#bretts maybe the one who takes augusts place

[theoandliam]

so is there already a thiam young royals au?? if there is let me know thank you

[thesewordsareallihavetogive]

Jealous - Brett Talbot x Reader

(gif source)

Summary: y/n’s car breaks down and a classmate of hers gets a little flirty while helping her. Brett is Not A Fan.

Word Count: 2004

Warnings: cursing & a cute lil fluffy ending

a/n: this is my first brett x reader fic (i’m having quite a few firsts, aren’t i?), requested by @anamxleetuan​ . i’m currently open for requests, so feel free to send some in! also, this is a wee bit dialogue heavy, i hope ya like it anyway.

masterlist

“Crap” y/n muttered to herself as she unsuccessfully tried to start her car for the fourth time. Her little sedan was about twenty years old and had definitely seen better days, but it got her from point A to point B so she couldn’t complain too much. Until now, when she was stranded in the school parking lot. She groaned and rested her forehead on the steering wheel in between her hands. Of course this had to happen in the middle of August, when the lovely California weather was resting at a not-so-comfortable 88 degrees. 

She was about to dial her boyfriend, Brett, when she remembered that he was at lacrosse practice and probably wouldn’t see any calls or texts for at least another hour. With the exception of herself and a few of the lacrosse players’ cars, the parking lot was completely deserted. y/n tried for a fifth and final time to start her car, the vehicle sputtering and going silent once again. She huffed out an annoyed breath before mustering up the will to get off of the surprisingly comfortable seat and try to find out what was wrong. 

No one was ever able to make the mistake of thinking y/n y/l/n couldn’t take care of herself. She made sure she always knew at least the basics for responding to accidents and emergency situations. She practically knew enough first aid to tack an M.D. to the end of her name, she knew how to replace her own flat tires, and had proved on multiple occasions - much to Brett’s surprise - that she had good enough survival skills to last in the woods for a few days on next to nothing. Yet, here she was, frustration growing with each additional minute she spent out in the sun as she tried to figure out why her car wouldn’t start. After studying the contents underneath the hood for a solid five minutes and finding nothing out of place visually, she cursed under her breath. It’s the damn battery. Of course that dash light isn’t working, either. Conveniently enough, she had no jumper cables, however, the more obvious set back was that she was lacking another car to jump hers with.

y/n groaned as she threw her head back and rubbed a hand over her face. She was weighing her options - wait for Brett to finish practice and catch a ride home with him or call a repair service that she definitely didn’t have the money for - neither of which seemed ideal. She was interrupted mid-thought when she heard someone clear their throat behind her and she jumped, her heart practically beating out of her chest. She turned to look at the source of the noise, a hand delicately resting over her chest in attempts to calm her racing heart. Part of her was prepared to encounter the latest supernatural villain to grace Beacon Hills when she turned around, so she was pleasantly surprised when she was met with a boy she recognized from her biology class. He wore a bright smile that would make any girl weak in the knees and his honey brown eyes twinkled in the sunlight. Max, I think his name is… Just before she was about to open her mouth to introduce herself, he spoke first.

“y/n, right? From biology?” he asked. y/n shook her head with a smile, a little bit surprised that he knew her name considering the fact that she didn’t really talk to anyone in her classes. He cleared his throat after not-so-discreetly checking her out for a moment. “I’m Max. You need some help?” he offered. In that moment y/n found herself thanking everything that was holy for the unexpected encounter with her classmate.

“Actually, yeah. Do you have any jumper cables?” she asked, a hopeful look in her eyes. Max smiled back and nodded.

“I do. I’ll go grab my car and meet you back here,” he finished as he began to walk away. y/n nearly squealed in excitement. Okay, so maybe getting her car jumped wasn’t as big of a blessing as she was making it out to be, but it meant she didn’t have to shell out hundreds of dollars to a repair service that probably wouldn’t do anything anyways, it also meant she didn’t have to wait out in the sun for her boyfriend to finish lacrosse practice.

Max pulled his car into the spot next to hers and y/n had to admit that she was impressed. She let her eyes roam over the contours of his sleek black mustang as she bit her lip and he smirked a little to himself at her reaction. The sound of the car door shutting snapped her out of her trance and she looked up with a grateful smile. Max returned her smile as he moved towards the trunk of his vehicle, pulling out the jumper cables. He popped his car’s hood and began hooking up the cables. y/n offered to do it but Max declined, insisting on doing it himself. Ah, would you like at that, chivalry isn’t dead. After he hooked up the cables and started running his car, he leaned against his hood and they started talking about different things, mostly school though. If y/n wasn’t mistaken, the tall, deep brown haired boy who she’d never formally spoken to was flirting with her.

y/n was so wrapped up in her conversation with Max that she didn’t see Brett coming out of the locker room with his lacrosse duffel bag thrown over his shoulder. Max checked his watch and figured enough time had passed for y/n to be able to start her car. He gestured for her to do so and she excitedly walked towards the driver door, swinging her key ring around her index finger. She slowly turned the key in the ignition, crossing her fingers as she did so. When the car hummed to life she cheered out loud, pumping her fist into the air. Before she knew what she was doing, her excitement took over and she wrapped Max in a bone crushing hug. Brett raised his eyebrows from afar and picked up his pace as he walked towards the pair.

“Oh, shit,” y/n murmured once she realized what she was doing and quickly pulled away. “Oh, God, I’m so sorry. That was probably so awkward and out of line- I’m just- I’m just really excited, thank you so much,” she rushed out sheepishly, wringing her hands together. Max simply looked down at her smugly before turning to unhook the cables.

“I don’t mind, sweetheart,” he smirked in her direction. Though Brett was still out of normal earshot, his heightened senses picked up every word of the conversation. He normally didn’t consider himself to be a jealous person, but he’d be lying if he said that the way Max looked at y/n and the way he called her “sweetheart” didn’t set him on edge. It wasn’t until Brett stood only a few parking spaces away from y/n car that either of them took notice of his presence. 

“Oh! Hey Brett!” y/n beamed as she turned towards him. Her bright smile and the innocent glint in her eyes was almost enough to tame his jealousy. Almost.

“Hey, babe,” Brett replied, placing special emphasis on the pet name. He approached her and wrapped an arm around her back, letting his fingers rest firmly on her hip as he kissed her cheek. Max watched the exchange between the two, suddenly feeling a little deflated. His Adam's apple bobbed while he swallowed thickly as Brett shot daggers at him with his eyes. y/n noticed the look Brett was throwing Max’s way and internally rolled her eyes. He’s acting like a territorial dog, she thought. In attempts to diffuse the situation, she cleared her throat, interrupting the one-sided staring match.

“Brett, this is Max from my bio class. Max, this is Brett, my boyfriend.” she introduced the boys. Max coughed, assumedly choking on his own spit, and offered a nervous smile to Brett, who simply gave a curt nod of his head. This time when y/n rolled her eyes she didn’t try to hide it. Knowing that her boyfriend’s mood wouldn’t improve while Max was still with them, she decided to wrap things up for everyone’s sake. She lightly elbowed Brett’s side, feeling bad for Max, the confident boy appearing a little frightened now (and probably rightfully so).

“Well, I really appreciate all your help, you’re seriously a life-saver,” y/n thanked him. Brett bit his tongue and turned his head to the side, trying to keep his cool as Max seemed to become more relaxed while y/n spoke to him.

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Max cleared his throat. “I should, um, I should- I should probably get going,” he stammered out in a questioning tone. “See you in biology,” he finished, smiling warmly but nervously before he got into his car. Brett stared at Max driving away until the black mustang pulled out of the parking lot. When he turned back, y/n was looking up at him with a disappointed look on her face.

“Really?” she gestured to where Max’s car was once parked. In all honesty, she found his antics more amusing than she did annoying, but that didn’t mean he had to scare her classmate. Brett shrugged his shoulders shamelessly as he pulled her into him, wrapping his arms around her waist and kissing the top of her head. y/n let out a semi-frustrated huff but nonetheless relaxed into his arms and wrapped hers around his shoulders.

“He was being too friendly,” Brett argued as he brushed some of his girlfriend’s hair out of her face. 

“He was being helpful. You scared him,” she replied, her chin resting on his chest as she glanced up at him. Brett smirked before leaning down to give her a sweet kiss.

“Good,” he murmured against her lips, the smirk still plastered across his face. y/n rolled her eyes and lightly swatted his chest, before pulling away as a smirk of her own slowly spread across her face. Brett’s smile faded as he took in her mischievous look.

“What,” he asked blankly, not entirely sure he wanted to know what had her grinning that way. She slowly began walking backwards, poking his chest as she distanced herself.

“You’re jealous,” she teased, a devious glint in her eye. He let out a short laugh, throwing his head to the side in amusement.

“I am not,” he bluffed. The moment the words left his lips y/n knew she was right, she could read him a little too well.

“Oh man, you totally are,” she laughed as she turned to walk towards the driver door to get in her car. She added a bit of swing to her hips as she walked away to seal the deal and it didn’t take long before Brett cracked. He was on her in seconds, pressing her up against the side of her car as he breathed down her neck.

“So maybe I am. I can’t help it that you’re so damn hot,” he whispered in her ear, sending a shiver down her spine. She turned around in his arms so her back could rest on the car as she wrapped her arms over his shoulders. Her eyes danced over his face as she took in his sharp features and warm eyes.

“No need to worry, babe. I only have eyes for you,” y/n assured with a wink and small grin. She continued to stare up at him, love swirling in her eyes as she took in the way he practically glowed in the afternoon sunlight.

“That’s what I like to hear,” Brett replied, resting a hand on the back of her neck as he leaned down to capture her lips in a slow, loving kiss.

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tag list: @linkpk88​

[sleepykittypaws]

Ted Lasso: Carol of the Bells

Original Air Date: August 13, 2021 (Apple TV+) Where to Watch?: It’s an Apple TV+ original series, so should be available on the streaming service in perpetuity

Ted Lasso, the series, is one of the brightest entertainment lights to come along in a relatively dark time. Premiering mid-pandemic, the show, based on a series of not-all-that-well-known NBC soccer coverage promos, stars Jason Sudeikis as an American college football coach hired to coach British Premier League soccer (I, of course, mean, football) team, AFC Richmond.

The show, which has become something of a phenomena as it enters its second season with a record 20 Emmy nominations, has been hailed for its niceness and general likability. It's funny, sharp and, yes, sweet, without being saccharine. Bad stuff happens on, and to, Ted Lasso, just like in real life, but the characters don't let the worst parts of their lives define them.

Ted Lasso’s trick is that it manages to be both grounded and an escape from reality, into a world that's a little bit kinder and more gentle than the one we all actually live in, in 2020 and 2021.

So, there's probably no better program to offer up a Christmas special, even in August, despite the fact that I'm usually a stickler about keeping holiday content special by confining it to the season. I mean, sure I start "the season" no later than November 1, but, still, I do enjoy waiting to savor my Christmas TV, so it takes something pretty special to get me in the spirit mid-summer.

“Carol of the Bells,” the fourth episode of Ted Lasso’s second season, takes place, like most UK series Christmas specials, both within and somewhat outside the timeline of the rest of the series, and could easily be watched, and enjoyed, as a stand alone. There is barely a passing mentioning of what felt like a cliffhanger ending to episode three, when the team protested their top sponsor, Dubai Air, in solidarity with Nigerian player Sam Obisanya. But in “Carol of the Bells,” the timeline of the show has jumped ahead significantly, putting behind us the team's streak of draw matches, which had been another  main focus of the season to date, via one line of exposition and a pan to a whiteboard in Coach Lasso's office. 

One of the things I love about this show is that they aren't afraid to resolve a plot line mid-season. No need to draw it out for drama, or to have beloved characters backtrack, constantly recreating the same situations. I think the moment I really feel in love with Ted Lasso is when the owner-seeks-to-destroy-team-as-revenge-on-her-ex plot that launched the series was resolved, not via a dramatic reveal, but a quiet office conversation with team owner Rebecca asking, and receiving, forgiveness, from Ted, who understood her instinct to lash out, and refused to hold those worst impulses against her, knowing he had his own not-quite-pure reasons for accepting the job in the first place. 

For me, that moment was when Ted Lasso went from amusing, to awesome. So, it's no surprise that the Ted-Rebecca relationship continues to bloom at Christmas, where Hannah Waddington's character absolutely sees through Ted's all-good exterior, knowing just how lonely the first Christmas post-divorce can be.

When we saw Ted drinking, alone in his apartment, and watching It's a Wonderful Life, I feared we might be in for one of those dream Christmas movie redux's with Ted learning how important his existence really is, but of course I should have known better. A huge part of Ted Lasso's charm is that show usually zigs, when viewers expect it to zag: Not giving the team the tie to keep them from being relegated, the undramatic reveal of Rebecca's evil plan to Ted, Keeley and Roy's rock solid relationship.

Instead, the show continues to demonstrate it really does have the best of intentions with Rebecca and Ted going on a Christmas Day giving spree, that feels both absolutely perfect for the pair, and helps support the very real Poverty Alleviation Charities.

Meanwhile, Roy and Keeley's Sexy Christmas is interrupted by the last minute arrival of Roy's adorable niece, Phoebe, who has received a not-very-nice gift from a boy in her class. Roy and Keeley's banter is on full display as they attempt to both revenge and reconcile the source of Phoebe's distress.

Brett Goldstein, who plays Roy and is also a writer on the show, steals almost every scene he's in, even at Christmas, and the onscreen chemistry he has with Juno Temple's Keeley is off the charts. That child actor Elodie Blomfield more than holds her own with these two is a real testament to her own, budding abilities.

The ending of Roy, Keeley and Phoebe's Christmas adventure—teased early on with the reveal of the teasing boy's name as Bernard (and if you don't get that reference Google "Richard Curtis-Bernard Jenkin") is so perfect, I absolutely did tear up. 

Oh and, shout out to guest star Claire Skinner, who knows a thing or two about classic UK Christmas specials with her own from her days on Outnumbered, another of my UK faves. Gutted we didn't get to see Dr. Rogers' husband, who I kept hoping would be Skinner's real-life partner, and Outnumbered co-parent, Hugh Dennis. Really, Dennis' lack was the only real mis-step in this entire episode for me.

Meanwhile, Higgins, played so well by Jeremy Swift (the casting in Ted Lasso is across-the-board perfection), is hosting his annual Christmas open house for Richmond team members without family in town, expecting the usual one or two players to pop in. Instead, with Swift's real-life wife Mary Roscoe at his side, almost the entire team turns up ready to celebrate with the Higgins clan. 

It's only at the very end that “Carol of Bells” goes traditional Christmas special, putting most of its main characters outside Casa Higgins for an episode-ending musical number that, I'm just gonna admit, while cheesy as heck, brought even more tears to my eyes, despite it still being August, and would have made me a blubbering mess in December—when I will definitely be watching this again.

From the opening scene reveal of the team's Secret Santa exchange, to the closing moments that put Waddington back on the mic, which fans have been demanding since her karaoke outing in season one, for an extra dose of Christmas cheer, “Carol of the Bells,” was, to me, perfect. 

I'm not exactly sure why Apple TV+ didn't save this for a one-off November or December drop but, as I said on Twitter, it's very possible, maybe even likely, that I saw my favorite Christmas content of 2021 on August 13th. Ted Lasso: Carol of the Bells is going to be very, very hard to top.

Final Judgement: 4 Paws Enthusiastically Up for this instant Christmas classic

[didanawisgi]

Response to attacks from dr. David Gorski

Published on TrialSite (August 25, 2021)

My name is Geert Vanden Bossche. I received my PhD in Virology at the University of Hohenheim, Germany, and I have held adjunct faculty appointments at universities in Germany and Belgium. I also have worked in R&D and vaccine development for GSK, Novartis, and Solvay Biologicals. Next I was a Senior Program Officer for the Gates Foundation’s Global Health Discovery team, and from there went to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI) and was the Senior Ebola Program Manager. Then I joined the German Center for Infection Research as head of the Vaccine Development Office. Currently, I work as a consultant on biotech/vaccine issues, and I also do my own research on “natural killer” cell-based vaccines. I have argued that immune escape due to the current COVID-19 vaccines is driving new variants as the virus evolves its way around the inoculation. Dr. David Gorski is a Wayne State University of Medicine (Detroit) associate professor in oncology and surgery. He is also chief of the breast surgery division. Gorski has launched several “hit pieces” about me and my views. In one article, he attacks the notion that vaccines have a part in driving variants. He also has criticized YouTuber/intellectual Brett Weinstein for supporting the use of ivermectin in our pandemic.

Lack of Expertise

In my view, Gorski is both stigmatizing honest scientists and seemingly trying to create socially-dangerous tensions between the vaxed and the unvaxed and between medical experts who hold different views on our current vaccines. Gorski creates false dichotomies wherein one is good (pro-vaccine, put faith in government) or bad (anti-vaccine, open to alternate views and arguments), and this type of discourse and rhetoric is incompatible with science.

Gorski is also largely scientifically illiterate in the fields of virology, immunology, vaccines, and evolutionary biology. He cannot see that both the vaccinated and the unvaccinated are involved in the evolutionary dynamics of the pandemic; his effort to blame the latter category is unfair and potentially dangerous. Dr. Gorski is quick to mix up unrelated topics to create parallels that don’t make sense. He unscientifically conflates or compares data about: live vaccines and inactivated vaccines; epidemics and pandemics; measles and SARS-CoV-2; herd immunity and vaccine coverage rates; efficacy with effectiveness in vaccines; and sterilizing immunity with transmission-reducing immunity.

He also unfairly lumps me in with antivaxxers when I am pro (beneficial) vaccines. Much of this is likely based on the fact that Gorski’s expertise is largely lacking. His professional expertise in breast surgery seemingly does not allow him to opine intelligently about the topics at hand. And he regularly gets tangled up in his own misunderstandings and contradicts himself. Also, he sets himself up as a maximal “pro-vaxer” despite the noted lack of expertise in the various disciplines that apply to vaccination during a pandemic.

Innate Immunity

Gorski possesses no understanding of the workings of innate immunity, i.e., innate oligospecific antibodies or natural killer cells. He does not know the difference between innate (i.e., polyreactive) and naturally-acquired (i.e., antigen-specific) antibodies. This is clearly reflected by Gorski’s list of ‘factors proposed to explain the difference in severity of COVID-19 in children and adults’. None of these factors could explain why not only children, but any young and healthy individual, could become susceptible to Covid-19 disease only a few months after they got asymptomatically infected.  This can only be explained as a result of suppression of protective, innate antibodies by spike-specific antibodies (including vaccinal antibodies) as the latter outcompete innate antibodies for binding to SARSs-CoV-2. Gorski’s list, therefore, is completely irrelevant in regard of the overarching mechanism of natural immune protection against Covid-19.

He doesn’t have the wherewithal to understand the difference between naturally acquired immunity’s sterilizing cell-mediated immunity (CMI) and the S-based vaccines’ lack of CMI. He fails to see that there is currently no evidence of population-level immune selection pressure on CMI-mediated, sterilizing immunity induced in previously symptomatically infected persons. He doesn’t seem to realize that only a minor fraction of the population acquires protective immunity against COVID-19, whereas the vast majority are naturally protected by their first line of innate immune defense (a notion, he obviously didn’t even hear about).

Gorski specifically claims that younger people are now getting infected more because, “the variant is so much more transmissible and, therefore, the higher the percentage of the population that needs to be immune.” He doesn’t even seem to realize that these younger (<65 years) and healthy people (i.e., the majority of the population) proved to be immune during the previous waves. So why would they all of a sudden lose their immunity a few months later? Further hurting his credibility, Gorski refers to ivermectin as an “anti-worm” drug and wildly misrepresents the evidence so far showing that it can help with COVID-19. Again pushing the false either/or paradigm, he puts ivermectin in the “bad” category without any nuances.    

Contradictio in Terminis

The doctor seems to miss the fact that, “spreading” SARS-CoV-2 relates to infection or pathogens, not to the disease they may potentially cause. Gorski seems to forget that despite the fact that all knew that the efficacy of these vaccines was not 100%, the primary goal of these mass vaccination campaigns was to generate herd immunity. Now, maybe Gorski doesn’t really understand what herd immunity is about, but it suffices to remind him that it relates to the observation that unimmunized people can be protected provided the vaccine coverage rate in the population is high enough to prevent viral transmission. Gorski is trying to make people believe that herd immunity would imply vaccination of the total population, which is almost a contradictio in terminis.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                By going to ridiculous extremes to make his case, Gorki is basically just making himself ridiculous. He also lumps me in with folks claiming that stray spike proteins from the vaccinated are causing major harm, when I have never taken that view. He thinks that because a virus has a somewhat higher infectiousness, it will in no time dominate all other circulating variants, no matter the pressure that is exerted by the human population. All of the more infectious variants were isolated before end 2020. So why is it that only quite recently have the more competitive ones started to spread widely? For somebody who obviously has big holes in his knowledge of virology and basic immunology, it can, indeed, be difficult to understand that viral spread in a population is determined by the interplay between viral infectious pressure and population-level immune pressure.  The most blatant example of this is where he contradicts himself in saying: ‘Vaccines is a selective pressure’. Per definition, though, selective pressure is known to drive immune escape. And thus, according to Gorski,  ‘vaccinating as many people as possible as fast as possible’ is the way to go!

“Quo vadis, homo sapiens?”

It is simply impossible to achieve herd immunity with these vaccines for reasons I clearly explained in my contribution titled, “Quo vadis, homo sapiens?” No matter the level of uptake of these vaccines, they’ll never produce any kind of herd immunity, as they’re merely turning young and healthy people (who’re naturally capable of eliminating the virus) into asymptomatic spreaders. Secondarily, herd immunity has nothing to do with immune selection pressure. On the contrary: neither innate antibodies nor immunity induced by recovery from disease (i.e., the only 2 types of immunity that contribute to herd immunity) are spike (S)-directed, so they do not exert selection pressure on viral infectiousness (i.e., determined by S), in contrast to the immune response induced by vaccination. Gorki is among the many stubborn know-it-alls who pretend that further increasing vaccine coverage rates will stop the virus from spreading and further evolving. All this without any single scientific argument backing his statement. Substantial outbreaks are still taking place in countries with high vaccine coverage rates, clearly demonstrating that vaccine-induced herd immunity is a myth.

Gorski is also completely missing the point on the lambda variant. He stares at different variants in regard of their sensitivity to vaccine-induced neutralization whereas the key message of the publication I alluded to was that i) increased viral infectiousness is insufficient to ensure sustained  viral transmission in a massively vaccinated human population (i.e., a population that exerts widespread spike-directed immune pressure on viral infectiousness and ii) that additional mutations in the N-terminal domain (NTD) of the spike protein may substantially contribute to the decreased neutralizing capacity of vaccine-induced antibodies against any given variant (as mutations in the RBD alone may not explain the decreased neutralizing titers). In other words, variants may incorporate additional mutations in the NTD to dramatically increase their resistance to vaccine-induced anti-S antibodies. This mechanism of escape neutralization is of course very problematic if it occurs in a variant that as already a high level of infectiousness (e.g., delta variant) as this may lead to a steep increase in morbidity and mortality rates in the population. Gorski’s conclusion that ‘there is plenty of reason to conclude that the vaccines offer considerable protection against at least severe disease from these variants’ is, therefore, anything but based on an understanding of the virus’ evolutionary adaptation to enhanced, widespread immune pressure on viral infectivity. As a matter of fact, a such dramatic combination of high infectiousness and complete resistance to wild-type spike vaccines has recently been reported https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.22.457114v1.full.pdf.

We’re curious to learn about Gorski’s predictions on how much protection the vaccines are going to provide against highly infectious variants that are completely resistant against the vaccines…

Vaccine efficacy versus vaccine effectiveness

Regardless of the fact that Gorski does not understand the difference between vaccine efficacy and vaccine effectiveness, he doesn’t even realize that the main issue is not whether or not the vaccine protects 100% or less; the real issue is that imperfect vaccines will enhance propagation of naturally selected immune escape variants, especially if high infectious pressure is combined with widespread immune pressure (due to mass vaccination).

Lies

If Gorski is unable to make his point otherwise, he’ll rely on lies:

I never stated that the emergence of more infectious variants was caused by the vaccines as Gorski pretends

I never stated that vaccines are ineffective, dangerous and that they make the vaccinated dangerous to the unvaccinated as Gorski pretends

[myhauntedsalem]

Horror Movies Based on True Events

Open Water (2003)

When a couple goes scuba diving in Open Water, their boat accidentally leaves them behind in shark-infested water. It’s based on something that really happened to American tourists Tom and Eileen Lonergan, who were left behind by a diving company off the Great Barrier Reef. By the time the mistake was realized two days later, it was too late, and they were never seen again. A shark attack seems not to have been the cause of death, however, as the couple’s dive jackets were eventually found. The jackets weren’t damaged, which suggested that the Lonergans likely took them off, “delirious from dehydration,” and drowned.

Borderland (2007)

When three friends head to a Mexican border town to have some fun in this movie, they get mixed up with a cult specializing in human sacrifice. The concept loosely stems from the life of Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, a drug lord and cult leader who was responsible for the death of American student Mark Kilroy.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)

The iconic baddie Freddy Krueger kills teenagers via their dreams in Wes Craven’s franchise-launching film. Craven told Vulture that the idea stemmed from an article he read in The Los Angeles Times about a family of Cambodian refugees with a young son who reported awful nightmares. “He told his parents he was afraid that if he slept, the thing chasing him would get him, so he tried to stay awake for days at a time,” said Craven. “When he finally fell asleep, his parents thought this crisis was over. Then they heard screams in the middle of the night. By the time they got to him, he was dead. He died in the middle of a nightmare. Here was a youngster having a vision of a horror that everyone older was denying. That became the central line of Nightmare on Elm Street.”

Black Water (2007)

Set in the swamps of Australia, this movie sees a group of fishers attacked by a humongous crocodile. It was inspired by an actual crocodile attack in the Australian outback in 2003 that killed a man named Brett Mann in an area that his friends said they’d “never, ever” seen a crocodile before.

Dead Ringers (1988)

In David Cronenberg’s movie, Jeremy Irons plays twin gynecologists who do messed up things with patients and ultimately die together in the end. Cronenberg adapted the movie from Bari Wood and Jack Geasland’s novel Twins, which was inspired by the lives of actual twin gynecologists Stewart and Cyril Marcus. TheNew York Times noted that the Marcuses enjoyed “trading places to fool their patients” and that they ultimately “retreat[ed] into heavy drug use and utter isolation.”

Deliver Us From Evil (2014)

The movie follows a cop and a priest who team up to take on the supernatural. It’s based on self-proclaimed “demonologist” Ralph Sarchie’s memoir Beware the Night, in which he tells supposedly true stories, such as the time he found himself “in the presence of one of hell’s most dangerous devils” possessing a woman.

Poltergeist (1982)

In Poltergeist, a family’s home is invaded by ghosts that abduct one of the daughters. The film was inspiredby unexplained events, such as loud popping noises and moved objects, that occurred in 1958 at the Hermanns’ home in Seaford, New York.

Psycho (1960)

Alfred Hitchcock’s essential film traces a woman who embezzles money from her employer and runs off to a mysterious hotel where she is (58-year-old spoiler alert) murdered by the man running it, Norman Bates. Bates is said to have been based on Ed Gein, a Wisconsin man who was convicted for one murder in the 1950s, but suspected for others. He also was a grave robber, and authorities found many disturbing results of that in his home, including bowls crafted from human skulls and a lampshade made from the skin of someone’s face.

Scream (1996)

The classic ‘90s slasher flick uses dark humor to tell the story of a group of teens and a mystery man named Ghostface who wants to murder them. But the real story ain’t funny. The movie was inspired by the Gainesville Ripper, real name Danny Rolling, who killed five Florida students by knife over a span of three days in August 1990.

The Conjuring (2013)

The movie stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as ghost hunters helping out a family in a haunted 18th-century farmhouse. The hunters, Ed and Lorraine Warren, are real people, as is the Perron family that they assist. Lorraine was a consultant on the movie and insists that many of the supernatural horrors really happened, and one of the daughters who is depicted in the film, Andrea Perron, says the same. She recalled an angry spirit named Bathsheba to USA Today:“Whoever the spirit was, she perceived herself to be mistress of the house and she resented the competition my mother posed for that position.”

Annabelle (2014)

The creepy porcelain doll from The Conjuring gets her terror on in this spin-off of The Conjuring. The ghost-hunting Warrens have claimed that there was a real Raggedy Ann doll that moved by itself and wrote creepy-ass notes saying things like, “Help us.” The woman who owned it contacted a medium, who claimed that it was possessed by a seven-year-old girl named Annabelle who had died there.

The Disappointments Room (2016)

Kate Beckinsale stars in the movie as an architect who moves to a new home with a mysterious room in the attic that she eventually learns was previously used as a room where rich people would cast off disabled children. It was reportedly inspired by a Rhode Island woman who discovered a similar room in her house that she says was built by a 19th century judge to lock away his disabled daughter.

The Exorcist (1973)

Two priests attempt to remove a demon from a young girl in this box office smash. The movie was based on a 1949 Washington Post article with the headline “Priest Frees Mt. Rainier Boy Reported Held in Devil’s Grip.” Director William Friedkin spoke about the article to Time Out London: “Maybe one day they’ll discover the cause of what happened to that young man, but back then, it was only curable by an exorcism. His family weren’t even Catholics, they were Lutheran. They started with doctors and then psychiatrists and then psychologists and then they went to their minister who couldn’t help them. And they wound up with the Catholic church. The Washington Post article says that the boy was possessed and exorcised. That���s pretty out on a limb for a national newspaper to put on its front page… You’re not going to see that on the front page of an intelligent newspaper unless there’s something there.

The Girl Next Door (2007)

The movie follows the abuse of a teenage girl at the hands of her aunt, and it was inspired by the murder of Sylvia Likens in 1965. The 16-year-old girl was abused by her caregiver, Gertrude Baniszewski, Baniszewski’s children, and other neighborhood children, as entertainment. They ultimately killed her, with the cause of death determined as “brain swelling, internal hemorrhaging of the brain, and shock induced by Sylvia’s extensive skin damage,”

The Possession (2012)

Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick star in the movie as a couple with a young daughter who becomes fascinated with an antique wooden box found at a yard sale. Of course, the box turns out to be home to a spirit. The flick’s “true story” basis came from an eBay listing for “a haunted Jewish wine cabinet box” containing oddities such as two locks of hair, one candlestick, and an evil spirit that caused supernatural activity. The box sold for $280 and gained attention when a Jewish newspaper ran an article about its so-called powers.

The Rite (2011)

In The Rite, a mortician enrolls in seminary and eventually takes an exorcism class in Rome, where demonic encounters ensue. The movie was based on the life of a real exorcist, Father Gary Thomas, whose work was the focus of journalist Matt Baglio’s book The Rite: The Making of an Exorcist. A Roman Catholic priest, Thomas was one of 14 Vatican-certified exorcists working in America in 2011. He served as an advisor on the film and told The Los Angeles Times that in the previous four years he had exorcised five people.

The Sacrament (2013)

In the movie, a man travels to find his sister who joined a remote religious commune, where, yep, bad things happen. It was inspired by the 1978 Jonestown massacre, in which cult leader Jim Jones led 909 of his followers to partake in a “murder-suicide ceremony” using cyanide poisoning.

The Shining (1980)

Stanley Kubrick’s horror masterpiece is about a man who is driven to insanity by supernatural forces while staying at a remote hotel in the Rockies. The movie Derives from Stephen King’s book of the same name, which was inspired by the Stanley Hotel in Colorado, where plenty of guests have reported seeing ghosts. The Stanley wasn’t actually used in the movie, however, because Kubrick didn’t think it looked scary enough.

The Silence of the Lambs(1991)

The Oscar-winning film tells the story of an FBI cadet who enlists the help of a cannibal/serial killer to pin down another serial killer, Buffalo Bill, who skins the bodies of his victims. FBI special agent John Douglas, who consulted on the film, has explained that Bill was inspired in part by the serial killer Ted Bundy, who like Bill, wore a fake cast. Ed Gein is also believed to be an inspiration, what with the whole skinning thing. And per Rolling Stone, 1980s killer Gary Heidnik was a reference for how Buffalo Bill kept victims in a basement pit.

The Strangers (2008)

Three killers in masks terrorize the suburban home of a couple (played by Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman) in this invasion thriller. Writer-director Bryan Bertino has said the film was inspired by something that happened to him in childhood. “As a kid, I lived in a house on a street in the middle of nowhere. One night, while our parents were out, somebody knocked on the front door and my little sister answered it,” he said. “At the door were some people asking for somebody that didn’t live there. We later found out that these people were knocking on doors in the area and, if no one was home, breaking into the houses.”

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974 & 2003)

Ed Gein also reportedly inspired elements of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and its remake. The movies are about groups of friends who come into contact with the murderous cannibal Leatherface. The original film memorably features a room filled with furniture created from human bones, a nod to Gein’s home.

The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976 & 2014)

The original film follows a Texas Ranger as he tracks down a serial killer threatening a small town, and the 2014 sequel of the same name essentially revives the same plot. Both are based on the Texarkana Moonlight Murders of 1946, when a “Phantom Killer” took out five people over ten weeks. The case remains unsolved

Veronica (2018)

The recent Netflix release follows a 15-year-old girl who uses a Ouija board and accidentally connects with a demon that terrorizes her and her family. The movie’s based on a real police report from a Madrid neighborhood. As the story goes, a girl performed a séance at school and then “experienced months of seizures and hallucinations, particularly of shadows and presences surrounding her,” according to NewsWeek. The police report came a year after the girl’s death when three officers and the Chief Inspect of the National Police reported several unnatural occurrences at her family’s home that they called “a situation of mystery and rarity.”

[hiatuswhore]

Brother

With all the madness going around with the Dread Doctors, my pack had put themselves at a distance. I'm not upset though if things were normal someone would have noticed by now that something was off. Liam hadn't gotten off my case nonetheless but with Hayden being possibly killed he stopped hovering as much.

Having Scott, Lydia, Stiles, and the others in my life was an adjustment. Becoming my family I was only use to it just being my brother and I. All my life he was all I had, all I know. As Damon attended Devenford Prep I went to Beacon Hills. He knew about supernatural though as you had befriended Liam and the McCall pack, he had befriended Brett and the Satomi pack. Like typical fraternal twins my brother and I were heading in very different directions.

"You okay?" Looking up from my food I jumped at his sudden presence. Standing there fringing worry he was quite the actor, "Mind if I join?"

"Not really," I said, running my eyes sleep had been evading me. It was becoming a real game of cat and mouse.

"You look uh-tired?" Theo said, chuckling at his hesitance I could not help but roll my eyes.

"Yeah," I said, looking away from Theo’s observant gaze. All my friends were scattered in the lunchroom. Liam with Hayden, Corey, and Mason. Scott and Lydia, Stiles by himself, Kira nowhere to be seen and Malia by herself. We were split not just as friends but as family. Sharing glances amongst each other we all looked away.

"We need to get everyone back together," Theo said but his words lacked sincerity. Looking up at him with narrowed eyes he looked confused.

"You're an ass you know that?" I asked but he continued his facade, "Don't play dumb it doesn't suit you."

Just like that his confused innocent expression easily became a smirk. Had I not been observant I would have found him attractive, "What are you playing at?"

"Oh come on we both know about your little friends. Starts with Dread and they dabble in a science called Chimeras," I said, shifting uncomfortable Theo grabbed my forearm pulling me out of the lunchroom. In the deserted hall pushing me against the lockers it was now me smirking.

"You're being all nonchalant why?" He asked only centimetres from my own face. Hearing his heart beating insanely he was nervous and every second of it felt amazing.

"Simple if I say anything everyone will just look at me like Stiles. I'll be at a disadvantage and any disagreement or suspicion of you will be assumed to be a silly conspiracy conjured by Stiles," I explained brushing my noes against him the ball was in my court, "I have all the answers one slip up and I bury you Raeken."

"Oh really so why don't you tell your friend what you dream about? Don't worry you'll need me, you'll need answers," He asked reclaiming power of the situation. Glancing at my lips he was tempting me and I needed to keep reminding myself he was the enemy. My mouth running dry I found myself glancing at his lips as well. Chuckling he brushed his nose against my own, “Tell me Lacoss you dream about anything else? Anyone else? Ever dream about me?”

Closing my eyes taking a breath my hormones were almost distracting me from a very important fact. How did he know about those dreams about-them? Taking a deep breath as I pulled myself together I opened my eyes. Looking at him he was hot, but I am no fool. Pushing past him I could hear him laugh and your chemosignals were off the charts. The mix of being annoyed and galvanized. Storming down the hall walking past Liam I could see his frown as I ignored him. Ironic for me to be his anchor when half the I struggle keeping my own feelings in check. I hate to admit it but Theo has gotten in my head. People flooding the halls with classes switching cut Liam off from getting to me as I stood in the middle of the hall falling apart as everyone was clearing out as soon as they entered.

“Oh really so why don't you tell your friends what you dream about?" Like they did the nights I tried to sleep the flashes of them rang through clouding my vision. With them came a horrid sound that brought a pain like no other. Bringing my hands to my ears the feeling was near crippling. Losing my balance letting out a small whimper the flashes were always in the same order. None of them answered any of the questions they created.

"Miss Lacoss!" Hearing Coach Finstock the hallway looked fuzzy. Despite feeling him helping me up he sounded so far away. My brother left school to come get me. Returning back to school leaving me home sleep was inconsistent. Sleeping for twenty minutes I was sitting awake for thirty minutes in between each cat nap. Checking my phone school was over and I had texts from Liam and Damon. Damon letting you know he was with his friends while Liam was worried  about you. Underneath the two of them though say the snake emoji. Not opening the message he was still in your head.

"-you'll need me. You'll need answers," His words were troubling but it triggered my curious nature. Going to Scott’s number there was no way he would listen and going to Stiles would do nothing. The thought of turning to Theo felt naive. Sound of knocking pulling me from my thoughts flooded my senses. Damon was rarely ever home and the house was typically quiet. Walking down the stairs I relaxed as the familiar scent hit my nose. Standing there Liam visibly relaxed as I came into view

"What was that in the hall?" He asked, looking at him I hadn’t told anyone about the vision. Considering lying to him he made it easy for me to stir the conversation away from the topic, "What's going on with you and Theo?"

Leaning on the side of the doorway I couldn’t fight the smirk growing on my face, "Do my ears deceive me or did you just sound extremely jealous?"

"You ignored my question," Liam said leaning on the same wall as I was. Turning my head our noses bumped as challenged each other.

"You ignored my question," I whispered, grinning as we were just as close as I was Theo. Rather than feeling tense with Liam it was different. The banter always light-hearted. Deja vu fell over me as he glanced at my lips. Leaning in closer to me I pressed my forehead to his own halting his actions, "I think you're forgetting something Dunbar."

"What?" He asked entranced by you. It felt like the doorway held an invisible barrier but it was actually in the shape of a teenager girl.

"Not what. Who. H, A, Y, D, E, N," I spelled out slowly in a whisper for a second he seemed to be lost in thought. Backing away he said nothing as he walked away from me almost like a zombie. Watching him disappear from view I could only imagine what he was thinking. Getting back into bed the vision returned and left with various levels of severity. Waking from the final one I sighed in defeat as I grabbed my phone. The screen making me cringe as it was the only source of light in my room. Finding the snake emoji within my contacts it only rang twice before he picked up.

"Where and when?" Is all I asked and he chuckled relishing in a small victory but there was so much to come.

"I told you that you would need me," He said, rolling my eyes, “In thirty minutes just get in your car and drive."

"Wha-?" I asked but the line cut, not changing out of my cupcake pajamas pants I put on my dark grey hoodie. Doing as he said as I got in my car at first I was confused, just making random turns as I pleased I don’t know when but I had zoned out. Coming to a stop I found myself at the cemetery. Standing not too far off was Theo. Parking the car things were only getting creepier by the second, maybe this is how I die is all I could wonder.

"Faster than I thought," He said, walking over to him as I shoved him back he only smirked.

"What the hell?" I exclaimed gesturing to the cemetery.

"Look I know it's a bit morbid but trust me all your answers are here," He said, walking into the cemetery I watched him as he was obviously expecting me to follow. Checking my phone the signal was weak I am many things but not stupid. Sending Liam a text it was cryptic but should definitely be enough.

TR. 3:47 am Delivered

Following Theo's barely visible figure I sighed as my phone lost all service. It felt colder as we walked and the quiet hum of nature left an eerie build up as if something malevolent was waiting for me. The walk lasted about thirteen minutes as I had started counting. Despite the time we were a little far from where my car was parked. Seeing him come to a halt I joined him, ahead of us were no graves but a vast grass clearing and some trees.

"Why are we here?" I asked, looking at Theo who pointed toward the tree. Walking across the grass Theo was quiet at first until we neared the tree.

"Go touch it then I'll explain," He said, walking slowly toward the tree it looked old. The roots were fully branched out and attached to the ground. While the body would likely be nearly impossible to cut. Slowly reaching out you clinched as your palm connected with the tree. As nothing happened you looked back at Theo who was only smirking. Taking your hand from the tree that ear splitting noise was returning except this time it was different.

"Brother help what am I?" Flinching as Theo returned to my view it felt as if I had ran a marathon. It looked like my brother and I, but we were dressed as if it was the medieval times. We both had English accents.

"What was that? I saw myself and Damon but we were different," I explained unable to put what I had just seen into words. Theo said nothing as he walked around the tree but there was a plaque, Santora's.

"Her name was Amara she's been dead over several years ago along with her brother August. Amara and Augustine Santora, they were twins and orphans. Murdered at sixteen they were just regular village children," Theo explained but it didn’t explain why they had my face-or why I had theirs. Walking back toward the graveyard he stopped as an old plaque blocked our path, Perino Family, Touch the plaque."

Theo watched as I slowly crouched down. Placing my hand flat on the plaque I sighed as the searing pain was returning but it wasn't nearly as bad as the nightly visions.

"Let her go! Aspen!" Hearing someone yell I jumped back as I watched as the unknown person tear into the girl who looked just like me. Watching the man bleed her dry the fear in her eyes soon turned to nothing.

"Aspen and Beckham Perino. Both murdered, were twins and orphaned. Just common villagers murdered at twenty-four," Theo explained and I began catching the pattern but it still explained nothing. Walking again and I followed him until we stopped at a tomb stone. 'Xandra and Xander Marcantel 1843.' Touching their tombstone and began again another vision.

"Careful friend we must all bow to my spoiled brat of a twin sister," I watched as she giggled at her brother and for the first time vision wasn't dark and demented. They were much like Damon and I with the playful banter.

"Xandra and Xander Marcantel. Orphans adopted into a rich family actually lived quite some time. Xandra fell for and married James Marcantel the family's son. Xandra and Xander were murdered though at the age thirty-seven. Had kids and was happy but still ended the same," Theo explained and I shifted uncomfortably as it started to seem like a happy ending. Walking again at the next stop the tombstone read, 'Virginia and John Alder 1900-1948.' Touching the tombstone what was once searing pain felt like a mere pinch.

"Stop moping over some silly girl and have fun John all the real boozes are gonna be gone soon brother," I watched as she danced happily having a good time.

"Virginia Alder full of love and fun lived long married and had children. John Alder spent his entire life watching after his wild sister, married, and had kids. Both grew up orphans, and murdered at the age forty-eight," Theo explained and I sighed as this pattern was becoming predictable. As he started walking I followed silently. All the backgrounds mirrored my own and these people, we all share a face. So far into thought as Theo came to a halt there was no tombstone. Looking around there were only fleshly dug holes.

"What the-?" I began, looking down into it but as I turned Theo jammed a syringe into my throat. The initial pain was nothing but as spots started dancing in my vision as I stumbled back I fell. Falling into one of the holes I could see Theo looking down at me.

"Don't worry Lacoss you've got time on your side once Liam breaks Scott down I'm gonna need some way to get him to leave Scott for dead," Theo said and the last thing I saw was dirt being thrown down on me as darkness took over.

"What the hell?" I exclaimed as I gasped awake, the hole seemed shallower. Dirt falling from out of my hair the night seemed lighter somehow

"Watch your language darling," Looking over I realized it was all of them Amara, Aspen, Xandra, and Virginia.

"Where's my brother?" I asked and they all chuckled.

"Don't worry love he's with himself just like you are," Amara said and I looked at them confused.

"So we’re all like doppelgangers or something?" I asked and they all laughed.

"No we’re you," Xandra said laughing and I looked at them with wild eyes.

"Oh sweety relax they're just teasing. Don't worry we've all gone through this. You're immortal (Y/n), the pain you feel will subside when you let us in. We're you're past lives and when you die you'll join us and help us in our next life," Virginia explained and I began backing up from yourselves? Clutching my head all the memories began to flow through each and everyone one of them.  All of it rushing back at once each death, each marriage, each child, each life.

"(Y/n) I'm here. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," choking as my throat felt as if it was cluttered.

"Liam?" I questioned he chuckled squeezing me into a hug. I began to cry remembering each of my deaths and realizing I was just in a grave made for me. Getting home I didn't care about what Theo did, or what happened to the pack just one person. As he stood clearly registering as well you both stared at each other stuck.

"So? Should I call you Amara, Aspen, Xandra, Virginia or is your name in this life okay?" He asked trying to lighten the mood and I smiled happy his personality after each life hadn't changed him. Smiling my chuckle turning into a cry as he pulled me into a hug.

"How many deaths will we live until we truly die brother?"

[mustafa-el-fats]

in: Featured, Heading Out On Your Own, Money & Career, Networking, Professional Skills

Brett & Kate McKay • August 9, 2012 • Last updated: September 23, 2020

Managing Your Online Reputation

This article series is now available as a professionally formatted, distraction free paperback or ebook to read offline at your leisure.

All the basic life skills we’ve covered so far in this series have been things that your dad, and even your granddad, had to learn when he left home for the first time too.

But today’s young man faces a new challenge that Pops never encountered: managing his online reputation.

Despite the nascent nature of this skill, I truly believe it’s one of the most important things we’ll talk about in this series. As the line between the offline and online world gets increasingly blurry, your online reputation is your reputation. Before you meet your freshman roommate, before you pick up a date, before you shake the hand of a potential employer…you better believe they’ve already Googled you, already formed a first, first impression about you, your interests, and what kind of person you are. Thus, if you’re not careful and conscious about the content you create online, you can end up shooting yourself in the foot in all areas of your life.

Heading Out on Your Own…And Into a Fishbowl World

Leaving for college or another kind of adventure after high school has long been an exciting and heady time. It’s an age where you’re experimenting with ideas and values, testing new freedoms, meeting new people, and often changing your mind about who you are and what you want out of life. One week you feel one way, and the next you feel another. During this process you often make mistakes, and do bone-headed things that twenty years later will still make you wonder, “What was I thinking?”

Just a decade ago, only you, and a few of your closest friends, would have held the memory of those crazy and sometimes cringe-worthy moments. The only record of them could be found by digging up a private photo album or journal.

Today…it’s a whole new ball game.

Now, everything you do and say can potentially become part of your permanent and public record. Everybody’s got a smartphone and can snap a picture of you anywhere, anytime and post it online. And things that go up online about you and from you can remain there forever. Mistakes you made when you were just 19 can haunt you for the rest of your life. Being a young man used to mean you could entirely reinvent yourself by moving to a new place and making new friends, but now your online reputation will follow you wherever you go.

I don’t mean to sound all doom and gloom about it. But that’s the sobering reality of living in the Internet Age, and it doesn’t help to bury one’s head in the sand and try to whatever that reality away. It absolutely doesn’t mean that college can’t still be the fun, spontaneous experience it’s always been; it just means you need to take a conscious, proactive approach to taking responsibility for what parts of that experience end up online and in the public eye.

Why Is Proactively Managing Your Online Reputation So Important?

One of the greatest things about the internet is that it is a giant pot that people can both add to and take from. This puts the most enormous wealth of knowledge in human history right at our fingertips and provides an endless amount of inspiration that can be added onto and “remixed.”

The downside of the big internet pot, is that the moment you put something into the pot, you pretty much lose all control over it. Many viral embarrassments have started out as something someone just wanted to share with a few good friends. But those friends shared it with their friends, who shared it with their friends…on and on until it ended up on Tosh.O.

There are essentially no guaranteed take backs when it comes to what you put online. You can erase your Facebook status, blog post, comment, tweet, or video, but someone else may very well have already shared it, copied it, taken a screenshot of it, or downloaded the video and reposted it somewhere else. How websites looked on a certain date in time are captured and archived on sites like the WayBack Machine (take a look at AoM circa 2008!). Emails that you thought you deleted forever can still sometimes be retrieved, and just because you deleted an email doesn’t mean the person you sent it to didn’t archive it. If someone else wants to post something of yours, you may not be able to get them to take it down without suing.

All of which is to say, pretty every piece of digital content you create can potentially exist forever. And this digital record can be accessed by any of the 250 million internet users in the US, not to mention the 2 billion online all over the world.

What’s on that record can have a big impact on both your personal and professional life.

Your college’s admissions office may have Googled you when they looked over your application. As soon as your freshman roommate knew you’d be bunking with him, he Googled you. When you network with someone at a party and tell them about your great idea, they’ll Google you later. And 81% of singles say they Google or check the Facebook page of someone before meeting him or her for a date.

Even though only 7% of Americans think their online reputation influences hiring decisions, in reality, 75% of US companies have made an online screening a formal part of the hiring process, 85% of recruiters and HR professionals say that having a positive online reputation influences their hiring decisions, and 70% of recruiters say they have rejected candidates based on something they found about them online. And since those numbers come from a study done in 2009, they’re undoubtedly even higher now.

What kinds of online discoveries cause recruiters and HR personnel to push your resume to the trash? This chart shows the most common red flags employers look for:

As you can see, it’s not just content you create that employers are checking out, it’s stuff your friends and colleagues post too. Be careful who you associate with.

Some young folks may be tempted to respond by saying, “Well, if a company is going to reject me for posting pictures of my drunken revelry, I wouldn’t want to work for them anyway.” But that’s pretty short-sighted. I’d venture to say that these companies aren’t rejecting candidates so much because they like to drink or swear, but rather that their willingness to show off these behaviors publicly shows a lack of judgment and wisdom. Not at all an unreasonable assumption.

The information that new friends and potential employers can find about you online may not even be true. Some people will try to verify it, some will not. And what they see will often come without any context – maybe you were being funny, maybe it’s an inside joke, but they won’t know that, they’ll simply make immediate judgments about what they find. This is why when it comes to managing your online reputation, you must be both proactive and defensive — deleting anything inappropriate,  wisely choosing the digital content you create, and purposefully creating positive content about yourself.

Self-Reflect Before You Self-Reveal

“Young people in particular often self-reveal before they self-reflect. There is no eraser button today for youthful indiscretion.” –James Steyer

There are some practical ways to manage your online reputation, and we’ll get to them in a moment. But the first step in taking responsibility for your online presence is creating a mindset for how you want to approach your online life.

Matt Ivester, the author of lol..OMG! (despite the silly-sounding title, this is actually a great book, with solid advice from the guy who learned about online reputation management firsthand from his misadventures in founding Juicycampus.com), suggests three questions to ask yourself before you put something online:

1. Why are you doing this?

Why? This is the most important question of all, and one that unfortunately usually goes unasked and uncontemplated.

Today’s colleges are welcoming the first “digital natives:” they’ve never known a time when the internet wasn’t a huge part of their lives. And even for those who are old enough to have used encyclopedias for elementary-school research papers, interacting and participating online has become so ubiquitous that it’s hard to imagine that life was ever any other way. This is just how things are, and we do what everyone else is doing, so much so that we hardly ever ask why we are doing those things.  Once we do start asking why, the answers are surprisingly hard to come up with and articulate.

Why do you update your status or share a link on Facebook? Do you want to share news? Are you bored? Do you want to be thought clever? Are you trying to make someone else jealous? Do you want to see if people feel the same way as you? Why?

Why do you care how many likes or upvotes something you submit on Facebook or Reddit gets? Is it confirmation that you shared something with value? Why?

Why do you leave comments on blog posts? Do you want the author of the blog to know that you appreciated the article? Do you think you have the insight to add that might help another reader? Do you want the author to know how and why they are wrong? Why? What do you hope to accomplish? Do you think it will change their mind? Is it because the psychological angst you feel when you think someone is wrong needs to be discharged? Why?

Why do you participate in online forums? Does it provide a feeling of camaraderie? Do you like to hear others’ opinions? Why do you respond when you think those opinions are wrong? Why do you care what a stranger thinks about you? Why?

When you ponder the why behind creating any kind of online content, from a status update to a YouTube video, you may come up with a reason that you find satisfactory and worthwhile. Or you may find that your motivation is hard to make sense of and decide it’s not worth your time. Either way, by asking why, you’ll become what Ivester calls “a conscious creator of content.”

2. Is now the right time?

The internet creates a perfect storm for impulse control: at the same time that it actively solicits impulsive communication and make satisfying those impulses incredibly easy, it makes taking back the results of those impulses incredibly difficult; it’s easy to hit “send” or “submit,” and quite hard to un-send and un-submit something.

Facebook asks, “What’s on your mind?” while Twitter wants to know “What’s happening?” They owe their existence to people’s desire to share their thoughts, videos, and photographs – and they need to be constantly fed to survive and grow and make money. And blogs (including ours) want to engage readers and build community and so ask for comments. The internet is set up to encourage you to share whatever thought crosses your mind, and taking that thought from your cranium to the walls and screens of the digital world only takes a few clicks.

But just because you can share your thoughts on impulse doesn’t mean you should. Not only because you probably haven’t thought through the why behind wanting to share first, but because strong impulses are usually born from strong emotions: anger, depression, and grief, or from chemically-altered states (like being drunk). When you spout off and share personal feelings while emotional or trashed, you will likely come to regret it once those strong emotions fade or you sober up.

The best thing to do when you feel you’re dealing with an impulse to put something online that you might regret later, is just to sit on it. The internet creates a false sense of immediacy, giving you an overwhelming feeling that you have to respond now. But what you’ll find is that something that felt super urgent and mega important to say in the moment, will seem totally pointless when you wake up the next morning.

One method I use to thwart impulsive responses is to imagine myself living before the internet. If I feel a burning urge to tell the author of an article what a chucklehead he is, I think of reading a magazine in the 80s, and how I would have had no outlet to express my opinion about it besides writing up a letter to the editor or talking to my wife or close friends about it. Or if something annoys me and I want to rant about it on Facebook, I think of a time before Facebook when I would have had no choice but to keep my rant to myself. It makes me realize that just as sharing whatever crosses your mind wasn’t necessary then, it’s not necessary now. The fine-folks of the 80s, while they made some questionable fashion-choices, weren’t any less happy than we are now that we’re able to shout what we’re feeling and thinking to everyone 24/7.

3. How controversial do you want to be?

The younger generation  (including those my age) was raised with a lot of rhetoric about how special and unique they are, how important it is to be “authentic,” and that it’s good to be “transparent.” This can lead folks to throw caution to wind about what they share online because, “I’m just trying to be me! And if other people don’t like it, they can bite me!”

But just because you can now display your opinions and personality to a greater number of people than ever before, doesn’t mean you should, or that the more you share, the more authentic you are. Going back to my suggestion of thinking about life before the internet, people used to only be able to share their quirks with a close circle of family and friends, and they weren’t any less themselves than we are (actually they were probably more themselves since they didn’t get instant feedback on all of their quirks).

Examining the meaning of authenticity isn’t within the purview of this post (although it will be a future series), but suffice it to say for now that the ideal for many of the great men of the past was not transparency, but sprezzatura – only revealing themselves to others slowly as a relationship of trust developed. You may want to “be yourself” by trumpeting your religious, social, and political beliefs online every chance you get, but if those meme’s you keep flooding Facebook with is the only thing new acquaintances know about you, they may decide they don’t want to get to know you before they even do — they’ll miss the complexity of your character that would have shown through over time…that you’re both a liberal and a rabid gun owner, or a fervent Christian and a scientist, or a zealous vegetarian and a Marine.

The three questions above can go a long way to helping you judiciously choose what and what not to post online. A final question to consider is what the general public might think of the content if for some reason what you post went viral or you were suddenly thrust into national prominence. Would it embarrass your family? What impression would a stranger have of it? You and your friends might think it’s funny, but would others find it offensive? You never know who’s going to see your post, what’s going to be dug up on you later, and who might be looking at your phone.

How to Manage Your Online Reputation

Managing your online reputation involves both deleting content you don’t want out there and creating content you do. Follow the steps below that Ivester and others have suggested, and complete each step right after you read it. This is the kind of thing that’s easy to put off indefinitely. Do it now.

1. Google yourself.

Before you can know what actions to take to manage your online reputation, you need to know what’s already out there. To do this, first deactivate Google’s customized search – when you typically do a Google search, the results Google brings up are based on things like your location, what you’ve clicked on before, and things your friends like. But you want to see what would come up if someone else searched for you. Here’s how to take off the customized search feature.

If you have a common name like “Rob Smith,” then search for your name with a qualifier like, “Rob Smith St. Louis,” or “Rob Smith Tulane University.”

After you look at Google’s results for you, check out other search engines like Bing and Yahoo as well.

When you look at the results that come up for your name, try to imagine what conclusions someone might reach about you if they had no other context for that content, and knew nothing else about you.

2. Try to remove content that you don’t want showing up in search results anymore.

After you do a search for yourself, it’s time to try to delete things that showed up that you’d rather not have out there anymore. Maybe you signed up for an internet forum with your real name. Maybe you left a comment on a blog post under your real name. Maybe you wrote a review or a blog post that you now feel is too controversial. Some of these things you can delete yourself.

If you can’t delete something yourself, like a blog post comment on another person’s blog, then try to contact the owner of the site to see if they will remove it for you. They may or may not, but the nicer you are about it, the greater the chance of them helping you, so make your request as civil and appreciative as possible.

If you can’t find the contact information for the site owner, try the site WHOis. Website registrars are required to publish the contact information for the person who registered the domain. Oftentimes when you look up a site on WHOis, you’ll find that the owner has decided to keep their direct contact information private and have instead given a proxy email address. Either way, your email will end up in the same place.

Understand that even if you’re successful at removing the offending content from a site, it may take a few days or even weeks before it’s reflected in search engine results. Also, understand that the offending item really hasn’t “gone away.” There’s a chance that it has been archived on the WayBack Machine. Remember, what’s put on the internet stays on the internet forever.

Moving forward, be extremely judicious when using your real name online.

3. Proactively create a positive first impression online.

Your best bet in managing your online reputation is proactively creating positive content about yourself that pushes the bad stuff off of the first few pages of search engines. Set up accounts with large social networking sites that typically rank high on Google and other search engines. Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+ profiles are often on the first page when you look up someone’s name. Set up accounts with them and post stuff that you’d be proud to have your name associated with.

The best thing you can do to ensure positive stuff associated with your name is at the top of search results is to start a blog and update it regularly. If you can, try to secure a domain name with your given name for your blog. What should you write about on your blog? You can publish your resume (redacting phone numbers and addresses, of course), write posts sharing insights in an expertise you might have, or use it to create a portfolio of your work if you’re a freelancer. Whatever it is, make sure it’s stuff you want associated with your name.

Cross-link your blog and all your social networking profiles together: put your link to Facebook and Twitter on your blog, a link to your LinkedIn profile and blog on your Facebook account, and so on.

Even if you don’t plan on using Twitter or Google+ or even putting anything on your blog, it doesn’t hurt to have your name registered with those accounts and domain. You don’t want some Joe Schmo mucking up your good name with a bunch of crazy online antics.

4. Adjust privacy settings on Facebook and clean up your Facebook Profile.

To ensure that potential employers or love interests only see the best of you when they look you up on Facebook, make the following adjustments:

First, take a look at how your profile page looks to the public. If you see any information visible that you don’t want strangers to see, make a note of it.

To change what’s visible on your profile page, click “About.”

Click “Edit” on the next page.  On each segment select “Friends” if you don’t want anybody who’s not your FB friend to see a particular piece of information. For networking reasons, I’ve left my job and school information visible to the public.

Visit the Facebook Privacy Settings page and adjust all your privacy settings so only your friends can see photos and status updates you make.

On the privacy settings page, update what your friends can share about you under “Timeline and Tagging.” Enable the ability to review and approve posts or photos that you are tagged in before they’re published on your Timeline. You can also disable Facebook’s tag suggestion when your friends upload photos that look like you. You don’t want your name tagged in an unflattering photo or post.

While you’re on the privacy settings page, limit who can see posts from the past. Even if you used to post everything publicly, this will retroactively make those posts private.

Review the photos that you’re tagged in and untag yourself from any unflattering photos. While you’re at it, you might ask your friend to remove the photo if it’s something you don’t want out there. Even if you’re not tagged in the pic, it could come back to haunt you.

Leave groups and unlike pages that may be seen as controversial…or just dumb. At least set the privacy settings on them so only your FB friends can see the pages you like.  how.

5. Be more conscious of what you share and whom you share it with on Facebook.

Ask the three questions we covered above before posting something on Facebook. That will save you a lot of grief.

Also, take into account if what you’re about to share is appropriate and relevant to ALL your Facebook friends. You don’t need to share your weekend plans with your old boss and former professors. In real life, you adjust what you talk about depending on your company — do the same on Facebook. Create lists on Facebook for close family/friends, acquaintances, professional colleagues, people that are the same religion as you, people you enjoy talking politics with, etc. Before posting something, ask yourself if this is something all your friends would be interested in or is better for a specific list of your friends. And even if you’re only posting for a list of close friends, still keep in mind what others would think if that status or photo got shared with people outside the list. It could happen.

6. Create strong passwords for your accounts.

If the recent story of tech writer Mat Honan’s online life being completely demolished by hackers doesn’t motivate you to strengthen your online security, then I don’t know what will. Create strong passwords for all your accounts and change them every six months. A strong password is at least 8 characters long and includes at least one special character (&!#) and both upper and lower case letters. Your passwords shouldn’t be the same for all your accounts. To manage all your passwords, use an app like LastPass.

To reduce the chance of getting hacked, enable two step authentication. Here’s how to do it on Google (if you use Gmail) and Facebook.

7. Use passwords on your laptop and mobile devices. 

An unattended laptop or mobile device provides a devilish opportunity for friends or random strangers to mess with your online life. I know several people who had to do a lot of scrambling to recover from an offensive tweet sent from an unattended iPhone by a mischievous friend. Avoid that. Enable password protection on all your mobile devices.

8. Set up a Google Alert for your name. 

Keep your finger on the pulse of what’s said about you on the web by setting up a Google Alert for yor name.  Just enter your name as a search query and Google Alert will email you a digest once a week (or daily if you want) of all the new content that’s hit the web with your name in it.

Conclusion

The internet is an amazing educational, social, and networking tool — you just need to use it wisely. Using it too little can be just as damaging to your personal and professional life as using it too much. Be a “conscious content creator” and use sound wisdom and judgement in deciding where you personally want to draw the line between your public and private life.

Any other tips on managing your online reputation? Share them with us in the comments (only after asking yourself why you’re commenting and making sure it’s the right time, of course)!

 

Related Articles

Going Undercover: How to Protect Your Privacy Online

Being a Gentleman in the Age of the Internet: 6 Ways to Bring Civility Online

Escape the Algorithm!

3 Ways You Should Never Start an Online Comment

16 Ways to Support the Art of Manliness in 2016

How to Support and Follow the Art of Manliness

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[justanothercinemaniac]

Epic Movie (Re)Watch #228 - Tower Heist

Spoilers Below

Have I seen it before: Yes

Did I like it then: Yes.

Do I remember it: Yes.

Did I see it in theaters: Yes.

Was it a movie I saw since August 22nd, 2009: Yes, #129.

Format: DVD

Disclaimer: As this is an analysis/recap/review/weird musings post about Tower Heist, I’m not really going to get into the claims against Brett Ratner or Casey Affleck. I will say though I think it’s horrible what they did and I hope they face consequences for their actions.

1) I very much like Christophe Beck’s score for this film. It really fits the heist theme. It’s cool, slick, and a gets stuck in your head quite nicely. Since we get to hear Beck’s score before we even see any visuals for the film, I thought I’d mention it here.

2) The chess scene between Josh and Shaw speaks to how the heart of their relationship is conflict ridden. Even when they’re friendly at the beginning, even when they’re civil, there is a conflict there that is very interesting.

3) Ben Stiller as Josh Kovacs.

Josh is a very strong main character. You understand that he’s not only good at his job but incredibly dedicated and focused as well. He cares, but the one thing he cares more about is people. Josh is shown to be very empathetic not only to his staff but to a number of residents in the tower. He gives Fitzhugh extra time to leave, he chases down Shaw when he thinks he’s been kidnapped, and he knows all his staff like the back of his hand. Stiller’s reserved, human (albeit very Stiller-y) performance supports this and makes Josh a nice guy to follow along through the story.

4) Going behind the scenes of the Tower at the beginning gives you a sense of not only how this place is run but also gets you invested in its employees. They’re developed in small ways to be more than stereotypes, to be people you like and care for. This is important, as the fact that they are the ones who get screwed is the main plot.

5) Michael Peña as Enrique Dev’Reaux.

Peña is in competition as the film’s ultimate scene stealer (in competition with Gabourey Sidibe). Not only does he fit will the rest of the ensemble cast, but he’s remarkably funny on his own. Peña plays the role as sweet and endearing when he could have easily come off as annoying. But there’s a sincerity and uniqueness in the performance which makes it interesting.

6) This line always stuck with me, probably because of the film’s themes.

Josh: “You’re committing a crime.”

Fitzhugh: “I understand that.”

7) Alan Alda as Arthur Shaw.

You can definitely see why people would defend, trust, and believe show in the beginning of the film. He’s friendly and polite, but it’s obviously a facade. Alda is able to switch between Shaw’s “friendliness” and his rottenness very well, making it feel like a united character instead of two foreign elements. He’s wonderfully skeezy.

8) Téa Leoni as Agent Denham.

The writing for Claire Denham doesn’t make her more than a plot device Josh likes, I think. BUT Leoni is able to breathe such personality and life into the character that you almost forget how she is on the page. There is one scene in particular which represents this well: Denham feels actually human when she gets drunk at a bar with Josh, but she’s still the sexy drunk girl trope. So it’s a mixed bag: Leoni’s strong performance but weak writing. At least Brett Ratner didn’t dress her up in stupid “sexy” costumes.

9) TW: Suicide

Lester’s suicide attempt isn’t only powerful from a storytelling standpoint, but edited very well. Particularly, the scene ends perfectly. You don’t know if he was successful or not right away, it’s 50/50.

10) I love this line.

Lester: “Truth is, people can open their own doors.”

11) Josh going off on Shaw.

It is so wonderfully cathartic to see Josh go after Shaw. It perfectly paints that Josh cares more about people than his job (something which was a little in doubt before now). It also perfectly sets up his motivations moving forward AND means there is no more question of if Shaw did it or not.

Josh [after Shaw says he cares about Lester after his suicide attempt]: “Then why haven’t you asked me if he’s alive or dead?”

I dig it.

12) The sadness we see among the staff shows how much Josh means to them and how good a boss he was.

13) Matthew Broderick as Mr. Fitzhugh.

Broderick has some of the most surprisingly memorable lines in the film, playing Fitzhugh as wonderfully timid and out of place. Broderick is hysterical in the part, supporting the cast neatly.

14) Eddie Murphy as Slide.

This is probably Murphy’s best film of the decade, but that isn’t really saying much. The part feels like a classic for him, very much in line with some of his 80s roles, and there’s a charm/appeal to that. I’ve said this about a number of other characters but he fits remarkably well with the ensemble cast, with a particularly strong chemistry with Stiller (who’s involvement lurred Murphy back to the part after years in development hell).

15) So some of these jokes you just know are not in good taste. And they’re not funny enough to make up for that. They’re not like Blazing Saddles which is bad taste but really good bad taste. Moments like the extended seizure joke just makes you uncomfortable. I think we have Brett Ratner to thank for that.

16) This film is at its best/funniest when the assembled crew is just doing shit. The tangent humor is ESPECIALLY strong. The next ten minutes (the mall scene through the heist prep) is almost exclusively this and features the best humor of the film. Some jokes (like the “gauntlet of lesbians” joke) can veer into bad taste territory, but largely they’re just funny.

17) Josh “apologizing” to Shaw really makes Shaw an even more despicable villain (the worse he is, the better). It also shows how Josh is able to work with people underestimating him to his advantage. Shaw doesn’t even blink when Josh says he’ll get, “Exactly what you deserve.”

18) Gabourey Sidibe as Odessa.

Sidibe is absolutely incredible in the part. There’s a chance her character might be a Jamaican stereotype, but she somehow steals scenes from comedy veteran EDDIE MURPHY. She’s hysterical, strong, and really interesting. If this movie had just been about Odessa, I would’ve been as interested if not more in the film.

19) So, why does Charlie get a promotion? He was at constant risk at being fired and terrible at his job. Is it because he’s a straight cis white dude? Actually, yeah. That’s probably it.

20) There’s a reason I watch this film around Thanksgiving: the entire heist takes place ON Thanksgiving! There aren’t enough Thanksgiving movies in the world so I DEFINITELY include this on the list.

21) The final act of the film, the reason the heist works as well it does is because everything that can go wrong DOES go wrong. Slide betrays them, the money isn’t there, Charlie is working at the tower, etc. It’s these constant monkey wrenches throw into the operation which makes it incredibly interesting.

22) This bugs the shit out of me, but when Slide is pointing his gun at Josh every time they cut back to Slide the painting behind him is in a different place. It bugs the hell out of me.

23) I LOVE that the Ferrari is where the money is. That it’s what they have to steal. It’s a nice surprise which completely changes the circumstances of the heist, forcing the characters to think on their feet. I love that.

24)

Slide: “I’m gonna call Ralph. [Throws up out the hanging car.]”

My brother and I saw this in theaters together. That joke had us dying the first time.

25) I will admit if you don’t find the final heist interesting you might not like the movie as much because it’s like the last half hour of the movie. So I can see how you might be bored by it. I’m not but I can understand if some might be.

26) I never got how the FBI knows EXACTLY who was in on the heist in less than a few hours, not to mention where they are os they can be picked up.

27) Hey, that’s talented character actor Zeljko Ivanek! Just randomly showing up! Sure, why not.

(That’s him. Not from this movie, but still.)

28) Josh giving himself up to save the others on his crew is a really nice ending for a number of ways. For one, it gets everyone the happy ending they deserve (except Shaw, who deserves what he gets). Also, it totally fits everything we know about Josh. Of course he doesn’t care about what happens to him. It’s about everyone else.

I like Tower Heist mainly because it’s a Thanksgiving movie and my mom really likes it, so it’s fun watching it with her. But beyond that it’s actually pretty funny. Yes, some of it is markedly insensitive (the seizure joke), but it’s supported by nice performances and solid comedy. There aren’t enough Thanksgiving movies in the world, so maybe Tower Heist is worth your time.

[wheredidhiseyebrowsgo]

Hi! Lovely blog you have here! I have found so many fics I didn't know existed, so I thank you! Was wondering if you know of any fics where Stiles is just done, he just can't take anymore. So he decides to leave and maybe the pack or Derek beg him to stay but he just can't. Eventually he comes back and Sterek gets there happy ever after??? I've read like 2 but I am not sure of tags for this. Any help will be amazing, thank you!

AND

Anonymous said: Do you have any fic where Derek and/or the pack hurt Stiles to push him away of them and keep him safe but with him not comming back to them after finding their real reasons? I'm really tired of those and I'd really like to see Stiles being really mad and hurt about them not letting him make his own decisions (Bonus: Steter, but not necessarily, like any fic with said prompt would be great)

I combined these two and updated the Stiles Kicked Out of the Pack Tag. In some he comes back and some he doesn’t. And since it’s an update it’s various pairings. - Anastasia

Never broken just bent by Deathgirl777

(1/? I 293 I Not Rated I Sciles)

Stiles got kick/or push out of the pack. But save the whole pack three months from a monster (Greek) and he's past come and bites him in the ass hard 

Plot Twist: Jackson and Isaac Choose Stiles by Sempiternal

(1/1 I 585 I Not Rated I No Pairing)

Just a little a one shot. Scott kicks Stiles out of the pack, and surprisingly, Jackson and Isaac have something to say about it.

Pressure by JustATaste

(2/? I 1,053 I Not Rated I Sterek)

Stiles has to get away from the pressure.

So he leaves Beacon Hills.

All Across the Tightrope by CurlyLahey (orphan_account)

(1/? I 1,404 I Explicit I Stiles/Barry Allen)

Stiles Stilinski felt as if he lost it all the day Garrett bit him, he was his Beta now. Garrett had murdered his dad, Scott and the pack shunned him and Derek left him for Braeden. The only friends he had were Isaac, Theo and Brett; the only ones who were willing to stick by him.

In a fit of rage, Stiles kills Garrett and becomes an Alpha; to top it all off, a vampire breaks into his house and just in time for the last semester of senior year too.

Stiles and his pack of Betas leave Beacon Hills to attend college and as they expand the pack along the way, they also gain some extraordinary allies in the process and it's then this pack of misfits realize you can find a home in the most unlikliest of people and places.

Oh and they kick some serious ass too.

you'll be sorry in the morning by Cantabo

(1/1 I 1,706 I Teen I Sterek)

“Hey, where the hell is Stilinski?”

No one called, until someone did. by queen_of_OTPs

(1/1 I 4,419 I Mature I Sterek)

Stiles found that he hadn’t spoken more than necessary since August. Gone were the rambling rants, extravagant gestures, and range of vocal tones. Monotone sentences that were cut with sharp edges, words like knives and tone like venom.

No one had called.

True Spark Stiles by Kosu

(2/? I 5,724 I Teen I Sterek)

Everything has happened exactly like in Teen Wolf until Season 5. Except everyone is captured and dies tragically confronting the Dread Doctors and the only survivor is Stiles, who has undergone through many experiments. It unlocks his unlimited hidden Spark. It is a leftover from the Nogitsune and including the loss of the Pack it brings upon his madness. No matter what. Stiles is gonna fix everything.

It is only after years, that he has finally gathered everything for the Pack’s resurrection. However, something goes amiss and it sends him to the past instead, where he haunts his seven year old self. Everything will soon unfold. The Hale fire.

Stiles has a plan and decides not to involve his Pack. It's to keep them safe. However, nothing goes according to the plan. Not with the Pack...

Deception by cecld

(9/? I 6,762 I Not Rated I No Pairing)

They left me here...

In this supernatural realm. The sorcerous's domain. I'm his slave, he trapped me here...

I was surprised and hurt how easily it was for my pack to let me go.

So really...

They shouldn't have been so surprised and hurt at how easy it was for me to let them go.

Why should I even go outside of this realm?

I'm home.

Fine Again by SilasSolarius

(4/? I 10,308 I Mature I Stiles/OMC)

Stiles has been hiding a few very important secrets from everyone around him. When tragedy strikes him under their noses, they start to discover just how much they don't know.

The Promised Land by StaciNadia

(1/1 I 10,952 I General I Sterek)

Pushed away from the pack, Stiles has had enough of Beacon Hills.

Molotov Cocktail by CurlyLahey

(6/? I 10,957 I Explicit I Stiles/Everyone)

Stiles had never been sure where his place in the pack was but one day, Derek had no problem reminding him that he didn't have one in the first place.

A dejected and distraught Stiles mostly spends his time with Danny. Skyping Isaac and Jackson is a necessity and the three are inseparable; well as inseparable as one can be from an ocean apart.

Then he and Danny meets Aria, a Fairy with sarcasm oozing out of her very pores. The three form an unlikely (not really) bond during the last few months of school that lead into summer and when Isaac and Jackson come back for junior year, it's a hell of a ride.

The five begin to venture into uncharted waters in the form of feelings for each other. It's a fire, a hungry and raging fire they're all too willing to feed.

Who would have guessed; the Werewolf, the Fairy, the Kanima/Werewolf Hybrid, its Master/Witch and the Elemental (Yes, Danny can control the elements). One thing you can count on is the Hale-McCall Pack suffering and definitely missing out.

Limits by HeadmasterFelix

(4/? I 13,131 I Explicit I Steter)

Stiles has fallen from the man he used to be, pushed to the edge by the monstrous nature of Beacon Hills as well as a strained relationship with Scott and his pack. When he hits his limit, he takes his future into his own hands, and Peter finally gets what he's been after for so long.

Love will win in the end by evilcupcake

(11/? I 18,660 I Mature I Steter I Rape)

The last thing she remembers is scoring the winning goal and then Jackson dying. The lights had gone out and someone had shoved a sweet-smelling cloth over her nose and mouth. She remembers struggling and then the world got dark. She didn't get a look at who attacked her but she did feel that the person had major muscles and that they were taller. She could feel their breath on the back of her neck and it made the hairs stand up.

With You, I Belong by brandileeder

(12/? I 24,396 I Mature I Deucalion/Stiles I Rape)

Despite Stiles doing all he can to help 'his' pack, the continue to toss him to the side. The undervalue and under appreicate him, and honestly, Stiles repects himself too much.So he leaves.But then the Alpha Pack is there, and Deucalion is there, and maybe, just maybe they aren't all that evil after all.

or the bad friend scott and bad alpha derek and stiles leaves the pack fic that I really, really wanted man

We'll be Better Around the Second Time by Cantabo

(12/12 I 26,589 I Mature I Sterek)

It's been months. Months of fading contact with the pack. Months of the silent treatment from his father. Months of nothing but himself and the occasional lesson with Deaton to entertain him.

It's too much, and eventually, Stiles leaves.

For years, everything goes great, until of course his dad gets injured, and he is suddenly forced to deal with people he thought he left behind in his past for good.

OR: Stiles gets pushed out of the pack, hits the road, makes new friends, learns how to grow up, and falls in love.

Well shit, Sourwolf by ColdHeartedBitch

(39/? I 29,809 I Not Rated I Sterek I Girl!Stiles)

Derek left Beacon Hills. Stiles is 17 and pregnant. Her father kicked her out, the Pack don't give a shit about her since her baby is Derek's. Somehow, she manages to find new family and home. Derek finds her and tries to win her forgiveness.

[starrydean]

Info

Blaire Dare 

Full Name: Blaire Harley Dare 

Gender: Female

Age & DOB: 24 & April 19th

Occupation: Detective 

Appearance: Blaire has long blonde hair and full blue eyes. She stands at 5'5", with a lean figure from hunting most of her life. She’s got a lean, oval face with big blue eyes and full lips. Her hair falls in the middle of her back. She keeps it tied up in a high ponytail or left down, keeping it straight most of the time. Blaire’s figure is a lean, long figure. She’s long-legged and she’s got an average-sized torso. She’s got a few scars as reminders of hunts gone wrong. Blaire has a scar that is faint but lines part of her right collar bone from a knife that got a little two close. The other scars can be noticeable on her back and lower abdomen. Blaire has a soft English accent that only comes out when she’s angry. Usually, her voice is even, maybe a little sarcastic at times. She’s got a single tattoo that lines her left hip, an arrow with a single word threw it. The word, love meant the love that’s kept her alive all these years. She’s seen typically in jeans and leather jackets. Blaire has her favourite pair of boots that she wears all the time. The faded brown boots stop at her ankles and are always accompanied by jeans and a black tank top. She’s rarely seen in anything other than comfortable hunting clothes.

FC: Amber Heard 

Personality: Blaire is flirty and fun. when she has alcohol in her system. When she doesn’t she has a tense more bitter side to her. She tends to be uptight and serious all the time. Blaire is actually decently smart, not that many would know that as she only uses her brains when she’s on the case. When she’s hunting she’s learned that it’s not a time for fun, but when she’s out drinking she can be a party animal. She’s the queen of one night stands because she feels like anything that’s long term isn’t going to last long because of her job. Blaire can be cold-shouldered to people that have hurt her, and she tends to be one that holds grudges. Blaire can sometimes get angry when people underestimate her for being a female, and that’s when she flies off the handle, feeling that it’s not okay for people to think she’s weaker or dumber because of her gender, hair colour or drunk persona.

History & Background: Blaire Harley Dare was born to two English detectives on a rainy spring night of April 19th, both her parents were legacies of an elite wealthy club in Europe. She never found that she was a legacy as her family uprooted after a falling out between her father and the elders and they moved to the United States when she was six. Her parents started training her at the age of seven. She’s only known life on the road. Blaire found that her accuracy and shooting had become very good at a young age so she focused more on her studies, both parents well versed in many subjects and the world. Blaire grew up on the road, hearing stories of her home although she didn’t much remember it. And the way her parents talked about it she never intended on going back home either. Blaire’s parents took a lot of cases from an agent in the States. During her teen years, is when she started to rebel, going on cases on her own. She got herself into a lot of trouble which leads to the scars she has now. She lost her parents to a gang case gone wrong on her 21st birthday. Since then she stayed grounded in one town, working her way up the chain to becoming a detective in her local precinct. Her partner Dominic being her only friend in the city, spending most of their days together riding through the streets and nights at Declan’s famous “Bunker” bar. 

Aesthetics: wings. gun. bullets. duffel. rock n roll. cars. motels. beer. books. gin. whiskey. scotch. black. glass. lace.

Song:  Mercy - Brett Young 

Dominic Matei

Full Name: Dominic Matei

Gender: Male 

Age & DOB: 26 & August 29th

Occupation: Police Officer

Appearance:  As a young child, Dominic had bright hazel-green eyes and light blond hair. Throughout his infant years, her eyes lightened to a more green colour.  He grew into his features, an almost identical replica of his father, with his long dark hair and dark eyes. Taking after his father, in his stance and the way she walked. Dominic also has most of his father’s stern grumpy-looking features. His brows furrowed most of the time and his lips pursed. That didn’t stop Dominic from constantly smiling and laughing. His skin tone now less pale, darkened slightly from going out and playing in the sun when he could as a young boy. Once Dominic hit eighteen, the majority of his features heightened and suddenly he really started to take more after his father. His cheekbones are sharp, making that one of his more noticeable features. He stands around 6′2″. He’s got a lean figure that is claud most of the time in dark clothes.

FC: Sebastian Stan 

Personality: Dominic as a young boy, was more on the shy side. He clung to his parents for most of his younger years, shy and quiet but friendly to anyone his parents told her were family. As he grew up Dominic became more outgoing, wondering around to meet new people and not being afraid to crack a smile and joke at people he felt that might need it. He started to become more of an extrovert, someone who started talking to more people and someone who wasn’t afraid to ask questions when he needed clarification. Throughout his teen years, Dominic became more of a social butterfly. He wanted to meet new people all the time and he wanted to explore the world. Both parents letting her do so, with their supervision - Dominic easily picking up on different traits from her parents. He took after his father, though some of his ‘hard-ass’ personality. He’s not afraid to get in a fight being the older brother of two younger sisters - especially if he knows he can win. He took after her mother as well in the sense he’s fun and keeps his family close to his heart. If anyone hurts the people he loves, he’d destroy them.

History & Background: Dominic was born in a small home on the outskirts of the city. He grew up with a stay at home mom and a father with a simple job of being a police officer in their small town. He was the oldest of three, having two younger sisters, taking care of them any chance he got. His family and he were comfortable for the eighteen years that he lived at home. After graduating high school he enrolled in the academy to follow in his father’s footsteps. After finishing at the academy, he tried to get placed in his father’s station. A few months into the job his father passed away from a sudden heart attack. Dominic was ruined, and he couldn’t bear to stay at home any longer. At that point in his life, he decided and knew that he had better chances of working in the city. So he packed up his things and left home mere weeks after his father’s passing as was placed at Station 91 where his partner Blaire worked. Since then, he’s been happier, not going home to see his family as much as he should have. But at least he had the bar and Blaire to confide his feelings in. 

Aesthetics:  blue. black. uniform. gun. red. lights. gun powder. silver. badge. charger. sirens. graves. grey. parking lots. beer. station. blood. heart. 

Song: Death Because of Death - Slipknot

Gavriel Novak

Full Name: Gavriel Novak 

Gender: Male 

Age & DOB: 29 & June 16

Occupation: Army Sergeant

Appearance: Gavriel has light hair, that has streaks of dark in it that reaches his eyes and light blue eyes like his father. He like his mother has a lovely smile and kind eyes. Most of his features make him look a lot like his late mother, except for his blue eyes and lighter hair like his father. He is around 6’ 1’ -6’ 2", although he considers himself short for his age. He is pretty fit and healthy. Like his father, he enjoys going to the gym and eating healthy. He loves to sketch and spends a lot of time sketching people he cares about.

FC: Sam Heughan

Personality: He is nice to everyone, he has the heart of his mother, true and pure but has the brains of his father. He can make some iffy choices, but in hopes that they turn out well. In most cases they do. He likes to read and learn. He is a fighter, like his father. He is a gentleman and enjoys being honest with people. He can definitely speak his mind when he wants to. He likes to treat everyone with utter respect because his father taught him to be good to everyone. He thinks like his mother in emergency situations. Due to being a fighter, he became incredibly quick at thinking outside the box and strategically. 

History & Background: Born in a rough time, Gavriel lost his mother in childbirth which left him only his father. A father who was constantly on the move due to his job. Gavriel grew up in a similar fashion his father did, not staying in schools for longer than a few months and barely making friends when he was there for more than those three months. He quickly followed in his father’s footsteps, joining the army right out of high school he quickly worked his way up to the top, being better and smarter than most of his classmates. Eventually, he made it to the position of sergeant in which he quickly fell into the role of becoming more strategic and less childlike. He’s been in the army ever since and has never planned on leaving. During one of his leave periods, he ended up back in the city were his ex-wife lived. In his first week of being home, he found solace at a bar called the Bunker, where he learned of the regulars that came through and stayed in the city, including Blaire, Declan, Kent, and Dominic. 

Aesthetics: green. black. guns. steel. gun powder. rock n roll. leather. diamonds. coal. fire. dark. moon. 

Song: One Hell of An Amen - Brantley Gilbert 

Declan King

Full Name: Declan King 

Gender: Male 

Age & DOB: 28 & January 24th

Occupation: Bartender 

Appearance: Declan like his father has bright blue-green eyes, that light up when he talks and tells stories. He has darkish hair like his father, most of his appearance taking after his father. He is tall, around 6'4". He towers over his mother, around the same height, maybe taller than his father. His face is not pale but not tan, just in between. He has got little crinkles by his eyes that crinkle when he laughs and smiles. He has all his pearly whites and a killer smile that makes his appearance much friendlier than he actually is. He has got a lean muscular build, which he prides himself on. He keeps his hair cut short and well tamed. His facial features resemble his father’s. His upper body like both parents is built and strong, along with the lower half of his body. Being in the business he’s in, he’s also got a considerable amount of tattoos littered around most of his body. 

FC: Jensen Ackles 

Personality: Declan like both parents, he is a weary person. Doesn’t trust the people that he doesn’t know. Making him sometimes not the easiest person to deal with. But, like his father, he’s a selfless soul and when he sees someone in danger he’ll risk his life for them. He’ll put everything on the line for his family and friends. Like his mother, he is a natural-born leader, someone who will defy the orders of people that are doing wrong and hurting others. He is sort of a cold, stone-like person when you first talk to him, but after time he opens up and he becomes someone that is reliable and trustworthy. He can be funny, flirty and a bit of a troublemaker for both his parents and anyone that knows him.

History & Background: Declan was born into a single mother family, with four other siblings. He quickly learned how to fend for himself when his mother went off the radar for months at a time. At the age of 15, he moved away from the town he grew up in and tried to fend for himself in a big city. He started working at an old friends bar, and when he was ready enough, Declan tried and opened his own cop bar. Pouring his sweat and joy into the joint, he quickly became popular for his mixed drinks and classic rock music that played in his bar. He’d see the regulars come through the bar fairly regularly, them becoming his only connection to the outside world as he lived and breathed the Bunker. Since moving to the big city at such a young age, he never knew what happened to his mother and his siblings after all those years. He also had no intention to try to find them either, the sense of abandonment looming over him almost every day. 

Aesthetics: air. wings. diamonds. roses. metal. iron. rain. snow. lace. silk. moon. stars. silver. steel. sugar. salt. glass. smoke. ash. bruise. scar. wind. spices. light. dark. sweat. dust. scratches. glitter. cold. frost. pearls. sapphires. lightning. moonlight. stone. wolves.

Song: (Everything I Do) I Do It For - Bryan Adams

Kent Henderson 

Full Name: Kent Henderson

Gender: Male 

Age & DOB: 30 & January 4th

Occupation: Criminal Lawyer

Appearance: Kent is fair-skinned, with dark hair and light eyes. He’s got a strong build, not overly muscular, but enough to hold his own when he has too. He doesn’t have an overly tall build but he averages where most men stand. His features resemble more edged and rigid than soft, making him look more serious than he leads on to believe. Due to his features being serious, he’s never lost a hand in poker. His features stay unreadable for the most part, never really changing from the same stony expression he wears every day.

FC: Luke Evans

Personality: The more serious of the group, Kent has a stone-cold personality. He doesn’t enjoy jokes and has no desire to make friends with anyone. He’s ruthless and isn’t afraid to step on necks to achieve his goals, which would be owning the law firm he’s currently a senior lawyer at. He’s aggressive, angry and emotionless all in one. He has no sympathy bone in his body, making it very easy for him in court, but not in any other aspects of his own life. 

History & Background: Kent was born in the city to two never truly present parents. Both being lawyers who put their own work before their son, Kent grew up with more nannies than most of his childhood friends did. As he grew up, Kent became more snobby and aggressive for his parent's attention. Despite his constant efforts to get his parents to notice him, they didn’t and he ended up just doing whatever he wanted when he headed into his teen years. After graduating high school, he went to college on his parent's dime and got himself a law degree. Kent worked for another firm, opposite to his parents where he quickly excelled and climbed the political ladder. Only then did his parents start to notice him, not that he cared at that point in his life. He much more preferred to be in the company of a good glass of scotch in his favourite bar, the Bunker. The same bar that Declan, his favourite bartender worked at and all the police including Blaire, and Dominic went to. 

Aesthetics:  sparks. suits. briefcase. black. tie. office. impala. glass. money. coins. scotch. whiskey. white. papers. court. judge. gavel. 

Song: Happier - Ed Sheeran 

For my girl. so sorry it’s so late! : @indie-rp  

[junker-town]

6 awkward moments that prove the NFL preseason isn’t all bad

Photo by David John Griffin/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

The preseason is a mess, but it’s our mess.

There are a lot of reasons to want to get rid of the NFL preseason. Players get injured, the games can be boring because starters tend to sit out, and there aren’t any real stakes in the outcome.

The NFL isn’t going to let the preseason go anywhere, though. While Falcons owner Arthur Blank said that four preseason games might not be necessary, he also noted it’s still important for players on the fringe of the final 53-man roster. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said he enjoys the preseason because it’s a chance to see “hundreds of millions” dollars worth of talent compete on the field (and likely the revenue those games take in). The future of the preseason might change with a new CBA in the coming years — if anything, the number of games will be reduced — but it’s still going to exist in some form.

So we might as well find things to appreciate about it.

Despite its flaws, the preseason can be fun if you examine its awkward beauty. The sloppiness and poor execution can lead to some hilarious moments we don’t get during the regular season.

At times, the 2019 preseason has managed to perfectly capture the essence of exhibition football. Here are six moments from this year, ranked by how preseason-y they are.

6. Ron Rivera called a timeout to help the Bears’ kicking debacle

When you look up the definition of “loyalty,” you’ll see a picture of Panthers head coach Ron Rivera’s smiling face.

In the 1980s and early 90s, Rivera played for the Chicago Bears and won a Super Bowl with them in 1985. Rivera decided to help his former team with a problem that’s dominated their entire offseason by icing the Bears’ kicker in their preseason opener.

He was pretty open about doing it, too.

I asked Rivera about icing the kicker in the second quarter and he very transparently admitted he did it to help the Bears. He knows they’re trying to find a kicker.

— Jourdan Rodrigue (@JourdanRodrigue) August 9, 2019

Bears head coach Matt Nagy appreciated the gesture:

Matt Nagy said he was not in cahoots with Ron Rivera when Carolina called a timeout before Elliott Fry attempted his 43-yard field. “But I’m glad they did,” Nagy said with a smile.

— Jeff Dickerson (@DickersonESPN) August 9, 2019

Elliott Fry handled the pressure that Rivera placed on him, nailing a 43-yard field goal before the half. However, he was cut after the second preseason game. As of now, Eddy Pinerio won the job — even though Nagy doesn’t seem very committed to him.

5. Danny Etling got tossed into the fire with the Falcons

This summer, former LSU quarterback Danny Etling was moved to wide receiver during training camp with the Patriots. Etling is an above-average athlete for the quarterback position — he ran a 4.76 40-yard dash at the 2018 NFL Combine — which made him a candidate for the position switch. With the Patriots drafting Jarrett Stidham this year, there wasn’t much room left for Etling at quarterback.

The move was short-lived, though. Etling was waived after the Patriots’ first preseason game and claimed by the Falcons. Atlanta switched him back to quarterback and gave him all the snaps in the second half of its game against Washington.

A player switching positions twice in a few weeks and then playing an entire half a week after joining a new team? That’s peak preseason.

Etling threw just six passes in an entire half of football, completing two of them. Naturally, he did not have a great grasp of the Falcons’ playbook and looked uncomfortable as a passer.

However, Etling unleashed something that Falcons fans haven’t really seen since Michael Vick was the starting quarterback in the early 2000s: the zone read! Etling completely caught Washington’s defense off guard for a first down on one of them.

Etling was dealt a bad hand and probably won’t make the Falcons’ 53-man final roster, but he’s intriguing enough as an overall athlete that he might make the practice squad.

Players like Etling are the reason that preseason can be worthwhile. He got a shot to show that he can survive a tough test and produced a highlight in the process.

4. A.J. Moore woefully misread a play

The blooper reel is a strong component of any NFL preseason. There are guys who are unsure of their assignments on the field and it can lead to some wacky-looking plays.

Here’s one from the Texans’ game against the Lions. Texans safety A.J. Moore had a free shot at Matthew Stafford on a blitz, but for some reason he turned around and tried to run back in coverage after he passed through the line of scrimmage.

Then Moore doubled back and went toward Stafford, but he had wasted just enough time to miss out on a crushing sack. Stafford ended up completing the pass for a first down.

YOU:: preseason games are boring and they don't mean anything ME: pic.twitter.com/MOuDuXS2cf

— Rivers McCown (@riversmccown) August 22, 2019

These are the plays that leave you kicking yourself as a football player. There was no one to stop him from absolutely leveling Stafford, but he just got confused. Moore only has one season of NFL experience, mostly as a special teamer. Maybe we can excuse this one.

3. Lamar Jackson was distracted by a pick-six during a sideline interview

The vast majority of preseason football is unwatchable, but sometimes things are so bad that it’s hard to look away.

Tanner Lee produced a performance like that in Week 1 of the preseason. Lee dropped back to pass six times. In those six plays he was sacked three times, missed all three of his pass attempts, and threw a pick-six near his own end zone. One week later, he was cut by the Jaguars.

The broadcast captured a funny moment in the middle of the play. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson was being interviewed on the sideline during the interception and Jackson paused while he was speaking to watch the rest of the play.

Look at the subtle smile by Jackson — that’s what the preseason is about.

2. Kyler Murray got multiple false starts by clapping

The Cardinals are trying to innovate their offense with coach Kliff Kingsbury and quarterback Kyler Murray leading their team. So far, they just look to be on the cutting edge of false start penalties.

In their second preseason game against the Oakland Raiders, Murray got a false start by clapping, which can be interpreted as simulating the snap — really the only way a quarterback can get pegged with a false start penalty.

Don’t believe? Look for yourself.

Murray had two false starts against the Raiders. The next week, backup quarterback Brett Hundley had two more in the Cardinals game against the Vikings, though Kingsbury doesn’t believe it’s going to be a big issue for the offense throughout the year.

With the Cardinals’ porous offensive line and extremely young skill players, it’s probably going to be a long first year for Kingsbury. This is one area they should be able to fix with relative ease at least.

1. Nathan Peterman was confused by the size of the Canadian field

We were so close to seeing Aaron Rodgers debut in Matt LaFleur’s offense, until a rare situation in Canada prevented that. The Raiders and the Packers traveled to Winnipeg for an international preseason game and then had to play on a shortened field because the turf was damaged when the goalposts were being moved. Canadian football is played with the goalposts about seven yards deep in the end zone, which is obviously different than American football.

None of the starters for either team suited up and they ended up playing on an 80-yard field to avoid injuries. As a result, one of the end zones started at the 10-yard line and the goal line represented the back of the end zone.

This caused Raiders backup quarterback Nathan Peterman to have some trouble throwing the ball down the field — but it also gave him a chance to add to his NFL legacy.

Nathan Peterman has now thrown two passes into the back corner of the end zone on this drive...which here in Winnipeg is 10 yards out of bounds.

— Matt Schneidman (@mattschneidman) August 23, 2019

The first throw was at least within the field of play, but he didn’t give the receiver room to bring the ball in.

The second was a way out of bounds. To be fair to Peterman, it is a bit disorienting seeing the field end before the goal line.

At least the Raiders can go back to their home stadium, which doubles as a baseball field for half of the season.

[myhauntedsalem]

Horror Movies Based on True Events  

Lots still not mentioned

Open Water (2003) When a couple goes scuba diving in Open Water, their boat accidentally leaves them behind in shark-infested water. It’s based on something that really happened to American tourists Tom and Eileen Lonergan, who were left behind by a diving company off the Great Barrier Reef. By the time the mistake was realized two days later, it was too late, and they were never seen again. A shark attack seems not to have been the cause of death, however, as the couple’s dive jackets were eventually found. The jackets weren’t damaged, which suggested that the Lonergans likely took them off, “delirious from dehydration,” and drowned.

Borderland (2007) When three friends head to a Mexican border town to have some fun in this movie, they get mixed up with a cult specializing in human sacrifice. The concept loosely stems from the life of Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, a drug lord and cult leader who was responsible for the death of American student Mark Kilroy.

A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) The iconic baddie Freddy Krueger kills teenagers via their dreams in Wes Craven’s franchise-launching film. Craven told Vulture that the idea stemmed from an article he read in The Los Angeles Times about a family of Cambodian refugees with a young son who reported awful nightmares. “He told his parents he was afraid that if he slept, the thing chasing him would get him, so he tried to stay awake for days at a time,” said Craven. “When he finally fell asleep, his parents thought this crisis was over. Then they heard screams in the middle of the night. By the time they got to him, he was dead. He died in the middle of a nightmare. Here was a youngster having a vision of a horror that everyone older was denying. That became the central line of Nightmare on Elm Street.”

Black Water (2007) Set in the swamps of Australia, this movie sees a group of fishers attacked by a humongous crocodile. It was inspired by an actual crocodile attack in the Australian outback in 2003 that killed a man named Brett Mann in an area that his friends said they’d “never, ever” seen a crocodile before.

Dead Ringers (1988) In David Cronenberg’s movie, Jeremy Irons plays twin gynecologists who do messed up things with patients and ultimately die together in the end. Cronenberg adapted the movie from Bari Wood and Jack Geasland’s novel Twins, which was inspired by the lives of actual twin gynecologists Stewart and Cyril Marcus. TheNew York Times noted that the Marcuses enjoyed “trading places to fool their patients” and that they ultimately “retreat[ed] into heavy drug use and utter isolation.”

Deliver Us From Evil (2014) The movie follows a cop and a priest who team up to take on the supernatural. It’s based on self-proclaimed “demonologist” Ralph Sarchie’s memoir Beware the Night, in which he tells supposedly true stories, such as the time he found himself "in the presence of one of hell's most dangerous devils" possessing a woman.

Poltergeist (1982) In Poltergeist, a family’s home is invaded by ghosts that abduct one of the daughters. The film was inspiredby unexplained events, such as loud popping noises and moved objects, that occurred in 1958 at the Hermanns’ home in Seaford, New York.

Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock’s essential film traces a woman who embezzles money from her employer and runs off to a mysterious hotel where she is (58-year-old spoiler alert) murdered by the man running it, Norman Bates. Bates is said to have been based on Ed Gein, a Wisconsin man who was convicted for one murder in the 1950s, but suspected for others. He also was a grave robber, and authorities found many disturbing results of that in his home, including bowls crafted from human skulls and a lampshade made from the skin of someone’s face.

Scream (1996) The classic ‘90s slasher flick uses dark humor to tell the story of a group of teens and a mystery man named Ghostface who wants to murder them. But the real story ain’t funny. The movie was inspired by the Gainesville Ripper, real name Danny Rolling, who killed five Florida students by knife over a span of three days in August 1990.

The Conjuring (2013) The movie stars Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as ghost hunters helping out a family in a haunted 18th-century farmhouse. The hunters, Ed and Lorraine Warren, are real people, as is the Perron family that they assist. Lorraine was a consultant on the movie and insists that many of the supernatural horrors really happened, and one of the daughters who is depicted in the film, Andrea Perron, says the same. She recalled an angry spirit named Bathsheba to USA Today:“Whoever the spirit was, she perceived herself to be mistress of the house and she resented the competition my mother posed for that position.”

Annabelle (2014) The creepy porcelain doll from The Conjuring gets her terror on in this spin-off of The Conjuring. The ghost-hunting Warrens have claimed that there was a real Raggedy Ann doll that moved by itself and wrote creepy-ass notes saying things like, “Help us.” The woman who owned it contacted a medium, who claimed that it was possessed by a seven-year-old girl named Annabelle who had died there.

The Disappointments Room (2016) Kate Beckinsale stars in the movie as an architect who moves to a new home with a mysterious room in the attic that she eventually learns was previously used as a room where rich people would cast off disabled children. It was reportedly inspired by a Rhode Island woman who discovered a similar room in her house that she says was built by a 19th century judge to lock away his disabled daughter.

The Exorcist (1973) Two priests attempt to remove a demon from a young girl in this box office smash. The movie was based on a 1949 Washington Post article with the headline “Priest Frees Mt. Rainier Boy Reported Held in Devil's Grip.” Director William Friedkin spoke about the article to Time Out London: “Maybe one day they’ll discover the cause of what happened to that young man, but back then, it was only curable by an exorcism. His family weren’t even Catholics, they were Lutheran. They started with doctors and then psychiatrists and then psychologists and then they went to their minister who couldn’t help them. And they wound up with the Catholic church. The Washington Post article says that the boy was possessed and exorcised. That’s pretty out on a limb for a national newspaper to put on its front page… You’re not going to see that on the front page of an intelligent newspaper unless there’s something there.

The Girl Next Door (2007) The movie follows the abuse of a teenage girl at the hands of her aunt, and it was inspired by the murder of Sylvia Likens in 1965. The 16-year-old girl was abused by her caregiver, Gertrude Baniszewski, Baniszewski’s children, and other neighborhood children, as entertainment. They ultimately killed her, with the cause of death determined as “brain swelling, internal hemorrhaging of the brain, and shock induced by Sylvia's extensive skin damage,”

The Possession (2012) Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick star in the movie as a couple with a young daughter who becomes fascinated with an antique wooden box found at a yard sale. Of course, the box turns out to be home to a spirit. The flick’s “true story” basis came from an eBay listing for “a haunted Jewish wine cabinet box” containing oddities such as two locks of hair, one candlestick, and an evil spirit that caused supernatural activity. The box sold for $280 and gained attention when a Jewish newspaper ran an article about its so-called powers.

The Rite (2011) In The Rite, a mortician enrolls in seminary and eventually takes an exorcism class in Rome, where demonic encounters ensue. The movie was based on the life of a real exorcist, Father Gary Thomas, whose work was the focus of journalist Matt Baglio’s book The Rite: The Making of an Exorcist. A Roman Catholic priest, Thomas was one of 14 Vatican-certified exorcists working in America in 2011. He served as an advisor on the film and told The Los Angeles Times that in the previous four years he had exorcised five people.

The Sacrament (2013) In the movie, a man travels to find his sister who joined a remote religious commune, where, yep, bad things happen. It was inspired by the 1978 Jonestown massacre, in which cult leader Jim Jones led 909 of his followers to partake in a “murder-suicide ceremony” using cyanide poisoning.

The Shining (1980) Stanley Kubrick’s horror masterpiece is about a man who is driven to insanity by supernatural forces while staying at a remote hotel in the Rockies. The movie Derives from Stephen King’s book of the same name, which was inspired by the Stanley Hotel in Colorado, where plenty of guests have reported seeing ghosts. The Stanley wasn’t actually used in the movie, however, because Kubrick didn’t think it looked scary enough.

The Silence of the Lambs(1991) The Oscar-winning film tells the story of an FBI cadet who enlists the help of a cannibal/serial killer to pin down another serial killer, Buffalo Bill, who skins the bodies of his victims. FBI special agent John Douglas, who consulted on the film, has explained that Bill was inspired in part by the serial killer Ted Bundy, who like Bill, wore a fake cast. Ed Gein is also believed to be an inspiration, what with the whole skinning thing. And per Rolling Stone, 1980s killer Gary Heidnik was a reference for how Buffalo Bill kept victims in a basement pit.

The Strangers (2008) Three killers in masks terrorize the suburban home of a couple (played by Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman) in this invasion thriller. Writer-director Bryan Bertino has said the film was inspired by something that happened to him in childhood. "As a kid, I lived in a house on a street in the middle of nowhere. One night, while our parents were out, somebody knocked on the front door and my little sister answered it,” he said. "At the door were some people asking for somebody that didn't live there. We later found out that these people were knocking on doors in the area and, if no one was home, breaking into the houses."

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974 & 2003) Ed Gein also reportedly inspired elements of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and its remake. The movies are about groups of friends who come into contact with the murderous cannibal Leatherface. The original film memorably features a room filled with furniture created from human bones, a nod to Gein’s home.

The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976 & 2014) The original film follows a Texas Ranger as he tracks down a serial killer threatening a small town, and the 2014 sequel of the same name essentially revives the same plot. Both are based on the Texarkana Moonlight Murders of 1946, when a “Phantom Killer” took out five people over ten weeks. The case remains unsolved 

Veronica (2018) The recent Netflix release follows a 15-year-old girl who uses a Ouija board and accidentally connects with a demon that terrorizes her and her family. The movie’s based on a real police report from a Madrid neighborhood. As the story goes, a girl performed a séance at school and then “experienced months of seizures and hallucinations, particularly of shadows and presences surrounding her,” according to NewsWeek. The police report came a year after the girl’s death when three officers and the Chief Inspect of the National Police reported several unnatural occurrences at her family’s home that they called “a situation of mystery and rarity.”

[public-works-phl]

Originally published on The Philadelphia Citizen August 9, 2019

It’s 1999, the NFL Draft. Commissioner Paul Tagliabue receives the pick. Eagles fans wait anxiously. “With the second pick, the Philadelphia Eagles select Donovan McNabb.” And just as planned, Eagles fans unleash thunderous boos.

Philly fans, the tired saying goes, are the worst in sports.

So it was no surprise that SportsRadio 94.1 WIP host Angelo Cataldi had organized the “Dirty 30,” a crew that travelled to the NFL Draft to boo any pick that wasn’t running back Ricky Williams. That booing is just one of many incidents that give us the “worst fans in sports” title.

We throw snowballs at Santa Claus. We have a jail in our stadium. We boo our own players.

And over Cataldi’s 30 year career, top-rated SportsRadio 94.1 WIP has become the home of our bawdiest fans. Loud-mouthed and opinionated, Cataldi has challenged former Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel to a fist-fight, asked female callers what they’re wearing, and called a new team staff person each week to be fired. As Cataldi mused on a recent show, “The nature of sports talk is to focus on the negative and pound on it.”

SportsRadio 94.1 WIP is the black heart of Philadelphia sports.

What most of his listeners don’t know is that Cataldi has a journalist’s pedigree: Armed with a masters in journalism from Columbia University, he was recruited from his hometown, Providence, to work at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Soon after he was offered a full-time radio co-hosting position at WIP. And on his first day, Cataldi, in his own words, “took myself very seriously.” He thought he nailed it. After the show, Cataldi was called into the program director’s office, who said “If you do that again, you won’t work here very long. Stop pontificating and start entertaining. This is not journalism.”

“That’s a lesson I never forgot,” remembers Cataldi. “The first goal is to entertain, not inform. To get people to listen, because it might give someone a pleasant trip into work. That lesson sunk in on day one.”

But these days, Cataldi eschews that advice. After Phillies Center Fielder Odubel Herrera’s arrest on May 27, Cataldi tweeted “As soon as the Phillies know for sure that the domestic-abuse charges are true, they MUST release Odubel Herrera.” One week later, Cataldi published an op-ed titled I won’t stop talking about Odubel Herrera, no matter how mad fans get. And they do get mad. Fans excoriate him on Twitter. Fans call into the show to tell him, in so many words, to shut up. “I think it’s a byproduct of the fact that we have a largely male audience—and most of the guys, a lot of the guys, would rather the issue would go away,” says Cataldi. “Tell me who will pitch tomorrow, and if we’ll win the game. Sports is an escape from reality, and the issue plunges one back into reality.”

But Cataldi won’t let up so easy.

“This issue is probably the first time in 30 years, something that is not going to serve the best interests of the audience. It’s not entertaining,” Cataldi says. “I imagine some people don’t want to hear it. But if you do this long enough, you have to take a stance for something.”

How does Cataldi, co-founder of the Wing Bowl and the “Miss WIP” beauty contest, become an uncompromising critic against domestic abusers? “Brett Myers,” says Cataldi. “That’s when it all started.”

On June 23, 2006, Phillies pitcher Brett Myers was arrested and charged with assault. Courtney Knight, a witness to the June 22 altercation, told The Boston Globe: “He was dragging her by the hair and slapping her across the face. She was yelling, ‘I’m not going to let you do this to me anymore.’” Myers was released on bail, and pitched the very next day. Cataldi remembers, “That’s when I started to care. Even when they won the championship [in 2008], I hated Brett Myers. I never embraced him.” (Also, he continued, “terrible country singer.”)

Due to a growing list of incidents, the MLB adopted a new domestic violence policy in 2015. One day after Herrera’s arrest, MLB placed him on administrative leave. At a July 3 court hearing, Herrera’s girlfriend dropped the charges (as often happens in these cases), but MLB still suspended Herrera for the remaining 85 regular-season games of the 2019 season. The Phillies organization has supported MLB’s decision, but has also not released Herrera. Phillies President Andy MacPhail explained,“Our agreement requires that a player comes back, subject to him being evaluated based on what happens on the baseball field.”

Cataldi isn’t impressed. “The team is taking cues from the league. The league is most concerned about protecting the brand. The league’s first priority is not to take a social stand. Most of it is damage control, and making a public display of something to get them out of the current crisis.” Cataldi continues, “These guys have an athletic superiority, and at the first sign of adversity, they strike a woman? Odubel Herrera should never play in this city again. Anyone that strikes a woman should never play in sports again.” While Herrera’s banners were removed from Citizens Bank Park, today he remains a Phillie.

So what can we, as fans, do? The wins and losses for team staff determine job security, earnings, and careers. But it’s sports fans that bear the emotional high of an exhilarating win, and the brutal despair of a close loss, all without any say in team operations. So fans make signs, buy billboards, trying to influence the decisions of their team. Over his 30 years as a sports reporter, Cataldi has a unique understanding of this relationship. He orchestrated the “Dirty 30.” And “Honk for Herschel,” to compel the Eagles to acquire running back Herschel Walker (they did). And voting Phillies Shortstop Pat Burrell into the 2008 MLB All-Star Game (he wasn’t).

“It’s funny to hear them listed like that,” Cataldi told me. “How frivolous the other things were, and how serious this is.” 

I asked Cataldi if the situation will change only if partners press charges. “They should do whatever they feel comfortable with,” he answered. “We should do what justice is. The police should still go after the person. They should find another way to get them. I’m not going to blame them. It’s not going to alter the way I look at the situation.”

Partners call the police when they feel their lives are in danger. But in the courts and back at home, the power reverts back to the players, whose millions of dollars of income creates a power imbalance in the relationship, and must weigh on legal proceedings. Fixing this issue is not the sole responsibility of the partners. It’s our responsibility as a culture that values men’s careers over women’s lives. Unless there is video proof or eyewitnesses, it’s easier to look away from the situation. Forgive, forget, redeem, repeat. It’s time to break that cycle. And it’s significant that Cataldi, the ringleader of the circus that is WIP Sports Radio, won’t shut up about holding abusers accountable. His recent turn alone won’t atone for the last 30 years of morning radio antics. But in the third act of Cataldi’s career, it’s the sign of an entertainer reviving his journalism credentials.

Returning to what fans can do to hold teams accountable for domestic violence, Cataldi offers one suggestion: “Picket these stadiums. Make it so uncomfortable for the MLB, that they won’t tolerate it.” It would be satisfying as a mob of fans to demand that the Phillies release Herrera immediately. But I’m not so sure it addresses a problem this complex.

Psychiatrist James Gilligan once wrote, “The purpose of violence is to diminish the intensity of shame and replace it as far as possible with its opposite, pride, thus preventing the individual from being overwhelmed by the feeling of shame.” To accept this explanation is to also acknowledge that a player losing his career over abuse charges will only exacerbate that shame, and intensify the circumstances that created the abuse. More alarmingly, a leader with the National Network To End Domestic Violence said, “If we would say that the first time your partner calls 911 your career is over, her risk of homicide shoots through the roof.” To accept these statements is to acknowledge that a player ban, while actionable and satisfying, doesn’t address the root cause.

So, how does MLB address a problem as complex as domestic violence? Perhaps the league could treat this issue with the same gravitas it treats the use of performance enhancing drugs. Players found guilty of domestic violence should immediately receive a one-year suspension. An outside counsel should immediately begin treatments. And yes, players should be offered a pathway back to playing. This is not because all players deserve a second chance—I, for one, do not ever want to see Odubel Herrera in a Phillies uniform again. No, this pathway is out of concern for the abused, who may avoid calling the police at all. It also mandates rehabilitation and education, to address the root causes of abuse, so that if and when we see a player back on the field (and that’s a big IF), fans know an independent therapist has guided their recovery.  

Maybe we join Cataldi’s call for a picket, or maybe we compel the league to accept these measures. The league and the team are smart enough to protect their brand by acting just enough to appease the public relations—it’s time for fans to send a clear message to ownership that we will not look away until domestic abuse is not tolerated. If nothing changes, then it’s time that fans begin boycotting games to let empty stadiums do the talking.

“After 26 years of Wing Bowl, the most politically incorrect event in sports history, [this issue has] become more important to me every day, even though I know some people don’t want to hear it,” says Cataldi. “It’s about damn time I stood up for something.”

Photo via Philadelphia City Council

[scrapeandscatter]

I Woke Up Like This: The Dillinger Escape Plan - “Sugar Coated Sour”

Okay, so I didn’t really wake up with this song stuck in my head, but I did set an alarm for 7am so that I could be ready to buy tickets to Dillinger’s final show. I’m sure I’ve told this story before on here, but I can’t find it, so I’m going to tell it again.

Returning to Pensacola as a college sophomore, well, my first sophomore year, one of my new-found rituals was making the 1/2 hour trek from campus to a little hole in the wall record store called East Hill CD Exchange. As the name suggests, it was a place where you could buy, sell, and trade music. I recall it looking like one of those house trailers with a small wooden stoop, but my memory is fuzzy. Since this was the late 90s, there wasn’t a record release schedule online, and even if there was, I didn’t have the patience for dial-up or resources to find one, so every time I walked into East Hill I went straight to the Cs of the metal/hardcore/punk, or whatever it may have been, section and looked for a new Coalesce CD. I think I was disappointed every time, but would leave with a used Clutch CD, or a new DJ shadow album since I was 19 and still trying to find my musical footing. I would also browse the 7″s knowing damn well I was never going to buy one, but that’s where I saw a handful of Coalesce records. Hindsight being all that it’s cracked up to be, I really wish I would have bought every Coalesce 7″ I laid my eyes on. I know for sure that East Hill had the splits with Today Is the Day, Converge, and The Get Up Kids.

Anyway, I’m there with, as always, whether I was financially stable enough to make this decision or not, money burning a hole in my pocket. A little research shows that it must have been late September or early October when this happened and not late August when I first returned to school, but I digress. Once again, no new Coalesce record. I asked one of the guys at the counter “Do you have anything that sounds like Coalesce?” He reached into the case and grabs Calculating Infinity and, since Coalesce had signed to Relapse for their (at the time) final album, he said “Here. These guys are on the same label.” Now I knew that Relapse was known for more metal leaning releases than hardcore, and I had a feeling that the clerk did not listen to the Dillinger record, but, a fool to decent salesmanship and my own awkward nervousness, I just bought it.

I wasn’t alone on this mini-adventure. I can’t remember exactly who was with me, but I do remember a freshman, Brett, was at least one of the people who accompanied me. Once we got back into my car I popped in Calculating Infinity. The first song is, of course, the above “Sugar Coated Sour”. None of us got it. The reason I remember Brett so vividly is because during the next song, “43% Burnt”, after the breakdown opening, Dillinger, once again, speeds up the song and then a little jangly guitar transition comes in before the screaming starts back up and during that transition Brett said, with very little enthusiasm, “Here it comes again.”

After a few more weeks of forced listens, I still didn’t get Calculating Infinity. During one of these listens back in my car, my buddy, BG, who is quite the character, was in the passenger seat and “43% Burnt” came on and the line “Spit on yourself” is screamed. Shirtless BG takes this as a command and spit on his own chest.

Some time passed and I read that Torn Apart released a new full length. I loved their EP The Fifty-Ninth Session, so I eventually order Ten Songs for the Bleeding Heart. Since I was in the ordering mood, I took the opportunity to give Dillinger another chance and bought their self titled EP. They both arrived around the same time and I was much more excited about Torn Apart than I was DEP. Well, we all know how expectations aren’t always met, especially when it comes to music, but the Dillinger EP was quite the pleasant surprise. As much as I liked self titled, it also gave me a new perspective of the band and helped me understand Calculating... and the next time I put it on I was like Dorothy opening the door to Oz.

That summer I returned to Virginia and a bunch of my friends and I were excited to see Candiria at Twisters in Richmond, a club where we saw our first exposure to hardcore in the forms of Earth Crisis, VOD, Bloodlet, and Hatebreed. One or 2 of my friends already knew, but the rest I implored to get there early enough for The Dillinger Escape Plan. Obviously I was not in the minority because after what I can see now as a classic Dillinger show with pre-Great White fire-breathing, etc., nearly half the audience left before Candiria took the stage. Maybe it was because VA local boy Brian Benoit was now in DEP, or maybe it was because the evidence of the shift in metallic hardcore was becoming apparent. That was my first Dillinger show. Almost as a nod to how I discovered them, my next DEP experience would feature Sean Ingram on vocals. The next, Greg Puciato’s second show fronting the band. Seventeen more shows later and I just had to wake up early this morning to make sure I secured my tickets to the final show.

So, no, I didn’t wake up like this, but I did wake up for Dillinger, a band that, over the last 18 years, influenced my listening habits, my concert going experiences, and even my own short-lived band, and this was the first song I ever heard by them.

Listen to Calculating Infinity

[gordonwilliamsweb]

Lack of Antigen Test Reporting Leaves Country ‘Blind to the Pandemic’

More than 20 states either don’t release or have incomplete data on the rapid antigen tests now considered key to containing the coronavirus, which has sickened more than 6 million Americans. The lapses leave officials and the public in the dark about the true scope of the pandemic as untold numbers of cases go uncounted.

The gap will only widen as tens of millions of antigen tests sweep the country. Federal officials are prioritizing the tests to quickly detect COVID-19’s spread over slower, but more accurate, PCR tests.

Relying on patchy data on COVID testing carries enormous consequences as officials decide whether to reopen schools and businesses: Go back to normal too quickly and risk even greater outbreaks of disease. Keep people at home too long and risk an even greater economic crisis.

“The absence of information is a very dangerous thing,” said Janet Hamilton, executive director of the Council for State and Territorial Epidemiologists, which represents public health officials. “We will be blind to the pandemic. It will be happening around us and we will have no data.”

The states that don’t report antigen test results or don’t count antigen positives as COVID cases are California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming, as well as the District of Columbia.

So far, most of the COVID tests given in the U.S. have been PCR tests, which are processed in medical labs and can take days to return results. By contrast, antigen tests offer results in minutes outside of labs, appealing to everyone from medical clinics to sports teams and universities.

Each relies on swabs to test patients. But unlike using tests run through labs, many providers who would use antigen tests don’t have an easy way to send data electronically to public health authorities.

Since July, though, the federal government has pushed roughly 5 million antigen tests into nearly 14,000 nursing homes to contain outbreaks among staff members and residents. The Department of Health and Human Services also awarded a $760 million contract to buy 150 million rapid antigen tests from Abbott, the Illinois-based diagnostics behemoth. It plans to send 750,000 of those to nursing homes starting this week, Brett Giroir, the HHS official heading the Trump administration’s testing efforts, told industry executives on Sept. 8. Federal officials have not elaborated on how many tests will be sent elsewhere but have suggested many will go to governors to distribute as schools reopen.

The rush of antigen tests, however, won’t be particularly useful to officials if the results are not publicly and uniformly reported.

KHN surveyed 50 states and the District of Columbia on their collection of antigen test results and what is reported publicly. Forty-eight responded between Sept. 3 and 10, revealing significant variation over whether people who test positive for COVID-19 with an antigen test are counted as cases and whether states even publicly report antigen data in their testing numbers:

21 states and D.C. do not report all antigen test results.

15 states and D.C. do not count positive results from antigen tests as COVID cases.

Two states do not require antigen test providers to report results, and five others require only positive results to be reported.

Nearly half of states believe their antigen test results are underreported.

Consequently, many state counts of infected people could be artificially low. For instance, the lack of reporting could imply infection rates are declining because the virus isn’t spreading as widely — when really more antigen tests are being used and not counted, public health officials and experts say.

“It’s going to look like your cases are coming down when they’re not,” said Jeffrey Morris, a biostatistics professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

HHS recognizes that antigen tests are underreported but maintained that officials are not missing the full scale of the pandemic, an agency spokesperson said.

“There is sufficient testing to achieve all objectives outlined in the testing strategy, including identifying newly emergent outbreaks, supporting public health isolation and contact tracing, protecting the vulnerable, supporting safe reopening of schools and businesses, and enabling state testing plans,” spokesperson Mia Heck said.

Part of the problem on antigen test reporting stems from what counts as a COVID case. Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines a “confirmed” COVID case as one that is determined from a PCR test. Positive results from antigen tests are considered “probable” cases because the tests can be less accurate.

Months after the first COVID antigen test received emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, the CDC revised its COVID case definition in early August to allow a positive antigen test to count as a probable case without assessing whether a person had clinical symptoms or was in close contact with a confirmed infected person.

That prompted many states — including Arkansas, starting Sept. 2 — to adjust how they report cases.

“It’s easy for people to think since we use the word ‘probable’ that maybe it’s a case, maybe it isn’t. But that’s not how we think of it,” said Dr. Jennifer Dillaha, medical director for the Arkansas Department of Health. “It is a real case in the same way that a PCR is a real case.”

Dr. Karen Landers, an assistant state health officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health, said her biggest concern was the potential undercounting of antigen test results as they continue to grow in popularity. While the state has been trying to work with each urgent care or other medical provider, some struggle to submit the results.

“We can’t afford to miss a case,” she said.

The CARES Act, which Congress passed in March, requires a broad range of health care providers to report any COVID test result to state or local health departments. Nonetheless, two states — Montana and New Jersey — said they weren’t requiring antigen test providers to report results, positive or negative. Colorado, Maine, Mississippi, New Hampshire and Wyoming require only positive results to be reported, which can distort the positivity rate.

Sara Mendez, the support services manager for the Brazos County Health Department in Texas, said the department saw an increase of antigen tests being administered as Texas A&M University students returned. Even though the state health department was not including positive COVID cases from antigen tests in its public reports, the local health department felt obligated to do so.

“A lot of the college students will just go and get those done as opposed to the PCR tests,” Mendez said, “so we felt like we were missing out.”

Indiana University undertook a massive antigen testing operation for students living on campus in August, administering 14,870 antigen tests across four campuses through drive-thrus, according to Graham McKeen, an assistant university director for public health. The test results were delivered while students waited in cars for about 30 minutes, with 159 coming back positive. Each night, a university staff member would manually download the spreadsheet off each of the test machines and securely email it to the state health department.

But Indiana began reporting antigen testing only on Aug. 24, adding over 16,000 antigen tests into its public dashboard that day and saying in a news release that it plans to retroactively add in earlier antigen testing figures.

McKeen said that, even though the state is now reporting some antigen data, tests are still missed under the cumbersome reporting system. The state said some of the data is being sent by fax.

“It doesn’t give the community a good handle on the infection in the community,” McKeen said.

Heck, the HHS spokesperson, said that federal agencies are working to improve the reporting of results and that problems were likely to be eased in the future, citing that Abbott’s antigen test includes an electronic reader for automated reporting. By October, 48 million of those tests will be in circulation each month, she said.

Still, to date, “what this is exposing is the antiquated systems that public health agencies have had for years,” said Scott Becker, executive director of the Association of Public Health Laboratories. “So much of the data we’ve gotten is incomplete.”

That data barrier is playing out in nursing homes as well.

Victoria Crenshaw is holding off on using antigen tests to screen residents and staff members at Westminster Canterbury on Chesapeake Bay nursing home in Virginia Beach, Virginia. As senior director, she sees one major holdup: No technology platform is in place to easily send results to health officials. Instead, she and colleagues would need to resort to taping pieces of paper together to deliver details of who was tested, and hope local officials would accept it.

The Trump administration is pushing for nursing homes to use the tests for required screenings at least once a month and as often as twice a week. Under new federal regulations, nursing homes that don’t comply with regular testing and reporting requirements are subject to citations or fines.

“We have no technology today to submit this information,” Crenshaw said, “which leaves us in a vulnerable position.”

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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This story can be republished for free (details).

Lack of Antigen Test Reporting Leaves Country ‘Blind to the Pandemic’ published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[dinafbrownil]

Lack of Antigen Test Reporting Leaves Country ‘Blind to the Pandemic’

More than 20 states either don’t release or have incomplete data on the rapid antigen tests now considered key to containing the coronavirus, which has sickened more than 6 million Americans. The lapses leave officials and the public in the dark about the true scope of the pandemic as untold numbers of cases go uncounted.

The gap will only widen as tens of millions of antigen tests sweep the country. Federal officials are prioritizing the tests to quickly detect COVID-19’s spread over slower, but more accurate, PCR tests.

Relying on patchy data on COVID testing carries enormous consequences as officials decide whether to reopen schools and businesses: Go back to normal too quickly and risk even greater outbreaks of disease. Keep people at home too long and risk an even greater economic crisis.

“The absence of information is a very dangerous thing,” said Janet Hamilton, executive director of the Council for State and Territorial Epidemiologists, which represents public health officials. “We will be blind to the pandemic. It will be happening around us and we will have no data.”

The states that don’t report antigen test results or don’t count antigen positives as COVID cases are California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming, as well as the District of Columbia.

So far, most of the COVID tests given in the U.S. have been PCR tests, which are processed in medical labs and can take days to return results. By contrast, antigen tests offer results in minutes outside of labs, appealing to everyone from medical clinics to sports teams and universities.

Each relies on swabs to test patients. But unlike using tests run through labs, many providers who would use antigen tests don’t have an easy way to send data electronically to public health authorities.

Since July, though, the federal government has pushed roughly 5 million antigen tests into nearly 14,000 nursing homes to contain outbreaks among staff members and residents. The Department of Health and Human Services also awarded a $760 million contract to buy 150 million rapid antigen tests from Abbott, the Illinois-based diagnostics behemoth. It plans to send 750,000 of those to nursing homes starting this week, Brett Giroir, the HHS official heading the Trump administration’s testing efforts, told industry executives on Sept. 8. Federal officials have not elaborated on how many tests will be sent elsewhere but have suggested many will go to governors to distribute as schools reopen.

The rush of antigen tests, however, won’t be particularly useful to officials if the results are not publicly and uniformly reported.

KHN surveyed 50 states and the District of Columbia on their collection of antigen test results and what is reported publicly. Forty-eight responded between Sept. 3 and 10, revealing significant variation over whether people who test positive for COVID-19 with an antigen test are counted as cases and whether states even publicly report antigen data in their testing numbers:

21 states and D.C. do not report all antigen test results.

15 states and D.C. do not count positive results from antigen tests as COVID cases.

Two states do not require antigen test providers to report results, and five others require only positive results to be reported.

Nearly half of states believe their antigen test results are underreported.

Consequently, many state counts of infected people could be artificially low. For instance, the lack of reporting could imply infection rates are declining because the virus isn’t spreading as widely — when really more antigen tests are being used and not counted, public health officials and experts say.

“It’s going to look like your cases are coming down when they’re not,” said Jeffrey Morris, a biostatistics professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

HHS recognizes that antigen tests are underreported but maintained that officials are not missing the full scale of the pandemic, an agency spokesperson said.

“There is sufficient testing to achieve all objectives outlined in the testing strategy, including identifying newly emergent outbreaks, supporting public health isolation and contact tracing, protecting the vulnerable, supporting safe reopening of schools and businesses, and enabling state testing plans,” spokesperson Mia Heck said.

Part of the problem on antigen test reporting stems from what counts as a COVID case. Guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines a “confirmed” COVID case as one that is determined from a PCR test. Positive results from antigen tests are considered “probable” cases because the tests can be less accurate.

Months after the first COVID antigen test received emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, the CDC revised its COVID case definition in early August to allow a positive antigen test to count as a probable case without assessing whether a person had clinical symptoms or was in close contact with a confirmed infected person.

That prompted many states — including Arkansas, starting Sept. 2 — to adjust how they report cases.

“It’s easy for people to think since we use the word ‘probable’ that maybe it’s a case, maybe it isn’t. But that’s not how we think of it,” said Dr. Jennifer Dillaha, medical director for the Arkansas Department of Health. “It is a real case in the same way that a PCR is a real case.”

Dr. Karen Landers, an assistant state health officer for the Alabama Department of Public Health, said her biggest concern was the potential undercounting of antigen test results as they continue to grow in popularity. While the state has been trying to work with each urgent care or other medical provider, some struggle to submit the results.

“We can’t afford to miss a case,” she said.

The CARES Act, which Congress passed in March, requires a broad range of health care providers to report any COVID test result to state or local health departments. Nonetheless, two states — Montana and New Jersey — said they weren’t requiring antigen test providers to report results, positive or negative. Colorado, Maine, Mississippi, New Hampshire and Wyoming require only positive results to be reported, which can distort the positivity rate.

Sara Mendez, the support services manager for the Brazos County Health Department in Texas, said the department saw an increase of antigen tests being administered as Texas A&M University students returned. Even though the state health department was not including positive COVID cases from antigen tests in its public reports, the local health department felt obligated to do so.

“A lot of the college students will just go and get those done as opposed to the PCR tests,” Mendez said, “so we felt like we were missing out.”

Indiana University undertook a massive antigen testing operation for students living on campus in August, administering 14,870 antigen tests across four campuses through drive-thrus, according to Graham McKeen, an assistant university director for public health. The test results were delivered while students waited in cars for about 30 minutes, with 159 coming back positive. Each night, a university staff member would manually download the spreadsheet off each of the test machines and securely email it to the state health department.

But Indiana began reporting antigen testing only on Aug. 24, adding over 16,000 antigen tests into its public dashboard that day and saying in a news release that it plans to retroactively add in earlier antigen testing figures.

McKeen said that, even though the state is now reporting some antigen data, tests are still missed under the cumbersome reporting system. The state said some of the data is being sent by fax.

“It doesn’t give the community a good handle on the infection in the community,” McKeen said.

Heck, the HHS spokesperson, said that federal agencies are working to improve the reporting of results and that problems were likely to be eased in the future, citing that Abbott’s antigen test includes an electronic reader for automated reporting. By October, 48 million of those tests will be in circulation each month, she said.

Still, to date, “what this is exposing is the antiquated systems that public health agencies have had for years,” said Scott Becker, executive director of the Association of Public Health Laboratories. “So much of the data we’ve gotten is incomplete.”

That data barrier is playing out in nursing homes as well.

Victoria Crenshaw is holding off on using antigen tests to screen residents and staff members at Westminster Canterbury on Chesapeake Bay nursing home in Virginia Beach, Virginia. As senior director, she sees one major holdup: No technology platform is in place to easily send results to health officials. Instead, she and colleagues would need to resort to taping pieces of paper together to deliver details of who was tested, and hope local officials would accept it.

The Trump administration is pushing for nursing homes to use the tests for required screenings at least once a month and as often as twice a week. Under new federal regulations, nursing homes that don’t comply with regular testing and reporting requirements are subject to citations or fines.

“We have no technology today to submit this information,” Crenshaw said, “which leaves us in a vulnerable position.”

Kaiser Health News (KHN) is a national health policy news service. It is an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation which is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

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This story can be republished for free (details).

from Updates By Dina https://khn.org/news/lack-of-antigen-test-reporting-leaves-country-blind-to-the-pandemic/