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Teens Are Going to Extremes for Viral 'Promposals'

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In 2005, millions of people watched Kristen Cavallari on MTV's Laguna Beach as she followed a trail of white roses up the brick walkway leading to her parents' home. She picked them up one-by-one while her boyfriend Stephen Coletti waited inside to surprise her. He had scribbled the words "prom... please?" across his bare chest in black sharpie. When she came inside the house, the 18-year-old high school senior and reality star was the recipient of one of the first high-profile prom proposals.

The broadcast of Coletti's romantic stunt, along with those staged by his friends, helped launch the growing prom proposal trend among American teens. In the past, elaborate proposals such as these were reserved for major life events like marriage, but today teens are expected to create extraordinary invites for school dances—not just prom, but homecoming and Sadie Hawkins, too. The "promposal," as it's called, has become just as necessary as renting a suit or buying a corsage.

"Although it took some time to catch on nationally, teens' fervent use of Facebook in 2006 to 2007, and their increasing willingness to share their lives publicly, helped propel promposals as a mainstay among American youth," said Andrea Richeson, the founder of Youth Tribes, an organization that studies youth culture.

Over a decade after the affluent California high schoolers introduced the world to promposal, the invites have taken many forms from thoughtful surprises like Coletti's to elaborate stunts like jumping out of a plane, all in the name of a school dance.

It was only two weeks into my little brother's freshman year of high school when my mom called me up to see if I had any cool ideas for a homecoming proposal, even though the event was still six weeks away.

When I attended my first homecoming 12 years ago, my date asked me to the dance in the cafeteria of our Catholic high school. It was only a couple days before the big night and the awkward face-to-face encounter lasted about five seconds. When I suggested my little brother just do something similar—like, just ask the girl face-to-face—he scoffed. The promposal was a tradition he told me, and if he wanted a date to the dance, he had to do one and it had to be clever.

My mom had already purchased him a large white poster board, which appears to be the format of choice for many promposals. He planned to write some kind of corny poem on it. For example, his friend had wrote, "I couldn't bear to go to homecoming without you" on a sign and handed the girl a stuffed teddy bear.

Since my date could hardly muster the words to ask me to the dance, it was hard to believe that so many teens would want to put themselves out there like that. A promposal video that went viral last spring captured just how a proposal can go wrong. Daniel Pena had hoped to create a memorable promposal for his girlfriend Alex. He set up signs along the road that read "Alex. Will. You. Marry. LOL JK. Go To. Prom. With Me" before picking her up in his car.

Pena filmed the couples' ride, in which you can see Alex read the first couple signs aloud. Alex calls the promposal "shitty" before realizing that it was actually for her. While the invite didn't go as planned (she still said yes), the video has been viewed over 13 million times.

The rising popularity of promposals has been fueled in recent years by the obsession with social media. For a successful promposal, it is not just about the date saying yes, teens have to produce something that is worthy of YouTube views and Instagram likes. As Richeson shared with me this "continuously ups the ante and the pressure to have a share worthy moment that is liked among friends, family, and the world."

As I searched the internet for inspiration for my little brother, I quickly learned how big the promposal trend really was. There were Tumblr and Instagram accounts with thousands of followers that were dedicated to the extravagant invitations. The propositions ranged from a bouquet of suckers that says "prom would suck without you" to a teen enlisting Senator Ted Cruz to read a promposal script on camera.

"I think promposals have become such a big trend because they garner such positive reactions, not just from the lucky recipient of the promposal, but the social community as well. Just like teens refuse to be photographed wearing the same outfit because they want to get fresh responses from their followers, grand gestures like promposals are valued for their inherent originality," said Richeson.

Thomas Maher, a teen from Arizona, gained media attention earlier this year when he offered his long-term girlfriend a trip to Hawaii in exchange for being his date to prom.

"This was my eighth time asking her to a dance and I try and make each one better than the previous in terms of creativity," said Maher.

"The only expectations I cared about were hers and my own. I know she would be happy with anything, because she is the type to appreciate any act that had thought put into it. But I am a perfectionist and I expect something to sweep her off her feet each and every time."

In addition to the pressure of expectations, the grandiose events have become an added expense for American families. As was the case with my brother, my mom ended up footing the bill and doing all the work. According to a study done by Visa, the average household with teenagers spent $324 on promposing in 2015. New England families with teenagers spent the most with $431 per promposal, compared to Midwest families, who spent an average of $218.

The staying power of the promposal was cemented earlier this year when the dress clothes retailer Men's Wearhouse registered March 11th as National Promposal Day. To celebrate the event, Men's Wearhouse created "the most epic promposal ever" for social media personality Brent Rivera. Rivera and his date were offered a private helicopter ride over a beach, where down below the word "prom" was spelled out by people holding umbrellas. The whole production looked more like a scene from a James Bond film than a teenager's invitation to a dance, proving that that we've come a long way from Laguna Beach.

"Because we are all so keen to be liked, and to have our lives liked, life milestones such as engagements, weddings, pet adoptions, pregnancy announcements, and house purchases, have become these events that demand grand gestures, quirky originality, and magazine-style photo shoots," said Richeson.

Ultimately, my brother went with an emoji-themed poem for his homecoming proposal. He rolled the poster up with a bouquet of flowers and hid them in his date's locker, but he was sure to be there when she opened it, so they could get a customary picture to document the occasion. Even though he didn't even end up going to the dance with that girl, he had successfully completed his promposal rite of passage.

Follow Erica Euse on Twitter.


Earthquake Survivors Recall Watching Their City Crumble

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The center of the town of Amatrice, after August 24, 2016. Photo via Wikimedia Commons

A 6.6-magnitude earthquake struck Italy on Sunday, leaving more than 18,000 people homeless and 20 injured. The quake, which was centered near the Umbrian town of Norcia, comes after two more took place near Umbria's capital of Perugia on Wednesday. These recent earthquakes happened along the same fault lines as one in August that killed nearly 300 people.

According to experts, violent earthquakes such as the one that occurred in August create stresses, which are then redistributed across adjacent faults causing them to rupture in a domino effect. Italy is one of the most seismically active regions in Europe and the Mediterranean—in the last century, more than 30 earthquakes have shaken the country, with last week's being the strongest since 1980.

We asked three people who survived some of the worst earthquakes in recent Italian history to recall what it was like to be at the mercy of Mother Earth.

Friuli, 1976

The Friuli earthquake (in the northeast of Italy) took place in May 1976, with a moment magnitude of 6.5. Up to 978 people were killed, 2,400 were injured, and 157,000 were left homeless. The main event was followed by some aftershocks in September of the same year.

On May 6, at around 9 PM, I was in my pajamas having dinner with my family in our apartment in Udine. I was studying for my final high school exams back then, so every night after dinner I would spend three hours studying in my room.

I had just sat down at my desk when the tremors started. I remember running in the living room, where my little brother was playing in the shadow of a huge library from which books were starting to fall. I came in just in time to prevent the heavy books from falling on him. We spent that night and the next sleeping in the family car with our mom. My father, who had spent years in an Indian prison and survived a Himalayan earthquake, refused to leave our house, so that's where he slept.

When the second tremor hit, I was in Udine's city center, stuck in traffic in my FIAT 500 Cabrio. It was hot, and the city was crowded. I felt the car shaking, so I looked up and saw the buildings trembling, too. A woman standing right next to my car lost her shit and started screaming. Parts of the town that were destroyed in that earthquake were rebuilt in the following years due to the superhuman efforts of the citizens—no thanks to the Italian government.

- Fabio, 58

L'Aquila, 2009

On April 6, 2009, an earthquake of about 5.8 Richter destroyed the city of L'Acquila. It had been announced by a long series of tremors and was felt throughout central Italy. There were 309 casualties, and it has been rated the fifth most violent earthquake in recent Italian history.

Italians won't remember my name, but they may remember footage of my rescue, which was broadcast on April 6, 2009. Everyone on TV talked about a girl, who was still alive but trapped under the debris. I am that girl. It was only months after my rescue that I realized I'd become a symbol of hope for my city.

These days, I am a normal girl. I have a degree, a job, dreams, and anxieties. But when I was 24, I spent 23 hours under the pieces of my own apartment. I owe my life to the firefighters who worked 15 hours without break to free me. I lost a lot in that earthquake: clothes, shoes, books, my computer—but most important quite a few friends.

I have often thought about what happened, in an attempt to figure out whether there was a deeper meaning to my experience. I've concluded that I was given a second chance, which means I have to live life at the best of my abilities. That's what kept me from giving up despite the many grueling months of rehabilitation that I had to go through in order to be able to walk again. I lost my balance for a handful of seconds, and it took a lot of time, determination, and faith to find it again.

- Marta, 31

Emilia, 2012

An 6.1 magnitude earthquake struck the Emilia-Romagna region on May 20, 2012. It was followed by a tremor that shook the entire northern part of the country, on May 29. Twenty-seven people lost their lives in these earthquakes.

I was asleep in my house in San Martino Spinto, not far from the city of Modena. I was lying on a mattress on the wooden floor, and I'd left the light on. All of a sudden, the light went out and the room started moving up and down, and side to side.

I stood up with my legs well spread in an attempt not to lose my balance. Everything was falling from the shelves. I thought, Fuck, I am going to die. Then I thought of opening the window, jumping on the platform roof, from there on a car, and finally on the ground. As I was about to open the window, it all stopped. So I ran down the stairs and out on the road, barefoot and in my underwear.

I ran to my parents' place—I have never run that fast in my whole life—and I found them out on the street, surrounded by a small crowd of neighbors. The first thing they asked me was, "Why are you only wearing your underwear? Aren't you cold?" In that tragic situation, they still remained my parents. Soon after, the sun rose, and we saw the consequences of the earthquake, which so far we had only felt.

It rained the following day, but thankfully it didn't rain anymore in the months that followed. For that time, I lived in a tent, while my parents lived in their car. My dad did not really sleep for the next 40 nights. He would lie down for a couple of hours every night but spent the rest of his time standing guard, in case of an aftershock. We would eat on the street under a beach umbrella, and once, my mother said, "Can you believe there are people that go to the seaside just to do exactly what we're doing now?"

- Tiziano, 48

​Photos of Donald Trump’s Worst Moments Remixed

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All photos courtesy of Jean Malek

From small-membered statues to Renaissance baby face swaps, the presidential candidate and his endless blunders have provided generous inspiration to artists far and wide.

One latest addition to the Trump oeuvre is a made-in-Canada photo series that aims to illustrate the Republican nightmare's most memorable mistakes, along with the die-hard fans that refuse to be phased by any of it.

Created by Montreal-raised, New York-based photographer Jean Malek, the aptly-titled "Locker Room" series features the cannot unhear "grab her by the pussy" debacle, a reference to former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, and some very dubious Trump supporter fashions.

We called him up in New York.

VICE: Originally from Montreal, you now live in the United States. How are you finding the presidential election experience?
Jean Malek: I find it funny. I have roommates here , which allows me to see the reactions from locals. It's really not very different from the reactions people have in Montreal, except that here there's also this "shame" factor. I watched two of the three debates with my roommates, and I found it super interesting to see their physical reactions to the candidates' comments, like they couldn't believe what was happening, they were almost hiding their faces. To me it's more like a reality TV show than a political debate.

Where did the inspiration come from for this photo series?
I usually run with things that inspire me, that make me think or laugh. Given all the crazy things that have been said, I told myself: "Damn, it'd be really interesting to put this in images."

When "Grab them by the... ahem..." came out, I told myself: "OK, this has gotten too out of hand, I have to do something with this. I've got to do a series based on everything that's been said in this election." With everything the media got out on Trump, you wonder how the race has even continued.

I wasn't looking to give my political opinion, because Americans will vote for whoever they want, but I wanted to illustrate this in images, kind of like a caricature.

How did you find these models? Are they Montrealers?
Yes, in fact, the two people who play the Trump supporters are a real-life couple. The guy is from France and his girlfriend is from Quebec.

So they're not really Trump supporters?
That's kind of the rumour that was going around, people had the impression that I had taken real fans to mock them, but no.

How did you find the guy playing Trump?
I was looking for a guy who had kind of the same build. I called a casting agency and I asked them. The guy was super motivated. In life, he's a super passionate guy and involved in a lot of projects. But I knew he'd have to do the "Grab them bythe..." photo, so I had to tell his agent: "Listen, there's a photo I want to do to illustrate what Trump said, and so he's going to have to grab a woman's genitals." So to be sure from the outset, I asked his agent to mention it to him, to make sure he didn't freak out during the shoot, but he was very at ease with it. Same thing for the girl of course.

The most shocking photo, in my opinion, is that one, which you called #GHBTP. How are people reacting to it?
In my gang, people find it hilarious. There are others who say that it's troubling, but funny nevertheless. When you hear those words, you tell yourself, come on, an American presidential candidate can't say that and remain in the race. But when you see that phrase in a picture, it adds a whole other layer...

Follow Brigitte on Twitter.

Here's How Much You Might Be Paying for Legal Weed

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Photo via Flickr user Retinafunk

The future of legal weed in Canada looks bright for big companies and the government, as millions of Canadians are predicted to consume vast quantities of cannabis, a new report by the parliamentary budget officer has found.

But consumers can expect to pay higher prices for legal cannabis compared to products found in the black market. If the price per legal gram hovers around $8 or $9 with taxes, which is the estimated going rate of illegal product right now, provincial and federal governments could see revenues of about $600 million.

An economist from CIBC had predicted earlier this year that the government could rake in $5 billion a year from the legal pot industry.

The report released Tuesday by the office of the parliamentary budget officer provides a glimpse into Canada's recreational weed economy ahead of the Liberals' plan to introduce legislation to legalize marijuana for recreational use next spring. A special task force on marijuana legalization is expected to release its recommendations on the matter later this month.

At the moment, only people or companies with special licenses from Health Canada are allowed to grow and consume cannabis—and only for medical purposes.

Depending on how fast the legislation moves through parliament, legal weed sales could begin as early as 2018. Canada could then become the second country after Uruguay to legalize cannabis at a federal level, and is poised to become the biggest, most sophisticated marijuana market in the world.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau campaigned on a promise to "legalize, regulate, and restrict" cannabis to keep it out of the hands of children. But the report stokes long-held fears among consumers that the product is only going to get more expensive under legalization.

"Even with only a sales tax, legal cannabis prices in 2018 will likely be as high as illicit market prices in 2015-2016," says the report, which adds that the current average price of illegal product ranges from $8.32 and $9.36 per gram. "Excise taxes will likely push the legal price above the illicit price observed in 2015-2016."

Products beyond dried cannabis, such as edibles and concentrates, may require "entirely different approaches to taxation."

Projected HST/GST/PST Revenues from Resident Cannabis Consumption in Canada, Middle Estimate, 2018 ($ millions), from the report

The report urges the government to consider the tax implications at play in achieving its goals: discouraging cannabis use among young Canadians, and curbing the profits from the black market. If the prices are too high, "more Canadians will purchase cannabis on the illicit market," the report states.

Already, cannabis is the most commonly used illicit drug in Canada. Under legalization, the report predicts that by 2018, around 4.6 million people in Canada 15 years and older will consume cannabis—about 655 metric tons of it. By 2021, when the market is more mature, that number that's expected to rise to 5.2 million people, for a total of 734 metric tons.

There has long been a battle between individual cannabis consumers and growers on one side, and the federal government and big medical marijuana companies on the other. Earlier this year, a BC court ruled that medical marijuana patients could grow their own product. This presented a slight hurdle for the big marijuana companies (also known as licensed producers), which have been positioning themselves to dominate the supply chain of both medical and legal cannabis in Canada.

The report gives thanks to a handful of these licensed producers, including heavyweights Tweed and Tilray, "who graciously provided data and clarifications."

Follow Rachel on Twitter.

Black Mirror: What to Watch After 'Black Mirror'

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Throughout the first two seasons of the British sci-fi anthology Black Mirror, creator Charlie Brooker has delivered pointed commentary on the technologically interconnected worlds of today and tomorrow, while nodding to the pop culture of the past. No episode of the show has been a direct adaptation or even an obvious homage, but they've all been tinged with the sensibility of a man who's clearly watched a lot of movies and TV shows—and has internalized their meaning. There are echoes of the poignant memory-play Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in Black Mirror's similarly melancholy "The Entire History of You." The "beware the populists" political commentary of 1957's A Face in the Crowd gets updated for the 21st century in "The Waldo Moment." And so on.

But what about season three? For those of you who have finished the six newest Black Mirror episodes on Netflix, here are some suggestions of films and television episodes to watch next, depending on which of the six you liked best.

If you liked "Playtest," watch 'eXistenz.'

Director David Cronenberg's trippy 1999 riff on virtual reality video games was ahead of its time, and not just because it could serve as a kind of prequel for Black Mirror's own story of a careless young man and a gaming trial gone wrong. Unlike the more character-driven "Playtest," eXistenZ is a dense, far-reaching statement about biology, technology, and consciousness, asking whether our true identity can be found in the characters we pretend to be. But both the movie and the TV episode ultimately consider what it really means for a game to be "lifelike," and whether that's actually a worthy goal.

If you liked "Hated in the Nation," watch 'the Fringe' episode "The Dreamscape."

Honestly, the sentence above could just read, "If you liked Black Mirror, watch Fringe," since the two shows share an interest in how the machines we create warp the lives we lead. But there's also a distinct similarity between the swarms of robotic "autonomous drone insects" in "Hated in the Nation" and the razor-winged mechanical butterflies that attack a salesman in the cold open of "The Dreamscape." In both cases, the imagery is ominous: weaponized cyber-bugs, which at first seem harmless, but then work together to fell a human being.

If you liked "Men Against Fire," watch 'Starship Troopers.'

The mutated "roaches" of "Men Against Fire" don't recall the giant alien arachnids of the science-fiction satire Starship Troopers, but the episode itself covers some of the same thematic ground as director Paul Verhoeven and screenwriter Edward Neumeier's wry adaptation of Robert Heinlein's novel. "Men Against Fire" and Starship Troopers plunge viewers into the middle of wartime mayhem, and in the process, both expose the way government inspires the populace to hate the enemy, through a combination of propaganda, demonization, and patriotic pep rallies.

If you liked "Nosedive," watch 'The Best Years of Our Lives.'

This recommendation may seem like a bit of a reach, since a 1945 post-WWII homefront melodrama has little superficial connection to a quasi-comedic fantasy TV episode about a future where everyone's worth is determined by social media ratings. The most blatant link between the two is that each contains a similarly thrilling, moving scene, in which the main character stands up to give a speech that starts out embarrassing and eventually becomes empowering. Even beyond that shared moment, though, both The Best Years of Our Lives and "Nosedive" are—deep down—about status-obsessed societies and the individuals who learn to buck the norm.

If you liked "Shut Up and Dance," watch 'Seven.'

It's hard to think of any movie or TV show quite like the most stomach-turning, soul-crushing installment of Black Mirror's third season. The bleak 1995 neo-noir Seven fits the bill for two reasons. For one, the basic framework of "Shut Up and Dance"—which sees a young man being blackmailed by internet trolls into doing their bidding—isn't too far removed from the way the serial killer in Seven makes two detectives jump through increasingly twisted hoops to try and stop him. But it also matters that the movie is so punishingly dreary, painting a portrait of the world where everyone's a sinner. Like "Shut Up and Dance," it's entertainment designed for people who enjoy feeling wrung out.

If you liked "San Junipero," watch the 'Lost' episode "The Constant."

The most hopeful season three Black Mirror episode follows two dissimilar women who find each other and fall in love within a kind of vividly detailed computer simulation, where their consciousnesses occasionally dwell. Along those same lines, one of Lost fans' favorite episodes—if not the all-time favorite—is about a man who loses his grip on his sanity as his mind drifts back through time, until he realizes that he can hold himself together if he just concentrates on the woman he loves. "The Constant" is a wild science-fiction story with a warm, beating heart. And like Lost, Black Mirror at its best aims to send chills down viewers' spines without ever losing the human element.

Follow Noel Murray on Twitter.

Powerful Photos of Resistance at Standing Rock

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Activists lock arms in protest by the Missouri River. All photos by Avery L. White

Last Thursday, I arrived in Cannon Ball, North Dakota, almost immediately after police closed in on activists protesting construction of the Dakota Access oil pipeline. I heard stories about cops—in military-style vehicles, dressed in riot gear—shooting protestors with rubber pellets, pepper-spraying people in the face, and more. At least 141 people were reported arrested that day, and one protester was charged with attempted murder after firing rounds in the vicinity of police, though no one was hit and most activists have remained peaceful.

During an open meeting with UN officials, I listened to the stories of people who said they were held in dog kennels for hours prior to being transferred to jail. And about 20 minutes after my arrival at the protests, I myself witnessed an undercover DAPL security officer's truck get set on fire after he was discovered by protestors with an AR-15 rifle.

I've spent the past five days at the Oceti Sakowin resistance camp, which sits on land that protesters say belongs to Native Americans under the 1851 Treaty of Ft. Laramie. From all corners of the camp, activists some call Water Defenders—fearful that the proposed pipeline would poison local water—now have a clear view of construction. These protests kicked off way back in April, though, and the Defenders are clearly feeling it as the weather grows colder.

Here are some moments I've captured in my time with these self-styled stewards of the water.

Revisiting the Newgrounds of My Youth

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What even was this shit? Still via

There are generally two experiences 90s kids remember vividly: their first sexual encounter and their first encounter with the internet. For anyone who discovered Newgrounds.com as a kid, they often occurred simultaneously.

In its heyday during the internet boom of the late 90s and early 2000s, Newgrounds hosted thousands of active users and served as a platform for user-submitted, original creative content. A year before YouTube launched in 2004, Gary Brolsma uploaded the now-famous "Numa Numa" to Newgrounds, signifying the first shift towards internet-generated, shareable content that has become a part of our everyday lives.

Shortly before Y2K, Netscape 5.0 was installed in my home. My internet exposure had previously been limited to the classroom or a neighbour's computer. Knowledge of the website known as "Newgrounds" had swept through my school yard, and I wasted no time accessing it.

Due to games like "Dad n' Me," a poorly animated game that involves massacring characters with a chainsaw, and "Britney Spears dress up doll," where users undressed a Photoshopped figure with Britney Spears' head attached (there were many games dedicated to degrading the reigning pop princess), we were swiftly prohibited by parents and teachers from visiting the forbidden the site.

Naturally this made the site all the more exciting. We were confused and hormonal—a volatile mix—drawn to its controversial allure. There we found violence, nudity, and community. It served as a welcome to the wonderful world of the web. We found a place to experience new and innovative content that was as warped as our prepubescent minds. It was this uncensored, unadulterated content that would make Newgrounds so successful. For us as kids, it represented an escape from the ordinary reality of our daily lives. As we grew into adolescence, it reaffirmed a shared view that was, predictably, in opposition to our parent's standards of decency.

The site, founded in 1995, was the brainchild of founder and CEO Tom Fulp.

"A lot of the motivation behind Newgrounds came from growing up in a pre-web world, in particular, a world where no one saw what you made if you grew up in a small town and weren't part of 'the industry'," he told VICE.

He recounts an experience in grade school creating a book report video, only to have the teacher deem it obscene. "The video was laced with skits containing violence and drug humor. My teacher regretted showing it and gave me a C."

" jokes. so i wouldn't pay too much attention to those who get offended. who cares if he did it anyway? drugs should be legal."

But Newgrounds was more than provocative content. It mirrored cultural shifts and was a window into the future. Like the meme culture of today, the games often parodied what was popular or culturally significant. After September 11, the site was flooded with games like "OSAMAGOTCHI" that took aim at Osama Bin Laden. Alternatively, "CELEB TERROR ALERT" allowed players to play as Bin Laden whose mission is to kill various political figures also proved popular. In hindsight, I can see that Newgrounds served an unusual function. Through its emphasis on satire, it shaped my critical thinking skills and willingness to question conventional logic. At a time when "terror"—and the propaganda that surrounded it—seemed an omniscient force and resulted in shared, suffocating anxiety and fear, Newgrounds took aim and made it funny.

Games like these highlight the creative liberties creators were allowed to take, and the humourous spin they placed on disturbing subjects. The different takes on the same issue spoke to a larger paradigm underlying the content: irreverence towards everything conventional. Creators used clever and innovative methods to address larger global issues and trends, and while it often seemed juvenile, it was bold and refreshing.

Newgrounds marked the end for parental oversight and the beginning of a rogue internet culture that continues to embody many of the values originally envisioned by Fulp. The refusal to be censored remains strong, while threats to net neutrality continuously loom. More than ever, sites like Newgrounds are necessary to counter the conventions of the day. Breaking down narratives is an essential function of the internet where so much information is readily available. Being able to think critically about what is happening is both a skill and art, and Newgrounds had the capacity to foster both.

The argument that millennials are desensitized may be misattributed to their ability to question or completely dismiss what's in front of them. It's hard to bullshit a generation of people raised by sites like Newgrounds, a place devoted to recognizing bullshit and turning it into content.

Follow Lisa on Twitter.

What Makes a Bad Movie Good?

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Still from 1980s horror 'The Boxer's Omen', filmed in Hong Hong

This post originally appeared on VICE UK.

What, exactly, is good taste? And when does a shit film become "art"? These are questions that Tamara Anderson, a curator at the Barbican cinema in London, has been trying to answer. For the last few months, she's been watching Nazi exploitation films, gory slasher movies, and porny art house cinema from the comfort of her living room, to pick films for the cinema's latest themed season, Cheap Thrills.

The idea is to showcase the beauty of "trash cinema"—the kind of films that either intentionally set out to push the boundaries between good and bad taste, or those that accidentally became cult classics for their dodgy screenplays, bad acting, and schlocky execution.

John Waters once said that "to understand bad taste one must have very good taste." It's true, undoubtedly, but while trash is obviously in the eye of the beholder, some films—it's fairly easy to see—are just plain offensive. And in an age of trigger warnings and no-platforming, you have to ask: How offensive is too offensive?

I called up Anderson to find out.

VICE: What inspired you to put on a program full of trash?
Tamara Anderson: We came up with Cheap Thrills to run alongside an exhibition at the Barbican about vulgar fashion. Before the 1960s, no one considered films a high art form—they were shown as fairground attractions or at peep shows. It wasn't until French film critics tried to legitimize it as a form that film was considered to be an elite taste. Then, of course, there was a backlash; people began to argue that no work is too humble for aesthetic complications. Even the lowest forms of art could be seen to have taste.

Who made that argument?
We've leaned on the work of one film critic from the New Yorker named Pauline Kael. She wrote a famous essay called "Trash, Art, and The Movies." The argument is that the greatest pleasure of movie-going is freedom from respectability and what people say is good taste—like books, art, or theater. She writes that great movies are the crude ones, the ones that don't look like art.

But if shit films are interpreted differently by everybody, how do you decide what to show?
It's been quite difficult. We didn't want to be toothless, but we also didn't want to show anything too offensive. Ultimately, I suppose we chose ones that reflect our team here. There are art house shockers, exploitation films, and cult classics, which were made as serious art house films but missed the mark.

The trailer for 'Fat Girl'

What's an "art house shocker?"
Something like Fat Girl by Catherine Breillat, which was a film belonging to a movement at the end of 20th century of quite extreme French art house cinema, full of sex and shocking violence. This is the most notorious. It's a very frank depiction of teenage sexuality, but its ending is horribly violent and really quite ambiguous.

I once read that she made a film where someone puts a bloody tampon in a glass of water and drinks it.
Oh God. I've not seen that one. But it sounds about right.

What exploitation films have you got?
We've got examples from around the world. Fuego is an Argentinian sexploitation film from the 1960s. The Boxer's Omen, made in Hong Kong, is a horror film from the 1980s. There's lots of gloopy, gory makeup and special effects. Then we've got Dolemite, which is a kung-fu Blaxploitation film. What these films have in common is that they're all designed to turn a quick buck, and they do that by exploiting contemporary cultural anxieties, like rebellious teenagers, sexual deviance, or race issues.

What's the difference between an art house film and an exploitation film?
I like to think it's to do with the intentions of the filmmaker; art house, auteur filmmakers are trying to make intellectual work based on personal expression, whereas grindhouse or exploitation films are a cheap thrill designed to titillate.

The problem is, because films are so expensive to make, you're never really far from commercial considerations, even in the art house sphere. How would you describe Lars Von Trier's Nymphomaniac or Antichrist, for example? He puts it about that they're films about addiction or a couple working through grief, but all the publicity around the sex and violence doesn't hurt at the box office. Same goes for people like Tarantino and Edgar Wright—they're art house filmmakers, but they've been actively calling for a reappraisal of exploitation cinema since the 1990s.

Obviously Tarantino and Edgar Wright are are quite mainstream. Would you say that we've got a better threshold for bad taste today?
On one hand, it's true that we see more bad taste than ever, but on the other hand, yes—I've shown some of these films before, and this was the first time I considered putting trigger warnings on them. I think that's indicative... shocking movies are released every year, but I don't think they've been causing as much controversy as the scandal of so few women directors, or #OscarsSoWhite. Today we're more likely to focus on conversations around diversity or who is in control of storytelling.

Which films in the program do you think are in the worst taste?
What's interesting is that some films have got less shocking with time—like John Waters's films are almost mainstream now. Others have got more shocking with time. Todd Solondz's Happiness, for example, is a black comedy about pedophilia from 1998. It feels unthinkable for that to be made today. And also The Night Porter from 1974—I've never seen it on telly, only on DVD, because it's so problematic even today. It's about an S&M relationship against the backdrop of the Holocaust, between a camp commander and an inmate. It just makes you feel really, really uncomfortable.

Were there any films that were just too gross or offensive to show?
Sweet Movie by a Serbian director called Dušan Makavejev. It was never classed for exhibition in the UK because of a strange scene where a woman stripteases in front of children. That earned it a certain reputation. I just thought, I wouldn't want to put my name to this.

Check out the full Cheap Thrills program on the Barbican's website.

Follow Amelia Abraham on Twitter.


Wuvable Oaf: 'A Comical Meditation on Pro Wrestling,' Today's Comic by Ed Luce

How Anonymous Started Working with the US Government

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On an all new episode of CYBERWAR, we investigate what happened after Anonymous declared war on ISIS and the repercussions that follow an infamous hacker group sharing information with government officials.

CYBERWAR airs Tuesdays at 10:30 PM on VICELAND.

Want to know if you get VICELAND? Head here to find out how to tune in.

Canadian Woman Joins Offensive to Capture ISIS’s Syrian Stronghold

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All photos from Shaelynn Jabs Facebook

A young Canadian woman is heading toward Raqqa as part of the new offensive to take back the Islamic State's stronghold in Syria.

"There were new orders. Everyone is nervous, but it's official," Shaelynn Jabs told me via Facebook message.

VICE News first reported on the 20-year-old from Drayton Valley, Alberta, in March, when she was forced to return home from northern Syria after a suicide truck bomber left her with a skull fracture and permanent damage to her right ear. She was 19 at the time.

But she couldn't stay away from the frontlines for long, and by September, Jabs had returned for a second tour alongside the Syrian Kurdish militia she has come to consider family. Though she'd been involved in minor confrontations, she had not yet seen close combat since she has been back in the region, and is "more excited than anything" about this new chapter.

"It's frustrating, knowing friends are fighting and you're sitting and waiting," she told VICE News. Jabs had fought alongside Westerners and Kurds in the past, but this time she's part of an all-Kurdish and Yazidi tabor, or group. "I speak good enough Kurdish, anymore."

While the list of terrorist entities does include the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a militant group that advocates for an independent Kurdish state in the region, they operate separately from most other Kurdish units. Neither the YPG/YPJ nor the YBS are on Canada's list of terrorist entities.

Follow Tomas Urbina on Twitter


Ontario Liberals’ Campaign Chief Steps Aside After Bribery Charges Laid

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Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne. Photo via Flickr user Joseph Morris

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne's top political adviser was forced to resign today after provincial police charged her and a senior Liberal operative with bribery under the Elections Act.

The police allege Patricia Sorbara and Gerry Lougheed offered jobs and government appointments to clear the way for the premier's preferred candidate in the 2015 Sudbury byelection. Sorbara was the premier's deputy chief of staff and, until today, CEO of the Ontario Liberal Party and chair of the Liberal's 2018 re-election campaign. Lougheed is a long-time party organizer in Sudbury.

The charges rocked the legislature as opposition parties took aim at Wynne for her alleged role in the alleged bribes.

"Did the premier order the current CEO of the Ontario Liberal Party to allegedly bribe Andrew Olivier during the Sudbury byelection, yes or no?" Ontario PC Leader Patrick Brown asked.

"I would appreciate an answer to a very straightforward question."

Wynne dodged and said her government was cooperating with the police investigation and she would allow the courts to do their work.

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath objected to the speaker's repeated requests for MPPs to stop suggesting the premier ordered her underlings to offer bribes.

"This is a matter of public interest and I have the right to ask the Liberal premier what the heck happened in Sudbury," Horwath said. "That is my job, Mr. Speaker."

The whole sordid affair began back in 2015 when prospective Liberal candidate Andrew Olivier was approached by Lougheed and Sorbara asking him to step aside to allow now-Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault to run for the Liberals in the Sudbury byelection.

In conversations recorded by Olivier, Lougheed is heard suggesting the premier can offer "appointments, jobs, whatever" if he were to withdraw his name from the nomination race.

Call between Gerry Lougheed and Andrew Olivier

In another recording, Sorbara, then the premier's chief of staff, is heard offering Olivier an advisory role on disability advocacy and policy — Olivier is quadriplegic — as an executive of the party, or a job in Thibeault's office, if he wins.

Those jobs would all have come with a stipend or salary paid through the government.

Olivier said the premier herself called him, but he was unable to record what she said.

Eventually, he rejected the job offers and went to the press.

Read more: The Premier of Ontario May Have Tried to Buy Off One of Her Candidates

Wynne has maintained throughout the two-year investigation that "any suggestion that anything was offered in exchange for any action is false."

In April, the OPP and prosecutors declined to move forward with criminal charges of unlawful influencing and negotiating appointments against Lougheed. Under the criminal law, those charges can be reinstated within a year of being stayed. The penalties for such offences carry jail time up to seven years.

The charges issued today against Lougheed and Sorbara fall under the less severe penalties of the Elections Act, ranging from fines up to $25,000 and a max jail sentence of two years.

With files from Justin Ling

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Why an Accused Drug Dealer’s Manslaughter Charge Sets a Bad Precedent

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Fentanyl pills. Photo via Canadian Press

Jordan Yarmey celebrated nine months of sobriety from a fentanyl addiction last week in an Edmonton jail where illicit drugs flow freely and dozens of inmates have overdosed on fentanyl and other opioids.

Yarmey, 25, was arrested and charged with drug trafficking in January after Edmonton police were called to his residence and found the body of Szymon Kalich, who consumed a fatal dose of fentanyl.

Ordered to seek treatment for his opioid addiction as part of his bail conditions, Yarmey's family pooled $15,000 to put him in private rehab. His mom said he kicked his habit, and was getting his life together.

But last week, Yarmey was arrested again and slapped with a rare manslaughter charge in Kalich's death, nine months after it happened.

As Yarmey sits in the Edmonton remand centre awaiting the outcome of his bail hearing on Tuesday, drug policy and medical experts are pointing to his case as an example of why the criminalization of addiction does more harm than good.

Staff Sgt. Dave Monson of the Edmonton police drug squad told a news conference last week the manslaughter charge—which is rarely applied in Canadian drug overdose cases—should send a strong message to drug dealers.

Police across Alberta, which has seen hundreds of opioid overdoses this year, have been calling on prosecutors to impose harsher penalties for convicted fentanyl dealers, than for those who deal less potent drugs.

"By giving someone one of these pills, it's like putting a bullet in a gun or two bullets in a gun and spinning the chamber," Larry Mullins, a retired police officer in Edmonton who lost his 21-year-old son to a fentanyl overdose, told CBC last week.

"If they realize that, they're going to say 'Gee, is it worth going to jail for 25 years?"

But Helen Yarmey says that like Kalich, her son is a victim of the opioid crisis.

She says Jordan Yarmey thought he was using Oxycontin when he became addicted to fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times stronger than heroin. He started selling the substance to pay for his own supply, which can cost as much as $20 per pill. Sometimes, he would do so much that he would fall asleep for two or three days at a time.

She says her son had never met Kalich before he came to his house that night in January. They played video games and took fentanyl together. They both went to sleep in the apartment and a day later, Yarmey couldn't get Kalich to wake up, according to his mother.

Now with her son back in jail, Helen is worried he could relapse.

"Addiction is a disease that needs help. So arresting people, addicts, is not going to solve the problem," said Helen. "I understand that crimes have to be punished, but I think there needs to be more focus on getting help, early intervention."

According to Statistics Canada, there's been an increase in the rate of possession and trafficking charges related to drugs such as crystal meth, heroin, and fentanyl over the last year, while drug offences related to cocaine and cannabis have declined.

For Dr. Hakique Virani, an addictions specialist in Edmonton, there is ample evidence that criminalizing addiction as part of the so-called War on Drugs has been "an abject failure."

"It marginalizes people who need help, it increases social disorder and violence, it costs more than we can imagine, and most importantly, it achieves none of its intents except treating some humans less humanely," Virani wrote in an email.

Virani added that countries such as Portugal, where drug possession for personal use is decriminalized, have seen a drop in the number of drug addicts and overdose deaths.

"And when people caught with illegal drugs appear to be struggling with an addiction disorder, they find their way to treatment, not jail," he explained.

Criminalizing addicts may also distract from others who could be held responsible for the opioid crisis in the first place. "What fate should befall physicians whose prescribing of opioids contributes to death?" he said, pointing to a recent landmark case in California where a doctor was convicted of murder in the deaths of her patients who overdosed on medications she prescribed.

"I think bereaved families can blame us all for the crisis that has claimed the lives of their loved ones—not just drug dealers," he said.

Donna May, a mother from the Toronto area whose daughter Jac died of a prescription opioid overdose at age 35 in 2012, has been following Yarmey's case and says it's why she would prefer to see addiction treated as a public health emergency.

"He is the fall guy and he is being criminalized to make people feel like they've done something about it when they have done nothing about it," May said in an interview.

"The popular opinion of prohibition has never worked, but we keep driving our car into the same brick wall. We need to try a different approach. But our powers that be decide we will keep trying and hope that one day it works."

Follow Rachel on Twitter

What Would Life Be Like if You Reached Your Full Potential?

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The author at work

Loads of people don't reach their full potential. It's a fact of life. For the most part, by and large, people are just too lazy. They can't be arsed to get up and go. Go getter? You go get it! I want to sit here and see if Wotsits dust will hurt my penis if enough of it goes in my urethra while I masturbate with Wotsits-dust hands!

Take me as an example: I feel like if I didn't fart around and take my school's average grade down a notch just by existing, I could have been doing pretty well by now. I was always told I was "bright", but I kind of took that to mean "you can just do what you like and you'll be fine because you're not thick". Little did I know it wasn't quite enough to give me instant success and, two sackings and a redundancy into my short life, I realise I probably could have done with working a bit harder.

Had I worked harder I think I'd probably be writing books. Big old history books. Well researched books. I'd be presenting a cool BBC documentary about various wars, simplifying it for the plebs out there so that they too could be clever clogs like me. I'd be loved and respected and wealthy, and the housing crisis would just be a headline that I'd read in my conservatory while calmly eating my boiled eggs and soldiers, not in a rush to go anywhere at all. Instead, I wake up every day in a panic and end every day in disappointment.

Here are some other people talking about how things are going for them.

LEALA, 27, EVENTS

If I'd applied myself in earnest throughout my life I'd probably have reached all that unspecified potential my school teachers kept talking about. I'd have retrained and fixed the knee I fucked up during my physical theatre stint at uni and would most likely be an amazing contemporary dancer and less of drug addict.

Or I'd be an amazing contemporary dancer who could afford better drugs.

SAM, 26, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, VICE UK

I'm quite happy at my job at VICE, but I got a first in Politics from Cambridge so I probably should be doing something better with my time. I just googled people who graduated from my course and they include: the Hollywood actress Tilda Swinton, Pointless host Richard Osman and disgraced journalist Johann Hari. I suppose that latter option is still very much on the table.

I think there is probably a version of my life where I did a Masters in Political Economy at an American university, married a thoughtful but beautiful liberal from Indiana or somewhere and then the two of us go to work in Washington at an NGO or something. Actually, I think I'm just describing the plot of Parks and Recreation.

RICHARD, 34, FOOTBALL ADMIN

I work in the office of a football club, which I enjoy a lot because of the variety of tasks I'm charged with and the sense of camaraderie with my colleagues. While it's a job I'm quite happy to do, there is the feeling I have reached something of a professional ceiling and, despite trying, I'm finding it hard to get promoted. To a point I'm happy to get my head down and carry on, because prior to this job I spent time on the dole or working terrible temp jobs.

If I could have changed the way I lived my life I would have chosen and focused on a more specialised role – for example, dealing with the media or legal aspects of football, rather than the more administrative work I currently do. If I had been more aware of my educational and professional decisions when I was younger I might have reached my full potential.

That said, hindsight is 20/20 and it's impossible to know what will happen to you, especially since the working world changes so quickly. Many people I know change jobs practically on a yearly basis, but I've been here seven years doing my job, which I am good at, and I'm happy enough to carry on for now. In short, if I had reached my full potential I might have a better paid, more specialised job – but I'm not complaining, really.

READ: 'British Values' Is a New Way of Dealing with British Racism

JACK, 27, A&R

What would I be doing now if everything had gone the way it was supposed to? Well, personally, I do not see the fact that I spend my days trying to track down the publishing info for a saxophone sample from 1974 or agonising over 0.5 seconds of crackle on a test pressing as widely symptomatic of some sort of degenerative idleness or spiritual torpor, but admittedly I am not a doctor or lawyer. I'm not even a tinker, tailor or candlestick maker. I am, however, a relatively poor man, so let's roll with this for the sake of argument.

A better question would possibly be to ask, "What does my mother wish I was doing?" She actually touched upon this in an email recently where she berated me for yet another in a series of minor life disasters. After one or two paragraphs of seething invective I think she probably realised that she could potentially be authoring a text that would end up in the tragedy porn pages of the Evening Standard (although I'm not liked by everyone who knows me and certainly not a talented footballer, so it may not have made it regardless) and so reined it in a bit in concluding: "I love you so much, but I do wish you'd made better choices with that great brain of yours."

Well, if only I'd not heard the clarion call of indie calling in 2007 and continued my stellar start to academic life (catapulted from a special measures school that was run by a psychopathic pseud who was eventually caught siphoning off the PE budget to fund his expensive plonk collection into the dizzy flashbulbs of the local paper as star pupil) into university, then I think by now I could probably be just about finishing a law degree, possibly with some sort of placement in a practice on the Strand.

If only I'd never gone on that tour with Late of the Pier (I was only meant to go for one day and ended up on the bus for two weeks; the tour manager was an ex-addict who relapsed and went berserk in Brighton over a game of Fifa, took off both his shoes and threw them at the band's manager before running off bare-foot into the night – it is to this day one of the most brilliant things I've ever seen) and missed my first year exams then things could be rather different indeed.

I'd probably have at least five identical clean white shirts hanging in my wardrobe at all times. I'd have Wasabi or Itsu for lunch every day instead of beans on toast and beers in the office at five o'clock on a Friday. I'd have a driving license but no car (little point in the city, but nice when you're on holiday), a Netflix account, a steady girlfriend I'd see two or three times a week and a lot more money for cocaine at the weekends. I'm so sorry mum, I never meant to let you down.

P.S. the tour manager was not seen or heard from for two years after his disappearance, eventually being traced to Australia after someone came across his avatar on World of Warcraft.

ALFIE, 22, IT SUPPORT

I'm a classic underachiever in the sense that when I was young I was told I was incredibly smart and would be able to do anything if I put my mind to it. This lead to an inevitable belief that everything I want in life would come easily to me. If I did life "right" (did my homework at school, did my coursework in college, did ANYTHING other than getting stoned all the time) I imagine I could have actually come out of education as a much more qualified individual who would have been a more valued member of the workforce.

I'd probably be in the same line of work, just with a lot more money.

WATCH: High Society – Weed


RFN TAYLOR, 24, PLATOON MACHINE GUNNER

I never started to think of things as a sad "if only" scenario. Being a soldier in my Regiment means every day you have to better yourself if you don't you fall by the wayside. Serving in the British Army has been something I've wanted to do since I was young. It has given me a remarkable sense of accomplishment and the ability to reach my goals, despite how many times you fail. Failure is inevitable – it's how you re-organise yourself mentally and physically, and it's how you overcome it that defines you. The army is like any employer, full of good bosses and bad bosses, good people and bad people, and you don't get to pick who you are thrown to hell and back with. Learning how to carry on and overcome is a gift. It has been a wild, amazing ride.

LISA, 24, FLORIST

I'm not quite sure how to answer this question, to be honest, as I'm not sure what you mean by "potential". Thinking about where / when I could have worked harder would probably have been most effective when I was in school, doing A-levels or various exams. I remember teachers telling me I hadn't reached my "full potential and needed to pull your socks up", but I never really knew how much further I needed to push myself. What are you pushing yourself for? Do we value ourselves only by our economic output?

I still managed to go to university and finish with good grades. You're always taught, from a young age, that these grades will make a difference in your future, in terms of employment, but I don't think they really do. I think the precariousness of the world we live in today has definitely defined what I can and cannot do in terms of employment. Ideally I wouldn't have to be working three demanding jobs to survive. It's difficult when you compare yourself to others who are more successful and you internalise the fear or worry that you're not good enough, or not where you're supposed to be. I guess reaching my full potential would mean I was happy working one job in a field that I care about – the arts education sector, which I hope to go into after finishing my MA. Not having to work other low-paid jobs to support that career path would make me happy and it would be so nice not to constantly worry about money, to be comfortable and free to do the things that I want without hesitation.

@joe_bish

More from VICE:

Are You Maximising Your Heterosexual Potential?

I Went to a Feminism Class for Private School Boys

The Drug Lessons They Should Have Taught You at School

Student Sex Workers Talk About Paying for University by Escorting

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Some calling cards – although the vast majority of student sex workers advertise online, not in phone boxes (Photo: Per Gosche, via)

Sex work, it turns out, is still just as popular a way to finance your university studies this year as it was last year. A poll of British students at the beginning of this academic term found that one in 20 people know somebody paying for their course by escorting, while one in 25 students said they would consider finding sugar daddies to finance their lives as they completed their degrees.

British students can expect to be saddled with over £45,000 worth of debt on leaving university, so it's no surprise that young people want to find ways to avoid getting maintenance loans, or – if things are really working out for them – even loans to pay their fees.

The Student Sex Work Project, carried out last year by researchers at Swansea University, found that many students largely enjoyed the work – citing the flexible hours, decent money and the fact they just enjoyed having sex – but that it came with a few unsurprising downsides, such as facing stigma and having to hide what they did from their peers and parents.

The same study found that there are more male than female students using sex work to help them pay their way through uni, but in writing this piece I was only able to speak to three young women – so here are accounts from them about supplementing, or even wiping out, your loan with sex work.

Tiffany, 25, studying in Essex

There are two ends of the scale: you get the ballers who know the game and the losers trying their luck. One guy I met made me order off the happy hour menu at a Mexican. For most of the date he had guacamole around his mouth and then told me at the end that he was "between jobs" but would love to take me to La Senza. Yeah, I mean: bye.

This other guy handed me £4,000 in £50 notes in the corner of a pub and sent me a prepaid credit card while he was away on business a few weeks later. We hadn't even fucked yet.

The perks are great: I buy myself a new wardrobe every other month and I always spend my first allowance with a new guy on a new handbag or Louboutins, and half the time they buy you everything you want anyway.

Travel wise, I've been all over the place – London, Barcelona, Dubai, but never for that long, or else they get bored with you. It can be quite tiring. You've got to dress sexy during the day, make sure your makeup is always flawless and be in a good mood 24/7. You can never burp, fart, yawn or not laugh at their shit jokes. You've got to be willing to try sex stuff you'd refuse your boyfriend. I mean, one minute you're lying on your back; next minute you've got a dildo up your ass, pretending to love every minute of it. I've made about £42,000 this year, so if you're good looking and can fake-moan you're sorted.

READ – Sex Shops and Swingers Clubs: How the A1 Became Britain's Sexiest Road

Adrianne, 24, studying in Manchester

I study in Manchester, but, coming from the US, I had no expectations as far as how expensive Europe was going to be. I was finding the financial situation quite hard; I was basically counting coins in a three-bedroom flat with six people – so I decided to give escorting a try after I was introduced to this site by my classmate.

I created my profile and got 25 messages within the first 24 hours on the site. The requests were everything from a sensual massage to a plain and simple coffee. I decided I wanted to go out with this gentleman who seemed really nice and well spoken over text. He wasn't too old, about mid-thirties; I didn't want my first time to be with someone close to my grandfather's age. We met at a local bar for drinks. I felt very uncomfortable sitting there waiting – it wasn't like waiting for a date at all. I felt like everyone around me knew what I was up to.

When my date finally arrived I immediately got paranoid. He didn't look like the charming man in the photos. It was definitely him, but he looked far from his profile picture. We started talking and my voice wouldn't stop shivering. He sat too close to me and seemed to always have the need to have his hands on me, whether on my hand, thigh or shoulder. It freaked me out. He wouldn't take his eyes off me and spoke in riddles, which made me incredibly uncomfortable. The simplest questions was answered in riddles all leading to me, my body or what I was wearing.

Later on, the guy had to use the bathroom. I went to the bar and asked if there was a way out of other than the main entrance. The bartender asked if I was having a bad date, and I laughed in fear and said yes. He kindly pointed towards the other end of the room and I ran out of there with my coat in my hand. I started walking towards my bus and, as I approached the bus station, I heard my escort name being called out loud. I turned around and saw the man running from the bar towards the bus stop, telling me I wasn't supposed to leave yet and that he wasn't done.

I jumped on the first bus at the bus station, not even looking at what route it was. The bus drove away – in the opposite direction I wanted to go – and I never saw him again.

WATCH: 'Inside the UK's Ecstasy Underworld', an episode of 'High Society', our documentary series about drugs in the UK

Annabelle, 22, studying in South Wales

I was first introduced to escorting through a friend of mine who'd heard about students selling "company" as a way to make the financial status easier as a student. I decided to give it a go.

I'm still dating the first sugar daddy I met. We met for coffee and hit it off instantly. We had a few non-sexual dates, like dinners, cocktails and a trip to the opera. The first night we slept together I made £1,200. I had regular vaginal intercourse, gave head and he went down on me, too. It didn't feel different from any of the other guys I would usually date, apart from the fact that he was almost twice my age, married and had kids.

So far I've made close to £30,000, I travel with my sugar daddy when he's on business trips. I usually just sit around and wait at cafés and hotel restaurants – but sometimes he lets me go out and shop with his credit card. I never splurge on super expensive things, just because he's already paying me a monthly allowance of £3,200.

I've done some pretty nasty things in bed, simply because that's what he's into. He's submissive, so I'll hit him, choke him and even sometimes spit on him – he really likes that.

I'm not planning to stop escorting, but it sometimes gets a bit hard if I find myself being interested in other guys. I have to support myself and I desire the lavish lifestyle more than a solid relationship at this point in time.

More on VICE:

Are the Soho Brothel Raids Really About Saving Sex Workers?

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The VICE Guide to Student Life


I Took a Year Off Work to Look for Love

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This article originally appeared on VICE Germany

At the end of 2015, Yvonne Eisenring decided to quit her job, leave her apartment and travel the world looking for love. Tel Aviv, Havana, New York, Hamburg, Rome – in one year she visited 12 countries, had over 50 dates and then, when she got back, wrote a book about her experiences. I got in touch with her to find out if it's really easier to fall in love when dating is your full-time job.

VICE: Was your job so stressful that you had to take tim off to find a date?
Yvonne Eisenring: I started working when I was 20. I was one of the youngest TV reporters in Switzerland. When I turned 27, I realised that I hadn't been in love for a while and asked myself why. I wanted to see if falling in love is more likely to happen, when you have free time and no responsibilities. Some friends thought it was a brave thing to do, others worried that I was gambling with my career.

If I had taken that year off to do some postgraduate training, then nobody would have thought twice about it, since it would have been a good thing for my career. But with falling in love, you never know if it's worth it.

So, we're capitalists when it comes to love?
We're very performance-oriented. Everything we do has to result in something. And since being in love doesn't yield immediate results, we choose to spend our time on our bodies, our careers or our social media profiles instead. You only have time to meet someone between leaving the office and going to the gym.


Yvonne in Tel Aviv | Photo courtesy of Yvonne Eisenrig

Isn't it performance-oriented to treat falling in love like a project?
That's not what I did. It's not like I signed up for all the dating platforms like Parship and OkCupid and sought out my one true love. I just started traveling to see what happens when you have more time and more headspace. Friends would set me up with men – or guys would just talk to me on the street and I had the time to respond. I only actually used Tinder in New York and Hamburg. I wouldn't have met anyone in Hamburg if I hadn't used Tinder.

Did any of the men you dated live up to any national stereotypes?
In order to say, "Cubans are like this," and "Germans are like that," I would have had to have dated 5,000 men, not 50. But certain clichés were confirmed. In Cuba, I actually did go salsa dancing a lot, and my date told me I was the most beautiful woman he'd ever met within five minutes. New Yorkers never wanted to commit – they were always waiting to see if there was someone better around the corner. Dating seemed to be a hobby for them.

The Italians that I met were easygoing and paid me a lot of compliments. And they actually did talk about their mothers a lot. For example they'd say, "The carbonara in this restaurant is good, but my mother's is better." I also noticed that in Italy the differences between genders were more emphasised: men and women seem to be a mystery to each other in the South of Europe, but they all seem to like it that way.

With Germans, the cliches weren't true. A lot of my German dates were funny and sarcastic. They were able to laugh at themselves and they all looked good. I think people in Central Europe have an unjustly bad reputation when it comes to romance.

What did you think about the British?
I only met Londoners. One of them actually visited me for a weekend in Vienna afterwards. He was very polite and funny, and a true gentleman. After we had been out all day together, he changed into a white, button-down shirt for dinner in a restaurant. I thought that was cute, but a bit much. But London was like any of the other big cities for me – people have very little time and too many choices.

In general, I was surprised to find that men all over the world are hustling to find love. There is that cliché that men don't care about finding love. But I don't think that's true at all. Some even booked flights to see me again and really put themselves out there.


Yvonne in London | Photo courtesy of Yvonne Eisenrig

What was the worst date you've had in the last year?
One time, I was talking to my date about how we both like to sing. He started belting an Italian aria in the middle of a café. His voice was actually good but it was at four in the afternoon and we hadn't had anything to drink.

What did you learn from your time off?
The most important thing I learned was that it's worth to take the risk, and focus on your private life. Some people are afraid of losing control, or of getting hurt. Falling in love shakes you up. It's strange that people will put so much effort into their careers but don't want to invest anything in love.

Did you find love, then?
I don't want to say because that would be giving away the end of my book. All I'll say is that I'm very happy at the moment.

So many rom-coms are based on the idea that you only fall in love when you least expect it. Is that an illusion?
You can't hunt for love, but it does help to get around and keep your eyes open. Of course you can bump into the love of your life in the supermarket. But if your head is filled with other stuff, you'll just keep walking on. You have to take the time to allow for accidents to happen. You have to set the stage so that love can make its entrance.

The VICE Morning Bulletin

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Everything you need to know about the world this morning, curated by VICE.


Photo by ALEXEY NIKOLSKY/AFP/Getty Images


US News

Putin Wants Microsoft Out of Russia
Vladimir Putin's government wants to purge Russian government offices of foreign software, according to a senior US intelligence official. The Kremlin may also cut off access to the career networking site LinkedIn, which Microsoft is said to be acquiring.—NBC News

Attorney General Discusses Email Investigation with FBI Director
Attorney General Loretta Lynch and FBI director James Comey huddled about the latest developments in the probe of Hillary Clinton's emails on Monday. The Justice Department has told Congress it would try to help the investigation happen "as expeditiously as possible."—CBS News

Obama Asks Men to Check Their Sexism about Hillary
While campaigning for Hillary Clinton in Ohio Monday, President Obama asked male voters to "look inside" themselves and question whether gender is an issue. "If you're having problems with this stuff, how much of it is... that we're not just used to it?"—ABC News

Gas Price Hike Expected After Deadly Pipeline Explosion
One worker was killed and several more injured after a gasoline pipeline erupted in Alabama on Monday, sparking a massive fire. The Colonial Pipeline Co. shutdown will restrict gasoline supplies to millions of Americans in the Southeast and is expected to raise gas prices, but the pipeline could reopen as early as Saturday.—The Wall Street Journal

International News

Assad Plans to Rule Syria for a Long Time
In a meeting with several dozen Western journalists and analysts, a confident Syrian president Bashar al Assad blamed the rebels, ISIS, and the US government for prolonging his country's civil war and said he expected to be president until at least 2021. —New York Times

South Korea Appoints New PM Amid Cronyism Scandal
President Park Geun-hye is reshuffling her cabinet as a furor over a friend who helped write speeches and may have had access to classified material rages on. The woman at the center of the scandal, Choi Soon-sil, remains in custody.—The Guardian

Venezuelan Opposition Postpones Mock Trial of President
The Venezuelan government has freed four activists and the opposition has postponed a symbolic trial of President Nicolás Maduro in Congress as the Vatican tries to respond to unrest there. But opposition leaders also want some 100 jailed activists released and for elections to be fast-tracked.—Reuters

Fire at Karaoke Bar in Vietnam Kills 13
Thirteen people perished in a blaze at a karaoke bar in Hanoi Tuesday, engulfing adjacent buildings and taking hours for firefighters to contain.—BBC News

Everything Else

Louis CK Hails Hillary Clinton for Being a 'Tough Bitch'
The comedian made a passionate endorsement of Hillary Clinton on Tuesday night's Conan. Describing her as a "tough bitch mother," he said: "If you vote for Hillary, you're a grown-up. If you vote for Trump, you're a sucker. If you don't vote for anybody, you're an asshole."—The Hollywood Reporter

David Bowie Emoji to Appear in iPhone Update
A tribute to the late musician in the form of an emoji based on the cover of his Aladdin Sane album will accompany Apple's iOS 10.2 update. It is among 16 new emojis, and will be available in both male and female forms.—Rolling Stone

Seventy-One Percent of Musicians Experience Anxiety and Panic Attacks, Study Says
In a new report from the Help Musicians mental-health charity, 71 percent of musicians reported experiencing anxiety and panic attacks, and 67 percent said they have suffered from depression. It is thought to be the largest-ever study of its kind.—Noisey

Millennials Drinking Global Coffee Supply Dry
A new report from Bloomberg suggests young people between the ages of 19- and 34-years-old now make up 44 percent of coffee drinkers in the US. It also warned supplies are under threat in major coffee-producing regions like South America.—Munchies

Anti-Pipeline Tribe Will Defend Its Wireless Network
Standing Rock Telecom, a tribe-owned wireless service provider, has pledged to fight for its survival in the face of the Dakota Access Pipeline and potential encorachment from larger telecom companies. "We as tribal nations have never given up our airspace," said manager Fred McLaughlin.—Motherboard

What Call Centres Can Tell Us About Bleakness and Resistance in the Modern Workplace

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Call centre cadres unite against the oppressor! A generic stock image of an office worker using a hands free headset (Picture by Lauren Hurley PA Archive/PA Images)

In the UK, 1 million people work in call centres. That's over 4 percent of the working population. In some parts of the UK it's the only big employer in town. Some in the north are, symbolically, built on top of closed coal mines. The call centre is an integral part of our lumbering and lurching post-industrial economy. In a country that doesn't even own its famous cultural products, like Marmite, pretty soon this work could be all we have left.

You will receive, on average, 468 cold calls a year. At cold call centres, entry level workers are paid on average £13,200 a year, work by commission and are under immense pressure from supervisors; monthly staff turnover can exceed 50 percent in some places. Somehow, in an age of internet shopping and comparison sites, these phone calls still work, otherwise companies wouldn't bother. No one likes being cold called, but have you ever considered the condition of the workers who make them? Why do we fail to feel sympathy for the caller when we know they are just trying to make money and get by like the rest of us?

Jamie Woodcock, an LSE academic, went undercover for a year working in cold call centres around the UK to investigate these questions for his new book Working the Phones; Control and Resistance in Call Centres . He told me the internet won't replace the cold call just yet. "Calling exploits and uses people's emotions in a much stronger way than email or instant message," he said. "It takes what's positive about social interaction and warps it into a sales situation." He is careful not to blame the workers, but the system itself.

Jamie sold "bad financial products, a kind of sub-prime insurance" over the phone, working from a pre-written script. At his call centre, workers were expected to make between 300 and 400 calls a day. There is a five-second gap between one call ending and the next beginning, like a telecommunications conveyor belt. This type of work produces something like "an assembly line in the head" – a form of "chain work" rather than "brain work", where you are constantly performing the same cognitive routine for hours on end. Breaks are timed by the second. You have to click "log off" on your workstation and then a big counter appears on your screen. Counting up, once it hits 15 minutes it goes red, like an alarm. You can be fired on the spot; your contract often stipulates that you agree to not involve a trade union to bargain on your behalf and there is constant surveillance of your performance.

Jamie writes of a time he was pressured by his supervisor into making an insurance sale with someone about to go to hospital for kidney dialysis. "The supervisor started to mouth, 'This person is sick! We offer guaranteed acceptance! This is your next sale!'" The customer said his illness was too serious for new insurance, yet Jamie, "under pressure from the supervisor, continued to pitch the product, despite the customer becoming upset". The sale wasn't made, but he was "verbally reprimanded for not being persistent enough to close the deal". There are stories like this from all over the industry, such as charity call centre bosses asking workers to make "ferocious and brutal" calls to pensioners.

Meeting Jamie, he seems like a sound guy; intelligent and compassionate, not a bastard. But he still managed to become "averagely good" at these sales calls. "It's all the little bits about speaking to somebody, that happen in between the script that make the sale," he says. How is someone like Jamie, who says cold call centres demonstrate "how decrepit capitalism has become", able to do this? What happens to you? He says the concepts of "emotional dissonance" and "affective labour" are key.

Affective labour, Jamie says, "is the way in which you use your emotions at work. It's more than just emotional labour. I think of it as an emotional package; the way you influence other people, interact with them, the social and psychological aspects. This makes it very different to other types of work. You use your social abilities in order to make profit. You are not only disciplining your body but also your mind and your emotions and how you interact with the world. It's exhausting, emotionally draining and alienating." Affective labour is "historically associated with female qualities and is therefore usually expected of women". It is no surprise that 80 percent of call centre staff are female and many experience sexism and misogyny from a mostly male management strata.

"Emotional dissonance" is the negative feeling you get when your emotions are in contradiction. You can hate your job passionately, yet when you make a call and "smile down the phone" you have to sound upbeat and positive. Most people in any service sector workplace will have experience of this, but it is the relentless calling at the call centre that makes it so intense for staff there. It is a demand not only to be at work but to genuinely enjoy it.

The maximum Jamie stayed at any one centre for was six months before the mental toll was too much. However, of the training cohort he started with, he was the last one to quit.

I ask if there is any hope in changing the culture at a workplace when no one sticks around long enough to demand it. Jamie found that chatting about making work less terrible actually made work less terrible. "It gave us something to chat about at the breaks. But even though people will leave, and demands such as the right to refuse to pressurise someone into buying will never be met, at least the worker has experienced organising. Hopefully they'll discuss conditions at their next job. The call centre may not be the terrain of struggle, but they will take their experiences elsewhere."

Since the deregulation of finance and telecommunications in the 1980s a cold call monster has been born. Before we part ways I ask Jamie what future call centre work might look like.

"There was an inbound university call centre for students, but it shut down because no one wanted to call them," he says. "They would tweet them or email. But sales calls, that will continue. You can definitely imagine a future where there is a piece of software on a worker's phone and you call from home so you don't have to be in the office. Call centres already call via the internet, so you could easily do that from home. There might well be a horrible cottage industry of a million people working in their living room bothering other people in their living rooms while some supervisor sends some abusive text messages from their house telling you to work harder."

Maybe next time you hang up on the person calling you, just take a moment to wish them luck with their next job.

@KitCaless

Working The Phones: Control and Resistance in Call Centres is out on the 20th November from Pluto Press

More from VICE:

It's 'Living Wage Week' and Workers Are Still Fighting for an Incredibly Basic Level of Pay

Silence, Haters – Working in a Call Centre Was Some Weird Kind of Bliss

I Punched My Boss in the Face

Student Killed in Suspected Random Stabbing Attack on BC High School

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Photo via Pixabay

One female student is dead and another is seriously injured after a stabbing at a school in Abbotsford, BC on Tuesday. A suspect has been arrested.

The National Post reported that the incident occurred Tuesday afternoon at a secondary school when reports of a suspicious person were received by police. Police Chief Bob Rich said during a news conference that the suspect doesn't appear to have any connection to the students.

According to reports, the incident occurred outside on the grounds of the school in front of a number of students and faculty. The man in question was tackled by teachers and was immediately taken into custody after police arrived, while the victims were transported to a nearby hospital.

A lockdown of the school commenced, later followed by an evacuation. A search of the school was conducted and no other suspects were arrested.

A six-second video of the incident has surfaced online. The video shows a man in a grey T-shirt standing over a woman and swinging a knife, while another tries to flee. The man eventually drops the knife when approached by another person and backs away from the body.

Police have asked that the video not be shared out of respect for the victim's family.

Follow Lisa Power on Twitter.

Ecosexuals Believe Having Sex with the Earth Could Save It

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A participant at the Ecosexual Bathhouse by the art group Pony Express. Photo by Matt Sav

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If you happen to find yourself in Sydney this week, you have the unique opportunity to have sex with the earth. You just need to stop by the "ecosexual bathhouse," which is currently part of the Syndey LiveWorks Festival of experimental art. The bathhouse is an interactive installation created by artists Loren Kronemyer and Ian Sinclair of Pony Express, who described the work to me as a "no-holds-barred extravaganza meant to dissolve the barriers between species as we descend into oblivion" as the result of our global environmental crisis. But they also see their piece as a part of a much larger ecosexual movement, which they say is gathering momentum around the world.

And they may be right. Jennifer Reed, a PhD candidate in sociology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is writing a dissertation on ecosexuality, and says that the number of people who identify as ecosexuals has increased markedly in the past two years. And Google search data confirms that interest in the term has spiked dramatically over the past year. We may look back on 2016 as the year ecosexuality hit the mainstream.

Ecosexuality is a term with wide-ranging definitions, which vary depending on who you ask. Amanda Morgan, a faculty member at the UNLV School of Community Health Sciences who is involved in the ecosexual movement, says that ecosexuality could be measured in a sense not unlike the Kinsey Scale: On one end, it encompasses people who try to use sustainable sex products, or who enjoy skinny dipping and naked hiking. On the other are "people who roll around in the dirt having an orgasm covered in potting soil," she said. "There are people who fuck trees, or masturbate under a waterfall."

A participant at the Ecosexual Bathhouse by the art group Pony Express. Photo by Matt Sav

The movement's growing prominence owes much to the efforts of Bay Area performance artists, activists, and couple Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens, who have made ecosexuality a personal crusade. They have published an "ecosex manifesto" on their website SexEcology and produced several films on the theme, including a documentary, Goodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story, which depicts the "pollen-amorous" relationship between them and the Appalachian Mountains. And while touring a theater piece across the country, Dirty Sexecology: 25 Ways to Make Love to the Earth, they've officiated wedding ceremonies where they and fellow ecosexuals marry the earth, the moon, and other natural entities.

Sprinkle and Stephens talk openly about ecosexuality as a new form of sexual identity. At last year's San Francisco Pride Parade, they led a contingent of over a hundred ecosexuals in a ribbon-cutting ceremony to "officially" add an E to the LGBTQI acronym; Stephens told Outside that they believe there are now at least 100,000 people around the world who openly identify as ecosexuals.


A trailer for Pony Express' "Ecosexual Bathhouse"

According to Reed's research, the term "ecosexuality" has existed since the early 2000s, when it started appearing as a self-description on online dating profiles. It wasn't until 2008 that it began its evolution toward a fully fledged social movement, when Sprinkle and Stephens began officiating ecosexual weddings. The two artists had been active in the marriage equality movement, and they wanted to harness that energy for environmental causes. Stephens has said that their aim was to reconceptualize the way we look at the earth, from seeing the planet as a mother to seeing it as a lover.

Also in 2008, Stefanie Iris Weiss, a writer and activist based in New York, began researching her book Eco-sex: Go Green Between the Sheets and Make Your Love Life Sustainable, published in 2010. Weiss, who was at that time unaware of Sprinkle and Stephens's work, initially lent the idea a more practical, literal focus, with research revealing the harmful environmental impact of materials used in condoms, lubes, and other sex products upon both our bodies and the planet. She said that she wrote the book to help people make their sex lives "more carbon neutral and sustainable," and to help us avoid polluting our bodies when we have sex.

The desire for safer and more sustainable sex products remains an important part of the ecosexual movement, and Weiss said that green options for consumers when it comes to sex products have increased dramatically since she wrote her book. But she has also happily embraced Sprinkle and Stephens's more holistic take on ecosexuality, immediately recognizing in their efforts a shared goal: to help people reconnect with nature, and with their own bodies.

Reed said that ecosexuality is different from other social movements in that it focuses on personal behavior and pleasure rather than protests or politics. She said that some people within the environmental movement have kept their distance from it for this reason. But ecosexual activists interviewed for this story all insist they have a serious goal at heart. As Morgan said, thinking about the earth as a lover is the first step toward taking the environmental crisis seriously. "If you piss off your mother, she's probably going to forgive you. If you treat your lover badly, she's going to break up with you."

At the same time, the sense of levity that characterizes works such as the bathhouse or Sprinkle and Stephens's performances is an integral part of the movement. Morgan describes ecosexuality as a means of moving beyond the "depressing Al Gore stuff" that people often associate with environmentalism. Her hope, and that of other ecosexuals such as Weiss and Kronemyer, is that it can gives the average person a way of engaging with the issue that is accessible and fun, and that creates a sense of hopefulness.

Morgan and Weiss both say that they also see sex as a potentially powerful tool for motivating people to make the environment a priority. As Weiss put it: "If you're running from floods, you won't have any time for sex."

Neil McArthur is the director of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at University of Manitoba, where his work focuses on sexual ethics and the philosophy of sexuality. Follow him on Twitter.

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