This article originally appeared on Motherboard in the US.

In 2015, WIRED published a list of the ‘dark web drug lords who got away.’ That list included the Dread Pirate Roberts 2 (DPR2), the creator of the second Silk Road site, which launched almost immediately after the FBI ended the first with the famous arrest of founder Ross Ulbricht.

Under DPR2, Silk Road 2 went on to rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars a day. The FBI shut that one down too and arrested its remaining administrator. By that time, DPR2 had already passed ownership of the site on and, publicly, it looked like he had evaded prosecution.

But today, a court in Liverpool, England, sentenced Thomas White, a technologist and privacy activist, for crimes committed in part while running Silk Road 2 under the DPR2 persona, among other crimes committed under another persona. White pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, money laundering, as well as making indecent images of children, and was sentenced to a total of 5 years and 4 months in prison.

White’s arrest took place in November 2014, but the case has remained largely under-wraps because of the UK’s strict court reporting rules, which prohibit journalists from covering some cases before their conclusion. This is to stop suspects facing "trial by media," and in order to let cases run their course.

Paul Chowles, an investigator from the National Crime Agency (NCA) who worked on the case, told Motherboard in a phone call one piece of evidence included the private encryption key belonging to DPR2 on one of White’s computers. If someone possesses the private part of a PGP key, which is used to decrypt and sign messages, it can be a good indicator that they are behind a particular online identity.

White has been out of prison on bail since his arrest in 2014, and became reasonably well-known in security circles under his real name in the time between his arrest and sentencing. After working on the Silk Road 2, White adopted the handle ‘The Cthulhu,.’ a moniker that may be familiar to those who follow technology news. On Twitter he mused about security and privacy topics, and has appeared under his own name in articles in Motherboard, Forbes, and more as an expert on Tor and other subjects. He previously ran a website archiving large data breaches that anyone could download, including the MySpace breach, data from hacked affairs website Ashley Madison, and customer information from a Muslim-focused dating site called ‘Muslim Match.’ White wrote blog posts on his own website, including a guide on how to securely setup a Tor hidden service, and he also ran a number of nodes for the volunteer-driven Tor anonymity network.

White declined to speak to Motherboard on the record about his case. White deleted his Cthulhu Twitter account on Thursday.

White's computer equipment seized by the NCA. Image: NCA

***

After the FBI took down the original Silk Road site in 2013 and arrested Ulbricht, a small cabal of Silk Road veterans banded together to create its replacement. Those included moderators of the first site, and “StExo,” White’s persona which he used to offer money laundering services.

White spear-headed that effort, and told others he would drop StExo and take on the mantle of DPR2, according to Chowles from the NCA. The Dread Pirate Roberts is a reference to the character from the book and film The Princess Bride, in which the title trickles down from successor to successor.

“DPR2, aka Thomas White, was the boss. He was the controlling mind in all of this, and he was the one driving it forward,” Chowles added.

Got a tip? You can contact this reporter securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, OTR chat on jfcox@jabber.ccc.de, or email joseph.cox@vice.com.

One Silk Road moderator that White directed went by the handle “Cirrus.” As Motherboard showed in 2014, Cirrus was an undercover law enforcement official who captured chat logs detailing White’s transition from StExo to DPR2.

“He was able to capture that; that kind of transition,” Chowles said, referring to Jared Der-Yeghiayan, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agent who controlled the Cirrus account. Chat logs US authorities recovered from the computer of Blake Benthall, Silk Road 2’s co-administrator, reflected much the same thing, Chowles added.

In a longform 2016 profile, DPR2 told Motherboard what it was like to create the second Silk Road.

“Once you hit that enter button, you've just launched something that you know there is going to be an absolutely fucking huge manhunt after you,” he said.

In December 2013, when law enforcement agencies arrested a number of the original moderators, DPR2 stepped back from public view. When the FBI launched Operation Onymous the following year, which took down Silk Road 2, UK authorities arrested White.

“This [wouldn’t] have been achieved without the significant assistance we’ve had from the [Department of] Homeland Security and the FBI and the Department of Justice,” Garry Tancock, a second NCA investigator who worked on the case, told Motherboard in a phone call.

"He was the controlling mind in all of this, and he was the one driving it forward."

The NCA investigators linked White first to the StExo identity in part by following financial and bitcoin transactions in the early days of the account’s creation.

“We effectively got him from his day one, week one, of activity on Silk Road,” Chowles said. Chowles explained that included tracing a loan from payday loan company Wonga in White’s name, which was then sent to cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox, which then transferred bitcoin funds to the StExo account on Silk Road and paid for some items on the site. Other evidence included receipts for items seized from other Silk Road vendors addressed to White, and White being in possession of bitcoin wallets associated with DPR2.

John Williams from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) told Motherboard in a statement that White "received an income that allowed lavish spending with no credible explanation."

The case has not been straightforward, however. Chowles said the NCA had challenges with White’s use of encryption. The agency was eventually successful, in part because of gaining access to a password manager which contained the unlock phrase for one of White’s encrypted laptops.

White's custody image. Image: NCA

The whole process has also taken years. According to a source familiar with the case, the investigation data didn’t arrive in the UK until June 2016, and the FBI didn’t provide full copies until December 2018. Motherboard granted the source anonymity to speak more openly about a criminal case.

White’s motivation was a mix of financial gain and power, Chowles believes. Chat logs between White and Benthall said White planned to start a paid-for child pornography site to make money, Charles said. White would tell Benthall to work on a UK timezone and write in a particular way, the investigator added.

“Might set a forum up in onion land to bring together people who run hidden services to share knowledge? What do you think?” White tweeted in 2015.

This piece has been updated to include comment from the CPS.

Game of Thrones is back, and what a goddamn way to kick off the final season. Sunday night's episode has already been dubbed the best season premiere since the pilot, packing in a herculean amount of reunions and revelations into its comparatively short runtime: Jon and Arya back together again! Jon riding a goddamn dragon! Jon learning that he is both the rightful heir to the throne and has been banging his aunt this whole time! It was, uh, a big night for Jon Snow.

But the premiere also included one major twist even before the episode properly began: The opening credits were brand new. Sure, previous seasons made tiny changes to the titles, but those were just small tweaks like new locations or smoke at Winterfell or whatever. This was a full-on overhaul.

There's plenty in there to pore over and obsessively try to wring meaning from, but thankfully, the designers at Elastic—the company behind the now-iconic GoT titles—have decided to spare us all some much-needed time and sanity by breaking down every major change in the new credits sequence so we don't have to, Vulture reports.

“Around June of 2017, [series creators] Dan and David and [GoT producer] Greg came by and said, 'We want to change everything. Brand new. Let’s do it all over again,'" Elastic designer Kirk Shintani said in a new interview. "The biggest thing for them was to start at the Wall."

That's where the new titles begin, right at the broken Wall as it spills blue tiles into Westeros. "There are tiles on the ground that flip from white to black, snow to ice," another designer, the aptly-named Angus Wall, said during a separate interview with IndieWire. "That’s representing the White Walkers’ march south through the rift in the Wall. And that was something that we’d actually talked about, that idea of the tiles flipping and revealing things, in the very initial design discussions of the title sequence. It happens now to actually be a more interactive map and not just a geography lesson."

From there, the camera zooms south, before ending on King's Landing and going somewhere that we've never seen in titles before—inside the Red Keep itself. "The show has been inexorably moving towards the Iron Throne," Wall told Vulture. “Being able to go inside allowed us to actually end the title sequence at the throne."

To allow for actually going inside locations, the Elastic crew had to reconfigure scale of the map itself. In the previous titles, the various building sizes were all a little wonky. These new buildings are perfectly scaled, using a man who is "probably Jaime Lannister" for size reference, Wall said, per IndieWire. "The world has been rebuilt from scratch from the ground up, and that’s something that all the artists that have worked on it really wanted to do. They applied a very strict sense of scale in the structures, so all the textures, the wood grain is all to scale."

The last major change in the new title sequence is the astrolabe at the title's beginning. In the earlier seasons, the images etched on the astrolabe's bands reportedly depicted ancient Westeros history. Now, there are three new bands, showing off scenes from earlier seasons, from Ned Stark's beheading to Viserion and the Night King blasting through the Wall.

Those are the major Easter eggs tucked in the new titles, but for those of us still desperate for something to dissect, worry not—every title sequence this season will apparently be a little different, with their own brand-new secrets to find. "I’ll say that there are differences in every single episode," Shintani told BuzzFeed in a separate interview. "From episode to episode, pay attention, because there’s lots of hints scattered around." Get ready to waste a lot of time trying to decipher blurry screengrabs of the astrolabe for the next month and a half, everybody!

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This article originally appeared on VICE US.

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

A space-age object is suspended from the gallery wall. It could be debris from a meteorite or an alien life form. But the phallic shape is telltale. This is the spindly, double-pronged dick of a honey bee. Artist Joey Holder has spent the last four years working on The Evolution of the Spermaledge, a project that focuses on the reproductive organs of insects. Using detailed 3D scans and microtechnology, she makes useable, human-scale dildos out of tiny insect penis templates. There are numerous featured invertebrate penises, including those of bed mites, weevils, houseflies and spiders. Specially cast in silvery, skin-safe silicone, the dildos are something to behold. Consider them David Attenborough meets sci-fi erotica, if that's your thing.

I caught up with Joey to ask her more about her fascination with bug genitalia.

A 3D insect penis prototype (‘The Evolution of the Spermalege', Joey Holder, 2014-and ongoing, courtesy of the artist)

VICE: Hi Joey, why exactly are you making insect dildos?
Joey Holder: Straight to the point. I like that. I have always been fascinated by the diversity of nature. I was looking into the weird mating of certain insects, in particular, the bean weevil. The male of this species pierces the female's abdomen with his penis and injects the sperm through the wound into her abdominal cavity. It may seem very wacky to us, but it’s only one example of the curious sex rituals that insects enact. Honey bees' penises snap off and explode. Female praying mantises eat their male partners, sometimes even during copulation! I decided to uncover these strange practices by making 3D-printed models of the insect’s genitalia and enlarging them to create dildos. I thought about how our own human sexual desires are categorised and how certain things considered “taboo”. Spermaledge could help us think more openly. Every possibility exists within nature.

So have you actually used them?
I haven’t used them yet, no. At the moment I guess they exist as “art objects”. But they could definitely be used for pleasure purposes as they are made from skin-safe silicon. In the future, I hope to expand availability and explore that avenue. It’s taken me a long time to get this far because of the high cost involved in producing the silicon.

I’ve noticed you quote feminist futurist Donna Haraway on your artist website. How does The Evolution of Spermaledge relate her work about sexual liberation, technology and ecology?
Haraway says, “We need a multispecies alliance, across the killing division of nature, culture, and technology”. Often we seek to create divisions and hierarchies between living things and even non-living things. I aim to question the fixed way we have been taught to think of our bodies, identities, gender and biological capabilities. I want to encourage us to look outside of limiting categories. Looking towards other species can allow us to reflect on our own baffling existence, and be more willing to accept other possibilities. Culture and society designate what is “normal” or “desirable”. The natural world holds a myriad of exquisite forms and behaviours, which are often invisible to us. We picture what life is like on other planets, yet what is present right under our noses is more otherworldly than anything imaginable.

(Photo: Damian Griffiths, courtesy of Seventeen Gallery)

I suppose the world of insect genitalia is indeed largely invisible to most people. Would you say that you want to capture the complexity of the natural world?
Definitely. There are animals which are simultaneous hermaphrodites (have both male and female sexual organs), those that produce asexually (reproduction involving a single organism), and those which are sequential hermaphrodites (can change from male to female or vice versa). There are also animals that “act” as the opposite sex. Homosexuality exists in almost every observed species. Darwin’s theories were centred around reproduction, ie: that all living things have this one goal in mind. Males were thought to be promiscuous, dominant and aggressive and the females chaste and passive. For many people, it was just the natural order of the world. But the truth is far messier! Animals have been observed to engage in sex for pleasure, social interaction, demonstration of dominance or relief, or to barter for objects. We have been blinkered by our own cultural prejudices, casting animals in the kinds of roles we saw in the human world around us.

How does your work relate to your own experiences?
I used to be a scuba diver instructor. The underwater realm has a completely different set of rules: you can move around completely weightlessly, go in any direction. Vibrations and sounds can feel like they are all around you, or even inside of you. And the fish, crustaceans and whatnot – I was so surprised at first – they really don’t give a fuck about your presence. It’s as if they’ve seen everything, so a human with a scuba tank isn’t worth a second glance! Within my work, I want to reflect on these otherworldly habitats and the creatures which live there, and most importantly what they can teach us.

Thanks, Joey.

@hepezz

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

As we head into late May's European Parliament elections, there is a feeling of the Last Days of Rome up in Brussels’ Berlaymont headquarters. The air is sweet with the perfume of regret, and sharp with the bitter tang of what comes next.

European elections, with their proportional representation formulas, their low-stakes opportunities to blow-off at the governing elite, and their dismal voter turnout, are a great coming out party for Europe’s populists. Just ask Nigel Farage – back in 2014, UKIP won the EU elections in Britain. They sent 24 MEPs to Brussels out of the UK’s total stack of 76 (most of whom have since evaporated in corruption scandals or fistfights or splits). By comparison, the Conservatives only won 19, and everything that has happened to us since has spilled out of their shock at being beaten into third place.

What comes next for the EU began to take shape in Milan last week. There, in a luxury hotel downtown, the Barbarians were planning their assault on the gates. Matteo Salvini, leader of Italy’s populist Lega party, was meeting with representatives of Germany's anti-Muslim Alternative fur Deutschland, the Danish People's Party, the True Finns Party, and the old school Flemish nationalist Vlaamse Belang. Their aim: to build a giant new Eurosceptic bloc within the European Parliament, the biggest of all the blocs.

Theirs is a bold project, aiming at nothing less than a reversal in the direction of history since the 1960s – in the words of Hungary’s arch-populist Viktor Orban: “The European Commission is going, we are coming.”

They’ve been coming for a long time now – so long it’s occasionally felt like their only purpose was to supply fodder for ponderous leader articles in The Economist. But this spring, they’ll finally have come. Populists of one stripe or another look set to claim one-third of EU Parliament seats, and that will have major implications for the future of Europe.

At the heart of a Europe that no longer wishes to have an organised heart, Matteo Salvini has every right to stake his claim as the populists’ new king. A year ago, when Italy was first governed by a coalition of two populist parties, Salvini’s Lega was the junior coalition partner – about half the size of the more left-leaning 5-Star Movement.

But that’s turned right round. Voters have liked what they’ve heard from tubby, grinning action-man Salvini, who’s tough on immigration yet smooth on Instagram. 5-Star are now polling nearly half of Lega, which means that in the upcoming elections, Salvini’s "common sense" nationalists are set to take 28 seats, with the more anarchic demagoguery of 5-Star projected to grab another 21. Overall, out of its 74 allocated seats, Italy will be sending the EU 49 populists. Five years ago, the mainstream Social Democrats won 31 seats. Now, they’ve been consigned to electoral oblivion.

This week’s meeting is just the start. Next month, Salvini will be meeting with France’s Marine Le Pen, Austria's Freedom Party, Geert Wilders’ Dutch Party for Freedom, Hungary’s Fidesz, and the Polish Law & Justice Party. In all, he hopes to bring the neo-reactionaries of 15 to 20 countries to under his new “European Alliance Of People And Nations”. Now, Europe is heading to a final showdown with the forces of Euroscepticism. Brussels bubble: it’s time to meet the third of the European electorate that hates you.

The EU Parliament has a knotty structure. How do you pull together parties from 27 different countries, all with their own brands and local nuances? The answer, it turns out, is that you group the parties – you essentially make coalitions-of-coalitions. So the UK Labour Party sits alongside other Labour Parties in a European Parliament bloc called “The Progressive Alliance Of Socialists And Democrats”; while the Tories sit with the “Europe of Conservatives And Reformers”, the Lib Dems sit with the Liberals, and so on. But because there are about eight of these different blocs, there’s never a clear winner. So you tend to have coalitions between blocs.

This system has meant that for the past 25 years, the rulers of Europe have been a “Grand Coalition” of centre-left and centre-right parties – the Gaullists in France, the Social Democrats in Sweden, the Christian Democrats in Germany, all working together to get mainstream things done in a mainstream way. Mainly, that has meant a German-style corporatist-neoliberal economic policy coupled to a progressivist social policy.

For evidence on how well the old way is going, look to France, where Marine Le Pen’s hard-right anti-migrant National Rally party are leading the vote share, on 22 percent as per a January poll. Meanwhile, the party that gave France its last President – François Hollande’s Socialists – is polling a dismal six percent.

Of course, Rome did not fall in a day. With only a third of MEPs, the populists won’t have enough clout to govern (not that any one group governs), but they will have enough to shut down the changes they don’t like. More tax harmonisation, a co-ordinated external migration policy, a European Army: these ideas die here. For the next five years, the EU will be locked inward, focused more on the battle for its own soul than any grand new schemes if – if – the populists can work together as Salvini wishes.

Whether they can is an open question. Populists don’t come in only right-wing flavours, after all.

Polling at seven percent in France, just above the Socialists, is Jean-Luc Melenchon’s communistic La France Insoumise. In Greece, hard-left Syriza is still the government, while the post-Occupy internet movement Podemos continues to plug away in Spain (though recently challenged by the right-populism of Vox). These parties would make up a quarter of the populist intake, and even a common yearning for sovereignty is a pretty weak bond when put within the context of the left-populists lining up in the voting lobbies alongside, say, the Austrian Freedom Party, founded by a literal Nazi.

They do share a common suspicion of elites, be they Brussels or boardrooms. But they have quite different depths of involvement. Populism might be an international phenomenon, but it also comes in distinctive national flavours. Melenchon’s mob have an old-left view of the EU as a stitch-up by the capitalist classes – a “bosses club”. The Greeks still choke on their memories of betrayal during their 2013 economic crisis, yet they still don’t see a future for themselves beyond the Euro. Podemos want to revoke the Lisbon Treaty, but stay in overall.

Look more closely and there are just as many fault lines on the right. Poland’s Law and Justice party, for example, is virulently anti-Russian, while the AfD flirt heavily with Putin and aim to move German foreign policy eastwards… never a good look for Poland.

Even if Salvini’s European Alliance Of People And Nations comes to nothing, we know that this is not the climactic battle. The 2019 intake is only Phase One – wait till you see the class of 2024.

But we may at least be approaching an early peak – namely, the point at which the fruits of populism start to become the enemy of populism. The smouldering crater of Brexit has left many swashbucklers looking far more timid. Sweden’s Left Party is dropping its 25-year-old call for a Swexit referendum. Both Le Pen and Salvini, too, have cooled on their calls for referendums. At least until Britain stops being on fire for long enough for the true profit and loss of leaving to be calculated, advocating an exit has become, well… unpopular populism.

The old hands in Brussels may shudder at the coming tsunami, but they might also try to find opportunity in crisis. Something is coming, yet the true believers have barely noticed their mounting losses, still insisting that the solution to an increasingly unpopular union is more Union.

Technocratic centralisation is a pretty 1950s way of organising your internationalism. Perhaps 2019 is a last chance for the EU to be pushed out of its cosy mittel-Europe default mode, to be dragged by the standstill towards discovering more devolved, less bureaucratic ways to run a continent.

And if they don’t see it that way yet, Britain may offer to tip the scales. With the Long Extension now locked in, it seems we’ll be sending Farage and his merry gang of minor celebrities back to Brussels, armed with a mandate from the people to break stuff. If six months of that doesn’t make the EU wise up – what will?

@gavhaynes

This article originally appeared on VICE India

Charak or Charak Puja is a part of the Gajan folk festival celebrated every year in West Bengal, Bangladesh and parts of Northeast India, and is basically the equivalent of a New Year Eve party in accordance with the Bengali calender. Except, instead of being subjected to the tortuous intake of tequila shots, this ritual actually has devotees subjecting themselves to pain as a sacrifice to Lord Shiva. And if you thought the Mother of Dragons having to eat a horse’s heart to prove her devotion to Khal Drogo was painful to watch, this festival involves the devotees accomplishing every imaginable feat—from walking on burning coals to burying themselves in mud, from jumping on sharp objects like machetes to lying on a bed of nails—to show you they’re serious about appeasing their god.

A devotee holds a machete while another lies down on a bed of nails in a public performance. Photo: Ankita Das

In fact, one of the main rituals requires them to embed iron hooks into their back and then hang themselves on a pole, around which they are made to swing like a human chakra (wheel)—the word that ‘Charak’ is derived from—to denote the movement of the sun.

The sharp metal is pierced into the backs of performing saints in a bloodless process that has been developed with years of practice. Photo: Dibyojyoti Bose

Here’s a video, if you still don’t believe us.

Although its exact origin is unknown, a paper titled ‘A Barbarous Practice: Hook-Swinging in Colonial Bengal’ talks about how the Britishers tried to get it banned way back in 1860. Today, this tradition is taken very seriously and requires devotees to spend a month fasting. On the last day, they break their fast alongside inflicting pain on themselves in a bid to eliminate all their sins from the previous year. In fact, the sanyasis (saints) taking part in the ritual even believe that no harm will come to them if they have not sinned, something that can actually be attributed to the specific way the tongue and body are pierced. "It is believed that such acts are done by the priests to experience the pains of womanhood, including childbirth", says Ankita Das who lives in Assam. Das has been witnessing the festival happening in her backyard for many years, growing up listening to stories on the importance of this festival from her mother.

With a focus to follow strict penance in the hope of a good harvest season, devotees worship a tree and dress up as deities, so, you know, there's some fun stuff as well. However, cultural experts have spoken about how celebrations of this festival are restricted to rural areas and may have been a result of a tradition imposed on lower castes by the upper caste Brahmins, thereby questioning the true motive behind this practice.

Even after all the on-screen wedding violence that George RR Martin has gifted us, this tradition does leave us more shook.

Follow Shamani Joshi on Instagram.

This article originally appeared on VICE Canada

A man who set more than a dozen cars on fire in Edmonton this weekend was stopped by a man in a Hawaiian shirt and a man brandishing a big ol’ piece of wood as a weapon.

Around 8:30 PM Friday night, a dude dressed in black and armed with FIRE—well, some molotov cocktails, a jerry can of gas, and a lighter—took to Whyte Ave, Edmonton's main entertainment strip. This man walked around the avenue and would pour gas on to the hoods, or underneath, or wherever on the cars, and then light the fuckers up.

Police have confirmed that “a male travelling on foot in the area was pouring fuel on vehicles and setting them on fire” and that while nobody was hurt in the rampage, 13 vehicles were lit on fire. Thanks to the ubiquity of cell phones and surveillance cameras we have a series of short cell phone videos which show the progression of the man’s spree. It’s an interesting watch to say the least.

So, why don’t we take a look at what happened?

The chronology of the videos isn’t definite, but the start of the spree seems to begin in an alley where the man makes and tests some molotov cocktails before setting out. The next one shows the actual spree, as the man in his black coat and hat is seen lighting the tires of a car on fire as he walks past a bar patio. He then quickly lights up two more car tires. A bystander sums up the situation well with a simple “Jesus fucking Christ.”

Another video, which features already-burning cars in the background, shows the man crossing the road, doing a little spin as he gets to the other side, and lighting a car on fire. Yet another one shows the man walking down the sidewalk, dousing cars as a man with a fire extinguisher jogs behind him, presumably putting out the fire as he goes.

A video taken by Reddit user Spincrisis and uploaded under the name “Who's up for a little Friday night arson on Whyte?” shows the tail end of the man’s arsonry. In the video, the man in the black hoodie threateningly gestures towards a Second Cup coffee shop for some reason, before he turns around and straight up lights a red SUV’s hood on fire ten seconds later. The driver is still in the SUV but quickly rounds the corner as the fire on his car goes out. The man then walks across Whyte Ave and lifts his arms in the air like he’s Judd Nelson at the end of Breakfast Club and with his jerry can presumably empty, throws it into the air.

From here Edmonton goes just straight up Hawaii 5.0 as a man in a red Hawaiian shirt and a giant moustache bursts into the frame and chases arson guy into a coffee shop. To make the video even more surreal a nice man brandishing a 2x4 enters the frame shortly after. The two men—lovingly named “Hawaiian shirt guy” and “2x4 Guy” by the creative minds online—tackle the arsonist and conduct a citizen arrest.

Hell yeah. There’s no place like ‘Berta, baby!

After the citizen’s arrest police took the suspect into custody and announced shortly thereafter that they were laying a slew of charges against, and I’m not shitting you here, Malice Sutton. After the video of our two heroes went viral online, local media caught up with them and they both were humble about their actions. Speaking to the Edmonton Journal, Jeff Halby, (2x4 guy) said that he doesn’t feel like a hero and that lots of people “had the same instinct that I did.”

“I thought, well I can’t go out there without anything in my hand,” he said. “I found a four-foot piece of baseboard and thought well, this is better than nothing. I ran across the street to cut him off because I didn’t want him to continue walking closer to Whyte Avenue.”

“I just kept thinking this guy can blow up a car,” he later added. “That’s all that was in my head.”

Bless you and your valiant wood, 2x4 guy. The lovely people online were taken by the bravery of Jeff Nachtigall, the Hawaiian Shirt Guy, as well.

Look, I’m from a town just north of Edmonton. I spent a ton of time there growing up and called it home for a major portion of my adult—I have enough of a connection to that city to say Edmonton is my hometown just cause it’s either than explaining that Fort Saskatchewan is actually in Alberta. When you’re from Edmonton, North America’s northernmost metropolis, the cold and isolation causes some angst rattling through your bones, believe me I know. This angst, much like those stupid things in that Star Wars movie, can lead you down two paths, the light and the dark.

For the love of god, follow in the footsteps of the light—follow in the footsteps of “Hawaiian Shirt Guy” and “2x4 Guy.

Follow Mack Lamoureux on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Tonic in the US.

The herbal supplement kratom has grown in popularity over the past few years, thanks in part to testimonials from people who say it has helped them quit opioids and manage chronic pain. But that popularity has brought negative attention from government authorities. In 2016, the Drug Enforcement Agency considered banning kratom, only to back down under public pressure. The Food and Drug Administration later targeted kratom distributors and released scientifically dubious reports linking kratom to overdose deaths.

Now, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released its own report “to assess the impact of kratom.” The CDC drew on data from 27 states from July 2016 to December 2017—a collection of 27,338 drug-overdose deaths. Of those, 152 were positive for kratom on postmortem toxicology reports.

Which is to say that of nearly 30,000 overdose deaths over an approximately 18-month period, 152 people tested positive for kratom. That’s 0.56 percent, as the CDC report makes clear.

The report fits a familiar pattern, according to Walt Prozialeck, professor and chair of the department of pharmacology at the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine at Midwestern University, and an expert on kratom.

“I’m just dumbfounded that they keep doing the same thing,” he says. “Kratom showed up in some of these toxicology reports, and it’s being unofficially blamed as the cause of death, according to this report.”

More from Tonic:

He points out that almost all of those 152 who tested positive for kratom also tested positive for other substances; 91 of them (59.9 percent) had kratom listed as a cause of death. Only seven of the 152 tested positive only for kratom, though that doesn’t rule out other unidentified substances.

Those other substances are important, Prozialeck says, because most of them are potentially lethal on their own. Fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, for example, were the most common other substances, appearing as a cause of death in 65.1 percent of the kratom-positive deaths. (Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid said to be more than 100 times more potent than heroin; in 2017, 28,000 deaths involving synthetic opioids occurred in the United States.)

In other words, nearly two thirds of those who tested positive for kratom also had fentanyl or an analog in their bodies. Heroin was found in 32.9 percent of the kratom-positive cases, benzodiazepines, prescription opioids, and cocaine were also found.

“The fact that fentanyl was showing up in so many of these cases suggests to me that people are using street opioids in conjunction with kratom,” Prozialeck says. That makes it much harder to reasonably assess the impact of kratom itself, as the CDC says it wants to do. The presence of other—potentially deadly—substances complicates the picture. “I think the CDC might be overstating the cause-effect relationship between kratom and these reported deaths,” Prozialeck says. (The CDC has not yet responded to our request for comment.)

For this report, the CDC's data was collected by the State Unintentional Drug Overdose Reporting System (SUDORS), which collates stats on unintentional and undetermined-intent opioid overdose deaths at the local level across the US, as documented by a medical examiner or a coroner.

SUDORS records data on overdoses in which at least one opioid contributed to the death, as well as fatal overdoses with no contributing opioid if substances that have opioid-like properties contributed to death. (The FDA maintains that kratom has "opioid-like" properties.) For all included deaths, the system records all substances on postmortem toxicology testing, including those that did and did not contribute to the death.

There are a lot of unknowns about kratom right now, Prozialeck says. With these cases, “we don’t know what people were actually taking.” They could have knowingly taken kratom alongside other substances, or, in part because of its current, unregulated status, unwittingly used kratom laced with something lethal. We also don’t know how kratom may affect people with seizure disorders, mental health issues, or heart issues, for example. Answering those questions will require research that has yet to be done.

This article originally appeared on VICE News in the US.

Within the span of a few hours Monday evening, parts of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris that had survived centuries of wars and revolutions caved to a massive fire.

First the iconic spire collapsed, then the roof. Soon, the entire wooden frame of the historic, 850-year-old landmark went up in flames as people in central Paris watched in horror. Many filmed the blaze on their cellphones as the sky grew dark. Some sang or knelt in prayer.

A few precious relics — like an artwork that’s believed to contain a thorn from a crown Jesus Christ once wore — were reportedly salvaged. Late Monday, as the fire decreased in intensity, France’s interior secretary cautiously announced the structure of the cathedral appeared to be intact, according to Le Monde.

The fire came just days before Easter Sunday, one of the holiest days in the Christian faith.

“We are going to lose her. Everything is up in flames,” one onlooker, Angelique de Almeida, told the New York Times. “We lose this. We lose Paris. It is apocalyptic. And this is the Holy Week.”

The cathedral’s roof was covered in scaffolding because the structure was undergoing $6.8 million worth of much-needed reservations. Officials said the blaze could be related to that construction.

Firefighters were still fighting the flames into the night. Here are some photos of the destruction:

(FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images)

(FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images)

(FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images)

(GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT/AFP/Getty Images)

(FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images)

(FRANCOIS GUILLOT/AFP/Getty Images)

(Photo by Kay-Paris Fernandes/Getty Images)

(AP Photo/Francois Mori)

(Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images)

(Photo by Pierre Suu/Getty Images)

(AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Cover image: Flames and smoke rise from Notre Dame cathedral as it burns in Paris, Monday, April 15, 2019. Massive plumes of yellow brown smoke is filling the air above Notre Dame Cathedral and ash is falling on tourists and others around the island that marks the center of Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

A Florida man was killed by “the world’s most dangerous bird” last Friday, becoming one of the few known cases of death-by-cassowary in modern history.

The victim was identified as Martin Hajos, a 75-year-old man who owned a farm near Alachua, according to the Gainesville Sun. On Friday morning, Hajos was rushed to UF Health Shands Hospital “under a trauma alert,” and later succumbed to undescribed injuries.

“He was doing what he loved,” said a woman who claimed that Hajos was her fiance.

Emergency responders said that Hajos was killed by a cassowary, a large and flightless relative of the emu with a dangerous reputation and, most notably, weaponized feet punctuated by talons up to five inches long.

Cassowaries are ratites, belonging a group of birds characterized by their inability to fly. Native to tropical forests in Australia and New Guinea, they can reach heights of more than five feet and weigh up to 135 pounds.

“It looks like it was accidental,” Alachua County Fire Rescue deputy chief Jeff Taylor told the Gainesville Sun about the incident. “My understanding is that the gentleman was in the vicinity of the bird and at some point fell. When he fell, he was attacked.”

Authorities have since secured the bird on a private property.

Cassowaries are deadly, but Hajos is only the second documented person to have been killed by a cassowary. In April 1926, an Australian teenager named Phillip McClean died from throat injuries inflicted by a cassowary.

There have been at least 221 recorded non-fatal attacks, many of which boiled down to cassowaries becoming habituated to people and associating them with food. It’s not uncommon for cassowaries to break into homes in parts of Queensland looking for a snack.

So the cassowary’s formidable mystique is a bit unfair—and is mostly a consequence of humans approaching or pestering an animal that, yes, is capable of disemboweling you, but isn’t out to murder you.

“It’s obviously true that cassowaries are dangerous and that they can, and will, hurt people on occasion,” Darren Naish once wrote in Scientific American. “But it’s all too easy to exaggerate how dangerous they are, and we shouldn’t forget that an enormous number of interactions occur that don’t end in aggression or injury.”

Still, cassowaries are quite lethal. Their signature move is a flying kick with dagger-like claws. The most common cassowary wounds are lacerations, punctures, and bone fractures.

Cassowary attacking a human. Source: YouTube

The exact circumstances surrounding Hajos’ death are unclear. A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) spokesperson told the Gainesville Sun that he may have been breeding them.

“They do not require a FWC license if [cassowaries] are being farmed or propagated,” FWC community relations director Susan Neel told Motherboard in an email.

The agency considers cassowaries a “Class II” captive species, meaning they pose a danger to people and require “substantial experience and specific cage requirements.”

There are three living cassowary species, all of which sport a “casque” or skin-covered knob on their heads. (Some studies have recently speculated that its long-mysterious purpose is to regulate body heat.) Cassowaries are mostly omnivores, scavenging fruit that’s fallen to the forest floor.

Local authorities have since begun a death investigation. “Initial information indicates that this was a tragic accident for Mr. Hajos and his family,” said Alachua County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Lt. Brett Rhodenizer.

This article originally appeared on Motherboard in the US.

A member of a team of physicians that has evaluated Julian Assange’s medical and psychological condition over the past two years told three international human rights groups that the Wikileaks founder has sustained “negative psychological and physical effects” from his seven-year detention in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, Motherboard has learned.

The doctor believes that the “cumulative severity of the pain and suffering inflicted on Mr. Assange—both physical and psychological—is in violation of the 1984 Convention Against Torture.”

In the last two months, the doctor, Sondra Crosby, has written letters to former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, and to the Organization of American States detailing the four evaluations she made of Assange between October 2017 and February 2019. Crosby, who specializes in refugee health and forensic medicine at Boston University and has examined nearly 1,000 torture survivors, wrote that the conditions of Assange’s confinement had “become observably worse since [her] initial visit.”

Motherboard obtained the letters from her colleague, Sean Love, a doctor at Johns Hopkins who began a project to evaluate the effects of Assange’s detainment on his health in 2017 and recruited Crosby and British psychologist Brock Chisholm to perform the evaluations. Love said that the team obtained permission from Wikileaks and Assange to publish the letters in full.

Crosby said she could not speak to Motherboard for this article; Love told Motherboard at an in-person meeting that he believes Crosby will testify on behalf of Assange’s defense in legal proceedings relating to his arrest for allegedly conspiring with Chelsea Manning to obtain classified US military cables from the Iraq War.

From 2012 until last week, Assange had been detained in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. Over the last decade—including while Assange was in the embassy—Wikileaks played an important and often controversial role in publishing documents in full, which include the Iraq War cables as well as emails belonging to former Hillary Clinton chief of staff John Podesta in the lead-up to the 2016 election. Last week, Assange was expelled from the Ecuadorian embassy and taken into custody by British authorities—the United States is seeking to extradite him. The United Nations's Special Rapporteur on Torture had been scheduled to meet with Assange in the Ecuadorian embassy on April 25th.

In her letter to the human rights groups, Crosby wrote that Assange has “multiple medical conditions” as a result of his confinement and that Assange’s “position [was] worse than a conventional prison in many respects.”

“Mr Assange has suffered a number of serious deleterious effects of sunlight deprivation over the nearly 7 years of confinement,” she wrote, adding that he has a potentially deadly dental condition that needs immediate surgery. “The severe daily pain endured by Mr. Assange from this dental condition is inhumane, notwithstanding that the situation could be life threatening if left untreated.”

Motherboard has not independently confirmed the findings Crosby sent to the human rights groups, and Wikileaks did not respond to a request for comment. The Ecuadorian embassy in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Ecuadorian president Lenin Moreno told the press that Assange had turned the embassy into a “center for spying.”

“Any attempt to destabilise is a reprehensible act for Ecuador, because we are a sovereign nation and respectful of the politics of each country,” he said.

Specifically, Crosby said she believes that Assange’s treatment was in violation of Articles 1 and 16 of the United Nations’s Convention Against Torture, which defines torture as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person” for political reasons. Love told Motherboard that he agreed with Crosby's assessment.

Love, who has medically evaluated people seeking asylum in the United States, told Motherboard that “it’s under-appreciated—the health effects of having stayed in the embassy for seven years without access to daylight and appropriate medical care for that time period. It’s not so simple that he’s out, he’s in the UK court and prison system and going to receive the care he needs and he’s going to be OK ... there are lingering, enduring consequences.”

Love was initially interested in evaluating Assange to study the “consequences of prolonged, arbitrary detention” on Assange’s health. Love recruited Crosby and Chisholm to actually perform the evaluations, though he has stayed involved in the process throughout.

“Initially, I was thinking about writing an academic piece about that topic with potential generalizability to other asylees and asylum seekers,” he said. “In the process of doing the research, we quickly learned his situation is incredibly unique and not well-generalizable to other groups or other individuals.”

Chisholm told me that Assange’s mental stressors came largely as a result of the fact that he didn’t know when or if he would ever get out of the embassy—or if he would be kicked out and arrested.

“The greatest threat of psychological injury arises not from just the confinement but the arbitrariness of it,” he said. “It differs from a seven year prison sentence because of not knowing when it’s going to end. Mr. Assange believes that he could be extradited and tortured or even executed. I’m not here to give an opinion on how likely that is, but when I use the word torture I’m using the term in the way Chelsea Manning is currently being held in solitary confinement. He believes that could happen to him.”

Chisholm said that Assange's case can't be compared to, say, terrorism suspects who have been confined in CIA Black Sites or secret prisons—they are different situations.

"I have worked with people that have been held by the CIA in detention centers without sunlight for a year, people who haven't seen sunlight for four-five years, but of course conditions there are very different from the conditions in an embassy," Chisholm said. "Equally, I guess the stress [and public attention on Assange] is different so it’s difficult to think of a comparison. I wouldn’t want to start drawing parallels between the people held in torture chambers and so on because it is very different."

Love said he has felt compelled to speak out about Assange’s treatment in asylum and that he is worried about what might happen to him in prison in the United Kingdom or the United States if he is extradited here.

“As physicians, we have a unique skill-set we can bring to bear on human rights issues. I think the treatment of Assange in and of itself is reprehensible, but I’m concerned more generally that his treatment and the treatment of him in the UK by the US and Ecuador now sets a precedent for the treatment of asylees everywhere,” he said. “I’m concerned that disregard for certain basic human rights in the United States could occur, and I’m concerned that he would not be as well off in the United States as he would be in the UK for sure.”

In January 2018, Chisholm, Love, and Crosby wrote an op-ed in The Guardian claiming that Assange “badly needs care” and that his confinement “is dangerous physically and mentally to him.” Crosby’s letter to the United Nations was written earlier this month, and claims that “Assange’s suffering and health has predictably worsened” since that op-ed.

Crosby also claimed that Assange was under constant surveillance in the embassy, and that she believes she was surveilled during her last evaluation of him, in February. In a sworn affidavit sent to the Organization of American States, she wrote that during that meeting, she and Assange “spoke over the noise of a radio playing to decrease the amount of information intercepted by the listening devices in the room … the hostile, nonconfidential, and intimidating environment was palpable.”

She also claimed that when she left the embassy to get food, her notes had been taken: “Upon returning to the embassy, I returned to our meeting room and discovered that my confidential medical notes had been removed,” she wrote. “The notes were located in a space utilized by embassy surveillance staff (and had presumably been read).”

Crosby’s letters asked the human rights organizations to “look into the case of Julian Assange.” The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights did not respond to Motherboard’s request for comment.

Scientists in China have created a new type of monkey by genetically editing macaque embryos to be more like us. In an attempt to figure out what it is about humans that makes us so uniquely intelligent among primates, researchers introduced copies of the human brain gene “microcephalin” into the embryos of 11 macaque monkeys to see if it would make them any smarter. Six of those monkeys died, but the remaining five specimens were subjected to a series of memory tests and MRI brain scans in order to gauge their intellectual acumen. The study, published last month, claims to be “the first attempt to experimentally interrogate the genetic basis of human brain origin using a transgenic monkey model.”

While the brains of these “transgenic monkeys” didn’t turn out to be any bigger than the average macaque’s, they did develop over a longer period of time, China Daily reports—a trait that’s more typical of human brains. The monkeys also performed better on short-term memory tasks, and displayed shorter reaction times, than their wild peers. Researchers believe the introduction of microcephalin is the reason behind these “human-like” qualities, and suspect that this might go some way towards explaining why we humans are so much smarter than our primate relatives.

But not everyone is feeling quite so optimistic about the research. Barbara J. King, an emerita professor of anthropology at Virginia’s College of William and Mary and author of the book How Animals Grieve, told Vox that the experiments constitute “an ethical nightmare.

“More of the genetically altered monkeys—six—died than lived, so right off the bat we see that the procedure is often lethal,” Barbara said. “Regarding the five survivors, what kind of lives will they have going forward, altered as they are and confined to an experimental laboratory?”

Even one of the research paper’s listed co-authors has cast ethical uncertainty over the experiment. Martin Styner, a University of North Carolina computer scientist and specialist in MRI, told MIT Technology Review that he considered taking his name off the final paper, claiming there was no one in the West who would publish it.

“There are a bunch of aspects of this study that you could not do in the US. It raised issues about the type of research and whether the animals were properly cared for,” Martin said—further suggesting that these kinds of studies, which aim to unpack broad evolutionary questions by experimenting on transgenic monkeys, don’t point in “a good direction.

“Now we have created this animal which is different than it is supposed to be,” he said. “When we do experiments, we have to have a good understanding of what we are trying to learn, to help society, and that is not the case here.”

Regardless of the ethical pitfalls, though, it’s worth flagging how small the sample size used in this experiment actually was. Five modified monkeys isn’t much to go off when it comes to reaching conclusions about how microchepalin affects brain development. And even Bing Su, the geneticist at the Kunming Institute of Zoology who led the research, is aware of that.

In an email to MIT Techology Review, Bing admitted that the small handful of monkeys was a limitation of the study. His solution? Make more monkeys. The controversial geneticist is in the process of generating more sample specimens for his Frankensteinian experiments, and even has his eye on other brain evolution genes that he can test in the future. Among them is a DNA variant called SRGAP2C, otherwise known as the “missing genetic link” for its probable role in the emergence of human intelligence.

Bing said he’s been adding the gene to monkeys, but is yet to see any convincing results.

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This article originally appeared on VICE ASIA.

This article originally appeared on VICE India

Gopal Mani Maharaj, 69, is on a mission. The self-titled 'gau kathavachak’ or cow storyteller wants to have the bovine officially declared as ‘India’s national mother’. And to get there, the seer-turned-politician is contesting the ongoing general election as an independent candidate from Uttarakhand’s Tehri constituency in northern India.

While elevating the status of the cow serves as Mani’s primary agenda, the other, smaller demands in his manifesto include a massive spike in prices for cow dung and urine (because apparently, this should solve India’s economic debt problem), making “everything free” for the residents of his hilly state (as he thinks “they give so much to the rest of the nation” without specifying what that “so much” really was), and weaning the youth off drugs by making them drink, well, cow milk.

And it seems that Mani’s bizarre ideas have earned him quite a herd. His videos that see him reciting mythological stories about the divine greatness of cows have got him more than a million followers on Facebook and virality on YouTube. In his sermons and videos, you will find Mani urging his devotees to keep cows at their home, treat them like one would treat parents (ie with immense respect and devotion), and talk about ‘gau’ (cow) and ‘Ganga’ (the river) as the ‘two foundations of Indian culture’.

While Mani has been a spiritual figure for more than three decades, he is now banking on his popularity to win him a seat. “Once I win, I will meet each and every lawmaker personally and convince them to support me in a national resolution to make the cow our rashtramata (national mother),” he tells VICE. “I am sure they’d agree.”

A poster with Gopal Mani Maharaj asking for the 'cow mother' to be proclaimed the 'national mother'.

Cows have a complicated relationship with Indian politics, leading to researchers calling it as a ‘political animal’. According to the Human Rights Watch, at least 44 people—most of them Muslims—have been killed under the pretext of cow protection between May 2015 and December 2018. The animal has also been widely used by leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to instigate a violent vigilante campaign against beef consumption and those who work in the cattle trade. Several BJP leaders have publicly justified the beef-related attacks and mob lynchings, while cops have been accused of stalling prosecutions and in some cases, investigating victims.

Mani, who claims is campaigning for his cause in around 600 districts in almost all the Indian states, was born in a gaushala (cow shelter) in the Chaupad village in Uttarkashi district “drinking cow milk and playing on the banks of Ganga.” After his schooling in a gururkul (traditional school), spending a year as a shepherd and then training to be a cop, he went on to become a Sanskrit teacher in a school in Chandigarh, before leaving it all to become a full-time cow storyteller in his late twenties. He is now on a mission to use his bhakti (devotion) to take India back to “its cow loving ancient roots”. According to him, issues like terrorism, the question on Ram Mandir, the general lack of cleanliness and the complicated Kashmir issue can be solved in a matter of days—all by being nice to cows. The analogies, as explained by Mani, belong to a universe that I didn’t know existed. “Terrorism happens because so much cow blood is shed on our nation’s soil, slowly turning it into a cruel place. Bovines are made to suffer and are killed grotesquely in slaughterhouses. When they are later reincarcated as humans, is it a surprise that they become cruel men and terrorists?” Huh? What just happened?

Mani campaigning for a seat this election.

Mani’s interpretations of history also centre around, you guessed it, cows. He believes that when Mughals in India began killing cows, the gau bhakti (cow worship) was kept alive by saints like Namdev, Tulsidas and Surdas, who “shut the mouth of the Mughals”. “In fact, Babar, the first Mughal ruler, wrote to his son Humayun, that if he wants to rule India, he shouldn’t meddle with cows,” says Mani, a claim for which there is, of course, no evidence. To solve the Kashmir issue, he calls for removal of Article 370 which gives the troubled state a special status. In fact, he thinks it’s his home state of Uttarakhand that deserves this status as 'it’s the land of the gods'.

Some of Mani’s “achievements” include fasting for 11 months while standing in the Ganga and drinking only half a glass of cow’s milk once a day. He was 25 then. He also went on a maun vrat (the vow of silence) in 2010-2011, not speaking to anyone for a year. In 2008, he wrote an entire religious text dedicated to cows: Dhenu Manas. He currently runs two organisations to work for cows, and keeps popping up on religious TV channels. One organisation, Gopal Golok Dham, cares for abandoned cows and promotes the message of its divinity, while another, Gau Kranti Manch, wants to bring about a revolution to give cows its rightful place in the Indian Constitution and to set up a separate ministry for cow welfare.

“Once I win, I will meet each and every lawmaker personally and convince them to support me in a national resolution to make the cow our rashtramata (national mother)."

Mani has a cow-centric explanation for even more. He is of the view that Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan (Clean India Campaign) is failing because it’s not factoring in the holy sanctity. “Our homes were traditionally clean because our grandmothers used to purify them each morning by sprinkling cow urine on the floor and applying cow dung on the walls. It’s laughable how people who live in concrete homes think their houses are clean,” he says.

When I ask him who he considers his rivals, he tells me that “enmity and love is done with people of the same stature.” According to him, the only Indian Prime Minister who had the compassion and politeness suited to the nature of the land was Lal Bahadur Shastri. “If our present ruler really had a big chest, why has he still not got back the holy Kailash Mansarovar from China? They are all liars.” He also has issues with the country being called ‘India’. “These asurs (devils) have turned our Bharat into India. It’s time to reclaim it.”

"Bovines are made to suffer and are killed grotesquely in slaughterhouses. When they are later reincarnated as humans, is it a surprise that they become cruel men and terrorists?"—Gopal Mani Maharaj

On local issues, Mani promises due compensation to the people who were displaced due to Tehri dam, including a government job to one individual in each family. He plans to install giant pumping sets to replenish dried-up lakes in higher hilly areas, and beautify the river ghats (stairs) with grass and boundaries. However, he is opposed to tourism for places other than pilgrimage sites. “People should just go to select places. In fact, nobody from the outside should be allowed to settle here because here is something too nice, pure and divine.”

One of the flyers that has been part of Mani's campaigning talks of how the one they've been fighting to increase the prestige of has herself made it to the election office.

At the heart of it, Mani just wants to have this generation understand the importance of cows. “In Mahabharata, Bhishma Pitamah told Duryodhan that Bharat can’t exist without dharma (religion) and dharma can’t exist without cow. There is a saying that all Upanishads (religious texts) are in cows.” He thinks that those who eat beef wouldn’t have done so if they were “raised properly, with cows in their homes”. “Not everything is for consumption. Even poison can be consumed.”

Follow Zeyad Masroor Khan on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on VICE US

After the final whistle blew, South Korean soccer superstar Son Heung-min cried, wrapped the goalkeeper in his arms, and the two of them tumbled to the pitch. He had just captained South Korea to a 2-1 win over Japan in the Asian Games Final, and he described the victory as “the best day in [his] life.” It wasn’t just national pride: Yes, Son got a shiny gold medal, but he also earned an exemption from having to spend almost two years in the military.

Son, who plays for Tottenham Hotspur in the English Premier League, entered the tournament knowing that, without a gold medal, he would have to surrender 21 months of his athletic career—and almost two years of his new contract—to South Korea’s mandatory military service. Who knew that, instead of seven nerve-shredding Asian Games matches, he could’ve just eaten a shit-ton of fried chicken?

On Sunday, the Incheon District Court ruled in favor of a 22-year-old college student who had been accused of eating fried chicken in an attempt to gain so much weight that he would be declared unfit to serve.

According to The Korea Herald, prosecutors argued that the unnamed man intentionally gorged himself on chicken and booze before the physical exam, and that he also made sure to slouch when his height was measured, ensuring that his body mass index (BMI) would be even higher. (If your BMI is 33 or above, you’ll probably score a cushier-by-comparison public service job, instead of being stuck on foot patrol in some remote location near the DMZ).

At the time of his exam, his BMI was 36.8 (well above the threshold for what is considered ‘obese’) but he argued that he’d just been a big boi for his entire life. A judge agreed with him after learning that the man had been obese, medically speaking, since he was ten years old. Judge Shim Hyun-joo also said that, since the man weighed 102 kilograms (225 pounds) as a high schooler, it would be difficult to conclude that he had done anything to intentionally gain weight.

In South Korea, all able-bodied men between the ages of 18 and 35 are required to serve in the military for at least 21 months, and the only ones who are exempt from that duty are those who "raise the national profile” by winning any kind of medal—gold, silver, or bronze—at the Olympics, winning a gold medal at the Asian Games, or placing first or second at one of two dozen contests that have been approved by the government. (Cho Seong-jin, who won an international piano competition, does not have to serve. Despite winning a Billboard Music Award, becoming the first Korean group to top the US Billboard Album chart, and appearing on Saturday Night Live, the seven members of BTS still do.)

The 22-year-old fried chicken aficionado isn’t the first man who has been accused of trying to eat his way out of conscription. Last September, the Military Manpower Administration announced that it caught 12 college students sharing weight gain tips on social media before their own military physicals. According to CNN, some of them started downing protein powders, while others drank a “thick aloe beverage” to try to game the weigh-in. “The Military Manpower Administration, via thorough investigation, will do our best to root out military service evasion crime and make an example of the violators so that a fair and just military service culture can take root,” the agency said in a statement.

Although their efforts didn’t work—in addition to facing criminal charges, most of them just earned themselves repeat physicals—others have been luckier. In 2017, 59 men successfully avoided being drafted, and 21 of them did so by forcing themselves to either gain or lose weight. (Some of the others either “feigned insanity,” got a tattoo, lied about their education history, broke their own bones, or underwent knee surgery.)

Still, choking down protein shakes or ordering KFC take-out seems way easier than becoming a soccer superstar.

This article originally appeared on VICE US

In 2015, at a 60-bed hospital in Grand Junction, Colorado, the nurses began to notice something odd.

When patients came in for routine medical procedures, like endoscopies or colonoscopies, some of them needed a lot more of the drugs that kept them sedated, like propofol, fentanyl, and midazolam. Those same people also seemed to be the ones who reported that they used cannabis frequently.

Doctors always ask before invasive procedures and surgeries about illicit drug use. But when marijuana became legal in Colorado in 2012, the nurses realized that since cannabis was no longer “illicit” and they started to inquire if, and how often, patients used marijuana.

That’s when they started to see that people who used cannabis chronically were being given much higher doses of sedatives than non-users. “It seemed like even if people were alcohol users or on other chronic medicines, that marijuana seemed to have more of an effect than any of those other drugs,” Mark Twardowski, a doctor of osteopathic medicine at Community Hospital-Grand Junction, says.

After about a year of swapping word-of-mouth stories, Twardowski and his colleagues decided to research the phenomenon more closely. The resulting study was published today in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. “We didn't expect to see the numbers that we saw,” Twardowski tells me.

They looked back at the medical records of a small group—25 people—who had procedures with Twardowski like colonoscopies and endoscopies, who also said that they used cannabis on a daily or weekly basis—both by smoking and eating edibles. They compared them to 225 people who had the same kinds of procedures, but who did not report using marijuana.

They found that the people who said they used cannabis needed 14 percent more fentanyl, 19.6 percent more midazolam, and 220.5 percent more propofol during their procedures—higher doses of all three of the commonly used sedative drugs.

Effects of Cannabis Use on Sedation Requirements for Endoscopic Procedures. Twardowski et al. 2019. The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association

Cannabis’s active ingredient, THC, attaches to cannabinoid receptors in the brain, but those receptors are different than the ones sedative drugs interact with. This led to a befuddling question: why would cannabis use lead to such an increased need for those other drugs?

Twardowski says that it’s possible the cannabinoid receptors downregulate, or suppress the activity of other receptors in the brain that anesthetic drugs interact with. But honestly, he tells me, that’s just a guess. “I don't have any good scientific basis for that,” he says. “The basic science really needs to be done.”

What worries him, outside of their findings, is that no one seems to have done that basic science research—a problem he attributes to cannabis still being a Schedule I drug. When he and his co-authors surveyed existing research, they expected their study to be added to a pile of already completed work. Instead, it’s one of the first in the country.

“We did these huge literature searches and found nothing,” he says. “Really? We're going to do the first study on this and it's just us? That was cool to be the first, but it's pretty scary too.”

Kevin Hill, an addiction psychiatrist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and a clinical expert on marijuana hadn’t heard of this effect but agrees that more research is crucially needed—especially as more states move towards legalization. Marijuana is currently legal for recreational use in 10 states, and 33 states have legalized medical marijuana. And marijuana use has increased 43 percent between 2007 and 2015.

“This preliminary report highlights the kind of research that we desperately need as states race forward with medical and recreational cannabis policies,” Hill says. “Physicians of all types must try to understand the impact of regular cannabis use upon their specialties.”

But just because no one has studied it officially doesn’t mean other clinicians aren’t aware of the impact marijuana has on anesthesia. Ethan Bryson, a professor of anesthesia and psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, who was not involved in the study, says that he is well aware of this, and has been for awhile. “Anybody who has practiced anesthesia for any amount of time recognizes that this is definitely something that affects their job,” he tells me.

When he plans an anesthetic, he says that he has to consider a person’s drug use, and its effect on their tolerance levels. This goes not just for marijuana, but for alcohol and other drugs as well.

Bryson started observing the effects of marijuana and anesthesia around 12 years ago, and noticing that his patients chronically using marijuana and other drugs had a much higher tolerance. He tells me about a recent healthy patient, who was in his late 40s, who came in for a minor procedure. Normally, Bryson would have given him one dose of anesthesia. But after interviewing him, he found out that he smoked weed on a regular basis, had smoked the day before, drank alcohol daily, and had used cocaine two weeks prior.

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“This is somebody who is perfectly healthy otherwise, but because they're chronically exposed to these drugs, my anesthetic plan changed from IV sedation to general anesthesia,” Bryson says. “I'm not going to be able to keep him still without general anesthesia.”

His theory is that the chronic exposure to cannabis changes something about metabolism—that the speed at which the body eliminates drugs from the body is ramped up and increases tolerance. That might help to explain why cannabis use would affect with anesthetic drugs that interact with different parts of the brain and different receptors, he says.

Twardowski thinks that while that may be a factor, he believes it’s more than just metabolism. He can see the need for higher doses from the very beginning of a procedure, when he’s trying to put people under. “It seems to take longer to even accomplish that,” he says. “If it was wearing off quicker during the case then that may be part of it, but these folks are talking to me when I've given doses that would put you and me out.”

A small number of case studies have had similar findings: A study from Australia in 2009 found that more propofol was needed in people who used cannabis compared to those who didn’t when inserting a laryngeal mask, which keeps a person’s airway open during surgery.

In a case study from 2015, a 37-year-old man in Germany had shoulder surgery, and told his doctors that he smoked weed every week. After being given a slew of anesthetic drugs, he said that he was dizzy, but “the patient was still speaking with the anesthesia staff,” the authors of the paper wrote. After two more doses of propofol “the patient did not show any reduction of his conscious state.” Confused, the medical team ended up checking if his IV was attached correctly. It was, and eventually they were able to put him under with more medication, and his surgery went forward with no complications.

In a 2002 correspondence letter in the journal, Iris Symons from Barnet General Hospital in England recounted the case of a 34-year-old man who she had to give propofol, midazolam, Ketorolac, and local anesthetic. “Despite the high concentration of volatile and intravenous anaesthetic, the blood pressure and pulse rate remained high at the pre‐induction levels,” she wrote. When the man woke up later, he asked Symons, “How was it?”

“I said; ‘Actually you were very difficult to anesthetize,’” Symons wrote. He replied: ‘Well if I tell you something it might incriminate me.’ I said: ‘You may tell me anything in confidence.’ He replied: ‘I smoked cannabis last night.’

In these case studies and according to Bryson and Twardowski, it appears that if someone needs these high levels of anesthetic, they can’t tell afterwards. “Even though we've given them a high dose—and sometimes it's ridiculously high based on the patient's size—they're waking up just like everybody else a half hour later,” Twardowski says.

But there could still be potential harms: it is known that taking high amounts of these drugs can lead to breathing and blood flow problems, so the potential adverse effects need to be studied more closely. Twardowski says that since he uses conscious sedation, where a person isn’t assisted with their breathing while they’re unconscious, giving high doses of drugs like propofol is concerning– that’s what’s thought to have killed Michael Jackson after all.

Twardowski and his colleagues are now starting a second phase of their study. They’re going to look at all of anesthesia and sedation at their hospital to try and see where the effects of marijuana have the most effect. He’s hoping they’ll find an anesthetic that cannabis doesn’t increase the tolerance for.

Twardowski tells me they’ll also be looking into another troubling observation from the nurses: that people who use marijuana chronically have a harder time controlling their pain after surgery, which could mean higher amounts of painkillers prescribed. “Everybody's a little concerned about sending you home with way more pain medicine,” he says.

For now, Bryson and Twardowski say that if you can, try to abstain from smoking or eating edibles a month before your procedure— THC sticks around in the body for about 25 days after using.

And the best move is to be extremely upfront with your anesthesiologist about drugs and alcohol, whether you’re getting major surgery done or just getting your wisdom teeth out or an endoscopy. There’s no real point in lying, because your ability to be sedated will likely reveal your tolerance levels, and it’s best that your anesthesiologist know beforehand if you’ll need higher doses.

“The last thing you want to do is get your case canceled because the anesthesiologist is getting into doses of medicines that they're concerned with and don't feel comfortable with,” Twardowski says. “You have to be honest about that."

This article originally appeared on VICE UK

If there’s one thing the UK government hates, it’s wanking. Numerous failed attempts have been made over the last few years to crack down on porn screen-time, the most recent of which is the now-delayed 'porn ban' (described by Wired as “one of the worst ideas ever”). It’s not just MPs, either – even Tumblr, a site known for its porn GIFs and shit erotic fan fiction, has filtered out all adult content and essentially destroyed its hopes of survival in the process.

We’re told that censorship is good and porn is bad, but what about the porn performers caught in the crossfire of this hugely oversimplified narrative? Performer Jiz Lee released an anthology entitled Coming Out Like A Porn Star back in 2016, to glowing reviews. The book told deeply personal and often laugh-out-loud hilarious stories; they were burdened by stigma, but ultimately they spoke of resilience and the value of porn.

A lot has changed since 2016, but sites like Lustery and MakeLoveNotPorn are hosting progressive amateur clips to prove that porn can be realistic and intimate. Elsewhere, directors like Erika Lust are making beautiful films that prove that sex can have artistic value. But there’s still stigma to be eroded, so we reached out to five porn performers with wildly different experiences to discuss what happened when they ‘came out’.

Andre: "My mother wept and insisted I was putting myself in 'danger'"

Photo: Chris Jay

When I first came out to my family about sex work in college, they had a relatively predictable response. My younger sister was supportive, but the rest of my family either refused to acknowledge my disclosure or outwardly expressed disgust. I was coming out as queer and non-monogamous too; some of my family saw this trifecta as a callous rebellion or a temporary phase. My mother wept and insisted I was putting myself in danger, but she could never articulate the ‘danger’.

Fast-forward a few years, I remember standing in my California bedroom after moving 3,000 miles away from my family – a blessing, for sure. I had been shooting porn for over a year, so in the hopes that she would come around I called my mother. I told her I was happy and healthy; that I had met a beautiful, powerful group of adult performers, many of whom are human rights activists like myself; that the money was great. I told her I was proud. I wanted her to be proud, too.

None of it mattered. After years of bending over backwards to be treated with the kindness, compassion and respect I deserve, I severed ties with my family in 2017. It was the best decision I ever made. In fact, I wish desperately that I’d done it sooner. Now I routinely make myself available to other folks in the sex industry; those who are struggling to disentangle themselves from similarly unsupportive familial relationships that just aren’t serving them.

Paulita: "You never know how someone will react"

Photo credit: Lustery

‘Coming out’ is an ongoing process. I first performed in porn almost ten years ago, and now I work as full-time porn producer – I’ve collected thousands of ‘coming out’ stories in that time! There’s the common bar scenario, when people ask what you do. I casually respond: ‘porn’! I’m lucky to live in my Berlin bubble, because people tend to react positively. They’re curious and want to hear more, which is great – although I don’t always feel like explaining my existence.

Generally speaking, people talk more openly about sex in public. But you never know how someone will react – you always have to evaluate the situation. However casually you frame it, a porn career isn’t ‘normal’, and even well-meaning people often react childishly.

Telling my mother is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. We love each other intensely, which is maybe why confronting her worries, judgment and lack of acceptance was so painful, as much for her as for me. Over the last years we’ve had many ‘coming out’ conversations. She acknowledges me, asks questions – sometimes we cry in each others’ arms. The last time I screened a film I had produced in Spain, she wanted to come and see it. “But it’s porn,” I told her. “You know that.” “I know,” she replied – “surely I’m old enough to see it!”

NB Jupiter: "My younger sibling literally shrugged and said: 'cool.' Mum had lots of questions"

Photo courtesy of NB Jupiter

I started sex work at 18, when I started university. As someone who is queer, disabled and living with mental illness, it seemed like a good way to support myself and maintain independence while following my passion as a performer and creator. I fell in love with the community and the job, and I fully intend to continue after graduation.

I first came out to my younger sibling, who literally shrugged and said: ‘cool.’ That’s the golden seal of approval from them! Six months later I told my mum. I’m lucky that we have an extremely close bond, but she also lives with anxiety. She had lots of questions, so I explained and she said that as long as I wasn’t doing real meet-ups (like sugaring and escorting), she would be proud of me. Full service is something I know I can’t provide, so we left on a tight promise to keep it online.

Two years later I called my dad, who had been wanting to see my solo performance ‘From My Bedroom’, and anxiously described my job. A transgender model selling clips online – all while dressed in cosplay? To him, it sounded great! I was filled with joy. I know I’m one of the lucky ones; my parents’ support and unconditional love has allowed me to create performances charged with activism. I have hope for the future; that I can use my voice for Sex Workers (and yes, we deserve the capitalisation!) and secure the equality we deserve.

Mercy: "Mum's advice was if you're proud of your work, I support you"

Photo courtesy of Mercy

I started sex work when I was 18 years old. I met photographers at a local kink club who wanted to shoot rope photography. I ended up loving it, but I didn’t know how I felt about having my tits on the internet forever, so I asked my mum. She was a stripper in the 90s; she knows sex work can suck, but it can also be empowering and fun. Her advice was: as long as you’re proud of the work you produce, I’m happy to support you. So that was wonderful!

My parents are separated, so while my mum’s side were fine with it, I knew my father’s side wouldn’t be. One of my sisters found out around two years ago; she accidentally saw a photo online. In her words, she was “mortified.” She burst into tears, couldn’t even talk to me. They threatened to disown me if I didn’t quit; they were asking me to abandon my full-time job of six years without showing any concern, or offering any help.

Later my dad would tell me he didn’t approve, but that he was proud of me. Still, he refused to stand up for me; he told me to keep trying with my sisters. I realised he was essentially telling me to continue being verbally abused, disrespected and treated like less than a human. I can’t accept that. The last time we spoke I told him he could either stand up for me or leave me be. I think he’s choosing to leave me be.

Siri: "I was outed early in my career and my parents' reaction hit me hardest"

Photo credit: VNA Girls

I lied to my family about why I’d moved to Los Angeles. I planned to tell them once I achieved success in the porn industry, but that didn’t go according to plan. I was outed very early on, and my parents' reaction hit me the hardest; they questioned my sanity, and at one point even said it felt like I had died.

I had a few successful, rewarding years as a performer, but I had minimal and very strained contact with my family. They were the main reason I retired – being close to them was ultimately more important. I’ve been retired for four years, but they still don’t acknowledge or understand my experiences. I’ve faced stigma in other aspects of life too, from employment to dating and inappropriate comments, even from healthcare professionals.

We need to do better as a society to recognise that sex work is work; that sex workers are worthy of support, love and acceptance. I’m privileged to live relatively unscathed in my ‘civilian’ life now, and most people just have tonnes of questions. So I take every opportunity to engage in meaningful conversation; I think every one of those discussions helps build greater understanding, caring and safety for sex workers.

@jake2103

This article originally appeared on VICE US

Daft Punk have always had close ties to the fashion world, being from Paris, the fashion capital. But their influence is finally captured in a new retrospective at the Paris Philharmonic. Electro: From Kraftwerk to Daft Punk, which opened last week, traces the history of electronic music from 1970s disco to German techno and French pop.

KRAFTWERK_THE ROBOTS_Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, 2015 © Peter Boettcher, Courtesy Sprüth Magers.jpg

From robots to helmets, screens and synths, this sprawling retrospective traces dance music in all its visual glory, looking back on how groundbreaking rave, minimal techno and EDM have defined art, culture, underground style and beyond.“The exhibition focuses on the aesthetic aspect of electronic music, not so historical, it's immersive,” said Paris music journalist Jean-Yves Leloup, who has curated the exhibition, which runs until August 11. Daft Punk have created a special commission for this exhibit—their first ever—which is a blaringly red installation revolving around their 2005 song, Technologic. Technologic Redux is a recreated scene from their music video.

“They’ve used a small robot which was created by a team who making special effects for Hollywood cinema,” said Leloup. “In fact, the entire exhibition evokes the theme of the robot; it’s an important theme of electronic music, the relationship between human and machine.”

Daft Punk, Technologic set 2005 Photo de Jeaneen Lund © Daft Trax 2005.jpg

The famed, anonymous duo had Hedi Slimane design their retrofuturistic robot regalia with their sequined Saint Laurent suits in 2016— bringing back an onslaught of dapper onto the dance floor. Slimane also designed their biker jackets (which are now on their own collectible dolls), and the band recently had their own pop-up in Los Angeles, where they sold a line of t-shirts made in collaboration with Gosha Rubchinskiy.

“They’ve created an entire world around their music,” said Leloup. “They have a wide approach to music always related to contemporary art, cinema or fashion.”

The band’s former art director, Gaildas Loaec, went on to found Maison Kitsune for a line of Tokyo-meets-Paris twist on preppy basics, while the band have posed alongside Milla Jovovich and have been shot by Peter Lindbergh (not every electro duo can say they’ve done that). They were even some of the first musicians to create a runway playlist for Slimane’s shows, proving they were instrumental in ushering in electronic music as the fashion world’s soundtrack.

Jean-Michel Jarre US Tour by Mike Kvackay, 2018 ©EDDA.jpg

They’re not alone, however in fusing the crossovers between art, fashion and spectacle that has defined electronic music from past to present. According to Leloup, a lot science fiction is at the heart of dance music.

“Whether it's Kraftwerk or Detroit pioneers of techno, Star Wars was released in 1977 and at that time, a lot of electronic musicians were growing up,” he said. “They were teenagers watching sci-fi TV shows. The robot personifies the relationship you can have with the machine. It’s a poetic symbol of working with the machine.”

Daft Punk’s anonymous identity has carried on to other acts beyond deadmau5. “In America, South America, even some underground European acts, wear masks, and it’s more than just costumes,” he said. “Masks are important in electronic music culture; it ties into KISS, or David Bowie, as DJ and electro musicians create these characters to reinvent themselves onstage.”

ARP 2500, appartenant à Jean-Michel Jarre, Photo Éric Cornic @ EDDA-JMJ.jpg

The exhibition is a synth heavy, gear nerd’s dream. It features Peter Keene and Jarre Garre’s studio gear, as well as retro synths that were used at Studio 54 in 1968. Also prominent is the smiley face, a symbol of acid house music (here in a glowing piece by French artist Bruno Peinado) before the smiley was an emoji. Yet, its everywhere in fashion today, from Justin Bieber’s Drew house line to the music videos of Kiddy Smile, the Kenzo-wearing Paris DJ, singer and voguing star noted for creating runway music for Balmain and Alexander Wang.

Despite the fashion and music crossovers, don’t expect to see a room lined with mannequins. “I didn’t want to have too many costumes in the exhibition,” said Leloup. “We have a lot of pictures by photographers, featuring portraits of clubbers and ravers through different cities, from Moscow to Paris, New York and the post hippies in India, to show how different they look in their street style and streetwear.”

Bill Bernstein, The Fun House, 1979, Courtesy of the David Hill Gallery, London.jpg

Some of the photos include ravers from the iconic Love Parade in Berlin in 1996 by German photographer Alfred Steffen, as well as disco-era photographer Bill Bernstein who captured the freakiest moments in New York nightclubs. The photos are far from staged, however. “I didn’t want to include photos of the VIP and celebrities dancing; I’m not interested in that,” said Leloup. “It’s really about the dancer and their relationship to music.”

Alfred Steffen, extrait de la série Portrait of a Generation The Love Parade Family, Berlin, 1996_.jpg

Daft Punk saw their rise over a decade ago, so they’re vintage in their own special way. But their theatrical spirit is being carried by a younger generation of clubbers in Paris today—the queer rave Kindergarten parties are fusing the iconic New York club kid ethos with extravagant post-drag costumes. In this exhibition, Paris photographer Jean Ranobrac ,who has shot Paris club kids like Tiggy Thorn, is showing his colorful pop photos.

It taps into the lively, underground scene in the outskirts of Paris, hosted in warehouses. “People aren’t going to nightclubs anymore, people are organizing parties where everything is permitted,” said Leloup. “It’s a mix of sexual minorities, gay, straight and bi, it's a new way to be free.”

This article originally appeared on VICE Netherlands.

I've only seen my 78-year-old grandmother, Madlin, once in the past 20 years. She lives thousands of miles away in Baghdad. When I was ten months old, my family fled Iraq, but she refused to leave. She wasn't willing to let anything, not even war, come between her and the country she loves.

I really look up to my grandmother, but I recently realized that apart from a quick hello when my mom hands me the phone, I don't really speak to her enough. So I decided to give her a call to chat about her life and what it must have been like to stay behind by herself in Iraq.

"Of course it was my decision to stay in Baghdad—but, to be honest, I feel very lonely," my grandmother tells me. "I used to love cooking for the whole family and our friends—the door was always open. Now I cook every day without feeling any joy. I still make too much food because I'm used to having a big family, so I just give a lot of food away to the woman who lives upstairs."

Madlin rents out the top floor of her home to a mother and her daughter. Her upstairs neighbor visits every day and helps my grandmother with odd jobs around the house. She's become like a daughter to her. "She has a key," Madlin tells me. "If anything were to happen to me, she's right there."

My grandmother has four kids—three daughters and a son. Her eldest daughter moved to Bahrain after she got married. A few years later, her youngest daughter, my mother, got married but stayed living close by. "That was a really nice time," grandma says. "But shortly afterward, things in Iraq took a turn for the worse."

In 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded neighboring Kuwait. Around five months later, George H.W. Bush took military action against Iraq. The US successfully pushed Hussein out of Kuwait. From that moment on, the US government controlled the Iraqi airspace and implemented a series of economic sanctions on Iraq.

Those sanctions hit the country hard. Prior to that, the quality of life in Iraq was higher than in most Arab countries. But Iraq's prosperity soon started to evaporate year after year, which, combined with the regular bombings and the regime's actions, made many families decide to flee the country. In 1997, when I was 11 months old, my parents decided to leave Iraq and take me and my then three-year-old sister to the Netherlands.

"It was of course painful for me when my daughter left," grandma tells me. "It's hard because you say goodbye to your family without knowing if you'll ever see them again." Even though she found it very difficult, Madlin still had her husband and two of her four children around.

However, things started to change quickly over the next few years. Iraq became less and less safe as war broke out—but Madlin and her husband decided to stay put. "Many people won't understand it, but it's not easy to leave everything, especially memories, behind," grandma explains. "But at the same time, I was thinking more about the immense distance between me and my youngest daughter. I hadn't seen her in years, and I hadn't watched her kids grow up, even though that's supposed to be a beautiful thing for a grandparent. Those were difficult years. We called each other a lot, but you can't compare a call to a hug."

Whenever we speak, my grandmother always sounds tired and often sighs deeply. I can hear in her voice that she's trying not to cry. It does makes me sad, but I know that I have to keep it together because if I cry, so will she. Being a refugee makes you way more mature than you should be from a young age. You grow up fast because of the stories you hear from your family, and the things you see on TV—it keeps you close to the war and makes you feel like you're experiencing every minute of it. It's a lot to handle for a little kid, but, in a way, it makes you stronger. It's taught me a lot about life. I know that one decision can change everything—you can lose everything you've worked for in an instant.

I ask my grandmother what her days are like. "My daily life has changed a lot over the past few years," she tells me. "During the day, I spend a lot of time in my kitchen. I have a big kitchen, with a TV and a bench. Usually, I go to the living room around 9 PM to sleep." She has multiple bedrooms but hardly uses them anymore. "I'm afraid to sleep in a bedroom because the house is big and the bedrooms are in the back of the house. I'm scared someone will break in and nobody will hear me."

This fear started during Hussein's regime. Back then, there were times when people didn't dare leave their houses at all. "We often heard bombs and gunshots; women wouldn't go out without a headscarf," grandma remembers. "People were being driven from their homes. Kidnappings for ransom happened on a regular basis. We spent long periods without electricity. We didn't feel safe in our own home."

In 2005, we decided to have a family reunion in Syria. I was nine at the time and this would be the first time I would see my extended family since we fled to the Netherlands. I've often tried to describe the feeling I had when my grandmother stood in front of me. Though I was young, I remember it very well. I recall walking from the plane to the arrivals hall, and through a window, we saw all of them standing there. Looking at my family felt strange—I knew the faces in front of me only from pictures, Skype, and my parents' stories. Now they were right there.

What I remember most of all is the way my parents reacted. I don't think I've ever seen anyone cry as much or as intensely. Being able to hug my grandparents, aunts, uncles, nephews, and nieces was so special. It's weird because you feel like you know them, but you've never actually met them before. Soon after we met, it was like we'd never been apart.

I'm curious to hear how my grandmother remembers that trip to Syria. When I ask her, she starts laughing. "It was amazing," she says. "Everything finally felt like the way it was supposed to be. We planned lots of day trips and family dinners. I enjoyed each day so much. It was like we caught up on eight years in just a few weeks. It was hard to say goodbye. But I was grateful to God for the opportunity."

After that unforgettable trip, everyone went back to their respective countries. Then, 17 days later, my grandfather died. We all knew he was getting weaker, but the loss was unexpected, especially for my grandma. "It was so hard to accept that it had happened," she says. "I didn't want to admit it. I felt very empty during that time. I kept thinking he would come back."

A few years later, her middle daughter left for America. Madlin suddenly lost a daughter she used to see every day. Five years after that, her son, my uncle, also decided to take his family to the US.

Madlin was destroyed. "All four of my kids had left me," grandma says. "We always had a big, tight-knit family, and then suddenly, I was all alone." She had been a strong woman for many years, but Madlin started feeling weaker.

Though Iraq was still unsafe, she decided to stay in Baghdad. "Friends and family members always ask me why I didn't go to Europe or the US, but I can't do it," she tells me. "My house is full of beautiful memories and I don't want to leave it behind." She still believes it's up to her kids and their families to return to her.

Whenever my mom calls, my grandmother tells her that she wants us to come back. She doesn't realize how hard it would be to leave behind everything we've built here. My sister and I were born in Iraq, but grew up here. Of course, the other way around would be hard, too—my grandmother would find it very hard to start all over in the Netherlands.

Madlin still feels lonely, but she's finding new ways to cope. She calls her kids and grandchildren a lot. "Luckily, we have FaceTime and WhatsApp," says Madlin. "It's not the same, but it helps get me through it all." She tells me that she would love to visit the Netherlands if she can. "I haven’t seen you in over 13 years," she says. "But unfortunately, visiting isn't easy. The trip would be hard for me as I'm not as fit as I used to be. I get tired quickly and don't feel like traveling by myself. Still, I hope to make the trip some time in the next few years because the older I get, the more I realize that I have to see you all soon. More than anything, I want the whole family to be together again. That's my biggest wish."

Warning: this piece contains spoilers from the films 'A Simple Favor', 'Lizzie', 'Rebecca' and 'Pandora's Box'.

Blake Lively hasn’t always been an icon for queer women. It happened last year, in September, approximately 45 minutes into the film A Simple Favor. In the relevant scene, she’s wearing a tailored grey suit jacket, balanced casually off her shoulders. Stephanie – played by Anna Kendrick – is on the sofa, spilling her darkest secrets to Lively’s character Emily. And before you know it, they’re making out. Stephanie breaks away suddenly, a little dismayed at herself. Emily looks unperturbed. “Oh that?” she says, shrugging off Stephanie’s embarrassment. “It’s all good, baby... Just another Tuesday.”

Blake Lively’s appeal in this film isn’t just her look – any rich person can throw on an expensive suit, wear a few hats and get a facial. The magnetism lies in her whole vibe. Her character comes across open-minded, yet unemotional. She’s charming and overtly sexual. And as the film goes on, she also seems calculating and detached, an enigma – and eventually, it turns out, murderous. After watching the film, I WhatsApped my friend immediately, “You have to see ‘A Simple Favour’,” I wrote, probably cackling out loud to myself because I'm horrible. “Blake Lively’s in it. And she’s queer. And a murderer!” A winning combination apparently.

Emily isn’t the first murderous queer woman to grace our screens though. She isn’t even the first to do so recently. The former crown probably goes to villainous housekeeper Mrs Danvers in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 film Rebecca, itself an adaptation of a 1938 Daphne du Maurier novel, in which she tries to set her dead ex-lover’s lover’s new lover on fire (mood). Or at a reach you could say it was Lulu in Pandora’s Box, a 1929 German silent melodrama which sees a beautiful woman with a very evil shiny bob leave a trail of death and destruction behind her (there’s one subtly coded queer scene, so I think it counts).

Following that, the list snowballs: from 1990s ‘psycho dyke’ films like Basic Instinct, Heavenly Creatures and Bound, all the way up to the recent slew of queer-leaning stories with murderous leads, such as A Simple Favor, Lizzie, Women Who Kill and the unequivocal phenomenon that is BBC drama Killing Eve, whose second season begun in the US this week. But why exactly does this archetype persist? Is it inherently damaging? Can it be powerful? Or – like so many other things – does it depend on context?

Emma Smart, a programmer at BFI Flare, thinks the answer is complex and multifaceted. She recently put on a sold-out event at the festival, called Lethal Lesbians, which delved into these ideas at length. Like me, she reckons the ‘killer lesbian’ stereotype can be funny at times, camp, even empowering – especially when catering to the queer gaze. But equally, queerness shouldn’t always be presented as ‘deviant’, particularly when pop culture is often what queer kids turn to first when discovering themselves. “Having stereotypical portrayals of ourselves is difficult to always see,” she ponders. “It can lead to skewered ways in which the world sees us. But you can still find pleasure in seeing these people on screen, too.”

It’s worth pointing out here that not all murderous portrayals of queer women are born equal. On the one hand, we have films like Windows (1980), in which the lesbian lead is obsessive, predatory, essentially ‘othered’. But such films shouldn’t be lumped in with something like last year’s Lizzie, for example, in which Chloe Sevigny’s character is powerful and multidimensional; an outsider in more ways than her queerness. The latter, Emma says, is a narrative we’re seeing more of these days: “I do think there’s something different about recent films. These stories are being reclaimed, and they’re being positioned differently. They’re not these tragic figures, but figures who took agency in their own lives, in an over-the-top killing way, and actually got out from a trap they were in.”

That's also not to say these murderous queers are only appealing if their actions are – in some roundabout way – justified. Because that doesn’t explain our fascination with Villanelle from Killing Eve, or any number of mystifying sociopathic characters like her. But there is something to be said about the ‘queer gaze’ in regard to queer characters. Villanelle isn’t some catsuited Lara Croft-type figure with bedroom eyes. She’s a shapeshifter. She wears a thumb ring. She carries a tiny knife. “The ones that work best are definitely those which have some sort of ‘queer sensibility’ in the making, like the film Breaking the Girls, which has a queer filmmaker and screenwriter,” Emma agrees. “The reason Killing Eve works is because it’s told by women, which is why we’ve embraced it so much.”

If you asked me why I personally find lethal lesbians on screen appealing, I probably couldn’t give you a straight answer. It would take a lot of digging into my psych, and into the psych of pop culture at large, to work this one out. Maybe it’s because I’ve been subconsciously taught to view my sexuality as somehow deviant, or unhinged (although I don’t think so...). Maybe it’s because visibility is visibility, and I’d rather see two women hooking up on screen than not at all, even if there’s murder involved (although that feels simplistic). Maybe everyone – regardless of sexuality – enjoys a complex, enigmatic character in some sense, and being a killer embodies this in a taboo way (because what is more unknowable than literal murder?). Or maybe it’s none of the above. Maybe I just think Blake Lively can work a suit.

@daisythejones / @m.parszeniew

Collage: Villanelle in 'Killing Eve' (via); Emily Nelson in 'A Simple Favor' (via); Lizzie in 'Lizzie' (via); Catherine and Roxy in 'Basic Instinct' (via); Mrs Danvers in 'Rebecca' (via), Lulu in 'Pandora's Box' (via).

This article originally appeared on VICE UK.

This article originally appeared on VICE ASIA.

Polls open tomorrow in Indonesia as voters cast their ballots in a presidential election that's been described as staggeringly complicated, incredibly divisive, and utterly disappointing, depending on where your politics lay.

It's an election all of us here at VICE's Indonesia office have been following for months. Just in case you missed it, be sure to check out our stories about why the elections are a boom time for exorcists, what Indonesians are Googling most about the election, and a short documentary about which issues matter most for Millennials and Gen. Z voters.

Watch: VICE Votes: Young Indonesian Voters Speak Up On The 2019 Election

We also dug into Indonesia's fake news industry in a three-part series about hoax factories, social media manipulators, and the shadowy industry that helps shape what's trending, what candidates are talking about, and how you will vote.

But enough about us, here's why today's presidential elections are inspiring, painful, exciting, and sobering all at the same time.

What's so complicated about the election?

In this election, more than 192 million registered voters—roughly eight times the size of neighbouring Australia's entire population—will hit the polls in wildly diverse locations, from modern megacities, like Jakarta and Surabaya, to rural villages, like those in remote Papua, where a lack of roads means that ballots often need to be flown in and some, local traditions include a village-wide vote by tribal consensus.

It's a remarkably difficult undertaking that routinely goes off without any major issues in Indonesia—the world's third-largest democracy—despite the hurdles of distance, infrastructure, and low connectivity. And at a time when more "mature" democracies worldwide are struggling to adapt to the twin threats of a rise in nationalist populism and fake news, Indonesia, which is home to both, remains one of the strongest democracies in Asia.

Who's running?

This year's presidential election is basically a remix of the last one, with the top of the ticket featuring the same two men facing off on pretty similar grounds as the last go-around.

The incumbent candidate is Joko Widodo, a man who won the 2014 race with promises of reform, economic growth, and infrastructure development. Jokowi is touting his track record of building—or planning to build—new roads, railways, and ports in a country where poor infrastructure has long been a hindrance to economic growth.

He's counting on voters to extend his presidency into a second term based on what he's actually accomplished while in office, and illustrating it with slickly produced videos showing off new highways where there were once potholed dirt roads.

"Jokowi knows how to run Indonesia," Viki Hardian, a 26-year-old voter from Bekasi, West Java told VICE. "His programs and goals are clearer now. He has fulfilled his promise about infrastructure, and now it’s time for him to develop human capital and [small businesses]."

His rival is Prabowo Subianto, a former military general fond of pushing a hardline populist and nationalist platform that rails against the "elites" and warns of looming threats, both at home and abroad. Prabowo is campaigning on the idea that a lot of Indonesians feel left behind by Jokowi's economic thrust and want an Indonesia that is more powerful—and present—on the world stage.

He warns that not all foreign investment is equal and has taken particular issue with Chinese-backed infrastructure projects, a stance that, in part, taps into deep-seated fears of communism and anti-Chinese racism. His campaign messaging has focused on promises of increased defence spending, more jobs for the poor, and ominous warnings of a dark future if things continue as they stand today.

"I used to be a die-hard Jokowi supporter," said Rivan Anggara, 26. "But, to be honest, I was disappointed with his performance. So many promises weren't fulfilled. He said he wanted to stop importing food, but it didn't work. So now, I'm choosing Prabowo. I just want to see what it's like to be led by Prabowo. They both have the same vision and mission, so it's not a problem."

So, what's so divisive?

It's more like what isn't? Both candidates entered the race with their own supporters, but in the five years since the last time they faced off, the electoral landscape has undergone a lot of changes. The Jakarta governor's race, which pitted a Jokowi-aligned technocrat against a Prabowo-backed candidate not afraid to shake hands with the country's Islamist front or include anti-Chinese dogwhistles in his speeches, exposed a raw nerve in Indonesia. In the end, Jokowi's former deputy governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, ended up behind bars on blasphemy charges, while Prabowo's man, Anies Baswedan, took the election after a second round.

Prabowo then tagged Anies' own deputy governor, the multi-millionaire Sandiaga Uno, as his running mate. He's running a campaign steeped in nationalism, but his staunchest supporters are singing a different tune altogether. Prabowo's big campaign rally at Jakarta's Gelora Bung Karno was a sea of white—a color associated with religious events—that included a real Islamic bent. It was a dramatic departure from the militaristic pomp of his last appearance at GBK, which opened with Prabowo riding in on a horse before supporters stationed in rigid lines.

Jokowi, cognizant of Indonesia's shifting sands, chose a respected Islamic scholar, Ma'ruf Amin, as his running mate—a calculated move that was safe but also incredibly alienating to his more progressive-minded supporters (more on this later).

Yohanes Sulaiman, a political analyst at Universitas Jenderal Achmad Yani, told VICE that Jokowi was mindful of the fact that religious tensions were taking center stage after the 2017 Jakarta governor's race, and that he needed a VP candidate who could shut down claims that he "wasn't Muslim enough."

"In 2017, you could feel the tension, every single possible conversation on the street trying to bring down Ahok and Joko Widodo at the same time," Yohanes said. "But now, after Joko Widodo managed to split Nahdlatul Ulama from the rest of the Islamist groups, at this point well, basically it’s less of a problem, but it’s still a problem. It’s less intense because Jokowi basically can say 'hey, if you say I’m anti-Muslim, how can I choose Ma’ruf Amin?'"

A recent poll by Lingkaran Survei Indonesia (LSI) found that 3.5 percent of Indonesian voters wanted to live in a country that was "more like the Middle East," a statement that presumably referenced Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates more than it did Iraq.

Now, although 3.5 percent is a small number, nationwide, an even larger number of people are calling for Islam to take a more central role in politics. Indonesia is 87 percent Muslim, and it's never had a non-Muslim president, but moves by Jokowi to crack down on Islamist ormas, a term that means "mass organizations," has some accusing him of "criminalizing ulema (Muslim clerics)."

"If he wins, I hope Prabowo can stop the criminalization of the ulema, because the regime right now is discriminatory and it frequently corners Islam," said Henti Putri, a Prabowo supporter. "Jokowi has not promised to stop criminalizing the ulema."

But with both candidates focusing on courting the Muslim vote, it can leave Indonesia's religious minorities and progressive voters feeling a bit ignored. Which brings us to our final question:

Many won't vote. Why?

A lot of it has to do with progressive voters' dissatisfaction over Jokowi's VP choice. Ma'ruf, an elderly preacher who was a chair in the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), has a concerning track record of supporting fatwas against the LGBTQ community, religious minorities, and in support of female genital mutilation for Muslim women.

In the 2014 election, Jokowi talked a good game about supporting human rights, but during his first term, at-risk groups, like queer Indonesians, religious minorities, and critics of the military, have increasingly come under attack.

Jokowi, it turns out, wasn't the staunch supporter of human rights that some of his original backers thought he was. But, according to Yohanes, that's probably because he never was.

"Jokowi has shown himself as not utterly concerned about human rights," he told VICE. "He doesn’t really care about minority religious rights. He doesn’t really care about the LBGT [community]. When Jokowi was first running in 2014, you could make the argument that he was undefined enough, that he could basically be anything people wanted him to be.

"People looked at Joko Widodo as a contrast to this authoritarian [figure], this Suharto-like Prabowo. So they basically said, 'hey Joko Widodo is our human rights champion.' We wanted him to be this human rights warrior, but the problem is he’s not."

Still, the disappointment in this was enough to make some of Jokowi's previous supporters step back and say they were going to abstain from voting entirely (a protest practice called "golput") in this election.

"Their reasons vary, from the LGBT community, who don’t see any hope from both candidates, to minority groups, think they are dangerous," explained Sinte Galeshka, who chose golput in this election. "There are also people like me who will never cast my vote if legislative candidates still put their banners on trees. We have our own reasons, and we must tell it to the public. Abstention is the only parameter here. It’s a tool to show that we still have problematic system."

Some polls estimate that golput could be as high a 30 percent in this election, which is being described as a sign that neither candidate has shown a vision that connects with young voters. Others, like Sinte, are saying that this race exposed what's wrong with Indonesia's democratic system—which has quickly boiled down to a two-horse race where both candidates are reliant on a broad coalition with sometimes opposing viewpoints to run.

But even at 30 percent abstaining or choosing golput (the act of showing up to vote, but marking the white space, or no one, on their ballot), it's still in line with historical turnouts. In 2009, around 70 percent of registered voters showed up at the polls. In 2014, that number was slightly higher, at around 75 percent, but even then, 25 percent of the electorate was absent.

Who will win?

Today, Jokowi is ahead in the polls by as much as a double-digit lead, according to some pollsters. But elections have confounded pollsters before, and it would be a mistake to count Prabowo out, explained Yohanes.

"It depends on how many people are going golput," he told VICE. "To be honest I think the polls underestimate the votes for Prabowo in high-density areas. They underestimate the Islamists’ support in those regions. Because, by virtue of sampling, you cannot oversample in one area right?"

"As a result, you end up under-sampling," he added. "Polls have problems, like you said, Trump won. What could make Joko Widodo lose the election is if there are too many people not voting at all. I think Prabowo’s numbers are [actually] a little bit higher. I would say that maybe the numbers that we see now are his lowest possible numbers."

This article first appeared on Tonic in the US

A few weeks ago, I was absent-mindedly scanning the area behind the register at my local deli and saw a line up of packages featuring images of samurai warriors, holographic rhinos, and the like. For a split second, I didn’t know what I was looking at but after reading the words “time,” “size,” and “stamina,” I figured out that they were, in fact, boner pills. I’d always seen products marketed as “male enhancement” in bodegas and gas stations but dismissed them immediately. I suppose I just found it hard to believe that anyone would take these herbal concoctions and expect anything to happen. “Horny goat weed”—often a top line ingredient in these pills—just sounded ridiculous.

“Yo, that’s good shit man,” the cashier said when he saw me eyeing up the selection of around half a dozen packets of pills.

“Come on,” I said. “That stuff’s bogus, right?”

“I swear to god man,” he said, eyes wide. “It’s no joke.”

Being the curious sort and in a somewhat silly mood, I forked out the $10 on the “Rhinozen Black Fire” just to make sure that these pills were snake oil and not, as the cashier suggested, potent. Though the packaging proudly stated that the product is made in the USA, phrases such as “gentleman entry begins” and “rock hard rerctions (sic)” didn’t instill me with confidence that these pills were in any way legit. This despite a graphic that read “100% Genuine Product” and another that suggested that the effect of a pill lasts up to 11 days! I mean, come on.

A few days later, I was just bored enough to give the pill a try, ingesting it on a Wednesday morning before heading off to the gym. Generally, I like to start off with a mile-long run but after just a few minutes on the treadmill, my heart felt as though it was trying to bust out of my rib cage. Feeling light-headed, I stumbled off of the treadmill and took a knee, hoping that the feeling would go away. Ten minutes later, however, it seemed to have gotten worse. By the time I got outside I was feeling pains in my chest. As my breath became shallower, I called a friend to try and calm myself down.

“What’s wrong with your voice?” he asked as I tried to avoid thinking about the prospect of keeling over. “It’s all quavery.”

Embarrassing as it was, I quickly fessed up to what I’d done, chiefly because I felt that this phone call might be the last one I’d ever make.

After returning home I did something I probably should have done prior to swallowing the pill, and googled what I’d just ingested. I quickly learned that the FDA has no fewer than twenty “rhino” branded products on a list entitled “Tainted Sexual Enhancement Products.” The specific formulation I’d foolishly taken, Rhinozen Black Fire, wasn’t on the list but I figured it was pretty safe to assume that, like “Boss Rhino,” “Krazzy Rhino,” and “Rhino Big Horn,” it too contained ingredients other than the innocuous-sounding ones listed on the back.

My experience certainly didn’t feel like it was the result of goji extract, licorice, or ginseng. Turns out that for virtually every male enhancement product it had analyzed, the FDA concluded that either sildenafil—the active ingredient in Viagra—or tadalafil—the active ingredient in Cialis—was present.

While regarded as being quite well-tolerated, both sildenafil and tadalafil require a prescription from a doctor. He or she will have to discern whether these drugs—which are called phosphodiesterase-5 (PDE5) inhibitors—could cause problems due to a patient’s existing health condition or interactions with other drugs they’re taking.

More from Tonic:

A PDE5 inhibitor is a vasodilator, meaning that it opens blood vessels. “PDE5 inhibitors may result in a raging boner but at the same time, it’s dilating all the blood vessels in your body,” says Seth Cohen, a urologist at NYU’s Langone Health. This is why a headache, dizziness, flushed face and—as I’ve previously written about—a stuffy nose are common side effects, particularly in younger men. Nitrates, a type of medication used to treat or prevent heart pain, are also vasodilators. “Nitrates alone can cause dangerous drops in blood pressure and a double dose of vasodilators is, doubly dangerous,” he says.

Also, once you get a prescription for legit erectile dysfunction medication, you actually know how much you’re taking. There’s really no telling how much of these drugs are being added to these cornerstore pills, many of which are somehow available at Amazon. The issue with store-bought supplements is that they don’t comply with the same rules that drugs do, says Landon Trost, a urologist at the Mayo Clinic explains. “Supplements typically only get attention from the FDA if a certain number of severe injuries or deaths occur,” says. “Otherwise, they stay under the radar.” Trost also tells me that in unregulated supplements, the label doesn’t necessarily reflect what’s actually in there, and dosages will fluctuate from one sample to the next.

Cohen adds that the symptoms I reported could be due to a large dose of a PDE5 inhibitor, the interaction of the PDE5 inhibitor with whatever other ingredients found in the pill, or both. Again, there's no way to actually know because the supplement was not regulated or tested the way legit drugs are.

After about three hours of lying down and moving around as little as possible, the feeling that I was about to die in the most pointless way imaginable began to dissipate. I was still too shaken up to investigate whether the pill would do what it promised but the following morning, I awoke with an erection like a crowbar that didn’t fully subside for some 90 minutes. And for the next several days—though not quite 11—every boner I had seemed significantly more intense than normal. While that sounds like a positive outcome, my rather foolhardy self-experiment coincided with my girlfriend and me breaking up, so I didn’t even get to use Rhinozen Black Fire as intended.

I made a concerted effort to track down the entity that makes Rhino products for comment, but the best I could do was find someone at a Pennsylvania-based distributor of the product—Sassy Sensations. Though I was promised a call back from the firm’s owner, the only effect my inquiry had was the disappearance of the product from their website around an hour later. “Oops—we couldn’t find that one” reads the message on the page that still has Rhinozen Black Fire in the URL. Another result of my probing was the discovery of news that in October of 2018, a South Korean national was arrested in Fullerton, California after being suspected of illegally importing and selling erectile dysfunction drugs, including Rhino capsules. If that was the guy I needed to speak with, I can imagine that he wouldn’t be so eager to chat.

When I was sure that it was finally out of my system for good and all, I asked Trost if I was in any real danger. He told me that there was really no way of knowing. To illustrate his point, he recalled a recent case of a man taking four 100 mg viagra pills—four times the maximum recommended dose—and damaged his kidneys in the process. He contrasted this with a 2015 report of a 56-year-old who attempted to kill himself by taking 65 100 mg Viagra pills—the highest known dose. “It’s important to note though that just because one person survived such an extreme dose doesn’t mean that everyone would respond similarly,” he says.