Now we present Herbert Marshall as The Man Called X. The Saturday night feature on NBC's five show festival of comedy, music, mystery and drama brought to you by RCA Victor, world leader in radio, first in recorded music, first in television and by the makers of Anderson for fast relief from pain of headache, neuritis, neuralgia. Herbert Marshall as The Man Called X. Wherever there is mystery, intrigue, romance in all the strange and dangerous places of the world there you will find The Man Called X. Tonight you can sit back and relax and enjoy a good feeling because Christmas shopping is over for another year. Tomorrow you may want to put the last fancy ribbons and wrappings on the packages and scatter them under the tree.  Three worlds of wonderful entertainment will be brought to your fireside and into your home all wrapped up in one matchless RCA Victor instrument with a bright Christmas ribbon around it. Three worlds of entertainment for the whole family to enjoy day after day and year after year. If you're one of those happy families you're in for a wonderful time this weekend and all year because RCA Victor, world leader in radio, first in recorded music and first in television will bring into your home that special morning a very special Merry Christmas. By special request we're repeating this story as a reminder that Christmas is one time of the year when even miracles can happen. A time for a shabby world to lift up its tired eyes and learn once again to hope and to dream and a time for the strangest adventure in the whole career of the man called X. Still don't have any reporter, Mr. Thurston.  All the Tehran lines are out of order. Cairo says there's a terrific storm over the Transjordan Hills. Transjordan? That's right in the route Ken must have taken. You don't think he's running into trouble? All I know is that Ken chartered a plane in Tehran and took off for Egypt with Pagan's alchemy to board. Right now he's four hours overdue at Cairo and there's been no report on him. He must be all right. He's got to be all right. What were you planning to do Christmas, Miss Brooks? Take a trip? Well, no. I thought I'd probably stay here in the city. I mean... I see. Well, he still has time to get home for Christmas. Oh, but Chief, I didn't... It's all right, Miss Brooks. I understand. I don't know. I don't know. There's a dozen simple things that might have happened. But believe me, I'd give a lot to know what Ken's doing right this minute.  How can you even see what the flight is playing? There you go, and I can't. Then what are we going to do? All I'd like to do is that mechanic can get around. What an instrument on this board is working right. The way we've been kicked around in this storm, I don't even know where. Mr. Rex, three engines come down. What do we do now? If I could only get one look at the ground, I don't even know how far up we are. I think I'm as good as death pigeon right this... Look, there's lightning flashing. Here, top of a hill. Get ahead. Look what I hear! If I can get any of those off, hang on, Pagan! We can't just lie there. Say something, Mr. Racer. Can't you hear me? I can hear you, Pagan. Mr. Rex, I don't know. I... Uh-huh. Stand with me here. And look at the world. Yes. All right, I'm coming. Wait for me. I heard you calling out here in the darkness, child. It was you whom I called, sir. The storm was raging, but now... Now it's growing very still. There are a million glittering stars. There can be no storm where I am. Yes, yes, I know. The friend was with me. What about him? He lies there in the great bird that fell from the sky, even as you do. So will it be for a time? I understand. But you, child, why are you here alone in the night? I came to look for one last time at a foolish world before leaving it. Before? I have decided I shall not grow up. Not grow up? You're very young. Younger than I've ever believed. Why have you decided this? Because to grow I must live. Men must want me to live. And no place on earth today can be called my home. Listen, can you not hear it? The voice of the world rising up out of the dark valleys below this hill. Yes, I can hear it. It's so terrible with its jealousy, greed, selfishness, hate. It's not pretty. Can I live and grow up in a world like that? Child, you can't judge mankind from the top of the hill. You have to go down among them. I've been down among them. I've seen their wars and heard rumors of wars. There are other things to hear. But you know how to listen, and I can show them to you. Come with me now. Down in those valleys? How can we? Why not? It's Christmas, so anything can happen. Come along, child. Come with me. The boy who's playing. Tiny Tim? Cripple, isn't he? Yes. Wait. Listen. You play it better every month. It's a great virtue, so you'll be Tiny Tim. It's a marvelous song, dear my boy. Oh, thank you, everyone. Maybe when spring comes, I shall be able to play for pennies in the streets. Then I'll be a help to you, Father. Bless you, lad. No, I think I should tune my fiddle. One string was ever so slightly flat, you know. Such a serious lad. He says strange things sometimes. He told me in church this morning he hoped all the people would see him and remember who made lame beggars walk and blind men see. It's a lucky family we are, Robert. There's few in this world that have as much as we. That's something of a joke, my dear, with the little I'm able to give you. Robert Cratchit. When I think of all the years we've had and such wonderful children, and you always so cheerful and understanding of our needs. Oh, go along with you now. And what about that surprise? I'd almost forgotten it. Now I wonder what it could possibly be. I can guess, Father. A plum pudding, blazing like the sun itself. It's day and merry Christmas to all of us. Yes, and God bless us. God bless us, everyone. Timmy Lad, such a beautiful dish needs a real salute. Take your fiddle and play us an overture to the pudding. Yes, an overture to the pudding. Any reason why you couldn't find a home there, child? Oh, it would be so easy if all people were like them. There are great many like them. If you know where to look. The family we saw. That was the family of a certain Bob Cratchit, a Turk in the London firm of Scrooge and Marley in the year 1840. Oh, the Christmas Carol. Those were not even real people. They came from a book. Must I live then only in old books? This is here and now. These things are different. Are they so very different? Look up. Aren't those the same stars that glittered overhead a hundred years ago? All a thousand? Or ten thousand? Real people sleep in the dirt and never look at the stars. Not all of them. I can think of one right now on the other side of the earth. In a little flat in Queens. I could walk up a certain stairway there tonight and ring a doorbell. Hello, Marion. Oh, Ken, come in. Oh, it's good to see you. Here, let me take some of those packages. Well, thanks. Yes, I was pretty well loaded down. Oh, Thurston Donny, you remember Daddy's friend. Hey, sure I remember. Oh, Mr. Thurston. Hiya, Donny. Look, packages. I'll put you their presents. Take them into the other room, dear, and put them around your tree. All right. Boy, I wonder what's inside of these old packages anyway. Oh, he's growing so fast, Ken. And every day he looks more like Jerry did. Yes, I've noticed that. I wouldn't want it any other way, Ken. That's how it should be. Boy, it's the only reason for my still being alive.  No. It was Jerry who was brave at Anzio. What he did was for Donny, too, you know. Are you getting along all right, Marion? Is there anything you need? We're getting along perfectly. Oh, I resent my job keeping me away from my son in the daytime. But we, the evenings and the park on Sundays and snow and winter and merry-go-rounds and ice cream sodas and... Oh, don't worry about us, Ken. We'll be all right. Yes. If there's one thing in this shaky world, I'm certain of it's that. You'll be all right. Well, child, I could open other doors like that one, many others. But she was a heroine. And they are too few and far between. Try to walk a hundred steps without finding one. I know you. I know you as one who sometimes men call ex. You, too, fight for my cause. But the world is filled with hate and I shall live in it no longer. All right. Then I'll show you why you've got to live. Grow up. Even if it takes proof, so fantastic as to seem incredible. How can you know what I need when you don't even know my name? Would you like me to say it for you? Could you? You know who I am? Yes, child. I know who you are. I know very well who you are. We'll continue with the man called ex in just a moment. The next time you suffer from pains of headache, neuritis, or neuralgia, take Anderson. You'll bless the day you heard of this incredibly fast way to relieve these pains. Now, the reason Anderson is so wonderfully fast-acting and effective is this. Anderson is like a doctor's prescription. That is, Anderson contains not just one, but a combination of medically proven, active ingredients in easy-to-take tablet form. Thousands of people have received envelopes containing Anderson tablets from their own dentist or physician, and in this way discovered the incredibly fast relief Anderson brings from pains of headache, neuritis, or neuralgia. So, the next time a headache strikes, take Anderson for this wonderfully fast relief. Anderson, A-N-A-C-I-N. Anderson comes in handy boxes of 12 and 30, economical family size bottles of 50 and 100. Get Anderson at any drug counter. And now to continue with the man called ex, starring Herbert Marshall with Leon Balasco as Pagan's alchemy. Somewhere between Cairo and Tehran, a plane carrying Ken Thurston and Pagan fought its way through a raging storm. In a blinding flash of lightning, a hilltop loomed ahead, and a second later, the plane smashed into it. Then suddenly the storm was gone, a million cold bright stars glittered overhead, and Ken stood outside on the hilltop, talking to a strange little girl who seemingly came from nowhere, everywhere. Proof indeed that at Christmastime, anything can happen. I want to live and to grow. I've loved this world, seen beautiful things happen in it, and found hope in them. Then each time I've seen that hope die, the world is not grown wise nor clean. The years have only made it old and unclean, not bit to live in. Where's hoping at your child? Hope for both of us? After all, I think we're both searching for the same thing. I'm done with searching, and with hoping, and with living. And what of those who follow you, believe in you? What about those people who all their lives put the needs of humanity above their own needs? Are there such on the earth anymore? Are the stars still overhead? Do you know even one? I know a lot of them. Down in those valleys below us. But let's take just one. A man I've known for a long time. I've got a pretty good idea of where he might find him tonight. Look a long way off, child. Look half around the world. Possibly some stricture there, all right? Thrombus, maybe? How's the pulse so fast? 97, doctor. Well, that's all we can do now. What time is it, Miss Nelson? After midnight. Good lord, no wonder I'm tired. Dr. Richards, I've been a supervisor with this hospital long enough to have a right to contradict you once in a while. About what? You're not tired because it's after midnight. You're tired because you haven't had a decent night's sleep in five years. What more you had to check up at the clinic six months ago?  Oh, they didn't know what they were talking about.  They told you to work only four hours a day. Now when are you going to start doing it? Four hours a day. When people are dying 24 hours a day. There are other doctors. And there are other problems for them, too. While you've seen kids like this come in here year after year, and we can never do a darn thing for them. Well, now after five years, I can do something for them. And in another year, I'll have the technique perfected so every doctor can use it. If you live long enough. Yes, well, I'll live long enough. If I stop now, throw away the chance to beat this thing just so I could live another 20 years, then why there'd be no sense to anything in this world? You've got a life, too, Dr. Richards. Ah, poppycock. Well, I suppose you think I'm a fool, Miss Nelson.  You'd just laugh it off. No.  Can't you believe there are others, child? Other people who think of their fellow men first and themselves second. Yes. Oh, yes, there must be others. And can't they be called believers in you, these selfless people? Yes. But they, too, are heroes. Ordinary people must believe. If I'm to live, then grow up. Well, what could be more ordinary than a boy and girl in love? Paris or London, Vienna, Shanghai, New York, there's nothing in the world so beautifully ordinary as a boy and girl in love. They are fair across the harbor, even like tonight when it's foggy. As long as you're in it, honey, the whole world's lovely. We're terribly lucky, you know. Supposing we hadn't found each other. Well, we couldn't miss. We're unnatural. How could you tell?  You came down the street in a crowd. And all of a sudden, there wasn't any crowd. Only you. So they decided I must be in love. Do you think there may be other people as happy? Somewhere in the world? Not a chance. Oh, there must be. People who are in love, too. Millions of them. I love every one of them. Now I am jealous. No, but you do too. You know you do. It makes you feel close to them. Yeah. I guess I'd do it then. Isn't that a wonderful sound? I can't hear it. When I look at you, all I can hear is music. I can hear it too. Beautiful music in the world. Says I love you. I love you, my darling. But they can see beyond themselves. Sometimes far beyond. Far enough to see you and believe in you. They do want me to live. And grow up. Those who love. There are even greater reasons, child. But they're in a place a long way off from the starlit hill in the dark valleys. And the wrecked plane lying over there. Then we can go to them. We can go anywhere tonight. Because it's Christmas time when anything can happen. We can try. Do you know what time means? It's a stream that falls forever in one direction. We'll have to move against it. For this place lies far up the stream toward the headwaters of time outside the universe a long way off. But we can try. What glorious place is this? To what wondrous spot in all eternity have we come? This is the realm of tomorrow. Things. I have no names for them. There are no names for them, child. They're still a part of tomorrow. This one. Look at it. It's one of tomorrow's dreams, child. Gilded with expectation. Gleaming with fulfillment. That's one of tomorrow's hopes. It's an ideal, not yet realized. It's another part of tomorrow. Wondrous things. Things never seen on the face of the earth. Nor will they ever be. If you decide not to live, why not open it? Find out. I will, I will. We'll be unborn. And there'll never be anything else unless you decide to live. Well, they're so beautiful. It can't be lost. We can't let it be lost. The choice is your, child. It's your choice. It's my choice. Let's go back. Back to the hill and the stars. And the valley. But the voice of hate still stops. Sounds from it. Have you forgotten? No. But hate only sounds big because it has the loudest voice. I can hear another sound. It's a voice from the hearts of heroes. More than heroes. Why not men of good will? Yes. Men of good will. A world that has such men. And you must live for such men. They are the ones who believe in you. Yes. And they must live. I shall live and I shall grow. Wait. Don't go. Yes. Yes. Pig on. Pig on. Look out. Look. Look on the head. Pig on. What? Oh, oh. Mr. X, what happened? Came in for three rough landings dark. Must be not cold for hours. The dawn's starting to break over there. Oh, oh. I'm so stiff. I must have broken a leg or something. Let's get out of this wreck and walk around a little. Mr. First, you shouldn't have walked me up. I was having a beautiful dream. All about money. Yes. I had a dream, too. Hand me that map. Huh? Oh. Oh, here. Was it about money, Mr. X? It was about a little girl. I love a girl. Anybody but no? Well, somebody a lot of people know. And a lot of others ought to know. Yeah? Uh, what's her name? Oh, the French call her Pe. The Romans used to call her Pax. Pig on. Her name is Peace. Peace? That's a strange name.  Come on, Pig on. Let's get out of this wreck. Hey, look, Mr. X, down there in the flat. It's a little town. Yeah. That's what I was checking on the map. Come on. I want to get a wire off to the chief. Which way? Down this path? No, no, Pig on. Straight ahead toward the sunrise. Mr. First, look. The sun's coming up. It's shining on all those houses, turning in purple and red and gold. All kinds of colors. Hey, what's the name of that little town anyway? Pig on. The map is right. If that dream was true, that little town is called Death Limb. Now, here is our star, Mr. Herbert Marshall. Thanks for being with us, and thank you and Whitfield for your sweet performance. I wish I could see all of you out there, and see you and talk with you and shake the hand. Because almost anything can happen at Christmas, I almost feel that I can. And so, I say to you, each of you, for all of us on the man called X, from the bottom of our hearts, Merry Christmas. Next week, Mr. X goes deep into the jungles of the Belgian Congo, the land of voodoo and superstition. And not the least of the things he has to contend with is that old head hunter, Pegon Zershmit, which was by Leon Balasku. So join us, won't you, when next I return, as the man called X. Good night. Man called X, starring Herbert Marshall, is a Saturday night feature on NBC's five-show festival of comedy, music, mystery and drama, brought to you by RCA Victor, world leader in radio, first in recorded music, first in television, and by the makers of Anderson for fast relief from pain of headache, neuritis, neuralgia. The man called X is a J. Richard Kennedy production with music composed and conducted by Felix Mills. Tonight's story was written by Les Crutchfield. All characters and incidents on this program are fictitious, and any resemblance to actual characters or incidents is purely coincidental. Also heard in the night's cast were Will Wright, Barbara Fuller, Derek Snowden, Irene Tedrow, Henry Blair, Theodore Von Outs, Lucille Meredith, Maggie Morley, and Harry Bartell. Be sure to listen tomorrow evening for the big show with Tallulah Bankhead and a great parade of stars. The Sunday night feature of NBC's All-Star Festival. And until next week, same time and same station, this is Jack Latham saying good night for The Man Called X. Dooms of your hit parade. Tomorrow it's the big show on NBC.


Howdy how's it going? My name's Davy Shappie, and welcome to another weird Shappie vlog thing that I still have not properly named, but whatever. Today I'm going to be talking about how to limit your importance as a DM. And I thought that was a really interesting question when it was presented in the comments down below. Like, as a DM, how much effect should you have on the story? How much is too much? And how much is not enough? When are you just being a bystander to somebody else playing the game? And that is a fine line to cross if you don't know exactly how to conceptualize it. So for me, I have ran a lot of games in my time. How big surprise Dungeons & Dragons Man runs Dungeons & Dragons. But for me, the way it's always been is when it comes to in-game, I do not decide what the players do at all. A lot of the time I'm playing from the books, so obviously I have to get them into where the books want them to go. But I don't decide that for the players.  I will have it be where they try to investigate a room, and so I tell them to roll, and then I will tell them what their character does in the context of their ability to roll high.  And then all of a sudden, oh, there's a secret door! Oh, look at how smart you are! Ah! You can never take control of a person's character. That is their person. It is a violation of the statutes of D&D to decide for a character what they do. You can give suggestions of what you would like them to do, maybe, but you can't force them. You can't strong on them into being your little story play things. And I don't think that's what people really mean when they say, how do I limit my importance as a DM? Because I think a lot of people know, hey, you can't play the game for your players. But it is something that's worth mentioning just because it falls under the umbrella. As for talking, like having verbal weight within the game, as a DM, what I do is I will describe the area, I will play the NPCs, I am really the world. So whenever the players need to interact with the world, then I step in and I either explain what they're looking at, or I play the NPC for them. That's perfectly normal. It's a very reactionary thing that you have to do. I try not to, unless the plot is really meandering, I try not to just have an NPC show up at random and be like, hello, yes, I am Mr. Plotman and I am here to show you where the plot is, because that's cheesy and dumb. And it sort of spoils the ability to roleplay. I'll try to have my players talk to each other as much as possible. And sometimes when they're in the middle of traveling, like let's say that they are in one town and then they pick up some horses and they're traveling from one town to the other. Sometimes again, as the plot demands it, as the story demands it, the flow, I will just say, okay, you go from this town to that town. The journey is largely uneventful. You do spot some deer grazing over on the pasture, but that is about as important as your travel is to you. But sometimes if there's like a good place for it, and I try to measure it up so that there is, I'll say, okay, you guys are traveling, please take some time to roleplay with each other. You guys have just had this experience. You just fought off a necromancer in a town and discovered that he not only controls this town, but controls perhaps the entire region, or at the very least has spies. What do you, what do your characters think of that? Discuss it with each other, please. I know it's sort of like a teacher-y thing to do, like, okay, class, please share with the rest of the class how you feel. But it really does help. And after a little while, you won't need to do that anymore, hopefully. And while it does pull away from your ability to play, because you're literally telling the players, hey, leave me out of this, it does make the game better. And if you're talking about limiting your importance as the DM, that is really what it comes down to. As the Dungeon Master, you're only there to make the game better. That is all you're trying to do. And once your actions move beyond that, then it no longer matters. Now, out of game, I probably talk to my players a lot more than I need to. I make a lot of jokes with them, and we're laughing and a whole bunch of things, and I interject my opinion in, like, out of game stuff a whole lot.  Out of game, I'm still a person there. I still intend to be entertained in some way because it's a game. And as much as the players having fun matters, and it should be the thing that matters the most, it isn't the only thing that matters. I'm still a person, and if I'm not getting any enjoyment out of the game, then I'm not going to want to keep playing anymore, and that's the quickest way you could DM burnout. In the game, you are just the vehicle for how the players interact with the world.  And so talking with your friends about things is perfectly fine. And when it comes to that, really, the amount of verbal communication you should be having with your players boils down to how much conversation you should just be having with people in general. If you talk too much, maybe talk a little bit less. If you find yourself not talking that much, I mean, you do you, man. But if you constantly are just breaking the fourth wall to talk to your players while the game is going on, please, I beg of you, stop doing that. You are going to throw the entire game out of whack, unless your players are completely cool with it. Because as I always say, talking to your players and discussing with them about what they would prefer for your game is how you will have good D&D games. Communication is key.  But it is always good to, if there are one or two people, even if there's only one person that is not playing D&D as much as they want to, because everybody else is laughing out of game, then it's your responsibility as the DM to pull everybody in, bring them back into the game. Because honestly, that is what you're there for.  And you should just stop leading them along. Another way of limiting your importance as a DM, and this is a very experimental thing that I've heard people do, but I have not done myself, is you can switch out who is the DM at certain points.  And then as soon as that mini story is over, you pass it along to another group of people, and then you keep going, you cycle all around that way and just have different DMs. It prevents a DM burnout, and it means that if you're worried about being the DM forever and taking too much social time, then not only will you not have to worry about it that much, because you'll be the player, the majority of the time, but you'll also be able to, as the player, see how much is too much time for the DM to just be talking and NPC-ing and explaining scenery and that. You'll be on the opposite end, so you'll be able to see the different point of view. You'll be able to know if the DM is taking up too much time, because you as the player will feel it. And so when you go to be the DM again, you will have that other point of view. That is another thing that I don't talk about enough. Having a different point of view is so very, very important. You want to limit your importance as a DM? Be a player, and then see how annoying the DM is for you. If they're not annoying at all, emulate that person. If they're talking way too much, don't emulate that person, but reflect on how they're talking too much, and try to lower it down when you yourself decide to be a DM. But yeah, that's about as much as I can talk about here. I've rambled on for long enough. I hope you enjoyed this video. Please, if you want to support me, check out all my social media in the description below. But yeah, devio.


I think that vaccines should be given at night to be the most effective. Why? Just a shot in the dark. Since the initial 7 cases in December, over 70 people in California have contracted measles because an unvaccinated carrier decided that they wanted to visit Disneyland. Needless to say, nobody's really happy about that. Fueled by the fear of resurgence of preventable Dudley diseases, many have turned anti-vaxxers into sort of punching bags for both media and social commentary. Even Fox News has started railing against anti-vaxxers as being science deniers. That's Fox News. That's not what I'm interested in here. I totally understand where anti-vaxxers are coming from. Being injected with substances that you don't fully understand, especially in an atmosphere where people are telling you that they might be harmful, is scary. Also, parents are intensely motivated to protect their kids, to feel in control of their welfare, and when the status quo of vaccination doesn't feel like they're doing enough, they'll seek out any way that they can to gain peace of mind that they're doing more than other parents. However, the prevailing scientific consensus is that vaccines are an important and necessary measure against infectious diseases. The vast majority of medical researchers assert that the most commonly cited reasons for not vaccinating are either demonstrably untrue, or reference risk factors that are considerably less risky than being unvaccinated. Vaccines weren't really controversial up until around 1998 when Andrew Wakefield raised some concerns that maybe the MMR vaccine was causing autism, concerns which were later refuted, several times over, by some very large and much better constructed studies than Wakefield ever performed. It's interesting that people would choose to believe amateur anti-vaxx theorists over trained researchers, to believe that there's some bias which extends to the overwhelming majority of medical experts which would cause them all to recommend vaccinations, despite supposedly convincing evidence of their dangers. By definition, that accusation is an accusation of conspiracy, a secret plan by a group of people to do something harmful. Whether medical experts are allegedly refusing to examine the evidence impartially, or are being intimidated into silence by their peers, anti-vaxxers are suggesting that those experts are willingly and actively suppressing the truth in favor of a harmful lie. Now, to be perfectly fair, accusations of conspiracy are sometimes accurate, from President Nixon's underhanded political activity to the Church of Scientology's infiltration of the US government. Those things actually happen. But many theories about conspiracies require a certain pattern of thinking which makes it difficult to recognize whether they're actually plausible or if the tinfoil had lizard people variety. So the question is, in order to decide whether or not to trust a particular scientific consensus, how might a discerning person decide whether an accusation of conspiracy is potentially true in deserving of further investigation, or just misguided crazy talk? What makes a bad conspiracy theory? Well, first, there's disproportionate weighting of evidence. A conspiracy isn't the only alternative to the official story, it's just one among thousands of potential explanations, each with their own degree of likelihood. In order to be worth considering, it's not enough to demonstrate one or two problems with the official story. A plausible conspiracy has to explain ALL of the evidence, including all of the evidence used in support of the official story, better than the official story does. Most bodies of scientific research have a few contradictory results. As noted in the previous episode, most modern papers acknowledge that there's a small chance that their results are an error or a fluke. As such, a theory about a conspiracy which cherry-picks evidence for its own conclusions while ignoring all contradictory evidence, or dismissing it as being a cover-up, is probably just overselling an idea that simply isn't well supported. For example, anti-vaxxers will frequently refer to anecdotal cases of vaccines having caused autism, but they won't really talk about or acknowledge the numerous rigorous scientific studies that demonstrate that there's no causal link between the two. Another commentative bogus conspiracy theories is that they posit an impossibly large number of complicit parties. That's people in the know who ought to come forward who don't for some reason. Considering the incredible lengths that governments go to to screen people for top-secret clearance, and considering the regular failures of even those rigorous systems of secrecy, the idea that thousands upon thousands of researchers and experts would all collectively keep their mouths closed about some dark secret for decades is kind of a stretch. So conspiracies have a whole lot of ground to cover before their plausible explanations for events, yet they still contain all of the drama and allure of a spy thriller while flattering their believers for being smarter than the rest of the sheeple. Compared to the boring mundane story that vaccines work exactly the way the doctors think they do, a conspiracy, or a secret that they don't want you to know, is way more exciting. But buying into that conspiracy theory and confirmation bias isn't a rational decision. It puts both the child and everybody who comes in contact with them at significantly increased risk. And the more resources that scientists have to pour into constantly reasserting accepted scientific principles in media and refuting any accusations of some sort of scientific conspiracy, the more dangerous the world those children live in becomes. After all, evolution isn't going to wait around for us to be ready for the next big disease, and it would be very helpful if we didn't also have to fight battles that we've already won. What's your favorite conspiracy theory? Is it actually plausible? Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think. Thank you very much for watching. Don't forget to blah blah subscribe, blah share, and don't stop thunking.


Good evening everyone and welcome. This is Melissa Armand with Snock Swoosh and here I am doing a market review of the Spy and I just decided tonight I'm gonna give everyone a wonderful, wonderful present. I'm in the Spy options long already. I've been in them for two months. This is my gift to you for all the people out there. Now, you're gonna look at this here. This is gonna be from the close today at four o'clock, so this isn't gonna be current tomorrow morning. It'll be different. This is the biggest trade that I'm probably ever gonna do in my life of the profit. And if you want to take it now, you can pay less than I paid to be in it. Here we go. Here's the call. September 16th options. Long the Spy. This is so crazy. Tomorrow morning, if you want to do this, you can do 250 calls for the Spy long. You could pay four cents. Four cents. So what does that mean? That means if you wanted to get ten contracts, it'd be $40. A hundred contracts would be $400. Okay? Contracts. I mean, this is starting to get ridiculous, but you get my point. Anyways, this is the one that I'm in. I'm in it. I'm in it for a while. I'm down. It's going to play out. I know no one believes me, but you should. And I feel like I can make this call now aggressively to everyone on the planet because it is going to work and it's one of the most crazy calls. So it is February 17th. Now, let's just look at this. All right. In an ideal world, let's just say we get to February to March, March to April, April to June, June to July, July to August, August to September, six months. Let's say five months before. Hold on. Let me just figure something out. All right. By June, let's say we moved 20% by June. 20% by June is 231. February, March, April, May, June, 231, 230, 230, which is $15 over the high. All right. Let me just look at something here. Hold on. You want the chance of a lifetime? I'm giving it to you now. Super. Pay attention. Let me just look at, actually, what is, if something today, I'm just trying to configure $193. And this is assuming it would expire this week, which we're not looking at, but I'm just trying to get an idea here. One night at the money. All right. Worst case scenario. Here. How did they was more than that? How did they was 126? Well, let's just say a dollar. All right. Let's just be conservative. $1. You pay four cents. If you pay four cents and it's at the money by the time in September. Actually, this is 103. Let's just say make a dollar. A dollar. One dollar means that's insane. This is what I'm talking about people. Let me just figure out what I would make because I paid more than a dollar. Hold on. Is this right? Yeah. Worst case scenario for me because I'm in this early. I've been in this for a while, so I paid more than four cents. Worst case scenario for me, I make $24,600. But for you, because I'm giving you this call now at a great, great entry here, you're going to pay four cents. I paid more than four cents, although it's going to work out. I could, I could buy more and cost average my price down. I might do that. Actually, let me just see if I took, I might, I might, I might do that. But I don't know. I have to think about it. But the point I'm trying to make is that if you bought this now tomorrow for four cents, 250 calls for September 16, 2016. What I'm trying to say is that you would pay four cents. Profit would be a dollar minus four cents. It would be 96 cents. That's an unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable risk to reward. And this is what I'm talking about. Now, if you don't understand what I'm saying, let me just try to put it in layman's terms. Let's say you spent four cents. Four cents times, say you got 100 contracts, which is 100 shares. Let's say you spent $400. $400 you spent for 100 contracts. You really believed in them. 100 contracts is 10,000 shares. Now, follow me here. Let's say it gives you a dollar minus your cost of four cents, 96 cents times 10,000. That means you'd make $9,600. Now you got to play it out. You're in this till September. It's a long-term trade. Today is only February 17. But I'm saying that's unbelievable. 9,600 divided by 400. That's a 24-hour trade. This is a good trade. And I've been in this since December and I knew it. I knew it. But to make a long story short, I'm giving this call. Anybody that wants to do it, this is so dirt cheap. You could spend 40 bucks and get 10. You could spend $400 and get 100. 100 contracts in an option is like 10,000 shares. That's a lot. That's a lot by anyone's standards. Day trading, swing trading, contracts, anything. Good luck, everyone. Market is higher. I told you. No one believes me. How do I know? How did I know? How did I know? Anything, anything at all. The anomaly day. Remember the day that the market opened and swooshed and negated the swoosh? It was not going to break that. And it did not. This doesn't count as a break. And I talked about this in the weekend video. This is so bullish. Ever since the Friday, yeah. Ever since the day in here, I said to myself, wow, this was hugely bullish. And we gapped up and gapped up and rallied huge. And we're gapping up tonight. So good luck, everyone. Great job, those of you who are long to spy and are ready and are up money or making money or playing it out or holding the conviction. Have a great night, everyone. Email me and Melissa at thesockswush.com if you want more information. Bottom line is, long-term playing the spy is to make a brand new all-time high this year. Look for the numbers to be hit. Risk to reward is absolutely ridiculousness. You can look at it however you want. You can hold it to the target. You can hold it to the dream target.  Good luck, everyone. If you'd like to take the next Golden Gap class, email me and Melissa at thesockswush.com and have a great night.


Hi, and welcome to Around the World in 8 Minutes, a show at People's Dispatch where we bring in stories from working class struggles from across the world. Buenos Aires, where hundreds are participating in the mobilization of solidarity with the Bolivarian Revolution and President Nicolás Maduro. Hours ago Juan Guaido de Venezuela announced he appointed himself interim president of Venezuela and went to explore the council of transition. His declaration was welcomed by the United States, Canada, Colombia, Paraguay, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, who all declared their support of Guaido. And for more news, we head back to the studio. Thank you Zoe. After US President Donald Trump's recognition of leader of National Assembly Juan Guaido as Venezuela's president, tens of thousands of Venezuelans came out on the streets in support of President Nicolás Maduro. Speaking to the people on Wednesday afternoon from the Miraflores Palace in Caracas, Maduro denounced the actions that attempt to violate the will of the people. In a major declaration, he said that Venezuela will cut all diplomatic relationships with the United States and the personnel have 72 hours to leave the country. On Wednesday, nearly two weeks after swearing in of the democratically elected President Nicolás Maduro, Juan Guaido unilaterally declared himself interim president of the country. According to experts, this action is invalid as the Venezuelan Supreme Court has taken over the legislative power of the National Assembly for contempt of court in 2017. This move came after the swearing in of three lawmakers who had been suspended by the court over alleged electoral fraud. The recent development comes in amid a minor mutiny attempt against the Venezuelan government. On Monday, the Ministry of Defense announced that the Bolivarian Armed Forces of Venezuela contain an attack on the facilities in Caracas by a group of defecting soldiers from the Bolivarian National Guard. Many believe that this was orchestrated by Venezuelan far-right elements with support from the United States. Presidential elections were held in Venezuela in May 2018 and were called for by the National Constituent Assembly. Ahead of the elections, a sector of the far-right opposition called for a boycott of the elections and was supported by the U.S. and the conservative Latin America allies of the Lima Group. On May 21, 2018, with over six million votes cast in his favor, Nicholas Maduro was re-elected as president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Henry Falcon, the main opposition candidate, came in second place with 21 percent of the votes and Javier Berthoussi and Evangelical Pastor came in third with 10 percent of the votes. Despite the high levels of participation from all sectors of Venezuelan society, the U.S. and their allies remained firm in the rejection of the elections and reported that they would not respect Maduro's term beginning on January 10. On August 4 last year, an attempt was made to assassinate Maduro using drones loaded with explosives, which were later neutralized by Venezuelan forces. Few days before that, Maduro publicly denounced that a coup attempt was being planned against him with support from Colombia and the U.S. He further noted that hundreds of right-wing paramilitaries were being trained on the Venezuela-Colombia border for launching attack against Venezuela. Despite the latent coup threat, tens of thousands took to the streets of Caracas and across the region to show their support for Maduro and their support for the Bolivarian Revolution. Mobilizations were also organized in several cities across Latin America, such as Lima, Peru, Buenos Aires, San Jose, Costa Rica and elsewhere. Terming the decision by the United States as imperialistic, people's mobilizations in the region in support of Venezuela chanted, Yankees go back. In our next story, we look at the civil society resistance against the attempts at the World Economic Forum 2019 in Davos to launch negotiations for a plurilateral agreement on e-commerce. Terming the move as digital colonization, the organizations have said such a move is in favor of global multinational corporations. World Economic Forum is a platform for the global ultra-rich and corporates to interact with leaders of various countries. Though WEF is called as an international institution for public-private corporations, the forum is basically a lobbying arena for the global rich. To know more about the issue of e-commerce and its effects on people, we talked to Beni Kuruvela, a researcher at the Transnatural Institute. The World Economic Forum that is currently convening in Davos is yet again trying to entrench the power of the global elite in this time by attempting to launch negotiations on e-commerce. Global negotiations on e-commerce have been very controversial, especially at the World Trade Organization. The WTO has been unable for the last few years to move forward on this as many developing countries oppose to yet another new set of trade rules that are stacked against them. This agenda for e-commerce rules is pushed by tech giants such as Amazon, Google and Facebook along with the US and EU governments. What they want is complete market access to developing countries, insulation from national regulation on the digital economy, with no taxes on digital transactions that could be crossing borders and free flow of data to their servers. And the WFEF idea is that a coalition of willing countries in Davos will launch these negotiations and then coerce other countries to join and then sooner or later it will become a global agreement under the WTO. In our last story for this episode we take you to India where hundreds of thousands of civilian defense employees are on a three-day strike against the anti-working class measures being employed by the far-right government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. More than 400,000 workers are striking against this government's privatization rampage and disinvestment in defense public sector undertakings. The strike which began on Wednesday has been declared a complete success as army workshops, naval dockyards, station workshops, army depots etc across the country witnessed a complete shutdown. C. Sri Kumar, General Secretary of all India Defense Employees Federation told People's Dispatch that in all major defense units in Delhi, Chennai, Pune, Jabalpur, Kanpur, Mumbai etc and other units which are in isolated areas the strike was a success. He said the strike will go on till 6 a.m. on January 26th and has brought all the government control defense industries to a standstill. The other two unions, Indian National Defense Workers Federation and Bhartya Pratiraksha Mazdoor Sangh along with the AIDEF are the major defense employees federations under which the 400,000 defense civilian employees are on strike. In a press release issued by the AIDEF prior to the strike, the union stated that under the guise of the government's much-hyped policy of making India, the authorities are giving defense manufacturing contracts to private and multinational corporates. 100% foreign direct investment in defense has also been introduced for this purpose but these products were already being manufactured by public sector ordinance factories whose fate has now become uncertain. The striking workers are also demanding their right to pension which has been taken away under the national pension system. Under the NPS, employees are only receiving mega pension amounts of rupees 1000 to rupees 2000 as opposed to the minimum amount of rupees 9000 plus a daily allowance under the defined pension scheme. That's all for this episode of Around the World in 8 Minutes. To know more such stories of people's movements and struggles, log on to our website peoplesisfast.org and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.