The Mandela Effect: How False Memories Occur
The Mandela Effect: How False Memories Occur
Why this happens
Collective false memories
Confabulation
False memories
Examples of the Mandela effect
The Berenstein Bears vs. The Berenstain Bears
Jif vs. Jiffy logo
Looney Tunes vs. Looney Toons logo
‘I am your father.’
Symptoms
How can you recognize a false memory?
The bottom line

The Mandela Effect: What It Is and How It Happens
The Mandela Effect: How False Memories Occur
Medically reviewed by Timothy J. Legg, Ph.D., CRNP — Written by Rachel Nall, MSN, CRNA on March 13, 2020
Why this happens
Examples
Symptoms
Can you recognize a false memory?
Takeaway
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Film producer Robert Evans famously said, “There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth.” Evans had it right in some respects, as people can mistakenly create false or pseudomemories. This is the case for the Mandela effect.
The Mandela effect occurs when a large group of people believe an event occurred when it did not.
There are many examples of the Mandela effect in popular culture. This article will explore why and how these false memories occur.
Why this happens
The Mandela effect got its name when Fiona Broome, a self-identified “paranormal consultant,” detailed how she remembered former South African President Nelson Mandela dying in the 1980s in prison (although Mandela lived until 2013).
Broome could describe remembering news coverage of his death and even a speech from his widow about his death. Yet none of it happened.
If Broome’s thoughts occurred in isolation, that would be one factor. However, Broome found that other people thought the exact same as her.
Even though the event never happened, she wasn’t the only one who felt like it did. As a result, the Mandela effect concept was “born.”
Collective false memories
Another way to describe the Mandela effect is “collective false memories.” A large group of people collectively always say a particular saying or memory a certain way when, in reality, the truth is different from the memory.
Conspiracy theorists believe the Mandela effect is an example of alternate universes present in society. However, doctors have a much different explanation of memory, and how some memories, although vivid, can be false.
Confabulation
Some doctors believe the Mandela effect is a form of confabulation.
A common analogy for confabulation is “honest lying .” A person creates a false memory without intending to lie or deceive others. Instead, they’re attempting to fill in gaps in their own memory.
Many examples of the Mandela effect are close to the original or true memory. Some researchers believe that people — even a large group of people — use confabulation to “remember” what they feel is the most likely sequence of events.
False memories
Other aspects of memory may lead to the Mandela effect. This includes false memories, where your recall of an event isn’t an accurate depiction.
This is often a struggle for eyewitnesses to a crime or important cultural event. Also, the abilities of people across the internet to alter images, logos, and sayings may affect your recall of the original item.
Examples of the Mandela effect
There are many sites dedicated to people chronicling examples of the Mandela effect, including Reddit.
Often, people are disturbed to find out how they, and a lot of other people, remember an event isn’t exactly the way they remembered it. Here are some examples:
The Berenstein Bears vs. The Berenstain Bears
Many people remember the “Berenstein Bears” as a lovable bear family. But this isn’t actually their name. They’re the “Berenstain Bears.”
Jif vs. Jiffy logo
Jif is a popular brand of peanut butter, but many people remember the brand’s label a little differently — specifically as Jiffy.
Looney Tunes vs. Looney Toons logo
Many people think the logo for the Warner Brothers’ cartoons was spelled “Looney Toons.” Actually, it’s “Looney Tunes.”
‘I am your father.’
Many people who quote this famous line in “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” say, “Luke, I am your father.” However, Darth Vader actually says, “I am your father.” There is no “Luke” at all.
There are hundreds to thousands of examples of the Mandela effect across entertainment, logos, and even geography. Reading these examples can make you question your memory.
Symptoms
Symptoms of the Mandela effect include:
remembering something as slightly different in wording or appearance as it originally was
a large number of people recounting the same way of remembering
One way to think of the Mandela effect on your memory is to consider the way you recall information like the childhood game of telephone.
During this game, an initial statement is spoken and whispered to one person, then the next and the next until the message is delivered to the final person.
Usually, in telephone, the final message would be slightly different because people heard or remembered it slightly differently. This is true for your memory.
You may “pull” a memory from your brain, but time and infrequent recall can cause you to put the memory back together in a slightly different way.
How can you recognize a false memory?
We won’t lie — it’s really difficult to recognize a false memory. Usually the only way to know your memory is false or real is to corroborate your story with other people or research.
If you remember a saying a certain way, you can look it up from a reliable site or sites, or attempt to confirm it with others.
One of the problems with corroborating a story with others is that people tend to confirm what another person believes to be true.
Asking a person, “Didn’t Nelson Mandela die in prison?” or “Nelson Mandela died in prison, right?” is a leading question that increases the likelihood a person will answer yes.
A better question may be, “How did Nelson Mandela die?”
Fortunately, when it comes to the Mandela effect, most false memories seem to be harmless. Replacing an “a” in Berenstein with an “e” usually only harms your pride in remembering small details.
The bottom line
The Mandela effect is an unusual phenomenon where a large group of people remember something differently than how it occurred.
Conspiracy theorists believe this is proof of an alternate universe, while many doctors use it as an illustration of how imperfect memory can be sometimes.
Last medically reviewed on March 13, 2020


Pig brains partially revived hours after death—what it means for people
Pig brains partially revived hours after death—what it means for people
Defining death
Working, but not aware
Ethics of animal research
Watch: Pig Lungs Filter Human Blood in a Lab
Only the beginning

Pig brains partially revived hours after death—what it means for people
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Pig brains partially revived hours after death—what it means for people
In a feat sure to fire up ethical and philosophical debate, a new system has restored circulation and oxygen flow to a dead mammal brain.
A preserved pig brain. Using brains from animals killed for food, researchers have now restored some cellular functions in pig brains hours after death, potentially offering a new avenue for studying and treating brain diseases and disorders.
By Michael Greshko
Published April 17, 2019
• 15 min read
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Scientists have restored cellular function in 32 pig brains that had been dead for hours, opening up a new avenue in treating brain disease—and shaking our definition of brain death to its core. Announced on Wednesday in the journal Nature, researchers at the Yale University School of Medicine devised a system roughly analogous to a dialysis machine, called BrainEx, that restores circulation and oxygen flow to a dead brain.
The researchers did not kill any animals for the purposes of the experiment; they acquired pig heads from a food processing plant near New Haven, Connecticut, after the pigs had already been killed for their meat. And technically, the pig brains remained dead—by design, the treated brains did not show any signs of the organized electrical neural activity required for awareness or consciousness.
“Clinically defined, this is not a living brain,” says study coauthor Nenad Sestan, a neuroscientist at the Yale University School of Medicine.
The new system instead kept the brains in far better shape than brains left to decompose on their own, restoring functions such as the ability to take in glucose and oxygen for up to six hours at a time. Researchers say that the technique could give a major boost to studies of human health by providing a rich testbed for studying brain disorders and diseases.
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“We're really excited about this as a platform that could help us better understand how to treat people who have had heart attacks and have lost normal blood flow to the brain,” adds Khara Ramos, director of the Neuroethics Program at the U.S. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. “It really enhances our ability to study cells as they exist in connection with each other, in that three-dimensional, large, complicated way.”
Even so, the finding opens up considerable ethical questions, a conversation that the researchers themselves welcome.
“This is an extraordinary and very promising breakthrough for neuroscience. It immediately offers a much better model for studying the human brain, which is extraordinarily important, given the vast amount of human suffering from diseases of the mind [and] brain,” says Nita Farahany, a bioethicist at the Duke University School of Law who wrote a commentary about the study for Nature.
“It [also] challenges a lot of the fundamental assumptions that we had in neuroscience, like that once there is a loss of oxygen to the brain, it’s an irreversible march toward organismal death,” she adds. “That turns out not to be true—and because that’s not true, there's some pretty profound ethical and legal issues that are raised as a result.”
Defining death
Death is final, but the number of truly irreversible medical outcomes has shrunk over time. For millennia, people were considered dead when they stopped breathing and their hearts ceased to beat. But then modern medicine intervened. The invention of mechanical ventilators allowed failing bodies to be kept alive for longer, and decades of improvements to heart surgery and transplants mean that even a stopped heart might not necessarily be the end.
But the brain remains a finicky patient. Mammal brains such as ours are high-performance machines; they demand a constant stream of oxygen-rich blood to work to their fullest. If blood flow is cut off, we lose consciousness after just a few seconds. Within five minutes, the brain's stores of vital molecules such as glucose and ATP—the body's universal currency for chemical energy—run out.
The brain then enters a death spiral that, up to now, scientists considered irreversible: Nerve cells' delicate chemistries get thrown out of whack, a buildup of carbon dioxide makes the brain's blood more acidic, and leaks of a powerful neurotransmitter called glutamate quickly become toxic. Soon, enzymes that break down nerve tissue come online, and the brain's smaller structures and blood vessels rupture and break.
The more researchers understood this process, the more they incorporated it into the definition of death itself. In 1968, a committee of doctors assembled by Harvard University put forth a landmark definition of “irreversible coma,” what we now call “brain death”: a total lack of responsiveness, the inability to breathe on one's own, a total lack of reflexes, and no signs of large-scale electrical activity in the brain. Now, the American Academy of Neurology maintains a checklist that clinicians use to judge brain death in patients.
But there have been hints of greater brain resilience. Some parts of brain cells, such as the mitochondria that process chemical energy, still work up to 10 hours after death. In cats and macaques, researchers have successfully made brains recover after a full hour cut off from blood by carefully restoring circulation. And in humans, some medical case studies point to a brain that can bounce back. In 2007, researchers reported that a woman suffering from acute hypothermia—with a body temperature less than 65 degrees Fahrenheit— made a full neurological recovery.
Working, but not aware
Sestan and his colleagues, led by Zvonimir Vrselja and Stefano Daniele, resolved to test a complex mammal brain's ability to recover, so they devised what they call the BrainEx system.
BrainEx consists of computer-controlled pumps and filters that send a nourishing solution through a dead, surgically exposed brain, with an ebb and flow that mimics the body's natural circulation. The proprietary solution is based on hemoglobin, the oxygen-ferrying protein in red blood cells, and is made to show up in ultrasound scans, so researchers can track its flow through the brain. Yale University has filed a patent for the system on behalf of its creators, but all of BrainEx's parts and procedures will be freely available to nonprofit and academic researchers.
The team took steps to ensure that the brains would not “wake up” in any way, let alone have awareness of the procedure's trauma. Though none of the brains in the experiment showed any sign of awareness, researchers stood at the ready to administer anesthesia and lower the brains' temperatures, just in case. What's more, the team added compounds in the solution to block neural activity, which served the extra goal of resting the brains' cells to give them better odds of healing.
“It was in fact never a goal—and even sort of the opposite of a goal—of the research to have consciousness restored,” says study coauthor Stephen Latham, director of the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics.
First, the team checked to see whether BrainEx could restore circulation in the brain, even in its tiniest blood vessels. It does. Researchers also confirmed that the brain's blood vessels were in good enough shape that they could dilate in response to medications. Next, the researchers checked how well BrainEx preserved the overall structure of brain tissue. For the most part, BrainEx-treated brains looked comparable to brains in living animals or untreated brains an hour after death, and they were far more intact than untreated brains examined 10 hours after death.
At its most profound, the discussion around BrainEx shows how gains in knowledge and improvements in treatments have shifted the definition of death itself.
Brain areas that are especially sensitive to oxygen loss, such as the hippocampus, also preserved well under BrainEx, as did the structures of individual neurons. And as they monitored the chemical differences in the solution flowing into and out of the brain, researchers found that the brain was making CO2 and using up glucose and oxygen—signs of brain-wide metabolism restarting.
Though researchers ensured that the experimental brains wouldn't have large-scale activity, they took small slices of brain tissue to test whether individual hippocampus neurons could still fire after treatment. They could.
“ [That result was] the most surprising aspect to me as a working neuroscientist,” says Allen Institute for Brain Science director Christof Koch, who wasn't involved with the study. “They were still capable of generating the spikes that are the universal idiom of fast electrical communication. It means that in principle, those neurons seem capable of neural activity.”
Ethics of animal research
The BrainEx team is acutely aware of the ethical implications of its work, which is why they have consulted with leading neuroscientists and ethicists for years. The Neuroethics Working Group, a consortium convened by the U.S. National Institutes of Health's BRAIN Initiative, which funded the research, has been consulting with Sestan since 2016. The researchers also presented their work at a 2017 bioethics conference at Duke University and at a 2018 NIH workshop.
“Cutting-edge science needs cutting-edge ethics,” says Ramos, who serves as the Neuroethics Working Group's executive secretary. “There is an existing, robust framework of laws and policies that our funded researchers are expected to follow, but the development and application of new neuro-technologies may require us to examine those ethical standards, and for those standards to evolve.”
For one, the technique opens up questions about the ethical use of non-human animals in experiments. As it stands, two sets of rules apply, one for live animals and another for dead animal tissues, since live animals can experience pain or distress. But which rules apply to BrainEx-treated brains from dead animals, especially if there is a chance they could be partially reawakened?
“There's this kind of gaping hole in our protections of animal research subjects, [since] we now have this part-revived, slightly-alive category with the potential—and, as of yet, not fully understood potential—for recovery of function,” says Farahany, who is also a member of the Neuroethics Working Group. “If you're seeking to revive pig brains, or other animal brains, does that mean that that becomes an animal research subject, rather than dead tissue?”
0:43
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Human blood filters through pig lungs as they inhale and exhale in the lab of Lars Burdorf at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Experts add that the ethical tradeoff here hinges on BrainEx's ability to further research into human disease—or even save people from brain death.
“We cannot willy-nilly impose, just for our curiosity, pain or agony on another creature unless there's a very good motive and the appropriate experiments,” Koch says. “Can this be used to rescue brains? Not just gee-whiz, let's see what happens here.”
Experts also say that BrainEx's ethical implications extend to the next logical question: Would it work on humans? On a technical level, Koch says that would not be a major leap, since both pigs and humans have large, complexly folded brains. But Koch and every other outside expert contacted by National Geographic urged caution in moving toward human trials.
On even broader horizons, future versions of BrainEx could complicate the process of organ donation by blurring the lines of brain death, note Case Western Reserve University bioethicists Stuart Youngner and Insoo Hyun in an accompanying commentary published in Nature. But Kevin Cmunt, CEO of Gift of Hope, one of the United States's largest organ donation networks, doesn't see BrainEx as a major disruption. He says that in many cases, organ donors who are declared brain-dead have suffered oxygen loss well beyond the study's time window, or substantial physical trauma. ( Other researchers are creating human-pig chimeras to advance organ transplant options .)
“I think that in the vast majority of brain-dead donors, this intervention would not be material,” he says. “There may be a small subset of cases where [BrainEx] could impact the opportunity for donation, but I think it's relatively small.”
And if BrainEx does appear in clinics, Cmunt adds that it would be incorporated into the list of interventions before declaring someone brain-dead or deciding to end life support. The promise of brain recovery could even improve organ donations by giving medical professionals an even greater imperative to maintain circulation. Then, if the patient is declared brain-dead even after treatment with BrainEx, their organs could be more viable for donation than they would be otherwise.
“I don't necessarily see this as a conflict,” Cmunt says. “These treatments would certainly be a part of care, just like hypothermia protocols are a part of care, and other things that we try to do to stop damage to organs and brains.”
Only the beginning
At its most profound, the discussion around BrainEx shows how gains in knowledge and improvements in treatments have shifted the definition of death itself.
“Imagine you're standing in the clinic, your dad is declared brain-dead, and you've just read this paper. You ask the surgeon, Well, what does brain-dead mean? He says it's irreversible loss of brain function, and you say, Well, wait a minute, there was this paper—doesn’t that mean that 'irreversible' today may not be 'irreversible' tomorrow?” Koch says.
BrainEx's space on the border of life and death echoes science fiction—and at its most lurid, people may well think of Frankenstein and the prospect of resurrecting the dead. But Farahany cautions that we are still many miles away from that feat.
“It is definitely has a good science-fiction element to it, and it is restoring cellular function where we previously thought impossible. But to have Frankenstein, you need some degree of consciousness, some 'there' there,” she says. “They did not recover any form of consciousness in this study, and it is still unclear if we ever could. But we are one step closer to that possibility.”
Editor's Note: This article has been updated to clarify the affiliation of Khara Ramos.


Citi Wired $900 Million In "Clerical Error", They Won't Hand Cash Back
Citi Wired $900 Million In "Clerical Error", They Won't Hand Cash Back
It was a mistake for the ages -- a "clerical error," as Citigroup told lenders -- that's now plunged the bank into a battle between the Perelman empire and a corps of sharp-edged investment funds that have become its impatient creditors.
Acceleration Demand

Citibank Wired $900 Million In Clerical Error, They Won't Hand Cash Back
Home World Citi Wired $900 Million In "Clerical Error", They Won't Hand Cash Back
This Article is From Aug 17, 2020
Citi Wired $900 Million In "Clerical Error", They Won't Hand Cash Back
It was a mistake for the ages -- a "clerical error," as Citigroup told lenders -- that's now plunged the bank into a battle between the Perelman empire and a corps of sharp-edged investment funds that have become its impatient creditors.
World (c) 2020 Bloomberg Katherine Doherty and Jenny Surane, Bloomberg Updated: August 17, 2020 9:22 am IST
Citi, the administrative agent on the loan, was also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Even for Citigroup Inc., it was big money. On Wednesday, loan operations staff at the New York bank wired $900 million, seemingly on behalf of Revlon Inc., to lenders of the troubled cosmetics giant controlled by billionaire Ron Perelman.
It was a mistake for the ages -- a "clerical error," as Citigroup told lenders -- that's now plunged the bank into a battle between the Perelman empire and a corps of sharp-edged investment funds that have become its impatient creditors.
One financier involved likened the surprise payment to finding a fortune on the sidewalk. And, as of late Friday, several hedge funds who claim Revlon was in default on the loan were showing no signs that they'll be giving Citigroup its money back.
The wayward transfer of nearly a billion dollars appears to be one of the biggest screw-ups on Wall Street in ages, and it's set tongues wagging in financial markets. The question everyone is asking: how could this happen?
A spokeswoman for Citi declined to comment. A representative for Revlon said in an emailed statement that Revlon itself didn't pay down the loan, or any portion of it.
"It's a billion-dollar clerical error," said Michael Stanton, a former restructuring and bankruptcy adviser. "This is probably knocking around some very big rooms at Citibank."
Acceleration Demand
At the center of the story is an increasingly ugly battle between Revlon and a group of lenders who sued the cosmetics company and demanded immediate repayment of a term loan that Revlon has coming due in 2023. Working with UMB Bank, the lenders are claiming that Revlon shifted some intellectual property rights that had been backing their loan into collateral for new debt.
The lenders, including Brigade Capital Management, Symphony Asset Management and HPS Investment Partners, are seeking a court order forcing the return of the collateral, which includes brand trademarks. Citi, the administrative agent on the loan, was also named as a defendant in the lawsuit, although it was in the process of resigning from the agent role.
Around the same time the lawsuit was filed, the nearly $900 million -- an amount equal to the full principal value of the loan, plus accrued interest -- landed in the lenders' bank accounts, according to people familiar with the matter. Now, Brigade, Symphony and HPS are among that are refusing to hand the cash back, said the people, who asked not to be named discussing a private matter.
Citi on Friday had yet to receive a majority of the funds back, though repayments continued to trickle in, the people said.
"This is what the investors asked for -- they wanted their loan to be paid off," said Bloomberg Intelligence senior distressed debt analyst Phil Brendel. "Given their suit is against Citibank as well, it isn't clear why they would hand the money back."
The payment was a particularly welcome surprise considering that the loan trades for less than 30 cents on the dollar, signaling that investors have dim hopes of getting a full recovery under normal circumstances.
Citi on Friday had yet to receive a majority of the funds back, though repayments continued to trickle in, the people said. The bank has launched an internal investigation into the matter, one of the people said.
The mistaken payment was first reported by LevFin Insights.
Revlon said it would fight UMB's "meritless" lawsuit and that the bank doesn't have standing to sue because it's not the agent on the loan.
"This group of lenders has repeatedly resorted to baseless accusations in an attempt to enrich themselves and hurt the company by blocking Revlon from exercising its contractual rights to secure the financing necessary to execute our turnaround strategy and navigate the Covid-19 crisis," Revlon said in an earlier statement.
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Revlon, controlled by Perelman's MacAndrews & Forbes, has struggled to remain relevant and stem falling sales amid competition from Estee Lauder Cos. and a host of smaller companies using social media to lure customers. The cosmetics company has been hit hard by the pandemic and is seeking to rework its $3 billion of borrowings.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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NASA reveals existence of parallel universe where time runs backwards
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NASA reveals existence of parallel universe where time runs backwards

NASA reveals existence of parallel universe where time runs backwards
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NASA reveals existence of parallel universe where time runs backwards
It sounds like something from a sci-fi movie but NASA scientists believe they have found evidence of a parallel universe where time runs backwards.
Stephanie Bedo stephanie_bedo
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May 22, 2020 12:14am
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UH Mānoa's Peter Gorham, along with a team of researchers, discovered new evidence that suggests some Antarctic particles do not fit the standard model of physics.
Source:NewsComAu
NASA scientists claim to have discovered evidence of a parallel universe where time moves backwards.
A cosmic ray detection experiment has found particles that just could be from outside our universe.
The Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna (ANITA) researchers used a giant balloon to get electronic antennas high into the cold, dry air above Antarctica to identify cosmic-ray showers.
They discovered particles may be moving backwards in time, indicating there is a parallel universe, where the rules of the standard model of physics do not apply.
“What we saw is something that looked just like a cosmic ray, as seen in the reflection of the ice sheet, but it wasn't reflected,” Peter Gorham, a physics professor at the University of Hawaii, told Times Now.
“It was as if the cosmic ray had come out of the ice itself. A very strange thing.
READ MORE: Birth of baby plant captured
READ MORE: Incredible pics of Supermoon around the world
“So we published a paper on that, we just suggested that this was in pretty strong tension with the standard model of physics. Not everyone was comfortable with the hypothesis.”
He said the discoveries suggested signals came from upward-moving particles that tunnelled through the earth before erupting from the ice.
The simplest explanation for the phenomenon is that at the moment of the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago, two universes were formed.
But not everyone is convinced.
"There are a number of potential candidate particles that could account for the results from ANITA," Geraint Lewis, an astrophysicist at the University of Sydney, told CNET.
"While parallel universes sound exciting and sexy when discussing the ANITA signal, alternative ideas are still on the table.”
Scientists say the unusual ANITA events have been discussed since 2016.
Pat Scott, an astroparticle phenomenologist at the University of Queensland, said that while the theory was “plausible” there were myriad of other theories that could account for ANITA’s detections.
“There’s nothing that necessarily makes it a detection of a parallel universe,” Scott told CNET.
Others say that if the ANITA team’s findings aren’t the result of a bizarre experimental error, the implications are incredible.
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How did the Notre Dame Cathedral blaze start?
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How did the Notre Dame Cathedral blaze start?
ARSON CLAIMS SHUT DOWN

How did the Notre Dame fire start? Here’s what we know
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How did the Notre Dame Cathedral blaze start?
As French firefighters battle to save what remains of the historic Notre Dame Cathedral, questions are being asked about the cause of the inferno.
Frank Chung franks_chung
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April 16, 2019 2:14pm
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Watch the devastating moment the spire of the Notre Dame collapses during a fire that engulfed the centuries old building.
The Notre Dame Cathedral fire has shocked the world. Picture: Sky Italia Source:SKY
As French firefighters battle to save what remains of the historic Notre Dame Cathedral, questions are being asked about the cause of the inferno.
Here’s what we know so far.
The blaze started at about 6.50pm local time on Monday night — 2.50am AEST. A spokesman for the cathedral told local media the fire alarm went off almost immediately.
Smoke could be seen coming from the building’s attic and pictures and video of the fire were being shared around the world on social media within minutes.
Horrified viewers watched in real time as the iconic gothic structure’s main spire collapsed as about 400 firefighters battled the flames.
French firefighters said the cause of the blaze was not immediately clear but was “potentially linked” to ongoing renovations at the 850-year-old monument.
“At this moment we don’t know how the fire started,” a cathedral spokesman told The Local. “There shouldn’t have been any workmen on the site because they stop between 17:00 and 17:30.”
Police have launched an investigation into the fire, which is reported to be focusing on an “involuntary” cause rather than a criminal act.
City prosecutor Remy Heitz said late Monday night it was “too early” to determine the cause but that the preliminary investigation suggested the blaze was started accidentally.
“Everything will be put in place to determine the origin of the fire,” government Minister Laurent Nunez told local media from the scene.
The spire engulfed in flames collapses as the roof of the Notre Dame Cathedral burns. Picture: Geoffroy van der Hasselt/AFP Source:AFP
ARSON CLAIMS SHUT DOWN
While officials appear to have ruled out arson, the Notre Dame fire comes amid a spate of attacks on Catholic churches in France since the start of the year.
Last month the Church of St Sulpice in Paris was set on fire in a suspected arson attack. Other churches across the country have seen crosses and statues smashed and smeared with human faeces.
Ellen Fantini from the Observatory of Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe told Newsweek there was a “rising hostility in France against the church and its symbols”.
The Vienna-based group said there had been a 25 per cent increase in attacks on Catholic churches in the first two months of the year compared with 2018.
“The pressure is coming from the radical secularists or anti-religion groups as well as feminist activists who tend to target churches as a symbol of the patriarchy that needs to be dismantled,” Ms Fantini told the publication last month.
Flames are seen through the scaffolding of the Notre Dame. Picture: Stephane de Sakutin/AFP Source:AFP
Fox News cut off a French media commentator who suggested arson was to blame for the fire. Picture: AP Photo/Diana Ayanna Source:AP
As the blaze was unfolding, a controversial French media commentator was cut off by Fox News host Shep Smith for suggesting the Notre Dame blaze was intentionally lit.
“Everybody’s really under shock now in France,” Philippe Karsenty said.
“I would tell you something. Even if nobody died, it’s like a 9/11, it’s a French 9/11. It’s a big shock. This church was there for more than 850 years. Even the Nazis didn’t dare to destroy it.”
Karsenty, who was incorrectly identified on-screen as a “French elected official”, was convicted of defamation in 2013 for claiming a French TV network broadcast staged footage of the killing of a Palestinian boy.
Shepard Smith cuts off French Elected Official after he brings up fact that Churches in France have been desecrated in past year.
“Of course you will hear the story of the politically correct which will tell you it is probably an accident" #NotreDame pic.twitter.com/HHdqSrXstg
— The Columbia Bugle ✝ (@ColumbiaBugle) April 15, 2019
“You need to know that for the past years, we’ve had churches desecrated each and every week in France, all over France,” he told Fox News.
“So, of course, you will hear the story of the politically correct — the political correctness which will tell you it’s probably an accident.”
Smith immediately ended the phone call. “We are thousands of miles away and the man on the phone with us has absolutely no information of any kind about the origin of this fire and neither do I,” he told viewers.
“The fire investigators will at some point come to a determination about what caused this and conspiracy theories about anything are worthless and in many cases counter productive and injurious to society. And those who entertain them are not acting in the best interests of the people of this planet.”
frank.chung@news.com.au
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The Untold Truth Of Belle Delphine

The Untold Truth Of Belle Delphine
The Untold Truth Of Belle Delphine
Belle Delphine's fans devised the bathwater business
No, it didn't give anyone herpes
Belle Delphine was born in South Africa
Belle Delphine was a 14-year-old dropout
Belle Delphine followed the influencer formula
Belle Delphine angered the masses with a video prank
This bath water mogul is worth half a million

The Untold Truth Of Belle Delphine
The Untold Truth Of Belle Delphine
YouTube
By Mariel Loveland / July 13, 2019 5:35 pm EDT / Updated: Dec. 19, 2020 6:05 am EDT
Anyone who's been online for five minutes has likely encountered Belle Delphine, whether they know it or not. You might recognize her as the pink-wigged teen who dances across Tik Tok compilation videos and YouTube thumbnails. Only recently has the internet star (This lady has 4.3 million Instagram followers and counting) become a household name, and for the most bizarre reason: She offered to sell her used bathwater for $30 a pop to her online followers.
The water sold out, and the bizarre story was picked up by major outlets, including The Guardian and The Cut. Who is this young woman who is obviously popular enough to pull off such a feat? According to Rolling Stone, the teen's Instagram account gained more than 3 million followers between November 2018 and July 2019, but before the unorthodox fame, the South African-born cosplay model was known as Belle Kirschner, a student at the top of her class who started hustling to make cash at age 13. And that was just the beginning. This is the untold truth of Belle Delphine.
Belle Delphine's fans devised the bathwater business
Instagram
Selling "gamer girl bathwater" to "thirsty gamer boys" on the internet is bizarre, but Belle Delphine didn't hatch the plan entirely on her own. She was inspired by her followers. In an interview with Newsweek, the teenage Instagram star admitted she came up with the idea after her fans kept commenting on her photos, claiming they wanted to drink her bath water. "I wondered if I actually were to take the joke seriously and sell my bathwater if there would be people out there that would buy it," she said. "I sold around 500 units, far more than I expected, and I had to rebuy containers as I didn't have enough! And I was very surprised at the huge response I got, I didn't think my bathwater would get this much attention."
First of all, that's a whole lot of baths, but Delphine did make a killing by investing little more some wrinkly fingers and toes. At $30 a pop, the self-proclaimed "weird elf kitty girl" made around $15,000, which certainly makes us think twice about flushing that liquid gold right down the drain.
No, it didn't give anyone herpes
YouTube
Belle Delphine's bath water undeniably flooded the internet. Her fans made reaction videos a cottage industry. Some YouTubers drank the water on camera; others used it to vape, and one guy made make mac and cheese and instant ramen with it. Who needs truffle oil when you've got what's essentially a gently steeped gamer girl tea? Okay, we just threw up in our mouths a little bit.
Delphine's stunt went viral in more ways than one. Shortly after it made headlines, dirty rumors surfaced claiming the bath water gave more than 50 people herpes. According to Snopes, the whole STD story turned out to be a hoax launched by a fake Daily Mail Twitter account. The account used the Daily Mail logo as an avatar and dubbed itself "Daily Mail US," but it's handle was @BlakeRises. In a since-deleted tweet (via Snopes ), the Twitter impersonator eventually came clean about the big fib. "It seems the best way to grow on Twitter is to impersonate a company [the Daily Mail] and say things about a celebrity [Belle Delphine] that legally can be considered libel and I could potentially be sued for," the twitter culprit confessed. According to Snopes, Delphine also refuted the herpes claims.
Belle Delphine was born in South Africa
YouTube
Belle Delphine, the online influencer who tacked googly eyes onto a dead octopus and called it her best friend, rarely dives into her origin story, but she did reveal a little about her background in an Instagram post in February 2019. She claimed she was born in South Africa with a dislocated hip that required extensive surgery. Luckily, the surgeries worked and she can now do things such as walk, pretzel herself into a mini-fridge, and shower herself in raw eggs .
Delphine said she moved to the U.K. when she was 9 years old and revealed that it feels like she's "lived two lives" because she's grown up on two continents. In South Africa, she spent a lot of time outdoors enjoying the gorgeous mountains and beaches. In the U.K., she discovered the internet — and everyone knows how that went.
Belle Delphine was a 14-year-old dropout
Instagram
Belle Delphine might be the "greatest troll on the Internet," at least according to Rolling Stone, so it shouldn't be surprising that she'd need some mega-smarts to constantly one-up bored, lonely dudes online. Fortunately, Delphine was always at the top of her class in school, aside from English, where she claims she was put in a "special" group because of her poor spelling skills. Nonetheless, the Instagram model found herself having a difficult time during her early teen and pre-teen years. She kept switching schools, then eventually dropped out at age 14. By the time she was 15, she had moved out of her parents' house into a shared home, where she spent a year.
Delphine has been a hustler from an early age. She claims to have worked since she was 13, holding down a number of odd jobs. According to Before They Were Famous, the star was a waitress and worked at a coffee shop. When she was 17, she spent six months babysitting. The teen eventually raised enough money to get a camper van and travel through France for a month. Now, the bath water mogul probably has enough cash to — in the very least — upgrade to a luxury bus.
Belle Delphine followed the influencer formula
YouTube
Belle Delphine launched her career on the internet just like many a social media star. There was nothing vaguely scandalous about what she was doing when she posted her first Facebook photo in 2013. According to Before They Were Famous, the star followed with her first ever Instagram selfie in 2015, but she didn't start posting "more intense" (read: sexy) cosplay photos until two years later. In 2016, she launched her YouTube channel with a makeup tutorial — a go-to move for aspiring influencers — but at the time of this writing, she's only posted three videos on that channel, despite amassing nearly half a million subscribers.
Around this time, Delphine also exploded on Tik Tok, which is what really made her internet-famous. Pretty much anyone who's ever used the app has seen her dancing around in her pink wig. For some mysterious reason, she eventually got banned from the platform, but not before she garnered millions of views across her unique posts and various compilation videos. According to Rolling Stone, she managed to monetize her fame when she launched a Patreon in 2018. At the time of this writing, she has more than 4,280 patrons who each pay between $1 and $2,500 per month for various prizes, such as access to her private Snapchat account, which she claims is her "naughtiest" social media platform.
Belle Delphine angered the masses with a video prank
YouTube
Before the bath water stunt, Belle Delphine managed to garner some notoriety when she trolled her fans with a fake account on a major adult video website. This girl apparently just loves messing with "thirsty gamer guys." In 2019, the Instagram star took a minor pause from posting vaguely NSFW content to embark on the troll to end all trolls — one that would anger hoards of lonely men online. She put on her infamous pink wig, donned some pasties, and promised her 3.5 million Instagram followers that she'd make an account on a most-definitely NSFW video site if one of her photos was liked 1 million times. Her fans were motivated by this, liking the image nearly 2 million times, so Delphine kept her promise — sort of.
According to Rolling Stone, she uploaded 12 videos to said website, but they were hardly raunchy. In the most PG of titles, "PewDiePie goes all the way inside Belle Delphine," the star eats an actual picture of famed YouTuber PewDiePie. Other videos show the model making a literal cream pie and playing with two stuffed cats. Some fans found the prank funny, but a good number were infuriated. According to Newsweek, one disgruntled fan even claimed: "You've got a bounty, wanted dead or alive. Be warned, don't mess with the gamers. You may of just started World War III." (C'mon man. Death threats aren't cool.)
This bath water mogul is worth half a million
YouTube
Belle Delphine has a unique brand that sells sex without really selling sex at all. According to Rolling Stone, she's caused "a significant amount of controversy" among those who work in the adult entertainment industry because she profits off their "marketing tactics while simultaneously distancing herself from adult content creators." It's reportedly not rare for adult entertainers to sell bath water or bodily fluids, but Delphine is the one who's going viral for the stunt. She's also been accused of ripping off adult entertainers and appropriating Japanese culture.
Regardless of what ideas Delphine has or has not co-opted, we can all agree that she's made a killing. At a minimum, she receives around $50,000 a year via her Patreon alone — and that's if everyone who subscribes pledges just $1. Considering Patreon users spend an average of $12 per month according to Vox, this bathing beauty could be making upwards of $500,000 per year and well on her way to joining some of the richest YouTube child stars on the planet. Dreshare places the Instagram model's estimated net worth at around half a million dollars.


Florida Teenager Is Charged as ‘Mastermind’ of Twitter Hack
Florida Teenager Is Charged as ‘Mastermind’ of Twitter Hack

Florida Teenager Is Charged as ‘Mastermind’ of Twitter Hack - The New York Times
Technology | Florida Teenager Is Charged as ‘Mastermind’ of Twitter Hack
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/31/technology/twitter-hack-arrest.html
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Florida Teenager Is Charged as ‘Mastermind’ of Twitter Hack
The authorities arrested a 17-year-old who they said ran a scheme that targeted the accounts of celebrities, including former President Barack Obama and Elon Musk. Two others were also charged.
The hack embarrassed Twitter and called into question the security provided by a range of tech companies.
Credit...
Jim Wilson/The New York Times
By Kate Conger and Nathaniel Popper
Published July 31, 2020 Updated Sept. 1, 2020
OAKLAND, Calif. — One by one, the celebrity Twitter accounts posted the same strange message: Send Bitcoin and they would send back double your money. Elon Musk. Bill Gates. Kanye West. Joseph R. Biden Jr. Former President Barack Obama. They, and dozens of others, were being hacked, and Twitter appeared powerless to stop it.
While some initially thought the hack was the work of professionals, it turns out the “mastermind” of one of the most high-profile hacks in recent years was a 17-year-old recent high school graduate from Florida, the authorities said on Friday.
Graham Ivan Clark was arrested in his Tampa apartment, where he lived by himself, early Friday, state officials said. He faces 30 felony charges in the hack, including fraud, and is being charged as an adult.
Two other people, Mason John Sheppard, 19, of the United Kingdom, and Nima Fazeli, 22, of Orlando, Fla., were accused of helping Mr. Clark during the takeover. Prosecutors said the two appeared to have aided the central figure in the attack, who went by the name Kirk. Documents released on Friday do not provide the real identity of Kirk, but they suggest that it was Mr. Clark.
Mr. Clark was skilled enough to go unnoticed inside Twitter’s network, said Andrew Warren, the Florida state attorney handling the case.
“This was not an ordinary 17-year-old,” Mr. Warren said.
Mr. Clark convinced one of the company’s employees that he was a co-worker in the technology department who needed the employee’s credentials to access the customer service portal, a criminal affidavit from Florida said. By the time the hackers were done, they had broken into 130 accounts and raised significant new questions about Twitter’s security.
Despite the hackers’ cleverness, their plan quickly fell apart, according to court documents. They left hints about their real identities and scrambled to hide the money they’d made once the hack became public. Their mistakes allowed law enforcement to quickly track them down.
Less than a week after the incident, federal agents, search warrant in hand, went to a home in Northern California, according to the documents. There, they interviewed another youngster who admitted participating in the scheme. The individual, who is not named in the documents because he or she is a minor, gave authorities information that helped them identify Mr. Sheppard and said that Mr. Sheppard had discussed turning himself in to law enforcement.
Because Mr. Clark is under 18, he was charged by the Florida state attorney in Tampa, rather than by federal authorities. His age also means that many details of his case are being kept under wraps.
Federal authorities were already tracking Mr. Clark’s online activity before the Twitter hack, according to legal documents. In April, the Secret Service seized over $700,000 worth of Bitcoin from him, but it was unclear why.
The documents released on Friday largely repeat what several hackers involved in the attack told The New York Times two weeks ago: The hack began early on July 15 as a quiet scheme to steal and sell unusual user names.
But as the day wore on, the attack, led by Kirk, took over dozens of accounts belonging to cryptocurrency companies and celebrities. Bitcoin flowed into the hackers’ accounts. The scheme netted Bitcoin worth more than $180,000, according to a New York Times estimate.
A special agent with an Internal Revenue Service investigative unit said in a court filing that Mr. Sheppard participated in the hack while using the screen name “ever so anxious.” A person using that name told The Times a few days after the attack that he got involved because he wanted to acquire unique Twitter user names.
“i just kinda found it cool having a username that other people would want,” “ever so anxious” said in a chat with The Times. He ultimately brokered the sale of at least 10 addresses, such as @drug, @w and @L, according to the indictment against him.
Mr. Fazeli is also accused of serving as a middleman, helping to sell stolen Twitter accounts on the day of the attack under the user name “Rolex.” But the indictment provides few details on Mr. Fazeli’s work as a middleman.
By the time Twitter finally managed to stop the attack, the hackers had tweeted from 45 of the accounts they had broken into, gained access to the direct messages of 36 accounts, and downloaded full information from seven accounts, the company said.
Mr. Fazeli and Mr. Clark were arrested on Friday. Mr. Sheppard has not been arrested but is expected to be taken into custody, the F.B.I. said.
“While investigations into cyber breaches can sometimes take years, our investigators were able to bring these hackers into custody in a matter of weeks,” said John Bennett, a special agent in charge with the F.B.I. The investigation is still underway, and it is possible there will be additional arrests, a bureau spokeswoman said.
The young men who participated in the breach come from a loose-knit community of hackers who focus on account takeovers, cybersecurity experts said. Using a practice known as SIM-swapping, they often target telecom companies to compromise victims’ phone numbers and intercept login credentials.
The attackers targeted Twitter employees, stealing their account credentials in order to gain access to an internal system that allowed them to reset the passwords of most Twitter users. (Some users, like President Trump, have extra security on their accounts to prevent takeovers.)
“These people come trained to be efficient and creative at their attack methods,” said Allison Nixon, the chief research officer of the security firm Unit 221B. “They’ve realized there’s this world of soft targets.”
These hackers often focus on financial fraud, but their ability to gain access to the accounts of political figures could attract new and dangerous customers, Ms. Nixon said.
“One of the things that concerns me is that, as these actors continue to refine their techniques and learn, they’re going to realize that there are other customers who will pay a lot more for things other than a single-character user name,” she said. “I don’t think they’ve even scratched the surface of how much damage they could cause.”
In a statement, Twitter thanked law enforcement for its “swift actions” and said it would continue to cooperate with the investigation.
The relatively young age of the hackers did not come as a surprise to security professionals who monitor the SIM-swapper community. Many of the people drawn to it are teenagers who pursue unique user names because controlling them conveys a sense of importance and clout.
“This activity is addictive in a way, it’s a thrill,” Ms. Nixon. “Breaking into gigantic companies and stealing ridiculous amounts of money is a huge thrill for them.”
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European Super League, explained: What it would mean for soccer and the teams involved
European Super League, explained: What it would mean for soccer and the teams involved
What is the European Super League?
Super League teams
Why are there no teams from Germany in Super League?
Why is the Super League happening?
How will the Super League work?
How will this impact Champions League?
What could stop it from happening?
How could it impact the World Cup?
What are proponents of Super League saying?
What's wrong with the Super League?

European Super League, explained: What it would mean for soccer and the teams involved | Sporting News
Soccer
04/20/2021
European Super League, explained: What it would mean for soccer and the teams involved
Written By Mike DeCourcy
@TSNMike
(Getty Images) https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/e6/e3/manchestercity-chelsea-getty-ftr-041921jpg_1ob0a8iddj5oi14fnjhd4md1kw.jpg?t=-297800440&w=500&quality=80
Soccer
Premier League
The announcement Sunday of a plan for a dozen top European soccer teams to form a breakaway “Super League” is nothing short of a sporting revolution.
To find something similarly impactful in the U.S., one would need to look back to the creation of the American Football League in 1960 to compete with the NFL and the subsequent agreement that brought about the Super Bowl in 1966 and the complete merger of the two leagues in 1970.
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All the formation of the American Basketball Association and the World Hockey Association did, ultimately, was add a few teams to established leagues.
The Super League would completely alter how European soccer operates.
And, like most revolutions, it will not proceed without a battle.
DeCOURCY: Super League creation was obviously driven by money, but complaints are too little, too late, too lame
What is the European Super League?
It’s meant to be a supplementary competition to each club’s domestic league, similar to how the UEFA Champions League operates now.
The difference is that the core ESL teams would not have to qualify to compete, as they do now. Under current Champions League rules, for instance, the top four Premier League teams qualify each year to enter the Champions League group stage.
With the Super League, the 15 founding members would be involved annually, with five teams able to qualify on an annual basis. The standards for qualifying have not yet been explained.
Super League teams
Arsenal
Chelsea
Liverpool
Manchester City
Manchester United
Tottenham Hotspur
Atletico Madrid
Barcelona
Real Madrid
AC Milan
Inter Milan
Juventus
There are six from England’s Premier League: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, and Tottenham Hotspur. There are three from Spain’s La Liga: Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid. And there are three from Italy: AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus.
Notably, there are no teams from Germany’s Bundesliga as yet identified, although Bayern Munich is the reigning Champions League winner. And there is no representative from France’s Ligue 1, although Paris Saint-Germain is involved in the 2021 Champions League semifinals.
The identity of the other three founding members has either not been established, or it has yet to be revealed. Given how poorly the secret of the Super League’s Sunday night announcement was kept, it seems likely that those spots are being held in case particular clubs change direction.
MORE: UEFA, Premier League criticize plans for Super League
Why are there no teams from Germany in Super League?
Hans-Joachim Watzke is CEO of Borussia Dortmund, which qualified for Champions League in nine of the past 10 seasons. He quickly announced that the club had “rejected” the Super League plan. He also said Dortmund and Bayern — Bundesliga winners in each of the past eight seasons and clear favorite to win a ninth straight — had “100 percent compatible views” on the subject.
Given the consequences of this decision, it felt a bit presumptuous to take his word for that. After all, we’re talking about what is essentially a revolution in European soccer.
Bayern still has not issued a statement on the subject. Its Twitter account on Monday was focused entirely on the club’s attempt to secure another Bundesliga title.
But its chairman, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, reportedly will accept a position on the UEFA board made vacant when Juventus chair Andrea Agnelli resigned following the Super League announcement. That would appear to confirm Bayern’s intent to remain committed to Champions League.
Why is the Super League happening?
Money would be the easiest answer. Guaranteed involvement in a lucrative competition that would, by definition, be competitively prestigious is an obvious lure for all involved — as well as that the 20 clubs would not have to share revenue with myriad teams involved in Champions League’s qualifying rounds and UEFA itself.
Champions League payouts total an estimated $2.4 billion annually. The Super League clubs expect they’ll generate more. J.P. Morgan has agreed to underwrite an initial $4.2 billion, according to Al-Jazeera, with a possibility that outside investors will be offered the opportunity to participate.
The increased revenue would come at a time when soccer clubs have experienced significant revenue declines because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gates have been eliminated or limited throughout the 2020-21 domestic and Champions League seasons. Because of quarantine restrictions, some Champions League games have been played in neutral countries in empty stadiums.
How will the Super League work?
The 20 teams will be split into divisions of 10, with each team playing home and away against the nine opponents in its division. The top four teams in each division would advance to a playoff round of quarterfinals, semifinals and final.
That would mean a total of 21 Super League games for the winner and runner-up.
Teams in the current Champions League arrangement play 10 games if they reach the final. Under the renovated Champions League plan announced Monday, that would expand to between 14 and 16, depending on how a team performs in group play.
The Super League plan likely would further impact domestic cup competitions, particularly one such as England’s Carabao Cup, because of the physical demands on players.
How will this impact Champions League?
As it stands, particularly with the top German clubs committed to remaining in Champions League, the competition figures to continue, albeit in a compromised form.
Remember, though, that even with nearly all the UCL’s best performers over the past couple of decades coming almost exclusively from the breakaway clubs (and those who most obviously declined to join), the Champions League is a continent-wide competition that involves clubs from 54 nations, including Georgia, Montenegro and the Faroe Islands.
All of those national associations and the clubs they represent figure to be damaged by the separation.
What could stop it from happening?
It's possible, though unlikely, that the clubs could listen to the ardent supporters already lining up against this abdication of tradition. There is a report that Chelsea fans will protest outside its home stadium, Stamford Bridge, on Tuesday. A group of Liverpool fans posted a black sign with white lettering on a gate at Anfield stating, "SHAME ON YOU, R.I.P. LFC, 1892-2021."
But the club owners will depend on fans' love of their clubs and the sport to supersede such conserns and displays.
The only thing that could stop this is a legal defeat. UEFA is warning of legal action, and the founding owners of Super League are promising the same.
How could it impact the World Cup?
UEFA president Alexander Ceferin declared on Monday, “The players that will play in the Super League will be banned from playing in the World Cup and Euros. They will not be allowed to play for their national teams.”
UEFA might be able to constrain its member nations from including Super League players on their national teams. That would mean England doing without such players as forwards Harry Kane and Marcus Rashford, midfielder Jordan Henderson and defenders John Stones and Harry Maguire.
But to keep, say, Christian Pulisic from playing for the United States in World Cup qualifying and, if successful, at Qatar 2022, FIFA would need to issue a similar mandate.
What are proponents of Super League saying?
They are not easy to find.
The Super League’s official announcement is about the best one can do.
“We will help football at every level and take it to its rightful place in the world,” Real Madrid president Florentino Perez said in the Super League statement. “Football is the only global sport in the world with more than four billion fans, and our responsibility as big clubs is to respond to their desires.”
Manchester United co-chairman Joel Glazer has been installed as vice chairman of the Super League.
“By brining together the world’s greatest clubs and players to play each other throughout the season, the Super League will open a new chapter for European football, ensuring world-class competition and facilities, and increased financial support for the wider football pyramid," he said.
Regarding the potential damage to other European teams, from the official release: “The new annual tournament will provide significantly greater economic growth and support for European football via long-term commitment to uncapped solidarity payments, which will grow in line with league revenues.”
What's wrong with the Super League?
We could fill the whole article with this.
They are outraged by the impact of such a competition on the “pyramid” philosophy that exists in European soccer: teams can play their way up through the pyramid through the system of promotion and relegation. As they see it, all league positions are earned by performance, and that ultimately includes the Champions League and the less glamorous Europa League.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson: “We’re going to look at everything that we can do with the football authorities to make sure this doesn’t go ahead as it’s currently being proposed. I don’t think it’s good news for fans. I don’t think it’s good news for football in this country.”
Portugal and Real Madrid legend Luis Figo: “This greedy and callous move would spell disaster for our grassroots, for women’s football, and the wider football community only to serve self-interested owners, who stopped caring about their fans long ago, and complete disregard for sporting merit. Tragic.”
Former Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson: “A piece of nonsense … it has done the reputation of clubs no good and has, in fact, alienated a great many supporters. It sells them right down the river, and you can’t disregard your fans and customers.”
German World Cup champion Mesut Ozil: “Kids grow up dreaming to win the World Cup and the Champions League, not any Super League. The enjoyment of big games is that they only happen once or twice a year, not every week. Really hard to understand for all football fans out there.”


The Pros and Cons of Moving to a Cashless Society
Benefits of a Cashless Society
Lower Crime Rates
Automatic Paper Trails
Cash Management Costs Money
International Payments Become Much Easier
Disadvantages of a Cash-Free World
Digital Transactions Sacrifice Privacy
Cashless Transactions Are Exposed to Hacking Risks
Technology Problems Could Impact Your Access to Funds
Economic Inequality Could Become Exacerbated
Payment Providers Could Charge Fees
The Temptation to Overspend May Increase
Negative Interest Rates Could Be Passed Onto Customers
What Does a Cashless Society Look Like?
Examples of Cashless Societies
Sweden
India
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The Pros and Cons of Moving to a Cashless Society
Banking Banking Basics
The Pros and Cons of Moving to a Cashless Society
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Justin Pritchard, CFP, is a fee-only advisor and an expert on banking. He covers banking basics, checking, saving, loans, and mortgages. He has an MBA from the University of Colorado, and has worked for credit unions and large financial firms, in addition to writing about personal finance for nearly two decades.
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Khadija Khartit is a strategy, investment, and funding expert with over 25 years of experience. She is an educator of fintech and strategic finance at top universities. Khadija is a Fulbright Scholar and she received her MBA from Oklahoma State University and her master's in finance from Boston College.
Article Reviewed on April 30, 2021
Read The Balance's Financial Review Board
Khadija Khartit
Updated May 20, 2021
A cashless society might sound like something out of science fiction, but it's already on its way. Several powerful forces are behind the move to a cash-free world, including some governments and large financial services companies. 1  2
However, no society has gone totally cash-free just yet. In addition to logistical challenges, several social issues need to be addressed before society can give up on cash entirely. The benefits and disadvantages below can give you an idea of the myriad of effects going cashless can have on money and banking as you know it.
Benefits
Lower crime rates, because there's no tangible money to steal
Less money laundering, because there's always a digital paper trail
Less time and cost associated with handling, storing, and depositing paper money
Easier currency exchange while traveling internationally
Disadvantages
Exposes your personal information to a possible data breach
If hackers drain your bank account, or you experience technical issues, you'll have no alternative source of money.
Those with no knowledge, bank accounts, or mobile phones will struggle to keep up with evolving cashless technology.
Some may find it harder to control spending when they don't see physical cash leaving their hands
Benefits of a Cashless Society
Those with the technological ability to take advantage of a cashless society will likely find that it's more convenient. As long as you have your card or phone, you have instantaneous access to all your cash holdings. Convenience isn't the only benefit. Here are some other benefits.
Lower Crime Rates
Carrying cash makes you an easy target for criminals. Once the money is taken from your wallet and put into a criminal's wallet, it'll be difficult to track that cash or prove that it's yours. One study by American and German researchers found that crime in Missouri dropped by 9.8% as the state replaced cash welfare benefits with Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards. 3
Automatic Paper Trails
Similarly, financial crime should also dry up in a cashless society. Illegal transactions, such as illegal gambling or drug operations, typically use cash so that there isn't a record of the transaction and the money is easier to launder. Money laundering becomes much harder if the source of funds is always clearly identifiable. It is harder to hide income and evade taxes when there’s a record of every payment you receive.
Cash Management Costs Money
Going cashless isn't just convenient. It costs money to print bills and mint coins. Businesses need to store the money, get more when they run out, deposit cash when they have too much on hand, and in some cases, hire companies to transport cash safely. Banks hire large security teams to protect branches against physical banks' robberies. Spending time and resources moving money around and protecting large sums of cash could become a thing of the past in a cashless future.
International Payments Become Much Easier
When you travel, you may need to exchange your dollars for local currency. However, if you're traveling in a country that accepts cashless transactions, you don't need to worry about how much of the local currency you'll need to withdraw. Instead, your mobile device handles everything for you.
Disadvantages of a Cash-Free World
Depending on your perspective, going cashless might actually be more problematic than beneficial. Here are some of the major downsides associated with a cashless financial system.
Digital Transactions Sacrifice Privacy
Electronic payments aren't as private as cash payments. You might trust the organizations that handle your data, and you might have nothing to hide. However, the more information you have floating around online, the more likely it is to wind up in malicious hands. Cash allows you to spend money and receive funds anonymously .
Cashless Transactions Are Exposed to Hacking Risks
Hackers are the bank robbers and muggers of the electronic world. In a cashless society, you're more exposed to hackers. If you are targeted, and somebody drains your account, you may not have any alternative ways to spend money. Even if you’re protected under federal law, it will still be inconvenient to restore your financial standing after a breach.
Technology Problems Could Impact Your Access to Funds
Glitches, outages, and innocent mistakes can also cause problems, leaving you without the ability to buy things when you need to. Likewise, merchants have no way to accept payments when systems malfunction. Even something as simple as a dead phone battery could leave you “penniless,” in a sense.
Economic Inequality Could Become Exacerbated
Unless special outreach efforts are made, the poor and unbanked will likely have an even harder time in a cashless society. If smartphone purchases become the standard way to transact, for example, those who can't afford smartphones will be left behind. The UK is experimenting with contactless ways to donate to charities and homeless individuals, but these efforts may not be developed enough yet to substitute cash donations. 4
Payment Providers Could Charge Fees
If society is forced to choose from just a few payment methods, or if one app becomes the standard payment app, the companies who develop these services might not offer them for free. Payment processors may cash in on the high volumes by imposing fees, which would eliminate the savings that should come from less cash handling.
The Temptation to Overspend May Increase
When you spend with cash, you recognize the financial impact by physically taking the cash out of your pocket and giving it to someone else. With electronic payments, on the other hand, it’s easy to swipe, tap, or click without noticing how much you spend. Consumers may have to rethink the ways they manage their spending.
Negative Interest Rates Could Be Passed Onto Customers
When all money is electronic, negative interest rates could have a more direct effect on consumers. Countries like Denmark, Japan, and Switzerland have already experimented with negative interest rates. 5
Dropping the interest rate is typically a move to stimulate an economy, but the result is that money loses purchasing power. 6
According to the International Monetary Fund, negative interest rates reduce bank profitability, and banks could be tempted to hike fees on customers to make up that deficit. In 2021, banks are limited in their ability to pass on those costs, because customers can simply withdraw their cash from the bank if they don't like the fees. In the future, if customers can't withdraw cash from the bank, they may have to accept any additional fees.
What Does a Cashless Society Look Like?
Without cash, payments happen electronically. Instead of using paper and coins to exchange value, you authorize a transfer of funds from a bank account to another person or business. The logistics are still developing, but there are some hints as to how a cashless society might evolve.
Credit and debit cards are among the most popular cash alternatives in use today, but cards alone might not be enough to support a 100% cashless society. Mobile devices could become a primary tool for payments instead.
Electronic payment apps, like Zelle, PayPal, and Venmo, are helpful for person-to-person payments ( P2P payments ). In addition, bill-splitting apps allow friends to split their bills easily and in a fair manner. Fintech companies like Stripe, Adyen, and Fiserv support business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), or what they now merge into account-to-account (A2A) online payments in a reliable and speedy fashion.
Mobile payment services and mobile wallets like Apple Pay provide secure, cash-free payments. Many nations that use cash sparingly have already seen mobile devices become common tools for payments.
Cryptocurrencies are also part of the discussion. They’re already used for money transfers, and they introduce competition and innovation that may help keep costs low. However, there are risks and regulatory hurdles that make them impractical for most consumers, so they might not yet be ready for widespread use.
Examples of Cashless Societies
Several nations are already making moves to eliminate cash, with the push coming from both consumers and government bodies. Sweden and India are two notable examples, with two different outcomes.
Sweden
It’s not uncommon to see signs that say, “No Cash Accepted” in Swedish shops. According to the European Payments Council, cash transactions accounted for just 1% of Sweden's GDP in 2019, and cash withdrawals have been steadily declining by about 10% per year. 2 Consumers are mostly happy with this situation, but those who struggle to keep up with technological developments continue to rely on cash. Sweden is gearing up to become the first cashless nation in the world, with an economy 100 percent digital by 2023.
India
The Indian government banned 500 and 1,000 rupee notes in November 2016, in an effort to catch criminals and those working in the informal economy. 1 The implementation was controversial, in part because roughly 99% of those banknotes were eventually deposited. 7 However, criminals weren't punished for hoarding untraceable cash, which had been the intent of the move. The Economic Times cited the Reserve Bank of India as it reported that electronic transactions has increased temporarily, but cash returned to pre-demonetization levels by the end of 2017. 8
While these two examples had varying levels of success, both countries struggled to address how the marginalized would fare in a 100% cashless society.
Article Sources
British Broadcasting Corporation. " India Scraps 500 and 1,000 Rupee Bank Notes Overnight ." Accessed June 10, 2020.
European Payments Council. " Sweden: Cashless Society and Digital Transformation ." Accessed June 10, 2020.
IZA: Institute of Labor Economics. " Less Cash, Less Crime: Evidence From the Electronic Benefit Transfer Program ," Page 2. Accessed June 10, 2020.
The Guardian. " 'Sorry, I've Only Got My Card': Can the Homeless Adapt to Cashless Society? " Accessed June 10, 2020.
International Monetary Fund. " Back to Basics: How Can Interest Rates Be Negative? " Accessed June 10, 2020.
Wells Fargo. " Q&A on Negative Interest Rates ." Accessed June 10, 2020.
British Broadcasting Corporation. " India Rupee: Illegal Cash Crackdown Failed – Bank Report ." Accessed June 10, 2020.
The Economic Times. " A Year After Note Ban, Cashless Economy Is Still a Distant Dream ." Accessed June 10, 2020.


Birds: A Conspiracy Turned Movement

Birds: A Conspiracy Turned Movement
Birds: A Conspiracy Turned Movement
What is "Birds aren't Real" and why is it taking over Charleston's campus?
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Birds: A Conspiracy Turned Movement
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Birds: A Conspiracy Turned Movement
What is "Birds aren't Real" and why is it taking over Charleston's campus?
Reese Walker
Oct 23, 2018
College of Charleston
5.1k
@birdsarentreal
If you haven't heard of the "Birds Aren't Real" movement yet, you will soon. It is a society of people who believe, essentially, that the birds that exist and live in our world today are not really birds at all, but rather government surveillance drones. These people claim that their theory dates back all the way back to 1959.
This group, recently taking College of Charleston's campus by storm, preaches that birds all over the country are secretly just cameras controlled by our government used to watch our every move.
Since "Birds Aren't Real" has become so prevalent in the CofC campus recently, I decided to sit down with its leader, its members (supposedly called disciples) and fellow kids around campus who have been affected by the movement to see just how serious and impactful this conspiracy has become.
The first mention incoming freshman seem to have had with "Birds Aren't Real" are the flyers and stickers posted all around campus. Some heard from word of mouth, but the majority of people just started seeing tons of signs posted all around their residence hall advertising: "Birds Aren't Real" with a picture of a bird and text beside it that reads: " = Government Surveillance Drone."
So besides a national scale, what made this fad so popular among CofC freshmen? Well, after talking with people, I met with the suspected instigator of the posters and flyers we all see around campus.
For privacy's sake, I won't give you their name. But I will give you what they have to say about this movement and everything it entails.
I met with the leader of this group in a dorm room, which was completely filled with "Birds Aren't Real" paraphernalia and also a few ruined posters which had hate plastered across them.
Supposedly, he and his friends thought it was odd, yet humorous how a good amount of people not only opposed their movement but that they actively went out of their way to destroy their flyers.
And ruined paper isn't the only hate they've received. On Second Sunday, when Charleston closes down a portion on King Street to host festivities, the leader of this group went out with a poster board that read "Make Love, Not Birds" across it. He said it was for the purpose of "enlightening people", and a fun, light-hearted way to get people interested in their cause. However, he received pushback as well, one woman going so far as to deter him and tell him he would be scaring the children.
Despite the hate, he seemed very optimistic about it all, and he and his friends have enjoyed how their movement has evolved so far. The leader says he is open to creating a volunteer-based club, though he would not affiliate it with College of Charleston.
He says that he enjoys the independence of their group and would rather the attention focus more on the club itself, than the fact that it is affiliated with the college. His members seem to think the same thing, one even said they enjoy the work they're doing now, and they have more freedom because of the independence in being a non-college related club.
This member says that they push their agenda to buy passing out flyers, posting stickers around Charleston and wearing merchandise in support of the cause. The members also regulate the @birdsarentreal.charleston Instagram page, on which the leader says you can email or direct message him through if you are interested in helping out or have any questions.
So this group is actively involved in its community, but what do the people of CofC think about the movement? Some people are not too happy about the whole ordeal. The people actively involved in the "Birds Aren't Real" movement, have been posting signs outside people's dorm doors, which isn't exactly allowed in residence halls.
This action has received a complaint, but mostly from those who don't support or find humor, in the message these people are posting. One opposer says, "I think it's a little stupid. I don't think you should say they're fake because that supports fake information."
Another commented,"...it's kind of obnoxious, they sort of bully people? But "bully" is an extreme word... I just wish they didn't put that stuff on my door, I don't want that lol". And this opinion was shared by a few people I've talked to, many saying that if the agenda wasn't pushed on them, then it wouldn't be a problem. Another issue was the dorm policy of flyers, which are not allowed in residence halls due to The College's sustainability guidelines.
I spoke with Residence Life about the issue and they pointed out the complication, "It wouldn't be a problem if he wasn't using so much paper. But using free prints at TD Arena and distributing them under peoples doors isn't sustainable and they aren't being recycled." With this in mind, is the movement really a positive thing? Or is it a mean-spirited joke cast around campus?
Luckily for all our "Birds Aren't Real" advocates out there, the amount of support this group has gotten far exceeds those who aren't too fond of it. For the majority of the people I talked to, even beginning the conversation they were laughing, most of them telling me they own flyers ad have put them up in their rooms.
Some supporters decorated their room with origami birds made out of the flyers, which alludes to the "Birds Aren't Real"'s national t-shirt design, featuring a paper origami bird on a blank background. One girl spoke to the positive impact this group has had, saying "It's for fun and people are making a joke, I've seen people making connections and bonds in the Berry [dorm] community."
Other students said they've created jokes with their friends about it, and find the whole thing very humorous, and a very good way for their class to bond together over something.
One of the members spoke to faculty about his "Birds Aren't Real" when they asked him about it, and it resulted in a long conversation about the history of it and how the freshman class has adopted it. The faculty member loved it so much they asked for merchandise and flyers of their own. And it didn't stop there!
Other faculties have said they would gladly oversee a CofC club for this group, though the leader still seems adamant that they should remain independent of the college.
At the end of the day, the "Birds Aren't Real" situation that has rocked Charleston's campus is one so very unique, and one that has truly had an overall positive vibe with students.
For me, I think sustainability is important, but the message and humor behind the movement are so fun for me, and I think it's important for students to have an outlet like this that they can express themselves with.
Maybe the people of "Birds Aren't Real" can work towards a more sustainable way of getting their message across, and then perhaps even more students will be able to get behind this satirical phenomenon that has rallied so many.
And to end, I'll leave you with the motto of this legendary organization: "Stay Woke, Cougs"
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