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hypnofur1 · 4 years ago

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Influencing the Influencer

By Hypnofur

“I have to say, I am loving retirement. This is my first year of being retired and it was everything I dreamed it would be and more. Everyone should retire at 36!” Dan joked into the microphone. The two radio guys laughed harder than they should have. While Dan knew that regular people couldn’t retire at 36, he wasn’t joking about loving retirement. He had been playing football since second grade. He enjoyed a 15 year career in the NFL. 13 of those years were in Cincinnati, but the last two were in Kansas City… where a SuperBowl was won in his last season.

Being part of a Super Bowl team, even as a backup like Dan was by the end of his career, makes you royalty in that city for the rest of time. Heck, ask the ’85 Bears about that. Especially in cities that love their team as much as KC. Dan always wanted to win one for Cincy, the city that he truly identified as home now, but that was never even close to being in the cards.

However, Dan was the only high profile guy from the Super Bowl team to retire after the big win. The rest of the guys pretty much stayed on the team, and were in the Super Bowl again this year. As such, all the KC radio and media people were desperate for a “Chiefs Insider” to talk to. Dan was flown down to Tampa for the week to do radio, tv, etc. He was considering a career in broadcasting, so this all-expense paid trip was a nice little trial run. The only downside of it, was that Casey didn’t come with him.

Dan’s wife was going to go to Tampa with him, and make a ton of Instagram videos and posts from Tampa. She was incredibly excited about it, as was the social media company that employed her to do all these blogs. Her sweetness, honesty, great style, and knockout natural beauty was evident to anyone who saw her, whether in real life or on a screen. She had sort of become “Cincy’s Sweetheart” over the years, so when influencers became a thing, she was in high demand. The Tampa vlogs were likely going to set records for likes. However, Dan’s mom broke her ankle in a fall the week before.

Casey insisted she stay home to help Dan’s mom. This is why Dan was head over heels for her. Yes, she was gorgeous. But she was also the sweetest, most wonderful wife in the world. While all the other players would have girlfriends and hook ups in each city, Dan never did. He was completely and utterly faithful to Casey.

With all this said, while Casey didn’t go to Tampa, she had to vlog about something. Trips to Dan’s Mom’s house during the day to help her out wouldn’t make good content. Such was the topic of conversation as the couple chatted on the phone Friday morning.

“So did you find anything to vlog about?” Dan asked.

“Ugh, I think so. They really want us to push groupon experience things. They gave DeAndra groupon passes to a comedy show, so we are going to do that.” Casey told her husband. She meant to sound a bit more cheery as she did so. She was trying so hard to not show her disappointment over not being in Tampa. She didn’t want to make him feel bad.

“Oh yeah, is Darnell going? If the dude is funny, the sound of Darnell’s laugh when he gets roaring is the only thing anyone in that place is going to hear! Hopefully the dude doesn’t make Bengals jokes. Darnell will get up on that stage!” Dan laughed, as did Casey.

“Did you drink tons of water last night?” Casey asked. She was always concerned about him.

“Hahah. I did. A whole river. I’m doing good. Three more days babe, then I am home to you. I miss you so much.” Dan said, very truthfully.

“Me too. I’ll tell DeAndra and Darnell you said hi” she smiled as she hung up.

Dan missed her terribly, but he was at least pleased that he’d have her vlog to watch later that night. He loved watching those. However, it was Friday night of Super Bowl week. Dan had a whirlwind day. He was treated like a Chiefs Legend because he was wearing that Super Bowl ring. He even got invited to a dinner with Joe Montana! He couldn’t pass that up. Dinner was great. Drinks were had, and not enough water was consumed. Dan passed out when he got back to the hotel.

It was late the next morning when Dan finally awoke. He realized that he had missed Casey’s Instagram vlog. He was surprised he didn’t have a text about that from her. He checked her Insta page. There wasn’t one from last night. That was really odd. He started to get a little nervous.

He texted her. “Hi, you ok? No vlog from last night?”

Fortunately, he got an immediate return text “Just filmed it this morning. Posting now J”

That put him at ease. He took a quick shower, and then grabbed his phone to see his beautiful wife’s angelic face. She was in her car. For some reason, that’s where people filmed themselves. Dan never understood why that was a thing.

“Hey guys, its Casey! Hope you are all having a great weekend! I know it is Super Bowl weekend, and that is super exciting for tomorrow! But, I wanted to tell you guys about a great experience me and my friends had thanks to groupon last night! My hubby is out of town, and I was feeling kind of sad, but then my friends called and said they had a groupon for an awesome experience. Totally changed the course of my weekend!

So we went to Funny Bone at Liberty Center, which is such a cute place! Anyway, my friend DeAndra told me the comedian was actually a stage hypnotist named Arnold Denton, aka The Amazing Hypno-natti. When I heard hypnotist, I was freaking out! Oh, and yeah, I found the name ‘Hypno-natti’ lame as well, but trust me guys, he is soooooo amazing!

So anyway guys, when we got in, I decided to put my fear aside and volunteer. Seriously guys, it was one of the craziest experiences I’ve ever had. Before we were even brought up on stage, we had to sign a waiver that basically said the hypnotist is not responsible for any injuries that may occur and all that other fun legal stuff. Guys, believe me when I tell you that I cannot recall a moment in my in my life that I was more nervous when I was up on that stage. The hypnotist explained to us, and the rest of the audience, that what we were about to experience was extremely different. Some of us would remember exactly what happened, and some of us wouldn’t. In total, there were probably about like twenty five of us lined up in front of the stage and the audience was told to be completely silent.

Right before we began, the hypnotist told us that we would be “under” for about a half an hour, but our bodies would react as if it had been asleep for 8 hours. So crazy! From what I can remember, it went a little like this:

We were told to sit down and just relax. With our eyes closed, we were told that we should feel this ‘energy of relaxation’ that would begin to pool at our feet and then work its way up to our body. All the while, there was this really strange music that was playing and the hypnotist was talking to us. After about 5 minutes he had us open our eyes and raise our arms horizontally and lock our fingers together so that we made a ball with our fists. At this point, we are still not under, so we were all aware of our surroundings and what not. Next thing I know, Hypno-natti is coming straight down the line and thrusting our hands down into our laps and pushing our heads down onto the shoulder of the person sitting to our left. It was about my turn and the last thing I can remember about this part is him yelling “Sleep!”

After the whole intro, we woke up and he was kind of pacing the stage and the audience was giggling and stuff and I can remember being super confused. I seriously thought that the show ended and I was actually asleep the whole time. As he was pacing, he was just casually talking to the audience and then he said “spark” (what I now know is a “trigger word”) and just like that it felt as though the wrath of God had come through the leg of the chair I was sitting in and electrocuted me in the butt! It hurt so bad; not like a long pain, but just like a jolt of electricity. I stood up so fast and everybody in the place was just rolling! I looked around and it was just me and another guy standing and grabbing our butts. He did this a couple more times and then triggered some of the other people and the whole time I just remember being super confused. At one point, I remember crying, because I had fallen deeply, madly in love with him, and he was dancing with someone else. It was soo crazy guys! Long story short, the hypnotist basiscally made us his personal puppets and we were slightly embarrassed, but it was all in good fun. My friends and I totally laughed about it all night after. It was a great experience that was all made possible through groupon!! Swipe up and see what other fun experiences they can save you a ton on. Luv you guys!!!” She concluded with a kiss of her fingers then the peace sign.

Dan loved to see her and hear her voice. He was wishing it wasn’t 48 full hours until he’d get to see her again. But it was. Those 48 hours went quickly at least. Frankly, it was a whirlwind. By the time he walked in the door of his spacious Cincinnati home Monday morning, he was exhausted – but so glad to hug, squeeze, and kiss his gorgeous brunette wife.

“Tell me everything!!” Casey said as she put some coffee on. She could tell by his face that he needed it.

Dan laughed as he admitted he exhausted. It had been quite a week of late night dinners, Super Bowl parties, and media work. It was terrific, but it wiped him out. However, he happily launched into his diatribe. He told her about all the radio shows he went on, and how he even did a couple TV spots. Casey squealed when he told her that he plugged her vlogs on all the local Cincinnati shows.

“ooooh My big media mogul!” Casey flirted. Her big brown eyes gazing into Dan’s. Then her phone beeped with a text, which was a constant occurrence. She grabbed it and checked the text. It was at this point that her expression changed. She became completely focused on the phone. It was like she suddenly forgot Dan was there.

“Who’s that?” Dan asked, realizing this was strange. Was someone hurt? Was something wrong? Casey didn’t answer. She just typed a couple things on her phone, and then walked upstairs, not even addressing Dan as she left. Dan found this very strange, but he also had to pee really bad. He figured he’d see what the deal was, but had to handle that situation briefly before anything else.

Much to his shock, by the time he got up to the bedroom, Casey was naked and wearing headphones. She was sprawled out on their bed, reclining in a mound of fur pillows. Naked and eyes closed with her blue bullet vibrator that they had bought as a sexy toy at their anniversary. Dan understandably figured that this was a “welcome home” sex game. He found himself immediately getting hard.

"I’m going deeper and deeper." Casey said quietly. Dan assumed she was talking about the vibrator going into her pussy. This was unusual sex talk from her, but he was still into it.

She moans, "Going deeper and deeper. I am deeply hypnotized. "

Dan was stunned. She was sooooooo freaking sexy with a nipple in one hand and that toy teasing the other one. But what did she say? Did she say hypnotized?

“Deeply hypnotized and deep under your control.” She whispers.

Dan heard that and got more concerned, but then couldn’t help but notice that he sound of the vibrator changed! She had turned up the setting. Soon, she was pinching her breasts and her hips are starting to rock slowly. She was moaning and purring. Dan was so hard he couldn’t think straight.

Casey turned the toy up to level 3; as fast as it goes. The next 4 settings are just various combinations of the 3 vibration speeds. Her hips were moving faster, her breasts were bouncing and she was having a hard time keeping the toy on her clit. Her teeth were clenched and she could feel the orgasm start to creep over her skin. . Her chest was heaving as she changed the setting on the toy again.

Slow, Slow, Slow, medium, medium, medium, fast, fast, fast

With hypnotic words and commands being fed into her mind, the orgasm raced up her torso and arched her body off the bed. Her neck muscles tightened and her eyes pinched shut as she screamed out loud and held the toy in place right on top of her clit.

"OOOOOOOOOOOOhHHHHHHHHHH, OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I server Master Hypno-natti!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I belong to Master Hypno-natti!!!!!!!!!!!! OOOOHHHHMYGODMASTERRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Shock from Dan.

Awe from Dan.

Lust from Dan.

Fear from Dan.

Anger from Dan… and anger won.

He grabbed the headphones and ripped them off her. He yelled right into the microphone. “This is her husband, you sick fuck! Stay the fuck away from us, or I’ll rip your motherfucking arms off!!!!”

There was a click, and Dan knew that the person on the other end of that phone was gone. He turned his attention to Casey, who was now glistening with sweat, and still breathing heavy.

“Cay – Cay, wake up babe. Cay” he said, shaking his wife.

She eventually stirred, opened her big brown eyes and stared back at her husband. “Dan, what’s going on?” she asked.

“This is going to sound nuts, babe. But I think the hypnotist from the other night, like triggered you into masturbating for him on the phone.” Dan explained carefully. He wasn’t sure how his Catholic, surprisingly conservative wife would handle this manipulation.

He watched her face as the realization of what happened washed over her. He held his breath as he expected the tears to start rolling. Instead, she looked at him wide eyed. Then her beautiful big brown eyes slowly went down to his crotch.

“I missed you” she whispered, as she stared at her husband’s erection.

Confusion from Dan.

Fear from Dan.

Love from Dan.

Lust from Dan… and lust won.

He went down and made love to his wife. They kissed passionately, like the reunited lovers they were. Dan couldn’t remember the last time he was this turned on. He couldn’t wait any longer, and inserted himself right into his wife’s already very wet pussy. He glided right in. He didn’t last long in there. Within 30 seconds, he had finished. Casey giggled and gave him a loving hug. He crashed on to the bed beside her. Planning to only take a minute to catch his breath and then have a talk with his wife about the whole hypnotist thing, Dan accidentally fell sound asleep. The crazy week of the Super Bowl was just too much. He was out like a light, he didn’t even hear Casey get a text...

Dan slept for a good two and a half hours. He woke up to Casey lovingly rubbing his back.

“Hey babe, if you sleep too long, you won’t be able to get to sleep tonight. Your schedule will be all wacky.” She said lovingly. He knew she was right. She was always taking care of him.

Dan turned around in the bed and smiled at his beautiful wife. She had gotten freshened up, her clothes were back on and she was all together. God, she was so beautiful. Like a brunette angel.

“Hey, try this” she said, handing Dan a cup of tea. “It is a new chamomile tea they want us to vlog about. It’s actually reeaalllly good!” Casey said excitedly. Dan took the tea and tried it. He wasn’t a tea guy, but… anything for Casey.

“Hey, look babe, we have to talk about that Hypno-natti guy. I think he’s like still playing with your head” Dan said. He had always been direct. “When I came upstairs, you were on the phone with him I think, and you were, you know…”

“Playing with myself?” Casey said with a devilish, but so cute grin. She didn’t usually say things like that.

“Yeah” Dan said, surprised she said that out loud. He felt his dick stir a bit.

“Seriously babe, you are going to love that tea” Casey encouraged. Dan took another sip. It was pretty good.

“So, that was hot to see, I’ll admit, but you can’t have some guy like… controlling you to do sex stuff” Dan said, surprised he needed to map it out to her to this point.

Casey nodded. Then she looked at the bed sheet starting to tent around Dan’s groin. She laughed. “Well well, me thinks he doth protest too much” she teased. “OMG, I forgot to tell you. I saw the BEST movie on HBO Max when you were gone!” she said exuberantly.

“HBO Max? Babe, we should really deal with this hypnotist thing.” Dan said, what the hell was going on? His head was feeling a bit tingly. Boy, he must still be tired.

“I know Dan, and we will. I’m sorry, I have just missed you soo much. I saw this movie, and it was like, really sexy. And I can see that you are, you know… turned on right now” she said as she gently stroked his growing hard on.

“We can deal with this hypno stuff later. But right now, I am in the mood, and you are in the mood, and I want to show you the sexiest things I’ve ever seen on screen. Finish your tea and we can check this out” Casey said as she leaned into a sensual kiss with her husband.

Dan was a very smart man. He went to Notre Dame. He knew something was seriously fucked up here. But he was a MAN. And the curiosity of what kind of movie could have been so hot that it got her acting like this was just too curious for him to ignore. Against his better judgement, he let his beautiful wife lead him to their home theater room. He felt his head spin as he stood up from the bed.

“Take a seat in the middle” Casey directed with another long sensual kiss before turning on the surround sound and the media player. Dan’s eyes were glued to her. She was walking around such sexy confidence. He had never seen her like this. What the hell was in this movie???

Satisfied that the AV system was on and playing, Casey sat down in the large velvet chair next to her husband’s. The giant screen was black for a while, and Dan noticed that there was a humming coming from the speakers. The humming was vibrating through this very core. It felt… warm? Was that right? Soon there was a black and white spiral on the screen. What kind of HBO Max thing is this? Dan thought. Then he remembered the hypnotist. Wait, what the fuck? He went to protest, but he was becoming enthralled by the whirling spiral that had become the only thing in the room. He could feel it hypnotizing him, warm waves of relaxation moving out from it into his opening mind. Hypnotizing him. Hypnotizing Casey. Hypnotizing them with the way it spun around and around, always going deeper.

This was how it felt to be hypnotized? Dan thought to himself. He never could have dreamed how nice it was. How good it felt to be under hypnosis, under hypnotic control. He knew who the voice belonged to now, that it was Hypno-natti talking to them as they watched in a deep hypnotic state. Hypno-natti was amazing! Sooo amazing. Hypno-natti was the master of the fascinating, hypnotic spiral that controlled their minds.. He was telling them that it was time to submit their entire mind and body now, to go into a trance.

Dan knew he didn’t want to do that, but he felt a deep desire to obey, an overwhelming urge to submit. Pleasing Hypno-natti was most important. To go into a trance for Hypno-natti. Hypno-naitti’s voice was telling them to prepare to surrender totally to his hypnotic power. The spiral was turning faster now. Dan felt all his thoughts begin to move down into it. He could feel the intense hypnotic influence reaching out for his mind and he couldn’t help but submit. Faster and faster, round and round. He was falling into it. Falling faster and faster. She could see only an endless spiral in front of him now, a deep whirling tunnel that pulled him in as he stared into it. Hypno-natti’s voice was controlling their thoughts, hypnotizing them into total obedience.. There was only the spiral. And the voice. The whirling spiral. The soothing voice. Hypno-natti’s voice. Their master. Dan knew he must obey. Casey knew she must obey her master. They were hypnotized, so deeply and completely.

Next thing Dan knew, he was somehow in the foyer. When had he left the theater room? There was a knock at the door. He answered. There was a small scrawny guy about 10 years older than him standing in the doorway.

“Can I help you?” Dan asked, his head still cloudy.

“I’m the Amazing Hypno-natti” the man said. His majestic voice now very familiar to the former NFL start. “Invite me in” he commanded.

“Please, come in” Dan said immediately, stepping out of the way.

Casey had entered the foyer when she heard the knock. When she saw Hypno-natti, she was immediately overcome with desire. He was soooo sexy. The sexiest man ever born. She immediately felt her pussy moisten and her nipples get sensitive. She flirtatiously played with her hair and smiled at him.

“Hello my darling Casey” he said as he took her in. She was so incredibly beautiful with her gorgeous brunette hair, big brown eyes, and perfect trim figure.

Dan knew this wasn’t right. He could sense the attraction between them. What the hell? She was his wife. “Look buddy, I-”

“Dan, go into trance” Hypno-natti said authoritatively. Dan said nothing, but his hands fell to his sides.

“Casey, I am your Master. You desire me above anything else.” Hypno-natti said, feeling very confident that both parties in the couple were completely under his hypnotic sway.

He moved into Casey, kissing her neck gently. She was too lost in him to look over at her husband, who was still still standing next to her with a glazed, entranced look in his eyes.

At Hypno-natti’s direction, the three went upstairs to the bedroom. At this point, the hypnotist commanded Dan. "Take off your wife’s pants and panties”.

Dan rose to action slowly. "Yes, Sir," he said in a soft, deferential voice as he knelt in front of her and pulled down the black yoga pants and little satin panties that were meant for his homecoming.

“Lay her on the bed” Hypno-natti said as he took off his own pants. Dan complied and then went to stand up against the wall when instructed to do so. All this, despite the 10 or so inches of height and almost 150lbs of muscle that Dan had on the hypnotist.

Hypno-natti descended upon her, his face directly in front of hers. His eyes boring into her own. "Submit to my influence, Casey. Submit to my hypnotic power. Submit to Hypno-natti. Submit to hypnosis” he said as he again rhythmically put his cock against her body.

"Very, very good, Casey. You're blissfully floating, deeply in my erotic thrall, open to all my commands. Feeling so wonderful as you obey me. Realizing now that nothing seems important but obeying me, because it feels so wonderful, so sexual. You want the sexy feeling of obeying me, don't you, Casey?"

"Yes. I want to obey." She repeated happily, lost in lust.

"Very good Casey. The more obedient you are, the more wonderful you will feel. Only pleasing me matters now, nothing else. All you want now is the wonderful, sexual, floating feeling of obeying my voice. All you want is to be deeply under my control and to obey me. Tell me now what you want, Casey."

"Deeply under your control. Obey you."

"Do you want me inside you?" he asked the hypnotized wife.

"Yes!" Casey answered, no longer caring for her dignity, her marriage, or for anything but the prospect of being ravished by her master.

The man poked the head of his penis against her quivering opening, slight hip movements just threatening to penetrate her, but not quite.

"Tell your husband how badly you want me to fuck you."

Casey shut her eyes, ashamed of the words she knew she had to offer. "I want him to fuck me!" she offered to the room.

The man pushed her head to the side, making her stare at her husband, still standing against the wall, his penis slowly inching its way to a semi-erection with the spectacle. "Say, 'Dan, I need Hypno-natti’s hypnotic dick inside me.'"

"Honey!" she mustered. Pausing, unbelieving of her own abandon. "I need Hypno-natti’s hypnotic big dick inside me! I neeeed it!!"

With one sharp thrust, the man invaded her with the full length of his modest cock, and Casey cried out in surrender at the explosion of pleasure. He brought his face down to hers, leaning in as if to kiss her, his breath hot on her face, and slowly slid his dick out, his rock-hard shaft grinding against her achingly swollen G-spot. As she raised her lips to accommodate him, he pulled his face away teasingly and thrust himself violently into her again, eliciting another loud pre-orgasmic cry. For what seemed like an eternity, they kept up this erotic dance of desire and denial, his hands caressing her hair, the almost gentle play of his face so close to hers contrasting exquisitely with the force of his thrusts. Finally, he brought his lips to meet hers and kissed her deeply, the lustiness of his tongue's exploration telling her that he was just as aroused by her as she was by him. His cock driving into her more insistently now, faster, even deeper it seemed.

And she loved it - there was no use denying it to herself. The hypnotic power of his eyes, their entrancing gaze. Now the hypnotist was pulling her head back by her hair as he fucked her, running his tongue up and down her neck. Then unleashing her and licking her all over her face. Making her feel so owned. The pressure inside building now to unbearable intensity, the edge of orgasm too much to stand. "Oh... my... God!" she stammered.

The man now gripping the slats of the headboard as leverage to drive himself into her with as much force as he could. He wrapped his small ams around her, squeezing her to him, her tits pressed against his chest, making her feel what strength he had as he continued fucking her just as hard as he could. She wrapped her arms around her Master, wanting to feel him as much as possible.

“Cum for me now my pet and tell me that you now belong to me!” Hypno-natti grunted.

In a burst of mind-shattering pleasure, Casey felt every muscle in her body violently contract upon his words. Her nerves screamed in ecstasy. A long, wailing scream shaping the breath that rushed out of her lungs, forming finally into words..."

"OH GOD, I'M CUMMMMMIIIIIIING!!!!IIIIMMMM YOURRRRSSS!!!"

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A week later…

“Hey guys! This is Casey. We are half way through February. I can almost smell the spring! Anyway, I want to tell you guys about something that I am soooo into right now. I’ve been totally improving myself through hypnosis. You guys might remember one of my earlier vlogs where I talked about a totally fun stage show I went to starring the Amazing Hypno-natti. Well, I’ve been working with him one on one on a ton of stuff and he is totally helping me with his incredible hypnosis skills. Dan too! So, swipe up to learn more about Hypno-natti. He has both sessions and videos available. And you can even find where you can try some of his unbelievable chamomile tea. Guys, it is sooo good! More vlogs coming this week, don’t forget to like and subscribe Luv you guys!!!” She concluded with a kiss of her fingers then the peace sign.

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theearlywarning · 5 years ago

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Lethal Flaws - The EBS False Alarm of 1971

‘We interrupt this program. This is a national emergency. Important instructions will follow in 30 seconds...’

—

Today is February 20th 2020. The current time is 9:33 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Many people across the US at this time are likely enjoying breakfast, driving to work, dropping their kids off at school, or perhaps relishing in a day off.

49 years ago on this day, at 9:33 a.m. EST, the Emergency Broadcast System was activated in error nationwide, sending over 5,000 radio and 800 TV stations on alert for a national-level emergency and bringing America to a standstill for nearly an hour. A system so vital to the safety and security of US inhabitants suddenly had several glaring flaws that left citizens vulnerable and civil defense officials scrambling. It was this false activation that paved the way for the development of our modern Emergency Alert System, which sought to solve for the imperfections of the old system and give Americans a speedier, more accurate and more usable means of early warning in case of emergency.

"I can't imagine how the hell I did it."

—W.S. Eberhardt, teletype operator

The incident occurred on a Saturday morning at the National Emergency Warning Center at the North American Air Defense Command (NORAD), stationed in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado. The NEWC was a division responsible for two crucial EBS functions: running regular weekly tests of the EBS through to radio and TV stations, and sending out actual warnings for national emergencies.

That morning, civilian teletype operator Wayland S. Eberhardt was responsible for conducting that week’s required test by feeding a tape through the teletype, which connected directly to the Associated Press and United Press news wires, sending it to stations across the US. There were three tapes near the teletype: the test message, EAN message #1 White Card, and EAN message #2 Red Card. With each of the three tapes comes a set of monthly codewords used by stations to authenticate the message. For Eberhardt, a veteran operator of 15 years, feeding the weekly test through the wire was as mundane and routine as doing one’s laundry.

But everybody makes simple mistakes. And this morning, Eberhardt didn’t feed the test message through as he intended. He sent the EAN White Card and its authenticator words through the machine by mistake.

“I thought I was going to have a heart attack trying to open that damned envelope. I haven’t felt that way since John Kennedy was killed.”

—David Skinner, WEVA radio

The message came through the wire to teletypes nationwide. An interconnected typewriter-like device using bells, paper tape reels and telegraph capabilities, the teletype’s daily series of news stories and reports was interrupted by a whopping ten bells —a signal of an extremely urgent message— which were immediately followed by a text announcement that read the following:

MESSAGE AUTHENTICATOR: HATEFULNESS/HATEFULNESS

THIS IS AN EMERGENCY ACTION NOTIFICATION (EAN) DIRECTED BY THE PRESIDENT. NORMAL BROADCASTING WILL CEASE IMMEDIATELY. ALL STATIONS WILL BROADCAST EAN MESSAGE ONE PRECEDED BY THE ATTENTION SIGNAL, PER FCC RULES. ONLY STATIONS HOLDING NDEA MAY STAY ON AIR IN ACCORD WITH THEIR STATE EBS PLAN.

BROADCAST EAN MESSAGE ONE.

MESSAGE AUTHENTICATOR: HATEFULNESS/HATEFULNESS

20 FEB

Widespread confusion followed over the air as Americans listened. An estimated 20% of broadcasting outlets that day followed proper national emergency activation procedures and prepared listeners to hear an urgent message from then sitting President Nixon. Others followed procedures but ceased the interruption before the all-clear message was received. Still others ignored the activation entirely, as they had noted that the alert was transmitted at the exact time a scheduled test was supposed to come through. This chaos only spread to the ones on the other end of radios and screens. Listeners around the country called stations in a panic, trying to figure out what national emergency was going on.

Senior operators at NORAD quickly identified the error and attempted to correct it. They sent several cancellation messages through the wire, but without proper cancellation authenticator codes needed to officially end the EAN. Finally, at 10:13am EST, 40 minutes after the erroneous activation, Cheyenne Mountain sent out a cancellation message with the proper authenticator word, IMPISH, to all broadcasting stations, officially ending the alert.

A teletype machine wired to the United Press International newsfeed. These machines were the live news sources of radio and TV stations across the country.

While Nixon himself declined to comment on the incident, the Pentagon quickly laid blame on the Office of Civil Defense, which oversaw the National Emergency Warning Center. The Office of CD itself concluded that the false alarm was nothing more than a mishap. Corrective measures were taken, but Eberhardt himself was not fired for the mistake that left him “seriously shook up”. After the incident, the two tapes for EAN scripts were sealed in envelopes and placed in cabinets away from the transmitter, leaving only the test tape by the unit. This was done to ensure that a simple act of muscle memory wouldn’t allow for another false alert.

But this still left several painfully apparent flaws in the EBS out in the open, leaving officials with a lot of improvements to make. Years later, the EBS was officially decommissioned in 1997 to make way for the Emergency Alert System, which remains in use today as part of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, or IPAWS.

The false alarm of 1971 remains obscure in the history books as only a blip on the Cold War overview. This event, however, was pivotal in modernizing public warning systems across the United States, and The Early Warning recognizes its importance as such.

Below this post is a video containing two recordings of the false alarm as it happened, one heard on WOWO AM, the other on WCCO AM. I invite you to give these recordings a listen. It’s hard to imagine the nerves of the announcers as they read the White Card and the fear of the ones who were listening, but it is sobering to know that all of this happened only 49 years ago.

youtube

February 20, 1971: America panics as emergency warning is broadcast in error

The Nuclear Attack That Wasn't: February 20, 1971

Code Word “Hatefulness”: The Great EBS Scare of 1971

#emergency broadcast system #ebs #national emergency #emergency action notification #ebs white card #civil defense #ebs false alarm of 1971 #norad #public warning history #history #false alarms

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katvontea · 5 years ago

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"Would be a shame if I was sick."

Abortion clinic staffers and patient escorts watched in horror last weekend as anti-abortion protesters in North Carolina continued to gather in large numbers, hold hands, invade others’ physical space, and—in at least one instance I witnessed—joke about spreading the coronavirus while the government pleaded with people to do what they can to stop the spread of COVID-19.

And even now, they don’t plan to stay home.

The Triangle Abortion Access Coalition in Raleigh, North Carolina, met and continued our normal clinic defense and escorting services on Saturday, March 14, even though the realities and concerns of the rapidly developing COVID-19 outbreak were on our minds. We took extra precautions, such as sanitizing the vests and equipment we share.

We arrived to smaller numbers of protesters, took our normal positions, and began the morning as usual.

Many of the regular protesters began to arrive, and our hopes for physical distance began to diminish. A protester whom I’ll call Sally took a position by the clinic driveway, a spot allowing her to wave away cars. While this might seem like a minor disruption, rerouting patients from entering our private parking lot allows other anti-abortion protesters to confront the parked car and pass along a pamphlet or “blessing bag,” a gift bag filled with scripture, brochures for local anti-choice clinics, and often a single diaper, described by our protesters as a “diaper of remembrance.”

We often station a volunteer on that corner (but not in the protester’s immediate space), and task them with showing cars where to safely park to avoid anti-abortion harassment. This particular morning, a newer volunteer who can handle the direct harassment took the spot and stood stoically, ignoring the protesters and hoping to provide support and guidance to patients navigating a chaotic scene. Protesters will often move their bodies as close as possible to our volunteers, crying foul about their personal space being violated. Our volunteer was ignoring the taunts and holding ground as he has a right to do, especially when standing on clinic property.

I watched in shock as Sally pressed closer to this volunteer, a man in his late 60s or early 70s. The poster she carried was pressed against his arm, leaving her face eight to ten inches away from his face. Sally began to cough without covering her mouth in the direction of this volunteer, whose space she had already invaded.

“Would be a shame if I was sick,” she said, before coughing a few more times in the direction of a man who is clearly in the at-risk groups you hear about in the news.

It was 8:15 a.m. and already I was witnessing an unthinkable scenario: A “pro-life” protester was either making jokes about spreading COVID-19 or, even worse, was possibly trying to get us sick. While I’d like to say I was surprised by these actions, anti-choice protesters were once again demonstrating the true nature of their beliefs.

The morning had just begun and already we were facing an uncertain danger, one we had no guidance or advice on how to handle. We knew the worst was yet to come. Later that morning, a “prayer march” that often numbers between 50 and 100 people was expected to arrive. This group has turned out in large numbers in terrible weather, heat waves, and more. “Love Life,” as this protest movement calls itself, would be at our doorstep before we knew it.

Clinic escort groups across North Carolina faced the same problem. While Raleigh has a robust showing for the “Love Life” prayer marches, this is not a local movement. Love Life has roots in Charlotte, North Carolina, where their prayer marches have happened for years, often in ways that shut down physical access to the clinic. The protests have become so abusive they resulted in the city drafting a new sound ordinance to cut down on the disturbances created by these protests. Love Life expanded to Greensboro and Raleigh in 2018, and began organizing mass prayer marches across the state in 2019.

As our morning went on in Raleigh, escorts in Charlotte and Greensboro faced their own uncertainty created by anti-abortion protesters and the Love Life prayer marches.

In Charlotte, clinics were open as usual, and clinic escort groups were volunteering as usual.

Angela Anders, director of Charlotte for Choice Clinic Escorts, told Rewire.News she counted the anti-abortion group at well more than 100 people at its peak, and that the group was in no way practicing physical distancing: She said they were holding hands, forming prayer circles, and engaging in other forms of bodily contact (Love Life did not respond to Rewire.News‘ request for comment.)

Anders said the clinic escorts in Charlotte regularly witnessed people with symptoms of illness (sniffling, running noses, coughs) handing out pamphlets and sticking their hands and heads into stopped cars in an effort to “counsel” patients about their options and to share stigma and shame around abortion.

An hour away from Raleigh and two hours from Charlotte, another major metropolitan area was facing a similar reality. Greensboro has only one clinic regularly hounded by protesters. With a particularly rough clinic setup due to neighboring businesses allowing protests to occur on their property, protesters often divert and stop cars, shoving unwanted pamphlets and gift sacks into confused patients’ hands.

Volunteers in Greensboro had already been anxious about the effect of these intrusions on patients’ emotional health, but now these one-on-one interactions could spread a dangerous virus. Greensboro volunteers reported the anti-abortion group grew as large as 80 people this past Saturday, down from 400 the previous weekend. Despite the smaller numbers, volunteers said protesters were still shoving pamphlets into car windows and making direct contact with patients and their companions.

After our shift concluded this past Saturday, I checked out chatter from Love Life and other protester groups on their public social media accounts. What I found was not comforting. While I had been watching a protester in Raleigh cough in a clinic escort’s face, the leaders of Love Life were outside the Charlotte clinic, broadcasting on Facebook Live under the heading, “Bold Christians Witness despite coronavirus.”

In the Facebook Live video that morning, Love Life founder Justin Reeder asked one of the leaders of the Charlotte’s clinic protest movement, Daniel Parks, to speak to supporters who could not attend because they were sick or in an at-risk category. “With the fears of the virus, we have to use wisdom; we get that,” Parks said. But then he reminded them that they are “called as believers in Jesus to lay our lives down … and that involves risk.” He told listeners, “We have to look past the fear,” said protests would continue as long as the clinics remain open.

While I hoped Love Life might reconsider as the week went on, in a video posted to Facebook the morning of Thursday, March 19, Love Life confirmed they will continue to host prayer walks and ��sidewalk outreach” as long as abortion providers remain open. Reeder, the Love Life founder, explained that this should be considered “essential and vital work,” not a social gathering.

“The ministry must go on,” he said, though he clarified that they planned to operate under the CDC recommendations, would split into “very small groups” to gather, and had spoken to the local police departments. And while Reeder told supporters to practice physical distancing, he also encouraged people to do “prayer walks” outside hospitals and nursing homes to pray for people vulnerable to COVID-19.

Our concerns are not only rooted in the risks these groups present to patients, staff, and volunteers at clinics but also to the risks they pose in their own communities—especially to the children that often get dragged along to the protests and are forced to share close quarters with people outside their immediate family, exposing them to COVID-19. And then there are the risks these folks bring back into their immediate communities. When sharing my frustrations with my friend and fellow volunteer Raquel, she said something that has stuck with me: “It speaks volumes about how not pro-life our protesters actually are when they still choose to come out in large numbers, despite all warnings and guidance from local and federal officials, endangering everyone in their own communities without a single moment of consideration.”

One of the most important roles we have as clinic escorts is doing what is needed for our most vulnerable and marginalized communities. Clinic escort groups are being faced with decisions they often don’t feel prepared to make. As the week progressed, we learned of more restrictions being put into place by our local and state governments, had emergency virtual meetings, and met with clinic staff.

Thankfully, the clinics are doing everything they can to support us. Clinics are stepping up and offering training in how to use protective gear like gloves and masks, offering sterilizing wipes and sprays to escorts to help keep common areas as clean as possible, and responding quickly when volunteer groups have questions or concerns. Despite all of this, some clinics have suspended escort services, and some clinic escort groups have suspended services on their own.

Anders in Charlotte and the volunteers in Greensboro said they’re taking many of the same steps we’re taking to stop the spread of COVID-19: monitoring the size and risks presented by our protester groups, increasing our own awareness around sanitizing shared equipment and shared vests, and encouraging volunteers who are at risk or folks who have had potential exposure to stay home. As a leader in the Raleigh clinic escort group, I scheduled a virtual check-in after our shift last Saturday and asked our clinics, which have the ear of local government and local law enforcement, to reach out to find out what can be done if protesters continue to gather in groups large enough to violate the statewide executive order banning gatherings of more than 100 people.

While we wait to learn more about what, if anything, can be done, it’s hard to ignore the anger and frustration that many of us who do this work are left with. We want to stay home. We want to keep our communities safe. We want to keep our families safe. We also want to keep ourselves healthy. I have no idea what this coming weekend will look like for our clinic escort team in Raleigh; I heard much the same from the organizers across the state. We are planning to operate on a skeleton crew, avoiding any spaces where protesters can get close enough to cause problems, and hoping our limited presence will be enough to keep the most abusive anti-abortion protester behavior at bay.

Over the coming weeks, our volunteer group may be preparing to head out into the world, or we may be sitting at home, anxious about what patients will face that day. No matter what, we hope abortion clinics stay open.

#north carolina #hows this for so-called pro life?#forced birth extremist #covid19 #covidー19 #corona virus #coronavirus #women's rights #abortion #pro-abortion #pro-choice #feminism #radfem #radical feminism

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jeanvaljean24601 · 4 years ago

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How to watch？

（1）How to watch the Kerwin Frost Telethon Supershow live from anywhere

The very first annual Kerwin Frost Telethon Supershow takes place this weekend live from Los Angeles on a screen near you. Full of music performances, appearances by pop culture influencers, and even a live celebrity auction, the 12-hour event is dedicated to fundraising for the Know Your Rights Camp. Kerwin Frost is aiming to raise $5 million dollars during the benefit which will go towards the liberation and well-being of black and brown communities in several ways, including through youth daycamps, a legal defense fund, and also a pandemic relief fund. Among the performers and guest stars include Anderson.Paak, Asap Ferg, A-trak, Beck, DMC (of Run DMC), Jaden Smith, Kehlani, Lil Nas X, Lil Yachty, Mac Demarco, Major Lazer, Miguel, Yo Gabba Gabba, and more.

The first annual Kerwin Frost Telethon Supershow is being broadcast live via YouTube, Twitch, and TikTok Live, which means you have a variety of options to watch the benefit this Sunday via either on your phone, your smart TV, your tablet, or your computer. You can find direct links to watch on these platforms via the Kerwin Frost Telethon Supershow website once the show begins. Then again, if you're having trouble watching the benefit, you may need to look into a VPN service. Certain sites can be blocked due to your location but a VPN lets you change your location virtually so you can access more content like the Kerwin Frost Telethon Supershow. Our favorite is ExpressVPN, but there are plenty of cheap VPN services to choose from.

（2）How to Watch the NBA Restart Online

After COVID-19 cut basketball — and everything else — short, the NBA has been working on a way to finish out season the season safely. Tonight is the debut of NBA Restart, which will let the top 22 teams in the league finish out the regular season and send 16 of them into this year's playoffs. Each game will be held in an NBA bubble, meaning the teams will play with no fans in the arenas and players will be regularly tested before and between games. Tonight's tipoffs include the Utah Jazz vs New Orleans Pelicans at 6:30/5:30c followed by the Los Angeles Lakers playing the LA Clippers at 9/8c. If you're quarantined in a home with cable you can catch the games on TNT, ESPN, ABC and NBA TV, all of which will be broadcasting nearly 50 games over the course of the next three weeks as the league finishes out regular season.

（3）How to watch the Tour de Pologne 2020 live stream online

Coming hot on the heels of last Saturday's Strade Bianche in Italy, the return of top class cycling from the coronavirus hiatus continues with the 77th edition of this iconic race across Poland. Read on for full details on how to get a live stream of the Tour de Pologne 2020 with our guide below. The riders took off from the Silesian Stadium in Chorzów on Wednesday, with the five-stage event set to be concluded on Sunday in Kraków. All 19 UCI WorldTour teams have fielded a squad for this week's race, which covers a gruelling total distance of 911.4km, with the event featuring ProSeries wild cards and Polish national team riders.

（4）How to watch the UEFA Champions League soccer tournament on CBS All Access

CBS will broadcast every UEFA Champions League match on the CBS All Access streaming service. You can sign up for a month-long free trial of the app here. CBS All Access costs $5.99 a month with limited commercials, or $9.99 a month for the commercial free plan. With that said, the commercial free plan still includes ads during live broadcasts. In addition to CBS All Access, three of the remaining four round of 16 games will also be broadcast on the CBS Sports Network. After that, games stretching from the quarter finals through the final are expected to be exclusive to CBS All Access.If you have a supported cable or satellite package, you can watch CBS Sports Network's selection of games on TV. CBS Sports Network is also available through select live TV streaming services, including FuboTV and Hulu+ Live TV. You can access all of these services on most mobile devices, media players, and connected TVs, including Amazon Fire TV, Apple, Android, Chromecast, PS4, Xbox One, Roku, Samsung smart TVs, and more. The UEFA Champions League restart begins August 7 at 3 p.m. ET with Juventus vs. Lyon and Manchester City vs. Real Madrid. You can view a schedule of upcoming games here. Since CBS also has the rights for next year's season, it's likely that future Champions League games will also be streamed through CBS All Access. The group stages of the 2020-21 Champions League will begin on October 20.

（5）How to watch UFC 252: Heavyweight legend Daniel Cormier says this title match will be his last

UFC heavyweight titans Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier will face off in their third championship match during the main event of UFC 252, streaming live from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas on August 15. Cormier knocked out Miocic in the first round of their first meeting to claim the heavyweight title at UFC 226 in 2018, but Miocic returned the favor with a fourth round knockout to reclaim the title at UFC 241 in August 2019. The grizzly fight left Miocic's eye in need of surgery after the match, keeping him out of the octagon for a full year.Cormier, now 41-years-old, has said the UFC 252 main event against Miocic will be the last fight of his career. The UFC legend enters UFC 252 with a career record of 22-2 in the light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions, with his only losses coming to Miocic and Jon Jones android tv box. Cormier has spent lots of time in the commentary booth for several UFC events through the past year and will likely return to that role after UFC 252.UFC fan favorite Sean O'Malley will fight Marlon Vera in a co-main event match. The fight was originally scheduled for UFC 239 but O'Malley was suspended for six months by the USADA in 2018 after two positive tests for a banned substance. After serving the suspension, O'Malley has scored knockouts and performance of the night honors in both of his fights. Vera lost his last fight against Song Yadong in a five round decision.UFC 252 will begin with early prelims at 7 p.m. ET, while the main card is scheduled to start at 10 p.m. ET. The main event will be available on the ESPN+ streaming service, but will require an additional pay-per-view fee of $64.99 along with the cost of an ESPN+ subscription. Fans will not be in attendance for UFC 252 or any of the other events due to the coronavirus pandemic. UFC has implemented at least 18 different safety precautions for staff, including advanced medical screenings, temperature checks, and social distancing guidelines.

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beardedmrbean · 2 years ago

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Sofia City Court fined far-right extra-parliamentary party leader and former presidential candidate Boyan Rasate 3000 leva (about 1533 euro) after he was found guilty of leading a mob attack on the LGBTQI+ Rainbow Hub centre in Bulgaria’s capital city in October 2021, Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) said on June 24.

Rasate was found guilty of grossly violating public order, but not guilty of inflicting light bodily harm motivated by hooliganism.

In addition to the 3000 leva fine, Rasate was ordered to pay 4000 leva court costs.

The attack took place two weeks before the first round of Bulgaria’s presidential elections, which was held on November 14. Rasate was eliminated at the first round, after getting 6798 votes – about 0.25 per cent.

BNR quoted Rasate as saying, after the court decision, that he would pay the fine when he could, because he was unemployed. The Sofia City Court’s decision is subject to appeal in the Sofia Appeal Court.

Activist Gloria Filipova said that she was assaulted by Rasate in the October 30 attack. The court found Rasate not guilty of assaulting Filipova, and dismissed her claim against him for damages.

The assault took place during a trans theme event at the centre.

On November 1, eleven foreign embassies in Bulgaria – those of the United States, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom – issued a statement strongly condemning the October 30 attack on Sofia’s Rainbow Hub.

#nunyas news #this concludes our regular broadcast week #have a good weekend #and stay safe and cool

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gb-fics · 5 years ago

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The Demise Of Sakura

Fanfiction:

Kiryuuin Shou x Kyan Yutaka (Golden Bomber)

Note: So, this is a story about Shou’s obsession with his virtual reality girlfriend Sakura-chan. He even introduced her to his fans on his 34th birthday. But actually, I have no idea how this game works, so I just made things up; don’t take my word for any of it.

Also, this fic is pretty long and I wanted to split it, but then I couldn’t decide where to make a cut, so I hope it’s not too inconvenient to read :/

Shou was ready.

Lately, his schedule had been packed with festivals, the regular tv broadcasts and whenever there had been a minute left to spare, he had worked on his music.

But today there were no appointments and Shou was ready to ignore the little devil on his shoulder, whispering into his ear to remined him of all the work he still had left to do.

Shou was ready to do absolutely nothing.

Of course, he wasn’t really going to do nothing. He was going to order food from the delivery service, he was going to take a nap later on and he was about to spend the day with the person he loved the most in this world.

Malicious gossip might have it, that Sakura wasn’t technically a person. She was a virtual reality dating program. But Shou didn’t care. His feelings were true. Sakura was cute and delicate and she laughed at Shou’s jokes (though he had to pay for that) and she was always there for him and when he saw her naked (which he also had to pay for, admittedly) it felt more personal than watching porn (and he did pay for the porn, too, since he was a passionate collector of DVDs instead of entrusting his libido to the internet like almost everyone in his generation did nowadays).

Shou was sure, that – had Sakura been an actual woman – they would be able to lead the perfect relationship, in spite of all their differences and in spite of their age gap. She was very mature for a minor after all. And had she been waiting for him at home after a long day of shootings or after an exhausting week of touring, Shou might have been happy for the first time in his life. She would sit next to him with her large eyes and her smooth skin and her perfect teeth and she would listen to him and giggle and allow Shou to feast all of his sexual desires on her. And sometimes, Shou thought, that her teeth didn’t have to be so perfect and that her skin didn’t have to be so smooth and that she didn’t have to laugh at all his jokes, but that it would be nice to just come home to anyone at all and that he would treat all the kinky sex he fantasized about for just a hug and a casual “welcome home”.

But since that wasn’t going to happen, he was going to make due with what he had. What he had, in this case, was a virtual reality headset and a well-stocked bank account.

They would be going on a date today. Shou liked those parts nearly as much as he liked the parts for perverts. Taking out a cute girl on a date made him feel less lonely inside his own apartment, that felt empty, especially after the concert halls and the shouting fans and the knowledge of being loved by so many and known by no one. Sometimes, the walls seemed to not close in on him, but to drift farther away until the space that was filled by no one but Shou became larger and larger and he felt like standing all alone in the middle of a giant desert, screaming without being heard by anyone and then sometimes he got scared his voice would vanish from all the silent screaming inside his head and he would have nothing left to offer to the world and the fans would leave him, too. Sakura, though, Sakura would remain. And when he was with her, Shou didn’t feel like screaming. He felt almost content; or distracted at least.

He grabbed for the headset and felt excited already. If he had Sakura for real, he would surely never feel like screaming anymore. He would have someone here with him, who listened even to the words that would be spoken quietly. She was pretty and she would be patient and gentle with him and strolling through the city with her, Shou would not want to be elsewhere for a change, but return her smile honestly. She would supply him with all the admiration and unconditional love that he could ask for. She would heal him, just by being a fantasy come true.

Shou’s mobile rang.

It was vibrating on the coffee table violently, like a human voice begging for attention. Shou felt miserable. It was his free day. Was a free day so much to ask for? Even if it wasn’t about work, picking up would mean that he had to deal with people – real people, people who talked back and who talked over him and who just talked too much in general.

Hesitantly, he put the headset aside and picked up the mobile to take a look at the screen.

If it was work, he would call back tomorrow, he decided. If it was someone he actually liked, he would pick up, to not loose the few friends he had left in his life.

The display spelled out the name of Kyan Yutaka.

A tie, Shou concluded. He liked Yutaka; at least as much as you could really like someone you saw at work that often. He liked him better than Jun and Kenji, if he was being honest. Yutaka got him. He always played along with his ideas instantly and Shou felt comfortable around him in a way that was untypical for him, because he didn’t feel comfortable around people easily.

But Yutaka calling probably meant that it was about work.

Had it been someone from the staff, Shou would have switched off his phone. He needed a day to himself now and then. But it was Yutaka. Shou always picked up the phone, when it was Yutaka.

With a sigh, he took the call. The phone had been ringing for quite a while already. Yutaka never gave up fast. Maybe he knew Shou usually needed time to make up his mind if he was ready for social interaction. Or maybe he was just a pain in the ass.

“What?”, Shou asked nonchalantly.

“Oi, what kind of greeting is that!”, Yutaka shouted back.

Shou rolled his eyes.

“Just get to the point”, he said.

“Not even a hello? You are being rude.”

“It’s our day off”, Shou pointed out.

“Alright, alright”, Yutaka huffed. “I don’t want to talk to you, either.”

Shou stayed silent for a moment, waiting for an explanation to follow, but obviously Yutaka had just made that point to … well, to make that point.

“But you called me”, Shou said.

There was another moment of silence.

“Oh right, I forgot it was me who called”, Yutaka said and chuckled at his own stupidity as if it wasn’t bothering him at all.

Somehow, it made Shou chuckle, too. It was part of Yutaka’s charm, not caring about anything for too long.

“So, what do you want?”, Shou asked, softer this time.

“Ah, you see, I just wanted to make sure you are alright, taking care of yourself and all that.”

Shou hesitated. He wasn’t quite sure what Yutaka wanted to express with that. Was he making fun of Shou? Did he think of him as a child that didn’t know he needed to take all the rest he could get? Or had he noticed that lately, the screaming inside Shou’s head had grown almost deafening again?

“Yes, I’m taking care of myself. I’m …” He stopped short, before he reached the word ›good‹. “… alright.”

“What are you doing today then?”, Yutaka wanted to know lightly.

His attitude irritated Shou. He sounded like he had just called for a little chat. But they did not do that. They left each other alone as much as possible. They met at work often enough.

“I’m about to have a date with Sakura. You are interrupting. I’d like to hang up”, Shou said flatly.

“Why are you even into that game?”, Yutaka groaned.

“Leave my girlfriend alone”, Shou joked.

Yutaka snorted.

“The thing is just – you would hate those things in real life. Having someone around all the time. Going on dates. Going out on your free day at all.”

Instinctively, Shou wanted to cross the arms in front of his chest, but he couldn’t without letting go of the phone. Frustrated he groaned and put his free hand flatly onto his thigh.

“Of course, I would like that”, he said. “I just don’t have anyone, who wants to go on a date with me. I’m lonely.”

“That’s what I feared”, Yutaka said seriously as if mimicking a doctor giving a fatal diagnosis. “The self-pity.”

“I’m not pitying myself”, Shou protested. He noticed himself, that he sounded defensive.

All he wanted was a woman like Sakura in his life, who welcomed him home and who loved him and who had sex with him and didn’t ask for anything in return, because she liked to be with Shou for just the person he was.

“Sure, you are. I can prove it to you. The things you like doing with Sakura so much? You will hate actually doing them. We are going on a date, now. I’ll pick you up.”

Shou stared at the screen of his tv that was still entirely black.

“I don’t want to go on a date with you”, he said lamely.

“Stop whining!”, Yutaka shouted. “I’ll be your Sakura today. After that, you’ll see how much you are lying to yourself when playing that game.”

“So, you want to take away the only thing that’s causing me any joy in life?”, Shou assured.

“30 minutes”, Yutaka said. “Get dressed.”

Shou looked down on himself. He was still in the shirt he slept in and a pair of shorts that he had planned to take off for the second half of the date, too. A box of Kleenex was on the table already.

“How did you know?”, he asked.

“Please”, Yutaka replied and laughed. Then he hung up.

Shou pressed the phone against his ear for a little while longer, although there was only the hum of the abandoned line to hear. His senses were already submitting the new information, but his brain hadn’t quite processed them yet. Only after a few more seconds Shou did put the phone aside.

What bothered him the most, to his own surprise, was the fact that now he did indeed have to get dressed on his free day.

Sullenly Shou got up and shuffled over to his bedroom. 30 Minutes, that left him with enough time for a quick shower. The question was – was it worth it? Had he been meeting with Sakura, of course he would have showered. But had he met with Sakura, there would have been the chance of having sex. He would have applied perfume and maybe even a light foundation, to make his skin look more smoothly. He would have used products on his hair (plural), he would have filed his fingernails (plural) and shaven his armpit (singular). But he wasn’t meeting with Sakura. He was meeting with Yutaka.

A shower, he decided, but without washing his hair. He didn’t feel like drying it. He wasn’t going to style it, either. Nor was he going to use foundation. Some perfume, though. He ought to put in at least a little effort when leaving the house. And he could wear the new shirt he got himself lately. He liked it quite a lot, but hadn’t worn it in public yet. Shou didn’t exactly trust in his own taste. Other people had aesthetics. Shou had clothes. But he could try it out on Yutaka. He trusted in his opinion more than he trusted in his own. Shou wasn’t even able to judge if Yutaka had a good style of dressing himself. But he could tell there was a concept behind his choice of clothing. A concept was more than Shou had most of the time.

After he was done, Shou checked himself in the mirror. He reached the conclusion that it was good enough. It was only Yutaka after all. For his girlfriend, he would have tried harder. But Shou didn’t have a girlfriend and he didn’t have the energy to try harder anyway.

The doorbell rang.

Shou had secretly hoped that Yutaka wouldn’t show up, but he hadn’t believed in it. When Yutaka announced he was going to do something, he would do it. He never thought to hard about anything and therefore rarely changed his mind.

Maybe he would change his mind about going outside, though. Shou thought of all the people that would be out on the streets of Tokyo. His apartment was nice and calm compared to that.

He went to open the front door.

Yutaka was dressed. He wore pants and a shirt and a cardigan. The colours seemed to match overall. Shou wasn’t sure if that meant he had dressed up.

He beamed at Shou.

“Are you ready? Let’s go!”

“Come in”, Shou said. “We can just chill at home.”

“No.” Yutaka shook his head. He had dark circles under his eyes, but then he always had. No concealer in the world seemed able to stand a chance against Yutaka’s eyebags. He was always cheerful, though. He often seemed sleepy, but Shou had never experienced the deep running exhaustion he sometimes felt himself with Yutaka.

“Do we really have to go out?”, Shou whined, but started looking for his shoes already.

“You wanted a date, you get a date”, Yutaka announced provokingly.

He was carrying a handbag with him. Shou just shoved his purse and his keys into the pockets of his pants. The jeans were actually a bit too tight for that, but the pockets would get baggy eventually – they always did.

Yutaka watched him with amusement that seemed slightly judging.

“I didn’t want a date with you, though”, Shou pointed out to turn the attention away from himself. “It’s not even a date.”

Maybe, if he took a jacket, he could put the keys into the pocket of the jacket. That would probably look less ridiculous. But although it was already October, it was still warm outside and Shou hardly ever felt cold anyway. He didn’t understand why he was thinking about it in the first place. He didn’t need to care about his looks. If he was dating Sakura, he would get himself a proper handbag, too, and he would do all the things that made him look good and he would eat healthier and he would bother to care for himself at last.

“Alright, let’s call it a scientific experiment”, Yutaka suggested and watched Shou pull the apartment door shut behind himself.

“A scientific experiment”, Shou huffed and trotted after Yutaka onto the street. “More like torture.”

Yutaka turned around, so he was walking backwards now. His hair was almost yellow and the roots were showing darkly. Even that suited him somehow.

“See!”, he exclaimed. “You already hate it and we didn’t even get started yet.”

“What are we going to do anyway?”, Shou asked. “Do we have to walk far?”

“Just a few streets ahead, into the city. We’re going to a café. That’s the kind of thing you’d do with Sakura, right? Eat some cake at a cute place.”

Shou shrugged.

He had to admit that cake didn’t sound so bad. He loved sweets after all. And he had to admit, that the fresh air was making him feel better, too. Just walking outside in the sun seemed to lift some of the gloominess off his shoulders that he had felt earlier. Even if it was just Yutaka, it was nice to have company and not sit at home all alone. He should actually give this a try. Not as a date, of course. But he could start calling up friends on his free days now and then, instead of just ignoring their messages and feeling lonely afterwards.

“I like cake”, Shou said to express that he didn’t feel mad at Yutaka for dragging him outside.

“And I like eating”, Yutaka said and laughed.

Shou wondered if he didn’t have anything better to do on his free day than hang out with Shou. Yutaka had a lot of friends and surely, he wouldn’t have problems finding a cute girl to go on an actual date with. He either really hated Shou’s obsession with Sakura, or he had been seriously worried about him.

Though his neighbourhood was quiet, Shou’s apartment was only a minute away from the livelier part of the city.

“How about this one?”, Yutaka suggested and pointed to a poster advertising a café at the second floor of a nearby building.

Shou shrugged indecisively. He had never been to this place, nor did he go to cafes on his own often.

“Looks alright”, he agreed.

Yutaka led the way and Shou followed. They took the stairs.

The café was decorated cutely with an overwhelming number of pastel colours mixed together. The waitress that showed them to their seats was young – probably a university student working here part time – and had a fringe. She reminded Shou of Sakura, but only vaguely so. He wished she would chat with him, though. Surely, a cheerful pretty girl like that could raise his spirits no matter how sulky he felt. He was disappointed when she left them to study their menus.

“Mmh.” Shou bend over the menu closely. It came with pictures. The pictures of cake got him excited. “What to eat, what to eat”, he mumbled to himself, thinking of all the possibilities. Something sweet, something fruity, something with chocolate. Pray, they had something with chocolate.

A small sound from Yutaka’s side of the table made Shou look up.

The were seated at a niche with two benches, the table between them.

Yutaka was watching him closely. He was smiling.

Shou cleared his throat.

He didn’t feel comfortable, being watched so intensely. Moreover, he could not really place the expression on Yutaka’s face. He looked a little sentimental.

“What?”, Shou asked.

“It’s cute when you … never mind.”

Still smirking Yutaka turned to his own menu again.

Shou furrowed his brow.

“What?”, he asked again.

He had the feeling that Yutaka was making fun of him and he did not like it.

“You always get so excited about picking food. You act like making the decision is science. But then you end up just eating the same three dishes all your life”, Yutaka explained without looking up from his menu.

Shou huffed and put his menu down.

“That’s not true”, he said.

“Have you made a decision yet?”, the waitress interrupted them.

Shou turned his head and smiled at her. He had to give her credit for not flinching back.

“I’ll take …”, he started. “The chocolate one”, him and Yutaka finished at once.

Shou threw him a dark glance.

“That was coincidence”, he said.

“Yes, sure”, Yutaka agreed, but his one-sided grin proved all too clear he did not believe in it.

And for a moment Shou did not mind that Yutaka had only wanted to show how predictable he was, because it was nice to be known so well by someone. And when he smiled as cheekily as that, Yutaka was as pretty as Sakura, though in an entirely different way.

Shou felt warm inside and he was glad Yutaka had made him leave his apartment and that he wasn’t home alone with his virtual reality headset and a box of Kleenex right now. Maybe, Shou thought, this was actually the better date.

“I’ll take the week’s special”, Yutaka said in this moment.

Shou could sense the hesitation of the waitress.

“Actually”, she said. “The week’s special is for couples. So, it’s a portion for two people.”

A shared special for couples was actually pretty romantic. If he had been here with Sakura, maybe he would have …

“I’ll take the week’s special”, Yutaka repeated.

“Maybe I could ask, if we could adjust the portion for one person”, the waitress suggested.

She sounded helpless and Yutaka staring her down blankly was not helping any. Shou wanted to help her.

“Or maybe we could just share?”, he jumped in.

“I’m not sharing with you!”, Yutaka exclaimed angrily.

“It’s for two people …”, the waitress reminded him again.

“Yes, that’s what I want”, Yutaka clarified. “The week’s special for two people. You have a problem with that?!”

Shou was used to Yutaka’s way of speaking. He knew that sometimes it sounded like he wanted to pick a fight when really, he was just teasing. The waitress, however, did not know. She seemed at the verge of tears already.

“Just bring it, please”, Shou said, feeling himself blush slightly, feeling embarrassed for Yutaka nearly causing a scene. “He will eat it by himself, trust me.”

The waitress nodded hastily and seemed glad to get away again.

“Why do you have to act like that?”, Shou scolded.

“What?” Yutaka made a dismissive gesture with his hand. “It’s none of their business how much I want to eat.”

Shou sighed deeply.

“Just try to behave in public”, he begged quietly.

With Sakura something like that would never have happened. She would sit there timidly and …

Yutaka took off his shoes.

“Just what is wrong with you?”, Shou asked.

“I’m just making myself comfortable”, Yutaka defended himself and pulled his feet onto the bench to sit on it cross-legged. His socks had cartoon characters on them. All of his socks seemed to have cartoon characters on them. He looked completely relaxed.

Shou looked around if someone was watching them. If Yutaka continued like this, they would surely kick them out eventually.

“It’s rude. You can’t just take off your shoes like that”, he said.

“No, it would be rude to put my shoes onto the furniture. I’m not an animal”, Yutaka said lecturing.

Shou scanned him from head to toe. He wasn’t quite sure what Yutaka was playing at here. He usually wasn’t like that when there were no cameras around. He was louder and more cheerful than Shou then, yes, but he still behaved like a decent human being nonetheless. Today it felt like he was putting on a show with no audience around.

“Why are you doing this? Is this a prank?”, Shou inquired, still irritated about what Yutaka would gain by pranking him. There was no one around to see.

“Just trying to prove a point”, Yutaka said and looked right at his face.

It made Shou slightly uncomfortable, as if suddenly he was the one who was trying to hide ulterior motives.

“That I hate dating?”, Shou assured.

Yutaka turned his head to look out for their waitress. He was following her around with his eyes now. Shou wondered if she had their plates ready, but did not turn to follow Yutaka’s gaze.

“Something like that”, Yutaka confirmed absent-mindedly.

Indeed, did the waitress now show up next to them again, placing a plate in front of each of them. Shou’s cake was with chocolate. Yutaka’s cake was the solution to every famine in the third world.

“This is for couples?”, Shou assured. “Looks rather like it’s for people in a polyamorous relationship. A lot of people in a polyamorous relationship.”

Yutaka laughed.

Shou liked it when Yutaka laughed at him. He had liked it from the very beginning of their friendship. Always had he wanted to be funny. But it was Yutaka’s laughter that had made him believe for the first time, that it was something worth sharing with people.

“Looks like a snack”, he clarified and dug in his fork.

Watching Yutaka eat was always an experience. The way he kept stuffing the food into his mouth until he had cream all over his face and was hardly able to chew any more was both highly fascinating and somewhat gross.

“It’s not working by the way”, Shou said, not able to turn his eyes away from Yutaka’s face for a moment.

“Huh?”, Yutaka grunted, not stopping his feeding process.

“You are not proving that I hate dating Sakura. You are only proving I would hate dating you. You are horrible”, Shou explained and turned towards his own cake now. “Sakura would not act like a caveman after all.”

The cake tasted delicious.

“A caveman?”, Yutaka repeated. He was speaking with his mouth still full. Shou could see half-chewed cake everywhere.

Shou made a face at him that was enough of an answer already.

Yutaka finally swallowed. He licked his lips and poured himself a glass of water. Finally, he turned his attention to Shou again, ready to speak. Shou expected an apology or an explanation at least.

“Can I try yours, too?”, Yutaka asked.

Shou laughed. Not because it was funny, but because it was so typical for Yutaka that he wondered how he had been able to expect anything else.

He pushed his plate towards Yutaka. He felt almost full already anyway.

Yutaka took a huge slice and nodded appreciatively.

“Not bad”, he agreed.

There was silence between them for a moment.

“Why don’t you talk to me?”, Yutaka suddenly asked.

Shou wanted to place his head on the table and go straight for a nap.

“What should I tell you?”, he returned. “We see each other all the time.”

“What would you talk to Sakura about?”, Yutaka asked.

He sounded surprisingly serious.

Shou cleared his throat. His moments with Sakura were private. Not everything was of Yutaka’s business. There were some things that ought to stay between a man and his browser history. His loneliness, too, was of no one’s business.

“I’ll tell her how hard I worked lately”, Shou said lamely. Even those words were difficult to get out, because they contained too much of what he longed for already. “And in return, she’d tell me that I was doing a great job, but that she is happy I have time for her now. And …” She would give me a reason to stop working for once, Shou thought. But he did not finish the sentence like that. He didn’t finish it at all. “She’d just be supportive when I talk about music and stuff”, he concluded.

Yutaka slapped his palm onto the table. It created a loud, sudden noise that made Shou flinch.

“Boring”, Yutaka announced. “Nobody cares about your work.”

Shou thought of pointing out, that it was Yutaka’s work, too, but didn’t.

“Let’s talk about something not related to work. And not related to love and how you’re sad and the future.”

Shou blinked a couple of times.

“That does not leave a lot of topics”, he stated carefully. In fact, he could not think of anything not related to those topics. He thought of work all the time and when it wasn’t work, he thought of all the dates he didn’t have in real life and how empty his apartment felt and when those thoughts got overwhelming, he turned back to what he planned to work on in the future, as if all the parts of his life would get better, once he improved the work part as much as possible.

“What’s the last thing you read?”, Yutaka asked.

Shou had to think about that for a moment.

“I read this magazine article about the development of sale figures in the Japanese music indu …”

Yutaka slapped the table again.

“Related to work, boring”, he said.

Shou exhaled heavily.

“I read this manga last week”, he finally said. “I thought it was funny.”

Yutaka leaned back on the bench. He was still sitting on it cross-legged. He looked like chilling in his own living room. There was something relaxing about his attitude, actually. Shou felt almost homely, too.

“What was it about?”, Yutaka inquired.

“Space Vikings.”

“Oh, I think I read that one, too!” Yutaka laughed. “The second episode, right?”

He was grinning excitedly now.

Shou remembered how they had used to chat like that more often. He had liked Yutaka. He had liked him a lot. That was why they had decided to form a band together to begin with. They had been friends before they had become bandmembers. Nowadays, work took up so much space in Shou’s mind that he sometimes forgot about the friendship bit. He was glad Yutaka had reminded him.

“Is there a sequel?”, Shou asked.

“Of course, already bought it”, Yutaka confirmed. Shou wasn’t surprised. One reason why Yutaka’s place was always messy, was that he constantly ran out of space for the manga on his shelves.

“I’ll bring it with me next time to borrow it to you.”

“That would be nice”, Shou agreed.

Yutaka looked him up and down curiously, as if suddenly he had noticed something about Shou that hadn’t been there before. Shou suppressed the urge to cover himself somehow.

“What else have you been up to lately?”, Yutaka asked. “In between work, I mean. You have been shopping. The shirt is new. You look handsome in it.”

Shou smirked. He was happy Yutaka had noticed, but tried not to let it show. He was happy about the compliment, too.

“Yes, yes”, he confirmed. “When I entered the shop, the assistant there nearly burst into tears when he saw my outfit. He helped me a lot. You know, I don’t like going shopping alone.”

He usually preferred a second opinion. Or an opinion at all. Shou wasn’t sure that what he felt for clothes could actually be called an opinion.

“You could call me up next time”, Yutaka suggested. “We’ll go together.”

“I’m not taking fashion advice from someone who wears shirts with nothing but a penis drawn onto them”, Shou shot back, but he was speaking lightly.

“It’s fashionable!”, Yutaka protested, but his voice broke off with laughter at the end, because he obviously couldn’t be serious about that statement as well.

For a moment he looked down onto the empty plates between them. Shou hadn’t even noticed, but obviously, Yutaka had finished his leftovers, too.

“Anyway, we could go shopping now”, Yutaka finally suggested.

With a groan, Shou leaned back and made a face.

“I want to chill. Shopping is stressful.”

“I bet you wouldn’t let this opportunity slip with Sakura”, Yutaka replied. He was grinning. As always, his grin looked challenging. Shou felt like arguing with him was pointless. “She would tell you how great you look in everything and you could buy something cute for her, too. Isn’t that the kind of date you fantasize about?”

There was nothing to say about that, because Shou did fantasize about that kind of thing. A pretty woman who could give him advice and compliment him, yes. And how happy and thankful she would be, if he bought something for her. Surely, if he had Sakura, Shou wouldn’t hate shopping as much as he did now, because with her he wouldn’t feel self-conscious about his own taste anymore and if it was Sakura, who told him he was handsome, maybe he might even believe her.

“So, let’s go”, Yutaka said and put his shoes back on. He pushed the bill on the table towards Shou. “Since it’s a date, you are paying.”

“You are the one who asked me out”, he protested. “Or rather forced me out. And it’s not a date.”

“You are paying anyway”, Yutaka said. “Do it for Sakura!”

“She is not …”, Shou started.

“Also, I will pay dinner”, Yutaka added.

Resigning, Shou took the bill and got up to walk towards the counter.

He figured that cake was probably cheaper than dinner. Though it worried him, that Yutaka planned to spend that much more time with him. Eating dinner together meant they would stay together until late evening. Or it meant that Yutaka would grow hungry again soon. Knowing him, the second option wasn’t even unlikely.

Shou fumbled for his purse. It took him long to get it out, because his pants were too tight and his pockets too small. Who designed pants like that? Were there really men out there who cared more about their looks than about not having to carry a handbag?!

After paying, he had to put the purse back again. It was even worse than getting it out.

“For heaven’s sake, give me that!”, Yutaka exclaimed.

Shou hadn’t been aware he had been watching him the whole time.

“And the keys, too. You look like a fool!”

Bowing his head in apology, Shou handed over his purse and his keys. Yutaka put them into his own handbag. He shook his head.

“Now I get what you need a girlfriend for”, he teased.

Shou wanted to explain that - had he been with Sakura - he would have cared more about the appearance he made and that he would have taken his own bag, too. But it was nice of Yutaka to carry his stuff – though he could have used word more polite to offer it - so he didn’t want to argue.

“Well, I certainly don’t need a girlfriend to waste my money on family sized meals”, he replied.

Yutaka rolled his eyes, leading their way back down onto the main street.

“It was for couples. Not for families”, he clarified.

Shou snorted, but he felt affectionate about it. Yutaka was an idiot, but an idiot he knew very well. They had been through a lot, all in all. It was surprising they still got along so well.

“Where do you want to go shopping?”, Shou asked and regretted his question immediately when Yutaka pointed out to a store straight ahead at the other side of the road.

“There!”

Shou cleared his throat.

“That’s not something I need for daily wear, thank you”, he said dryly.

Yutaka turned towards him. He didn’t just turn his face but moved his whole body. It felt like he didn’t just want to look at Shou, but get ready for a physical fight if necessary. His grin was frightening.

“Oh, please, Shou”, he begged with a high-pitched voice that was obviously supposed to mimicking the speaking of a young woman. “I just want to look good for you. Don’t tell me it doesn’t get you excited.”

“I don’t want to go in there”, Shou protested.

“Would you do it with Sakura?”

Shou hesitated.

His first impulse was to say “no”, but if he did, Yutaka would take that as a win. It would prove that Shou would hate the things that got him excited when he was sitting in his living room with no one around and not actually having to do them. But if he said yes, Yutaka would drag him in there for sure.

“I’m not sure”, he stated slowly.

“If you don’t know how uncomfortable you’d feel – only one way to find out.” Yutaka beamed and turned back to walking.

Shou had no choice but to follow him right into the lingerie store.

The inside of the store was different from what Shou had expected. He wasn’t quite sure, what exactly he had expected, but it certainly involved dimmed lights and secrets of the female nature he did not want to look into too deeply.

The store, however, was really just a store. The colours black and pink were dominating, there were hints of white and red, too, though. The light was normal, there was no sensual music in the background and no half-naked women around. In fact, all the women inside the store were properly dressed. Shou couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed by that.

Trying to make it look casual, he checked out the women around himself. He wasn’t quite sure what kind of women did frequent those stores. He had been to the underwear section at department stores before, where they sold lingerie as well. But this felt like next level. The women in here were a different species. All the women Shou had dated before had preferred their underwear to be comfortable rather than sexy. Shou hadn’t minded. He preferred his underwear to be comfortable, too. And if he was being honest, really all kinds of female underwear got him excited already.

He swallowed hard. There were several young, pretty women around. All of them reminded him of Sakura. Maybe he could chat up one of them? If he did, maybe one of them might wait for him at home after touring in the future. Maybe one of them would let him take off their lingerie, too.

The thought caused his knees to go weak and his body growing inappropriately hot. Fast, he looked at the only thing in the store that was sure to not get him excited.

Yutaka had pulled up a screaming red bra from one of the brackets and held it in front of his chest.

Imagining this bra clinging to the smooth skin of a beautiful woman put Shou in a certain mood. Looking at Yutaka’s face killed that mood again instantly.

“Tell me honestly”, Yutaka said with the most serious expression. “Does it make me look fat?”

Shou snorted, trying to keep his voice down.

“I’m not sure red is your colour”, he said.

Yutaka sighed deeply and put the bra back onto the racket.

“I’m not sure it’s the right size anyway”, he said. “Maybe I should try on some panties instead?”

He took a black pair for panties from their hanger, held them up for scrutinizing and finally pulled them over his head. His hair stuck out messily where the legs were supposed to go.

“Am I sexy yet?”, he asked, pursing his lips seductively.

Shou snorted again with laughter, hurriedly pressing his hand to his face when he realized how loud he was.

Guiltily he looked around. One woman eyed them worriedly, but turned her gaze away fast, when she noticed Shou looking. Everyone else had made sure to create some distance to them.

“Put that back on there”, Shou scolded. “You can’t act like that in public.”

“What’s your problem?”, Yutaka asked lightly. “We act like that all the time.”

Shou looked around again embarrassedly. There was a shop assistant coming their way. It was a small woman their age, but in spite of her frail body, she did not look she was any less of a threat. Her facial expression promised murder.

“Usually, there are cameras around”, Shou defended himself. “People can assume we are doing that for a living. We are making people laugh. Now you are just being rude.”

Yutaka shook his head. He looked sad, but Shou could not tell if he really meant it that way, or if he was just putting on a show.

“We used to do stuff like that often. Before we could make a living out of it. Remember how we used to prank Jun? We did it to make each other laugh. No one else. We had fun. You still remember how to have fun?”

The words hit Shou harder than he had expected. It was true, they had horsed around a lot, before they even became famous. It had not been a job back then, but the pure joy of fooling around with his friend. He had strived to make Yutaka laugh and he had genuinely found him funny in return. He had had fun when he was around him. Nowadays, Shou felt sad most of the time and he used his free days to dream up a better life – a life with Sakura, a life where someone was waiting for him at home, a life where he was finally happy. But he had been happy already; back when it was just Yutaka and him and stupid jokes.

“We … we still prank Jun a lot”, he stuttered to cover up how offended he felt by Yutaka’s words.

Had he really forgotten how to have fun? Would he be happier, if he still remembered?

“Fair”, Yutaka admitted.

That was when the shop assistant reached them.

“Excuse me”, she said, but she did not look like she was going to grant them the same. “I must politely ask you to leave the shop. You are making our female customers feel uncomfortable.”

“Us?”, Yutaka asked with an innocence that was almost believable. The fact that he was still wearing the panties on his head, was not helping, though. “We would never want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. We are just here to take a look at your exquisite products.”

“We are trying to offer an atmosphere to the women here, where they can shop without disturbance by men who seem to take this as a joke.”

The woman was sternly staring at the panties on Yutaka’s head. It was pretty obvious that instead of “men” she would have liked to use much stronger words.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry”, Yutaka said hastily. Shou was watching curiously as he changed his strategy. He pulled down the panties from his head and handed them over to the shop assistant with a slight bow. “We went a little overboard. You see, we are nervous, we’ve never been to a store like this. I’m sorry, if we acted silly. My friend here – “ He pointed to Shou. “Is looking for a present for his girlfriend. We are not perverts, really. Just somewhat immature, please, forgive us.”

He bowed again and Shou followed his example. The expression of the shop assistant softened a bit as she turned to Shou now.

“Our customers are usually the women themselves, but if you are looking for a gift, maybe I can help you out. What does your girlfriend like and do you have her size? Otherwise it will be difficult to get something that fits her right.”

Shou smacked his lips and met the eyes of the shop assistant head on. He thought of what Yutaka had said. But Shou would prove him wrong.

“The thing is”, he said seriously. “I don’t have a girlfriend yet. Lately, my relationships have not worked out very well, so I thought I’d try it the other way around for a change. Instead of getting a bra for my girlfriend, I thought I’d get the bra first and then try to find a matching woman.”

Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Yutaka’s face twitching as if he was trying to hold back a laugh. He caught himself almost immediately though, and just nodded gravely to Shou’s words.

“So, please, help me find a bra that will get me the perfect girlfriend”, Shou finished and bowed again.

The shop assistant stared at him blankly.

“We thought of double D”, Yutaka added helpfully.

“But no push-up, please. I want her boobs to be real”, Shou said.

For another moment, the shop assistant did not speak. When she did, her voice was calm.

“If you don’t leave now, I will call the security.”

“Sorry, sorry, we are leaving”, Yutaka said and started walking backwards.

Shou bowed one last time and mumbled his apology as well, before rushing out onto the street.

Out in the open, he burst out laughing.

“Man, I thought she was going to punch you”, Yutaka gasped out between his laughing fits.

“And I thought she was going to strangle you with those panties”, Shou agreed and held his stomach as if that could help him catching his breath.

“I missed that”, Yutaka said when he finally calmed down.

Shou straightened himself.

“I missed that, too”, he owned up.

To his own surprise, he realized that he wouldn’t have had that much fun with Sakura. He would have stood around awkwardly and tried not to look like a pervert. With Yutaka, he just hadn’t cared.

“But please”, Shou added. “Tell me we are done shopping now. I really don’t need to get banned from any more stores today.”

“It’s okay”, Yutaka agreed and waved it off. “I just wanted to prove my point.”

Shou looked down onto his shoes. For a moment he was scared that Yutaka would now call it a day. That now he didn’t care anymore about spending the rest of the day with Shou, because he grew bored of his project. Coming home to his empty apartment – even if he had Sakura waiting there for him – would feel even lonelier after being around Yutaka today. Sakura wasn’t human after all. And she never made Shou laugh like that.

“What do you want to do now?”, he asked shyly without looking up.

He didn’t want Yutaka to notice that he was scared of being left alone. He did not want to appear clingy. He had told him again and again how he didn’t want this pseudo-date after all.

“I want to cook for you”, Yutaka said.

Astonished Shou looked up. He furrowed his brow.

“Seriously?”, he assured.

“Sure. Sakura would cook for you, if she was human, wouldn’t she?”

Shou shrugged.

He wasn’t sure. He had never thought that much about what Sakura would do or not do when he wasn’t around. He had assumed he would eat healthier, care more for himself, if she was in his life. But if it would be her or him doing the cooking, he had never considered.

“I guess”, he said.

“You don’t cook properly. I’ll take care of you today”, Yutaka said. “There is a supermarket around here somewhere, right?”

Shou pointed into the direction they had to take.

He watched Yutaka from the side closely. He couldn’t find the hook in this one. So far, Yutaka had dragged him along and embarrassed him to prove how much Shou would hate a typical date as he dreamt it up. But cooking for him was just nice. Shou wondered what Yutaka wanted to prove with that.

“The supermarket is just around the corner from my apartment”, Shou said. This time it was him leading the way.

“I actually like this area”, Yutaka stated, trotting after him. “I haven’t visited you often since you moved here from Ebisu, right?”

“We were busy”, Shou said. “There wasn’t much time for visiting each other.”

He could sense Yutaka’s eyes on himself, but kept looking straight ahead. He didn’t know why he felt so sad. It was a sadness, different to the usual one. He didn’t feel empty-sad, like it was the absence of any positive emotion that made him maybe not sad, but unhappy in the literal sense of the word that he just did not feel happy. This time, it was a full-sad, a sadness you only felt for something or someone you had lost.

“There is always time, if you really want to”, Yutaka said.

Shou wondered if that was the problem indeed. On his days off, he usually didn’t want to see anyone. He also hadn’t wanted to see Yutaka today. It felt good to be with him now, though. Maybe he should have taken the time sooner.

“We are there”, he changed the topic and pointed to the supermarket in front of them.

“Great!”, Yutaka exclaimed and snatched up one of the baskets from next to the entrance.

He didn’t seem thoughtful at all now, while Shou still had a lot on his mind. Yutaka just seemed genuinely excited about the perspective of shopping groceries.

“We should get fresh vegetables”, he said. “I bet you don’t eat enough vegetables.”

Shou shrugged and took the basket from Yutaka without further comment. He did eat vegetables, at least on the days when he bothered to cook. He didn’t always bother, though. There was a lot of takeout and just bread, really.

Yutaka took up a bunch of shallots and turned them around in his hands. He even smelled them.

Shou watched him in awe.

He always just bought the ones on top. The ones on sale, if available. He never caused such a fuss with his groceries. Yutaka was different, though. Yutaka loved his food. He even loved picking it.

In a slow process he filled the basked Shou was holding. Shou eyed the collection warily. He wasn’t sure what kind of dish this was going to be, but he was sure it would last for several days.

“Now the meat!”, Yutaka shouted. It sounded like a cry to war.

“Are you sure we need meat, too?”, Shou asked, only hesitantly approaching the meat section.

“You like meat, don’t you?”, Yutaka said lightly, skimming through the offers. He had his back towards Shou. “I want to cook something you like.”

Shou watched him from behind. There was no irony in his voice. He wasn’t teasing now and he wasn’t making fun of Shou. Shou found that very irritating.

“You are spoiling me”, he said insecurely.

With a wide grin Yutaka turned around, adding his last choices to the basket.

“Of course, I’m spoiling you”, he confirmed.

“It’s scary when you are nice”, Shou mumbled.

“Oi, what do you mean by that?!”, Yutaka shouted and took the basket from Shou to carry it over to the cashier. “I’m always nice!”

“You are always an idiot”, Shou clarified while Yutaka got out his purse. Obviously, he was going to keep his promise about paying for dinner.

“I can be both”, Yutaka said laughingly and thank the cashier, who had packed their groceries into white plastic bags. They needed two bags, because it was so much food. Yutaka took both of them.

“I can carry one”, Shou offered.

“Don’t be silly”, Yutaka said. “You are too clumsy; I don’t want to risk you dropping the food.”

“Oi!”, Shou said and boxed against Yutaka’s shoulder lightly. He pretended to tumble under the blow and nearly fell of the sidewalk. Shou chuckled.

“Idiot”, he repeated.

Yutaka was smiling. He had been smiling all day long.

They took up the stairs to Shou’s apartment and now Yutaka did hand him the shopping bags.

“I have to look for the key”, he said and started rambling through his handbag for Shou’s keys.

Shou watched him. Somehow, it felt nice to watch him like that. It felt familiar; solacing.

“Almost like we are living together, right?”, Yutaka joked when he finally pulled out the keys.

Shou hummed in agreement.

It did feel like that. Not like he was bringing home a guest, but like they were coming home together. He knew Yutaka very well.

He unlocked the door and they took off their shoes. Yutaka’s sneakers looked like they belonged.

“I hope your kitchen is well stacked”, Yutaka said and already made his way towards it. “You have proper pans and everything, don’t you?”

“I have a high-end toaster”, Shou said. “Two high-end toasters, to be precise.”

Yutaka snorted as Shou put their groceries onto the kitchen table.

“That’s not really helpful”, Yutaka said.

“It is when you want to toast bread”, Shou replied.

This time, Yutaka laughed for real.

“Yeah, none of that today”, he said and already started to rummage through the shelves.

Shou went over to the kitchen sink and washed his hands with soap demonstratively. Afterwards, he dried his hands on the towel next to the sink and stared at Yutaka sternly.

Yutaka had already pulled out three different pans – one of which Shou would have sworn he had never seen before. He held his hands under the water tap shortly as well and wiped them off on his pants afterwards. It seemed to be a demonstration of goodwill only.

Shou watched him in disgust and fascination.

Not paying attention to him at all, Yutaka poured some oil into the first pan.

“Looks very professional”, Shou observed.

“I like cooking”, Yutaka said and shrugged. “Or rather, I like eating well and that leaves me with no other choice but to care for cooking, too. Here.”

He got out a chopping board and a knife and then started to pull out the vegetables from the shopping bag.

“You can chop the vegetables, will you?”

“Yes, chef”, Shou joked and went over to the sink again to clean the vegetables before slicing them up.

“I don’t really understand why you are doing this, though. Cooking for me is nice. I thought you wanted to prove to me that I’d hate dating”, Shou said and sat down at the kitchen table.

He started to chop the shallots.

“Not quite”, Yutaka said with his back to him. He was busy with his pans, though Shou couldn’t see what he was actually doing. He couldn’t see Yutaka’s face either. “I wanted to prove to you that you would hate dating Sakura. Or any girl like her, for the matter.”

Shou hummed thoughtfully.

“By the way, you checked out the women at the store shamelessly, pervert”, Yutaka added.

Shou licked his lips.

“And you didn’t”, he stated. When Yutaka had noticed him looking at the women, his eyes must have been on Shou the whole time.

Yutaka laughed. Shou didn’t understand what was so funny.

“No”, he confirmed. “No, I didn’t.”

For a moment he didn’t continue to speak and Shou felt the desperate need to say something to keep the conversation going.

“You are bad at proving your point, though. I’m pretty sure Sakura would never have pulled those panties over her head”, he observed.

“The panties were phase one”, Yutaka announced and swirled around, holding up two fingers. It looked as if he was claiming victory already. “Now we are at phase two.”

Shou looked down at the chopping board. Yutaka turned towards the stove again.

“In phase two”, he went on without Shou needing to ask for an explanation. “I show to you why dating a real person is better than dating a virtual reality program. Like, when I cook for you, you can actually eat it. I’m more dateable than Sakura therefore.”

Shou snorted, because he had his doubts about the last statement. It took him a little longer to catch up on the hook in the rest of it.

“Wasn’t phase one proving that I would hate dating a real person? And phase two is proving that dating a real person is better than dating in virtual reality. That sounds like you want to tell me that both options I have suck. Thanks for cheering me up like that.”

Yutaka laughed again.

Shou watched him from behind. He had taken off his cardigan when entering the apartment. The shirt he wore was slightly too big. It made his shoulders look wider than they really were.

“You still don’t understand. I’m trying to prove to you that you would hate the idea you have of dating in reality. I took you on the date you should be wishing for.”

Shou snorted out so loudly, he had to turn his head to not spit at the vegetables by accident.

“I would never wish for something like that”, he stated completely convinced.

“So, you didn’t have fun?”, Yutaka asked.

He still didn’t turn around but was handling the meat now. Shou wondered if he kept his back to him on purpose. It was always easier for Shou to be honest about his feelings if he didn’t have to face the other person. Yutaka knew about that. Yutaka knew pretty much everything there was to know about Shou.

He thought about the day. He had been comfortable. He had laughed. For a while, he had forgotten to feel sad and lonely, too.

“I did have fun”, he admitted. “But it didn’t really feel like a date, did it? It was too casual. We are friends.”

Yutaka switched two of the pans without obvious reason. He was humming under his breath while doing so and for a moment Shou thought that he wasn’t going to answer at all.

“You didn’t put on make-up or style your hair, because you knew it would be casual, right?”, Yutaka finally spoke. “But if it had been Sakura, you would have styled properly.”

Shou cleared his throat. He was slow with cutting the vegetables. Yutaka’s words kept distracting him.

“Of course. I’d want to look good for her. With you, I just don’t care.”

It was meant to sound jokingly, but Shou noticed it came out a little cold.

Yutaka did not seem to bother, but it was hard to tell without seeing his face. On the other hand, Yutaka never really bothered with anything.

“Sure, it gives you a good feeling at the beginning”, Yutaka said. “But would you really want to put so much effort into your looks every time you meet with your girlfriend? If you had recordings all day, you’d be tired, you’d want it to be casual. You dream up a partner with whom you would be someone else. But you should rather look for someone who loves you the way you are. Someone, who thinks that you look gorgeous without make-up.”

“I don’t think such a person exists”, Shou said. Again, he had wanted it to come out as a joke. This time, it just sounded sad.

“You don’t really like Sakura”, Yutaka said surprisingly harsh. “You just like the idea of who her boyfriend would be.”

“I would be happier as that person”, Shou defended himself. “Probably.”

“The person you are is alright”, Yutaka insisted. “You don’t need to change your looks and your personality and you don’t have to get new clothes. You are alright.”

Shou swallowed hard.

Deep down he felt like Yutaka might be right. Maybe he didn’t need someone for whom he would style his hair. Maybe he needed someone who liked him on his bad-hair-days, too. And maybe he didn’t need someone for whom he would get his own, stylish handbag. Maybe he just needed someone who rolled their eyes at him and carried his purse and keys anyway. Maybe he needed someone who made him laugh and feel silly more than he needed someone who made him feel handsome and cool.

The pans were causing a sizzling sound now.

“I think I would just like myself better, if I tried a little harder”, Shou said quietly.

He had his eyes on the chopping board again, but from the corner of his eyes he saw Yutaka’s shoulders slump down nonetheless.

“You are already working so hard, Shou”, he said softly. Shou thought he had never heard him say his name like that before. “It’s okay to stop trying now. You’ve done enough. You are enough.”

For some reason, Shou’s eyelids felt very hot all of a sudden. He didn’t understand why. He didn’t feel sad. He couldn’t name his current emotion at all right now. But his body seemed to react to the words on their own. Shou felt like crying. He hadn’t been aware he needed to hear it so badly. You are enough. He never told that to himself. He just kept pushing and pushing and, in the end, still felt insufficient. Yutaka’s kindness only made the lack of kindness he felt for himself all the more apparent.

“I …”, he started, but got interrupted when Yutaka finally turned around.

He had expected his face to be as serious as his words, but Yutaka’s expression was as carefree as ever. When his gaze fell upon the vegetables, he furrowed his brow, though.

“What for fuck’s sake is that supposed to be?!”, he shouted angrily.

Shou flinched. He hadn’t expected the violent outburst. The feeling of held back tears however vanished immediately.

“What?”, Shou asked perplex.

“You are still not done cutting the vegetables!”, Yutaka shouted. “You had one job!”

With that, he shook his head.

“Chop faster now, will you?”

Shou held out the knife to him, but Yutaka crossed the arms in front of his chest.

“You do it then”, Shou pouted.

“No, you do it now. And hurry up, the meat will be finished soon.”

Shou picked up chopping, Yutaka still watching him with folded arms.

“You are so scary”, Shou whined, but he was kind of glad he could put on a show now. It made him forgot about the sinister feelings and thoughts full of doubt he had felt only moments ago.

“I can’t have you slack off like that”, Yutaka said and finally filled his hands with pieces of vegetables to carry them over to the pans.

He should have used a bowl for it instead and of course he dropped some pieces to the floor.

“And you are making a mess”, Shou scolded him. He felt slightly annoyed with Yutaka shouting at him and now acting like a pig again himself. “You are dirtying the whole kitchen.”

“You have to clean up afterwards anyway”, Yutaka shot back and Shou huffed.

“Me? You are the one who insisted on cooking for me.”

“Yeah, cooking. The cleaning service is not included”, Yutaka said.

Shou rolled his eyes and started cleaning the chopping board and knife he had used, wiping the kitchen table as well. Then he got out plates and bowls and arranged them on the table.

“Want something to drink? I think I still have some beer in the fridge”, he offered.

“Beer would be great, yes”, Yutaka agreed and Shou got out two cans while his friend poured out the contents of the pans into the bowls.

Shou had to admit that it smelled and looked great.

“We forgot to make rice”, he observed.

“No, we didn’t”, Yutaka said and went over to the rice cooker. “I did it while you cleaned the vegetables.”

“Eh, really?”, Shou said astonished while Yutaka carried over a bowl of rice and sat down at the table opposite to him.

“I would also have found the time to read a book, watch a movie and travel the world while you did”, Yutaka stated sarcastically. “The only thing you do slower than cleaning vegetables is chopping vegetables.”

“Oh, shut up”, Shou said and kicked Yutaka’s shin under the table.

Yutaka grinned and started eating.

Shou tried the food, too. He was pleased with the result.

“Tastes good”, he complimented. “We cooked well.”

“I cooked well”, Yutaka said with his mouth full of food. Now that they weren’t in public, Shou wasn’t annoyed by it anymore. Somehow, even Yutaka’s barbaric side was somewhat charming. “You are fired.”

Shou chuckled and continued eating. He hadn’t really felt hungry when they came home, but the smell in the kitchen had stirred his appetite.

“Anyway, thank you for dinner”, he said to make peace and continued with his meal.

Of course, Yutaka was eating faster than him. Even he slowed down eventually, though.

“There are going to be leftovers”, Shou observed.

“It’s not a problem”, Yutaka said. “I can eat the rest tomorrow.”

“You?”, Shou assured mockingly.

“Yes”, Yutaka said with a blank expression. He was amazing at keeping blank expressions. “I will take home the rest. I hope you have enough boxed to pack it up.”

“Oi!”, Shou protested laughingly. “We should put it in the refrigerator here and I will eat it tomorrow.”

“No way”, Yutaka said, still blankly. “I paid for it.”

Shou laughed and started collecting the empty dishes.

“It was a treat”, he reminded Yutaka. “Or you will lose to Sakura. At least she doesn’t steal my food.”

Yutaka grinned. It was a cheeky grin.

“Alright, you can keep the food. But I’m not going to clean the kitchen, because Sakura can’t do that either.”

Shou sighed and put the dirty bowls into the kitchen sink.

“It’s okay, I will clean it up later”, he promised.

“Now sit down again, I still didn’t finish my beer.”

Shou looked around the kitchen. He hadn’t finished his beer yet either. But the sink was already filled completely and there were still the three pans sitting on the stove.

“Me neither”, he agreed. “But please, let’s move to the living room. I can’t relax when I’m staring at this mess.”

Yutaka shrugged like he didn’t care either way and followed Shou into the living room. They slumped down on the couch and Shou emptied his beer. He thought of getting another one, but he had already drunken this one too fast and could slightly feel the alcohol whenever he moved his head. He put the empty can on the coffee table.

The day had been nice, but now he felt a little sleepy. Not tired with exhaustion like he did on many other days, just too lazy to be awake much longer. He did not want to kick Yutaka out, because he had proven to be good company today, but he hoped he wouldn’t ask for a second beer nonetheless. If he left somewhat early, Shou might even pay a last short visit to Sakura, before going to sleep.

As if he had read his thoughts, Yutaka grinned at him provokingly now.

“On a date with Sakura, what would you do now after dinner?��

“Ah.” Shou grinned, trying to look guilty, but it was just for show. “This is usually the part where it gets pervy.”

“I figured”, Yutaka said and stretched his leg to kick the box of Kleenex on the table with his foot. The cartoon character on his sock was grinning.

“So, you should really leave soon”, Shou said jokingly, when really, he absolutely meant it. “I want to play at least that part before going to sleep.”

“Oh, really? My company wasn’t good enough? You still need to visit Sakura before sleeping?”, Yutaka mocked him, but there was something about his tone of voice that Shou couldn’t quite place.

“Well, we had a nice date”, Shou said to appease him. “And after a good date, sex would only be natural, right?”

He tried to grin at Yutaka. Yutaka was grinning at him, too. Something about his grin made it difficult for Shou to keep smiling.

Yutaka had put on his lopsided grin, raising his eyebrows slightly. Shou knew that grin. It was the sexy grin. The grin that made the fans scream and the women grow weak. Shou could not deny that he looked handsome when he smiled like that. Not cute like Sakura, but just as attractive. Maybe even more attractive, because Yutaka was real and because his smile was just a little imperfect with his front teeth and wrinkles, and because Shou didn’t have to pay for it. (Especially the latter.)

“Yes, I agree”, Yutaka said and shuffled closer, putting his beer can onto the table as well and leaning in on Shou.

Shou backed off a little, but he was already sitting at the far end of the couch and couldn’t get out of Yutaka’s reach without standing up.

“What are you doing?”, Shou asked and chuckled nervously to play down the situation. But he had a tight knot sitting in his throat, because Yutaka was so close, he could sense the warmth of his body clearly and there was something about his expression that was flirting and sexy and therefore a little menacing.

“I told you I’d be your Sakura today”, Yutaka said, his voice low. “But better.”

“Yeah. I don’t think I want that”, Shou said and shifted his weight uncomfortable.

“Ew.” Yutaka made a face and hung his head. “And I was banking on it. This is were I planned to score a thousand bonus points. First cooking a dinner that you can actually eat. And other than Sakura – I can actually touch you. I’m beating her at that. Important for phase two.”

Shou chuckled again and turned his head away from Yutaka, because otherwise his face was just too close.

He was obviously joking. Obviously. Because there was no way that Yutaka would actually want to touch him. And especially not after the way he had acted today. He had fooled around. It hadn’t been a date. It had been a joke. And it was just Yutaka. Just his friend. It was typical for him to joke.

Shou wished he wouldn’t joke in such a serious manner, though. Yutaka’s voice was full of humour, but didn’t sound outright joking. And his body was leaning in so closely and his skin felt so warm and real and it had been too long since Shou had been touched that way by anyone but himself. Yutaka’s joking made him uncomfortable, because it also made him nervous.

“Sorry to disappoint you”, Shou said as lightly as he could. “But you already got a lot of bonus points for the dinner, so it should be fine.”

Yutaka reached out now, placing his hand on the waistband of Shou’s pants. Shou swallowed again. He could sense the touch in his groins very clearly. Yutaka’s palm was warm. Gently Yutaka started rubbing the space below Shou’s bellybutton.

Shou hoped that he wouldn’t slip his hand farther down as a joke. It was normal to get excited by such a sensual touch. It was just a physical reaction. Yutaka should be aware of that. But if he noticed, it would be embarrassing nonetheless. It was just a joke after all.

“It’s alright with me”, Yutaka continued. He was speaking quietly now. His voice sounded kind, but also alluring. Shou had heard him use that voice before. It had never been directed at Shou, though. “I don’t mind touching you. And I know you are lonely. You don’t have to feel ashamed, if you want to use me. You can just close your eyes. Or you can put on some porn, if you want to. You can do whatever you usually do. Even if you want to watch Sakura, it’s alright. I will do it for you, okay?”

His voice was almost hypnotizing. He made it sound so easy. Being touched by a hand that wasn’t his own for a change would surely feel so nice. Just being with another human being and …

Yutaka’s hand slowly slid down farther.

Shou grabbed his wrist and pushed his hand away from his body violently.

“Just cut it out”, he commanded sharply.

His cheeks felt hot and he probably looked a little flushed. He was embarrassed to have let it come so far. For a moment he had almost been willing to give in. Yutaka would have had a good laugh at him then. He was probably laughing at him inwardly right now. His facial expression was straight, but Yutaka was a good actor.

“Just stop”, he repeated.

He waited for a reaction that would be typical for Yutaka. Laughing loudly or shouting loudly or just doing anything that was loud. But instead, he just kept looking at him calmly. Shou had to avoid meeting his eyes. He didn’t know what to make of Yutaka when he was like that.

“Is it because I’m a man?”, he asked.

Shou was surprised by the question. It sounded as if Yutaka really wondered, as if he really saw no other reason why Shou wouldn’t want his touch.

Hesitantly, Shou shook his head.

He was surprised about that as well. Not about his answer, but about the fact that he was telling Yutaka honestly. Yutaka was handsome and his body was warm and his smile incredible charming. At the end of the day, Shou didn’t really mind who was waiting for him at home.

“No, it’s not. I actually don’t mind that”, he admitted.

“Really?” Yutaka raised his brows in surprise.

Shou shrugged awkwardly.

He had never been in a relationship with a man and although it had never come to actual sex either, there had been a lot of kisses and touches, mostly during puberty, that were caused by despair and curiosity for most of his friends, but that had never made a difference to Shou. He had liked that kisses of men as much as the kisses of women. What he had lacked over the years afterwards wasn’t interest, but rather opportunity. He had just dropped that tendency, because everyone else had dropped it and he had never thought of Yutaka as a potential partner, but he had always thought he was pretty. All that seemed too long to explain, though.

“It’s not that”, he just repeated.

“What is it then?”, Yutaka asked.

Shou shrugged, not knowing how to point out the obvious. It was the fact that it was Yutaka. His friend, band member and idiot. It was the fact that he was inconsiderate and making fun of his feelings. It was the fact that the turn had come too suddenly, from playing pranks at a lingerie store to flirting with Shou and that now he didn’t know which one was the act and which one the real Yutaka. He didn’t understand Yutaka’s intention and therefore didn’t trust him. He decided that the last one was probably the best explanation.

“I don’t trust you”, he said. “I don’t know what you want from me.”

Yutaka chuckled.

“Close your eyes”, he ordered.

Shou pressed his lips together and shook his head.

“Come on, close your eyes”, Yutaka repeated.

Shou sighed quietly. So, here it came. The revelation of what Yutaka had been up to. It was probably going to be a prank, but Yutaka was his friend and Shou had to believe that whatever he held in store for him, was going to stay within the limits of what was bearable. And anything was going to be better than this weird tension that he didn’t know how to explain.

Shou closed his eyes and waited.

What was he going to do? Spit water into his face? Draw a penis onto his forehead? It was the final prank that would make void of all the flirting before. Knowing Yutaka, it would probably be something extraordinary stupid.

He sensed Yutaka leaning in. Then, he sensed his lips against his cheek. They were soft and dry. He felt Yutaka’s nose brush against his cheek, too.

Without meaning to, Shou held his breath.

Okay, it was just a kiss on the cheek. Nothing spectacular. Yutaka was just doing that to lull Shou into a false sense of security. Then the final blow would hit him all the harder. And it was only the cheek. No crossing the line there yet. Not directly common between them, but not a violent invasion of his personal space either.

Shou kept his eyes closed.

Yutaka kissed him again, this time closer to his lips. He brushed the corner of Shou’s mouth.

Shou’s eyelids felt hot again. Yutaka’s kisses were incredibly gentle. He needed to stop now, he needed to stop now, he needed to stop or Shou would forget who it was that kissed him and he would get carried away and he would make a fool out of himself in front of Yutaka, who seemed to just wait for Shou to make a fool out of himself.

He sensed Yutaka shifting again next to him and then he put his hand against Shou’s cheek, turning his head lightly. Shou knew that Yutaka was going to kiss him on the lips this time and for a moment, he just allowed the sensation to wash over him. There were lips on his lips and a hand against his cheek and another hand that caressed his chest. And when he parted his lips slightly, the kiss became more pressuring and there was another human being touching him, another human being kissing him and Shou’s skin felt so lonely that he wanted to fall into that touch and he wanted to vanish inside that kiss. He wanted to forget that it was Yutaka kissing him and enjoy the tenderness he was craving for.

But he couldn’t forget that it was Yutaka of course. Yutaka, who had acted awful all day already. He had dragged Shou out of the apartment against his will, because he wanted to take away his virtual reality joy for some reason that he didn’t understand. If it made Shou happy, why couldn’t he let him be? Sure, it was petty and silly, but was it of Yutaka’s business? And at the café, he had just embarrassed Shou. He had caused them to get kicked out of the lingerie store that Shou hadn’t wanted to enter to begin with. Even while cooking, when he claimed he wanted to do something nice for him, he had shouted at Shou for being too slow and he had dirtied his kitchen carelessly. And now he was kissing Shou although he had told him he didn’t want it and the whole day seemed like a joke that only Yutaka could laugh at. He had been making fun of Shou all along, not caring about how he felt and his carefreeness had been nothing but cruelty.

Shou opened his eyes and pushed Yutaka away violently.

“What’s wrong with you?”, he shouted and jumped off the couch, backing off a few steps to glare at Yutaka, who was still sitting there, looking disorientated for a moment as if he wasn’t sure what had just happened either.

“What?”, Yutaka asked.

In Shou’s opinion that was a pretty dumb thing to say.

“Didn’t you make enough fun of me already? You may think making me uncomfortable is funny, but to me it’s not”, he declared angrily.

“I didn’t make fun of you”, Yutaka said. He wasn’t stuttering and he didn’t look guilty at all. His hand flew up to his lips, touching them lightly as if he wanted to check if they were still there, or as if he couldn’t actually believe they had kissed Shou only moments ago.

“Just get out. I don’t know why you had to ruin my free day like that”, Shou said, still speaking loudly.

He felt hurt and didn’t quite understand why. He had thought he had enjoyed the day so far. But Yutaka had crossed a line and now all the positive things that had happened today seemed tinted in an ugly colour as well. It wasn’t fair to make fun of him like that, because Shou wasn’t able to stay indifferent to a kiss like that and he was sure that Yutaka had noticed. It wasn’t fair to use it against him. It wasn’t fair to play with his feeling like that.

“Shou, I’m sorry, if I made you this uncomfortable. But it’s not a joke. Please, sit down again.”

Yutaka shuffled over again to create more space on the couch for Shou.

Shou inhaled deeply. But Yutaka was speaking so seriously, that he decided to give him a chance.

He sat down again. Their bodies weren’t touching anymore. Shou was thankful for the distance.

“So, what was this all about today?”, Shou inquired.

“I just …” Yutaka shook his head. He was smiling. Shou didn’t understand how he was always smiling. Even now, he didn’t seem to feel especially uncomfortable. To Shou, it was a clear sign he had been joking. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to act so carefree about it now. “I wanted to prove to you that I’d be a better date than Sakura. I’m kind of jealous of her, you know? I had fun on our date today. And I thought that if I touched you like she never could, that … you’d realize that it would be better to settle for me than fantasize about someone who could never make you happy. I guess I just wanted to seduce you.”

“Seduce me?”, Shou snorted. “The way you acted today you didn’t try very hard to seduce me.”

“I tried to be myself!”, Yutaka defended himself laughingly.

“See”, Shou said. “You didn’t try very hard to seduce me.”

Yutaka laughed again and slapped Shou’s shoulder.

It felt nice. Familiar again. The tension between them had vanished. This was the Yutaka that Shou knew how to deal with. The silly Yutaka, the Yutaka who scolded him and the Yutaka who laughed at his jokes. The Yutaka who had kissed him had been a strange Yutaka, one he had never met before. Shou hadn’t known what to make of him.

“But seriously, didn’t you enjoy today?”, Yutaka asked. “I wanted to give you what you need. You don’t need someone to pity you. You need someone who reminds you to laugh and be dorky sometimes. I want to be that person for you.”

Shou shrugged uncertainly.

“Before the sexual harassment, it was alright”, he concluded.

Yutaka laughed quietly. He did seem embarrassed now, although he was still smiling.

“Yes, sorry about that.”

“But why would you even do that?”, Shou asked. “It’s nice you wanted to give me a fun date, but why? Why would you even be jealous of Sakura? What do you care?”

Yutaka stared at him completely expressionless. Expressionless was his speciality.

“Well, I am in love with you”, he said very slowly as if talking to a little child.

“You are what?”, Shou repeated, adding a chuckle for good measure.

Of course, the statement wasn’t funny, but it was so absurd that he had absolutely no idea what else to do with it.

“Okay, you know what”, Yutaka said. “I take back what I said earlier. Chopping vegetables is not the thing you are the slowest at.”

He reached out and tipped his fingers lightly against Shou’s temple. Shou made a face.

“You are a little slow in the head in general.”

“That’s not a very loving thing to say”, Shou said, still making a face.

Yutaka smirked and rolled his eyes.

“So, I called you, because I was worried about you. And because I wanted to know how you are doing and because I wanted to hear your voice and because I wanted to spend time with you. Because you know, idiot, I want to hear your voice and I want to spend time with you every single day.”

“Hm”, Shou made.

“And when you mentioned Sakura, I got jealous. Because you keep running after fantasies of women that would not make you happy when you dated them in real life. You don’t see what’s right in front of you. I could make you happy. And that doesn’t mean we have to date, you see. It’s okay if you don’t return my feelings or if you just don’t feel attracted to men or whatever. I respect that. But I could make you happy as a friend, too. If you are feeling lonely, you don’t have to play that game and dream of better days to come. You can just call me up. We can cook together or watch a movie or go for a walk or play video games or just do whatever, really. I promise, I will make you laugh and I will listen to you and you won’t ever have to put on fancy clothes for me or do your hair. I will just be there, because I love you and because – first and foremost – I am your friend.”

Shou nodded. Yutaka was still speaking slowly as if he wanted to make sure Shou really got all of it. Shou got it. It did make sense to a certain degree. Yutaka forcing him out on a date. Yutaka not paying attention to any woman in the lingerie store. Yutaka who knew how to make Shou laugh and who knew which cake he would order and who knew which groceries to buy for him.

“And if you want to have sex with someone and if – as you claim – you are indeed not opposed to men, then here I am. I want to touch you. I’m crazy about you. Even if it’s just as a friend, even if you just use me, that is alright with me. I’m real, Shou. I’m real. That is already something.”

“At least one good quality about you”, Shou agreed when he realized that Yutaka was done with his monologue.

“Oi!”, Yutaka said and boxed against his shoulder again.

“For someone who claims to love me, you have a damn lot of complaints about me”, Shou observed.

He didn’t know how else to react to the confession. It was all a bit much at once. He wanted to stay on the ground that felt safe. When he was joking with Yutaka everything felt familiar and like it would never change.

“I’m just worried”, Yutaka said. “I can see you are not very happy.”

Shou turned his eyes away.

That was the thing he didn’t understand about Yutaka. He always seemed happy. And he always seemed sure of everything. He talked about his feelings like it was nothing special. Like loving Shou was as obvious to him as breathing oxygen. Shou on the other hand, wasn’t sure about his feelings at all. He liked Yutaka. He liked him a lot. But returning his confession? He wasn’t sure if this was love. If he was mistaken, it would be a lie. And if he turned him down? Would that hurt Yutaka? Would that ruin their chances forever, even if Shou changed his mind? Admittedly, Yutaka did not look like he would be hurt deeply. Maybe his heart could be broken, but it surely healed fast.

Shou just couldn’t believe he was so sure.

“What about you?”, he asked. “Just being friends, wouldn’t that hurt you? Always being there for me, but your love staying unrequited?”

“Ah, no.” Yutaka waved it off with a wide grin. “I would be happy to be around you. I just want you to be happy, most of all. And as your friend, I could help provide for that. And I wouldn’t cry over you forever. I would surely fall in love with someone else eventually, if it was hopeless. But I would always be your friend. I would always love you, even if it’s not romantically. Being your friend would be perfect already.”

He was beaming.

“And if I used you for sex?”, Shou inquired. “Wouldn’t that hurt you? Only being used and not being able to let go?”

“Are you kidding me?!”, Yutaka shouted and threw back his head laughingly. “Being your friend and being allowed to touch you?! Making you laugh and kissing you? Perfect!”

He was still beaming.

Shou furrowed his brow.

“It can’t all be equal”, he pointed out. “If that’s perfect, what would it be, if I actually wanted to date you?”

He had said it casually, but his heart started beating faster instantly. Would Yutaka want that? Was dating an actual possibility?

Shou thought of Yutaka waiting for him when he came home from recordings. He thought of coming home together with him after a tour. He thought of Yutaka shouting at him while cooking together. He thought of how he would never have to get a handbag, because Yutaka would carry his stuff and how he wouldn’t have to try and how he might even be silly again. And he thought of with how much noise Yutaka would fill the apartment, that felt too empty and quiet when it was just Shou living there. And he thought of how pretty Yutaka looked when he smiled and Shou thought of laying down in bed next to him naked and he thought of Yutaka saying “Welcome home”.

“Dating you?”, Yutaka assured. “More perfect!”

Shou laughed and this time it was him slapping Yutaka’s shoulder.

“Perfect doesn’t work like that”, he said. “Nothing can be more than perfect.”

“Just wait until I take off my clothes”, Yutaka said.

Shou laughed and rolled his eyes at him.

“But would … I mean …” For the first time today, Yutaka was stuttering slightly. “Would dating be an option?”

“Mh.” Shou tilted his head thoughtfully. “Maybe I could put Sakura on hold for a little while”, he admitted.

Yutaka’s grin turned cheeky again. Shou loved that lopsided grin of his.

“Can we burn the game?”, he asked.

“No, we can’t”, Shou said sternly. “I paid for it. Also, I don’t want to kill her. It’s more like we are taking a little break from our relationship.”

“I definitely want to kill her”, Yutaka interrupted him.

Shou snorted. But he leaned in a little and put his hand on Yutaka’s shoulder now. His skin was warm through the fabric of the shirt.

Yutaka turned towards him.

Shou leaned in more and this time it was him kissing Yutaka on the lips. The kiss felt softer, but maybe it was just Shou who felt calmer now. Within a few heartbeats, Sakura was dead to him already. But he wasn’t going to tell Yutaka. He had to keep trying a little longer.

Shou pulled back again.

“But a break is also alright”, Yutaka said, smiling dizzily.

Shou chuckled, because he could tell Yutaka was acting dizzy on purpose.

“Just until we have figured out what this is. I mean”, he corrected himself. “Until I know what I want.”

It didn’t seem exactly fair towards Yutaka, he had to admit. He in Yutaka’s position would have wanted an answer. Were they friends, lovers, boyfriends? Shou couldn’t tell yet and he felt guilty for making Yutaka wait, who already seemed so sure of what he wanted.

“You’ll have to wait a little. Is that alright with you?”, he assured.

But he stopped worrying as soon as he saw Yutaka’s wide grin. He knew the answer even before he leaned in to kiss Shou once again. Because with him, the answer would always be the same.

“It’s perfect”, Yutaka said.

#Golden Bomber #fanfiction #Kiryuuin Shou #Kyan Yutaka #kirikyan #fanfic #my original idea was actually to write a murder mystery where someone hires a hacker and next time Shou logs in he finds Sakura dead #and then he has to solve her murder by finding out who hired the hacker #it would have been a thrilling virtual reality murder mystery gay drama

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dailyrugbytoday · 2 years ago

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Where to Watch Springboks vs Wallabies Rugby Championship in Adelaide |

New Post has been published on https://thedailyrugby.com/springboks-vs-wallabies-rugby-championship-in-adelaide/

The Daily Rugby

https://thedailyrugby.com/springboks-vs-wallabies-rugby-championship-in-adelaide/

Where to Watch Springboks vs Wallabies Rugby Championship in Adelaide |

Rugby Championship Springboks vs Wallabies free live stream: can the Wallabies get back to winning ways? Aussies can enjoy every game of the 2022 Rugby Championship ad-free, live and on-demand in HD on Stan Sport (7-day free trial; AU$10 a month).

A historic rugby double header at Adelaide Oval that’s been 20 years in the making! Adelaide will host the Wallabies and Wallaroos, as our Australian national rugby teams take on South Africa and New Zealand.

The Wallabies will play Rugby World Champions, the Springboks, as part of this once-in-a-lifetime event, the teams’ first Test in South Australia since 2004. And it will be the very first time the Wallaroos play at the iconic venue, with their clash against the Black Ferns a milestone on their journey to the Rugby World Cup.

For the Rugby Australia doubleheader, free travel will be available all day Saturday 27 August for patrons travelling to and from Adelaide Oval on regular Adelaide Metro and Adelaide Oval Express services.

Where to Watch Springboks vs Wallabies Rugby Championship

For a full list of broadcasters, check out the list below:

New Zealand: Sky Sports

South Africa/Africa and adjacent islands: SuperSport

Argentina/South America/North America: ESPN

USA: FloSports

Canada:TSN

Invaluable experience returns with Andrew Kellaway, Angus Bell, Scott Sio, Allan Alaalatoa, Dave Porecki, Folau Fainga'a and Hunter Paisami set for the Boks 💪

↳ Wallabies v Springboks LIVE Saturday from 3:00pm AEST in 4K UHD on Stan Sport.#StanSportAU #Wallabies #AUSvRSA pic.twitter.com/ZFWXbdoo1i

— Stan Sport Rugby (@StanSportRugby) August 22, 2022

Rugby Australia Doubleheader this weekend

Gates Open: 11:30am

Wallaroos v Black Ferns: Game starts 12:15pm

Wallabies v Springboks : Game starts 3:00pm

Springboks vs Wallabies in Adelaide

The Springboks were forced to delay their departure to Australia for their away leg of the Rugby Championship to Friday following the unforeseen cancellation of their flight to Sydney on Thursday.

The travelling squad of 34 players assembled in Johannesburg early on Thursday afternoon (SA time) and were set to fly to Adelaide via Sydney later that evening, but their plans were disrupted due to complications relating to the flight crew.

They will now travel to Sydney at 12.00 SA time on Friday where they will have a short stop-over before flying to Adelaide where they will play their first of two Tests against the Wallabies on Saturday, August 27.

The team will face Australia again in Sydney a week later on Saturday, September 3, and will conclude their campaign with back-to-back Tests against Argentina in Buenos Aires and Durban on 17 and 24 September respectively.

Wallabies to put the boot into Boks

Head coach Dave Rennie says Australia are ready to engage the Springboks in an aerial battle when the teams clash in Adelaide on Saturday.

The Boks put the squeeze on the All Blacks with a strong kick-chase strategy in the opening Test of the 2022 Rugby Championship in Nelspruit, but Rennie backs his troops to fight fire with fire against the world champions at Adelaide Oval.

“You need to kick smart to apply pressure. If you don’t kick, teams just get a big wall in front of you and they knock you over and you run up your own backside,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

“We need a set balance to that … sometimes you have to be prepared to put the ball in behind them. South Africa are so well organised with their kicking game, they’ll choke you.

“At times we’ll need to get into a kicking battle and have a crack on the second or third kick when they’ve got a less organised chase line.”

South Africa: 15. Damian Willemse, 14. Warrick Gelant, 13. Lukhanyo Am, 12. Damian de Allende, 11. Makazole Mapimpi, 10. Handre Pollard, 9. Faf de Klerk, 1. Ox Nche, 2. Joseph Dweba, 3. Frans Malherbe, 4. Eben Etzebeth, 5. Lood de Jager, 6. Siya Kolisi (captain), 7. Pieter-Steph du Toit, 8. Duane Vermeulen.

Replacements: 16. Malcolm Marx, 17. Steven Kitshoff, 18. Vincent Koch, 19. Franco Mostert, 20. Kwagga Smith, 21. Jaden Hendrikse, 22. Elton Jantjies, 23. Frans Steyn.

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patriotsnet · 3 years ago

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Why Does Fox News Support Republicans

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/why-does-fox-news-support-republicans/

Why Does Fox News Support Republicans

False Claims About The 2020 Election

Alabama columnist: What does support of Moore do to the GOP?

After Trump’s defeat in the 2020 presidential election, Fox News promoted baseless allegations that voting machine company Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems had conspired to rig the election for Joe Biden. Hosts Jeanine Pirro, Lou Dobbs and promoted the allegations on their programs on sister network Fox Business. In December 2020, Smartmatic sent a letter to Fox News demanding retractions and threatening legal action. However, Pirro, Dobbs, and Bartiromo refused to issue retractions as they played a three-minute video segment consisting of an interview with an election technology expert who refuted the allegations promoted by the hosts, responding to questions from an unseen and unidentified man. In February 2021, Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion defamation suit against the network and the three hosts. On March 26, 2021, Dominion filed a $1.6 billion defamation suit against the network. On May 18, 2021, Fox News filed a motion to dismiss the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit, asserting a First Amendment right “to inform the public about newsworthy allegations of paramount public concern.” A Dominion lawyer said that Fox News dismissal of the lawsuit would give them “blank check” to lie.

Fox News Will Be ‘loyal Opposition’ To Biden Fox Ceo Says

Fox Corp. CEO Lachlan Murdoch said Thursday that it is the job of Fox News to serve as the opposition to the Biden administration, clearly stating the political biases of a network that until 2017 billed itself as “fair and balanced.”

Speaking at a Morgan Stanley investor conference, Murdoch said Fox News stood to benefit from Biden’s presidency because the network would act as “the loyal opposition” to his administration.

“The main beneficiary of the Trump administration from a ratings point of view was MSNBC … and thats because they were the loyal opposition,” Murdoch said of the rival cable network. “Thats what our job is now with the Biden administration, and youll see our ratings really improve from here.”

A spokesperson for NBCUniversal News Group, which includes NBC News and MSNBC, said in response that “our role, and the role of any legitimate news organization whether it includes an ‘opinion section’ or not is to hold power to account, regardless of party.” Comcast NBCUniversal is the parent company of NBC News and MSNBC.

Murdoch’s remark is an on-the-record acknowledgement of something that has long been obvious to fans and critics but never stated so publicly by the executive leadership itself that Fox News is firmly aligned with Republicans and the right and intends to use its platform to fight Democrats.

There Is No Equivalent For The Left

Fox News, especially post Trump, so relentlessly and consistently praises Trump for successes, papers over failures and tries to twist them into successes, and deliberately omits anything they cannot twist. Their only criticism of the Republican party is when they perceive it to be insufficiently loyal to Trump. They talk about their enemies as evil and prize pundits that will drill their opinions of the news into their viewers over actual journalism that informs them of the facts. There isn’t really another side in mainstream media. MSNBC has strayed to the center lately, and the Washington Post, New York Times, and CNN all have a centrist, corporate bent to them, so even if they criticize Trump or Republicans, they do so sincerely, and get upset about the actions of the left just as often. Nothing in mainstream media, not even MSNBC, has ever in history had a leftwing tilt to it like Fox News has a right wing tilt, or non-mainstream sources like the Young Turks have a left-wing one. There is just nothing equivalent to Fox News in size, scope, or depth of partisanship supporting the Democrats. They have several sources that lean in their direction, but none so slavishly devoted to them as Fox News is to Trump and Republicans, and none with such a wide audience.

Submit

You May Like: Who’s Right Democrats Or Republicans

Fox News Channel Responses To Criticism

In June 2004, CEO Roger Ailes responded to some of the criticism with a rebuttal in an online Wall Street Journal editorial, saying that Fox News’ critics intentionally confuse opinion shows such as The O’Reilly Factor with regular news coverage. Ailes stated that Fox News has broken stories harmful to Republicans, offering, “Fox News is the network that broke George W. Bush’s DUI four days before the election” as an example, referring to Bush’s DUI charge in 1976 that had not yet been made public. The DUI story was broken by then-Fox affiliate WPXT in Portland, Maine, although Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron also contributed to the report and, in the words of National Public Radio ombudsman Alicia Shepard, Fox News “sent the story ping-ponging around the nation” by broadcasting WPXT’s coverage. WPXT News Director Kevin Kelly said that he “called Fox News in New York City to see if we were flogging a dead horse” before running the story, and that Fox News confirmed the arrest with the campaign and ran the story shortly after 6 p.m.

Former Fox News personality Eric Burns has suggested in an interview that Fox News “probably gives voice to more conservatives than the other networks. But not at the expense of liberals.” Burns justifies a higher exposure of conservatives by saying that other media often ignore conservatives.

Fox News personalities have also taken part in back and forth disagreements with media personalities such as Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

Who First Buried The Dead

Anthropologist Donald Brown has studied human cultures and discovered hundreds of features shared by each and every one. Among them, every culture has its own way to honor and mourn the dead.

But who was the first? Humans or another hominin in our ancestral lineage? That answer is difficult because it is shrouded in the fog of our prehistorical past. However, we do have a candidate: Homo naledi.

Several fossils of this extinct hominin were discovered in a cave chamber at the Rising Star Cave system, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. To access the chamber required a vertical climb, a few tight fits, and much crawling.

This led researchers to believe it unlikely so many individuals ended up there by accident. They also ruled out geological traps like cave-ins. Given the seemingly deliberate placement, some have concluded the chamber served as a Homo naledi graveyard. Others aren’t so sure, and more evidence is needed before we can definitively answer this question.

Read Also: Why Did Republicans Vote Against Equal Pay

Walked A Fine Line: How Fox News Found Itself In An Existential Crisis

The rightwing channel was the first to call Arizona for Biden and Trump and his supporters have been furious ever since

It was about 11.20pm on election night when Fox News made the call. The Democratic candidate had clinched a key swing state, a win that could set them on a path to be president of the United States.

In the Fox News studio, Karl Rove, conservative panelist and longtime Republican strategist, was apoplectic. Around the country, Republican supporters were bereft. Fox News launched an immediate inquisition into its own decision, but the network stood by the call.

Barack Obama had won Ohio, defeating Mitt Romney. Obama would be sworn in as president, for the second time, on 20 January 2013.

Fast forward eight years, and Fox News found itself in a strikingly similar position on 3 November 2020. The rightwing news channel was the first to call Arizona, which has gone blue once in the past 72 years, for Joe Biden.

Donald Trump and his campaign were furious, barraging the network with a series of phone calls in an attempt to get the decision overturned. The presidents supporters were upset too.

At protests outside a vote counting center in Phoenix, Arizona, a crowd chanted: Fox News sucks!, turning their ire on a channel whose hosts Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity have spent the past four years praising Trumps almost every move or utterance.

That makes the effort to look like a news organization increasingly difficult.

Obama Administration Conflict With Fox News

In September 2009, the Obama administration engaged in a verbal conflict with Fox News. On September 20, President Obama appeared on all the major news networks except Fox News, a snub partially in response to remarks about the president by commentators Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity and general coverage by Fox News with regard to Obama’s health care proposal.Fox News Sunday hostChris Wallace called White House administration officials “crybabies” in response. Following this, a senior Obama adviser told U.S. News that the White House would never get a fair shake from Fox News.

In late September 2009, Obama senior advisor David Axelrod and Fox News founder Roger Ailes met in secret to try to smooth out tensions between the two camps without much success. Two weeks later, White House officials referred to Fox as “not a news network”. Communications director Anita Dunn claimed that, “Fox News often operates as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party.” President Obama followed with, “If media is operating basically as a talk radio format, then that’s one thing, and if it’s operating as a news outlet, then that’s another,” and then-White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel stated that it was important “to not have the CNNs and the others in the world basically be led in following FNC.”

Also Check: How Many Republicans Voted For Impeachment

Do Hair And Fingernails Grow After Death

Nope. This is a myth, but one that does have a biological origin.

The reason hair and fingernails don’t grow after death is because new cells can’t be produced. Glucose fuels cell division, and cells require oxygen to break down glucose into cellular energy. Death puts an end to the body’s ability to intake either one.

It also ends the intaking of water, leading to dehydration. As a corpse’s skin desiccates, it pulls away from the fingernails and retracts around the face . Anyone unlucky enough to exhume a corpse could easily mistake these changes as signs of growth.

Interestingly, postmortem hair and fingernail growth provoked lore about vampires and other creatures of the night. When our ancestors dug up fresh corpses and found hair growth and blood spots around mouths , their minds naturally wandered to undeath.

Not that becoming undead is anything we need to worry about today.

Fox News Is The Republican Party

This is why Democrats’ massive spending bill could pass | FOX News Rundown

Trumpism will endure because Murdochs Fox News made that choice on behalf of the Republican Party it commands.

To see what is in front of ones nose, George Orwell wrote, is a constant struggle.

Orwells wise, timeless counsel is often lost on writers who prefer to bury the plain truth beneath a blizzard of distractions and obfuscations.

The tendency of Americas punditocracy to miss the glaring point has, once again, been on grating display in the still smouldering residue of the mad January 6 insurrection on Capitol Hill conceived, planned and executed by thousands of Donald Trumps rabid disciples who were, on cue, unleashed en foaming masse by the former president.

Beyond considering Trumps political future, the punditocracy was seized with debating the existential implications of the deadly mayhem for the Republican Party.

The quick consensus was that a reckoning was certainly in the offing. The Republican Party confronted an inflection point the media-manufactured cliché du jour that required either finally abandoning Trumpism in the wake of the bloody insurrection or continuing to embrace it.

The assumption was that the Republican Party, including its congressional leadership, would make that seminal choice. But who constitutes the Republican Party and its leadership and how would they go about deciding which path to take?

These questions were largely left adrift.

What a chilling prospect.

It is a silly, almost comical, suggestion.

Also Check: Why Do Republicans Say Democrat Party

False Claims About Other Media

CNN’s Jake Tapper

In November 2017, following the 2017 New York City truck attack wherein a terrorist shouted “Allahu Akbar”, Fox News distorted a statement by Jake Tapper to make it appear as if he had said “Allahu Akbar” can be used under the most “beautiful circumstances”. Fox News omitted that Tapper had said the use of “Allahu Akbar” in the terrorist attack was not one of these beautiful circumstances. A headline on FoxNews.com was preceded by a tag reading “OUTRAGEOUS”. The Fox News Twitter account distorted the statement even more, saying “Jake Tapper Says ‘Allahu Akbar’ Is ‘Beautiful’ Right After NYC Terror Attack” in a tweet that was later deleted. Tapper chastised Fox News for choosing to “deliberately lie” and said “there was a time when one could tell the difference between Fox and the nutjobs at Infowars. It’s getting tougher and tougher. Lies are lies.” Tapper had in 2009, while a White House correspondent for ABC News, come to the defense of Fox News when Obama criticized the network for not being a legitimate news organization.

Fox News guest host Jason Chaffetz apologized to Tapper for misrepresenting his statement. After Fox News had deleted the tweet, Sean Hannity repeated the misrepresentation and called Tapper “liberal fake news CNN’s fake Jake Tapper” and mocked his ratings.

The New York Times

Low Gravity And The Troughs

: University of Georgia / NASA / JPL

It has been assumed, says Cheng, that the “troughs are fault-bounded valleys with a distinct scarp on each side that together mark the down-drop of a block of rock.”

However, there is a problem with this theory. It is based on the way rocks and debris behave under the force of gravity on Earth; Vesta’s gravitational pull is far less. Indeed, Dawn found Vesta’s gravity consistent with an iron core having a 140-mile diameter; the Earth’s, by comparison, is about 2,165 miles in diameter.

Cheng notes that “rock can also crack apart and form such troughs, an origin that has not been considered before. Our calculations also show that Vesta’s gravity is not enough to induce surrounding stresses favorable for sliding to occur at shallow depths. Instead, the physics shows that rocks there are favored to crack apart.”

Cheng summarizes, “Taken all together, the overall project provides alternatives to the previously proposed trough origin and geological history of Vesta, results that are also important for understanding similar landforms on other small planetary bodies elsewhere in the solar system.”

So while still consistent with the prevailing theory that the impacts resulted in the troughs, the researchers suggest that they did not cause landslides on Vesta. The impacts cracked it.

Also Check: When Will Republicans Do The Right Thing

Down In The Polls Trump Seeks Familiar Embrace Of Conservative Media

The president considers many Fox News figures among his closest advisers. These include Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Jeanine Pirro and others. He has drawn from the ranks of Fox contributors to fill senior White House appointments and even considered stars for Cabinet positions. And they, in turn, have been ferocious in relaying the president’s baseless claims, winning his frequent appearances on their programs and stratospheric ratings in response.

Earlier this year, Fox News stars helped whip up protests in opposition to shutdowns related to COVID-19 and orders to wear masks. Fox News stars stoked potential scandals involving Biden’s son Hunter based on unauthenticated reports from Murdoch’s New York Post material Fox’s own reporters largely could not validate.

As one small sign of the ways in which Fox and Trump Republicans can orchestrate programming, on Friday evening, NPR reviewed an internal GOP memo sent to top party officials to prepare Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel for her appearance on Hannity’s show that night. It set out in great specificity the intended flow of the show’s lengthy opening segment including its guests, articles and subjects and the primary points Hannity would make. The two jointly focused on stoking suspicions of voter fraud.

The network stood by its decision desk.

What To Watch For

Trump is reportedly considering launching his own media company to compete with Fox News after he leaves the White House, Axios reported Nov. 12. The offering would reportedly take the form of a subscription-based digital streaming channel online, rather than a pricier cable television network, but Trump aim to replace Fox as his supporters top destination for news, Axios reports.

Don’t Miss: Who Supported The Republicans In The Spanish Civil War

Why Do All The Women On Fox News Look And Dress Alike Republicans Prefer Blondes

From pundits like Ann Coulter to Kellyanne Conway, American rightwingers are a uniform vision of dont scare-the-horses dressing

Why do so many rightwing American women have bottle-blond hair, often worn girlishly long? Im thinking of Kellyanne Conway, Ann Coulter and almost any woman on Fox News.

Jonathan, London N16

Excellent question, Jonathan! I was pondering something similar myself recently while looking through Ivanka Trumps fashion collection on ivankatrump.com, which seems to be one of the only places it is stocked these days. The grimly bland suede pumps, the simpering floral shifts, the just-flirtatious-enough body-skimming little black dresses welcome, people, to death by mainstream feminine. You know how your mother goes on about how you wear too much black/denim/weird stuff, and you cant figure out what the hell it is she expects you to wear? Well, allow me to introduce you to Ivanka Trump. What a shame it seems to be sold almost nowhere these days, as these are the clothes your mother dreams of. Oh well, looks like shell have to put up with you in your awesome Bella Freud jumper and Topshop wide-legged culottes combo for another weekend!

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statetalks · 3 years ago

Text

Why Does Fox News Support Republicans

False Claims About The 2020 Election

Alabama columnist: What does support of Moore do to the GOP?

Fox News Will Be ‘loyal Opposition’ To Biden Fox Ceo Says

Speaking at a Morgan Stanley investor conference, Murdoch said Fox News stood to benefit from Biden’s presidency because the network would act as “the loyal opposition” to his administration.

There Is No Equivalent For The Left

Submit

You May Like: Who’s Right Democrats Or Republicans

Fox News Channel Responses To Criticism

Fox News personalities have also taken part in back and forth disagreements with media personalities such as Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

Who First Buried The Dead

Anthropologist Donald Brown has studied human cultures and discovered hundreds of features shared by each and every one. Among them, every culture has its own way to honor and mourn the dead.

Read Also: Why Did Republicans Vote Against Equal Pay

Walked A Fine Line: How Fox News Found Itself In An Existential Crisis

The rightwing channel was the first to call Arizona for Biden and Trump and his supporters have been furious ever since

It was about 11.20pm on election night when Fox News made the call. The Democratic candidate had clinched a key swing state, a win that could set them on a path to be president of the United States.

Barack Obama had won Ohio, defeating Mitt Romney. Obama would be sworn in as president, for the second time, on 20 January 2013.

Donald Trump and his campaign were furious, barraging the network with a series of phone calls in an attempt to get the decision overturned. The presidents supporters were upset too.

That makes the effort to look like a news organization increasingly difficult.

Obama Administration Conflict With Fox News

Also Check: How Many Republicans Voted For Impeachment

Do Hair And Fingernails Grow After Death

Nope. This is a myth, but one that does have a biological origin.

Not that becoming undead is anything we need to worry about today.

Fox News Is The Republican Party

This is why Democrats’ massive spending bill could pass | FOX News Rundown

Trumpism will endure because Murdochs Fox News made that choice on behalf of the Republican Party it commands.

To see what is in front of ones nose, George Orwell wrote, is a constant struggle.

Orwells wise, timeless counsel is often lost on writers who prefer to bury the plain truth beneath a blizzard of distractions and obfuscations.

Beyond considering Trumps political future, the punditocracy was seized with debating the existential implications of the deadly mayhem for the Republican Party.

These questions were largely left adrift.

What a chilling prospect.

It is a silly, almost comical, suggestion.

Also Check: Why Do Republicans Say Democrat Party

False Claims About Other Media

CNN’s Jake Tapper

The New York Times

Low Gravity And The Troughs

: University of Georgia / NASA / JPL

It has been assumed, says Cheng, that the “troughs are fault-bounded valleys with a distinct scarp on each side that together mark the down-drop of a block of rock.”

So while still consistent with the prevailing theory that the impacts resulted in the troughs, the researchers suggest that they did not cause landslides on Vesta. The impacts cracked it.

Also Check: When Will Republicans Do The Right Thing

Down In The Polls Trump Seeks Familiar Embrace Of Conservative Media

The network stood by its decision desk.

What To Watch For

Don’t Miss: Who Supported The Republicans In The Spanish Civil War

Why Do All The Women On Fox News Look And Dress Alike Republicans Prefer Blondes

From pundits like Ann Coulter to Kellyanne Conway, American rightwingers are a uniform vision of dont scare-the-horses dressing

Why do so many rightwing American women have bottle-blond hair, often worn girlishly long? Im thinking of Kellyanne Conway, Ann Coulter and almost any woman on Fox News.

Jonathan, London N16

source https://www.patriotsnet.com/why-does-fox-news-support-republicans/

0 notes

feliciaascott · 3 years ago

Text

FA Cup fixtures on TV | Watch live games, draw time and details - Radio Times

Next fa cup games - FA Cup Fixtures | Sky Sports

As each round occurs, clubs from fup up the pyramid enter the draw. Payouts to clubs have also been reduced. This round has games.

These are teams at levels eight through 10 of the pyramid. Here, more clubs enter along with the winners from the previous round, including many from level 7. Forty-three more clubs join the winners from the previous round, next fa cup games from level here of the pyramid, the Next fa cup games League Next fa cup games and South.

There are no new entries this time, just the 80 winners from Second Round Qualifying playing a total of 40 matches. Here, the 24 teams of the fifth-tier National League enter, for a total of 32 fixtures. This is when the fully-professional clubs from the Football League begin to enter the fray. Twenty winners from the previous round next fa cup games joined here by the 24 teams from the Football League Championship plus the 20 members of the Premier Ganes.

Note that during this weekend, the regular Premier League and Championship schedule takes a week off. This is the Round of 32, with winners next fa cup games jext the Third Round for a total of 16 matches across the weekend. Again, during this weekend, the regular Premier League and Championship schedule takes a week off. We hope you enjoy our Football content. We may also send occasional updates from our editorial next fa cup games. You can unsubscribe at any time.

For more information about how we hold your personal data, please see our gamse policy. Our editorial is always independent learn more The FA Cup marches on with just four teams to be left standing by the end of Sunday evening.

Southampton and Manchester City booked their places in the semi-finals following wins over Bournemouth and Everton respectively. Attention now turns to a pair of all-Premier League clashes as Leicester host Manchester United and Chelsea host Sheffield United for the final two places in the Wembley semi-finals. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will be determined to land a trophy with United to mark progress this season, while Chelsea going strong on multiple fronts as the final stretch of the season comes into view.

Those clubs joined the 32 winners from the qualifying stages of the competition, which got underway at the end of August and concluded on November 4. It will be held at the traditional venue of Wembley in London.

English FA Cup Schedule

Both networks air the final and share the rest of the competition, taking turns to select the games they wish to broadcast. All matches shown by the BBC and BT Sport will be available to stream on their respective gwmes and apps, while a number will be exclusively online. That means the games nfxt not next fa cup games being shown live on television in the Next fa cup games. FA Cup.

Everything you need to know about this season's tournament, including results in a round-by-round breakdown.

Scunthorpe United Solihull Moors. Torquay United Crawley Town.

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Friday, February 12, 2021

House managers wrap up case against Trump (Washington Post) House managers on Thursday wrapped up their case against former president Donald Trump, imploring the Senate to convict him while warning that he could stoke violence again. Trump’s legal team is poised to respond on Friday, arguing that he should be acquitted. They are expected to use only one of two allotted days. A verdict could come as early as the weekend. The developments came on the third day of an impeachment trial in which Democrats have charged Trump with “incitement of insurrection” for his role in the Jan. 6 violent takeover of the Capitol.

California Is Making Liberals Squirm (NYT) California is a remarkable place. It also has the highest poverty rate in the nation, when you factor in housing costs, and vies for the top spot in income inequality, too. The median price for a home in California is more than $700,000. As Bloomberg reported in 2019, the state has four of the nation’s five most expensive housing markets and a quarter of the nation’s homeless residents. In much of San Francisco, you can’t walk 20 feet without seeing a multicolored sign declaring that Black lives matter, kindness is everything and no human being is illegal. Those signs sit in yards zoned for single families, in communities that organize against efforts to add the new homes that would bring those values closer to reality. Poorer families—disproportionately nonwhite and immigrant—are pushed into long commutes, overcrowded housing and homelessness. Those inequalities have turned deadly during the pandemic. There is a danger—not just in California, but everywhere—that politics becomes an aesthetic rather than a program. It’s a danger on the right, where Donald Trump modeled a presidency that cared more about retweets than bills. But it’s also a danger on the left, where the symbols of progressivism are often preferred to the sacrifices and risks those ideals demand.

6 killed in 130-vehicle pileup on icy Texas interstate (AP) A massive crash involving more than 130 vehicles on an icy Texas interstate left six people dead and dozens injured Thursday amid a winter storm that dropped freezing rain, sleet and snow on parts of the U.S. At the scene of the crash on Interstate 35 near downtown Fort Worth, a tangle of semitrailers, cars and trucks had smashed into each other and had turned every which way, with some vehicles on top of others. The ice storm came as a polar vortex — swirling air that normally sits over the Earth’s poles — has moved near the U.S.-Canada border, resulting in colder weather farther south than usual, said Steve Goss, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

History of abuse for Mexican police unit in migrant massacre (AP) When state police in northern Mexico allegedly shot 19 people, including at least 14 Guatemalan migrants, to death in late January near the border with Texas, it was a tragedy that critics say authorities had been warned could come. In 2019, prosecutors charged that the same Tamaulipas state police unit, then operating under a different name, pulled eight people from their homes in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, posed them in clothing and vehicles to make them look like criminals, and shot them to death. Now, a dozen officers of the 150-member Special Operations Group, known by its Spanish initials as GOPES, have been ordered held for trial on charges they shot to death at least 14 Guatemalan migrants and two Mexicans on a rural road in the border township of Camargo. The bodies were then set afire and burned so badly that three other corpses are still awaiting identification. Authorities had ample warning of the problems in the unit, which was created last year from the remains of the special forces group accused of the 2019 killings and other atrocities. A federal legislator even filed a non-binding resolution in Mexico’s Congress in early January to protest beatings and robberies by the unit. “If back then they had done something, if any attention had been paid, perhaps today we would not be mourning the deaths of 19 people,” said Marco Antonio Mariño, vice president of the Tamaulipas Federation of Business Chambers.

Brazilian ballerina born without arms soars with her attitude (Reuters) When Vitória Bueno’s mother first dropped her off at ballet class, she worried about her five-year-old fitting in. Born without arms, Bueno’s dream of being a dancer seemed painfully unrealistic—especially in a small town in rural Brazil. But Bueno, now 16, focused on her assemblés, pirouettes and other technical challenges. She took up jazz and tap as well. Now a regular at the ballet academy in her hometown in the state of Minas Gerais, Bueno’s talent has made her a social media star and an inspiration to many. Watching her glide across the wooden stage, synchronized with her colleagues in a dazzle of green and white, it is easy to forget she dances without arms. More than just realizing a dream, the strength and flexibility gained through dance have proven crucial to Bueno, who does everything from brushing her teeth to picking items off the supermarket shelf with her feet. “There are things she can do with her feet that I can’t do with my hands,” said her stepfather, Jose Carlos Perreira. With over 150,000 Instagram followers, Bueno is glad to be a role model for others too. “We are more than our disabilities, so we have to chase our dreams,” she said, flashing a broad smile.

German children suffer from psychological issues in pandemic (AP) A new survey of children in Germany suggests that the stress and depravations of the coronavirus pandemic are taking a toll on their mental health, especially among those from underprivileged families, researchers said Wednesday. The study by the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf found about one in three German children are suffering from pandemic-related anxiety, depression or are exhibiting psychosomatic symptoms like headaches or stomach aches. Children and teenagers from poorer families and those with migrant roots are disproportionally affected, according to the study. “Children who were doing well before the pandemic and feel sheltered and comfortable within their families will get through this pandemic well,” said Ulrike Ravens-Sieberer, the head of the study and research director of the children’s psychiatric clinic at the university hospital.

Koo d’etat (Foreign Policy) Indian lawmakers are threatening to abandon Twitter in favor of Indian lookalike app Koo amid a dispute with the Silicon Valley company. The Indian government has ordered the removal of hundreds of Twitter accounts and posts in recent days over claims that users are spreading misinformation about ongoing farmer protests. On Wednesday, Twitter announced it would not comply with some takedown orders as it deemed them in contravention of Indian law. India’s IT ministry posted its displeasure with Twitter on rival app Koo, as a number of Indian leaders, including Trade Minister Piyush Goyal encouraged a Twitter exodus. The Koo app has seen a ten-fold increase in downloads as a result of the spat—a total of 3 million in the past two days.

They were accused of plotting to overthrow the Modi government. The evidence was planted, a new report says. (Washington Post) Key evidence against a group of Indian activists accused of plotting to overthrow the government was planted on a laptop seized by police, a new forensics report concludes, deepening doubts about a case viewed as a test of the rule of law under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. An attacker used malware to infiltrate a laptop belonging to one of the activists, Rona Wilson, before his arrest and deposited at least 10 incriminating letters on the computer, according to a report from Arsenal Consulting, a Massachusetts-based digital forensics firm that examined an electronic copy of the laptop at the request of Wilson’s lawyers. Many of the activists have been jailed for more than two years without trial under a stringent anti-terrorism law. Human rights groups and legal experts consider the case an attempt to suppress dissent in India, where government critics have faced intimidation, harassment and arrest during Modi’s tenure. Sudeep Pasbola, a lawyer representing Wilson, said the Arsenal report proved his client’s innocence and “destabilizes” the prosecution case against the activists. On Wednesday, Wilson’s lawyers included the report in a petition filed in the High Court of Bombay urging judges to dismiss the case against their client.

China to pull BBC News off the air, state broadcast regulator says (Washington Post) China’s broadcasting regulator has moved to pull BBC News off the air in the country over a “serious content violation,” the Chinese state news agency Xinhua reported Thursday. China’s National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) said in an announcement on its website that the broadcaster, which is partly funded by the British state but editorially independent, had “undermined China’s national interests and ethnic solidarity.” The announcement, which arrived with the Lunar New Year holiday in China, followed recent disputes between Chinese officials and BBC News. It also came just a week after Britain’s media regulator pulled the Chinese state-run television channel CGTN off British airwaves because of alleged errors in an application to transfer its license to another company. In December, BBC News produced a report that alleged the forced labor of ethnic minority Uighurs in China’s cotton industry in Xinjiang. Chinese state media bristled at the work, calling it “fake news” and accusing the BBC of political bias.

Racialized surveillance (Foreign Policy) Following numerous reports of Chinese firms, including Huawei, singling out Uighurs in facial recognition, a Los Angeles Times/IPVM investigation found that Dahua, the world’s second-largest security camera manufacturer, provides Chinese police with “real-time warning for Uighurs” and informs them of “Uighurs with hidden terrorist inclinations.” In many parts of China, being Uighur is now effectively criminalized, with the few remaining Uighur residents of cities outside Xinjiang reporting routine harassment by police. The arrival of Uighurs, even mothers with children, in a new city or town prompts the arrival of the police and actions ranging from warnings to stay in their hotel or apartment to deportation back to Xinjiang. Dahua is rolling out its race-based systems to other countries, which may have their own least favored minorities to target.

Biden Announces Myanmar Sanctions (Foreign Policy) U.S. President Joe Biden has announced U.S. sanctions against Myanmar’s military junta, ten days after the military seized absolute power and arrested members of the country’s democratically-elected leadership. Biden is to freeze $1 billion in Myanmar’s state assets held in U.S. banks, with further sanctions expected to follow against a “first round of targets” this week. But Myanmar’s generals have endured sanctions before—including recent ones over the ethnic cleansing of its Rohingya minority—and so whatever the international community can muster is unlikely to dislodge them.

Digital siege: Internet cuts become favored tool of regimes (AP) When army generals in Myanmar staged a coup last week, they briefly cut internet access in an apparent attempt to stymie protests. In Uganda, residents couldn’t use Facebook, Twitter and other social media for weeks after a recent election. And in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, the internet has been down for months amid a wider conflict. Around the world, shutting down the internet has become an increasingly popular tactic of repressive and authoritarian regimes and some illiberal democracies. Digital rights groups say governments use them to stifle dissent, silence opposition voices or cover up human rights abuses. Regimes often cut online access in response to protests or civil unrest, particularly around elections, as they try to keep their grip on power by restricting the flow of information, researchers say. Last year there were 93 major internet shutdowns in 21 countries, according to a report by Top10VPN, a U.K.-based digital privacy and security research group. The list doesn’t include places like China and North Korea, where the government tightly controls or restricts the internet.

Japan Olympics chief who said women talk too much will resign over remarks, reports say (Washington Post) The head of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee is set to resign, Japanese media reported on Thursday, after an uproar over sexist remarks he had made about women at a meeting last week. Mori, an 83-year-old former prime minister with a record of insensitive and sexist pronouncements, had tried to justify the lack of women at a senior level in the Japanese Olympic Committee by saying women talk too much at meetings and make them run on too long. The following day he apologized but showed no apparent remorse and said he had no intention of resigning. The comments provoked an unprecedented reaction in Japan, with more than 146,000 people signing an online petition calling on him to step down. Nearly 500 Olympic volunteers withdrew, and one poll found less than 7 percent of respondents thought Mori was qualified to continue in his role. The World Economic Forum ranks Japan 121st out of 153 countries in terms of gender parity, with the largest gender gap among advanced economies.

20 UN peacekeepers injured in an attack in central Mali (AP) An attack on a United Nations base in central Mali has injured at least 20 peacekeepers, the U.N. mission spokesman said Wednesday. The temporary U.N. base in Kerena, near Douentza, was the target of direct and indirect fire early Wednesday morning, Olivier Salgado said in a statement on Twitter. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Islamic extremists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group stage regular attacks on U.N. peacekeepers and soldiers.

Salesforce declares the 9-to-5 workday dead, will let some employees work remotely from now on (The Verge) Cloud computing company Salesforce is joining other Silicon Valley tech giants in announcing a substantial shift in how it allows its employees to work. In a blog post published Tuesday, the company says the “9-to-5 workday is dead” and that it will allow employees to choose one of three categories that dictate how often, if ever, they return to the office once it’s safe to do so. The company joins other tech firms like Facebook and Microsoft that have announced permanent work-from-home policies in response to the coronavirus pandemic. “As we enter a new year, we must continue to go forward with agility, creativity and a beginner’s mind—and that includes how we cultivate our culture. An immersive workspace is no longer limited to a desk in our Towers; the 9-to-5 workday is dead; and the employee experience is about more than ping-pong tables and snacks,” writes Brent Hyder, Salesforce’s chief people officer. “In our always-on, always-connected world, it no longer makes sense to expect employees to work an eight-hour shift and do their jobs successfully,” Hyder adds. “Whether you have a global team to manage across time zones, a project-based role that is busier or slower depending on the season, or simply have to balance personal and professional obligations throughout the day, workers need flexibility to be successful.”

At first cat lawyer was embarrassed. Then he realized we all could use a laugh. (Washington Post) As far as courtroom disclosures go, this one was unique: “I’m not a cat,” a Texas attorney claimed as his Zoom square displayed a fluffy white feline. At a routine civil forfeiture case hearing in Texas’ 394th Judicial District Court, Presidio County attorney Rod Ponton accidentally signed on with the cat filter, making the flummoxed attorney look like an adorable kitten. The 34-second clip of Ponton’s brief appearance as a cat immediately amused many and is becoming a viral hit. The prevalence of video chat platforms for court appearances has led to other unusual moments: A defendant in Sacramento appeared from a barber’s chair, a Florida burglary suspect tried to flirt his way out of trouble with a judge, and a lawyer in Peru was caught on camera naked after he stripped to have sex. But Tuesday’s video was the cat’s pajamas to many. Even Ponton, once he recovered from cat face and mortification, found humor in his proverbial 15 minutes of fame. “At first I was worried about it,” Ponton, 69, told The Washington Post on Tuesday, “but then I realized as it was going viral if the country could take a moment to laugh at my cat moment at my expense, I’ll take it. We’ve had a stressful year.”

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