I went down the history rabbit hole and decided to write a small timeline about the laws that created and push the stigma against cannabis. To start, we can't talk about the stigma without mentioning the guy who started it all; our good-ol' friend Harry Anslinger.

Harry Anslinger (The guy that screwed us)

Anslinger was a United States government official who served as the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN, now known as the DEA) until 1962. He was a supporter of prohibition and the criminalization of drugs while spreading anti-drug policy campaigns. Who, with the end of alcohol prohibition threatening his influential position, manufactured a drug war and used his position to prop cannabis up as a dangerous substance in order to criminalize it.
Known for some aggressive racist comments:
"Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men," in addition to, "There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the U.S., and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others."
“American youth is jeopardized by the weed— those who are lured into user of marihuana are destined to be transformed into moral and mental degenerates— some raving maniacs, other violent criminals”
And for assaulting/blackmailing the American Medical Association to submission:
Ilegally halting virtually all research into marijuana while he blackmailed the American Medical Association (AMA)* into denouncing the New York Academy of Medicine and its doctors for the research they had done.
Being the petty asshole he is, had prosecuted more than 3,000 AMA doctors for illegal prescriptions through 1939.
Read more:https://jackherer.com/emperor-3/chapter-5/
You can just look around anywhere to learn more about Anslinger, but as we are about to see, Mr.Anslinger was involved in just about most major anti-cannabis legislation.

Uniform State Narcotic Drug Act 1934

During the Reefer Madness (1934) era (peak anti-cannabis year), concern about the rising use of marijuana and research linking its use with crime and other social problems created pressure on the federal government to take action. Rather than promoting federal legislation, the FBN (Anslinger) strongly encouraged state governments to accept responsibility for control of the problem by adopting the Uniform State Narcotic Act. The act prohibited production of narcotic drugs within state borders, except by specific license and under strict regulation and authorized states to exercise police power to seize drugs and punish lawbreakers.
Although the marijuana provisions remained supplemental to the main body of the act, any state wishing to regulate sale and possession of marijuana was instructed to simply add cannabis to the definition of 'narcotic drugs, in which case all the other provisions of the act that apply to opiates and cocaine applies to cannabis as well.

Marihuana Tax Act 1937

The federal government would continue to oppress cannabis in the United States until cannabis was effectively made illegal with the passage of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 (drafted and introduced by Anslinger himself).
Under the Marihuana Tax Act, every person who sells, acquire, dispense, or possess marijuana must register to the Internal Revenue Service and pay special occupational taxes.
Under the act:

• Individual possession and sale of marijuana effectively became illegal.
• Medicinal use of marijuana was still legal, but it created a very expensive fee system to tax its use.
• Anyone who bought, sold, imported, distributed, cultivated or prescribed it as medicine had to pay a tax.
• Anyone who did not pay the tax could be punished by either a fine of $2,000, 5 years in prison, or both.
• Sale of medicinal marijuana required extensive record keeping.

More: https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-marijuana-tax-act-of-1937.html

The Boggs Act 1951

In the late 1940s, Anslinger launched an attack on judges, claiming that the drug problem was caused by too-lenient sentences imposed on drug offenders. This was picked up by Anslinger disciples in Congress and resulted in legislation—the Boggs Act, signed by President Truman on November 2, 1951, and amended by the Narcotics Control Act, signed by President Eisenhower on July 18, 1956.
These acts introduced severe mandatory minimum punishments following conviction; a first offense for marijuana possession carried a sentence of 2-5 years in prison and a $2,000 fine (the equivalent of $20,000 today); a second offense would get you 5-10 years, and for a third offense you were looking at 10-20 years behind bars.
https://www.worldofcannabis.museum/post/tdich-nov2-theboggsact

The single Convention on Narcotic Drugs 1961 (Scheduling begins)

The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 is an international treaty to prohibit production and supply of specific (nominally narcotic) drugs and of drugs with similar effects except under licence for specific purposes, such as medical treatment and research.
In an effort to make narcotic drugs available for legitimate medical use while also curtailing drug abuse, the parties placed narcotic drugs into four schedules. Classification of a narcotic drug and the type of regulation that would be imposed on that drug substance would depend on a drug's potential for abuse as well as its medical benefit.
Unlike the Controlled Substance act (CSA), the special class of drugs in schedule IV (CSA Equivalent Schedule I) exhibit strong addiction-producing properties or a high liability of abuse that cannot be offset by medical benefits or that poses too great a risk to public health to hazard using them commonly in medical practice.Cannabis, and heroin (diamorphine) were added as schedule IV drugs.
Read more: https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/single-convention-narcotic-drugs
Read Article 28 : https://www.incb.org/documents/Narcotic-Drugs/1961-Convention/convention_1961_en.pdf

Controlled Substance Act 1971 (Rescheduling)

We all know this one,
The CSA was signed into law by President-disgrace Richard Nixon on October 27, 1970 and superseded the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. Under the federal Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is currently categorized as a Schedule 1 drug – that is, a drug with high potential for abuse with no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the U.S.
The DEA justifies marijuana’s Schedule I classification by the lack of U.S. research on the substance. But scheduling itself prevents research which could show marijuana’s medical efficacy and safety. The DEA has effectively blocked marijuana researchers from being able to follow the standard FDA development process for bringing a new drug to market as a prescription medicine. U.S. researchers face daunting regulatory hurdles to studying any Schedule I drug, including a rigorous approval process by both the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for every trial.
Read more: https://drugpolicy.org/sites/default/files/marijuana-scheduling_january_2019_0.pdf

Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986

President Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, instituting mandatory sentences for drug-related crimes. In conjunction with the Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1984, the new law raised federal penalties for marijuana possession and dealing, basing the penalties on the amount of the drug involved.
Possession of 100 marijuana plants received the same penalty as possession of 100 grams of heroin. A later amendment to the Anti-Drug Abuse Act (Clinton/Biden’s Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994) established a "three strikes and you're out" policy, requiring life sentences for repeat drug offenders, and providing for the death penalty for "drug kingpins”. Specifically:
Three Strikes" statute provides for mandatory life imprisonment if a convicted felon: (1) has been convicted in federal court of a "serious violent felony"; and (2) has two or more previous convictions in federal or state courts, at least one of which is a serious violent felony (the other offense may be a serious drug offense)
More: https://www.findlaw.com/criminal/criminal-procedure/three-strikes-sentencing-laws.html#:~:text=Under%20the%20Violent%20Crime%20Control,courts%2C%20at%20least%20one%20of
Despite the growing number of states that legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes or recreational use, it remains a federal offense to cultivate, distribute, sell, purchase, possess, or use marijuana. Now in 2021 USA, with the senate majority leader being a democrat, we must push together as a community towards the rescheduling and legalization of cannabis.
So what can we do?
One of the simplest form of activism is to call your local representative and let them know your views on marijuana. You can also call your state’s congressional representative and tell them they need to become part of the cannabis caucus. But most importantly, remain involved, because the biggest enemy of any cause is apathy.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, drugs and alcohol remain a significant occupational safety issue for employers across the country. The legal environment is rapidly changing for many drugs, and additional drug use and/or drug impairments has found its way into the workplace. While the height of the opioid epidemic has receded, media reports high levels of overdoses due to synthetic opioids (e.g. fentanyl). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) overdose deaths at work from non-medical use of drugs or alcohol increased by at least 25% annually between 2013 and 2017. The 272 workplace overdose deaths reported in 2017 accounted for 5.3% of occupational injury deaths.
Marijuana remains a Schedule I Controlled Substance under the federal Controlled Substances Act, meaning that its possession is unlawful under federal law. Yet on January 1, 2020, Illinois became the eleventh state to legalize adult use of recreational cannabis. Twenty-eight states, the District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico permit residents to use medical marijuana, while at least 17 other states allow the use of products of certain products with lower levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive chemical in marijuana.
Employment-based drug testing services have reported wide-spread increases in positivity rates for marijuana in those states that have legalized marijuana. Additional legalizations of recreational marijuana likely will create additional workplace impairments across the county.
Challenges Posed by Drugs and Alcohol in the Workplace Drug and alcohol impairments can hinder employee judgment and motor skills. These effects can result in near misses, accidents, injuries, and property damage. Accidents may injure employees, coworkers, contractors, and members of the public. In our practice, we have seen significant employee injuries where impaired employees have errantly turned a powered industrial truck, removed a guard on an operational machine, detached a personal fall arrest system while working on a platform 80 feet in the air, and walked in front of a piece of heavy machinery.
Safety hazards are just the tip of the iceberg. Drug and alcohol impairments can result in poor performance, workplace mistakes, reduced output, and poor morale. Employees may be more likely to engage in theft or shift workloads to other employees. Impairment increases the likelihood of sexual harassments in the workplace, in all of its forms, including sexual assault. Impairments are correlated with workplace violence incidents, including physical assaults on employees.
Employers would be wise to recognize the risks posed by drugs and alcohol to the workplace, and take action to address the hazard through a comprehensive program and testing regime.
Prevalence of Drug Addiction As you know, many Americans use drugs and alcohol in a casual, recreational setting. However, it is well understood that individuals can form physical, chemical addictions to virtually all forms of drugs, legal and illegal. After nicotine, alcoholism is the most common chemical addiction among Americans. According to the National Safety Council, approximately 1 in 13 working adults has an alcohol use disorder. Among working adults, nearly 2% were addicted to marijuana. Workers in construction and extraction experience the highest rates of substance use disorders, with 15.6% of employees on average living with a substance use disorder. The highest rate of prescription pain medication disorders were among people in the services sector.
Under the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM–5), the criteria for drug addiction emphasizes continued use of the drug despite the user’s knowledge of adverse consequences. Perhaps on account of this phenomena, physical addiction is the major driver of workplace drug use and impairment. Yet one of the least understood components of workplace drug and alcohol programs is how to deal with employee addiction.
Crafting Drug and Alcohol Policies Safety sensitive employees are those individuals for whom a drug or alcohol impairment could significantly endanger their safety or the safety of others. Safety sensitive employees typically perform functions like driving trucks, operating heavy equipment, or mixing caustic chemicals (this list is non-exhaustive). Safety professionals recommend zero tolerance policies for impairing drugs for those in safety sensitive positions. Zero tolerance means that employers would not tolerate drug use or impairment at any level for those employees. Employers may lawfully implement zero tolerance policies and prohibit possession, use, impairment, or distribution in the workplace.
Zero tolerance policies will have numerous components. One of the most overlooked components of a policy is the definition of prohibited drugs -- we recommend that clients proscribe controlled substances, synthetic drugs, analogs, and popular non-psychoactive cannabinoids like CBD. Managers should be trained on how to spot someone impaired by drugs and alcohol. Impairment can be assessed or confirmed through drug testing. Drug testing can also be a helpful tool in a post-incident context, to help determine the root cause of an incident.
Alleged violations of a drug and alcohol policy should be subject to comprehensive investigation. We recommend appropriate disciplinary policies, to be applied consistently across the workforce. As explained above, safety professionals recommend that employers use zero tolerance policies to reduce the likelihood of accidents or injuries. However, zero tolerance does not mean that every employee who violates the policy must be immediately discharged. Rather, many employers may use Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) and other resources to help employees with addiction issues take a break from the workplace, treat their addiction, and return to work.
Employees are valuable in terms of human capital, knowledge, experience, and training; substance abuse can be a temporary condition overcome with treatment and/or psychological counseling. Accordingly, as mental health issues have been increasingly destigmatized, many employers are using EAP as a lawful and helpful solution to addiction and substance abuse.
Disability Protections Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) specifically permits employers to ensure that the workplace is free from the illegal use of drugs and the use of alcohol. Generally speaking, the ADA does not prevent employers from prohibiting the use, impairment, and possession of alcohol and drugs, as well as paraphernalia in the workplace under federal and state law. An employer may discharge or deny employment to persons who currently engaged in the illegal use of drugs, or are under the influence of alcohol.
However, the ADA protects employees with mental and physical disabilities -- including mental health disabilities, depression, alcoholism, and drug addiction. Current users of illegal drugs are not protected under the ADA. Casual users of illegal drugs and alcohol are not protected under the ADA, as they are not “substantially limited” in a major life activity from drug use. The ADA creates a limited protection from discrimination for (1) employees who are recovering drug abusers and for alcoholics, (2) employees who have been successfully rehabilitated and who are no longer engaged in the illegal use of drugs or inappropriate use of legal drugs or alcohol, (3) employees who are currently participating in a rehabilitation program and are no longer engaging in the illegal use of drugs or the inappropriate use of legal drugs or alcohol, and (4) employees who are erroneously regarded as illegally using drugs or abusing alcohol.
These employees are protected from discrimination by their employer on the basis of a history of drug addiction, attendance at Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings, or similar. Employers may not hold drug addicts or alcoholics to a higher standard of performance or attendance. Employers cannot subject employees to medical inquiries (unless they are “job related and consistent with business necessity”) such as inquiries about a personal history of mental illness or alcoholism. However, an employer does not violate the ADA when it engages in reasonable suspicion, post-accident, or return-to-duty drug testing.
The ADA creates a duty to engage in an “interactive process” with employees who raise a disability and find a “reasonable accommodation” where possible accommodate their disability. If a recovering drug addict is not currently illegally using drugs (or abusing legal drugs or alcohol), then he or she may be entitled to reasonable accommodation. Reasonable accommodations may include a modified work schedule so the employee could attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings or a leave of absence so the employee could seek treatment. However, it goes without saying that there is no duty to accommodate an employee by permitting drug or alcohol impairment at work. Nor does the employer have to forgive misconduct because the misconduct resulted from alcoholism or drug addiction.
Takeaways Drugs and alcohol create unique challenges in the work environment. In the post-COVID pandemic world with many employees working from home, it may be harder to ensure that employees comply and do not engage in drug use or impairment while at work. To minimize liabilities, employers should develop robust drug and alcohol policies. Many employers work with outside counsel to create lawful policies and drug testing programs. If faced with drug-related accidents, employers should consider promptly contacting counsel to prepare a response and properly assert their defenses.
NOTE: If you wish to receive complimentary copies of this article and future articles on OSHA and employment law related topics, please contact Mark A. Lies, II at [email protected] or Adam R. Young at [email protected] to be added to the address list.
Mark A. Lies, II is a Labor and Employment Law attorney and Partner with Seyfarth Shaw LLP. Mr. Lies can be contacted at 312-460-5877 or [email protected].
Adam R. Young is an attorney in the Workplace Safety and Environmental Group in the Chicago office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. Mr. Young can be contacted at [email protected] or 312-460-5538.

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This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 63%. (I'm a bot)

Employers have a duty to keep workplaces free from known hazards-including coronavirus-related dangers-under Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards.
Although the agency hasn't implemented any coronavirus-specific workplace safety standards, employers still must comply with existing standards that cover pandemic-related safety risks.
All employers must provide a work environment that is "Free from recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm," according to the Occupational Safety and Health Act's general duty clause.
Employers should review applicable state laws in addition to federal guidelines, as many states now require employers to provide COVID-19 workplace safety training to employees.
Even in states where training is not explicitly required, employers should consider providing all employees COVID-19 workplace safety training that is consistent with guidelines from OSHA and the CDC. Employers that provide up-to-date training can demonstrate their concern for employee safety and minimize the risk of government enforcement actions, workers' compensation liability and employee litigation.
The CDC advises most employers to send employees home when they've had a risk of COVID-19 exposure under the agency's "Close contact" definition.

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Tl;DR: RSVP here for the Joint Labor Management Meeting Thursday from 11am-12pm; UCSB hasn’t made any determination on whether any course is in-person or online; UCOP Is asking for Flexibility; UCOP is still making plans for campus reopening; Nurses in UC Medical Centers are struggling.
Hey Reddit,
I wanted to follow up on a previous post that I made regarding UCOPs intention for the Fall Quarter. Our Union, UAW 2865 (Representing TAs, Tutors, and Readers), are continuing to have meetings with UCOP and UCSB Administration, in which they have provided some pretty shaky responses.
Importantly, we are having a Joint Labor Management Meeting with UCSB Administration this Thursday, August 20th, from 11am-12pm to try to receive answers on how the university plans to keep us safe with the planned campus reopening and resumption of in-person instruction. We would like to invite everybody in our community to attend this meeting and hopefully receive substantive responses on fall quarter developments. Everyone is welcome to come! RSVP for this meeting here. Even if you can’t make it to the meeting, you can submit questions for UCSB admin in the RSVP form.
As with the last post, here are some of the conversations that we have had with UCSB/UCOP regarding Covid. I have edited these conversations for brevity, understandability, and clarity.
Here’s the definition of some of the commonly used terms:
ASE: Academic Student Employee (anyone who is a student and working as a TA, reader, tutor, or associate instructor).
UCOP: UC Office of the President, the central administrative authority in the UC system
RFI: Request for Information (These are requests for documents and information that Unions perform, where the university is legally obligated to give a truthful response).
UCSB Response to UAW 2865 RFI on Campus Reopening
(Here is a link to the official document)
UAW 2865 Request: A list of ASEs currently hired for the Fall 2020 quarter who may be expected to conduct any portion of their duties on-campus
UCSB Response: No determination has been made yet on which ASEs, if any, will be expected to conduct any portion of their duties on campus.
UAW 2865 Request: A list of all courses that are currently scheduled, either fully or partially, in person.
UCSB Response: No determination has been made on which courses will be remote or in-person.
UAW 2865 Request: Minutes from all planning team meetings that discussed remote or face-to-face instruction.
UCSB Response: This document doesn’t exist; minutes from planning discussions were not taken.
UAW 2865 Request: All policies or guidelines that have been, are being, or will be used to determine the in-person scheduling of courses.
UCSB Response: The University is monitoring public health recommendations, including guidance from the California Department of Public Health. No determinations have been made on which classes will be in-person.
UAW 2865 Request: All policies or guidelines regarding safety protocols for in-person instruction during the COVID crisis.
UCSB Response: The University has and will continue to use public health recommendations, including guidance from the California Department of Public Health recommendations for institutions of higher education, which can be found at: https://files.covid19.ca.gov/pdf/guidance-higher-education--en.pdf
UCOP Response to UAW RFI On Campus Fees
(Here is a link to the official documents (includes other campuses))
UAW 2865 Request: Will students continue to pay fees in the fall for services they
cannot access? Will student fees for Undergraduates and Graduate students be
suspended for the duration of the pandemic?
TLDR: No, this is not subject to union bargaining, but we will give you this information anyway.
UCOP Response: Most of the information that the UAW requested above relates to the University’s overall response to COVID, which is not subject to bargaining, and not to the bargaining of effects of remote learning or other changes to instruction on behalf of NSF. Nonetheless, the University will provide responsive information under the CPRA as it becomes available.
The COVID pandemic is a rapidly changing, unprecedented situation. The University is formulating policy as the situation evolves. The campuses maintain websites which contain up to date information about COVID and remote learning.
Subject to and notwithstanding the objections above, see the attached chart with responses from each campus regarding campus fees. To the extent that non-privileged responsive documents exist at the campus level that are not already in the possession of UAW, the University will produce responsive documents.
[Note: This is a list of fees that UCSB decided to waive or change]
UCSB Response: Housing is waiving late-payment fees. Parking is providing prorated refunds to students who submit a permit-cancellation request. The Graduate Division is waiving petition, advancement to candidacy, and thesis submission fees for spring quarter. The Recreation Center is working to provide services this quarter, such as virtual exercise classes. The $50 late tuition payment fee for Spring Quarter was not charged.
UCOP Response to UAW Reopening and Communication Plans
(Here is folder containing the full Universities Response (includes other campuses))
UAW 2865 Request: All documents relating to: Research Protocols, Contact Tracing, Air Filtration, OSHA notifications, Restroom protocols, Cleaning standards, Priority office space for parents.
TLDR: No, this is not subject to union bargaining, but we will give you this information anyway.
UCOP Response: Most of the information that the UAW requested above relates to the University’s overall response to COVID, which is not subject to bargaining, and not to the bargaining of effects of remote learning or other changes to instruction on behalf of NSF. Nonetheless, the University will provide responsive information under the CPRA as it becomes available.
The COVID pandemic is a rapidly changing, unprecedented situation. The University is formulating policy as the situation evolves. The campuses maintain websites which contain up to date information about COVID and remote learning.
Subject to and notwithstanding the objections above, see the attached chart with responses from each campus regarding campus fees. To the extent that non-privileged responsive documents exist at the campus level that are not already in the possession of UAW, the University will produce responsive documents.
[UCSB Provided a folder with email communications and protocols, mostly related to Research Ramp up protocols. Here is the link to all those documents.]
UAW 2865 Statewide Joint Labor Management Meeting
(Note: UCSB and UCLA did not show up to the Meeting)
Jonathan (UAW 2865 Staff): Will the UC ask TA’s to teach in person?
Nadine Fishel (UC Labor Relations): This is a work in progress and I think that's reasonable at this stage.
...
Jonathan: We need all the info for people to be able to plan, also it’s a little concerning that four of the campuses don’t know or don’t have data. It would be good to review what data there is.
Nadine Fishel: Decisions are still being made. Everyone wants to make sure we only have in person courses with respect to safe instruction, we want to only bring people back to campus where necessary….we will commit to getting you that information.
Tom (UAW 2865 UCD): The Gov released guidance on Friday, we’re taking a look, largely commensurate with K-12 guidance. We have a few questions on the university understanding of that guidance. “In order to offer indoor lectures, the governor's guidance says that epidemiological trends must be stable or decreasing for 14 days in an area and counties on the watchlist for 3 days can’t offer indoor lectures. Currently every county that is home to a UC is on the watchlist.” What’s University’s plan if campuses are in counties on watchlist?
TLDR: We are looking into it.
Nadine Fishel: This is why you don’t have answers. Trying to have as few classes in person as possible. There might be a minimal amount of duties that need to be done on campus, but not most. Which is how we’re doing research. … Everyone is looking at the governor's guidance to see how to apply it. Nick opened with an important statement, which is that studios and labs--we’re looking carefully at disciplines that cannot operate in a remote learning environment, trying to limit those courses as much as possible. I’m sure you’d agree that there are courses that are problematic to teach that way.
Tom: Do you have a written Covid-prevention plan?
TLDR: No, it’s complicated
Nadine Fishel: The University is developing those plans, there are EHS people very involved. That state federal and local protocols are implemented properly. I’m unaware of what stages those protocols are in. Now remember that they include much more than delivery of education: students living on campus, cleaning, hospitals, … all these ancillary services that may be open and may not be open. It’s not as simple as saying we’re gonna teach these courses on campus. No question that there has to be adherence with respect to masking, sanitation, don’t know that gloves are necessarily part of the protocol. Looking at how much hand sanitizer, where they're stationed, etc. If I had those answers I'd’ give them to you, but we don’t have those answers.
Jonathan: Part of the governors protocol is training and working with workers about the [COVID prevention] plan. Given decentralized nature so far, the level of detail required to make these plans comprehensive and compliant, … does university think that this is doable before the fall quarter?
TLDR: We think so, but there's many factors
Nadine Fishel: I think so. One reason UC Berkeley and Merced are starting off in remote environments the first 4 weeks is to match up, get things going, understand how to launch into an in person environment as little as possible but where necessary. Just a little soon for both those campuses to start in person classes etc. We may never see Berkely or Merced open up. Quarter campuses saying after thanksgiving that’s it. Regardless of what kind of class, they won’t be back on campus after thanksgiving. Part of all the unknown …. One more factor. We’re still learning how many students are coming back. What I heard is that typical SIR dropoff is 7%. We don’t know why, but its around 7% of people who SIR don’t attend the school. This year we’re expecting 20% of those who sent in their intent to register to back out.
We know that we are not going to have all the international graduate students attend UC that have in the past, we’ll talk about that later. That does mean that depending on the courses, there should be very good opportunities for graduate students, particularly American graduate students and those in the US, to be employed in the fall.
Jonathan: I will explain why we’re skeptical about meeting guidance in the Fall... We think campuses should follow the lead of Berkeley and Merced, start off with remote instruction, use that time to work on policy as it needs to be worked on.
Gwen (UAW 2865 UCD): I have a question about plans for student discipline for students who don’t attend by the interim health procedures... these plans seem to be further ahead of where the actual prevention itself is... We are concerned. What is the consultation process? Are we provided these plans in advance?
Nadine Fishel: What are you talking about, where did you hear this? We don’t know anything about this.
Gwen: UC Davis GSA were asked to provide feedback on draft policy for what Judicial Affairs may do to students who don’t comply with policy.
Nadine Fishel: Look at what’s happened in our country, if we put out protocols, and people violate those protocols, there has to be some way for those protocols to have some teeth in them. I’m not sure of the current protocols. Students are not the same as employees. We will talk more about this.
**Note: Meeting was running out of time, so UC Admin stopped responding to questions **
Charlie (UAW 2865 UCI): At UCI, everyone has to submit a plan to get class approved in person. We’ve had a list of classes approved for like a month, why doesn’t it include whether or not they’ll require ASEs?
Jonathan: At UCSB the complete policy seems to be Chancellor’s email of June 18, there’s no other information. The UCLA situation makes it seem like lines of authority for implementing policy are not clear. This is why we think circumstances mitigate in favor of online instruction for all group stuff.
Nadine Fishel: We care about you... One of the reason decisions are being made so painstakingly is so we have the fewest people on campus as necessary
I think that the university definitely gets to make the decisions about what courses are offered in person. That’s a decision we get to make. The effects of that decision we will share with you.
We want to work with you, and partner with you...
UCOP / Union Coalition Meeting on August 12th
** Note: UCOP Messed Up the Link so there was a big chunk of the meeting I missed **
Greg (UPTE UCD): There are not enough n95 masks when caring for a patient that is known covid. We still need more of the n95 masks whenever we are working with a known or suspected covid patient. It would be silly to sacrifice staff instead of supply. When will we be getting enough masks?
Peter Chester: “I don’t know if that’s a question or a comment.”
Dr. Carrie Byington (Executive Vice President of UC Health): We are working very hard to have an appropriate supply. We are seeing clusters in work areas where individuals are not using ppe. We are working on that and making sure people wear masks all the time. We are not seeing a problem related to lack of PPE or N95s. We are not seeing it.
...
Greg: It is possible for someone to be Covid positive and Asymptomatic, you can be both and at work. How long do they have to stay home in this case?
Dr. Carrie Byington: Not correct. We are not having people that are Covid Positive work. They have to go home and not show symptoms before going back to work. If you're covid positive then you go home. CDC says 10 days from onset they must stay home. We have to look at symptoms carefully.
Mia (UC-AFT): We submitted questions in advance. Want to talk about the flu vaccine. ⅓ of members are not eligible for healthcare. We want to make sure they are able to get it. How is the university responding to California public health guidance?
Ken Smith: As I understand each institution is responding by itself. We had an opportunity to learn how everything is going. Many institutions have done revisions. The most influential institution is PAC-12 [decision to cancel sports games]. The guidance is reaffirming housing of students in a single room. I imagine there is more changes that are to come.
Dr. Carrie Byington: Each campus has been setting their own standards. The California Department of public health is in agreement. The biggest difference is room occupancy. But, only a few campuses need to look at on person occupancy.
Mia: We are most interested if classes are in person. California public health advises against this.
Dr. Carrie Byington: Two semester campuses have announced that they are virtual. If you are in a county on watchlist then in-person prohibited. Everyone is on the watch list. We don’t yet know what the watchlist will be at the end of the semester. Everyone is strong at remote learning.
Ben (CNA, Nurses Union): Thank you for your time. On behalf of staffing ratios. Increasing the number of patients that nurses are responsible for is dangerous. There is increased safety when less patients per nurse. We are seeing much sicker patients from the increase in staff positions. Implore you to seek alternative methods and not harm staff ratios.
Dr. Carrie Byington: I have heard this from CNA, we have not changed our staffing ratios through the pandemic.
Ben (CNA): Just a follow up. We are following up with the university regarding a follow up to flu vaccine. We want to avoid unnecessary conflict. We do have concerns. We appreciate cal osha regulations. At ucsf masks are being distributed in different languages. Staff are getting denied translations from the different languages which is making them unsafe as they are unaware of the specifics about that ppe. The matter around staffing ratios is not resolved. Nurses staffing has changed. This remains a concern of ours. We want to work with the university to make our staff stay safe.
Emily UCLA CNA: I’m a labor and delivery nurse at Ronald Reagan ucla. Our ud have treated this issue to a hiring freeze. We had two full time employees retire and two others leave. Nurses are exhausted, burnt out, and morale is low. The hiring freeze is hurting us. We need more staff. Contract tracing has not been providing very comprehensive contract tracing. Management informs us not occupational health and safety.
Peter Chester: That prompted a question that I have, in which others may be interested- can you explain contact tracing?
Ken Smith: At least the high level of details. Slightly different terminology between contract tracing and case investigation. Local public health is contract tracing. We don't have public health jurisdiction. We will work with county public health entities to assist with contact tracing. When a student in a university housing tests positive, We will do case investigation. Close contact is defined as a certain distance. Everyone with close contact should quarantine then be tested. All the programs will have an illness investigation team. All locations have gone through training from ucsf and john hopkins. All locations have a fairly good team.
Marsha (UCLA CNA): We are having problems with Covid testing. I’m going to read a letter from one of my colleagues: I had a covid negative test. Two days later, I started feeling aches and went home. When I called the UCLA hotline to request covid test, I was told that because of my Covid Negative test, I was not allowed to have another test until after 4 weeks. I had to go to the urgent care facility to get tested. My physician from urgent care was so upset that someone working in healthcare was denied a Covid test. When the test results from the urgent care came back, they were positive.
Jane (UCLA CNA): I'm at a hospital in westwood. Is there a hiring freeze or not? Our reps have been in meetings with Labor Relations who said there was not. Managers say there is a hiring freeze. Staff are working overtime daily. Staff is overworked. We have a huge staff shortage and we can't fill vacant positions. Nurses are getting burned out. Is there a hiring freeze or not?
Peter Chester: Thank you Jane. That’s an issue you probably have to deal with. I’m sorry, I don't have an answer, but you’ll have to deal with that on a local basis.
...
Mia: What are plans to protect minor children who are participating in-person classes? What are the cleaning protocols for indoor spaces?
TLDR: Cleaning protocols differ by location.
Ken Smith: The cleaning protocol depends on each location. I encourage unions to ask locations for their plan. California is calling this plan slightly different depending on the sector. Can be called a Work Site Safety Plan, the higher ed document is called COVID Prevention Plan. Each location should designate as part of that plan what their cleaning protocols are. There’s a shift here in focus as we learn more about the virus and contact hazards, the focus should be on other aspects. But cleaning surfaces is important in high traffic areas. There is strong encouragement to look at locations. We are developing rigorous procedures for cleaning approaches.
For your previous question, I don’t know what resumption plans are. They do the same as public and private schools need to follow state and county guidance. All 3 of our schools are in counties on the state watchlist. I have not spent a lot of time looking at their actual plans but I can try to find more information.

The results are in for Match 1.
The match had proven to be very aerial, both performers very quickly finding ways to fulfill the letter of the ‘try and stay on the ropes’ directive Conqueror Worm had left for them while literally and figuratively flying in the face of its spirit. Alexis Williams needed to very frequently replenish her balloon armor as she bounced around, opportunities to actually get as close to Wrenn Aflight as she’d needed to being very difficult to come by.
Though with her Stand acting as it was, perhaps she didn’t mind such a thing. There was something about the quiet resolve of Kingdom of Desire, even as it wore a certain familiar ring, that was making her almost afraid of what this extension of herself, her traumas, her memories of her, might do. In the meantime, this guy who had agreed to be her opponent had been trying to sing, hiding his pain and his vitriol under his own sort of strong face and performing for the crowd. A tornado of dust had begun to engulf the arena, courtesy of his efforts, and the Vegas-veteran knew a dramatic, flaming ring when she saw one.
As it was, a swing and a near miss had placed her positionally several meters underneath the performer, her own form having been harmed on occasion by the influx of particulate-based chip damage, sweating from the mounting heat in the room, and unable to see many of the balloons she’d left in the fog of smoke as the performer covered the arena; she could barely see the walls, or the windows, let alone any of those.
Alexis needed to put literally everything she had into one final balloon dash. If she could close the distance between herself and Wrenn, she could certainly end this match in close quarters, and if he closed that cyclone of his in on her before she could get out of it, she would be burned badly by the glowing singer.
It was a quick-draw, then.
“Hmm?” Wrenn seemed to register something, his eyes facing her yet not seeming to be focusing on her at all - had something she’d set up earned the attention of that eye-dust he’d scattered about?
Already, the burning dust storm was starting to lower, extremely slowly and not seeming to constrict yet to Alexis’ surprise. Hell, she could even see the balloons she’d left nearby the windows now in one of the points she’d flown towards them, tried to catch Wrenn offguard. Why was he drawing it out when he’d seen what she could do? Why would he waste time on that? This place could catch alight!
“Hey!” The boy clinging to his umbrella above her called down. “These people want their finale! You’re on the same stage as me, so make it grand!”
That was all Alexis needed to hear, even bringing a smile to her face where she was expecting misery. Willing blast after blast of the amassed balloons, she sent all that she could utterly flying.
The tinted windows, which had started off so durable, had not only already begun to crack, but melt under the intense heat, and the balloons close to them blew them open on all sides, filling the previously quieter air with the shocked swears and calls for security of their small audience.
“Wrenn, you changed your mind?!” She wanted to cry for a different reason, but knew now wasn’t the time. That move would likely have only startled them, with holes in the glass of that size (a move by design for Alexis), so the pair would need to think fast in order to avoid being put down for this.
“You’ve been my LEAST favorite kind of audience!” He called eagerly, the flaming cyclone rising again and quickly funneling through the various windows, its burning intensity turned away from Alexis and towards the occupants of each of the viewing boxes. “If you’re putting people in shows like these, then *you have this coming!”***
The screams of the few watchers intensified.
With players’ scores matching at 69 (Nice), you could say the real winner was teamwork… Probably.

Category	Winner	Point Totals	Comments
Popularity	Judecca Highrollers	10-19	With a three-vote lead, once again, popularity resolved in a way where the thirtieth point is burned away by a spinning cyclone and balloon blast after blast.
Quality	Masters of Funky Action	22-21	Reasoning
JoJolity	Masters of Funky Action	27-19	Reasoning
Conduct	Tie	10-10

“C’mon, Alexis, don’t choke now! Get us out of here, that guy probably protected himself, and Worm guy definitely has!”
Truthfully, Wrenn had meant to finish her off as the show demanded, secure his own safety, but when his eye-dust had noticed the window-damage, seen that past its cracks there were Fox and the other watchers on all sides, and from there little stairways up into the abandoned stations above and from there, up to the city.
For now, trying not to flinch from the sights of people in pain, he used his spread-out eye-property dust to look into all four sides he could leave from, trying to quickly assess all information. In one room, Conqueror Worm stood, looking extremely amused at this turn of events and doing little to help those trying to get to safety before hopping up into the ceiling and vanishing.
In the second, easily the most burning avenue of escape, a strange fellow in a maroon turban and face coverings stood right by the edge of the destroyed window, not at all minding the flames even as they caught the outfit alike, beginning to lift it up to remove with unsettling fearlessness; the only thing Wrenn saw as flames overtook the area and made its ceiling collapse was this figure grinning widely at him, accentuating a jagged-looking scar along the revealed lower half of their face.
The third side, he could see Fox quickly transform a rock sculpture of an annoying-looking dog into a makeshift shield, protecting himself, that golden-suited Tigran Sins guy, and a shocked looking Metra Doria from the initial, less lethal glass blasts as if he’d seen the flames coming, the structure seeming highly heat resistant and similar in makeup to the balloon armor as it hurried away.
The fourth was mostly just filled with screaming guys, and the stairs still looked accessible.
“Holy hell, are you crazy? Look, uh… Don’t worry about me!” The voice of Metra amplified and pleaded, resonating loudly and clearly in the heads of both fighters, even through the crackling and pain. “I’ll be fine, just… Just escape! I agreed to this because I wanted to ensure you three would survive!”
Well, that settled the guilt on that dilemma. Wrenn quickly pointed to the safest bet. “Blast us that way before we burn up and die! You can’t get cold feet in a place like this!”
Alexis was taken aback, but KoD knew not to let them die for this. Quickly, audible pops! blasted the replenished flying gymnast up towards the singer, right as his umbrella caught alight and he began to fall. He dropped into Alexis’ grasp, and from there in seconds flat they were up and blasting through the direction Wrenn had pointed out, landing safely in the stairways and very quickly making their ways up.
“What… What the hell did you need to go that far for?” Alexis asked, still rattled as the pair caught their breaths.
“Sorry for-” Wrenn coughed a lot, then spoke in a less affected tone. “Sorry for doing what you asked, and trusting you in the end! ‘Put our minds together,’ ‘don’t get caught off-guard,’ ‘get out of here…’” He looked away towards the sound of approaching sirens, voice sounding even heavier, as if a massive weight were on his lithe shoulders. “What did you think that would mean?”
Alexis’ lip trembled, and she hugged herself, finding her stand’s arms around her doing the same thing after a moment. She couldn’t rebut. This was Wrenn trusting in her, wanting her help in escaping these death games, but to do that..! To leave people in such a state, and that the worst perpetrators clearly survived anyway, and that Metra was still stuck with that guy..!
“They’re not going to chase us like this,” he continued, as much trying to convince himself not to break down as he put on his hardest ‘strong face,’ different from that which Alexis had seen before. “So many of those guys probably killed people like us, innocents, too… This is a blow to a whole crime ring.”
Not far from the site of the fire, authorities would find remains of a John Doe later identified as local entertainment industry manager Thutmose. Despite the incident earlier that day, authorities deemed it extremely unlikely these events were connected.
The final toll of the fires were seven dead, three missing, fifteen in critical condition, all of whom accounted for a majority of the audience of the match. Though many suspected members of Sound’s Garden’s criminal underground were lost to the flames, with many other regulars having tuned in through dark web streaming, operations on the blood sports were able to continue.
What a first match to open up the round on! Obviously, results are already in, so there won’t be results announced with M3 going up, but at this point, until the very tail-end of the round the typical posting schedule should be in full swing.
Scenario:
A scrapyard on the northwestern edge of Los Fortuna’s slums, 7:46 PM
Ace High was getting tired of having to move around so much, and for this long. Tailing this “Modern Holiday” man was starting to get on his nerves - despite being a detective, he preferred to deal with these kinds of situations in more direct ways, and passing through desolate streets and heaps of junk didn’t exactly fit his definition of “a good time”, even if his stand helped streamline the process a bit.
He’d been following Holiday at the request of Vitus Calamai, a man who SKADE had worked alongside before in an attempt to get in the good graces of ODIN. Furthermore, he’d already done the same to Holiday’s coworker, a woman by the name of Peres Straviat. Unlike before, however, Ace was alone - Kisa had opted to investigate his own leads, leaving the Sharp Lookers behind, and every other member of the team was occupied with their own tasks.
It seemed as if Holiday had something in mind that he wanted to do in the slums, as he’d supposedly been wandering around the area quite a bit recently, for some reason that neither Ace nor Vitus were aware of. However, Ace did hear that Holiday had some history with a few shady gangs and groups in the area, and considering the man’s track record, it was clear that an investigation was warranted.
As the man moved along, and entered a decrepit scrapyard by the edge of the district, Ace began to notice it - a burning stench that pervaded through the massive scrapyard, and a billowing cloud of smoke rising in the distance. The visibility wasn’t very good - smog filled the air, making it harder to discern what he was actually looking at. Furthermore, his vision was already occupied by the massive mounds of scrap around him, and couldn’t make out much of the area due to needing to remain hidden from Holiday.
Holiday’s path seemed to lead him closer and closer to the source of the smoke, and eventually, he seemed to stop and began looking around. He’d almost spotted Ace, who’d just barely dived behind a pile of scrap in time before Holiday spotted him. He could just barely overhear Holiday saying something, though he couldn’t make out exactly what it was. He had to get closer in order to get within earshot of him.
Moving forwards and peeking up from underneath the pile of scrap, Ace could see it - Holiday and a brown haired man wearing a red leather jacket, standing on the edge of a large crater, from which the smoke seemed to be emerging. Ace raised his head up further, getting a better look of what exactly was within the crater, and spotting the source of the smoke - multiple fires seemed to be burning from within, and some sort of figure stood from within, facing in the pair’s direction. Was that a stand?
Before he could think further about what exactly that was, Ace heard a rustling from behind him. Quickly turning around, he saw it - a stand, rising from the smog behind him, reaching out towards him.“Shit!” Ace quickly began scrambling backwards, up the pile of scrap. “Gangster’s-” Before Ace could finish calling for his Gangster’s Paradise to help him, the mysterious stand firmly grabbed his leg and pulled him back into its reach, and Ace lost consciousness.
An alley on the south side of Los Fortuna’s slums, the day prior to Ace’s investigation, 8:32 PM
Maxwell “Ten-Ten” Tenet sat on the ground, back against a graffiti-filled wall, breathing heavily while clutching his side. Bruises and cuts peppered his body, small droplets of blood falling onto the dirty floor beneath him. He wasn’t in the best shape. Still, the passed out body of the man by him was clearly far worse off than Max himself was.
“...heh. Who'd've thought that mugger would be a stand user as well?” Max idly mused to himself. This wasn’t the first time it had happened, and it probably wasn’t going to be the last. “Well, whatever. Just gotta hope this place calms down eventually...” With a pained grunt, he slowly got up.
He was just on his way over to the Elephant Bones, wanting to surprise London with a visit, when he got sidetracked after hearing the faint noises of some sort of altercation happening far away from him. Quickly checking it out, he quickly realized that it was a mugging, and stepped into the scene to stop it without hesitation. Things quickly spiraled out of control when the mugger tried to fight back against Max with his own stand, but the outcome was inevitable from the very beginning - Max came out on top, albeit having sustained a few wounds here and there.
Beginning to make his way out of the alley, Max sighed. The slums weren’t very peaceful during the best of times, but recently, these kinds of things seemed to have been happening more and more in there. He knew why as well - with the incarceration of “The Gambler”, things were somewhat of a mess for many of the residents of the slums. He didn’t live there himself, but his boyfriend did, and Max came over and patrolled them often enough that he couldn’t help but notice it.
“Sucks, doesn’t it?” Max was taken aback, hearing an unfamiliar voice come from behind him. Turning, he took a look at the person in front of him - a man with a young-looking face, blonde hair, and a wide grin on his face. “It’s just like six years ago, huh? Total chaos. Try as they might, I guess the Temple of Syrinx and the Bakkers aren’t doing a very good job keeping the criminals in check, haha! And just when it seemed like things were improving for the slums!” Despite the man’s dour words, his tone of voice was upbeat and casual.
“And who’re you?” Max tilted his head, curious about who exactly the odd man was. “Oh, I guess I forgot to introduce myself, haha! The name’s Modern Holiday, but you can just call me ‘Holiday’!”
“Holiday..? Hm..” The name sounded familiar to Max. “What’re you here for, Holiday?”
Holiday seemed to pause for a bit, his smile briefly fading away before he took a deep breath and began speaking. “Well, I’m glad you asked! Actually, I’m here because-” “Oh! I remember! London mentioned that one of his coworkers met someone called ‘Holiday’! Her name was Glitch, d’you know her?” Though he was slightly taken aback, Holiday seemed to lighten up at the mention of Glitch. “Oh, Glitch! Yeah, I know her! She’s a fun person, haha! She makes good food!”
“Anyways… The reason I’m here because I need your help! Or rather, I suppose I’ve got something in mind that I think you’d want to help me out with, since you seem to be the crime fighting type! Well, you aren’t really going to be fighting ‘crime’, but... well… uh...” Holiday stumbled over his own words, unsure of how to to word what he was going to say.
“Hey, just tell me what you want and we’ll see if I can help, yeah?” Max said nonchalantly. “Yeah, you’re right… Sheesh, this isn’t like me...” Holiday said with a sigh. “Well… I want you to kill a stand.”
“A stand?” Max’s raised a brow, a slight frown finding its way onto his face. “So... wouldn’t that mean killing the user as well? If that’s what you’re asking, then I’m not interested.” If that was what this ‘Holiday’ really wanted, then this was just a waste of time.
“Wh- no, no! God no, that’s… Yeah, no, I won’t- that’s not what I’m asking!” Holiday said loudly. “This stand’s user… well, she’s…” Holiday sighed and looked down, scratching his head. “She’s already dead. Has been for a while. It’s just… her stand isn’t dead. It’s still out there.”
Oh. “It didn’t disappear after she died?”
“Yeah… Los Fortuna has a weird effect on stands like that sometimes. The stand, Gasoline Family, just… stayed. Ever since then, it’s been mindlessly rampaging around the spot of her death, attacking anyone that gets nearby and making a mess. They say stands are manifestations of our ‘fighting spirit’ or our ‘souls’ or something like that, yeah? Knowing that, and seeing the only remnant of her act like that, it’s not a very nice sight to look at. No one’s really done anything about it until now since it’s so far out of the way of most people, but I want to… to free what remains of her, you know? If that makes sense. I don’t think she’d have wanted this to be what remained of her. And at the very least, I don’t want any unprepared person who goes there to find themselves killed by it.”
There was a moment of silence as Max took in Holiday’s words. “Did you know her? Gasoline Family’s user, I mean.” Max asked, his voice more quiet than before. In response, Holiday chuckled. “Yeah, I guess that was pretty obvious, huh? You could say we were friends back then.” A far cry from his previous demeanor, Holiday was somber. It made sense, considering the subject matter at hand, but it was an odd sight nonetheless.
“My stand, Sleep Apnea, can help protect you in the fight against Gasoline Family, but it’s not really suited for direct combat. I can’t do this without your help. I saw you fight that mugger - your stand is strong.”
Max thought back to his own past friendships and relationships, then to the people he knew in Los Fortuna. Were a similar situation to happen to someone he knew, he’d… he didn’t want to think much about that. “Well, sure. I’ll help you out.” Max said with a smile, to which Holiday responded with a slight grin as well. “... Yeah. Thank you.”
“So - when are we doing this, and what can this ‘Gasoline Family’ even do?”
Back in the scrapyard, 7:55 PM
The first thing Ace noticed when he woke up was the splitting headache he had, and that he was lying on the ground. The second thing he noticed was the pissed-off face of Modern Holiday, staring right at him. He quickly turned away, looking at his surroundings. He’d been dragged closer to the decrepit, smoke-filled crater, and was right by its edge.
Despite his best efforts, he’d gotten caught, somehow. Was the stand that attacked him Holiday’s? It just popped out of the smog behind him, and the moment it grabbed Ace, he passed out. Did it activate its ability on him? Other than the headache, he felt normal, for the most part. Slightly cold, which was weird, considering how close he was to the fires.
“So, you’re awake. Care to explain why exactly you were following me?” Holiday said with a scowl. Ace wasn’t entirely sure how to respond. There was silence for a few seconds, where nothing but the crackling of the fires within the crater could be heard as Ace thought to himself about his next move. From what he’d heard, Holiday was quite a sociable person, and one who was liable to slip up every once in a while, occasionally revealing some useful and sensitive information. Then again, Vitus also said that he was pretty good at catching on to others’ motives and giving people the slip when he didn’t want to converse with them, so it would be tricky, but if Ace could gather some information from Holiday, then that’d be very good.
Of course, Holiday did seem pretty pissed right now, which was somewhat understandable considering that Ace had been tailing him for quite a while. “Well, you know… I was curious about what you were up to, yeah? Walking around the slums so much, almost makes me think you’ve got something in mind~”
“And what if I do? I’m- Ugh. Look. I know that you’re with SKADE, and that Vitus probably put you up to this. This isn’t related to the Ocean Soul, and it isn’t anything that you should be concerned about or that you need to snoop around for.” Seemed like Holiday wasn’t really in the mood for a conversation, like he was on edge for some reason.
Even if what Holiday said was true, Ace’s own curiosity had been piqued at this point, and furthermore, he needed more information. “Well, I’m still quite curious - what’s it about, then?”
“You want to know? Fine. Get up.” Holiday turned away from Ace and pointed down at something within the crater. Ace took a closer look at it. Within it, he saw piles of scrap and debris tossed about haphazardly, a few of them the sources of raging fires, emitting pillars of smoke into the air.
By the border of the crater was the man that Holiday talked to before, and within it was what seemed to be a stand of some kind, the same figure that he’d seen there before. “You see that figure over there? That’s Gasoline Family, a stand. Its user is already dead, but it’s stayed here for a couple of years by now, making a mess of the area and attacking anyone that gets close enough. I’m getting help from someone in order to destroy it. Not a fan of seeing the only thing that remains from an old friend of mine do… this.” Holiday said, waving his hands to direct Ace’s attention to the chaos within the crater.
“A stand, huh? I see… What’s it do? Something related to fire, I assume.” So that was the reason for the disarray of the area here. “Actually, know what - how about I help you out with this ‘Gasoline Family’? As compensation for tailing you, yeah?” Ace said, grinning.
“Hm? You want to help?” Holiday said, mildly surprised. “Well, sure - I was just about to ask you to do the same. While you’re here, might as well make yourself useful. It should also help reassure you that I’m not doing anything illegal here or something like that, if you don’t believe me.”
“Alright, perfect-” Ace said, taking another look at the crater. “I assume those fires hurt stands, right? Uh… Got any tips about dealing with that? If I don’t know any weaknesses or whatnot, it’ll be hard to deal with Gasoline Family when my stand’s liable to be burnt up just like that. I’d rather not get flash-fried.” Ace said with a chuckle.
“Oh, that? Shouldn’t be a problem for you. See, my Sleep Apnea has the ability to force out ‘aspects’ or ‘parts’ of objects or people into copies of them that it creates. By putting the copies together, they’ll merge, but otherwise, the original body will lose said ‘aspect’ forever. Now, when Sleep Apnea first touched you, I made it activate its ability on you. It removed your body and your clothes’ ability to heat up. Of course, this means that the fire won’t hurt you or your stand at all, so that’s not going to be a problem.”
Now this was information that was useful to Ace. Knowing Holiday’s stand would certainly be useful for Vitus, but… It didn’t take long for the analytical part of his brain to realize what the catch here was. His body wasn’t heating up, but it could probably still cool down - that might’ve been why he felt colder before. “And I assume you’ll bring me back to normal once Gasoline Family’s dealt with? I’d rather not freeze to death, you know.”
“Well, don’t worry about that - I’d rather not have anyone’s death on my conscience, so I’ll return you back to normal so long as you don’t try to attack me or keep me from killing Gasoline Family, alright?” The anger in Holiday’s voice had disappeared, now replaced by a more nonchalant attitude, though Ace knew that he probably hadn’t calmed down much.
With a sigh, Ace took a step towards the crater in front of him. “Well, alright then - catch me up on what exactly Gasoline Family does, and I’ll get to work.” Knowing that his life was in Holiday’s hands wasn’t very uplifting, but this could very well turn out to be in Ace’s advantage if he played it right, and if he showed Holiday how useful and cooperative he was to make him lower his guard and spill information.
Max wasn’t sure what to expect when Holiday first mentioned Gasoline Family and told him where to go, but now that he was here, at the center of the crater in which it resided, he could see just how intimidating the stand was. The crater was absolutely decimated - thick puddles of a liquid that seemed to be gasoline were spread around, many of which had already been ignited. Piles of scraps and soot were strewn around, and the smell of smoke was overwhelming. However, Holiday used his stand on him to give him resistance from the fires, which would help in the fight.
Well, if he wanted to get anything done, he’d have to actually get closer to the stand. He briefly glanced behind him, towards Holiday, and spotted someone else descending down the pit towards him, a man with a checkered suit and a bowler hat.
“Oh? Who’re you? Did Holiday get you to help out here as well?” Max asked nonchalantly. In response, Ace grinned and spoke. “I guess you could say so. The name’s Ace High.” Ace sounded quite calm, unphased by the dangerous stand at the center of the crater. “Huh, I see. I’m Max. Having anyone else around to help deal with this is nice.”
With a shrug, Ace took another step forward and spoke. “Heh, yeah - just make sure that you don’t get in my way, yeah? We just gotta get this over with quickly”. Max wasn’t sure if Ace was just cracking a joke of some kind or if he was belittling him. Either way, it slightly annoyed him.
“Oh yeah? Sure, sure, I’ll stay out of your way… But I’ll probably be done with it by the time you get close - and if you step in front of one of my attacks, it’s your fault, not mine.” Max responded. Dealing with Gasoline Family was of utmost importance, of course, but he did get a slight urge to try and outdo Ace.
“Hey, I’m just joking around, yeah?” Ace said, noticing the effect of his comment. This wasn’t entirely true - in his mind, the most important thing would be gathering information from Holiday, and performing impressively against Gasoline Family could help build trust between Holiday and him. To that end, Ace really would have preferred it if Max stayed out of his way. “And don’t just blindly rush that stand down, it’s not gonna help. That is, unless you’ve got a deathwish, of course.” Ace said, his comment doing nothing but further annoying Max.
The two men stood at the bottom of the crater, taking a look at the stand in front of them while preparing themselves for the fight ahead of both of them. It likely wouldn’t be easy, but neither of them was going to leave until the stand was dealt with and the fire raging in the scrapyard was finally extinguished.
OPEN THE GAME!
Location: A crater at the bottom of an abandoned scrapyard by the edge of the slums. Each tile is 4x4 meters, making the map 64x64 meters overall. The players are currently at the bottom of the crater, 8 meters deep into the ground. The grey border is the incline / drop from the outside to the crater into the crater itself, and it’s quite steep. The dark grey areas are the outside of the crater, and are inaccessible to the players. The light orange shapes surrounding the map are puddles of gasoline formed within depressions in the ground - these are roughly 0.2 meters deep, and are currently the only areas of the map capable of containing pools of gasoline deep enough for Gasoline Family to teleport to (though more might end up being formed as the match goes on).
The ground is a mixture of dirt, soot, and ruined pieces of (non-conductive) scrap. Despite the mess, Max is somehow still able to rollerskate around without much issue. The hollow circles are burning pieces of scrap (mainly tires), constantly emitting dense smoke. The area that the smoke obscures is represented by the transparent red circles. Piles of scrap (which also contain various pieces of conductive metal scraps of varying sizes) are littered around the area and are represented by the areas filled with various small light grey shapes, piling up to about a meter in height.
At the bottom right corner of the map is Modern Holiday, whose purpose is explained in the Additional Information section.
Goal: Make sure that you contribute more to the defeat of Gasoline Family than your opponent!
Additional Information: Gasoline Family’s sheet (and a shortened description of its ability) can be found here. Pastebin version here
For the purposes of this match, thanks to Sleep Apnea’s ability, the characters, their stands, and any and all gear that is on them, are functionally immune to any and all fire or heat damage, not even feeling it. Force from explosives can still be felt and smoke is still hazardous to breathing.
Modern Holiday has briefed both characters on Gasoline Family’s abilities, and on how it fights - In general, it will remain mostly quiet, sometimes punching an object near it out of frustration but otherwise staying still until someone gets close enough for it to fight them. Gasoline Family doesn't seem to be capable of very complex thoughts or of formulating involved plans, but it doesn't need that most of the time - its overwhelming power and durability grants it the edge it needs to win out in most direct encounters, but it also knows how to use its ability to grant itself an extra edge.
In close combat, Gasoline Family knows how to create and activate buttons in the environment around it to create explosions for extra damage, and even purposefully tears them off and utilizes the gasoline streams as projectiles should its opponent stay for too long outside of its range. In addition, it will attempt to advance towards any opponent that has gotten close and that is now trying to escape.
After taking enough damage, Gasoline Family will attempt to teleport away to the puddle that is furthest away from where it currently is. Put in numerical terms, this happens when it loses a fifth of its “health”, meaning that it will teleport four times over the course of the match. If no puddle is available, it will attempt to fill the “viable” pools with more gasoline using streams, and if any of them have been plugged up, then it will dig out more with its own two A pow hands. At any moment it will try to make sure that there’s at least two pools available and filled with gasoline, though more than that may form as the match goes on.
Modern Holiday is watching the match from the bottom left corner of the map, at the top of the scrap pile, and is willing to assist you out in a limited degree - he’s willing to use Sleep Apnea on any object tossed to him, and will toss you back the copy of it that the stand creates (without manipulating any property or aspect of it), which will be a stand object, and as such will be able to hurt Gasoline Family.
Should you try and leave the map or directly and knowingly attack Modern Holiday, he will simply refuse to return your bodies back to normal after the match and you will eventually freeze to death, just as Ace predicted. Same goes for attempting to kill your opponent - injuring them is allowed, but not to an extent where they wouldn’t be able to assist in the fight any more.

Team	Combatant	JoJolity
Sharp Lookers	Ace High	“M-Maybe the attacks weren't meant to hurt us... they were meant to douse us with gasoline!?” So you’re going to have to get rid of this stand before you can get any information from Modern Holiday, but that’s fine - you’ve handled worse in the past, and you can already think of a few ways to manipulate this situation to your advantage. During the match, make use of the environment and of the various stands within it!
Baker Street Rat Pack	Maxwell “Ten-Ten” Tenet	“He doused himself with the gasoline... He panicked, because you were going to finish him off!” You’re not sure how this whole situation got so crowded and messy, but dealing with Gasoline Family shouldn’t be too bad either way. In fact, this might even open up some new opportunities for you - During the match, make use of the environment and of the various stands within it!

Link to the Official Player Spreadsheet
Link to Match Schedule
As always, if you would like to interact with the tournament community and be among the first to get updates for the tournament, please feel free to PM a member of our Judge staff for an invite to our Official Discord Server!

Hi All,
I hope you and your families are staying safe as Massachusetts responds to the shelter-in-place advisory made requisite by COVID-19. In case you needed to hear it from someone who has responded to COVID-19 calls already, here it is: Complying with this advisory is vital to the health and well-being of everyone in the Commonwealth, but especially those who are at higher risk, like people with underlying health conditions and seniors. Please help protect your parents and grandparents by only going out when absolutely necessary, physically distancing yourself, and practicing good hand washing practices.
It’s not often that I post, but I do so today because Massachusetts first responders need your help. By definition, firefighters, EMTs, paramedics, nurses, dispatchers, and others who are considered first responders are exposed regularly to health and other life safety hazards. However, COVID-19 is different. We have never seen a pandemic in our lifetimes and there aren’t laws on the books to protect us when some of us inevitably become sick due to this virus. Already, there are first responders who have become ill because they needed to transport a sick patient to the hospital. Because they cannot prove they contracted the Coronavirus on the job, they cannot make an occupational claim for paid leave during their recovery. As a result, they are expected to use their personal/vacation time once they use up all of their sick time during quarantine and/or recovery.
There are two bills that have been submitted for consideration by members of the first responder community: SB2602 and HD4927. These two bills would ensure that any first responder that contracts COVID-19 as a result of the coronavirus is presumed to have been exposed while on the job. Any resulting incapacitation during recovery would be considered as “on duty time,” and the employee would not be required to use sick, vacation, or personal time to recuperate from the illness.
Please show your support for us by finding the contact information of your representatives and calling them to urge them to support these two bills:
https://malegislature.gov/Bills/191/S2602
https://malegislature.gov/Bills/191/HD4927
https://malegislature.gov/search/findmylegislator
Thanks for your time, and we’ll get through this!
*edit forgot to add links to bills

Hi All,
I hope you and your families are staying safe as Massachusetts responds to the shelter-in-place advisory made requisite by COVID-19. In case you needed to hear it from someone who has responded to COVID-19 calls already, here it is: Complying with this advisory is vital to the health and well-being of everyone in the Commonwealth, but especially those who are at higher risk, like people with underlying health conditions and seniors. Please help protect your parents and grandparents by only going out when absolutely necessary, physically distancing yourself, and practicing good hand washing practices.
It’s not often that I post, but I do so today because Massachusetts first responders need your help. By definition, firefighters, EMTs, paramedics, nurses, dispatchers, and others who are considered first responders are exposed regularly to health and other life safety hazards. However, COVID-19 is different. We have never seen a pandemic in our lifetimes and there aren’t laws on the books to protect us when some of us inevitably become sick due to this virus. Already, there are first responders who have become ill because they needed to transport a sick patient to the hospital. Because they cannot prove they contracted the Coronavirus on the job, they cannot make an occupational claim for paid leave during their recovery. As a result, they are expected to use their personal/vacation time once they use up all of their sick time during quarantine and/or recovery.
There are two bills that have been submitted for consideration by members of the first responder community: SB2602 and HD4927. These two bills would ensure that any first responder that contracts COVID-19 as a result of the coronavirus is presumed to have been exposed while on the job. Any resulting incapacitation during recovery would be considered as “on duty time,” and the employee would not be required to use sick, vacation, or personal time to recuperate from the illness.
Please show your support for us by finding the contact information of your representatives and calling them to urge them to support these two bills:
https://malegislature.gov/Bills/191/S2602
https://malegislature.gov/Bills/191/HD4927
https://malegislature.gov/search/findmylegislator
Thanks for your time, and we’ll get through this!
*edit added links to bills

Interesting aspect to consider regarding the Internet of Things (IoT). Makes me wonder about the hacking of early warning systems, emergency management network systems and other devices capable of heterodyne, pulse train and mind control operations infrastructure implemented throughout the U.S. Jurisdiction and almost work now with systems implemented almost every 30 miles or so roughly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4huhuSNff8
Transcript: thank you for making it this far
this is sound effects for acoustic cyber
weapons with mathletes okay yes this is
sound effects exploring acoustics on
weapons my name is Monty under security
research for PwC honey some security
practice almost like on PhD student at
University College London understand
where this one comes from prior to
joining Peter
was been in the UK for a few years
previously spoken at they've got another
sake disclaimers before we get started
that this work was undertaken a depart
my PhD research at UCL I wouldn't have
been possible without my supervisors to
cover those for this project
professor Shane Johnson a professor
comedian a diversifier
what you're going to see here the
presented for educational purposes only
and you'll also notice throughout this
talk that I mentioned words like caviar
and possibly potentially quite a lot
that's confer two reasons the first is
nuns of Cana spreads fear uncertainty
and doubt topic in this book but also
because this is really early first aid
research in an area of where's often
really blurred line between correlation
and conversation so that's why those
caveats are there so why this why this
subject us a couple years ago and
they've gone on it's all good see no
evil hear no evil which is about using -
sounds
messing with drones and what most air
gaps that have attained as a result of
that kind of got really interested in an
ultrasound the infrasound
non-conventional used to sound gently so
why should you care about this talk and
it's topic potentially some parts of
attack which we have consoling spectacle
experimentation on its increasing attack
surface as well and it builds on
previous work around malware physical
harm
acoustic on Germany and digital physical
crossover attacks so background probably
caught one of the babies one of the
early examples is digital physical
mother Stuxnet obviously in 2010 also
things like mirror and the ONC book met
recently some work that was done on
things like MRI machines how many times
will pre the purpose of my way
accidentally
in physical case so the configure web in
2008 affected a hospital Griffin as the
one Accord Islamic state have been fun
abilities founded medical advancements
on pacemakers in chip in consciousness
was they had various fun abilities in
vehicles as well as potentially must
allow an attacker to take control of the
potentially cause harm but typically
with that kind of research there's an
indirect relationship between the attack
the effect and the potential harm was
caused to some extent or my research
focuses on is try to take out one of
those steps and instead looking at
malware or attacks that can directly
affect human beings either
psychologically or physically as almost
are the kind of things that fall under
that bracket would be chemicals as
reported mm or name or attackers who
uploaded a flashing gifts to the neck
ellipses fall forward and those gives
life impact consistently those going to
produce photosensitive epileptic
seizures and among people had seizures
as
similarly with many and others in 2013
an admiral image may in 2016
the hacking spot levels and specifically
they can make those flash indicating
hats consistent with photosensitive
epileptic seizures
more recently recent floods in 2017 in
their kana phone on during research on
privacy vulnerabilities found they could
attack an oil tea in college and cause
it destroy human knee
so if you can serve as a weapon this is
a marginal above this is a very
simplistic view of how long you should
be exposed to the sound certain levels
now this uses that suppose as girls is
another than misunderstood measure of
sound because it's not an absolute
measure it's a relative measure depends
how far away you're on the source of the
sound you can see when you get up to
something like 115 decibels really only
be exposed to it for around 30 seconds
before either temporary or permanent
harp stops to the curve and another job
again the mine just shows you kind of
where some of these other categories in
terms of the effects that they can
happen so stop it
started with
longer chains were possibly damaging us
how to get to get enough oil to the
check taking of
and pressure cookers pain 200 decibels
potentially could be instant death and
then the loudest sound to humanity is
the windows a to be stopped
okay so I'm acoustics at home and ascent
abilities or can be here so you can be
heard sense ultrasounding infrasound for
and traditionally they're defined as big
sound or below human thresholds of
hearing traditionally that threshold
to helps to 20 kilobytes however it's a
bit of a misconception as we'll see you
can't kind of result the trailer coupler
point set thresholds vary what it
depends a lot from person to person for
frequencies you are able to hear at what
stage in your life as well in this tool
if you see HSN high frequency noise that
means between 17 to 21 kilohertz or from
your ultrasound just of children sound
and if you see elevator happening 60 to
100 Hertz the problem with them with
ultrasonic
infrasounds than facing the definition
of a lack of a property is profit
because the mechanisms of people
understanding quiet low frequencies of
receiving quite low frequencies is not
really understood
people have reported being able to hear
sound as low as one point five Hertz and
as high 25 kilohertz and there's also
been some research that suggests that
some if we are aware of sounds even as
white
that's kind of consciously or
subconsciously and there is a
significant regulation individuals is to
what sounds you can hear it depends on
the podium it depends on the background
noise and of the d'Ivoire and Caribbean
sort of the walls away look for example
you may perceive something different
ways to other people so it's low
frequency sounds you may feel it Morris
corporation and anything else you may
receive harmonics which are connected
you can think about those kind of slide
in frequency and as you older ability to
hear high frequencies the clients so you
don't appeal the children are much more
likely to be able to hear high
frequencies the matters reported adverse
effects with both high and low frequency
noise
these do come with a lot of caveats so
bear that in mind the susceptibility of
person-to-person will differ as we said
T cubed age as well
there also were calls do suggest that
high frequencies can have an adverse
effect on hearing that grew something or
whatever
threshold shift which is where your
Collinwood range will shift temporarily
at more increased volumes and amplitudes
that have been reported for
physiological changes as a result of
life amenities including things like
cardiac devices heart detection and
functional changes in cardiovascular and
central nervous systems psychologically
high frequency noise have been reported
to cause nausea fatigue headaches
tinnitus no playing irritation and
increasing amounts of concentration is
all subjective effects so that local
analysis associated temporary threshold
shifts with high ailments and insomnia
and with elevated cortisol levels and
psychologically the most common reported
effect of motion sickness is annoyance
or purification but it has also been
associated with headaches the
palpitations deterioration of
performance depressive symptoms and
distress and interestingly these effects
have been reported even a very moderate
levels of sound so you saw between 40 to
45 decibels the caveats are mentioned
with all of these adverse effects if you
go back and look at the papers the data
is often had a title it's often function
informed the questionnaire surveys after
the fact are very easily misinterpreted
we don't always know about the noise
those which is the amount of time that
someone's been exposed to these
frequencies and at what level and many
researchers deferment these effects are
not reproducible in a laboratory there's
a number of reasons one that can be the
first is that there
and restrictions quadrant a placed on
the research is exposing human subjects
to staff which they have good reason to
believe through song so in a loud
environment those letters would be
attenuated and therefore more America
was the effects that were reported in
the literature yoga Tom who is that
something might have experienced
something called amoeba so they are that
believe they're being exposed to noise
were they are being exposed to it
and it's clearly experiencing these
symptoms were the two more necessarily
related that we said there is a
significant place evidence base to
suggest that in at least the subset of
the population type of frequencies can
with some adverse effects as a result of
a lot of researchers and organizations
have developed the exposure guidelines
which are basically kind of a
despite the maximum levels in which you
should be exposed the sounds of
particular frequencies now there are
problems with these there are big
differences in the way that they're
calculated and implemented typically
they're focused solely on the workplace
they don't focus on homes or public
spaces with schools there are the basic
operations of samples and those songs of
at all claims they don't think it's been
captured in for example as I said and
hear high frequencies
much much more like was guilty our
frequencies and had of us this is a
compendium of some of these guidelines
this was compiled by an academic
community Layton you can see of course
it's all you've got the various
different frequencies now these are not
precise frequencies in the sense of a
range of frequencies from the third
octet back and then on the left you can
see the guidelines that go all the way
back from the mid sixties wants us to
tackling it's isn't necessarily an
exhaustive lives were just by looking at
this you see two things the first is
that time as you increase the frequency
the maximum exposure goes up to some
extent the second is there's a big
disparity between some of these numbers
because they're calculated in different
ways
it's just a quick thing in waiting this
world but on any sandwich but you'll be
familiar with waiting sound waiting is a
way to order attenuate or emphasize
certain frequencies when you're doing
the measurement of sound
so a waiting is the most commonly used
if you are a sound level meter online
hardware stores quote that everyone was
probably use a waiting and as you can
see a waiting significantly
underestimates lower frequency sound
because it kind of the curve the case
where the stock and it was on the rest
later high-frequency sound okay so at
the end see waiting is another example
you can see this lesser the decay it
still does decay to some extent you've
also got said waiting which is mostly
what we use through this experiment
because it's a flat frequency response
it was attenuate for emphasis
so yeah other so with eight waiting
these can appropriative for measuring
high frequency noise because it
underestimates those higher frequencies
says it late probably much more
appropriate with low frequency noise
there are nesco I towards medical fewer
guidelines but a possible reason for
that might be that the main effects of
low frequency noise are subjective and
what are Devils but again people that
the ones that have been published the
methodology using the implement that
differs a lot so for this experiment we
used reference characterized by death
row which took into account all the
previously published and it curves
measurements of infrasound specifically
used G weighting which is nice as
tablets facility for infrasound
because we were going higher that we
didn't you see later so this is the
quiet or low frequency noise published
by about more house and as you can see
believes there was a pretty particularly
when you get to count of fifty or sixty
three votes
it's okay knock on a forty three forty
two decimals
okay accessible previous working it
sounded security research
one of the most common uses of
high-frequency noise particularly in
security research has been as a covert
communications channel their show tells
in 2014 hands Michael Curtis engine
youthful teen look at the konnikova mesh
networks and how devices can communicate
silently with each other music part
frequency noise my difficult work a
couple years ago I did a similar thing
with paraquad parties and exfiltrated
data and an interesting and kind of
finding through this research is that
many consumer devices are capable of
emitting high frequency noise even up to
kind of objects on a clever person
there's also research looking at the
disruption of
systems which use ultrasound so getting
that Beckman's will cost of that
patrones yeah others in 2016 4 Tesla
vehicles Bolton and others in 2018 of
the corrupting dates of emits a hot
discharge using high frequency and kind
of audible for Europe and there has been
a number of studies Monica are just like
tracking big things as well which are
used for a targeted marketing so some
questions I always chemists we kind of
get into that the main event of the year
the talk first is the brand
how can that I can hear some loss there
something was familiar with the brand
and if you're not familiar with it is
this kind of mythical token within
frequency that causes people to lose
control of their bowels it's named
Indiana to me and no one's been able to
quietness these critical frequencies
of the reasons that probably is that any
sound potentially if it's loud enough
parachuters for signals you're 42 by
brain and potentially
there's no code of one frequency that
would work for everybody if you're
playing sounds at that volume you've got
a bigger bigger workers basically
another one lost about as well is the
link between infrasound and the kernel
sometimes it is referred to as like the
Costa Rican seal or a frequency it often
was it has been used in things on
Florida Gators in horror movies as well
I've got Richard to a couple interesting
papers on this eternity in 2004 and
others in 2009 who looked at the
possibility looking for us out at
resonant frequencies causing people to
have hallucinations was a kind of sense
of presence in areas associated with
partner experiences as a subject that is
debated a lot in that feel that it's
worth contacting to read over and a lot
about is the US Embassy in Cuba O'Conner
but there I would direct you to a paper
what Timothy leighton spann 18 which
goes into some detail about the sounds
that were recorded in the area and the
possibility not have that big ass attack
so when it comes to kind of acoustic
weapons in general there are a lot of
misunderstandings around them and a lot
of myths as researchers have noted there
are significant practical issues
associated actually deploying them which
to a large extent applies to this
research as well so the fact that the
attackers can call something like
threshold is probably not interested so
that generally and it's really
challenging to cause kind of
correctional and targeted effects with
acoustic weapons with low frequency
noise
that can propagate very easily spread
over mom's attention but obviously it's
got very little direction
as a result and you need to know it
might say the audio equipment to be able
to do them with high frequency to a very
low propagation it doesn't deal with
obstacles well between what you think on
location because it bounces off of
objects so again this is an issue that
so our experiment so this is kind of how
we cope with the hypothesis for this so
we said okay doing the song my
frequencies and some low frequencies
might be imperceptible to at least a
subset of the population and given them
a lot of serving levels they may be
associated with adverse effects given
that some concern equipment has been
shown that it can emit at least high
frequency as possible or even signals as
well is it possible is it feasible for
an attacker to develop that way that
could cause a targeted device to admit
these frequencies and levels exceeding
those in some of these maximum
guidelines and therefore potentially
adverse effects so I wonder what we did
we developed attacks and malware Anthony
talk to the certain devices which was
able to control the system volume and
the speak wrapper of those devices as
result plate way for containing certain
frequencies which we their mission to
the sound of a meter and
to maximum capacity levels so we use any
human subject to this experiment because
of ethical restrictions rightly we did a
full risk assessment we have various
safety proportions we will hit offenders
we as an anechoic chamber which was
talked about a bit and we're not
releasing either code of the attenti did
or the browser models that we tested
these attacks on so stories were an
attacker might need to use this and
again it's a kind of caveat equai
heavily if they were seeking to expect
that performance will try to achieve the
target it generally employees or staff
an organization or a scale targeted
harassment for certain individuals or
potentially is kind of low-grade cyber
weapons that have some physical effect
worth noting
who is in a position to execute code or
the device that more likely going to be
things that they're more interested in
doing and even when it comes to sound
there may be things that they're more
interested in doing in this attack so
they may be interested to see two
channels with that or something else so
just a description of some of the device
to be tested on the left-hand side
Atlanta Lauren a bluetooth speaker a
small speaker Lutheran headphones a
vehicle-mounted public address system
the parametric speaker kind of operation
speaker and because he isn't with the
attack vectors and whether this was kind
of promoter local this was an approach
chamber as anyone it would be in an
anechoic chamber for how are quieting
people is with
so if you haven't been a really good
convention if you get accosted to it so
basically an anechoic chamber is a
soundproof environment but it's designed
specifically to get rid of efforts so
these cotton which is on the walls of
hypoglossal which is the access codes
back and forth between them so that they
discipline essentially what this means
is you could be in this room and the
ambient noise level is below the
threshold of human hearing
so it is kind of one of the quietest
places in the world you can hear your
heart beating if you kind of move ahead
you have up your spine creaking you know
that might be more of something I should
get checked out
yes critical our man was completed on
critical is an easy conclusion also
needs to tell us of an acoustically an
anechoic chamber is an inference place
because it's now who's lost who is the
part sound of which is negative
so for windows hardware which is on
laptops we embedded these times of Great
Falls we have a really trivial C to
channel and over the mountain are
because if we get it come on to place at
a frequency here increases system
warning of the laptop to 100% play to
twenty to ten minutes and then restores
or afterwards and did exactly the same
thing our spot speaker what we use them
at home upon ability allows to control
the audio so for this to work to
practice the attack we need to either
build a network attack and exposed to
become the internet or do DNS rebinding
or something like that there was a
pointless route we used the scan for
speakers a local network anything active
stream its when from an attack of the
troll web server headphones were over in
French Canadians other Bluetooth because
they had phones
these much closer to the sound level
meter we have corporations businesses
which you really cope with the enemies
these before so these don't have a
diaphragm cone instead they have like a
cooler than a movement planner so
whatever surface you use where the
service you put them on that becomes the
corner of the schools of the south
our budgets because again these already
tops to play with these are these use
ultrasonic carrier waves at 40 kilohertz
meaning that you can use them for my
intensity directional audio sort of like
a beaver sound the one we tested didn't
have smoke capabilities but given that
it was really like a father and fairly
low cost and then it could be
directional it won't be attractive to an
attacker as like a possible Christic
weapon a vehicle mounted public address
system so this didn't have any network
compared interface needs instead of also
plays audio
it's a storage device you need physical
access to it some additional tax that
the thoughts of a didn't test the first
is using the html5 audio tag to also
play audio comes to this will involve
like a social engineering attack rather
than attacking getting a victim to visit
or website and they have the sound play
automatically this will obviously depend
on the currently set system for certain
characters work and then we also use
them an emulation of pre-existing or do
new cities would be hard something where
an attacker has access to like people I
guess your music coach or something up
or where they've kind of creating a
youtube video that they know people are
going to watch and what you do is take
the legitimate audio like with the
parent of
and then it is very oh I have to do it
without high frequency or low frequency
sound which we've done this second
nature hit so the kind of intended
effect of this is that the victim using
their headphones or speakers or whatever
would turn the sound up so that they can
hear the digital audio and then
inadvertently expose themselves to high
levels of whatever frequency is just
another administration so for
measurement we use cross one sound level
meters are these ogresses and gray this
will calibrated they're really really
expensive to buy we hired them so we
hired one for the low frequencies one
for the high frequencies
and if you ever feel like you don't have
enough excitement in your life have a
career who you and tell them
would have you sending this stuff back
and that you want accompany 20,000
pounds high post everything else in
respective sister
so we placed each device in an anechoic
chamber with all sound level meter and
then far out actor played certain
frequencies of 10 minutes we will
measure the surface temperature of each
device before and after the attack
because there was some kind of 32
evidence that some or some anecdotes to
suggest that particular higher
frequencies devices could heat up if
they were playing high frequency noises
so you said waiting for the measurement
of the only thing we did you said
waiting for measurements in 21 canals
because that's outside the range of said
waiting so we used a proprietary
hospital for that and these are the
results for high-frequency noise so
instances where the level was above
those in maximum guidelines are involved
so you can see the small speaker is 17
kilohertz and a head 517 kilohertz are
both exceeded those microscope
guidelines and the parametric speaker
did the same for 17 kilohertz 21
keynotes a particular purpose as well
now here is a mean
of that big lists of God on / actually
there was a high potency light so you
can see things like the laptop in the
fire department capable of producing
sound exceeding those might spook
ultimate source of authority of the
voices in ordinance in frequencies that
are capable of dirtiness with low
frequency noise customer story so again
a minority of devices here to the
Bluetooth speaker two of those
frequencies of small speaker all three
and the headphones are 100 Hertz now a
particular unit apart of them up a range
of
the this is kind of low frequency noise
this might be more audible definitely
less suitable has got a record of attack
must be debilitated by the minute
so far the results of interest for the
cooperation speaker is no good for
literacy because it vibrates so much
that it falls over so he told me over
that the chamber door the speaker's long
as for the spot speaker what we are the
Chamber's religious folks and of burning
plastic and when we kind of tested this
we found in assumption partly damaged so
this is kind of what happened in the ten
minutes this spot speaker was being
tested you can see the damage doesn't
occur not the second minute this was a
17 kilohertz of the foreign minister
some sort of critical event broke apart
of burns out and then immediately the
decibel level drops and never recovers
and would be at Liberty Fund was that we
have permanently damaged the speaker and
we had made it money able to reproduce
frequencies above five kilowatts so we
took recordings of music before we did
the test and after we did the test
talented spectrograms and on the top is
before the test and on the bottom is
after the test so this deponent effect
as well so we've kind of permanently
impaired that speaker at the time I'd
love to be able to play to you because
it's copyright of a car but it sounds
like someone singing the words
lamentable tank like that so I can't
really make a difference W ability so we
reported that the manufacturers are
really responsive and they told us that
basically Robert - addressed it to
address a sorry-looking the components
because this is kind of a key thing to
this attack part of the premise of this
as a successful attack is relying on the
fact that users will you be able to hear
so depending on the device you get more
or less audible components of wooden
ranges if you look ahead phone
this big spike to the boy is the target
frequency which was 17 kilowatts so
that's kind of an intended effect and
then you can see to the left you've got
kind of on different frequencies that
which are pretty lovable so if you're
wearing headphones and this happens you
might notice something you might not
appear to call it distortion or popping
like that but so it wouldn't be that
noticeable
conversely if you look at the parametric
speaker the intended turn is still fine
but there are much higher levels of
other inaudible frequencies which means
this will become less suited for some
kind of stealthy attack so the
implications of this with the headphones
that is a significant concern because
her friends are increasing use
particularly for young people high
volumes add to some extent that device
agnostic so you kind of pop a plug it
into the laptop or phone
it might be possible for that Seneca to
be kind of incredibly prove that my wife
for instance it's only triggering sub
frequencies when headphones have
connected up so with a lot of divorce
rates to this the department should
speak up it does produce it affordable
components but in Long Beach my business
Chronicles
and in any case the fact that it's using
one of those ultra so they carrier
whereas in political ads are pretty
quite levels means that it could be a
public health risk with the Bluetooth
and small speakers are more difficult to
attack the Bluetooth speakers who knows
it compared with them with the spot
speakers though we can permanent damage
them with the high frequency noise
potentially that one young component
area fire hazard as well and other
models won't be possible
sometimes visibility the attacks that we
discovered were viable on our minority
of devices out of the content test that
we did is talking about one of a handful
of two to four devices for this attack
to succeed you'll remind what attacker
still no bugs or aquatic victims they're
not perceiving by the sound on their
being susceptible to the adverse effects
of that sound and for them being exposed
for long enough them time for it to have
an effect remember that our test or in
ten minutes so reason before I kind of
played a twenty kilohertz tyranny in
this room now you know a very high level
some of you would hear it and would be
affected by this one of you behavior
probably feel uncomfortable some of you
wouldn't hear you and would notice some
of you wouldn't hear it and I felt
comfortable so it's a real kind of
spectrum so
yet it's called a lot of obstacles many
times I overcome for this time to decide
to work as I said some attacks
requirement of physical or local access
as well and crucially attackers might be
interested or more interested in other
avenues so if they have quite a code
execution on a laptop for instance or
phone it's likely that there's other
stuff they're interested ok so
everyone's account measures
so she tells in 2014 I suggested a
number of variable count specials for
these kind of attacks the first is the
name in the frequency writer speakers so
many speakers have a frequency range
that goes up to 20 kilohertz or robot
which in most cases not needed depending
on what you're using them for physically
alerting users when speakers aren't used
by an app or a software program doing
some kind of filtering during processing
to remove quite low frequency noise it
is not needed with my boss specifically
some kind of emissions restriction so
that if it happens to use the speaker's
economy explicitly granted permission to
do so on the heuristic side it's very
rare and application legitimate
application we need access the body
levels we can't afford that a few
examples won't be not commuting out for
instance and there are some legitimate
uses potentially filed to sound so tune
in what messages uses ultrasound
competitions have some other plans
channels but generally speaking there's
a curtain of many legitimate use cases
that you could monitor the environment
for whatever freaking sequence of so
most consumer on sounder meters will not
go as high or low as the levels we
tested and you do need specialist to
work on that being said there are a
couple of Android apps that we used in
our pilot study just our detector and
infrasound detector which we used with a
pretty
external microphone for the end
and there is some studies that suggest
that once more friends might be okay for
occupational especially at least as long
as you can accept that there are caveats
without any limitations and you are
necessarily under the scenario result we
developed a brief consents about Windows
program this is the sound coming from
your lots of vodka for an ad pops up
another if his frequencies of a certain
level above a sec amplitude is adapted
from another open-source application we
open up what releases on github in other
the singles who are warning or is he
don't use it to evaluate if there's
actual risk damage or adverse effects to
you and more for safety reports suspense
if that's what you want to do then you
should really be speaking to a trained
professional who's got the right
equipment but the application will be
available very
its accuracy and its kind of performance
does depend a lot on the point when
you're using in the South we're using
that kind of stuff if you want to have a
play with it and see how it works then
please don't
the policy level it's really important
that I think that these guidelines
reviewed and in the some kind of
standardization I'm put in place for
these because as noted before there was
the in an ecology that methodology the
fact that they underestimated certain
frequencies because of the weighting
that's been used the fact that they are
predominantly around occupational
context in the samples very smitten
basically pat on men and in no way to
kind of give you any kind of indication
if yours outside of an occupational
context as to what sounds a kind of
tolerable for health depending on what
area of the country you go sort of
dependable area the world you're in you
might have legislation that pertains to
sound exposure whether it's low
frequency high frequency or just in
general
ideally your employer's
result that meant up regular checks so
the sort that this was the first stage
of research are very smooth with a very
limited number of devices with a
differential exposure time to ten
minutes without you
there's also the note that like the
smart speaker if a device is forced to
continue we play forever because you
know is that it might burn out anyway
but it might take on a certain place for
the tap so we also didn't do any human
experimentation on acceptability as to
whether humans be able to actually be
able to hear and that's just an
imitation of research in this field
because of confessing all concerns so
more research is needed on risk of high
frequency and low frequency noise that
could include like a wide range of
equipment so in addition to testing the
courses that we tested you could look at
things like my page lines for example
and it wouldn't necessarily have to be
an attack against them in much as we
kind of injecting titles into a
conversation you could look at kind of
attacks on a larger scale whether that
is something like a kind of work on
Metallica cases you know 50 laptops
Sacre's Department whether it's the
click on a big devices like our Public
Address systems on a big scale the
logistical university level covers and
challenges testing is over heat effects
like the devices would be really cool to
see if that's a that's something that's
common across a lot of speakers some
work with countermeasures so you know
one of the encouraging things about this
research is that whilst the attacks we
developed a pretty trivial there
gets around in hand and the counter
measures almost retreat
in many cases except economy encouraging
as well
obviously the ethical restrictions do
make kind of extrapolations real-world
effective pretty challenging it's
difficult to be able to say whether or
not leaders had to actually allow an
attacker to have any effect on people
because there are also many variables so
we've only really scratched the surface
it's absolute can't be done in this
field so definitely if you're kind of
interested in this field we want to kind
of chat about a bit more than thinking a
touch okay
such as the saw so it's likely that
attackers might become increasingly
interested in leveraging fun abilities
against unions having digital physical
effects certainly the attack surface for
these devices is lorikeets acquired and
potentially any device of the speaker
obviously depending on the notice solid
inventor complexity could be used with
this contactor and crucially the lack of
consensus part of a dilemma safety
guidelines is real challenge however the
simple counts measures are available
that will work and the real-world
consequences it is tackling this year to
be an asset actor so thank you very much
if you want to cater to me that's much a
handle and my email address are going to
take questions at the far end of the
arable body if you're interested in any
of this stuff there is an exhaustive
list of references an empty slot the
which color acoustic weapons ultrasound
infrasound
human effects of those various other
bits and pieces as well Marcus played
with more references if you're
interested in the partnership summer
reading to recycle thank you very much
for listening content questions at the
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