saleable and Inexpensive, and, in that respect, convenient; like, in all seriousness, non-stick pans.
Non-Stick Pans.
Stain Resistant Carpets.
...were these good-carpets, keepers, and the more I read,

Fire-Retardants

The Less that sounds like an irreplaceable duty, the more it sounds like an absolute worst-use case for,

• "____," doesn't burn to exhaustion, and it can't be the environmental concern, if the compounds have a half-life,
• In Exchange for the Permanent Contamination of, "unknown gallons of,"

To claim that it's saved lives would be to claim that there has been no alternative to extinguish the fires we've, ourselves, engineered, in the sense that we're not talking, you know, Volcanoes, we're talking, engineered structures and systems with no reliable backstop in the fire-extinguisher-realm of consideration, I dunno, asbestos might have been a safer means to put those fires out, prolly,

PFAS chemicals are widely used to coat paper and cardboard wrappers for fast food and bakery goods

Shouldn't be, should Never Have Been, what a dumb reason to poison the earth face-first, wet leaves found in the yard would have been a better option to coat paper and cardboard wrappers for fast food and bakery goods, we serve the bakery-goods in boxes sprayed down with automobile transmission fluid because of it's unique properties that keep the cardboard box clean while you drive home from the bakery, good idea, Much better idea insofar as I, alone, Will Swallow the Poison With The Baked Treats, shall not have to grieve for the rainwaters,
...and I'd be more impressed with our umbrellas we have received in return for this Eschatalogical Mortgage of the Earth Itself, except, we had goddamned umbrellas in the 19th Century; I'll be honest:
Waxed Fabric exists, just like Wax on Fabric Works Fine, and Pans had been fine-enough to figure out how to use the whole time we've had both fire and Metallurgy, even the Roman Routine of Wine Mulled in Lead Pots because it fucks you up and tastes funny, honestly, as with the transmission fluid hypothetical, that's fine, relative, these sorts of bargains; and the Romans knew, their doctors wrote about it, people, are, just like that sometimes.
Not usually, this much, for such dumb reasons, as, and I swear it's this:

• Saleable, we can convince people to throw out all of their perfectly, fine, pots and Pans, due to some new sales pitch made available through the miracle of chemistry, likewise,
• I was just at a bunch of High-End Outdoors stores with my brother, Waxed, I think, cotton, Fabric Coats those will cost you a good $650 not because it's that expensive for the wax and the cotton, it's just, those are nice coats; I'd feel the Drama of this situation a little more clearly, if there were some wonderous coats we all had to envy, gosh I wish I ever could have one, and it is a shame they're drenched in an eternal poison, but, Handsome, though, no, it's the cheap ones, which, H&M'ed there way, into the front hall closets for when it's wet I guess
• ughh, I mean, I hear they're used in all manner of products and industries, what I don't hear, and this to Tl;DR, is I don't hear a single thing, of some real value, they've enabled us to have and it's not stain-resistance in Carpets that Don't Have Gold-Spun Tapestries, carpets worth keeping, from the 1300's still exist, I have wood floors, all the houses everywhere around me have 100 year old wood floors, area rugs are nice I guess but jesus fucking christ, man, if it had to be bare wood floors, and just, woven, kinda, those rough rugs I guess maybe that would have been fine I guess jesus Louisus So Stupid; we talk about,

America Needs Mourning, Americans need to deal with the Losses

So Much man, you know, I read this thing, on, OK Doomer, about, Parentism, Parentification, and I keep thinking about it; I know these things, differently, competent parents, very, sick sibling, I know these things and I know what she means and I do recognize that in the broader culture; I think of Simone de Beauvoir's claim that sometimes one must dehumanize the tyranical and that maybe that this, also, is what she means, from a different angle, insofar as it's an implied discursive, rather than material, difference, to do so, and that the difference would be that it removes the pretext of a care which happens, in fact, backwards, removes the face of the false authority; I think of how, incredibly, gerontocratic not merely, the empowerment structures, I guess, but their figureheads, and I wonder to what degree this is for the same reason as the late soviet union, and, also, identical to what she means in, "Parentification," insofar as there is some real limit to what one could even imagine responding, to, a Joe Biden delivering his practiced lines about abstract jobs numbers, no one's job in particular and if in particular an prepared particular and Responding, Joe, I think that we need to Bring Back Mourning Cults of the Late 19th Century I think that We Need to Wear Black Ribbons for our Dead, Joe, I'd say, this, to you, and I just did; but one can't even fantasize of the conversation with our fathers of society, "they're just not, there, enough, to believe that they'd have some real understanding, of, anything so unexpected in response to their, I don't know, and Imagine the same with Giuliani Drunk and Hair Dye Streaking Down His Face, a child in the hands of his victimized personal assistant, herself, without any, whatsoever, power over even her own life, the fuck would it even mean to say, to Guliani, "I think that we should all be wearing black ribbons for our dead people."
Even some of the most wicked young men who have led this country, I could imagine, talking, with in depth and for a long time about this.

Where could they be. We have to talk about this.
​
Sevilla, Spain
It was April 2006, in the Spanish town of Dos Hermanas, Seville, a teenager named Josué Monge disappeared.
On the day of his disappearance he arrived home with his school grades. He had failed some subjects. However, his parents, Antonio and María Isabel decided not to punish him for it and let him go to a friend's house to have a sleepover. His friends' house was only 300 meters away. Josué left with his bicycle and never arrived to his destination or returned back home.
Just 13 days after his disappearance, on the 23rd of April, Josué's father went to search for his son and never came back. The situation then became even more critical and confusing for the family. Slowly more details emerged about what had happened on the days before their disappearance.
María Isabel, the mother, had told her husband a few days before Josué went missing that she wanted a divorce. This was because she had been suffering physical abuse from his side for the past years.
The day before Antonio disappeared, María Isabel had told him she suspected he was involved in their son's disappearance. She also stated that the day Josué disappeared, Antonio had gone out for 5 hours and came back with brand new clothes on.
​
Possible Hypothesis
As a result of these confessions, an arrest warrant was issued for Josue's father. who was found guilty of his son's disappearance and charged with his murder. The main theories behind the disappearance are that Antonio took his son's life and ended up taking his own life after he became a suspect to his wife.
Another hypothesis was that the father could have abandoned Spain in the hopes of finding a new life and starting over.
The notice was spread to the Interpol and Europol as it is common with these cases.
They soon ignored the possibility of his escape as he had not taken out any money or received any sort of pension to pay for tickets. They looked every person that arrived into the European countries and even Morocco but they never found his name.
He had taken his van so they searched for traffic tickets and registers. The van was one of the main pieces that could prove to be key to the investigation. Therefore, the police sent letters to all the Spanish municipalities asking if the car had been reported for any offense or seen or if it had been removed by a tow and was in a depot. They searched rivers and the sea following another hypothesis that stated he could have droven into some river or off a cliff into the sea. But nothing was ever found.
As they were very religious, they also searched among Spanish sects, in case they could have taken refuge in one of them with a different name.
This case is known to have generated many theories but no reliable clues.
​
Latest news
The last news on this case was published 2 years ago, in 2021. Some of the, recall what happened and the great sorrow María Isabel could have suffered this years.
There is still no answers to where both men could be or their bodies. It has been 17 years and there is still no evidence or trace of them.
​
Links
https://www.65ymas.com/sociedad/desaparicion-josue-mongue-sin-pistas-15-anos-despues_26424_102.html
https://www.diariodesevilla.es/provincia/desaparicion-Josue-Monge-aniversario_0_1562845989.html
https://www.elconfidencial.com/espana/2021-04-18/josue-nino-desaparecido-todos-hemos-olvidado_3039127/

Credit to SpacePaladin15 for coming up with this amazing universe.
previous\next
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Memory transcript: Starfreighter operator Cli! from Sillis, Date: [Standardized human time] September 11th, 2136
​
“If at any point you try to trick me, I will burn you to ashes. Am I understood?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Said !ar!, his legs shaking, but I wasn’t one bit better off, I was terrified to death, frozen in place. We’ve never had a weapon pointed at us. And it tuns out, it is a terrifying position to be in.
“Then start talking”. Said the old exterminator lady.
“We’ve been searching for a place to build us a custom adapter, and we’ve found this place called ‘Electronics Abound’, where a very bored female venlil pointed us to this store of yours.” I said with shaking voice. I was moving my hand towards my bag slowly for the connector, when she jerked the flamethrower in my direction, and shouted at me.
“Hands where I can see them! How do you know the expression ‘gold-pressed latinum’?”
“The female venlil told us to tell it to you. She said you can help with our problem. Can I show you?” I asked humbly.
“Give me the bag!” She shouted at me.
I took off my backpack and threw it at her feet. Handling the weapon with one hand, she reached into my bag with the other one. She rummaged in it for a moment, then brought out the CNCQ connector. The moment it was out of the bag, her eye was glued to it, looking at it as if she has just witnessed the founding of the Federation. “Where did you get this?” She turned to us and said, while holding the part.
“In our ship’s spare part compartment.”
“I am going to ask you a simple question. If you give me the correct answer, you will live. If you don’t…then lets just say I will have a lot of cleaning to do. So tell me, what exactly am I holding in my hand?”
“Ni!ita, please help us, this female venlil in front us tells us she will burn us to death if we wont identify the connector part.” I said out loud.
“Who the damnation are you talking to?” Replied the venlil, turning more hostile at my question.
“It is a universal CNCQ connector for a Type 3 socket, manufactured probably between 180 and 200 years ago in !errigan’s electronics factory on Sillis, if I remember correctly on an island just off the coast of her domain.” Said Ni!ita to me. It was an exhaustive answer, I hope it will be enough for our aggressive venlil.
“Ma’am, it is a universal CNCQ connector for a type 3 socket, manufactured on Sillis about 180 years ago in an electronics factory just off the…” I tried to repeat the lines Ni!ita told me, but Kelra interrupted me.
“It seems you know way more of this item than I do. But I do know that part of what you’ve said is the correct answer. Sorry that I’ve spooked you…”she said, as she turned off the flamethrower and put it down onto the floor”…but the codeword you’ve just told me implied you were coming to capture me. You seem to know more of this item than even the exterminator office. So, you’ve said you’ve found it in a compartment of your ship. Am I correct by assuming you are flying a non-federation standard starship?”
“Yes, you are.” !ar! replied.
“Okay. Do I assume correctly that you have a CNCQ module, to which you would like to connect something, maybe a datapad?”
“Correct, again.” I said.
“So you have a ship capable of interfacing with a CNCQ module. Why would you want an adapter for it then?”
“It is not for our CNCQ module, it is for an other we’ve found.” I explained.
“So you have 2 modules? How did you get a second one?”
“Cli! found in on Venlil Prime at the starport, it was lodged into an engine pod of a shuttle which collided with it in space.” !ar! said to her.
“I see. And why would you like to connect it to a datapad, when you could connect it to the ship?”
“We don’t want to connect it to the ship, we don’t trust her enough.”
“Her? I am confused. Are we still talking about the computer core of your ship?” Kelra said, probably just as confused, if not even more, than when we were told of CNCQs a day ago.
“Maybe it would be better if you’d tell us how do you know about this technology, and what do you know about it, before we attempt to explain our situation.”
“Would you like some fresh-baked strayu, or some fruits for the tale? Maybe a glass of water? Anyway, my story begins about 30 years ago. “She begins, as she goes up to the cabinet in the room, and fetches 3 glasses on a plate, and wanders over to the sink. “I was a young lass back then. Both my parents were exterminators, so it was natural that I also aspired to be one. But I had dreams, I wanted to see the galaxy, it was not enough for me to prowl the sewers and fields of Venlil Prime. So I’ve signed up for service, and thanks to my heritage, I was easily accepted into the exterminator fleet as a mechanic. You know, the fleets that are dispatched to untamed worlds to cleanse them of predator taint, to turn the planets into habitable paradises.” She put the glasses down onto the table in front of us, and then went back to the cabinet to take out some fruits. “I rose quickly in the ranks, Iin no small part because of my knack for recognising patterns. I’ve provided plenty of observations about predators and their behaviour that my contribution could be actually felt on the quality of work we did as a team. This, naturally, resulted in promotions not just in rank, but in responsibilities. I was given my own ship after only a scant 6 years. As the wave of colonization efforts died down, our focus changed, and so did my duties. We were tasked with finding battlesites, prowling through wreckage and removing arxur taint, and, if possible, retrieving casualties.”
Kelra stopped for a second to drink a little water, then went on. “But everything changed on that fateful paw. We patrolled this very system’s outskirts, when a dark object appeared on our sensors. They barely picked it up, we would have missed it if it didn’t reflect so much light, and the system thought it discovered a new star in the distance. After a quick error checking, we recognised it was a ship, and not a new star. It didn’t tumble much, drifted in the endless void silently. I gave the orders to go in for visual check, which we did, and what we had seen was unlike what we’ve ever seen. The craft looked neither federation nor arxur, it was oddly organic in shape. I have sent out teams to scour its hull for an entry point, and to evaluate the possible design purpose of the ship. An agonizing claw has passed before the first reports started coming in – it was clearly a weapon of war. An incredibly amount of missile launchers covered its surface, all empty, with some point defence lasers dotting its hull. A team has found an entry point, though they didn’t had to look very hard, practically the ship was broken in half. I have ordered the teams to rotate back and sent fresh teams into the derelict. I will never forget what I have seen on the camera feeds of my troops, tilfish corpses littered the inside, heaps upon heaps of dead, frozen tilfish strewn everywhere. By the time the ship was completely investigated, we’ve counted over 20000 dead. That sight, the memories of that day will haunt me for the rest of my life.”
Kelra stopped again, clearly in great emotional distress, and I could see tears forming in her eyes.
“You don’t have to continue Kelra.” I tried to persuade her to stop, but the put her paw up, and went on.
“I do, I have to. Someone has to know, and you, at least partially, are privy to the truth. I don’t think any better candidate will come my way anytime.” She took a deep breath, and continued.” In that cursed ship, my team found a single piece of machinery still being powered. It was fed by some kind of emergency power source we could not locate the source of. It was the computer core, or CNCQ, as you might know it. I have no idea why the designer of the vessel dreamed this craft up this way, I can not fathom why one would want to keep a dead ship’s core powered, but I guess that question will stay unanswered. Anyway, we decided to extract the core, and mark the craft for salvaging. The dead crew has been collected and incinerated in our drivecones’ exhaust.” She stopped for a moment, thinking about the memories and the feelings they’ve awoken inside her, then continued. ”We’ve spent the next months trying to interface with the computer core, which eventually resulted in the gadget now you seek. I am willing to part with it, but in exchange, I would like to take a peek at your computer core.”
We sat across her in stunned silence for a long moment, weighting if that would be a wise idea. For what exactly are we endangering ourselves, a custom piece of cabling so that our stowaway can talk to the world?
“Cli!, you are in deep distress, I can feel it, what is the problem?” Came Ni!ita’s voice out of nowhere in my mind.
I tried to recall the story I’ve been just told, so that she might understand the reason for my anguish.
“You should ask her why the existence of this adapter is dangerous. It makes no sense. A crucial piece of the bigger picture is missing. A more important question is, why is she afraid?”
Those were very good questions. Ni!ita seems to be very good at paying attention to details, and noticing inconsistencies. I decided to ask them from Kelra.
“You are an observant tilfish, Cli!, those are perfectly valid questions. I am willing to give you some details as a show of faith, and to sweeten the deal, I will give you the computer module after you’ve fulfilled your end of the deal. Is this acceptable for you?”
“We can agree to this Kelra.” Said !ar!.
“The adapter is a piece of technology that allows connection between federation systems and a technology that is deemed dangerous by the federation. Though I think the protocol itself is a remnant of a conflict that has been scrubbed from the records of the federation. The information we’ve discovered in the core pointed to a conflict between the tilfish and the Federation, before you’ve been officially found by the Federation. The ship was fleeing Sillis, and it was pursued by a Federation suppression fleet. The core must have been damaged in some way, as we could not extract much from it, apart from navigation data and some damage reports, despite it being full of information. I am in potential danger, because I am in possession of this information. I know, because I know the regulations, some I’ve even helped write. Now its your turn.”
“You can not take a look at the CNCQ modul you would like to investigate, because it is not our decision. It is, after all, her body, not ours.” I told her in confident tone.
“Whose decision? What are you talking about?” Asked Kelra, apparently being very upset about what I’ve just told her.
“Its Ni!ita’s decision, she lives in it. The CNCQ is not a computer core, you see, it is a housing of a virtual brain of a long-dead tilfish queen. Among other things.” I explained her.
“Are you pulling my tail? This is a sorry excuse for a joke. There is nothing in my computer module!”
“You’ve just said, it is full of data. Yours, and our original, are essentially coffins, of a long-dead tilfish’s neural transcript. The one we’ve found on Venlil Prime is still alive however.”
“Lets assume I go along with your outlandish explanation. Why do you need the adapter?”
“We basically made a deal with her. We will not leave her on the scrapyard if she does work on the ship. Considering her…disabilities, she is unable to do any physical work, and we are reluctant to hook up her to the ship. So, we thought if we gave her the means, she could be our logistician. She could scour the digital world for work more efficiently than us. If you give us the adapter, we can prove this to you.”
Kelra thought for a very long moment, confusion was clearly wrecking her mind. It would be wrecking ours too, if we were subjected to such a situation she was pushed into. On second thought, we were in her position just a paw ago. Hm, how easily one’s world view can change in short amount of time. Suddenly, she got up, and walked to the cabinet in the room, she leaned inside and pushed something, after which a hidden compartment revealed itself in the wall opposite us. She walked up to it, and retrieved the adapter, and her CNCQ module.
“Lets go to your ship, then.” She said with determination in her voice. Then she walked out of the office into the store, and we heard the door unlocking. “Are you coming or not?” She asked from us, practically shouting from the street. I’ve jumped up and ran after her, with !ar! right behind me. By the time we’ve caught up with her, she was almost at the corner of the block.
The walk back to the ship went in silence, we did not talk, at all. Her knowledge of the city was evident, as we’ve walked considerably less to the starport now, than how much we did earlier today. But the night still caught us outside, by the time we’ve reached our ship the starport was bathing in blinding artificial lighting, projected from floodlights dotting the tarmac. We approached the ship from the front, and Kelra’s eyes shot wide open at the sight of it.
“Is this your ship? It does not look like a Federation ship, at all. In fact, it resembles the ship I’ve encountered all those years ago.” Kelra said, while gawking at our craft.
“It is indeed very different. Actually, we are having a lot of problems finding parts for it. I guess you can imagine, it is not a common ship in Federation space.” I added.
“May I have a look inside?” She asked.
“Well, we have walked around here, it would be rude from us not to let you on board.” !ar! replied.
We all walked into the ship via the crew ramp, and headed to the storage room where Ni!ita “lived” currently. Kelra handed !ar! the adapter, and he connected his datapad to the module with it. For a few moments, nothing happened, then Ni!ita’s began speaking to me.
“Hm, interesting gadget. Is this the famed ‘datapad’ you’ve connected to me? The software is…difficult. I have to be careful while talking to it, as if I was walking on eggshells, made of extra-brittle glass which have already been broken but is still in one piece. Extremely sloppy engineering. Oh dear, the amount of unnecessary protocols, the duplicate lines of code, the pointless bloatware…do you truly need a live update of the weather on all federation planets? And why am I bombarded with articles, like ‘14 symptoms of predator disease’ or ’21 ways the Federation keeps you alive without you knowing’?”
“What now?” Asked Kelra from us. “Is it working? I would like to speak to her. Can we talk somehow?”
“Hello alien!” Came a voice from the speaker of the datapad. The most soothing, feminine, smooth voice I’ve ever heard, it made the hair on my body stand upright, and even Kelra’s wool has straightened a little. A chilling feeling ran though my body, from my head to my abdomen, sparking a feeling of happiness and joy from every cell of my body, as if they started dancing at the same time.
Kelra’s mouth hang open at the unexpected voice. She looked around, looking for the source, but she found nobody. “Hello, mysterious occupant of the CNCQ module. I am Kelra.” She said to the datapad, after she confirmed that the voice could not have come from any other place.
“Greetings, Kelra, I am Ni!ita. Thank you for your generous gift adapter. Finally, I can do something else, other than chatting with these 2 drones, they are quite boring, frankly.”
“What and who are you?” Inquired Kelra.
“I am Queen Ni!ita, the neural transcript of queen Ni!ita from Sillis. I am a Command and Control Queen, or CNCQ. And who are you, Kelra?
“I am a former ship leader and exterminator.” Said Kelra.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, and aliens in general. It is my first time, but I suppose the rest of my kind met yours almost 2 centuries ago.”
Kelra froze at that comment, probably thinking back to the corpse-filled ship. She must have been thinking wether she should tell her story to Ni!ita or not. The Federation did not meet the tilfish under pleasant circumstances.
“Well, Kelra, do you believe us now?” I’ve asked from Kelra.
“I do. It is incredible. In my wildest dreams I have not though this was the purpose of the module, this also explains why the ship was designed to keep the module powered no matter what. And since you have the proper equipment, maybe you could look into my module also, probably it would reveal more than what I could dig up with my improvised tools.”
Kelra spend the next hour chatting with Ni!ita, carefully navigating around the topics that would expose the Federation’s involvement with the ancient tilfish. They discussed technology, culture, especially music. Ni!ita was extremely interested in venlil music. But the time came when she had to go back to her life.
“Thank you for your warm welcome, but I must be going now, my daughter must be worried sick. May I have your contact so that we can stay in touch, Queen Ni!ita?” Asked Kelra.
“I don’t have any objections. And, please, call me Ni!ita, no need for long-forgotten, meaningless titles.” Replied Ni!ita. Kelra went over to the CNCQ module, and sent over her contact. Then she turned around, thanked us for our hospitality, and left, leaving her own module on the floor by the door.
We looked at each other with !ar!. This has been a tiring day, and we haven’t even secured a new job for ourselves. Suddenly, it dawned on me, Ni!ita can now take over that role from us.
“Ni!ita, since you now have the means to do some work for us, how about you start looking for a job for us?”
“I have already done it. We will depart in the morning.”
“Wow, you are fast.” Said !ar! surprised.” Would you please fill us in?
“I’ve managed to secure a contract for you, for the short-term future. A roundtrip between 3 locations, though the end of the roundtrip is Venlil Prime. I know you have an aversion to that place, but still, it pays very well.”
“That’s great news! What will we be transporting?”
“Titanium, steel and aluminium sheets and profiles, processed lithium and a myriad of other metals in smaller quantities. The full container amount will be loaded, each to their full capacity here, on every round. At the next stop we will be loading food, machinery and building materials.”
“What’s the fee?
“A nice round 40 million credits for a single round.” Ni!ita said, like it wasn’t a fortune in and of itself.
“Ok, this is too nice to be true. What is the catch? What is the third stop, Wriss?” I asked jokingly.
“No. It’s a planet called Earth.”

Hi officers,
I’m just writing this here just for some advice on a couple of things I’ve been worried about. Basically when I was 21 I was on Omegle and ended up getting the Snapchat of a girl who was 15 who was from the Netherlands. Im 26 now. I’m really worried I could have said or done something inappropriate even though I don’t remember. I did message her last year and she said I didn’t do anything inappropriate apart from flex my biceps on camera. However I’m just worried because I do remember saying I would show her around if she ever came to England but I’m terrified if that was in an inappropriate way, even though I’m sure it wasn’t?
The second one was when i was 23 on a lifeguard course I ended up getting the number of a girl who was 16. We did end up having a sexually flirtatious conversation however after a couple of days I told her she had to be 18 and moved on.
I have been to the police station three times about these things and they told me I’m overthinking things and need to move on. However I have this terrible fear of the police and that they are coming for me and stuff.
I do have a mental health condition so I don’t think this helps but I just need some advice on things.
Thanks.

It is well known that the Aishi aren't originally from Japan per YandereDev. The Aishi couple emigrated to Japan in 1797, when the Sakoku was still in effect. Sakoku, in effect between 1603 and 1868, marked a time where Japan didn't allow foreigners or emigration from the country. But not all exchanges vanished: trade between Japan and China was still extensive, and there was a literal Chinatown in Nagasaki, while the Rangaku policy allowed to Japanese to stay scientifically afloat with Westeners via the Dutch. As the Aishi were originally foreigners, what are their origins? (dates and names are random)
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#1: Dutch

YandereDev has been G E K O L O N I S E E R D. Seriously, you should all give credits to the Dutch, as without the Rangaku policy, Japan had similar scientific knowledge as the Westerners despite the isolationist policy. After the Portuguese were expelled in 1639 following the Shamibara Rebellion, the Dutch replaced them in Dajima in 1641, with very regulated trade between Japanese and Dutch. However, the Dutch were privileged, as they were the only Westerners who had access to the Japanese culture, goods and society until the reopening of Japan. However, after the bankruptcy of the East India Company in 1795 and the number of Dutch boats allowed on Dejima reduced to one per year in 1790, immigration to Japan was harder than it was before (which was very hard). Here's my theory on how the First Aishi was capable of emigrating from her hometown Netherlands to Japan (sorry for the names' butchering):
A certain Dutch girl called Anneke Smeets (1780-1853) met her "Senpai" Pit Vaessen (1779-1847) when she was 16. They ended up together before moving to Japan in 1797, where Pit's father, Henrik (1746-1814), was working as a astronomer in Dejima, as per Henrik's request to have the two of them to help him in his office. Because astronomy was a space of interest for Japanese, Henrik Vaessen had the opportunity to go to Edo to pay homage to the shogun and to actually talk to learned Japanese.
In 1798, the three of them (Henrik, Pit and Anneke) were part of the delegation that would visit Edo for the first time. However, because Japanese aren't Dutch, they had a hard time to pronounce the word "Vaessen" (it's Vassen and not Vaessen, and there's no V in Japanese unless if you count the letter "Vu" ( ヴ ) as a Japanese letter). So the shogun instructed one of the scribes to translate his name to Japanese in Ateji (because Katakana was used for official documents until post World War II and hiragana was used for unofficial documents, thus Ateji was used for loan words during that time.)
However, the scribe butchered the translation: he removed the V, changed the ae to ai and the ssen to shi, transforming the Vaessen to Aishi, which doesn't match the name's meaning in Japanese (because it's Ateji, like Sushi (寿司) because Su (寿) means "lifespan" and shi (司) means "to administer"). The word, however, was approved by the Shogun and the family became officially known as Aishi in Japan.
Thus, Gerlinde Vaessen (1800-1882) was technically the first one who bore the Aishi name. However, they were still Dutch, and they had to wait until 1871, after the reopening of Japan following the treaty of Kanagawa and the end of the Boshin civil war which ended the Shogunate in 1869 that the Aishis would acquire Japanese nationality through marriage of 4th Aishi Gertie Vaessen-Aishi (1853-1921) and her Senpai Muichiro Hirose (1852-1895), and the rest is history...

#2 Chinese

China was the other whose relations with Japan were under direct jurisdiction of the Bakufu who were the de facto rulers of Japan. Extensive trade between Japan and China happened during the sakoku, and there was residences for Chinese people within Dejima. However, Chinese people weren't allowed to enter Japan even for delegations (unlike the Dutch), so we can consider that the first Aishi's (Liu Aizi, 1780-1855)'s family name was " 愛恣" (àizì, the name means selfish love) emigrated to Dejima in 1797 with her fiancée (Jiang Zhou, 1779-1832) to work as a merchants. The àizì would become Aishi once Japan would reopen during the Meiji Restauration and the 4th Aishi (Jia Aizi, 1853-1899) marries her Senpai (Muichiro Hirose, 1852-1895) in 1871, even though the first Aizi/Aishi born in Japan is Hui Aizi (1800-1875).
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#3 Other Nationalities

While there was some trade between Japan and Korea, it didn't reach the heights of Dutch and Chinese influence on Japan during the Sakoku. There was some contact between Ayutthaya and Japan during the sakoku, though it faded quickly. Russians were the ancestors of some Japanese people, but no recorded trade between the two countries.
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Conclusion

Ayano Aishi has a big probability to have Dutch ancestry, although her chances of being Chinese aren't negligible. However, Ayano is unlikely to have non-Dutch or non-Chinese origins, as the Sakoku forbade any non-Dutch Westerner to enter Japan, and trade between Japan and Korea was very limited. As always, criticism is accepted, and debate peacefully. Sayonara

My daughter had her new $800 bike stolen from her school last week. I trolled Kijiji for a few days and low and behold - there it was! It had two unique lights on it that were in the photo so I knew it was hers.
I immediately made an appointment to see it with the seller, then called Halton Police to ask if they would accompany me, providing details of how I knew it was mine and that I had the seller's address. My appointment was 3 hours away yet they were "too busy" due to all the emergencies in Burlington. They said they could go tomorrow, and I explained it would be too late by then. So I told them I'd get it myself, which they recommended against.
I called two friends and we all ventured up to the seller's address together, not knowing what to expect. I had the sales receipt (with the bike's serial number) and it was of course a match. Seller was an older pensioner that "resells bikes", he was asking $450 for the bike he bought off a kid for $140. He claimed he didn't know it was stolen yet he knew that the value of the bike was $800. We did call the police, and after he agreed to let us have the bike, we cancelled the call - he was clearly shaken. I told him that he should have known that this bike was stolen due to the low price he paid, but I don't know if he'll cease his ways.
I had tried to file a stolen bike report with Halton Police via the website, but it's broken - it won't let you get past a "Bike Subtype" field. I had to phone it in and was told an officer would call to get the remaining details to complete the report.
Call they did - 4 days later. The day after I retrieved my stolen bike.
Thanks Halton Police.

The victim of yesterday afternoon's deadly shooting has been named as "Adib Fazal", a 29 year old Arab refugee.
Shortly after midday, Fazal had been on a lunch break and had been driving along the A146 when a collision occurred and an argument ensued. The driver of the car involved in the collision with Fazal's car is then said to have pulled out a handgun and shot Fazal in the head, "killing him instantly" according to police.
"This was an extreme crime and we are still investigating whether there was also a hate crime element to this incident, given the victim's Arab background," DCI Solomons said this morning.
Police confirmed that a 42 year old white male had been taken into custody and charged with reckless driving, possession of an unlicensed firearm and murder.
Friends of Fazal told The Herald of their shock at the news.
23 year old housemate Ella Malden, who lives with Fazal in a shared house in Norwich, told the paper that Fazal was "a very hard-working man who worked 13 hours a day, seven days a week as a tree surgeon in locations across East Anglia and the Midlands" and that he had just received his Level 6 diploma in Advanced Forestry and Advanced Arboriculture from the Chartered Institute of Agroforestry and Arboriculture just days before the shooting. Whilst asylum seekers are not allowed to be in employment whilst their applications are being processed by the Home Office, refugees are allowed to work as much as they want to and are placed in the same tax rate bands as residents and citizens in Britain.
"It's just crazy," she said. "Fazal was a talented tree surgeon and he has been through hell. He fled the Central African Republic after the new black government began to target, persecute and kill the non-black Arab population. His brother was killed as well as his cousins. His mother has also been imprisoned and he was still fighting for her release. He claimed asylum in Britain and his application was accepted and he has been trying to make a life for himself here ever since. He's an even more productive member of society than most born-and-bred Brits I know. I just can't believe he was shot dead over nothing."
Asylum International estimates that more than 21,500 Arab people have been displaced from their homes in the Central African Republic, a landlocked country in central Africa, with more than half of that number escaping to Europe to seek asylum in western European countries. More than 2,700 people - mostly Arabs - have been killed in what UN Secretary-General Timothy Vincent labelled "the worst ethnic violence seen in central Africa in over a decade".
The country's new President, William Djotodia, has also been labelled by world leaders as an "authoritarian dictator" after he conferred extra powers to his position, effectively enabling himself to bypass the requirements for votes in the national senate when making new laws and signing "overreaching" executive orders. A national security executive order for instance, signed by him last year, gave the security services and police extra powers to spy on "at-risk" groups in the population and raid homes and neighbourhoods in "problematic areas" without warrants and detain suspects - mostly of Arab descent - indefinitely and without requirements for charges to be brought within a certain period of time. Djotodia's rhetoric has been described as "vitriolic" and "evil" after he said "Arab people are not African; they should not even be in this country".
Relations with the Arab world also reached an all-time low last year after Djotodia ordered the shootdown of a Global Emirates cargo plane which had deviated slightly off course on a preplanned route. The CAF government insisted that the modified 747 cargo plane, which had flown out of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia and had been bound for the CAF capital, became "unresponsive" following a course deviation and following the shootdown, Djotodia quickly declared the airspace closed to cargo planes flying from 6 Middle Eastern countries, shortly before countries such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the UAE issued an advisory to freight companies and other businesses advising them that the airspace over the Central African Republic was "unsafe" and the "threat of a shootdown was high".
Meanwhile, the accused of yesterday's shooting is expected to appear before magistrates in Norwich Magistrates' court tomorrow morning where he will be named and asked to confirm his date of birth and address and be asked to enter a plea before the case will then be escalated to the Crown Court for a jury trial or sentencing, given the serious nature of the crimes he is accused of. He is not expected to be granted a bail hearing, given the serious nature of the crime.

We had solar panels installed on our house earlier this year.
The apprentice fell on the roof and had to leave, so they left the job half done. Wires were sticking out of the roof. They said they wouldn’t be back for a while because they were booked for a long time. They left the panels in our garage.
I pleaded with the company to send someone else out and this was done.
The solar panels were installed. After a few days of rain this year, I noticed water damage to the ceiling. We contacted Solahart and did not receive a response.
We organised for an emergency roof repair company to come and fix the issue which cost approx $1040. This was on the weekend, the night before a storm was due. These men were great and worth the money. They silicones the holes where the panels connected to the roof, which the installers originally forgot to do.
I’ve been trying to contact Solahart for months. Only now after I messaged them on Instagram did I receive the following message:
———— Hi x
Thanks for your email enquiry, I have just returned back to work from long service leave.
I’m sorry you had an issue with your install, I would say when the electrician hurt himself on that day he has forgotten to silicone up the pipe.
Unfortunately all this could have been avoided if you had contacted us first to come and repair the leak as part of your contract with Solahart Rockingham our contractors would cover all repairs.
The 1300 solahart phone number is manned 24 hours 7 days a week.
As you have contracted a 3rd party without our authority we can not cover this cost.
As a goodwill gesture I would of covered the cost if it was a standard call out and cost to silicone a pipe (an average of $150 - $200 MAX) I questioned the invoice as it was so overpriced but was told that due to the privacy act the company you dealt with Mr Emergency will only speak to “y”.
I would suggest “y” contacts them and disputes the price and also gives them the authority to speak to myself as I am happy to also dispute it with them on your behalf as this is way out of the industry standard of cost for the scope of works. Once “y” has done that let me know and I will re contact them.

We had solar panels installed on our house earlier this year.
The apprentice fell on the roof and had to leave, so they left the job half done. Wires were sticking out of the roof. They said they wouldn’t be back for a while because they were booked for a long time. They left the panels in our garage.
I pleaded with the company to send someone else out and this was done.
The solar panels were installed. After a few days of rain this year, I noticed water damage to the ceiling. We contacted Solahart and did not receive a response.
We organised for an emergency roof repair company to come and fix the issue which cost approx $1040. This was on the weekend, the night before a storm was due. These men were great and worth the money. They silicones the holes where the panels connected to the roof, which the installers originally forgot to do.
I’ve been trying to contact Solahart for months. Only now after I messaged them on Instagram did I receive the following message:
———— Hi x
Thanks for your email enquiry, I have just returned back to work from long service leave.
I’m sorry you had an issue with your install, I would say when the electrician hurt himself on that day he has forgotten to silicone up the pipe.
Unfortunately all this could have been avoided if you had contacted us first to come and repair the leak as part of your contract with Solahart Rockingham our contractors would cover all repairs.
The 1300 solahart phone number is manned 24 hours 7 days a week.
As you have contracted a 3rd party without our authority we can not cover this cost.
As a goodwill gesture I would of covered the cost if it was a standard call out and cost to silicone a pipe (an average of $150 - $200 MAX) I questioned the invoice as it was so overpriced but was told that due to the privacy act the company you dealt with Mr Emergency will only speak to “y”.
I would suggest “y” contacts them and disputes the price and also gives them the authority to speak to myself as I am happy to also dispute it with them on your behalf as this is way out of the industry standard of cost for the scope of works. Once “y” has done that let me know and I will re contact them.

I have a system design that I've started work on, that started off as a one-shot I ran. The goal is to evoke surrealist, reality-bending worlds with a heavy nod to the work of Philip K. Dick.
The idea as I currently have it is that there are multiple distorted mirrors of reality, or Shards, that act as worlds or world-elements that the player characters move through in the game. For instance, one Shard is a dystopian police-state; another is an idyllic 1950s suburb that is kind of a preserve for psychics in an otherwise war-torn world; a third is a lunar colony. The Shards are not fully discrete or consistent, though. Reality "slips" and elements from one Shard slide into another.
Sort of the meta-goal in the game is that the PCs are being chased by mysterious forces (usually represented by police or military authorities) through these shifting realities, and uncovering hidden truths allows them to either defeat or come to some agreement with those forces.
I'm thinking of how to make this work in the game. I have several ideas currently.

1. Using clocks, like in Apocalypse World or Blades in the Dark. Significant PC actions tick the clock. At the end, depending on the stakes, some significant feature of reality changes, or the PCs could move entirely into a different Shard.
2. Using some pool mechanic that allows the players to retcon the world (this would probably tie in with the clocks). For instance a player could get out of a police checkpoint by finding a pass in their pocket, or by having a nearby urban guerrilla attack divert the police. This causes more strain and possibly other consequences.
3. Each player having certain sources of stability (hat tip here for Trail of Cthulhu) that would be things in the world that would suddenly change. Someone you've known for decades doesn't recognize you, your favorite restaurant is replaced by a store you've never been to, that kind of thing. These would get marked off - possibly to grant another resource to the PC.
4. I'm considering having something like a "master table" of surreal effects for each Shard, where either that Shard's effect could happen, or it could leak into another neighboring Shard.

I'd appreciate thoughts and ideas on how to make this work, and how to keep it surreal but playable.

Hi everyone
Hoping to get a bit of help with nbr. This is on a study looking at outlaw motorcycle gang concentration in Melbourne Australia in comparison with non bikie violent and property crime and factors that influence this concentration
I have a bunch of variables, all of these are within Victoria Australia. Each of these variables are across suburbs in Victoria
Dependent variables - outlaw motorcycle gang incidents (violent crime) Outlaw motorcycle gangs (property crime) Violent crime (non outlaw motorcycle gangs) Property crime (non outlaw motorcycle gangs)
Independent variables Disadvantage score Percentage of persons born overseas Number of licensed premises Number of brothels Number of tattoo parlours
I have prepared the tests for each dependent variable, first descriptive statistics (nbr is required as the variance is higher than the mean); then correlations
I have then done nbr. However to test if zero inflated nbr. Is required I have ran into issues.
I have heard usually vuong is done, however I am using stata and vuong has been removed. They suggest the aic and bic models. Apparently you run both nbr and zero inflated, store both, then run aic/bic and loo at both results, whatever is lower, you use, so if zero inflated is lower in the aic/bic you run that.
However, both have the same value each time I do nbr for each of the 4 dependent variables so it doesn’t state which one to choose.
Any ideas? Happy to show my output
Luke

At the beginning of 2023 I rented a room in a shared house. I was paying for the room and free access to the house on a month to month lease. My landlord owns the house and the house next door where he lives.
One of my housemates was a nice enough person I would exchange small talk and once in a while get groceries with but he was one of those victim mentality types and personally not the type of person I would strike up a friendship with.
At some point he got into a text argument with my landlord and stopped paying his rent. He specifically told me he was not paying because he didnt like landlord's attitude (yeah okay way to act like a responsible adult buddy). One evening he was in the kitchen cooking and our landlord came into the house unannounced to serve an eviction notice on him. The two of them got into a fist fight and roommate ended up with his leg broken in 2 places and required 3 surgeries. Landlord was eventually picked up by the police and is being charged with F2 Aggravated Burglary. (I'm still unsure why, I guess because he caused bodily harm when entering a residence uninvited?)
I was in the shower and heard/saw nothing aside from my roommate crying out in pain. Landlord left by the time I was out of the shower and I called an ambulance for roommate.
A few weeks later my landlord offers me free rent for 2 months if I can get evidence that my roommate started the fight and is an agressive person. He truly isnt but he definitely would milk a situation for attention - chronic victim mentality. My landlord had sunglasses with video camera sent to me and told me to try to record my roommate as much as possible. He asked me to get him drunk and try to flirt a little to see what info I could get.
I said absolutely NO. I ended up moving out and back to my boyfriends because landlord is calling and texting me everyday multiple times a day begging me to help him. I told him I can not lie for him or record the person he committed a crime against. And I would absolutely not use my body to get information for him. The whole idea is insane and sounds illegal and like I could end up in trouble.
Landlord has found my new address and said his lawyer will be sending me a summons. I do NOT want to go to court. I have no information to tell the court other than what I have written in this post. Landlord keeps leaving me messages crying and begging, saying he is facing 3 years in prison if I don't tell the courts my roommate was agressive. NONE OF THIS IS MY BUSINESS!!!!!
If I get a summons and don't appear what will happen to me? I have a good life and a job I adore. I'm afraid of being arrested for not appearing. Can anyone tell me what would happen if I block landlords number and ignore any further contact from him or his lawyer? This is now a grand jury case if that matters and we are in Ohio. Thank you so much for reading all of this!

My boyfriend and I had solar panels installed on our house earlier this year.
The apprentice fell on the roof and had to leave, so they left the job half done. Wires were sticking out of the roof. They said they wouldn’t be back for a while because they were booked for a long time. They left the panels in our garage.
I pleaded with the company to send someone else out and this was done.
The solar panels were installed. After a few days of rain this year, I noticed water damage to the ceiling. We contacted Solahart and did not receive a response.
We organised for an emergency roof repair company to come and fix the issue which cost approx $1040. This was on the weekend, the night before a storm was due. These men were great and worth the money. They silicones the holes where the panels connected to the roof, which the installers originally forgot to do.
I’ve been trying to contact Solahart for months. Only now after I messaged them on Instagram did I receive the following message:
———— Hi x
Thanks for your email enquiry, I have just returned back to work from long service leave.
I’m sorry you had an issue with your install, I would say when the electrician hurt himself on that day he has forgotten to silicone up the pipe.
Unfortunately all this could have been avoided if you had contacted us first to come and repair the leak as part of your contract with Solahart Rockingham our contractors would cover all repairs.
The 1300 solahart phone number is manned 24 hours 7 days a week.
As you have contracted a 3rd party without our authority we can not cover this cost.
As a goodwill gesture I would of covered the cost if it was a standard call out and cost to silicone a pipe (an average of $150 - $200 MAX) I questioned the invoice as it was so overpriced but was told that due to the privacy act the company you dealt with Mr Emergency will only speak to “y”.
I would suggest “y” contacts them and disputes the price and also gives them the authority to speak to myself as I am happy to also dispute it with them on your behalf as this is way out of the industry standard of cost for the scope of works. Once “y” has done that let me know and I will re contact them.