#totally legitimate fake companies

[seanslvn]

Official sponsors of the Jetbike Grand Prix, P-T

[fuck-customers]

This is totally a dick move, but I'm doing it anyway.

I know I shouldn't- it's not right, not honest, blah, blah, blah. But if customers decide they don't want their receipt/forget to grab it, I pocket the receipts so that I can later go on the store customer review site (that requires you to input the transaction info on the receipt, which you CAN fake, but I usually use real receipts so it seems "legitimate") and submit negative reviews as a customer.

The reason for this (other than the fact that I'm petty and immature) is that I've worked at this company for years and all I get is shit on. No raise, no bonus, nothing. In fact, I'm seemingly getting punished for being here longer by having my hours completely slashed due to "budget cuts". (Because I make a whole 10 cents more an hour) on the rare days that I DO have a shift, management is on my ass to unfuck all the mistakes from the rest of the week that I wasn't here and/or wants me to completely finish go-backs that have been piling up for a week (or more) in one single 3 hour shift on top of my cashier responsibilities. The store is a dump, with messy aisles and shelves and hardly any stock on the shelves, which customers get pissed about and blame me, personally.

So, to hold onto the last thread of my sanity, if I go down, the entire garbage dump store is going with me, so I make bad reviews.

(Also sidenote: goggle and yalp reviews are scams- I tried to submit reviews on both and from my end, the reviews were posted with no problems, then I checked back a week or so later, filtered most to least recent and they were not there at all)

Posted by admin Rodney.

[tangibletechnomancy]

Saw someone earlier say that the popular millennial/early gen Z reaction to AI tech is very comparable to Gen X-ish's reactions to GMOs, and...I can no longer find that post but I can't help but feel that to be true on a lot of levels.

As stated in that post, both technologies have their very legitimate problems - with GMOs, it's Monsanto being fucking evil and trying to monopolize plants and food, or GMO herbicide resistance being used so that major corporate farms can saturate the land with said herbicides without any short-term financial damage to the companies as if it doesn't harm the environment; with AI, it's any form of automation always appealing to the most abusive of corporate greed - but both ended up whipped into a dogmatic fervor about something completely not only irrelevant but made-up and reactionary ("GMOs are all POISON, nature knows best ALWAYS!" - which led semi-directly to the antivaxx movement btw / "it doesn't matter how different it is from the input taking inspiration from existing works the WRONG way is PLAGIARISM, you're rewarding LAZINESS, and REAL ART vs. FAKE ART is totally an objective distinction that can be made and certainly not at all a fascist talking point, and I want art made by HUMANS, the humans running these programs to express something from their human brains don't count!"), completely ignoring that GMOs have reduced world hunger and given us valuable conservation tools, and AI is giving people - real people, not machines - more expressive capacity, serving as a valuable research tool into what kinds of things people tend to associate, justly or otherwise; and even being used to augment human judgment for things such as reviewing biopsy results, finding cancers that otherwise may have gone unnoticed for months or even years longer. In fact, many opponents will full on deny any of these benefits - "what good does reducing hunger do if we haven't eliminated it completely AND we're feeding people POISON? In fact, why should I even believe that really happened in the first place!? if you wanted laypeople to be able to read these studies you wouldn't have made them so complicated, you CLEARLY have something to hide!" the anti-GMO warrior asks; "I don't believe those people who are so severely disabled that they couldn't draw or write without AI REALLY exist, your meditation on the nature of data doesn't COUNT, I don't care how many hours you spent on that piece you're TOTALLY being lazy, and I refuse to believe anyone who points out that it's not a copy-paste machine because you CLEARLY have an AGENDA to lie" the anti-AI reactionary claims. Both hold to a belief that ignorance is a virtue, and even TRYING to understand the Bad Side is tantamount to shoving orphans into a wood chipper.

But I'd take it a step further and say that AI is serving a similar sociopolitical purpose in that it's drawing a line in the sand and asking progressives at a certain stage in life - mostly from the ages of 25-35 - "are you willing to acknowledge nuance around subjects that are new and scary to you, or are you going to give into that fear and treat ignorance as a virtue because there ARE undeniably bad things about this and therefore EVERY bad thing you can imagine about it must be true?" Both serve as, essentially, an acid test - will you declare that it's IMPOSSIBLE to be reckless with GMOs, that Monsanto DESERVES to have sole control over the world's food supply because ~they've done so much good~, or that all GMOs are EVIL POISON and GOING TO KILL US ALL and they're also TOTALLY the reason we're all FAT now which is THE WORST thing a person can be? Or are you going to acknowledge that Monsanto is fucking evil, but GMOs as a whole are a complex thing that can, indeed, be created and marketed in some pretty evil ways, but also have the potential to save countless lives? Will you declare that AI is True Sentient AI, the cyber-utopia becoming real; that everything ChatGPT says must be true and OpenAI is our best friend, or that REAL art by HUMANS is going to be destroyed forever and anyone who benefits from AI is inherently evil? Or will you acknowledge that AI, while it has its drawbacks in the form of corporate overpromising people and compromising information reliability by doing so, on top of the perennial labor issues that come with automation and other potential abuses, also has the capacity to dramatically improve and even potentially save lives? Will you work to save the good WHILE rejecting the bad, or will you insist it needs to be shoved in either the good box or the bad box - probably the bad box, if you're an adult?

The answer, I feel, says a lot about the ideological trajectory someone has chosen for their adulthood.

[ms-all-sunday]

Sanji didn't mind being out for watch during the nighttime- he usually got early night shifts so he could get enough sleep in the morning before preparing everyone's breakfast, usually for that time at least the Marimo was awake and then he'd have some amount of company, but for tonight he was all alone. Smoking as a blanket laid haphazardly over his body and a pillow behind his back.

The cool air of night hung around him in the crows nest and for a brief moment the merry- a ship with a notoriously loud crew even by Sanjis standards, was slient.

Only for a moment.

"Cook. Do you mind if I join you?"

"Robin?"

She poked her head above the entrance to the latter, just enough that you could see her eyes from under her bangs and the top of the bridge of her nose.

"Sorry. Did I come at a bad time?"

"No! I'm just surprised. It's cold and you don't usually stay up this late."

"Hm. Well. I'm up here now. You wouldn't mind company?"

He looked suspiciously at her. "... I wouldn't."

Robin is wearing a coat over her nightgown, which makes her look a bit less ghostly than usual. Would Sanji have to share his blankets? Yes. And he doesn't mind, he runs hot anyways. The only thing he regrets is not getting another pillow as Robin settles down across from him, the blanket covering all of the floor of the crows nest.

"I admit that this conversation isn't totally on a whim, I wanted to ask you something before we next to the next island."

The shipbuilding island.

He nods. "Anything for you."

"No, that's exactly it. Why don't you flirt with me like you do a lot of other women? I'm not complaining.

Well. Hm, that isn't exactly the whole truth is it? It's more complicated than that.

Regardless, you don't seem like you expect anything romantic from me or have romantic feels for me at all, I'm curious about that. You're so committed, I never thought your dedication would waver in this respect."

Sanji looked surprised and took a drag of his cigarette.

"Okayyy, for one, I do have a crush on you."

"Then why-"

"I'm insulted that you would think I didn't."

"Yes. Okay. Sorry. Regardless, that only makes the question more interesting."

"I don't seem like I have romantic feelings for you, I would guess, because... Uh."

Why does he do that? Why put a thin veil over being attracted to Robin and nobody else?

"You're smart and funny and it'd be a shame to limit myself when talking to you."

"Nami is smart and funny."

Sanji laughs and Robin smiles.

"Nami is different you know that. I mean that I don't have any chance with you, so thinking about our relationship from a romantic angle is... Unhelpful? Even though I have a crush on you doesn't mean I think flirting regardless of anything is appropriate. I have to know when to apply it to a conversation. It's like a seasoning. Plus, there's more to admire if I don't limit myself to flirting with you. Being friends is better on all accounts."

"Friends where one of them is in love with the other. Understandable. I honestly thought any romantic... vibes? I got where just apart of the rouse that you do."

He sputters. "It's not an act! Not fake-"

"Yes. I've mentioned your interactions with Nami once in this conversation already, do you want me to cite my sources beyond that or do we just want to leave it at that? Sorry, maybe it would be better to call it an excuse with her-"

"It's kind of a rouse, fine, contextually! It wasn't a rouse with you. I'm legitimately in love with you. It's kind of fucking hard not to be."

"Oh? How so?"

"Why is it, that when I tell the women I have crushes on that I'm in love with them, they don't believe me?"

She smirks. "You have a type, clearly."

Sanji takes a deep breath. "You're elegant, your voice calms me down, you're funny, you're unbelievably strong, you're insightful, you help me even though I don't ask for it, you know things about me that nobody else does and for once in my fucking lifetime I'm actually okay with none of my defences working against another person in the same way I am with Luffy. But he's him. And you're you. Different."

If the lighting was better, Sanji could see Nico Robin blush.

"Thank you."

"My pleasure. You believe me now?"

"I do. Somehow I thought it would be more surface level than that."

"People have been telling me I give off that vibe recently. I've gotta fucking change that."

...

"I want to sit next to you."

"Sure."

Sanji moves to sit next to Robin. She remains taller than him, even sitting down, by the few inches difference between them. She has an indescribable expression on her face, it seems distant. Maybe longing. There are a million words she wants to say and they all die in her throat.

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No." She says softly. I did.

"You can lean into me if you want."

She does.

The texture of his dress-shirt was softer than she'd have imagined. She can't cry in front of him- none of this was planned out in her head.

Just get curiosity out of the way. This is the way it has to go- she tells herself. And despite intending it as comfort, the words in her head only twist the knife deeper inside her.

Making her want to cry more.

And so she does, softly, in the exact way Sanji can't see or hear but he can feel. While her mind is elsewhere, she can't realize she's being held.

[afreakingdork]

Had a silly thought.

WS!Donnie going to a meeting, and because he's in a hurry he doesn't notice the lipstick stain WS!Reader left on his face, until someone points it out.

Oh he'd wear it like a fucking badge of pride!

For real though, he's totally done this before, not even with reader. In the lab (i.e. his legitimate government funded business), as we've seen with Spencer (who's title is Senior Demonstrations Supervisor), prospective companies, their representatives, contractors, and the like all get walked through the lab on occasion. This means that if Donnie is in house (or required to be there because of it), he will have to show face to some extent. He's totally had issues before where Spencer will make note that a client is particularly thirsty or the like and there's something enticing about the recluse who's mind seemingly cannot be changed. He deters this in many ways, he totally has a fake wedding ring stashed somewhere, but sometimes finding the illusion is broken and you can't nab the un-nab-able also works. You come in a bit dishelved, make it look as though you've walked a walk of shame and have a memento that you are a playboy? We know Donnie is good at disguise and make-up and doing something like that to clear his time is absolutely within his wheelhouse.

But as I said, if it was from reader? Nah, that's just another sign of his mate and he wants to possess them in every sense of the word to show the world what's his!

[standupcomedyhistorian]

Hey, everyone!

I know this doesn't have anything to do with comedy, but I just wanted to bring awareness to some weird phishing thing that happened to me today.

So I have been looking for a new job as a proofreader, and I applied for a few remote positions on Indeed and LinkedIn.

Anyway, I got a totally sketchy text this morning from Chegg Inc. saying I'd be perfect for their Remote Proofreader/Editor position. I quickly looked up the company name, found it was a legitimate textbook business, and thought "why not try for it?"

So I got on Skype and went thru the WEIRDEST "interview" I have ever been on.

Now, I know that some companies are using texting in early-stage interviews (you know, that point where they are just checking that you are a human lol), so I figured this made some sense. But everything about this felt off. The dude's profile picture was just a bunch of guys partying (not very professional), and the texts sent to me felt like a bot was chatting with me—real uncanny valley.

So I answered 12 questions that seemed like standard interview ones (what do you do if you make a mistake? Why did you get into proofreading?), but question nine had "Poofrading" instead of "Proofreading" (I pointed out this error in my reply).

Once that was done, the scambot said I seem like a perfect fit and then asked for some basic info so they could send me equipment (expensive stuff like a MacBook Pro that I couldn't afford). I gave them my name, address, phone and email (all basic stuff that's publicly available). They also asked for my bank's name, so I told them that (no question about an account number or SSN since that would be too suspicious, I guess).

After that, the bot said to be back at 8am tomorrow for the orientation.

It then said do you have any questions. I was like, yes...is this a contract or permanent position? And what health insurance do you have?

So the bot said it's a part-time and full-time job that is permanent or you can quit when you want (REALLY confusing answer there). It never answered my question about health insurance, which seems like a pretty simple query.

Anyway, after that WEIRD exchange on Skype, I messaged my sister and was like I need to talk to you NOW. I think I'm being scammed.

While waiting for her to reply (she's on the West coast and I'm near Philly), I quickly looked up this company in my spreadsheet of jobs to see if I'd applied to it and forgotten (nope!) and then searched on Chegg's website to see if such a job had been posted (nuh-uh).

So anyway, that's my story with fake recruiters. It seems that phishing has come a LONG way since Nigerian princes...I'm just glad I caught on before I got too invested or spent money I didn't have.

Has anyone else been through this sort of experience? I'd love to know I'm not the only naive knucklehead out there haha ✌🏼🐔

[fintradetecsolution]

 Educating Policyholders About Insurance Fraud Risks

Introduction: 

Insurance fraud is a serious and growing problem worldwide, costing billions of dollars annually. It affects not only insurance companies but also policyholders, as fraudulent claims drive up premiums and undermine trust in the industry. Educating policyholders about the risks of insurance fraud is critical to ensuring they are aware of potential scams and can take steps to protect themselves. This article will explore the types of insurance fraud, its impact on the industry, and key tips to help policyholders safeguard themselves from becoming victims or unintentional accomplices.

1. Understanding Insurance Fraud: Types and Examples

Insurance fraud occurs when individuals or entities deceive an insurer for financial gain. It can be perpetrated by policyholders, insurance agents, or third parties. 

Hard Fraud: This involves intentionally creating or orchestrating an accident to collect on an insurance claim. Examples include pretending to be in a car accident, deliberately setting fire to property, or inventing a medical injury. Hard fraud is intentional and often carries criminal intent.

Soft Fraud: Soft fraud, commonly referred to as "opportunistic fraud," involves the inflation or distortion of a legitimate claim. For instance, a policyholder involved in a minor car accident might inflate the repair costs or assert additional injuries to receive a larger payout. Although this type of fraud may seem less harmful, it is still illegal and contributes to rising insurance premiums.

Common Types of Insurance Fraud

Auto Insurance Fraud: Includes staged accidents, exaggerated repair claims, or fake injuries following a car crash.

Health Insurance Fraud: Involves billing for medical services not provided, inflating healthcare costs, or filing false claims for unnecessary procedures.

Life Insurance Fraud: This can involve filing claims using forged death certificates, faking one’s death, or purchasing policies with the intent of committing fraud.

Property Insurance Fraud: Policyholders may intentionally damage their property or inflate repair costs after an event like a fire, theft, or natural disaster.

Understanding the different forms of insurance fraud helps policyholders stay vigilant and avoid unknowingly participating in fraudulent activities.

2. The Impact of Insurance Fraud on Policyholders

Insurance fraud is not a victimless crime. Its consequences apply to all policyholders. The financial cost of fraud is usually passed on to customers in the shape of higher premiums. Furthermore, insurance companies may tighten claim processing standards, causing delays or even denials of genuine claims.

The Cost of Fraud

Insurance fraud is estimated to cost the global industry billions of dollars annually. This financial burden is ultimately transferred to policyholders through higher premiums. The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud reports that fraud constitutes 5-10% of total industry costs in the United States, significantly driving up the price of coverage.

Beyond the financial impact, insurance fraud undermines trust in the system. Policyholders may become wary of insurers, fearing that their legitimate claims will be scrutinized or rejected. Additionally, fraud can lead to more complicated claims processes, requiring additional documentation or verification steps to reduce the risk of false claims.

3. How Policyholders Can Protect Themselves

Educating policyholders about how to identify and prevent insurance fraud is crucial to reducing the overall impact of fraud on the industry. 

A. Be Wary of Inflated Claims

One of the most common forms of fraud occurs when policyholders exaggerate their claims. While it may be tempting to inflate the value of a claim, even slightly, it is illegal and can lead to serious consequences. Policyholders should always be honest when filing claims and provide accurate documentation for losses or damages.

B. Work with Reputable Providers and Agents

Policyholders should always verify that they are working with licensed, reputable insurance agents and companies. Scammers often pose as legitimate agents or create fake companies to collect premiums without providing coverage. It is essential to check the credentials of any insurance agent or broker and ensure they are properly licensed with state or national insurance regulatory bodies.

C. Be Cautious of Fraudulent Schemes

There are several common schemes that target policyholders. These include staged accidents, fraudulent claims for injuries, and phony medical bills. Policyholders should be cautious if they are approached by individuals encouraging them to participate in suspicious claims. Participating in fraud, even unknowingly, can result in criminal charges, fines, and the loss of insurance coverage.

D. Keep Accurate Records

To prevent fraudulent claims or disputes, policyholders should maintain accurate records of their insurance policies, payments, and claims. Keeping a copy of the original policy, documentation of valuables, and receipts for any repairs or services can help ensure that claims are handled smoothly and prevent false claims from being filed.

E. Report Suspicious Activity

If a policyholder suspects that they are being targeted by a fraudster or observes suspicious activity related to insurance, they should report it to their insurance company or the relevant authorities immediately. Many insurers have fraud hotlines or dedicated teams that investigate fraudulent claims. Reporting fraud helps protect other policyholders and prevents the spread of fraudulent activities.

4. Insurance Fraud Prevention: 

The business and government authorities work together to combat insurance fraud. Insurers are increasingly adopting modern technologies, including as artificial intelligence and data analytics, to detect fraudulent claims early on. By examining trends and red flags in claims data, insurers may detect possible fraud and take action to investigate and avoid settlements.

Governments also play a crucial role in combating fraud. Many countries have laws that impose stiff penalties for committing insurance fraud, including fines, imprisonment, and the loss of coverage. Regulatory agencies often work in partnership with insurers to detect and prevent fraud through audits, investigations, and enforcement actions.

A. Technology in Fraud Detection

With advancements in technology, insurance companies are leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) algorithms to identify suspicious claims. These tools analyze large datasets to identify patterns indicative of fraud, such as multiple claims from the same individual or exaggerated claims involving the same repair shop.

B. Public Awareness Campaigns

Governments and industry organizations often run public awareness campaigns to educate consumers about the dangers of insurance fraud. These campaigns aim to inform the public about common fraud schemes, how to spot them, and the consequences of committing or participating in fraud.

Conclusion : 

Insurance fraud is a severe problem for both the insurance sector and its clients. It increases premiums, complicates the claims procedure, and weakens faith in the system. We can reduce the impact of fraud on the industry by alerting policyholders about the risks and giving them with the tools they need to protect themselves. To ensure that insurance remains a reliable and reasonable financial resource for everybody, policyholders must be vigilant, honest, and take the initiative to report any suspicious activity.

[seanslvn]

Official sponsors of the Jetbike Grand Prix, T-Z

[inchidentally]

I am so glad you always give a breakdown bc my dumbass brain needs it and I want to give my takeaways to honor this exquisite work:

the higher than average number of landoscar fic being public - to me at least - has a LOT to do with landoscar fandom getting ahead of rpf truthing and being supportive of Lily for as long as the landoscar ship has been popular. which is esp interesting bc her accs have been private for a long time and Oscar didn't start consistently posting her on his own until after the first break of the season I think? their holiday in the Algarve(?) was the first time a lot of ppl will have even known he had a gf. so not only has fandom never created an agenda to ever try and 'remove' Lily at any point, her presence has never dampened landoscar's rise in popularity even among new F1blr fans.

there's also almost always an existing friendship or a foundation of friendship to landoscar fic and not very much of the usual rinse-repeat insert-names-here type of fic for other ships. it's often extremely specific to the Lando and Oscar's personalities and foundation of getting to know each other. as in, when no one is trying to tie themselves in knots to make an rpf ship "real" it leaves them more open to actually focusing on the real people behind the ship. all of the most intense rpf truther ships end up being pretty similar bc the mental gymnastics and suspension of disbelief needed to erase existing real life partners and viewing jokey gay bromance behavior as legitimately queer is the exact same process every time.

so landoscar fic authors always approach writing Lando and Oscar from a "what if?" perspective rather than a fandom agenda has felt so much more compelling to me as a reader bc the authors don't need to abandon Lando and Oscar's real personalities to write them in different narratives.

I’m extremely intrigued by that 'generational' aspect of ships, esp ones where the teammate partnerships began when DTS started - vs landoscar having arisen and grown totally outside of DTS influence (and not even seen as worthy of a rivalry storyline). to me that's also significant when you consider that McLaren’s social media and PR dropped off sharply right after Singapore and before the double podiums and never rly picking back up to this day. the focus has been on Lando and Oscar individually but rarely together since late summer 2023. super interesting since Lando and Oscar's relationship has only grown warmer and more relaxed from then until now.

all meaning that as landoscar was growing in popularity, tptb had mostly stopped pushing it compared to other teams who’s drivers are considered at all compatible and fan friendly. both carlando and dando grew in tandem with direct pushes from official McLaren, F1, broadcasting networks and sponsors' social media as well as a concerted effort at cultivating a bromance from Lando/Carlos and Lando/Daniel themselves.

which is why the fact that landoscar has given a 5+ year ship like carlando a run for its money in under a year is wild when you remember that the PR machine for carlando has always been a work horse/cash cow and their ship name is literally corporate engagement currency. the latest F1TV challenge and cross-promotion with Lando's .mov account and his dad's scooter company proved the power of engagement it still has despite an almost total lack of interaction between Singapore '23 and Aus '24.

the fact that Lando and Oscar do absolutely zero fake gay (and barely physically touch) and have not pushed a conscious bromance at all - and that they are both openly competitive with each other without being falsely apologetic or toxic - is what makes the steep rise in ao3 content the most staggering to me tbh ?? Oscar in particular has shown no interest in forcing an inauthentic image of himself on the public and Lando has actually followed suit with a change in approach to his own social media and engagement (less clowning around and hyperactivity, more focused and creative).

they've had the least marketing investment made of any of Lando's teammates and have had a non-stop contingent who are willing them to hate each other. so all that landoscar authors and readers have had to go on is the very unedited and un-camera ready way that Lando and Oscar interact.

like, it's genuinely fascinating bc I'm someone who has always gotten into fandoms via the most popular bromance/rpf ship and I'm 100% gullible for content even when I know it's being spoon fed to me. so I'm absolutely one of the ideal test subjects for the trends in this data !! bc not only has landoscar ended up outstripping all my other F1 ships by many miles, I've actually ventured into writing for them myself despite feeling huge anxiety over trying to write fic.

and yet somehow landoscar is also the least pandered to I've ever been with rpf.

also stupid side note re the rankings of additional tags gives me a lot of validation for my terrible and cobbled together astrology post for landoscar I made last year that in cases where Lando and Oscar accept/admit attraction to each other they fuck immediately and fuck furiously. apparently we all know it's written in the stars for them.

landoscar ao3 stats — 2023 overview

notes

retrieved ~sometime in march 2024

methodology: scraped metadata for every fic in the landoscar tag and...... that's it. however one important constraint is that all temporal data is date updated (not posted), so the above timeline isn't exactly a true representation of fic growth but rather how many fics were last-updated at that time. of course this is still its own reflection of fandom health in a way since dead fandoms don't update old fic but well... it's just not quite the same!

this is just info about general trends, fic content, tags etc... so nothing about kudos/comments or any authors specifically

i decided to focus solely on fics last-updated in 2023 (unless otherwise mentioned) because i wanted a tidy set that i can maybe compare & contrast in a year's time, because i expect a lot of details to look different then (tho as stated above this set isn't exactly static... 🤷‍♀️)

ngl i had to re-scrape a bunch of times because i forgot about it for like 3 weeks and then there were 100 new fics 😭 so if there are some minor discrepancies across the post it's because of that halfskh.

also i wanted to include more global comparisons (aka how 814 stack up against the f1 rpf tag in general), but this is also considerably difficult in some contexts since i can't exactly scrape 31,000+ fics can i... or i didn't even want to entertain the thought of trying to do so!!!

why did i do this? who knows.

anyway here's some viz T__T

ship growth

as evidenced in the opening graph, landoscar have been a very fast-growing ship over the past year — although interestingly enough they didn't really start growing substantially until july / the ~better half~ of the 2023 season. here are two views showing their "growth" (by date updated) alongside two other ships on the fringes of the f1 rpf top 10 (sebchal & galex):

landoscar are very much on-track to surpass them and officially enter the top 10 soon, likely before mid-april ❗️ :o

ship characteristics

onto the ship content — another thing i was mildly curious about was how landoscar differs in certain areas from other f1 ships, or the f1 rpf "global" average you could say. for example, here's a breakdown of rating popularity in their ao3 tag:

seeing as explicit is their most common rating, and that i don't necessarily expect this to be true for all ships/fandoms, i compared these percentages with the general f1 rpf tag to see whether some ratings are more commonly represented in 814 fic than average, which produced interesting results:

do lando ships simply skew more HornyTM in general? is it oscar? a secret third thing??? who knows... actually i think it would be fun to do more analysis in this direction but that can wait for another time!!!

similarly i also wanted to see which ships are the most "public" on ao3, as in have the highest share of fic that isn't user-locked... i will refrain from peppering in my feelings about the 4th wall too heavy-handedly but i was curious to see whether some sort of perhaps... er, generational gap (?) of sorts between ships that are more public vs. not could be identified. however i don't pretend to have any takeaways from this LOL i conclude absolutely nothing. (for ref landoscar is currently 72% public, vs. a global avg of 63%)

note that this graph is current stats, not filtered for 2023

looking at relationship tags, i also wanted to know whether landoscar suffer noticeably from Second-Ship Syndrome, so i tallied the first-tagged ship of every fic to find out. i know this doesn't necessarily mean that it's always the "main" ship but it's a good enough approximation. the results were quite positive!

filtered to top ships with count of >1 only

i then also calculated the number of ships tagged for each fic to discern the profile of multi-shipping in 814 ficdom; i did have to do a little bit of string standardization (all instances of implied / background / hinted collapsed to hinted for simplicity's sake + removal of other redundancies), but otherwise i left everything mostly untouched.

as you can see, landoscar also have a fairly promising amount of OTP: TRUE fic:

by the time you get to the fics with 10+ ships tagged, landoscar are less likely to be the primary ship, which makes sense just on a basic statistical level... this is also a very small sample size though

i also lazily tallied the 10 most common ships that weren't NOR/PIA or NOR & PIA to diff their shares of the 814 tag vs. of the general f1 rpf tag, to see which other pairings are more represented in the 814 tag than on average (because lestappen are the most popular by pure count but this is also true of fandom in general, so it would be a misrepresentation to say that their popularity is out of the ordinary):

maxiel's gap isn't really that surprising since i think that, generationally, in terms of when both pairings were teammates there is quite a gap; with carlando—actually let me tally this again but including all instances of "implied" and "past" as being part of the same ship, since that's how ao3 tag-wrangles as well:

Aha ! obviously as a direct ship there is competition between 814 and other lando or oscar ships, but this difference is somewhat less pronounced once we include all formats. tbh none of this really means anything but i thought i'd add it anyway... (it's also very possible that there are several errors in this, in which case my b 😔)

before we move on to additional tags, there are a few more basic characteristics of 814 fic we can calculate. i realize i never offered an overview of Super Basic Stats, so here are a few:

plus, looking at word counts, here is a distribution of those in 2023-updated fic, which shows that a majority of 814 fics were under the 5k mark:

85% of landoscar fics were under 10k & nearly 97% under 25k

i don't really have any reason to believe that landoscar's wc stats differ significantly from average ? so this is kind of just Data To Have Data, and it most likely reflects normal ao3 trends in general... but i thought i'd include it anyway because i already made it lol. similarly, here are word count distributions but stratified by rating:

& same info but heat map view:

i feel like this is also probably something you'd find across fandom in general — that gen fic is likely to have a higher share of under 1k works, since Building Up to sexual content often takes... Literal & Metaphorical Foreplay ! and the longer a fic is the more opportunities an author has to include a sex scene or other explicit content (ofc, not necessarily just porn but also graphic violence & so on). but i thought this was fun to visualize haha

additional tags & aus?

back in my old f1 rpf stats post, i made a table comparing fluff/angst "ratios" (not exactly a direct ratio because of how tag wrangling works, but an approximation) of the most popular f1 ships, and now that landoscar are somewhat popular i thought i'd first do an update:

also current data, not 2023 to make things easier

just like before, simi are one of the most fluffy ships and brocedes are by far the most angsty, but it's interesting to see 814 also extremely high up on the charts, with far and away the lowest % of angst. will be exciting 2 see how that holds or changes as the seasons progress !

finally, i also wanted to do a bit of au/additional tag analysis because you can kind of see this when you use additional filters on ao3 but the previews are limited and get bogged down by the prevalence of *checks notes* Fluff, Angst, PWP, Anal Sex and what have you. which are nice stats to have and all but what of the rest !

disclaimer that the set for these tables is a biiiit outdated because by the time i'd wrangled everything i was like I Am Not Changing It Again. unfortunately i clean my data with shoddy queries and regex functions in googsheetz...

there were 48 tags with at least 10 instances from 2023 fics, shown below, with ones that are (some ~vaguely) nsfw in red just to kind of get a rough sense of which tags get commonly used in M/E fic:

getting a bit too much into small sample size / specific fic territory so if you're an author i sincerely apologize for that... do not mean 2 put u on blast... TT__TT but i also tried to tally the most popular aus people write for 814, which is a bit dubious because people tag in really different ways and i had to accommodate for a lot of string formats but ... it's close enough ! (?)

i feel like this is very little interesting info but idk what else to add so i will stop here for now... well!!! if you made it to the end i hope u learned something or even vaguely enjoyed reading T__T and most of all thank you :')

[seanslvn]

Official sponsors of the Jetbike Grand Prix, J-O

[lisa-widlake]

debunk of a SCAM [ La Comercíal Minería S.A (LCM) ]

A friend of mine received an unsolicited job offer from this company and asked me if it was legitimate or a scam.

It's a professional job scam, not the usual typical Indian or Chinese attempts.

It took me a bit to investigate them and I could not find anything when I looked for this company. I'm putting this out there in the hope that if someone Google them in the future, they can find something online.

If you are reading this, be aware that:

"La Comercíal Minería S.A (LCM)" is a scam most likely related to money laundry and they are trying to make you a Money Mule https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2021/PSA211203

Do not engage further in any communication with them; block their number and their email.

There are several red flags that you probably have already spotted or that your gut is telling you about just based on their emails. I will now focus only on the 'technical' parts to provide some more solid proof.

■ 🚩 The HR that contacted you,

Lisa Widlake l.widlake@lacommercialminera.com Director Peoples and Organisation Resources | La Comercíal Minería S.A

It's a fake. Although you can find her on their website, the photo is stolen:

Screenshot of their site: Lisa Wildlake https://archive.is/t1HZ5 https://lacommercialminera.com/leadership.html https://lacommercialminera.com/assets/images/custom/lisa-ld.png

Screenshot from University of Salford, Manchester Dr. Anjana Basnet https://archive.is/qtAtp https://www.salford.ac.uk/our-staff/anjana-basnet

■ 🚩 They claim to have been in the market since 1998 with this name, but the domain was only registered on September 24, 2023. https://who.is/whois/lacommercialminera.com https://archive.is/3k1uk

■ 🚩 At first glance, the website seems nice and professional, but upon closer inspection, it's shallow and merely a superficial cover. Their privacy section is an example: https://archive.is/tZfrh https://www.lacommercialminera.com/privacy.pdf

■ 🚩 The emails you received from them, are copy/paste from other scams with few changes, you can find an example here: https://stopscamfraud.com/viewtopic.php?t=28427

■ 🚩 For reference, I'll copy/paste three (of several) emails they sent:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear [redacted],

I am employed with La Comercal Minera S.A. I'm getting in touch with you about the open post of regional and national representative in your nation.

Given your credentials and prior work history, we would like to let you know that you are among our top choices for the position. This is a part-time position that will be performed remotely. The schedule will be created such that it doesn't conflict with your present working hours and gives you a work-life balance.

Please get in touch with me for further information, and I'll send you an email with all the required information, including the job description and pay scale.

I sincerely hope that our organization and its partners in your region and nation will greatly benefit from your experience.

best wishes,

Lisa Widlake, PhD.

La Comercíal Minería S.A.

Lisa Widlake

PhD.

Director Peoples and Organisation Resources | La Comercíal Minería S.A

mobilePhone +56 65 2562796 emailAddress l.widlake@lacommercialminera.com website https://lacommercialminera.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear [redacted],

Thank you for expressing your interest to be our Regional Executive Representative, it is not a random email. I am delighted to say that your profile matches what we are looking for.

The La Comercíal Minería S.A is investing in new technologies to become more sustainable and support the United Nations General Assembly climate change goals. Mining projects are incorporating desalination and renewable energy to reduce their carbon footprints. By 2025, La Comercíal Minería S.A estimates that 63 percent of electricity will come from clean energy sources. Water consumption in the mining sector is less than four percent of the total compared to 72 percent in the agricultural sector, and approximately three quarters of water is recirculated. Mining companies are also deploying automation and remote operations technologies to improve efficiency and safety.

As part of our effort in reducing the carbon footprints, La Comercíal Minería S.A   is expanding to your region and seeking to hire a team of experienced professionals to represent the company in your region. The ideal candidates will be responsible for overseeing and building projects aspects of the subsidiary's operations with the aim of providing affordable, high-quality renewable energies to communities, primarily through building eco-friendly plants in your region, especially maintaining effective communications with investors on behalf of the company. When operations commence, the representative will work closely with local stakeholders to develop and implement strategies that meet the unique needs of the region market.

Job: Regional / Country Representative

Highly Successful Mineral retailer

Location: Remote

Salary: US$15,000 P/M, + US$5000.00 annual car allowance

Benefits: 4% matched pension, income protection, private health plan plus amazing benefits and discounts for you and your family.

Highly successful, forward thinking global mineral business, focused on quality of service and products.

This is a great time to join the company to use your experience and skills to help the company change and evolve whilst benefitting from the company’s growth opportunities.

The Role:

With outlets throughout the World, new sites continually being launched and further expansion throughout both in Chile and internationally, the company have a unique quality offering that is delivering the most amazing results.

You will be supporting the performance of outlets across your region whilst working with the Regional Director and Investors to deliver the strategic plan.

Responsibilities:

To deliver the successful opening and ongoing operation of new outlets within your Region.

Contribute to the success of the business by carrying out any reasonable request from your regional director, including participation in development of new project work where applicable.

Ensure impeccable brand standards are adhered to in your region, with a particular focus on product availability and quality.

Provide insight, feedback, and recommendations to the Regional Director in order to influence the direction of Operations and the Business strategy in developing green industry development.

Deliver against any allocated projects on time, and to standard.

Utilise operational knowledge to deliver a budget beating performance.

Demonstrates an ability to lead individuals and teams through change, providing clarity of direction to their direct reports and wider team.

Demonstrates an ability to prioritise personal workload to ensure that they deploy their time to provide the highest value for our business.

Maintains a robust operational knowledge of your outlets.

Background:

Previous experience in participating in project development.

Ability to utilise available data and resources to inform decision making and drive performance.

Experience of remote leadership at scale – leading and line managing across multiple sites/spans of control

Demonstrable organisation skills and ability to plan for the short, mid and long term.

Experience in developing talent and succession

Ability to implement successfully new project initiatives thoroughly and successfully.

Fully confident with financials and systems with an ability to demonstrate a thorough commercial understanding of multi-site management.

Salary Package:

The salary for this role is US$15,000 P/M, + US$5000.00 annual car allowance, numerous exciting benefits, pension, discounts, healthcare and the ability to grow and progress your career as the company continues its exciting growth journey. On the successful completion of any investment funding from an investor that would be assigned to you, will earn you an additional commission of 2% of the total contract sum.

If you feel you have the right experience, then please send your CV., (Resume) and the below information to enable us prepare the contract documents for onward submission to our Board of Directors for its consideration.

Full name:

Address:

Telephone Number:

Best regards,

Lisa Widlake

PhD.

Director Peoples and Organisation Resources | La Comercíal Minería S.A

mobilePhone +56 65 2562796 emailAddress l.widlake@lacommercialminera.com website https://lacommercialminera.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hi [redacted],

Following your recent application for the above position, I am delighted to advise that you have been shortlisted for an interview.

The interview will take place via telephonic conversation and last for circa 30 minutes. Preferably choose a Tuesday or Friday date.

To schedule a convenient date and time for the interview, visit: https://calendar.app.google/[redacted] to arrange an interview appointment.

Your interview will be one or two of the following peoples.

Katie Dick – Programme Lead

Candice John – Principal Lead

Andy Hunter – Senior Advisor

Diane MacHenry – Programme Lead

It will be a standard question and answer interview, you will also need to prepare a short 10 minutes verbal presentation in which you will explain a detail plan of how to lead a diverse team in a multi diverse society. I would advise that you read global human resources management practices as well as information around building an effective team.

Choose a time for this meeting.

Click on the time you want, after which you should enter your name, email address and click book. On your screen, you will see that a notification has been sent to your email. The available times are in Chile local time.

Let me know if you have any questions and e-mail me once you have booked the appointment.

If there are any reasonable adjustments you require for the interview then please do let us know in advance.

Best regards,

Lisa Widlake

PhD.

Director Peoples and Organisation Resources | La Comercíal Minería S.A

mobilePhone +56 65 2562796 emailAddress l.widlake@lacommercialminera.com website https://lacommercialminera.com/

[mightymove]

Packers and Movers: Your Ticket to Stress-Free Moving

There are many reputable Hassle free  Packers and Movers Delhi. When approaching one, before hiring  home shifting, office relocation, furniture shifting services in India you have to ask a few important questions from them. The moment you are provided with satisfactory answers you can trust the services of that company.

This will help in narrowing your search. You can also hire the service of potential company.

IBA Approved  license

It is best to check and enquire about the company with Verified IBA Approved  license. This will help you ensure that they are legitimate or not. This should always be the first step when you approach any top home relocation services in India. If the company is established they should provide you with all documents related to their registration.

Read Review

Any genuine company will always maintain their genuine customer base. You can collect references and Read  of past satisfied customers Review  and speak to them about their experience.  If you get a very positive response from past customers then the services can be trusted.

Simply relying on website reviews may sometimes not prove very much helpful as reviews online can be faked easily.

Experience Company

When selecting any home shifting in India services you have to enquire about the total number of years they have been in business. A new company will definitely not provide with best service as compared to experienced one. A company that has been providing with years of service will definitely hold their experience to handle customers best.

Company address

Avoid doing business with any company that is not willing to provide you with their permanent address. There are chances that once you have made the payment they may not provide you with service. A  packers and movers in India which is willing to provide with their permanent address can be trust worthy. This will also help you check out with the company via references.

[seanslvn]

Official sponsors of the Jetbike Grand Prix, D-J

[theartcollectornews]

Inside Andre Sakhai’s Legal Troubles Over an Anna Weyant Painting, a Satanic Artist Protests Palm Sunday in L.A., and More Juicy Art World Gossip

Plus, what dealer was spotted reading a classic book on salesmanship on the subway? And what gallery is opening at an Atlantis resort in Dubai?

Anna Weyant, Cynthia (2019). Courtesy of Phillips.

TWO’S COMPANY, THREE’S A CROWD Remember Andre Sakhai? For the uninitiated, he is a collector, and the son of Ely Sakhai, the notorious art dealer who was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison for selling fake art to collectors while squirreling away the original piece and its Certificate of Authenticity. (Ely maintains his innocence, of course.) Andre is also the godfather to the child of convicted fraudster Inigo Philbrick—though Philbrick also screwed him over regarding the joint ownership of a Wade Guyton piece that Sakhai had bought a $350,000 stake in. Now, according to court documents acquired by Wet Paint, Sakhai is caught up in his own legal kerfuffle.

In a complaint filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York on February 9, a client of the Richard Golub firm, run by the noted—and somewhat infamous—lawyer to art stars like the Niarchos family, Pace Gallery, the Nahmads, and George Condo, is suing Sakhai over the partial ownership of a piece by (drumroll please) Anna Weyant.

It’s a complicated one, folks. The claims and counter-claims here give a look at the kinds of eye-watering machinations around today’s top stars—and the kinds of disputes that can arise from said machinations.

According to the complaint, Sakhai, through his company Aiden Fine Arts (which was operating under the name the Art Collection, and will hereafter be shortened to the acronym AFTAC), “abused and continues to abuse the corporate form by dominating and controlling the affairs and assets of AFTAC, freely transferring funds between AFTAC and [Andre Sakhai].” The complaint goes on to classify AFTAC as a “shell company” used “in order to advance [Sakhai’s] personal interests and not the legitimate business interests of AFTAC.” Adding some dramatic flair to otherwise dry legalese, the complaint claims that “defendants [Andre Sakhai] and AFTAC were and are alter egos of each other.”

Golub’s client, who is unnamed in the complaint, alleges that he purchased Anna Weyant’s portrait of fellow painter Cynthia Talmadge in May of 2022 for a total sum of $606,000, split three ways between another third party and Sakhai, with each collector shelling out around $200,000 for the piece.

This, it goes on to suggest, was all fine and well, until the fall auctions rolled around. The co-owners agreed to bring the piece to auction at Phillips London and split the proceeds (talk about a quick flip). Only problem? At auction time, the piece didn’t go crazy like other Weyant works historically have, and hammered for only £240,000, which came out to about £302,400 after fees (about $335,000 at the time)—considerably less than what they purchased it for.

The court documents then allege that Sakhai made away with the wire transfer from Phillips and left the other two parties hanging. Golub’s plaintiff is asking for no less than $110,816.48 to be returned to him.

That’s their side. On the other, last week Sakhai’s team filed a response to the complaint, denying the accusations about withholding the other two parties’ slice of the pie, summarizing that “any damages sustained by Plaintiff were caused wholly or in part by the acts and omissions of Plaintiff itself… all of which acts and omissions were beyond Defendant’s control.” In addition, Sakhai’s response stated that the plaintiff is not entitled to exemplary damages, as “defendants have at all times acted in good faith and with reasonable grounds for believing that their conduct was not wrongful, tortious, or unlawful.” (Sakhai also brought four counterclaims accusing Golub’s client of wrongfully withholding two other works in which AFTAC claims a stake.)

Put in layman’s terms, Sakhai basically told the other two parties their it’s their fault and they should go cry about it.

Whose account will win out? That’s for the law to decide. What I will say is that, even though I myself have added to the lore of Anna Weyant’s highly singular market trajectory, I find it pretty abominable how many people are flagrantly making a quick buck off of her. These documents suggest that all three owners of Cynthia are out a good chunk of change after trying to take her work to auction, so I certainly have some schadenfreude on behalf of Weyant, who recently went on Eileen Kelly‘s podcast and described feeling “like a racehorse” during auction season.

Of all the bizarre cultural moments in American history, one of the most fascinating for me is the Satanic Panic of the 1980s. I am pretty envious of anyone who got to live through a time where baseless conspiracy theories about Rosemary’s Baby-style paganism were coming from the idiot fringes of society, versus now, where the kind of people slinging these charges are actually in government (see, the “QAnon caucus” in congress, etc).

In any case, over the weekend, some demonic doings of a more harmless type cropped up, involving a young painter named Joseph Herbert in Los Angeles.

For the God-fearing set, this weekend was Palm Sunday. After a service in Culver City, I received an alarmed missive from an unlikely corner of the culture: a woman named Tashna Shaw, who described visiting Saint Joan of Arc Catholic Church when terror struck: “A teenager walked into our church yesterday and was super loud and unfriendly,” she said. “He walked right to the front and his friends started taking pictures of him holding a canvas depicting the devil…. It was a horrible experience and especially doing this on Palm Sunday is so horrible!!”

But don’t be too alarmed! A representative of the church said that no mass was interrupted, nor was there any corresponding possessions prompted by the painting’s presence in the church. So, while the painting (which, I must add, is titled Slay3r) may have been Satanic, it sounds as if there wasn’t all that much panic.

Like many a Satan-referencing artist before him (see: Leonora Carrington, and the like), Herbert seems to just have wanted to shake things up. The young hellion, who apparently works mainly in video art, told Wet Paint over email, “I like to explore the darkness of humanity in my work and the hypocrisy of us humans.”

Amen to that, brother.

WE HEAR

A new Twitter trend has brought back into our mind’s eye what is perhaps Jerry Saltz’s most cringe tweet of all time… Tribeca’s Margot Samel has added five new artists to their roster at once: Olivia Jia, Kris Lemsalu, Sarah Margnetti, Narcissister, and Stephen Polatch… The Guggenheim Museum has acquired My Home Is Where My Tipi Sits by Wendy Red Star… Serge Gainsbourg’s house in Paris is finally opening as a dedicated museum in September of 2023 after a false promise to open in 2022 (anticipate that Wet Paint will likely be on vacation the week of its opening)… Abso Lutely Productions, which has produced cult favorite television shows like Nathan for You and Tim and Eric, is lending Chloe Wise a hand in creating her new video work for Art Basel’s Parcours section this year… This year’s Herb Alpert Awards are taking place over Zoom, which I didn’t really think was still happening, but okay… Opera Gallery is opening a space in the new Atlantis the Royal resort in Dubai (you know, the one where Beyoncé played her first show in five years, to the dismay of pretty much all of her fans who don’t live in Dubai)… Apparently Jonas Wood and Pharrell both turned down Yusaku Maezawa‘s offer to go to Space…