#industry sponsored research

[researchers-me]

Unlock the power of industry research surveys with expert tips on analyzing and interpreting data. Learn valuable insights from industry research analysts and companies to leverage your findings effectively.

[dangerdust2]

The gas industry relied on Hill & Knowlton, the same public relations company that masterminded the tobacco industry’s playbook for responding to research linking smoking to lung cancer. Hill & Knowlton’s tactics included sponsoring research that would counter findings about gas stoves published in the scientific literature, emphasizing uncertainty in these findings to construct artificial controversy and engaging in aggressive public relations efforts.

This campaign was remarkable, since the basics of how gas stoves affected indoor air pollution and respiratory health were straightforward and well-established at the time. Burning fuel, including natural gas, generates nitrogen oxides: The air in Earth’s atmosphere is about 78 percent nitrogen and 21 percent oxygen, and these gases react at high temperatures.

Nitrogen dioxide is known to adversely affect respiratory health. Inhaling it causes respiratory irritation and can worsen diseases such as asthma. 

[ccrpsorg]

Clinical Research Monitoring: A Guide to Clinical Monitoring

Clinical research monitoring is a vital part of clinical trials and it involves various activities to ensure the safety and accuracy of the data collected. It is important that the clinical trial is conducted in a way that meets regulatory standards, protects human studies participants, and minimizes potential risks to their health and well-being. Clinical trial monitoring can include activities such as auditing study sites, evaluating data for accuracy and completeness, review of protocols and amendments, reviewing case report forms (CRFs), identifying any deviations from the standard operating procedures (SOPs) or protocols, managing corrective action plans (CAPs), following up on safety reports, tracking progress against enrollment goals and much more. Apart from evaluating data quality, clinical research monitoring also ensures compliance with all regulatory standards like GCP (Good Clinical Practices) ICH (International Conference on Harmonization), FDA regulations and local laws. In addition to this ongoing monitoring throughout a study's duration, there may be audits conducted by sponsors or regulatory authorities at any time during or after completion of a clinical trial. All these efforts are dedicated towards ensuring that the results obtained from a clinical trial are accurate, reliable and applicable for use in making medical decisions.

Steps to Clinical Monitoring

1. Establish an Effective Monitoring Plan: Ensure that the plan is comprehensive and contains all applicable elements, such as the types of monitoring activities to be conducted, frequency of monitoring visits, data collection methods, and specific criteria for acceptable performance.

2. Develop Appropriate Documentation: Design protocol-specific monitoring tools and forms to document information from site visits including source documents, data collection instruments, case report forms (CRF). In addition, develop a Monitoring Log or Tracking System which will enable better accountability for study activities.

3. Execute Monitors’ Visits: Depending on the complexity of the trial and regulatory requirements, conduct pre-study qualification visits (PSQV), pre-initiation visits (PIV), initiation visits (IVs), periodic monitoring visits (PMV) and close out visits (COV). During each visit, ensure that good clinical practice is followed at all times by reviewing source documents and data collection instruments. Review patient enrollment logs to ensure accuracy and record any discrepancies in the visit report.

4. Report Findings: Generate detailed yet concise reports per each monitor's visit with clear recommendations for corrective actions if required; provide professional feedback to investigators regarding their performance; identify any areas of noncompliance with protocol requirements or applicable regulations; recommend training or educational sessions when appropriate; track all follow up activities related to corrective actions taken in response to findings from monitors' visits; ensure that essential documentation is complete before closing out a particular study site.

5. Quality Assurance: Validate accuracy of tracking systems used by monitors during their visits; assess risk associated with various deficiencies identified during monitoring process; carry out periodic internal audits/assessments to ensure compliance with established SOPs/guidelines related to clinical research monitoring activities; take preventive measures based on audit/assessment results in order to strengthen internal quality system processes.

Types of Clinical Trial Monitoring

1. Types of Clinical Research Monitoring: Clinical research monitoring is the process to assess the quality and integrity of clinical trial data and ensure compliance with applicable regulatory requirements. It can be done through three primary methods: onsite monitoring, centralized or remote monitoring, and risk-based approaches.

2. Onsite Monitoring: Onsite monitoring is considered the "gold standard" for clinical research monitoring, as it requires the presence of a monitor at a study site during the entire duration of a trial. The monitor will typically review source documentation such as patient records, lab results, and investigational product dispensing logs to assess accuracy and conformance with study protocols and good clinical practices (GCP). The monitor also interviews staff members responsible for conducting the trial to verify that procedures are being followed properly.

3. Centralized or Remote Monitoring in Clinical Trials: Centralized or remote monitoring enables sponsors to conduct clinical research monitoring without needing to send someone onsite to each study location. This is accomplished by using technology such as web portals, video conferencing, and virtual meetings that allow monitors to remotely review data from various sites simultaneously and quickly flag any issues that arise. Additionally, centralized/remote monitoring allows sponsors to be more proactive in identifying potential risks associated with a trial prior to sending monitors onsite for an assessment.

4. Risk-Based Approaches: Risk-based approaches use data analytics tools such as descriptive statistics and predictive algorithms to identify potential trends or outliers in clinical trial data that may represent heightened risk of noncompliance with GCPs or other regulations. By leveraging technology, these approaches can help sponsors identify issues earlier in the course of a trial so they can take corrective action before something goes wrong.

5. Benefits of Clinical Research Monitoring: Utilizing effective clinical research monitoring strategies helps ensure that trials are conducted ethically, safely, correctly according to protocol standards, within timelines agreed upon with regulatory authorities, and within budget constraints set out by sponsors/CROs/investigators/other stakeholders involved in a study’s execution.. Clinical research monitors act as an independent third party who are able to provide objective insight into how studies are being conducted across multiple sites which helps minimize errors due to bias from investigators or other personnel who may have vested interests in outcomes associated with their studies.. In addition, effective clinical research monitoring helps ensure patient safety by providing oversight about how drugs or medical devices used in trials are administered as well as ensuring patient confidentiality is maintained throughout the course of a study.. Lastly, robust clinical research monitoring protocols help reduce costs associated with delays caused by errors made during trials which can add up significantly over time if not avoided through proper oversight methods both pre-study start up until closeout occurs after all enrolled patients have completed their participation in a given trial

Clinical Research Monitoring Guide

1. Understand the Basics of Clinical Research Monitoring: Clinical research monitoring is a key part of the clinical research process, ensuring the safety and accuracy of results. It involves periodically assessing study sites to confirm that data is being collected properly, according to ethical and legal requirements, as per Good Clinical Practice (GCP) guidelines.

2. Know What Types of Studies are Monitored: Clinical research monitoring can be used for a variety of studies, including clinical trials, observational studies, epidemiologic studies, and public health surveys. It is important to know what type of study you are monitoring in order to ensure that the appropriate procedures are followed.

3. Understand How to Monitor a Study Site: The primary goal of clinical research monitoring is to confirm that the protocol and informed consent form have been followed properly at each site. This requires a thorough review of all relevant documents such as case report forms (CRFs), source documentation (e.g., physician notes), internal audit reports (audit trails), and external quality assurance reports. Additionally, it involves evaluating compliance with GCP guidelines during study visits or remote reviews, as well as conducting interviews with staff members to assess how they are handling data collection and reporting processes.

4. Become Familiar With Regulatory Requirements: In addition to GCP guidelines, there may be applicable regulations from local governments or other institutions that must be adhered to when conducting clinical research monitoring activities. Understanding these regulations is essential for ensuring compliance with applicable laws and regulations related to clinical research activities.

5. Develop an Effective Monitoring Plan: An effective monitoring plan should include a detailed timeline for visiting sites, information about any specific areas where focused attention is required (e.g., enrolling/randomizing patients or managing adverse events), and plans for auditing/reviewing data generated by the study site(s). Additionally, it should incorporate measures for controlling risk associated with data collection processes so that issues can be identified early on in the study process before they become problematic later on down the line.

Clinical Research Monitor Job

The job of a Clinical Research Monitor is to ensure that clinical trials are conducted ethically, safely and in compliance with established standards. The primary responsibility of the monitor is to protect the rights, safety and well-being of the human subjects enrolled in the trial. Duties typically include developing protocols for clinical studies; coordinating study start up activities; conducting site visits; monitoring data for timeliness, accuracy and completeness; auditing files for regulatory compliance; managing investigator queries/issues; preparing visit reports; reviewing update protocols related to study operations; resolving issues raised through audit reports or other sources; providing technical guidance to sites regarding protocol implementation or study conduct; and escalating complex issues or potential risks as needed.

Clinical Research Monitor Salary

Salaries for this position tend to vary depending on education level, experience and geographical location but can range from $60,000 per year for entry level positions up to around $90,000 per year for more experienced professionals. In addition to salary many employers also offer benefits such as paid vacation days, health insurance plans and retirement packages.

Resources for Clinical Research Monitoring

1. National Institutes of Health (NIH): Clinical Research Monitoring

This link provides information on NIH's guidelines for monitoring clinical research, which include topics such as the roles and responsibilities of the investigator, data safety monitoring boards, and protocols for reporting unanticipated problems and adverse events.

2. National Institutes of Health (NIH): Guide to Clinical Research Monitoring

This comprehensive guide walks readers through all aspects of clinical research monitoring, including topics such as study design, randomization strategies, regulatory compliance requirements, data management, monitoring plans and reports, quality improvement initiatives, and safety assessments.

3. US Food and Drug Administration (FDA): Guidelines for Clinical Trials Monitoring

This resource from the FDA outlines the importance of effective monitoring in clinical trials and provides an overview of the different roles within a clinical trial as well as details about essential elements for implementation of an effective monitoring strategy such as risk assessments and adverse event tracking.

4. International Conference on Harmonization of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH)

ICH has developed standards that provide a set of harmonized technical requirements for clinical trials conducted across countries in the European Union (EU), Japan, and US with an emphasis on quality assurance and safety monitoring during trials.

5. Association of Clinical Research Professionals (ACRP)

ACRP's guidelines provide best practice recommendations for conducting clinical research studies in accordance with applicable regulations and standards to ensure patient safety monitoring during studies as well as data integrity throughout the process from start to finish.

6. Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)

The PhRMA guidelines provide an overview of expectations around clinical research activities with respect to ethics, data integrity, safety reporting, resource allocation and more. It defines roles and responsibilities of all those involved in overseeing a clinical trial such as a Clinical Research Monitor or CRA who has primary responsibility for ensuring that the protocol is implemented correctly throughout a study’s duration

Clinical Research Monitoring Review

1. What is the main purpose of clinical research monitoring?

A) To ensure that a research study is conducted in accordance with applicable regulations and ethical standards

B) To ensure that data collected during a research study is accurate and reliable

C) To evaluate the safety of participants enrolled in a research trial

D) To oversee the financial management of a research project

Answer: A) To ensure that a research study is conducted in accordance with applicable regulations and ethical standards. Clinical Research Monitors are responsible for ensuring compliance with Good Clinical Practice guidelines, protecting participant privacy, verifying data accuracy, and evaluating protocol deviations. In addition, they may also be involved in reviewing participant eligibility requirements, conducting site assessments, providing training to investigators and staff on proper study procedures, as well as monitoring progress towards completion of all requirements of the study.

2. What type of individuals typically serve as clinical research monitors?

A) Physicians

B) Nurses

C) Regulatory specialists

D) All of the above

Answer: D) All of the above. Clinical Research Monitors can come from various backgrounds such as medical doctors (MDs), nurses (RNs), pharmacists (RPhs), regulatory specialists (e.g., Regulatory Affairs Professionals or Paralegals), or biostatisticians/data analysts who have experience in clinical trials and understand local regulations related to human subject protection. Each monitor has specific job duties depending on their education and experience, such as assessing compliance with regulatory guidance or analyzing data sets for accuracy, completeness, integrity, or validity.

3. What kind of activities do clinical research monitors need to perform?

A) Protocol reviews or verifications

B) Ensuring appropriate documentation completion

C) Site visits to observe investigator conduct

D )All of the above

Answer: D )All of the above. Clinical Research Monitors need to perform several activities including protocol reviews or verifications; ensuring appropriate documentation completion; site visits to observe investigator conduct; liaising between sponsors and sites; assisting with resolving issues associated with adverse events; reviewing case report forms for completeness, accuracy, consistency and correctness; evaluating subject safety throughout enrollment process;and writing reports detailing their findings at each visit.

4. What is one benefit gained from having an effective Clinical Research Monitor on-site? A) Reduced risk for legal liability stemming from negligence

B) Improved protocol adherence by investigators

C) Increased patient engagement during trial period

D )All of the above

Answer: D) All of the above . An effective Clinical Research Monitor encompasses several benefits such as reduced risk for legal liability stemming from negligence due to thorough oversight and accurate record keeping; improved protocol adherence by investigators through continued communication between sponsor representatives and researchers on-site regarding best practices; increased patient engagement during trial period due to more detailed explanations about potential risks/benefits offered by having monitor on-site ; and improved efficiency when dealing with complex protocols that require multiple levelsof oversight due to familiarity with protocol specifics which decreases time spent troubleshooting errors or unclear instructions..

5. How often should Clinical Research Monitors visit a particular site?

A) Weekly B) Biweekly C) Monthly D) Quarterly

Answer: C) Monthly . It is recommended that Clinical Research Monitors visit sites at least once per month in order to maintain active surveillance over ongoing studies at each location while also providing timely feedback regarding any issues discovered while on-site visits are taking place within a shorter timeframe if needed based upon changes made midstream or other unanticipated circumstances which might require immediate attention by sponsor personnel.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

For years, researchers, activists, community leaders have shown how Indigenous, Black and other racialized groups have been disproportionately affected by polluting industries. Now, a new law will require the federal government to better track this injustice, and aim to correct it. Bill C-226, sponsored by Green Leader Elizabeth May, became law Thursday evening, nearly four years after similar legislation was first proposed in Parliament. The law will require the federal government to develop a national strategy on environmental racism within two years.  "There is no doubt that Canada has had a problem with environmental racism for decades, and taking action is now required," May told a news conference earlier this week.

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for blackmailing someone and then snitching to the feds anyway? Okay, so I work for a contract medical research lab generating quantitative image data, working closely with veterinary pathologists who provide the qualitative data. Together, we put together a report like "okay, here's what the medicine/medical device did and here's why we think it happened", and that report usually gets sent to the FDA if it looks promising enough that the sponsor wants to push for clinical trials and eventual market release. So we get a study in and we've got (fake numbers here) 400 sections, but the quote says they only want 300 measurements done. I'm confused and go "wait, which 300 out of the 400? which 100 should I ignore?" and go to the pathologist. She also thinks it's weird and reaches out to the client, hoping it's a typo and we're about to get paid for the bonus 100. Nope! He pressures us for it to be a phone call (no paper trail) and then not-so-subtly hints that he wants the... uglier-looking sections dropped. In other words, he wants to cherry-pick data that makes him look good. This is not only dangerous but The Most Illegal Shit. People's lives hang in the balance and they have to be able to trust the research that tells them medicines and medical devices are safe. We take that responsibility seriously. So the pathologist gathers data and emails him like "I'm taking a REPRESENTATIVE 300 samples for analysis, my report will include scoring of the ones that make you look bad, and if I find out you doctored the reports behind my back, I'm sending everything I have directly to the FDA." (this is not how data is normally submitted in the industry. normally the report is commissioned, and then all dealings with the FDA are done by the client) He grouses, but agrees. And then says "if the FDA reaches out to you, don't respond." .....What? But that's already industry standard? Why would he say that? Why would he expect the FDA to reach out to us? Anyway the pathologist and I discuss it, and both assume he's definitely about to doctor these reports behind our back once it's submitted. So at my suggestion... the pathologist sends the communications to the FDA anyway. Here's the thing: we don't actually know that this guy meant to do some ethics violations. We just assumed he was suspicious without real proof. Even unproven accusations in this industry can get you blacklisted for life, if not facing criminal charges. Did we risk destroying some random guy's life over bad vibes and nothing else?

What are these acronyms?

[goddessofwisdom18]

Feyre sketch dump :)

Details/explanations!!

I think a really underrated aspect of Feyre's character is her scent. We all know Rhysand smells like citrus and the sea and the night court smells like jasmine, but Feyre is mentioned to smell like pear and lilac! I wanted to tribute that here, so the flowers on her outfit in the first piece are lilacs and the flowers in her earrings are pear blossoms. I also thought I'd imagine what her fragrance would be like if there was a celebrity-sponsored fragrance industry in Velaris like there is in the real world, and added in linseed since that's an oil that's often used in painting. (Does it actually smell nice or mix well with pear or lilac? .... We won't discuss that here.)

Anyway the other two pieces are Feyre in the cabin and Feyre in some nice tartan, in acknowledgment of her time in the Spring Court, which I would imagine is pretty Scottish given its high lord's name :')

I love this one <3 I imagine Feyre's current painting style to be like this; I think when she first starts painting she'd be more folk artsy (in the style of pieces like this), then tries out more semi-realistic styles in the Rainbow. I know a lot of people think that because of Feyre's lack of proper art education or practice she wouldn't be very good, but I *highly disagree*; there are plenty of folk artists out there, both now and throughout history who have never been educated, who are completely self taught, and who only paint when they could, in between work and survival, who are still good because they have natural talent. Just look at the difference between historical folk artists like Grandma Moses and the art of your average high school art student who may not have raw talent; while neither are properly educated, and this can be seen in their composition and coloring styles, those folk artists with raw talent still bring a specific eye to their work that your average person couldn't. Anyway rant over LOL JUSTICE FOR FEYRE'S SKILL LEVEL!!!! I BELIEVE IT'S HIGH!!

I also don't think there's even such a thing as good or bad art anyway but that's not relevant rn

Last thing; I imagine the human realms to be 1400s esque (I might not have gotten the right dress style for that in this drawing, but bear with me because I was too lazy to do intensive research lol) and based in historical fabric use, while the faerie realms take a lot of inspiration from future eras and haute couture, things that would seem very bizarre to your average 15th century human! So here's little kid Feyre, before everything really went to shit (not that she was very happy before that either lol)

[tobeabatman]

Video recommendation

Hello! I recommend you guys watch Mickey Atkins’ (therapist, social worker, fat activist, she/they) video called Diets & Weight Stigma are Making You Mentally Ill | Therapist Talks Fat Liberation on Youtube.

Here’s why I think you will benefit from this video:

The video helps you question the idea of weight in relation to health. It serves to show health as a multifaceted concept, which weight is only a small part of. The video acknowledges that weight shame is interconnected to other forms of discrimination such as racism and ableism.

Atkins has collected a lot of research to disprove current ideas of fatness in relation to unwellness, but also reminds us that even if fatness was unhealthy, fat people should still be treated equally. There’s also a Google Docs linked to the description of the video, where you can find studies on the topic and educate yourself further.

Topics of the video include e.g:

BMI’s creation, how it was inaccurate from the start, and what it should be used for instead.

Weight cycling and its effects on health.

A brief discussion on eating disorders in relation to e.g weight cycling.

Mentions of how capitalism benefits from weight shame.

Obesity paradox

How ”calories in, calories out” is not accurate in any way.

Discussion of the health at every size - approach.

One reoccurent theme of the video is to be critical of research and the medical community when it comes to fat bodies, because there is a lot of bias in the medical community. There is a brief talk on the video about how some research on fat bodies has been sponsored by Weight Watchers or the diet industry.

All in all, I think the video is an informative watch even if you have read a lot of books on the topic already (such as Unshrinking by Kate Manne, What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat by Aubrey Gordon, Body of Truth by Harriet Brown, etc.). There is some information that was brand new to me, and regardless, it’s always good to see other fat people fighting against fatphobia. Especially when they are mental health professionals.

Anyway, have a lovely day all!

[buds-and-baubles]

dc disability related headcanons:

• wayne enterprises under wayne medical, and the martha wayne foundation (and similarly under neon knights) works to make all care for disabled individuals affordable (or free to those who cannot pay) for everyone, as well as design high quality medical aids like wheelchairs, feeding tubes, hearing aids, etc.

• like the above, queen industries and kord industries would do much of the same and collaborate. unsure on if lexcorps would be involved as lex might want to help but his motives are a little shaky.

• hartley rathaway (pied piper) would also use his wealth to do much of the same, considering he is disabled himself.

• on the topic of hartley, i personally have it that he was born with severe deafness and uses hearing aids (but not all the time) as well as ASL. i did my best researching medically and looking up thoughts and opinions of the d/Deaf community but pls lmk if i got anything wrong based on what we know about hartley.

• barbara gordon (oracle) would work with others and utilize her tech abilities to create a variety hi-tech wheelchairs that are affordable (or free to those who cannot pay) and effective. her oracle wheelchair is customized to her needs and even has a compartment that acts as a utility belt (as she can very much still kick ass in the wheelchair and lives in gotham so it's kinda necessary to have).

• each batkid would use being legally adopted/knowing the wayne family to sponsor various disabled causes that personally impact them.

• my concept of wildstorm to dc transfer of semi-retired the authority also would sponsor many causes, disability care and activism amongst it.

• many atlanteans due to living in the ocean i imagine are colorblind due to the difference of environment to the surface. we do have the canon example with garth (tempest), who based off what his color blindness is described as, has blue-yellow tritanomaly color blindness.

• after researching for jack drake and bruce similarly regarding 'fixed' disability of spinal injury, it is highly likely the location of their injury never made them lose function of their legs. intensive physical therapy was required and there are still bad days but i feel this is the best alternative than curing it or making it never happen.

• i have a personal idea that in some scenarios after losing his spleen + the impact of vigilantism on the body + surviving the clench leads to tim developing arthritis and he becomes a cane user (which his bō staff can act as a cane) and he splits his time between working in the field or working on comms and computers with oracle. undecided if it's main universe but it's beloved nonetheless to me!

• to the people who hc jason with hearing aids, being a cane user and or having a service dog.. i see you and ily.

feel free to add on if any of y'all think of anything or give me other disabled dc characters whose names i don't know!

[ursafootprints]

today on "5k worth of a fic idea that I constantly spin around in my mind like a rotisserie chicken but am not invested enough in to actually write:"

Identity porn omegaverse dystopia AU; Peter is an infertile omega who, despite May's attempts to give him the best chances possible by scraping by to get him an education in both domestic skills and academics, has pretty much zero prospects for his future. Sure, she'll take care of him herself as the household alpha for as long as she can, but she knows a time will come when he'll be on his own, and she knows what happens to infertile omegas-- no matter how wonderful of a housekeeper or nanny or tutor she makes him into, who's going to hire him for that in earnest when he could be used for other things on the side, and who's going to marry an omega who can't give them children?

So one day, she’s helping clean up after a charity event for F.E.A.S.T. that was sponsored by Stark Industries, and she accidentally wanders into a back area and overhears something she's not supposed to through a door. Tony Stark himself, venting on a phonecall to a friend about how the executive board is starting to put real pressure on him to marry if he's going to continue to lead SI-- the public is starting to lose faith in him as a good alpha when he refuses to settle down with a beta or omega and share in his gifts as a protector and provider, yadda yadda, and no matter how much he argues that he's being a protector and provider for the whole country through his work at SI they aren't letting up, and he doesn't even want kids and he doesn't want to saddle some poor omega with the burden of being Mr.-or-Mrs. Stark and everything that goes with that, and they're even implying considering a motion of no-confidence, and and and--

May stands there and listens, and thinks about how she doesn't know Tony Stark personally, but he's made the news before by actually hiring highly-educated omegas (from overseas, where that's permitted) for research positions at SI, and she knows that he funds multiple different charities for omegas in distress, and--

She doesn't like being a charity case, but she does have an omega in distress. So she prepares her speech in her head, and once Tony's off the phone she steps into the room with him and closes the door behind her, and she lays it all out.

She has an omega nephew who's infertile, and he's going to be turning 18 in only a few short years, and she already can barely afford to take care of the both of them even with the tax breaks from claiming him as a dependent. So when he turns 18, sooner or later he'll have to go to work, and being an infertile unwed omega with no prospects means that he'll be nothing more than a glorified prostitute in any position he's hired for, no matter what his supposed job title says. He has the skills to be the perfect househusband, or hell, even a lab assistant if Tony doesn't mind training him up a little, he's smart and he's as educated as May could make sure of, and fine, yeah, he's pretty. And he's on the brink of a life of misery, and May does not want that for him, to the point that she's willing to ask for help from an alpha that she doesn't know and has no reason to actually trust, but if what Tony needs is a sham marriage where he'll get to prove he actually does have all those necessary alpha instincts that make him a good leader, without the expectation or even the possibility of children--

Tony cuts her off eventually, initially disgusted that he's being offered some kind of child husband as a solution to his problems and that May's apparently willing to pawn her nephew off on the nearest rich scumbag, but May straightens her shoulders and makes it clear: she would continue to scrape by for Peter as long as possible, but a day is going to come when that's not going to work anymore, and as much as it hurts her to do, giving Peter away to someone that at least has an incentive to treat him well is the best option she has. She puts it back on Tony: she's only offering Peter to some rich scumbag if he is one, so is he? Or is he actually willing to put his money where his mouth is and protect an omega in need, and help himself out in the process?

Tony sends her away without answering, and she's deflated over it for all of a day, because the next day she gets a phonecall to arrange a first date.

Peter is nervous when May explains it to him and apologizes for arranging things without his input, but also thrilled, because one of the things that May left out when she was describing Peter to Tony was that Peter is huge fan of his. Even aside from the fact that marrying Tony might genuinely be an escape from a very grim future, having Tony Stark as a husband is just unbelievable to think about, after Peter had all but given up on the idea of getting to be married at all once his infertility was diagnosed. It might be nerve-wracking too, marrying someone over twice his age that he'll barely get a chance to know before the wedding, and Peter hopes and hopes that Tony is as good of an alpha as he seems to be from television and magazines, but-- he can't help but be excited.

So he meets Tony at the tower for a lunch date, and Peter does his best to present himself with perfect manners and deference and charm because he doesn't really know how to put his best foot forward otherwise-- Tony's rich enough to have staff for the cooking and cleaning and homecare even if Peter wasn't any good at it, and after you take that and minding any children out of the picture Peter doesn't really know what he has to offer as an omega. (Well, he does, but Tony's expression turns sour at even the slightest hint of flirtation, and Peter doesn't know whether to be relieved that Tony obviously isn't after him just for his capacity to take a knot or terrified that maybe Tony isn't interested in him at all.) But then Tony directs the conversation toward Peter's studies instead, and-- Peter leaves still feeling unsure over Tony's feelings, but during that part of the conversation Tony did at least perk up and ask a lot of questions and even smile, so that's something.

Their next meeting is more of a business meeting than anything, so May is a bigger part of the conversation than Peter is. She negotiates the potential marriage contract aggressively in Peter's favor, to a point that even Peter is shocked by-- they don't even have a dowry to offer, so their bargaining power is next to nothing-- but Tony just shrugs and accepts all of her conditions, and even makes suggestions that May and Peter don't think to ask for.

And after agreeing to draw up a contract that includes all of May's demands, Tony turns to Peter and explains exactly what being Mr. Peter Stark will involve-- the incessant gossip and prying into Tony and Peter's private life, including Peter's infertility, the criticism from the press on Peter's looks and clothing and behavior every time Peter goes out in public, the fact that a lot of the people Tony has to keep company with are not at all progressive about omegas and Tony will do his best to protect Peter from that, but shutting the bullshit down in the aftermath won't shield Peter from having to hear it in the first place, the fact that Peter might find himself lonely with the huge shift in class if his friends grow distant or fake once he has money, etc. etc.

He makes it clear that he wants to be absolutely sure that Peter knows what he's signing up for, and that Peter's really thought it through before anyone signs anything. And Peter is touched by the gesture, but of course none of that is anything near as bad as what he has waiting for him otherwise, so-- a week later the paperwork is finalized and signed, Peter has his first kiss in front of his aunt and Tony's closest friend, and he becomes Tony Stark's husband.

He's nervous but not scared when Tony takes him to his new home and gives him the tour. He hasn't known Tony long, and he's heard the horror stories of alphas that were sweet and adoring right up until the wedding night, but-- Tony had been so concerned about Peter's comfort when they were negotiating the contract, and it even included clauses that would allow Peter to leave him, with something called alimony, so Peter feels pretty secure in the thought that Tony will at least be gentle with him, if not actually-- passionate.

But then Tony leads him past the bedroom with nothing more than a quick peek and a, "This is my room; feel free to find me in here if you need me," and takes Peter to another room down the hall where he stops and says, "Here's yours. The movers got here earlier, so feel free to change things around if it's not set up how you want it, and I got some new things for you that you'll need."

The 'new things' turn out to be a collection of beautiful suits and dress shoes and other accessories, and not-- what Peter thought they might be-- and the room is fully set up and organized, Peter's trinkets and tech scraps sorted into tasteful bins or proudly displayed. Peter's twin bed from his apartment with May has been replaced by a queen, and that he was expecting, but the bedding is a close match to what he had before, and the whole thing gives the impression of a stylish update to his childhood bedroom.

He's flattered and touched and a little embarrassed-- the room doesn't exactly scream 'married man,' but he does love it, and it was such a sweet gesture on Tony's part-- but Tony brushes off his breathless thanks in favor of talking about their plans for tomorrow. Tony wants to take him shopping-- Peter can wear whatever he wants, Tony says, but he thought Peter might appreciate some new casual options now that he was married, and they can go back to the bespoke place that Tony had given his measurements to for the suits if Peter wants some more formal options as well-- and then maybe to lunch, as a low-key introduction of the new Mr. Peter Stark to the world before they start having to tackle galas and red carpets.

And Peter is beside himself with gratitude and awe at Tony's thoughtfulness, and rapidly losing even the expected jitter of first-time nerves the longer they talk, and he makes his smiles soft and shy and inviting as the conversation starts to wind down--

But then Tony just claps him awkwardly on the shoulder with a, "Well, good night," and goes off down the hallway to his bedroom, leaving Peter lingering confused and a little disappointed in his own doorway without even a kiss.

At first Peter thinks Tony is just being overly-conscientious of Peter's comfort, so he does his best to show Tony that he's perfectly comfortable and that he trusts Tony and he's ready without being overly suggestive about it-- he still remembers how Tony reacted when Peter tried to flirt with him on their date-- but three days into their honeymoon week, Peter has met several of Tony's friends and eaten in fabulous restaurants and bought enough new things to make his head spin, but he still hasn't even been scented, much less anything else.

So that third night, he takes a risk on the idea that Tony needs him to be more overt about communicating his comfort, and when Tony tells him good night Peter leans in for a kiss. Just something chaste, nothing that should put Tony's hackles up if he finds immodest omegas a turn-off-- but Tony actually puts a hand against his shoulder and leans away, and Peter's stomach drops to his feet.

"I'm sorry," Peter apologizes immediately, weakly, chilled to the bone by what he can only interpret as the disgust in Tony's expression. Tony-- Tony wasn't affectionate, but Peter had never thought for a second that Tony hated him; it didn't even make sense that Tony would hate him when he had been so kind. "I'm so sorry-- I didn't-- I thought--"

"No-- Peter, you're fine," Tony sighs, but he doesn’t drop his hand from Peter's shoulder, holding him firmly at a distance. "I'm not-- we're not doing that. Okay? It's nothing personal; you're just too young for me."

"But I'm your husband," Peter says blankly, not quite processing what that could possibly mean.

"I know, and the fact that that's even allowed is an absolute failure of our legal system," Tony says with a grimace, finally letting go of Peter but shifting back two steps. "Look, I'm-- did your aunt not talk to you about this? I'm going to be a good alpha for you, you can do whatever you want and I'll make sure you stay safe and you have whatever you need to be happy, but this is just an on-paper thing, kid. You don't have to put yourself out there to get abused by knothead alphas; I don't have to bring kids into this world to screw up; we both get to have society see us as a healthy pair of red-blooded Americans mated to a different designation just like god intended. You don't have to do anything for me that you don't want to."

And Peter had known that it was mostly political-- well, that it was all political; he doesn't kid himself for a moment that he actually has anything to offer Tony that the man seems to be interested in-- but he hadn't realized the extent to which they weren't even going to pretend. People got married for political reasons all the time, but they still made the best of it-- they were still affectionate, they were still intimate, they were still partners--

The words 'what about my heats' almost make their way out of Peter's mouth before he remembers to keep things focused on his alpha's needs, not his own, and he says, "What about your ruts?"

"I'll handle them the same way I have for the last thirty-something years of my life?" Tony shrugs, brushing the idea off like it's nothing, but he must see the lingering conflict in Peter's expression. He sighs, and awkwardly ventures, "And for your heats... You can handle them however you have been so far, or you can buy some toys, or-- hell, if you want to find a strapping young alpha to help you through them, that's fine with me."

Peter is horrified.

"You want me to cheat on you?"

But Tony is just as dismissive of that as everything else, and he just says, "There's no fidelity clause in our marriage contract."

Peter doesn't know how to feel. Being with Tony so far has felt like a dream, and this-- this is still so much better than the alternative, this sham half-relationship where he's apparently meant to be-- Tony's ward moreso than his actual partner, so he knows it's entitled, he knows he shouldn't say it and that he's still making out like a bandit regardless of Tony's answer and he shouldn't even expect anything else, but--

"Are you going to cheat on me?" he asks, voice tiny, and Tony goes still.

It takes him a long time to answer. Enough time that Peter has started trying to acclimate himself to that reality-- being one of those omegas that everyone looks at with pity and shakes their heads over, whose alphas come home every day smelling like someone else, and-- well, it wasn't like anyone had ever been going to believe that he was enough to keep a leash on Tony Stark anyway, so it's stupid to be upset about it; people were going to assume Tony was cheating on him whether it was true or not. He can deal with that. It's fine.

"No," Tony says finally, slowly. "I-- kid, I'm sorry, I thought you knew how this was going to work. But no, I'm not going to cheat on you. The whole point is for me to be a good alpha to you, not to make you miserable."

"What about me being a good omega to you?" Peter asks, pressing his luck; his knees are already weak with relief so he doesn't know why he can't keep his mouth shut and stop talking back, but he's just-- in shock.

Tony grimaces again, shaking his head, and says, "I don't need you to be a good omega to me, kid; I'm a grown man and I can take care of myself. What kind of person do you want to be? Do you want to-- study science and learn to build computers, do you want to design new LEGO sets, do you want to do music or travel the world or run charities like your aunt? Worry about that. Figure out what you want to do and tell me and we'll make it happen, but don't worry about me."

And it is a dream come true, being told he can be or do whatever he wants-- who said stuff like that, who let their omegas behave that way?-- but Peter is still stuck, because--

"What if I want to worry about you?"

"You don't," Tony says bluntly, such an abrupt shutdown that it doesn't even hurt. "You've just been told that's the only thing you're good for your entire life, so you think it's what you're supposed to do, but it's not true."

And Peter-- doesn't know whether to be offended, not that he could act on it even if he did. It is offensive, being told his own mind, but he can see that Tony's frustration is for him and not at him, and that this is Tony trying to-- be sweet, somehow, in his own way--

Tony says, "You have so many better things you could be doing than wandering around after me in case I need something, all right? I'm a big boy; I can get my own snacks and pick up my own socks. So let's figure out what your 'better things' are."

--And Peter is still utterly befuddled by it, and doesn't really understand what Tony is getting at with how he's been essentially groomed to be obedient/deferential and suppress his own needs in favor of his alpha's, and he's still nursing a little bit of hurt and disappointment and grief that Tony doesn't want him at all and that their marriage is nothing but a mask all the way down, but.

They spend the rest of their honeymoon week with Peter trying out different things and getting different experiences to see if he likes them, and by the time Tony goes back to work, Peter has a private tutor to help him get an education past the last level that was available to him as an unmarried omega, and his own workspace in the apartment for his tinkering, and a personal chaperone so that he can go to whatever museums or expos he wants with an extra layer of security beyond what just his wedding ring provides.

It works, even though it still chafes Peter a bit to be treated essentially as a foster child instead of a husband, especially when he's in heat and Tony tends to him like an alpha parent does for an omega child instead of like a lover, and especially when they travel overseas and Tony actually takes his wedding ring off and won't introduce Peter as his mate.

("I'm not trying to cheat on you, Pete; things are just different here," Tony explains, and Peter doesn't get it because everyone already knows that Tony Stark is married and who to, but-- things are different overseas, and it is a little bit thrilling to see omegas wandering around so freely, living whatever lives they want to lead, and Peter is too nervous to go exploring without Tony or Happy anyway but the idea that he could is incredible.)

But they fall into a routine, and Peter's still so grateful for getting to live a life alongside Tony even if it isn't exactly what he had pictured.

And then-- and here's why the "not going to actually write it" disclaimer, 3k words in, because that would allllllllllllllll just be set-up for:

Peter goes on a tour of the Osborn building as a part of his science education, and he's trying to get more comfortable with not needing a chaperone when he's out in public because maybe Tony will start treating him more like an adult if he tries to be more independent, so he doesn't stay put and wait while his tutor is in the bathroom, aaaaand he gets bit by a radioactive spider.

And as he's realizing in the aftermath how it's changed his body-- how he's strong now, stronger than any alpha, stronger than ten alphas-- he starts... thinking about things. About all those vigilantes he's heard of, out on the streets, putting themselves at risk to protect people. About how many times he's had to walk past omegas with black eyes and 'wedding rings' that they wore around their necks, his head lowered in vicarious shame. About how maybe-- if he was brave enough-- if he could shake off that nervousness that told him he needed a chaperone, that he was doing something wrong by being an omega out on his own--

So he does.

Tony bites his tongue about it when Peter starts going out on his own, because he's stressed to Peter over and over how he wants Peter to do whatever he wants, and he genuinely doesn't know where the line between 'controlling alpha' and 'responsible adult' is when he's married to a literal child, but he relaxes when Peter starts coming back bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and thriving with his new independence.

...Until he sees enough clips of this "Spider-man" that it piques his interest, and does enough research to figure out who it is.

He and Peter fight about it, which is wild and new because Peter never actually talks back to him, raised with those perfect omega manners, and only ever gently questions Tony during those moments where all Tony's doing is trying not to treat him like a piece of property.

But Peter throws all of that back in his face now, arguing that Tony is the one who always says that Peter should do what makes him happy, he should do whatever he wants, and he shouldn't base his entire life around what he thinks Tony wants because he's his own person, and this makes him happy, this is the 'better thing' that he can be making of his life if Tony's not going to give him the dignity of at least pretending he has any value as a husband--

And Tony doesn't know how to argue about it, because he has said all those things, but Peter is also a child and it's not right for him to be throwing himself around putting himself in danger like that, and-- and also he didn't know Peter was so fucking bitter about Tony not treating him as an actual spouse, and he hates that for Peter because it's not going to change anytime soon but it's also fascinating, somehow, to hear Peter be sharp with him after nearly a year of nothing but polite deference--

He rubs a hand over his face and says, "Pete, if any of those alpha criminals get their hands on you--"

And Peter takes a liberty he's never taken before-- he hasn't tried to touch Tony on his own initiative at all since that failed attempt at a kiss, except to shrink against his side when he was uncomfortable in public-- and takes Tony's wrists gently in hand and walks him back until Tony's pinned to the wall without a single hint of strain, and he just says, "Try."

He's not mean or even condescending about it, instead watching Tony with a plaintive plea for Tony to understand. So Tony accepts the challenge, and-- he's seen the videos, he did know how fucking strong Peter had to be to do those things, but it's not until he's struggled fruitlessly against Peter's grip to the point that he's breathless with it that it really, truly sinks in.

So then he's standing there, red-faced and panting and pinned to the wall by Peter's unfaltering grip around his wrists, and he registers the way that Peter's expression has changed, all dark-eyed and flushed even though holding Tony in place clearly wasn't a strain for him at all, and he registers how close they're standing to each other, and he registers how heavy Peter's scent is in the air, all warm honey sweetness--

And he says, "All right, fine, you win," because he suddenly needs to not be having this conversation anymore.

He does take some steps, though. He builds Peter a better suit, and he loads it with an AI to take care of him and to alert Tony if Peter starts getting in over his head. And Peter accepts it with genuine gratitude, and it helps Tony feel a little better, but-- Peter gets hit so hard sometimes, and there are so many situations where Tony wouldn't even have time to intervene before Peter could be critically injured or even dead on the spot, and Tony doesn't honestly know what he thinks he would be able to do about it if Peter did get in over his head, it's not like he has super powers--

But then he gets to thinking, and in all honesty, it's not like he needs actual superpowers, is it? When he could just build himself something. Something that would let him actually help Peter while he was out there, fighting for the good of a world that would've thrown him to the wolves in half a second if Tony hadn't intervened, if May Parker hadn't had the strength to ask for help-- and if for some reason Peter seems to hate it when Tony actually speaks into his heroing, like it's some kind of insult that Tony wants him to be safe, maybe he'll accept some help from someone else--

Peter doesn't know what to think of Iron Man when he comes on the scene, at first. It's a little irritating how often he tries to tell Peter to hang back, when he clearly doesn't even have the same amount of experience that Peter does, but it's not too long before Iron Man's deferring to Peter instead, and then it's not too long after that that they become a pretty good team. And once Iron Man learns to treat him as an equal, Peter finds that he's funny and thoughtful and sweet, and he tells Peter whatever he wants to know about how the armor works, and--

Peter has never for a second actually considered exploiting the lack of an infidelity clause in his and Tony's marriage contract. But there is something a little-- addictive, about having the respect and attention of this brilliant armor-clad alpha, when his actual alpha still treats him like a child, and he starts... thinking.

And Tony has never for a second actually thought of Peter as an actual mate. He's too young; that would be-- disgusting. But-- Peter's almost an entirely different person in the suit, or maybe he's just an entirely different person when he's not with Tony-- his alpha-- because Spider-man is all sass and vinegar and unyielding strength of character, and Tony wishes that Peter would bring some of that home with him instead of the return of his unending soft-spoken deferential politeness, because if he did--

If he did--

On second thought, Tony's not going to think about it.

[researchers-me]

The Psychology of Consumer Behavior in Industry Research

Uncover the intricate web of consumer behavior psychology in industry research. Dive into the role of industry research reports, analysts, surveys, companies, and industry-sponsored research in decoding the mysteries of consumer choices.

Read More: https://articleblock.com/business/the-psychology-of-consumer-behavior-in-industry-research/

[keep-both-eyes-on-trump]

Trump Watch #9

Trump has named the following: 

Linda McMahon as secretary of education. 

McMahon is a wrestling billionaire and co-founder of WWE. 

She has long been a supporter of Trump and served in his first administration as leader of the Small Business Administration. 

She has served on the Connecticut Board of Education and the board of trustees for Sacred Heart University in Connecticut. 

She supports charter schools and school choice. 

Scott Bessent for treasury secretary.

Bessent is a billionaire who advised Trump on economic policy during his campaign; he has experience founding and working for hedge funds.

If confirmed he will be the first LGBTQ+ Senate-confirmed cabinet member in a republican administration. 

He supports extending Trump’s tax cuts and deregulation.

He also supports Trump’s embrace of the crypto industry. 

Russell Vought for the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Vought held the same position during Trump’s first term. 

He is a key architect from Project 2025 writing the chapter on the Executive Office within which he takes aim at federal regulatory agencies that are not under control of the White House..

He is a strong advocate for recess appointments of Trump’s nominees. 

Lori Chavez-Deremer as labor secretary.

Chavez-Deremer was the first Latina congresswoman of Oregon; she lost re-election in November. 

She co-sponsored the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act which would make it easier for workers to unionize. 

She has strong support from unions. 

Pam Bondi as attorney general.

Bondi is the Florida attorney general and is the first woman to hold the position. 

As FL state attorney general she brought cases against the Affordable Care Act and fought to maintain FL’s ban on same-sex marriage. 

She is a longtime ally of Trump, served as a chairwomen of America First Policy Institute, and defended Trump during his first impeachment trial. 

She received a $25,000 donation from Trump’s charitable foundation and subsequently her office dropped a suit against Trump’s company for fraud stating there were insufficient grounds to proceed. A prosecutor assigned by then-Gov. Rick Scott determined there was insufficient evidence to support bribery charges. 

Brook Rollins as secretary of agriculture

Rollins is a co-founder and president of think tank America First Policy and served as assistant to the president for intergovernmental and technology initiatives during Trump’s first administration. 

She is a lawyer with an undergraduate degree from Texas A&M University in agricultural development. 

Dr Marty Makary as Food and Drug Administration commissioner.

Makary is a surgeon and public policy researcher at Johns Hopkins University. 

He supports RFK Jr. as Trump’s pick for HHS. 

He worked with the first Trump administration on transparent billing in health care. 

He opposed COVID vaccine mandates and was a critic of public health measures during the pandemic. 

Dr Janette Nesheiwat for Surgeon General.

Nesheiwat is a physician, medical director at CityMD, and former Fox News medical contributor. 

She is a supporter of vaccines. 

Dave Weldon to direct the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Weldon is a physician, Army veteran, and former Republican Florida representative. 

As a congressman he introduced the Weldon Amendment which provides protections for health care workers and organizations that do not provide or aid in abortions.

Scott Turner for secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

Turner previously served in the Texas House of Representatives; he is a NFL veteran and motivational speaker. 

He led the White House Opportunity and Revitalization Council during Trump’s first term and currently works as chair of the Center for Education Opportunity at America First Policy Institute. 

Republicans also announced plan to create a GOP-controlled subcommittee, Delivering on Government Efficiency, to work with the Department of Government Efficiency on cutting government waste; the committee is to be chaired by Marjorie Taylor Greene.

[justforbooks]

Rita Hayworth (born Margarita Carmen Cansino; October 17, 1918 – May 14, 1987) was an American actress, dancer, and pin-up girl. She achieved fame in the 1940s as one of the top stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and appeared in 61 films in total over 37 years. The press coined the term "The Love Goddess" to describe Hayworth, after she had become the most glamorous screen idol of the 1940s. She was the top pin-up girl for GIs during World War II.

Hayworth is perhaps best known for her performance in the 1946 film noir Gilda, opposite Glenn Ford, in which she played the femme fatale in her first major dramatic role. She is also known for her performances in Only Angels Have Wings (1939), The Strawberry Blonde (1941), Blood and Sand (1941), The Lady from Shanghai (1947), Pal Joey (1957), and Separate Tables (1958). Fred Astaire, with whom she made two films, You'll Never Get Rich (1941) and You Were Never Lovelier (1942), once called her his favorite dance partner. She also starred in the Technicolor musical Cover Girl (1944), with Gene Kelly. She is listed as one of the top 25 female motion picture stars of all time in the American Film Institute's survey, AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars.

Hayworth was a top glamour girl in the 1940s, a pin-up girl for military servicemen and a beauty icon for women. At 5 ft 6 in (1.68 m) and 120 lb (54 kg), she was tall enough to be a concern for dancing partners such as Fred Astaire. She reportedly changed her hair color eight times in eight movies.

In 1949, Hayworth's lips were voted best in the world by the Artists League of America. She had a modeling contract with Max Factor to promote its Tru-Color lipsticks and Pan-Stik make-up.

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Hayworth received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1645 Vine Street in 1960.

In 1980, Hayworth was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease, which contributed to her death in 1987 at age 68. The public disclosure and discussion of her illness drew attention to Alzheimer's, and helped to increase public and private funding for research into the disease.

The public disclosure and discussion of Hayworth's illness drew international attention to Alzheimer's disease, which was little known at the time, and it helped to greatly increase federal funding for Alzheimer's research.

The Rita Hayworth Gala, a benefit for the Alzheimer's Association, is held annually in Chicago and New York City. The program was founded in 1985 by Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, in honor of her mother. She is the hostess for the events and is a major sponsor of Alzheimer's disease charities and awareness programs. As of August 2017, a total of more than $72 million had been raised through events in Chicago, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida.

On October 17, 2016, a press release from the Springer Associates Public Relations Agency announced that Rita Hayworth's former manager and friend, Budd Burton Moss, initiated a campaign to solicit the United States Postal Service to issue a commemorative stamp featuring Hayworth. Springer Associates also announced that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would be lobbied in hopes of having an honorary Academy Award issued in memory of Hayworth. The press release added that Hayworth's daughter, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, the Alzheimer's Association of Greater Los Angeles, and numerous prominent personalities of stage and screen were supporting the Moss campaign. The press release stated the target date for fulfillment of the stamp and Academy Award to be on October 17, 2018, the centennial of Hayworth's birth.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[mariacallous]

For years, it's been an inconvenient truth within the cybersecurity industry that the network security devices sold to protect customers from spies and cybercriminals are, themselves, often the machines those intruders hack to gain access to their targets. Again and again, vulnerabilities in “perimeter” devices like firewalls and VPN appliances have become footholds for sophisticated hackers trying to break into the very systems those appliances were designed to safeguard.

Now one cybersecurity vendor is revealing how intensely—and for how long—it has battled with one group of hackers that have sought to exploit its products to their own advantage. For more than five years, the UK cybersecurity firm Sophos engaged in a cat-and-mouse game with one loosely connected team of adversaries who targeted its firewalls. The company went so far as to track down and monitor the specific devices on which the hackers were testing their intrusion techniques, surveil the hackers at work, and ultimately trace that focused, years-long exploitation effort to a single network of vulnerability researchers in Chengdu, China.

On Thursday, Sophos chronicled that half-decade-long war with those Chinese hackers in a report that details its escalating tit-for-tat. The company went as far as discreetly installing its own “implants” on the Chinese hackers' Sophos devices to monitor and preempt their attempts at exploiting its firewalls. Sophos researchers even eventually obtained from the hackers' test machines a specimen of “bootkit” malware designed to hide undetectably in the firewalls' low-level code used to boot up the devices, a trick that has never been seen in the wild.

In the process, Sophos analysts identified a series of hacking campaigns that had started with indiscriminate mass exploitation of its products but eventually became more stealthy and targeted, hitting nuclear energy suppliers and regulators, military targets including a military hospital, telecoms, government and intelligence agencies, and the airport of one national capital. While most of the targets—which Sophos declined to identify in greater detail—were in South and Southeast Asia, a smaller number were in Europe, the Middle East, and the United States.

Sophos' report ties those multiple hacking campaigns—with varying levels of confidence—to Chinese state-sponsored hacking groups including those known as APT41, APT31, and Volt Typhoon, the latter of which is a particularly aggressive team that has sought the ability to disrupt critical infrastructure in the US, including power grids. But the common thread throughout those efforts to hack Sophos' devices, the company says, is not one of those previously identified hackers groups but instead a broader network of researchers that appears to have developed hacking techniques and supplied them to the Chinese government. Sophos' analysts tie that exploit development to an academic institute and a contractor, both around Chengdu: Sichuan Silence Information Technology—a firm previously tied by Meta to Chinese state-run disinformation efforts—and the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China.

Sophos says it’s telling that story now not just to share a glimpse of China's pipeline of hacking research and development, but also to break the cybersecurity industry's awkward silence around the larger issue of vulnerabilities in security appliances serving as entry points for hackers. In just the past year, for instance, flaws in security products from other vendors including Ivanti, Fortinet, Cisco, and Palo Alto have all been exploited in mass hacking or targeted intrusion campaigns. “This is becoming a bit of an open secret. People understand this is happening, but unfortunately everyone is zip,” says Sophos chief information security officer Ross McKerchar, miming pulling a zipper across his lips. “We're taking a different approach, trying to be very transparent, to address this head-on and meet our adversary on the battlefield.”

From One Hacked Display to Waves of Mass Intrusion

As Sophos tells it, the company's long-running battle with the Chinese hackers began in 2018 with a breach of Sophos itself. The company discovered a malware infection on a computer running a display screen in the Ahmedabad office of its India-based subsidiary Cyberoam. The malware had gotten Sophos' attention due to its noisy scanning of the network. But when the company's analysts looked more closely, they found that the hackers behind it had already compromised other machines on the Cyberoam network with a more sophisticated rootkit they identified as CloudSnooper. In retrospect, the company believes that initial intrusion was designed to gain intelligence about Sophos products that would enable follow-on attacks on its customers.

Then in the spring of 2020, Sophos began to learn about a broad campaign of indiscriminate infections of tens of thousands of firewalls around the world in an apparent attempt to install a trojan called Asnarök and create what it calls “operational relay boxes” or ORBs—essentially a botnet of compromised machines the hackers could use as launching points for other operations. The campaign was surprisingly well resourced, exploiting multiple zero-day vulnerabilities the hackers appeared to have discovered in Sophos appliances. Only a bug in the malware's cleanup attempts on a small fraction of the affected machines allowed Sophos to analyze the intrusions and begin to study the hackers targeting its products.

As Sophos pushed out patches to its firewalls, its team responsible for threat intelligence and incident response, which it calls X-Ops, also began an effort to track its adversary: Sophos included in its “hotfix" for the hackers' intrusions additional code that would collect more data from customers' devices. That new data collection revealed that a single Sophos device registered in February of 2020 in Chengdu showed signs of early alterations similar to the Asnarök malware. “We started to find tiny little indicators of the attack that predated any other activity,” McKerchar says.

Using registration data and records of downloads of code Sophos made available to its customers, the X-Ops team eventually identified a handful of machines it believed were being used as guinea pig devices for Chinese hackers as they sought to find vulnerabilities and test their intrusion techniques prior to deployment. Some of them seemed to have been obtained by a Chengdu-based company called Sichuan Silence Information Technology. Others were tied to an individual who used the handle TStark, whom X-Ops analysts then found had held a position at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, also in Chengdu.

X-Ops analysts could even observe individuals using computers and IP addresses tied to the test devices reading Sophos' online materials that detailed the firewalls' architecture. “We could see them researching us,” McKerchar says.

In late April of 2020, Dutch police worked with Sophos to seize a Netherlands-based server that Sophos had identified as being used in the Asnarök infection wave. In June of that year, however, the hackers launched another round of their mass intrusions, and Sophos found they had significantly reduced the complexity and “noise” of their malware in an attempt to evade detection. Yet through the increased data collection from its devices and the intelligence it had assembled on the Chengdu exploit development group, Sophos was able to spot the malware and push out patches for the vulnerabilities the hackers had used within a week, and even identify a “patient zero” machine where the new malware had first been tested two months earlier.

The next month, X-Ops took its most aggressive step yet in countering the effort to exploit its devices, deploying its own spy implants to the Sophos devices in Chengdu they were testing on—essentially hacking the hackers, albeit only through code added to a few installations of its own products the hackers had obtained. Sophos says that preemptive surveillance allowed the company to obtain key portions of the hackers' code and head off a third wave of their intrusions, catching it after only two customers had been compromised and pushing out a patch designed to block the attacks, while obfuscating that fix to avoid tipping off the hackers to Sophos' full knowledge of their techniques.

“In the first wave, we were on the back foot. In the second wave, it was an even match,” says McKerchar. “The third attack, we preempted.”

A New Phase of the Game

Starting in 2021, Sophos says it began to see far more targeted attacks from Chinese hacker groups exploiting its products, many of which it was able to uncover due to its efforts to surveil the research of the Chengdu-based exploit development network. Over the next two years, the hackers continued hijack vulnerabilities in Sophos appliances in a wide variety of targeted attacks hitting dozens of targets in Asia and the West.

In September of 2022, for instance, Sophos found a campaign exploiting a vulnerability in its products that had breached military and intelligence agencies in a Southeast Asian country, as well as other targets including water utilities and electric generation facilities in the same region. Later, Sophos says, a different Chinese state-sponsored group appears to have exploited a bypass for its patch for that vulnerability to target government agencies outside of Asia, in one instance hacking an embassy shortly before it was set to host officials from China's ruling Communist Party. It also found intrusions at another country's nuclear energy regulatory agency, then a military facility in the same country and the airport of the country's capital city, as well as other hacking incidents that targeted Tibetan exiles.

“We just opened the door on a huge amount of high-end targeted activity, a Pandora's Box of threat intelligence," McKerchar says.

As the hackers' tooling continued to evolve in response to Sophos' attempts to head them off, the company's X-Ops researchers at one point pulled from a test device they were surveilling a unique new specimen of malware: The hackers had built a “bootkit,” an early attempt at malware designed to infect a Sophos firewall's low-level code that's used to boot up the device before its operating system is loaded, which would make the malware far harder to detect—the first time Sophos believes that sort of firewall bootkit has ever been seen.

X-Ops never found that bootkit deployed on an actual victim's machine, but Sophos CISO McKerchar says he can't rule out that it was in fact used somewhere and evaded detection. “We certainly tried to hunt for it, and we have some capability to do that,” says McKerchar. “But I would be brash to say it's never been used in the wild.”

As Sophos has tried to understand the motives of the Chengdu-based network of hackers digging up vulnerabilities and providing them to the Chinese state, that picture has been complicated by the strange fact that the researchers finding those flaws may have on two occasions also reported them to Sophos itself through its “bug bounty” program. On one occasion, for instance, the exact vulnerability used in a hacking campaign was reported to Sophos by a researcher with a Chinese IP address just after it was first used in an exploitation campaign—Sophos paid the researcher $20,000 for their findings.

That bizarre incongruity with the Chengdu-based researchers' apparent role as suppliers of intrusion techniques for Chinese state hacking groups and its bug bounty reports to Sophos, McKerchar argues, show perhaps how loose the connections are between the researchers finding these vulnerabilities and the state hackers exploiting those bugs. “I think this is a security research community which is patriotically aligned with PRC objectives,” he says, referencing the People's Republic of China. “But they're not averse to making a bit of money on the side.”

Contacts at the University of Electronic Science and Technology China didn't respond to WIRED's request for comment on Sophos' report. Sichuan Silence Information Technology couldn't be reached for comment, and appears to have no working website.

Sophos' timeline of its struggle against a highly adaptive adversaries sussing out its products' hackable flaws points to the success of China's efforts to corral its security research community and funnel its discoveries of vulnerabilities to the government, says Dakota Cary, a researcher at the Atlantic Council, a nonpartisan think tank, who has focused on that Chinese exploit development pipeline. He points to China's efforts, for instance, to foster hacking competitions as a source of intrusion techniques for its offensive hacking efforts, as well as 2021 legislation that requires researchers and companies based in China to report to the government any hackable bug they find in a product.

“In Sophos' document, you see the interconnectedness of that system kind of shine through,” says Cary. “The culture of these organizations working together or competing for work, and the way that the government is trying to centralize collection of vulnerabilities and then distribute those tools to offensive teams—you see all of that reflected.”

Sophos' report also warns, however, that in the most recent phase of its long-running conflict with the Chinese hackers, they appear more than ever before to have shifted from finding new vulnerabilities in firewalls to exploiting outdated, years-old installations of its products that are no longer receiving updates. That means, company CEO Joe Levy writes in an accompanying document, that device owners need to get rid of unsupported “end-of-life” devices, and security vendors need to be clear with customers about the end-of-life dates of those machines to avoid letting them become unpatched points of entry onto their network. Sophos says it's seen more than a thousand end-of-life devices targeted in just the past 18 months.

“The only problem now isn't the zero-day vulnerability,” says Levy, using the term “zero-day” to mean a newly discovered hackable flaw in software that has no patch. “The problem is the 365-day vulnerability, or the 1,500-day vulnerability, where you've got devices that are on the internet that have lapsed into a state of neglect.”

That warning was echoed by Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency assistant director for cybersecurity Jeff Greene, who stresses the risk of Chinese hackers exploiting older, unpatched systems, as well as the broader, ironic threat of network perimeter appliances serving as entry points for hackers. “These edge devices often have inherent insecurities, they’re often not managed once they’re put out, they're not patched," says Greene. “We’ll leave a trail of these devices for a long time that attackers will be looking to compromise.”

Sophos CISO McKerchar says the company is revealing its five-year fight with the Chengdu-based hacking network to amplify those warnings, but also to end a kind of cybersecurity industry omertà around the growing issue of security companies' own products creating vulnerabilities for their customers. “Trust in the industry has been massively eroded in the past few years. There's a huge amount of skepticism across about the way that vendors are handling these risks, but we've relied on silence instead,” says McKerchar. “We want to show a bit of vulnerability ourselves, recognize that we've had problems, then tell the story about how we stepped up.”

[simslegacy5083]

NSB (Straud Legacy) Gen 9

Today's (8/9/2024) Episode: Work A Day Woes

Noemi and Luigi’s parties with their friends had gone great, but both soon found themselves struggling with issues at work.

Hard working, tech savvy Noemi had always struggled with the “people skills” side of things. Her brutal honesty and lack of tact came out most problematically with one poor client who reminded her too much of a boring generic copy of her Lu.

Her supervisors made it plain that they needed more Charisma from her, but her brain just had trouble working that way, even with the assistance of her frequently troublesome psych meds. She had high hopes for a “Tech Salesmanship” continuing ed class she found, but all the best intentions in the world and the formal learning atmosphere she was used to still couldn’t make the techniques that worked for others natural for her.

Of course, Noemi’s industry wasn’t completely a bad fit for her skills. She loved settling down at the keyboard and delving into the technical side of things. Sadly, at her level, solving tricky coding problems was less important than team dynamics: recruiting, nurturing, and capitalizing on new talent.

So even though she pressed on with the tasks her bosses paid her the big bucks for, she always kept her eyes open for side jobs that interested her.

She and Luigi didn’t need the extra simoleons, but working side by side on odd little one-off projects she picked up on the Llamacorn Listserve, like the mayor of Strangerville’s plea for help documenting the towns latest agricultural conspiracy, made for fun quality time together.

Luigi’s own problems weren’t triggered by a lack of charisma so much as an over abundance of pride and self interest.

Playing so hard at competitive gaming at work, at practice, and during charity streams had been giving his mousing hand a lot of stress. Refusing to take it easy when his wife had a project in mind, or his friend challenged his foosball cred, caused that strain to progress to a persistent burning ache.

Rather than step back and accept his limits, he researched repetitive stress injuries just enough to find the very best ergonomic hardware to work around the problem. The expensive mouse made a big difference in how long he could play hard before the consequences caught up with him and made it easier to pull off many demanding moves. Unfortunately, a match being sponsored by a big-name tech company left him with a dilemma.

Despite marketing material promoting the sponsors “high quality standard equipment” nothing in the actual rules prevented Luigi from using his ergonomic mouse. As he’d hoped, the custom hardware allowed him to end the match only mildly uncomfortable and at the top of the leaderboard.

That decision turned out to be deeply unpopular with both the sponsors of the tourney and a vocal segment of fans who saw it as unfair and unsporting.

Unfortunately, the same pride that drove Luigi to develop that repetitive stress injury stopped him from even considering admitting that he had any such weakness. Unwilling to seek accommodations to play with a sanctioned ergonomic device or admit in the post-game interview that he was driven by anything but a need to “be the best” left him with an unsavory reputation. Still, he would rather be seen as a cheater than “over the hill”.

Both sims hoped to find a way to turn their luck around soon.

In the meantime, they took comfort in each others company to make their dark days brighter.

View The Full Story of My Not So Berry Challenge Here

[starseedpatriot]

Talking about vaccines…

The ‘Spanish Flu’ of 1918, did not actually originate in Spain. Spain was simply the first country to report on it.

In preparation for WW1, a massive military vaccination experiment involving numerous prior developed vaccines took place in Fort Riley, Kansas- where the first “Spanish Flu” case was reported.

The fledgling pharmaceutical industry, sponsored by the ‘Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research’, had something they never had before – a large supply of human test subjects. Supplied by the U.S. military’s first draft, the test pool of subjects ballooned to over 6 million men.

Autopsies after the war proved that the 1918 flu was NOT a ‘flu’ at all. It was caused by random dosages of an experimental ‘bacterial meningitis vaccine’, which to this day, mimics flu-like symptoms. 

Fearing that soldiers coming home would spread diseases to their families, the U.S. government pushed the largest vaccine ‘fear’ campaign in history. They used the human population as a research and development lab to field test experimental vaccines.

Tens of millions of civilians died in the same manner as did the soldiers.  

Instead of stopping the vaccines, doctors intensified them, calling it the great “Spanish Flu of 1918”. As a result, ONLY THE VACCINATED DIED.

https://t.me/LauraAbolichannel

[thoughtlessarse]

When the oil giant ExxonMobil sponsored an event at the re-energizing Democratic national convention (DNC) in Chicago last week, it was disrupted by climate activists outraged that big oil was invited on to an influential political platform. “Exxon lies, people die,” protesters shouted before being evicted. The event included a “fireside chat” with Vijay Swarup, the company’s senior climate strategy and technology director. Swarup is a 30-year Exxon veteran who headed the company’s research and development team for just under a decade, and oversaw initiatives on biofuels, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and hydrogen. Speaking at the DNC event, Swarup said: “We need new technology and we need policy to support that technology. We need governments working with private industry.” The Exxon executive also praised the Biden administration’s landmark climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed in 2022, for helping the company pursue new CCS and hydrogen projects. He is not alone in that regard. At an oil summit in Houston earlier this year, Exxon’s CEO, Darren Woods, said, “I am very supportive of the IRA” and acknowledged the legislation “especially benefited” the company. Exxon is set to receive billions in public subsidies because of the legislation. The US multinational has not always been such a strong advocate for the technology, but now argues that CCS is crucial in the climate fight and works, in theory, by capturing carbon dioxide from hard-to-abate heavy industries, like steel or cement, and pumping it underground to be stored indefinitely. Exxon champions itself as a “global leader” in CCS, maintaining it is driving “meaningful change” in the fight against global heating. But an estimated two-thirds to three-quarters of the carbon currently captured in the US is used to extract hard-to-reach reserves, a practice known as enhanced oil recovery (EOR). And the reputation of CCS has largely been one of “underperformance” and “unmet expectations”, the International Energy Agency said in 2023.

continue reading