The Shiloh Hendrix $666k Situation is Crazy, Dr Lupo Cheating Scandal, Israel to Capture Gaza Strip
PDS Published 05/05/2025
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This woman is trying to raise a million dollars just by being unapologetically racist.
Right, let me explain; her name, according to all reports, is Shiloh Hendrix. [Image]
And recently she, a white woman, allegedly hurled racial slurs at a five-year-old black boy at a playground in Rochester, Minnesota. [Same image]
This after the kid allegedly stole from her own child’s diaper bag, according to her, though that’s disputed.
Now the reason we know this is because 30-year-old Sharmake Omar [Pronounce 00:11], who told NBC he knows the boy’s parents, that both him and the kid have Somali heritage, and that the boy has autism, was there at the playground. [Quote, find “Somali” and “autism”]
So in a video he took, Omar confronts Hendrix, and she tells him it’s “none of your fucking business,” with her sticking her tongue out and giving him the middle finger. [Lead B roll into clip]
Then, she calls him the N-word too. [Lead B roll into clip]
[Clip, 00:08 - 00:12] Caption: [Sharmake Omar:] “Okay, why don’t you have the balls to say it right now again?” [Shiloh Hendrix:] “F*** you n*****.”
With them going back and forth for a little bit, then Hendrix admitting — no, not admitting — proudly confirming that she called the little boy the slur and justifying it. [Continue B roll]
[Clip, 00:22 - 00:39] Caption: [Sharmake Omar:] “That little kid, you call him a n*****?” [Shiloh Hendrix:] “Yeah!” [Sharmake Omar:] “That little child?” [Shiloh Hendrix:] “If he acts like one it’s gonna be …” [Sharmake Omar:] “Are you about to hit him? You chased him here?” [Shiloh Hendrix:] “He took my son’s stuff!” [Sharmake Omar:] “So that gives you the right to call the child, five-year-old, a n*****, the N-word?” [Shiloh Hendrix:] “If that’s what he’s gonna act like.” [Sharmake Omar:] “That’s what you’re gonna call him?” [Shiloh Hendrix:] “If that’s what he’s gonna act like.”
With Omar telling NBC that Hendrix also said he and his wife shouldn't have more children because they’re a drain on the welfare system. [Quote, find “welfare”]
By the way, they’d never met before, according to him.
But y’all, here’s where this already outrageous story gets cranked up to jaw-dropping.
Because rather than shrink away in shame like many others caught being bigots would do, Hendrix started a fundraiser on GiveSendGo titled “Help Me Protect My Family.” [Fundraiser]
And for context, GiveSendGo is the same Christian crowdfunding service that raised money for Kyle Rittenhouse, Daniel Penny and Luigi Mangione.
But in this case, Hendrix doubled down on her words, writing, “I called the kid out for what he was.” [Quote same link]
With her then claiming that Omar’s video, which went viral, has caused her and her family “great turmoil.” [Quote same link]
Adding, “My SSN has been leaked. My address, and phone number have been given out freely. My family members are being attacked. My eldest child may not be going back to school. Even where I exercise has been exposed.” [Same quote]
And then this next part is a little hard to read because of all the crocodile tears, but I think it says:
“I am asking for your help to assist in protecting my family. I fear that we must relocate. I have two small children who do not deserve this. We have been threatened to the extreme by people online. Anything will help! We cannot, and will not live in fear!” [Quote same link]
Signed, Nelson Mandela … just kidding.
And so with that, she initially set her goal for 50,000 dollars, but the donations just flooded in, immediately surpassing that goal.
So then she raised it to a whopping one million dollars, and as of this recording, she’s already raised over 660,000, with more donations coming in by the minute. [Same link, show donation amount]
Now at first, the comments attached to each donation were filled with racist dogshit, but pretty soon GiveSendGo disabled the comments.
With its founder and CEO telling The Washington Post that his team did so “due to the volume of inappropriate remarks that violated our policies.” [Quote]
But even with comments disabled, some people are still getting their message across with suggestive usernames.
Stuff like “TIME TO FIGHT BACK,” “rise up,” and “enough already.” [Quote, will have to click “load more” on donations]
Or “14 88,” which is code for “Heil Hitler,” and “your Austrian painter,” another apparent reference to Hitler. [Quote same link]
As well as “DayOfTheRope,” “White unity will unite,” and my personal favorite, “Heterosexual White Man.” [Quote same link]
Now in its response to the Post, GiveSendGo also said:
“We understand the sensitivity of this situation and the strong emotions it has evoked. GiveSendGo does not endorse or condone the personal views or actions of individual campaign organizers or their supporters, nor do we control the motivations of donors.” [Quote]
But Hendrix also responded with an update on her fundraiser, and she was profoundly grateful to all her racist supporters.
Writing, “I've never felt so scared, yet reassured in my life. It's truly a whirlwind of emotions!” [Quote]
With her saying she hasn’t been harmed, but adding, “I’m still very frightened, and I don't think I will feel safe until we can escape completely.” [Quote same link]
And finishing, “Thank you all for your continuous support and love. We have to keep fighting for the safety of all our families, not just mine.” [Quote same link]
But with all this, I don’t want to give the impression that the only public response came from white supremacists.
Right, the Rochester chapter of the NAACP started its own fundraiser for the family of the five-year-old boy. [Image]
With it aiming for 150,000 dollars, blowing past that to over 340,000 dollars, then shutting down the page at the request of the family. [Quote, find “150,000”]
With the NAACP writing, “Your compassion, your solidarity, and your belief in love over hate have been overwhelming—and deeply moving.” [Quote same link]
But that’s still not where the war ends, because then Omar, the guy who took the video, chimed in again to say he’s received a torrent of harassment since the incident.
Right, because for context, Hendrix alluded to his history with law enforcement, which includes a sexual assault charge from 2022 that was recently dropped. [Headline]
So Omar told KIMT News he’s been getting death threats, his information has been posted online, and he’s concerned for his and his children’s safety. [Quote, find “death threats”]
But now, it looks like Hendrix may be the one who has to worry about law enforcement.
Because the city of Rochester posted a statement on Facebook calling the video “deeply disturbing,” and adding:
“The Rochester Police Department is gathering information and actively looking into the matter.” [Quote]
With the NAACP calling on the police, the city attorney and the county attorney to investigate and charge Hendrix with a hate crime. [Quote, find “charge”]
And Omar told NBC the five-year-old boy’s parents have expressed support for prosecuting her if possible. [Quote, find “prosecut”]
So we’ll see if anything comes of that, but even if it ends here, this story is insane.
And what’s even more disturbing than the video itself is the response.
I mean, all it takes is one white woman to show pride in her racism and the literal Nazis come crawling out of the woodwork with hundreds of thousands of dollars to shower on her.
It just makes you wonder how many of them are sitting behind computer screens, keeping their beliefs private, on top of all the outwardly bigoted people in American public life.
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We need to talk about what’s going in Israel right now, because things are once again escalating over there and the Trump administration doesn’t seem to mind.
Probably the biggest red flag across the international community are the reports that Israel plans to take over Gaza.
And I don’t mean like how they’ve controlled parts of Gaza ever since October 7th.
Apparently these plans will have Israel take over the rest of the Gaza strip and remain there for who knows how long.
In some ways this is what many expected would happen once the war started, especially since Israel already controls about 50% of the territory and refused to go forward with a ceasefire deal they had made.
Outlets claim the plan was agreed to in an early-morning cabinet vote after it was revealed the military was calling up reservists for another Gaza operation.
A de-facto occupation of the entire Gaza Strip is already a huge escalation in the conflict but it gets worse.
The plan reportedly will also have hundreds-of-thousands of Gazans moved to the southern part of the territory, meaning they’ll likely be displaced from their homes in other parts.[]
And you know how Gaza was already described as a densely packed area? Well, this will certainly make that worse.[]
Unfortunately this entire scheme has precedent.
Right, Gaza used to be under Israeli occupation for decades until 2005.
After that it was essentially blockaded by Israel and Egypt, leading to its current situation.
There are some questions about when this plan will actually begin, with one defense official telling the Associated Press that they don’t expect the plan to begin until after Trump visits later this month.[]
Not to mention the devil is definitely in the details.
Obviously part of the plan is for the final extermination of groups like Hamas and to get the remaining hostages out of there.
But after that what the hell is supposed to happen after they take over Gaza?
Does Israel plan to administer it directly, or will it seriously consider Trump’s plan for the US to over?
On that last part it seems they are least considering US involvement of some kind.
Right, because yesterday the cabinet approved plans for Israel to completely take over the aid-distribution within Gaza.
All of which will be protected by American security contractors.
In some ways this is better than the current state-of-affairs since Israel blocks off essentially ALL aid into Gaza.
But critics claim it will give Israel far too much control over how the aid is distributed.
Something that Israel pushes back against, claiming that when aid was within Gaza it was a tool used by Hamas to control people.
(Although it’s entirely possible that both can be true at the same time).
Either way the plan will probably be rejected by the UN only for Israel to ignore them anyways.
And that’s what’s happening with Gaza.
Tel Aviv made front-page news after Israel’s main airport was targeted by missiles.
The attack was launched by the Houthi group out of Yemen, with a spokesperson saying:
“In response to Israel’s escalation with its decision to expand its hostile operation in Gaza, the Yemeni Armed Forces announce it will work to impose a comprehensive air blockade on the Israeli enemy.” [broll]
They went on to say that this would involve repeatedly targeting Israeli airports, although so far there’s only been one strike since the announcement was made.
And as much as I wish I could get away with it, I probably can’t talk about Israel without mentioning that Hasan Piker and Ethan Klein got into a debate about the topic over the weekend.
It was a long-time coming and follows a debate Ethan had last week with Sam Seder.
Covering the whole thing would be exhausting, especially considering it devolved into the two yelling over each other.
(One person apparently described this as “Sleep ASMR for people who grew up with parents who were always fighting.”).[]
And in a shocking twist neither changed their stances on the topic and we’ve covered that before so it’s nothing that new.
But if you’re curious about what was actually said in those, they're out there on the web.
In the meantime I’ll live with the stans from either side arguing about it down in the comments below.
I’m sure the conversation will be nuanced.
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Donald Trump, the president of the United States, doesn’t know if he has to uphold the constitution.
And that’s just one of the things he’s said or shared over the past few days that’s got people talking – including more threats to invade another country, offensive AI imagery, a new tariff announcement, and a promise to reopen the country’s most notorious prison.
But starting with the constitution, Trump’s comments came about during an interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker on Meet The Press.
At one point, she asked Trump about the Supreme Court’s order to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador.
Right, the administration has said it’s powerless to do so, as well as claimed it’d be complying with the order by simply allowing the man back if he somehow made it here.
But then last week Trump said in an interview with ABC News that he could bring Abrego Garcia back if he wanted but chooses not to – seemingly admitting defiance of the Supreme Court.
And so that, Trump’s other comments, the whole Abrego Garcia case, and really so many of the administration’s other actions on immigration – including deportations to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act?
They’ve all raised serious questions about the White House’s respect for due process, rule of law, and by extension, the constitution.
And so Welker basically asked him point blank if he’d stand up for those basic principles and he couldn’t say yes:
“Your Secretary of State says everyone who's here, citizens and noncitizens, deserve due process. Do you agree, Mr. President?”
“I don't know. I'm not a lawyer. I don't know.”
“Well, the Fifth Amendment says –”
“I don't know. It seems it might say that, but if you're talking about that, then we'd have to have a million or two million or three million trials. We have thousands of people that are some murderers and some drug dealers and some of the worst people on Earth. Some of the worst, most dangerous people on Earth. And I was elected to get them the hell out of here, and the courts are holding me from doing it. “
“But even given those numbers that you're talking about, don't you need to uphold the Constitution of the United States as President?”
“I don't know. I have to respond by saying again, I have brilliant lawyers that work for me, and they are going to obviously follow what the Supreme Court said. What you said is not what I heard the Supreme Court said. They have a different interpretation.”
“Is anyone in your administration right now in contact with El Salvador about returning Abrego Garcia to work?”
“I don't know. You'd have to ask the Attorney General that question.” (1:30-2:39)
And with that, you also had Welker asking about something else that would violate the constitution but has been supported by Trump supporters, a third term:
“Are you seriously considering a third term, Mr. President, even though it’s prohibited by the constitution, or is this about staying politically viable?”
“I will say this. So many people want me to do it, I’ve never had requests so strong as that, but it’s something that, to the best of my knowledge, you’re not allowed to do. I don’t know if that’s constitutional that they’re not allowing you to do, or anything else, but there are many people selling the 2028 hat. But this is not something I’m looking to do. I’m looking to have four great years and turn it over to somebody.” (58:39-59:12)
Right, so notably, Trump did reject the idea of running again more clearly than he has at times in the past, but he also didn’t seem to know, or at least didn’t want to acknowledge, what the constitution says on that subject.
But moving on, you also had Welker asking about Trump’s past comments on taking over Canada and Greenland.
And to that, Trump mostly — but not entirely — ruled out taking military action against Canada.
And he definitely DIDN’T rule out using military force against Greenland.
“Would you rule out military force to take Canada?”
"Well, I think we're not going to ever get to that point. It could happen, something could happen with Greenland. I'll be honest, we need that for national and international security –
“But not with Canada?”
“I think it’s highly unlikely. I don’t see it with Canada. I just don’t see it, I have to be honest with you.” (53:03-53:21)
But next up, moving away from that interview, Trump and the White House, as usual, were also busy on social media this weekend.
Right, for one, there’s apparently another territory Trump’s interested in taking over, although this one’s a lot smaller than Canada or Greenland – just 121 acres.
And that’s the Vatican.
Right, and here, I’m talking about this AI-generated image he posted and the White House later shared of him as the Pope.
This as the actual Pope just died a few weeks ago and the Church is getting ready to begin the process of picking a new one.
So as you can imagine, a lot of people, especially Catholics, found this in pretty poor taste.
With the New York State Catholic Conference, for example, saying:
“There is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President.”
“We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St. Peter. Do not mock us.”
But with that, the White House actually posted a whole ‘nother AI-generated image that pissed off a completely different but equally devout community: Star Wars fans.
Right, sharing a May the 4th Be With You post slamming “Radical Left Lunatics….fighting to bring Sith Lords, Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, & well known MS-13 Gang Members, back into our Galaxy.”
Adding: “You’re not the Rebellion—you’re the Empire.”
As commenters were quick to point out, however, Trump is holding a red lightsaber image – the kind used by the bad guys.
Also, notably, if some of the Star Wars movies were coming out today? Because of Trump, there’s a chance George Lucas would’ve had to pay tariffs on them.
Right, that’s connected to our next piece of news, which is Trump saying he’s putting a 100% tariff on movies made outside the U.S.
And the Star Wars movies? They were filmed in locations all over the world.
Now with that, if you’re wondering what tariffs on movies would actually look like, you’re not alone.
Right, as we know, the president? He doesn’t seem to fully understand how tariffs work, but he loves them nonetheless –
Putting 10% on virtually every U.S. import; 25% on steel, aluminum, cars, and other goods from Canada and Mexico; and a whopping 145% on almost everything from China.
But movies aren’t loaded up on pallets and shipped into the country, at least not since DVDs.
So with that, all that Trump has actually said so far is that he’s authorizing the Commerce Department and the U.S. Trade Rep to “immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands.”
With him claiming that “The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death” because other countries have incentivized filmmakers and studios to move production away from the U.S.
Adding: “This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda!” []
Notably, however, the vast majority of movies shown in American cinemas are technically “produced” in the U.S. —
Right, one, in that sense that we’re talking about American companies.
And two, in the sense that scriptwriting, preproduction, casting, and some editing often all actually physically happen in the U.S.
At the same time, however, the actual filming? That is increasingly taking place abroad.
And Trump is actually completely correct in saying that “Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States.” []
Right, with these incentives normally coming in the form of tax breaks, which combined with things just getting more expensive in the US, have led to a lot of production taking place in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and a few places throughout Europe.
And as a result, notably, thousands of middle-class film workers in the United States have reportedly lost work.
According to the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, for example, roughly 18,000 full-time jobs have been eliminated in the past three years, primarily in California. []
And notably, with that, California Governor Gavin Newsom has already proposed a massive tax credit to bring back production to Hollywood.
While Trump’s proposal, on the other hand? It’s just super unclear what he means.
Right, would it apply to U.S. companies shooting films abroad?
What if only part of it was shot overseas?
And would it apply to movies on streaming services, in theaters, or both?
Plus, what about postproduction visual effects work?
A single movie can sometimes involve several specialized firms operating all around the world. []
So we’ll have to see what the administration comes up with and if they carry through.
But if it’s as nonsensical as that formula they used to calculate their now-delayed reciprocal tariffs, this could have a big impact.
But finally, moving to another Trump post on Truth Social, you had him directing his government to reopen and expand Alcatraz – a notorious prison that’s been closed for more than 60 years.
With Trump specifically saying the site, which is on a small island offshore San Francisco, would be used to house “America’s most ruthless and violent offenders.” []
Of course, there are a couple problems with the idea.
One, it’d reportedly be impractical and expensive.
Right, the prison was closed in 1963 for a reason, or actually multiple, including decaying infrastructure and the high costs of repairing and supplying a facility that could only be accessed by boat. []
And two, as we've talked about, when Trump talks about locking up dangerous criminals, he allegedly sometimes just means Latino men with tattoos.
But with that, I’d love to know what y’all have to think about any and all of these Trump-related topics we covered. Leave a comment down below.
Go to Vessi for 15% off your first order.
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Police stopped a bombing at one of the most-attended concerts of all time over the weekend.
Right, Lady Gaga played a free show at Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, and estimates say around 2.5 million people went.
With this beating the record for the highest attendance for a concert by a female artist.
And while the show went on as-scheduled, in the hours before it, at least two people were arrested for planning to carry out a major attack, mainly aiming to target children and the LGBTQ+ community.[]
According to a statement released by Brazilian authorities yesterday, a group had been “recruiting participants, including teenagers, to carry out integrated attacks using improvised explosives and Molotov cocktails.”
And a man identified as the leader of the group was arrested for illegal possession of a firearm, and a teenager was also arrested for storing child pornography.
The group had allegedly been operating and spreading hate speech online, with the goal of “promoting the radicalization of adolescents, the dissemination of hate crimes, self-harm, pedophilia and violent content as a form of belonging and challenge among young people.”
And 15 search warrants were served against nine people in cities throughout Brazil.
With some reports saying that members of the group had posed as Little Monsters, aka Lady Gaga fans, online to lure in young people. []
And even though police said this was a major operation, because the concert still happened, the Associated Press reported that some have questioned the validity of the threat.
Right, just last year after authorities foiled a terrorist plot at a Taylor Swift show in Austria, her shows there were still canceled for safety reasons.
Though, police said they did not publicly share information about this plot before the show to avoid panic and prevent information from being distorted.
And Lady Gaga’s team said they were not even alerted of the threats ahead of time, with a spokesperson telling The Hollywood Reporter:[]
“We learned about this alleged threat via media reports this morning. Prior to and during the show, there were no known safety concerns, nor any communication from the police or authorities to Lady Gaga regarding any potential risks. Her team worked closely with law enforcement throughout the planning and execution of the concert and all parties were confident in the safety measures in place.”
The AP also reported that there was a strong security presence at the event, with over 5,000 military and police officers at the beach.
So far, Lady Gaga has not addressed the plot directly herself, simply posting a statement thanking the crowd, saying she was full of “absolute pride and joy” while performing for them and adding: “I will never forget this moment.”[]
But obviously still a scary thought and situation, and I would love to know your thoughts on any aspect of it here.
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Dr. Lupo, one of the most popular streamers out there, is catching a lot of shit right now after he was caught cheating in PogChamps last week.
If you’ve never heard of it, it’s an event put on by Chess.com and it’s kind of a win-win for everyone involved.
For Chess.com it helps expose a ton of people to chess that otherwise maybe wouldn’t consider it.
And for streamers it’s a chance to show themselves off to new audiences and possibly win a decent prize in a relatively low-commitment environment.[]
Right, it’s not like these people are Grandmasters pouring their life into chess and are often extremely low rated.
Lupo fits that mold perfectly.
He’s like 600 ee-low (ELO) and during the event he was playing against WolfeyVGC -- who is about 1300.[]
That is a MASSIVE difference in skill, and in a game like chess it usually means that Lupo would never actually beat Wolfey short of Wolfey REALLY fucking up.
But that’s not how things started, and during their game Lupo blundered a queen near the start.
So this was looking like an easy win for Wolfey… until Lupo managed to play out of his mind and win the game.
Almost instantly people were suspicious of the situation.
So much so that Lupo eventually admitted to cheating and pulled out of the tournament, writing on X:
“Had a ton of fun playing, but have decided to drop out of the event to help maintain competitive integrity for those involved, as well as the tourney organizers.
Having the main stream up on my left monitor over the course of the day today to watch other games being played led to me getting move information I shouldn't have had for a game.
That's on me and no one else. That's my fuck up. I apologize - you'd think I would know better, but here we are.” []
Chess.com also moved in and closed his account for a “fair play violation” -- meaning he was banned for cheating.
This was followed up by Ludwig asking Lupo.
“Streets are saying it was an engine. Are the streets keeping it 99?” []
Ludwig later admitted that “the streets” were Grandmaster-level players he spoke to who accused Lupo of using a computer to help him.
But Lupo denied that, and joked that he was helped by “anal beads.”
Either way, Lupo went on to say:
“...believe me or not - I played what I played. pulled from chat though, couldn't stop looking. which as i said, i know better.” []
However people still weren’t buying the excuse that he was watching chat and got the moves from there.
First off, he did like 25+ PERFECT moves in a row.
That’s unreal and doesn’t just happen in chess at that level of chess out of using a computer engine.
It’s so out-of-the-ordinary that it stands out like a sore thumb, with GothamChess -- the largest chess channel on YouTube -- putting it this way:
“Beginners are very tempted to do stuff like this. Just don’t and the lesson here is just don’t do it. Don’t do any form of this. Because it’s quite obvious, especially for beginners.” @8:47
And his video pointed something else out: Lupo likely cheated across multiple games.
The moves were so obvious that few were buying Lupo’s excuse that he just looked at chat, with Ludwig saying in a video:
“He claims he had the game open, the stream open and was reading the stream chat.”
“But part of what you’re able to do when you look through somebody’s game is judge how quickly they are making their moves. And in the time it was taking him to make his moves, a lot of the time when he’s making the best move it was quicker even than Twitch chat would be able to input this. Not only that, but Twitch chat wasn’t saying this.” @7:08
He went on to add that on top of this, Twitch chat was almost never giving out the engine's best move.
Right, because as you’d expect it was mostly just chess fans watching the game and throwing out what THEY think would be the best move.
And that’s usually done in the form of an annotation.
The annotation isn’t hard to understand once you know it, but Ludwig doesn’t believe Lupo would be able to read it super quickly considering he’s like half of Ludwig’s rank and Ludwig still needs to decipher it in his head.
Which brings us to Friday and Lupo FINALLY admitting that he cheated with an engine and writing:
“I screwed up big time. The internet has been right basically since the beginning, and it's taken me multiple waves of self reflection and internal fighting to get to the point where I can fully admit fault without holding back. I lied to the internet, repeatedly. I cheated, and betrayed the trust of countless people that believed in me. Viewers, family, friends. Everyone.” []
“I've spent a big part of my life being really good at games. When I suddenly wasn't good enough, I lied.”
“People kept asking me why I did it - I think I did it for a false sense of self validation. To convince myself that I could win when clearly I shouldn't have.”
He said a lot more in both that tweet as well as on his stream, but that’s the essentials of it.
What’s interesting is that GothamChess kinda assumed this was the reason Lupo cheated, saying:
“Some people do this stuff because Chess has a really weird way of just getting deep inside your soul and you feel not good enough, or not intelligent enough. You know it really attacks your psyche in many ways.” @17:41
But after Lupo’s admission many were still upset with the situation, including streamers who weren’t involved in the tournament at all.
Right, Asmongold and XQC came out saying that Lupo should be banned from Twitch over the cheating scandal.
Which is technically covered under Twitch’s ToS, so it’s in the realm of possibility.
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For your daily dose of good news, I’d like you to meet Rand Laycock.
He’s the conductor of a 100 piece orchestra in Parma, Ohio and just before his 60th birthday 11 years ago, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.
At first, it was just a twitch in his thumb but over the years, his symptoms have slowly escalated. [B Roll 0:00-0:12]
With Rand saying,
“About eight years in, I started experiencing more tremor in my right hand. This was daily and seemed to get worse if I was anxious or nervous. The tremor would really start to be pronounced if I had a deadline coming up for something with the orchestra.” []
And he also started experiencing dyskinesias (dis-kin-ee-shuh-s) - which are involuntary movements that pop up as a complication of long-term use of Parkinson’s medication.
Eventually, though, Rand wasn’t able to control his symptoms with just medication.
But that’s when he learned about deep brain stimulation or DBS from a neurologist at the Cleveland Clinic. []
And the way deep brain stimulation was described to Rand was like a pacemaker for the brain.
A device would be planted in his brain, to deliver electrical currents to specific parts of the brain that control movement.
And those currents would help control the abnormal brain signals that cause Parkinson’s symptoms.
So in May of 2024, Rand went forward with DBS - he went under for the surgeries and had the device implanted in his brain.
And later, it was activated and set up with a programmer who helped fine tune the setting in Rand’s follow-up appointments.
For nearly a year, Rand saw success with DBS and then he heard about a new advancement that could help him even further called aDBS or adaptive deep brain stimulation. []
With Rand’s neurologist saying,
“Traditional DBS gives the same stimulation to the brain 24 hours a day. What makes aDBS different is it can adapt and fine tune the stimulation in real time. By tracking a certain frequency in the brain, it can increase or decrease the stimulation as needed to better control symptoms.” []
And for Rand the conductor, that’s especially helpful, according to his programmer - it reduces the risk of him experiencing tremors during a performance if his medication wears off.
As Rand has used aDBS over the last couple months, his symptoms have continued to improve - saying,
“My tremor is almost all gone, except if I experience extreme anxiety or stress – and my dyskinesia is pretty well under control.” []
Because of that, Rand is able to move forward into his 47th year of conducting. [B Roll 0:55-1:00]
And both he and his neurologist are encouraging people with Parkinson’s to ask about deep brain stimulation - with Rand saying,
“I know the thought of brain surgery can be intimidating, but it’s a life-changing procedure that allows you to become your own self again.” []
