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mostlysignssomeportents · 14 days

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Boeing’s deliberately defective fleet of flying sky-wreckage

I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me TOMORROW (May 2) in WINNIPEG, then Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), Tartu, Estonia, and beyond!

Boeing's 787 "Dreamliner" is manufactured far from the company's Seattle facility, in a non-union shop in Charleston, South Carolina. At that shop, there is a cage full of defective parts that have been pulled from production because they are not airworthy.

Hundreds of parts from that Material Review Segregation Area (MRSA) were secretly pulled from that cage and installed on aircraft that are currently plying the world's skies. Among them, sections 47/48 of a 787 – the last four rows of the plane, along with its galley and rear toilets. As Moe Tkacik writes in her excellent piece on Boeing's lethally corrupt culture of financialization and whistleblower intimidation, this is a big ass chunk of an airplane, and there's no way it could go missing from the MRSA cage without a lot of people knowing about it:

https://prospect.org/infrastructure/transportation/2024-04-30-whistleblower-laws-protect-lawbreakers/

More: MRSA parts are prominently emblazoned with red marks denoting them as defective and unsafe. For a plane to escape Boeing's production line and find its way to a civilian airport near you with these defective parts installed, many people will have to see and ignore this literal red flag.

The MRSA cage was a special concern of John "Swampy" Barnett, the Boeing whistleblower who is alleged to have killed himself in March. Tkacik's earlier profile of Swampy paints a picture of a fearless, stubborn engineer who refused to go along to get along, refused to allow himself to become inured to Boeing's growing culture of profits over safety:

https://prospect.org/infrastructure/transportation/2024-03-28-suicide-mission-boeing/

Boeing is America's last aviation company and its single largest exporter. After the company was allowed to merge with its rival McDonnell-Douglas in 1997, the combined company came under MDD's notoriously financially oriented management culture. MDD CEO Harry Stonecipher became Boeing's CEO in the early 2000s. Stonecipher was a protege of Jack Welch, the man who destroyed General Electric with cuts to quality and workforce and aggressive union-busting, a classic Mafia-style "bust-out" that devoured the company's seed corn and left it a barren wasteland:

https://qz.com/1776080/how-the-mcdonnell-douglas-boeing-merger-led-to-the-737-max-crisis

Post-merger, Boeing became increasingly infected with MDD's culture. The company chased cheap, less-skilled labor to other countries and to America's great onshore-offshore sacrifice zone, the "right-to-work" American south, where bosses can fire uppity workers who balked at criminal orders, without the hassle of a union grievance.

Stonecipher was succeeded by Jim "Prince Jim" McNerney, ex-3M CEO, another Jack Welch protege (Welch spawned a botnet of sociopath looters who seized control of the country's largest, most successful firms, and drove them into the ground). McNerney had a cute name for the company's senior engineers: "phenomenally talented assholes." He created a program to help his managers force these skilled workers – everyone a Boeing who knew how to build a plane – out of the company.

McNerney's big idea was to get rid of "phenomenally talented assholes" and outsource the Dreamliner's design to Boeing's suppliers, who were utterly dependent on the company and could easily be pushed around (McNerney didn't care that most of these companies lacked engineering departments). This resulted in a $80b cost overrun, and a last-minute scramble to save the 787 by shipping a "cleanup crew" from Seattle to South Carolina, in the hopes that those "phenomenally talented assholes" could save McNerney's ass.

Swampy was part of the cleanup crew. He was terrified by what he saw there. Boeing had convinced the FAA to let them company perform its own inspections, replacing independent government inspectors with Boeing employees. The company would mark its own homework, and it swore that it wouldn't cheat.

Boeing cheated. Swampy dutifully reported the legion of safety violations he witnessed and was banished to babysit the MRSA, an assignment his managers viewed as a punishment that would isolate Swampy from the criminality he refused to stop reporting. Instead, Swampy audited the MRSA, and discovered that at least 420 defective aviation components had gone missing from the cage, presumably to be installed in planes that were behind schedule. Swampy then audited the keys to the MRSA and learned that hundreds of keys were "floating around" the Charleston facility. Virtually anyone could liberate a defective part and install it into an airplane without any paper trail.

Swampy's bosses had a plan for dealing with this. They ordered Swampy to "pencil whip" the investigations of 420 missing defective components and close the cases without actually figuring out what happened to them. Swampy refused.

Instead, Swampy took his concerns to a departmental meeting where 12 managers were present and announced that "if we can’t find them, any that we can’t find, we need to report it to the FAA." The only response came from a supervisor, who said, "We’re not going to report anything to the FAA."

The thing is, Swampy wasn't just protecting the lives of the passengers in those defective aircraft – he was also protecting Boeing employees. Under Sec 38 of the US Criminal Code, it's a 15-year felony to make any "materially false writing, entry, certification, document, record, data plate, label, or electronic communication concerning any aircraft or space vehicle part."

(When Swampy told a meeting that he took this seriously because "the paperwork is just as important as the aircraft" the room erupted in laughter.)

Swampy sent his own inspectors to the factory floor, and they discovered "dozens of red-painted defective parts installed on planes."

Swampy blew the whistle. How did the 787 – and the rest of Boeing's defective flying turkeys – escape the hangar and find their way into commercial airlines' fleets? Tkacik blames a 2000 whistleblower law called AIR21 that:

creates such byzantine procedures, locates adjudication power in such an outgunned federal agency, and gives whistleblowers such a narrow chance of success that it effectively immunizes airplane manufacturers, of which there is one in the United States, from suffering any legal repercussions from the testimony of their own workers.

By his own estimation, Swampy was ordered to commit two felonies per week for six years. Tkacik explains that this kind of operation relies on a culture of ignorance – managers must not document their orders, and workers must not be made aware of the law. Whistleblowers like Swampy, who spoke the unspeakable, were sidelined (an assessment by one of Swampy's managers called him "one of the best" and finished that "leadership would give hugs and high fives all around at his departure").

Multiple whistleblowers were singled out for retaliation and forced departure. William Hobek, a quality manager who refused to "pencil whip" the missing, massive 47-48 assembly that had wandered away from the MRSA cage, was given a "weak" performance review and fired despite an HR manager admitting that it was bogus.

Another quality manager, Cynthia Kitchens, filed an ethics complaint against manager Elton Wright who responded to her persistent reporting of defects on the line by shoving her against a wall and shouting that Boeing was "a good ol’ boys’ club and you need to get on board." Kitchens was fired in 2016. She had cancer at the time.

John Woods, yet another quality engineer, was fired after he refused to sign off on a corner-cutting process to repair a fuselage – the FAA later backed up his judgment.

Then there's Sam Salehpour, the 787 quality engineer whose tearful Congressional testimony described more corner-cutting on fuselage repairs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP0xhIe1LFE

Salehpour's boss followed the Boeing playbook to the letter: Salehpour was constantly harangued and bullied, and he was isolated from colleagues who might concur with his assessment. When Salehpour announced that he would give Congressional testimony, his car was sabotaged under mysterious circumstances.

It's a playbook. Salehpour's experience isn't unusual at Boeing. Two other engineers, working on the 787 Organization Designation Authorization, held up production by insisting that the company fix the planes' onboard navigation computers. Their boss gave them a terrible performance review, admitting that top management was furious at the delays and had ordered him to punish the engineers. The engineers' union grievance failed, with Boeing concluding that this conduct – which they admitted to – didn't rise to the level of retaliation.

As Tkacik points out, these engineers and managers that Boeing targeted for intimidation and retaliation are the very same staff who are supposed to be performing inspections of behalf of the FAA. In other words, Boeing has spent years attacking its own regulator, with total impunity.

But it's not just the FAA who've failed to take action – it's also the DOJ, who have consistently declined to bring prosecutions in most cases, and who settled the rare case they did bring with "deferred prosecution agreements." This pattern was true under Trump's DOJ and continued under Biden's tenure. Biden's prosecutors have been so lackluster that a federal judge "publicly rebuked the DOJ for failing to take seriously the reputational damage its conduct throughout the Boeing case was inflicting on the agency."

Meanwhile, there's the AIR21 rule, a "whistleblower" rule that actually protects Boeing from whistleblowers. Under AIR21, an aviation whistleblower who is retaliated against by their employer must first try to resolve their problem internally. If that fails, the whistleblower has only one course of action: file an OSHA complaint within 90 days (if HR takes more than 90 days to resolve your internal complaint, you can no have no further recourse). If you manage to raise a complaint with OSHA, it is heard by a secret tribunal that has no subpoena power and routinely takes five years to rule on cases, and rules against whistleblowers 97% of the time.

Boeing whistleblowers who missed the 90-day cutoff have filled the South Carolina courts with last-ditch attempts to hold the company to account. When they lose these cases – as is routine, given Boeing's enormous legal muscle and AIR21's legal handcuffs – they are often ordered to pay Boeing's legal costs.

Tkacik cites Swampy's lawyer, Rob Turkewitz, who says Swampy was the only one of Boeing's whistleblowers who was "savvy, meticulous, and fast-moving enough to bring an AIR 21 case capable of jumping through all the hoops" to file an AIR21 case, which then took seven years. Turkewitz calls Boeing South Carolina "a criminal enterprise."

That's a conclusion that's hard to argue with. Take Boeing's excuse for not producing the documentation of its slapdash reinstallation of the Alaska Air door plug that fell off its plane in flight: the company says it's not criminally liable for failing to provide the paperwork, because it never documented the repair. Not documenting the repair is also a crime.

You might have heard that there's some accountability coming to the Boeing boardroom, with the ouster of CEO David Calhoun. Calhoun's likely successor is Patrick Shanahan, whom Tkacik describes as "the architect of the ethos that governed the 787 program" and whom her source called "a classic schoolyard bully."

If Shanahan's name rings a bell, it might be because he was almost Trump's Secretary of Defense, but that was derailed by the news that he had "emphatically defended" his 17 year old son after the boy nearly beat his mother to death with a baseball bat. Shanahan is presently CEO of Spirit Aerospace, who made the door-plug that fell out of the Alaska Airlines 737 Max.

Boeing is a company where senior managers only fail up and where whistleblowers are terrorized in and out of the workplace. One of Tkacik's sources noticed his car shimmying. The source, an ex-787 worker who'd been fired after raising safety complaints, had tried to bring an AIR21 complaint, but withdrew it out of fear of being bankrupted if he was ordered to pay Boeing's legal costs. When the whistleblower pulled over, he discovered that two of the lug-nuts had been removed from one of his wheels.

The whistleblower texted Tkcacik to say (not for the first time): "If anything happens, I'm not suicidal."

Boeing is a primary aerospace contractor to the US government. It's clear that its management – and investors – consider it too big to jail. It's also clear that they know it's too big to fail – after all, the company did a $43b stock buyback, then got billions in a publicly funded buyback.

Boeing is, effectively, a government agency that is run for the benefit of its investors. It performs its own safety inspections. It investigates its own criminal violations of safety rules. It loots its own coffers and then refills them at public expense.

Meanwhile, the company has filled our skies with at least 420 airplanes with defective, red-painted parts that were locked up in the MRSA cage, then snuck out and fitted to an airplane that you or someone you love could fly on the next time you take your family on vacation or fly somewhere for work.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/01/boeing-boeing/#mrsa

Image: Tom Axford 1 (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_sky_with_wisps_of_cloud_on_a_clear_summer_morning.jpg

CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

Clemens Vasters (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:N7379E_-_Boeing_737_MAX_9.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

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project-sekai-facts · 4 months

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Only one date is ever mentioned in-game, that being 2021. Considering that the Virtual Singer Fan Festa seems to be a stand-in for Magical Mirai 2021, we can assume that the Scramble Fan FESTA! event takes place in September 2021 (the real-life MM2021 was delayed to November due to covid-19, but the pandemic doesn't exist in-universe and MM Tokyo usually takes place at the beginning of September). There are Leo/need Daily Life social media posts that show them attending Magical Mirai, and do state the year of the event, but these can be considered promotional material for the event itself rather than canon material, especially since the characters address in-game that only one year has passed since the start of the story (despite the fact they have celebrated new year's day 4 times now. Timeloop things).

Based on this date, we can actually place exactly when every main character was born. The cutoff date for Japanese schools is April 1st, making Ena the oldest main character, being a 3rd year with a birthday of April 30th, followed by Tsukasa on May 17th, so on so forth all the way down to Kohane, a 2nd year with a birthday of March 2nd.

Considering when Scramble Fan FESTA is set, Ena, who was a 2nd year at the time, would be 17 years old. That would place her date of birth as April 30th, 2004. Additionally, while Kohane, a first year at the time, should be 15 during the event, the game considers her to be 16 due to using a set age for every grade bracket. Regardless, the event setting places her date of birth as March 2nd, 2006.

Based on this, we can conclude that:

Ena, Tsukasa, Rui, and Shizuku were born in 2004

Mafuyu, Kanade, Airi, Minori, Saki, Toya, Nene, An, Ichika, Mizuki, Emu, Haruka, Honami, and Akito were born in 2005

Shiho and Kohane were born in 2006

This also means that Ena, Tsukasa and Rui are all older than the MEIKO software (released November 5th 2004), and everyone except Kohane is older than the KAITO software (released February 17th 2006). Every main character is older than Miku, the Kagamines, and Luka based on this information.

Using the information around set ages*, we can also work out rough estimates for when the side characters were born. For example, Arata, who was 19 during the first 3 years of the game, is 3 years older than the members of VBS who were all considered to be 16. Since the members of VBS were born in the April 2005 - April 2006 school year range, Arata was likely born in the 2002-2003 school year range.

* based on how characters like Youta and Miu, who are said to be the same age as Leo/need, were both confirmed to be 16 years old before the 3rd anniversary age-up. Also Haruka's age is confirmed as 16 at a point in time when she shouldn't be 16. Timeloop things.

Based on this, the oldest living side character, Kounosuke, who was 55 pre-3rd anniversary and 39 years older than Emu, was probably born between April 1966 and April 1st 1967. On the younger side of things, Hanano, who was 14 pre-3rd anni, was likely born between April of 2007 and 2008. I've put the rest of the estimated side character DOBs under the cut.

assumed age as of 3rd anniversary in brackets (literally just pre-age-up age + 1)

Rakunosuke Otori - April 2nd 1922 ~ April 1st 1923 (98 (at time of death. would be 100 if still alive))

Kounosuke Otori - April 2nd 1966 ~ April 1st 1967 (56)

Jean Riley - 1967~1968 (55)

Harumichi Aoyagi - 1968~1969 (54)

Shin'ei Shinonome - 1973~1974 (49)

Mr Yoisaki - 1975~1976 (47)

Ken Shiraishi - 1978~1979 (44)

Taiga Kotaki - 1978~1979 (44)

Yuuka Kazamatsuri - 1990~1991 (32)

Keisuke Otori - 1991~1992 (31)

Shousuke Otori - 1994~1995 (28)

Tatsuya Okazaki - 1999~2000 (23)

Ayaka Saito - 2001~2002 (21)

Hinata Otori - 2001~2002 (21)

Iori - 2002~2003 (20)

Mio - 2002~2003 (20)

Arata Tono - 2002~2003 (20)

Souma Miyata - 2002~2003 (20)

Kotaro Mita - 2004~2005 (18)

Sakurako Seiryuin - 2004~2005 (18)

Nanami "Nanamin" Hayakawa - 2004~2005 (18)

Futaba Natsuno - 2004~2005 (18)

Ayumi Tabata - 2004~2005 (18)

Hibiki Miyake - 2004~2005 (18)

Shuuta Hayashi - 2004~2005 (18)

Ibuki Taniyama - 2004~2005 (18)

Yuina Uchiyama - 2005~2006 (17)

Shouta Hayashi - 2005~2006 (17)

Miu Takagi - 2005~2006 (17)

Youta Yoshizaki - 2005~2006 (17)

Riho Hasegawa - 2005~2006 (17)

Saku Kousaka - 2005~2006 (17)

Mai - 2006~2007 (16)

Hanano Yoshizaki - 2007~2008 (15)

Ambiguous:

These ages were given in the 3rd fanbook, but there is not really any way to tell if these are the characters' ages at introduction or ages after the 3rd anniversary age-up. Here are both possible DOB ranges.

Mrs Asahina - 1980/81 or 1981/82 (41)

Yoshiki Shindou - 1982/83 or 1983/84 (39)

Yuuki Akiyama - 1999/2000 or 2000/01 (22)

Asahi Genbu - 2003/4 or 2004/5 (18)

Arisa Higure - 2004/5 or 2005/6 (17)

Additional notes (mod is rambling atp):

Rakunosuke died when he was 98 years old. In the WxS main story, Emu says that he died a year ago. Assuming Emu was 15 at the time, they have an age gap of around 83 years. The year of birth listed here was based on that assumption.

We know that Kanade's mother died aged 30, but we do not know when she died. She is still alive in flashbacks set roughly 10 years prior to the events of game.

We do not have confirmed ages for Nagi, Reki, Sakaki, MMJ's landlady or Mafuyu's father yet.

Rui suggests that Reki is the same age as him in A Story Where You Are The Star. However since it's more vague than Asahi, I left it out. However, Asahi was since confirmed as 18 when he was compared to Reki as being similar age, it is likely that Reki is also around 18 years old.

Nagi's age is left blank in the fanbook due to it not being revealed that she was dead at the time of publication. She is younger than Taiga, but we don't know by how much, but nonetheless she was likely born in the early 1980s.

No NPCs are given exact birthdays

#this post is an apology for the fact i never made a timeline when i said i would. sorry this is kinda confusing also #in short just know that we can assume that the game takes place in the 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 school years #don't use that as an excuse to be weird about the characters bc that's still the in-universe year(s) even if it's not the irl year.#this post is just for fun okay? okay.#project sekai #lore

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overtake · 2 months

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happy birthday, amna | 28 March 2000

#amna al qubaisi #f1 academy #f1a #op #happy birthday queen #edits

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stars-and-the-min · 2 months

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☆ the wrong way to hard launch | band profile

the band :

empty bottles AKA EB are an australian pop-rock band based in california, usa. they released their debut album 'overtime' in july of 2019 signed under UMG. their first international tour, the overtime world tour began from november of 2019 but was later cancelled due to the covid-19 pandemic; the tour was supposed to end in august of 2020. they released their second full-length album 'twelve more days' in september of 2022. their second world tour, the twelve more days world tour opened in melbourne on march 21, 2024 and has a current closing show set in los angeles on january 17, 2025.

official accounts: ↳ instagram: emptybottles_official ↳ twitter: EmptyBottles

management accounts: ↳ instagram: emptybottlesbar ↳ twitter: theemptybottlesbar

the members :

SELINA 'LINA' BUI 🩷

frontwoman of the band

plays lead guitar, also knows how to play drums and piano

main songwriter/composer

born 24 september, 2001

oscar's gf and zhou guanyu's cousin

main face claim: cheng xiao

usernames: ↳ instagram: selinabui ↳ twitter: EB_selina

LUKAS 'KAS' ZHANG ❤️

lead guitar of the band

also can play bass

secondary songwriter

grew up next door to lina

gets shipped a lot with lina but they mostly have a sibling relationship

born 28 march, 2001

main face claim: wang yibo

usernames: ↳ instagram: lukaszhang ↳ twitter: EB_KAZ

CAMELIA 'CAMI' YANG 💜

drummer of the band

also subvocal/backing vocals

graduated a year after her cohort bc of family stuff when she was still a kid

born 9 october, 2001

main face claim: n/a

usernames: ↳ instagram: cameliazzz ↳ twitter: EB_Cami

JONATHAN 'JONNY' SU 💚

keyboard of the band

can also rap but literally none of their songs need him to rap

secondary songwriter

met kas through school and soccer

born 13 may, 2001

main face claim: xu kai

usernames: ↳ instagram: eb_jonno ↳ twitter: EB_Jonny

AIDAN 'AID' PARK 🩵

bassist of the band

also knows guitar but prefers staying near the back of the stage

the second 'pull' of the band; he's the pretty boy bassist people come to watch

graduated a grade above the rest of the band (excluding cami)

born 7 june, 2000

main face claim: n/a

usernames: ↳ instagram: aidan_ebass ↳ twitter: EB_Aidan

#f1 #oscar piastri #oscar piastri x oc #oscar piastri x reader #oscar piastri fanfic #oscar piastri imagine #oscar piastri smau #formula 1 fanfic #formula 1 smau #f1 fic #f1 smau #f1 imagine #f1 social media au

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crushedsweets · 5 months

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How old is everyone in your au? Or like approximately if u don’t have the ages specifically set yk

as of 2023 and it coming to a close...

Kate: 28, 1995 June 25 Tim: 34, 1989 June 19 Brian: 34, 1989 April 17 Toby: 25, 1997 April 28 Natalie: 26, 1996 Nov. 6 Nina: 25, 1997 Feb. 13 Jeff: 24, 1998 June 2 Liu: 28, 1995 June 20 Jane: 31, 1992 Jan. 7 Jack: 29, 1994 Dec. 1 Ben: 14(would be 34), 1989 Dec. Sally: 9(would be 71), 1952 May 9 Lulu: 23, 2000 March 14 Ann: 28, 1995 Oct. 28 This is KINDA subject to change only because im still working on the timeline and there was a ton of stuff i've been moving around even while finishing it. but in general its pretty accurate

lulu and ann are also undead beings, but since theyre not ghosts, im not sure if they would continue aging... we'll see we'll see.... not even sure if jack would continue aging.... hmmm....

#asks #creeped #creepypasta #creepypasta headcanons #creepypasta au

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harrisonarchive · 2 months

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Photo © Mortons Archive.

“I used to go there [to Aintree] whether it was a big or small meeting, take my butties and sit on the Railway Straight embankment to watch the race. I went to a lot of bike meetings as well — I was a big fan of Geoff Duke! I had a box camera and went round taking pictures of all the cars. If I could find an address I wrote away to the car factories, and somewhere at home I’ve got pictures of all the old Vanwalls, Connaughts and BRMs. All that stuff got lost when I went on the road with The Beatles, but I’m sure it’s still in my dad’s attic.” - George Harrison, Motor, July 28, 1979 “[Formula 1 racing is] my other dream, in contrast to being nice and peaceful. Occasionally I like to go to this mad circus that takes place every other weekend from April through November. I’ve got friends who design cars, and I get to know some of the drivers a bit. There’s a ridiculous amount of money involved — Honda spends 50 million pounds a year — just so these lunatics can race around in circles and win points for the world championship. There’s something fascinating about that.” - George Harrison, People, October 19, 1987 Q: “What first sparked your interest in motor racing?” George Harrison: “I used to go to watch motorcycle racing at Aintree, in Liverpool, and I saw a poster advertising sports car racing. I used to go up to the railway straight at Aintree and my earliest memory of a car is a Jaguar XK120 racing a Mercedes-Benz 300SL.” - The Times, March 2000 (x)

#George Harrison #quote #quotes by George #George and Formula 1 #1950s #1960s #1970s #1980s #1990s #2000s #George and fame #fits queue like a glove

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mousedetective · 3 months

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Help A Mostly Queer Disabled Family Get Out of Homelessness?

PAYPAL | AMAZON WISHLIST | KOFI | GOFUNDME

VENMO: @penaltywaltz | CASHAPP: $afteriwake23 | ZELLE: DM me for email address

02/18/24 - New Post

So we were recently blessed with $2,000 to pay bills, get hotel stays covered for the rest of this month/part of March and get food while I wait until the local county office opens to find out why I never got my food stamps. I almost started crying, for real.

I paid off the money my mother owed to PayPal so we can send each other money again (it will take two to three business days for the payment to process, then another day or two for her to regain access to her PayPal account), I paid off/paid down some of the PayPal 4 In 4 payments I needed to make (I've been ignoring them in favor of paying off other things), I got us a room every day from February 28th to March 13th except the 2nd, when we have to go to another hotel (we do that one via the hotel website, and I make sure we pay that one on-site because they charge a $50 fee for anything that might happen to the room that gets refunded after we leave) and I paid off one of my mom's loans down to $21

If we get really lucky, I can take the loan payments we have coming out on the 1st and 3rd and get them paid and not take out any more loans except for my and my mom's MoneyLion ones (I can take those out in increments as needed) and we can get closer to saving up for a down payment on an apartment. But I still have bills to pay. I owe about $500 to PayPal for the 4 in 4 plans still, my mother needs to pay $610 for a credit card bill we thought was under her debt consolidation payment (I'm going to try and add it later, and if they'll take it, then we only need $200 to get it up to date) and we still need to get Lena her glasses (around $150 there, since I pulled out the money for her exam in cash). Plus I will need to get us accommodations on the 13th for the rest of our 28-day stay.

I'm tentatively setting the goal at $2000, which should cover paying off all the bills we need to pay, the glasses, and the later hotel stay. Any help sharing or donating is much appreciated. If we don't have to take out the loans to cover stuff in March we can get the money together in April for a deposit. We're almost there! Thank you!

$135/$2000

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aaliyahhsources · 1 year

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Aaliyah with fans during her CD signing for Romeo Must Die Soundtrack at HMV Times Square in NY (March 28, 2000)

#aaliyah #rare #romeo must die cd signing #aaliyah haughton #march 28 2000 #2000

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the-torchwood-archive · 4 months

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Owen's Age

In Martha's medical log, she states that Owen is 27 during the events of Reset. We're going to talk about why we should stop accepting that as canon and start referring to Owen as being 34 during Reset.

His birthday of February 14th is always constant and isn't something I dispute. We are given two dates for his year of birth, 1974 or 1980.

1980 is on screen in Reset and I believe Exit Wounds, as well as in text published after season two. The fact that this is well documented makes it hard to argue with, and yet I will.

1974 is only ever mentioned once, in an email that was written and published on the TW website alongside Dead Man Walking. Keep in mind that this would have been written before DMW aired, which suggests that 1980 wasn't in the script that the writers were given. A few days after airing, the date in the email was changed to 1980 to match what we saw on TV.

Let's take a quick look at a Owen timeline.

Born either 1974 or 1980.

Began training as a doctor in 1994. He would either be 14 or 20.

Late 2000/early 2001 he walked out on his college girlfriend in London. He would be either 20 or 26.

In March 2001, Owen is a qualified Doctor in Cardiff. He would be either 21 or 27.

Owen was employed by Cardiff General between at least 2000 and 2002. He would have been either 20-22 or 26-28.

Lucy Marmer is brought to Owen's attention in September 2001, six months after Owen qualified. Owen would be either 21 or 27.

Katie dies in 2005, which would make Owen either 25 or 31.

Owen is hired by Torchwood in 2006, making him either 26 or 32.

Reset is set after June 2008, making Owen either 28 or 34.

Having Owen be born in 1974 puts his timeline into some form of sense. It makes him a year older than Tosh, four years older than Gwen, and nine years older than Ianto, which sits well with the dynamics. He in no way feels five years younger than Tosh, two years younger than Gwen, and three years older than Ianto.

In addition, Burn himself is born in 1974 and I frankly don't think he looks six years younger than he actually is.

I will now take questions from the audience.

#torchwood #owen harper #meta

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il-predestinato · 9 months

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Previews for today's Grill the Grid!

Solid job from Lewis (nailed Lestappen, awww George is a wittle baby to him!):

Nico, we need to talk... 😨

Error.exe:

+Cheat sheet for today: 😁

Piastri - April 2001 (22 yr)

Sargeant - Dec 2000 (22 yr)

Tsunoda - May 2000 (23 yr)

Norris - Nov 1999 (23 yr)

Zhou - May 1999 (24 yr)

Stroll - Oct 1998 (24 yr)

Russell - Feb 1998 (25 yr)

Leclerc - Oct 1997 (25 yr)

Verstappen - Sept 1997 (25 yr)

Ocon - Sept 1996 (26 yr)

Albon - March 1996 (27 yr)

Gasly - Feb 1996 (27)

De Vries : Feb 1995 (28 yr)

Sainz - Sept 1994 (28 yr)

Magnussen - Oct 1992 (30 yr)

Perez - Jan 1990 (33 yr)

Bottas - Aug 1989 (33 yr)

Ricciardo - July 1989 (34 yr)

Hulkenberg - Aug 1987 (35 yr)

Hamilton - Jan 1985 (38 yr)

Alonso - July 1981 (42 yr)

#f1 #grill the grid #lewis hamilton #nico hulkenberg #lance stroll #checo perez #lestappen #youngest to oldest #*#lewis is rightfully proud of himself!

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yourdailyqueer · 2 months

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Imma Battaglia

Gender: Female

Sexuality: Lesbian

DOB: 28 March 1960

Ethnicity: White - Italian

Occupation: Politician, activist

Note: Organised the first Gay Pride in Italy (Rome, 1994), and promoted Rome as a possible host for the 2000 World Gay Pride (which was successful).

#Imma Battaglia #lesbianism #butch #lgbt #lgbtq #female #lesbian #1960 #white #italian #politician #activist

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garadinervi · 6 months

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«Administrative detention (AD) is a procedure that allows Israeli occupation forces to hold prisoners indefinitely on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial. The secret information or evidence cannot be accessed by the detainee nor his lawyer, and can according to Israeli military orders, an administrative detention order can be renewed for an unlimited time. The court issues an administrative detention order for a maximum period of six months, subject to renewal.» – Administrative Detainees, Addameer – Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, 2018 – November 2023

«The practice of Administrative detention is linked to the political situation in occupied Palestine, and the Palestinian movement that protests against the continued Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967. Administrative detention is a punitive measure and is a political action that reflects the Israeli occupation’s official policy against Palestinians. Although the use of administrative detention in a widespread and systemic manner is prohibited under international law, the Israeli occupation uses administrative detention as a tool for collective punishment against Palestinians. The occupation continues to issue administrative detention orders against various segments of the Palestinian society in the West Bank including human rights activists, university students, lawyers, mothers of detainees and business people. Palestinians have been subjected to administrative detention since the beginning of the Israeli Occupation in 1967 and before that time, under the British Mandate. The frequency of the use of administrative detention has fluctuated throughout Israel’s occupation and has been steadily rising since the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000. On the eve of the second intifada, Israel held 12 Palestinians in administrative detention. Only two years later, in late 2002 - early 2003, there were over 1000 Palestinians in administrative detention. Between 2005 and 2007, the average monthly number of Palestinian administrative detainees held by Israel remained stable at approximately 765. Since then, as the situation on the ground stabilized and violence tapered off, the number of administrative detainees has generally decreased every year. As of December 2018, there were at least 482 administrative detainees in Israeli prisons, who are being held without charge or trial for an indefinite period of time, nine of whom are members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. During the year 2018, administrative detainees collectively started a boycott campaign of military courts. This boycott started in March 2018 and was paused in September 2018 in order to give time for negotiations between the prisoners and the prison administration. Though administrative detainees declared that if no changes were made by the beginning of 2019 they will resume to actions.» – December 2018

Administrative Detainees, November 2023: 2070

Plus: Eliana Riva, Prigionieri palestinesi, il sistema giudiziario parallelo di Israele, «Pagine Esteri», November 28, 2023

Image: Ahed Tamimi in Nabi Saleh, February 7, 2019 [photo: IBL/Shutterstock]

Plus: Ahed Tamimi and Dena Takruri, They Called Me a Lioness. A Palestinian Girl’s Fight for Freedom, One World, New York, NY, 2022, then Penguin Random House, New York, NY, 2023

#photography #book #addameer #ahed tamimi #dena takruri #one world #penguin random house #2010s #2020s

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