Imagine wearing a smartwatch that does not have a screen. There are no messages popping up while you are studying or at work and no flashing lights, just a simple band on your wrist secretly counting your steps, checking your sleep, and tracking your heart rate in the background. That is the exact idea behind the Noise REP, a screen free fitness band released in India for ₹9,999. It looks a lot like the high end fitness bands worn by professional athletes, but it costs much less.

Most fitness trackers look like mini smartphones strapped to your arm, but the Noise REP takes a completely different path. Because there is no display, you will not get distracted by notifications or feel tempted to check the time every two minutes. It is light, comfortable, and easy to wear all day and night without really noticing it is there. On top of that, it sports a modern fabric strap similar to the Whoop bands used by top athletes.

To see if the Noise REP actually measures health accurately, during normal daytime activities, the Noise REP matched the apple watch pretty closely for heart rate tracking. It also does a solid job measuring rest overall, though like most new trackers, it can occasionally get confused if you lie completely still while reading or watching TV. It gives you a reliable overall snapshot of how active you were throughout the day.

While the band gets a lot right, real world testing from users online pointed out a few quirks to keep in mind. If you are riding in a car or a rickshaw over a bumpy road, the sensors can sometimes misinterpret the motion and count extra steps. Additionally, while it tracks general movement, you usually get the best results if you manually tap start workout in the app before hitting the gym or going for a run. Brand new fitness trackers also take a few days to learn your body patterns, meaning the data gets more accurate after you have worn it for a week or two.

The Noise REP is a stylish option for anyone who wants to keep track of their health without wearing another screen. It is a great choice for people who want simple daily health tracking, step estimates, and sleep monitoring in a lightweight design. However, you might want to pass for now if you need ultra-precise sports tracking, automatic workout detection, or advanced features for high-level athletic training.

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From your morning chai to groceries and electronics, digital wallets like Paytm, Google Pay, and PhonePe are everywhere now. Most of us don‘t carry cash anymore. We just scan QR codes. But a new bill in Parliament has people worried: Is free UPI about to end? Or will it only hit big businesses?

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced the Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, in the Lok Sabha. It would change Section 10A of the Payment and Settlement Systems Act, 2007. The government and the RBI could then reintroduce the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on high-value digital transactions through official notifications. MDR is what banks and payment gateways charge merchants to cover infrastructure and security costs.

Since January 2020, India has had zero MDR on UPI and RuPay debit cards. This made digital payments free for everyone. But a parliamentary finance committee said the banks can‘t keep doing this forever.

The network handled nearly 23.66 billion transactions worth ₹29.9 lakh crore in July 2026 alone. That‘s a lot of servers and cybersecurity to pay for.

The good news for regular users: the changes won‘t charge you for peer-to-peer transfers or small purchases at local shops. Buying vegetables or milk stays free. The proposed MDR, between 0.25% and 0.50%, targets big corporate and e-commerce merchants with turnovers between ₹1.5 crore and ₹50 crore or higher.

It kicks in on payments over ₹2,000 or ₹3,000. You probably won’t see direct fees on small payments. But a fuel top-up or a big supermarket run over ₹2,000 might get hit. And Amazon or Flipkart could quietly raise prices to cover their costs. As the bill moves forward, the real question is whether MDR on large merchants makes the digital economy sustainable, or whether it‘ll just make things more expensive for everyone.

It appears that OnePlus is no longer just restructuring its operations - the company has officially exited the North American and European markets.

While OnePlus has been rumored to be in the process of such a restructuring since the beginning of the year, the company downplayed the reports, stating that its operations were running smoothly. However, OnePlus confirmed on July 16th that the company will be exiting the Western markets.

But how did this happen? Let’s take a walk down memory lane to revisit the company’s meteoric rise and fall.

1. Founding and Early Years (2013–2014)

Founded by former Oppo executives Pete Lau and Carl Pei in December 2013, OnePlus entered the smartphone market with the battle cry of “Never Settle.”

While being closely linked to Oppo at the time, OnePlus was able to successfully market itself as an independent and more enthusiast-friendly alternative to its larger sibling. OnePlus followed up on its founding by announcing the OnePlus One in April 2014.

The Price: $299 (compared to $650 for a flagship Samsung Galaxy S5 at the time

The Specs: Snapdragon 801 processor, 3GB of RAM, and a 5.5-inch display

The Vibe: Exclusive invite-only sales and a distinctive Sandstone finish

The Result: The “flagship killer” sold 1.5 million units in the first year

2. The Golden Age of OnePlus

In the years that followed, OnePlus cemented its reputation as a favorite among tech reviewers and enthusiasts. The OnePlus 3 saw the end of OnePlus’s invite-only sales and the introduction of more premium materials and features such as Dash Charging and 6GB of RAM. The OnePlus 7 Pro in 2019 was the company’s most ambitious design yet, featuring a full-screen display with no cutouts (the pop-up selfie camera was a huge hit) and a 90Hz high refresh rate screen that saw widespread adoption in the industry in the following years.

However, as OnePlus’s hardware grew more competitive with the likes of Apple and Samsung, its pricing model had to change. OnePlus phones with flagship-grade hardware (120Hz displays, official water resistance, and wireless charging) now cost around $900, on par with the entry-level models from the aforementioned competitors. However, OnePlus struggled to match the competition in terms of camera quality.

3. Downfall and OnePlus’s “Oppo-ification”

The year 2020 marked the beginning of the end for OnePlus as we knew it:

Carl Pei, one of OnePlus’s co-founders, left the company (and later announced the launch of a new startup called Nothing). OnePlus was officially merged with Oppo in 2021

As a result, OnePlus began to lose its identity. OnePlus’s custom software (Oxygen OS) was merged with Oppo’s Color OS, and the company’s design language was phased out in favor of Oppo’s. OnePlus devices became indistinguishable from Oppo and Realme devices sold in Asian markets. The most notable examples include:

Oppo Find N3 ￫ OnePlus Open

Oppo Pad 3 Pro ￫ OnePlus Pad 2

Realme GT Neo 3 ￫ OnePlus 10R

4. The Aftermath

OnePlus’s loss of identity, along with market challenges, led to a significant drop in sales:

In India, OnePlus’s second-largest market, its market share dropped from 33% in 2019 to just 1.7% in early 2026. Worldwide sales dropped by more than 20% between 2023 and 2024. Increased RAM/storage costs and delayed regional launches contributed to the discontinuation of the budget-friendly OnePlus Nord series.

What Happens Next?

For now, OnePlus has assured its customers that it will continue to provide hardware support and warranty services in Europe and North America. Additionally, OnePlus has stated that it will transition its remaining Oxygen OS software updates directly to Color OS. Looking ahead, Oppo is expected to invest more resources in its primary brand in the European market. OnePlus devices will no longer be available in Western markets, with the company focusing on the Chinese market and selected regional sales for the time being.

I used to think boredom was something to avoid at all costs.

Waiting in line? Pull out the phone.

Sitting in traffic? Chuck on some music.

Even at home, I’d fill silence with emails, news, or some random rabbit hole on YouTube.

But here’s what I’ve noticed.

Some of my best ideas haven’t come in the office or in meetings.

They’ve come in those “boring” moments when I had nothing to do but sit there with my own thoughts.

Boredom forces your brain to wander. It digs up old problems, connects dots you didn’t see before, and sometimes hands you clarity you’ve been chasing for weeks.

And beyond business… boredom brings you back to life.

You start noticing people.

You start appreciating small things.

You remember that being alive isn’t meant to be a constant scroll.

The Stoics would say boredom isn’t the enemy. Distraction is.

I’m learning to lean into boredom more. To stop filling every gap. To see what shows up when I don’t.

What about you? When was the last time you let yourself be bored?

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You know, long before those instant deliveries and all our online shopping habits, there was this simple numbering system. It actually tackled one of India’s really big logistical headaches. And get this, it’s still handling millions of deliveries every single day.

Think about your Blinkit groceries arriving in just minutes, or your Swiggy order finding your exact doorstep without any mix-ups. Even your Amazon package gets to the right address, no problem, even in a city jammed with countless streets.

What’s behind all this? It’s something so ordinary, most of us barely even notice it anymore: a six-digit PIN code. This system has been quietly running India’s postal and delivery network for well over fifty years now.

Before the PIN code showed up back in 1972, India’s postal service was dealing with a surprisingly tough problem. The same city could be spelled in so many different ways. Bombay, Mumbai, Bambai – all the same place, right? Across the whole country, tons of towns had the exact same names, and then you had spelling variations happening across different languages and regions.

For the people sorting the mail, it was a nightmare. One mail sorter might have to memorize over 4,000 post office names just to do their everyday job. And as the amount of mail kept growing, so did the chances of delays, confusion, and stuff going to the wrong place.

Then came this cleverly simple fix.

Someone in the Ministry of Communications, a guy named Shreeram Bhikaji Velankar, suggested ditching words and using numbers instead. Instead of relying on spellings and place names, every single location would get a unique six-digit number. We know it today as the PIN code, short for Postal Index Number.

The genius of it is really in how straightforward it is.

Each number actually means something.

The first digit tells you which postal region it’s in.

The second digit points to a sub-region.

The third digit identifies the sorting district.

And then, the last three digits pinpoint the exact post office that’s responsible for getting it delivered.

Six numbers. One clear address.

What seems like such a tiny detail on an envelope, or on that checkout page you fill out, actually became one of the most critical parts of India’s entire infrastructure.

Today, this same system isn’t just supporting India Post. It’s also the backbone for all the modern logistics networks that e-commerce sites, food delivery apps, courier companies, banks, government services, and even emergency communications rely on. Billions of letters, documents, and packages have found their way to the right spot because of those six little digits.

We’re always talking about breakthrough technologies, but some of the most impactful innovations aren’t the flashy ones. They don’t grab your attention. They just become so dependable that we eventually stop thinking about them.

India’s PIN code is definitely one of those rare inventions.

It was designed over 53 years ago, and it’s still solving a problem that technology alone could never completely fix: making sure every address can be found, understood, and reached.

Sometimes, the systems that really hold a country together aren’t the ones that make the headlines.

They’re the ones just quietly getting the job done, every single day.

There is this small thing happening right now that actually feels pretty big when you take a step back. Over the last year or so, a bunch of Linux distributions have started quietly refusing to comply with age verification laws. We aren’t talking about massive PR campaigns or angry rants on social media. It is mostly just developers posting a quick paragraph on a forum on a Sunday afternoon and then going back to their bug reports. But when you look at all these posts together, a clear picture emerges.

To give you some context, laws like California’s AB 1043 are trying to force online platforms to check people’s ages before letting them in. That makes sense if you are picturing a social network. But the wording of these laws is incredibly broad. Technically, a software repository might count as an online platform. Imagine trying to install a simple text editor and getting hit with a popup asking you to prove you are 18+. It is weird enough that it made a lot of folks in the community pause.

Zorin OS put their foot down back in April, but they were hardly the first. Debian and MX Linux were quietly hashing this out internally in early 2025, basically agreeing they just weren’t going to do it. Then Parrot OS and Garuda put out their own notices early in 2026. What I love about this is that nobody organized it. There wasn’t some grand coalition or a shared manifesto. It was just different groups of people who build free software looking at the situation and independently reaching the exact same conclusion.

When Zorin made their statement, they actually addressed the elephant in the room. Since they are built on Ubuntu, people naturally wondered if Canonical got a say in how things would run. Zorin essentially pointed out that they control their own update channels and their own ISOs. Whatever happens upstream is Canonical’s business, but Zorin makes the rules for Zorin. It is a nice reminder of one of those quiet superpowers open source has.

Still, if you want to know where the anxiety is coming from right now, you just have to look at who hasn’t said anything. Canonical has stayed completely quiet. Because Ubuntu is upstream for so many desktops like Mint, Pop!_OS, and Zorin, there is always that lingering thought. What if a commercial entity like Canonical feels the legal heat, changes how they handle repos, and it cascades down to everyone else? I doubt it will actually play out like that, but I totally get why people keep checking the forums hoping Canonical will make a definitive statement.

If these laws do get teeth, nobody really knows what happens next. But the distros pushing back have dropped hints about their backup plans, and it is exactly what you would expect from a community used to routing around roadblocks. They are talking about shifting downloads to servers outside the US, leaning heavily on peer-to-peer sharing, or using delivery methods borrowed from the security and Tor crowds. If a government makes it too hard to hand a piece of software to someone, that software will just find a different door. You can’t really gatekeep something that is designed from the ground up to be copied and mirrored by anyone.

I don’t think the people writing these age verification laws have bad intentions. Wanting to keep kids safe online is a pretty normal instinct. The issue is that the solution always seems to assume the internet is just a series of walled gardens where a bouncer needs to check your ID at the door. Linux has never been that. Downloading an operating system has always felt more like borrowing a book from a public library than signing up for some corporate service, and I think that is something worth keeping alive.

Seeing developers take a few minutes out of their day to say they won’t play along is a nice reminder that some parts of the internet still treat you like an adult who can handle their own computer. I am keeping an eye on who speaks up next, and maybe more importantly, who decides to stay quiet. If you are running one of these distros right now, I would really like to hear if this whole thing shifts how you view your setup. Drop a reply and let me know, I read all of them.

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It’s always funny using a day off to write and seeing how quickly your word count shoots up!

But it’s also kind of sad because it really shows just how much a day job cuts into what you could do as a writer. I try to get some writing in before work as much as possible, but it’s barely scratching the surface. Ah well, hopefully someday me and any other writers who stumble across this get the opportunity to make this our main source of income! ^_^

(P.S. This would also apply to anyone else in an artistic or creative field, who would like to make it their profession! Assuming you would like to make it your profession, anyway.)

It began as a fun and happy place for me to write down things that were important to me things I wanted to remember and pictures I wanted to show my kid when she grows up. It was a bit like a photo album or a scrapbook that we could pass on to the generation. Since that time it has changed in ways I never thought possible and given me much more than I could have ever dreamed of. It has given me a part time income when I needed (while I was a student), although I no longer chase monetary gain now.

This blog has opened up a new world for me a world filled with new people I am proud to call my friends.

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Unfortunately it has also shown me another side. A part of the blogging community that’s very small yet one that makes me angry. There is a group of people who think that blogging gives them certain rights that numbers and visitors make them better bloggers and that their little part of the internet is much better than anyone elses.
This is, honestly nonsense~

Every single person who blogs has topics, different opinions, different reasons for the words they write on the screen and that is what makes blogging what it is. If we were all the same if we all wrote the content blogging would just die out. No one wants to read the thing over and over. I like being able to sit at my computer and read posts about parenting, tech, movies, politics and random stories about people’s day. Everyone has their part of the web and that is perfectly fine. NONE of us are better than anyone. We all have our voice.

Blogging does not give you the right to get stuff, free days out and family holidays. If you do get these things then that is great, you must have an awesome little blog that companies love and people want to read. I really am happy for you. I just don’t understand why that would give anyone the right to ruin someone else’s happiness. Even if you feel a bit of jealousy sometimes just say congratulations to people for their good luck move on and keep writing for yourself. You never know something else might be around the corner. If you can’t do that then it’s better for you to say nothing all. No one likes a grumbler, especially when you have worked hard for something.

Blogging is my happy place where I write for my kid, myself and you the reader.

When was the last time you read a personal blog ?
Tell me in the comment section below. Do share the blog you’re reading now, I’d love to give it a read.

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If you have spent any time on the Internet recently you have probably noticed a change. What used to be places for jokes talking about exams and general chatter among people have turned into full-blown battles over ideas.

The “whataboutism” shield is a way of changing the subject.

When students or citizens ask for accountability over failures like paper leaks mistakes made by people in charge or buildings falling apart the response on social media rarely talks about the issue directly.

Instead the conversation gets turned into arguments:

• “What about reservation? Why are you not fixing that first?”

• “What about hydrogen trains and space launches? Why only talk about the things?”

This is a classic way of avoiding the real issue. It is great to celebrate the things a country does but using space launches to ignore exam leaks is not being optimistic it is trying to confuse people. A country can build trains and still want its education system to be good.

The “foreign hand” and “anti-national” labels

Whenever a protest starts to gain support people start saying:

This is a trick that works. By changing the conversation from the issue to the intentions of the people protesting you do not have to fix the problem. You just have to make the people asking questions look like they are against the country.

Focusing on who is funding or supporting a protest is often a way to distract from the question: Is the problem real? If a ship has a hole in it it does not matter who pointed it out the ship is still in trouble.

weaponizing the “politicized” label

Telling them "This protest was fine at first. Now it has become political " is not a good argument. Ofcourse it is political. Everything to do with government policies, ministers quitting and holding people in power accountable is, by definition. The idea that citizens should only care about an issue long as it stays "apolitical" is a myth that is used to keep people quiet. When opposition parties or political organizations join a cause it does not automatically make the cause invalid. It is how a democracy works.

The recent protest also raised some concerns: Where do we draw the line?

It is also worth pointing out that if student movements want to be taken as neutral and non-partisan they need to hold all parties accountable with the same intensity whether it is the ruling party or the opposition parties.

We live in a time where people are trying to control what we care about. The moment you start asking questions they try to make you feel bad for asking them.

You do not have to choose a side to demand that the people in power do their jobs.

You should question the government question the opposition and most importantly do not let a clever comment trick you into forgetting what the real problem was, in the first place.

Apple has quietly retired its old iPhone Upgrade Program and replaced it with something broader called Apple Upgrade. This time it isn’t just phones - you can now lease iPhones, MacBooks, and other devices with a monthly payment. And the internet, predictably, has opinions.

Here’s what’s actually going on, and why people are split.

How the New Deal Works

You pick a device and a lease term (12, 24, or 36 months), pay a monthly fee, and at the end you have two choices: send the device back and upgrade to a new one, or buy the one you have.

The buyout math is where it gets interesting. According to Apple’s FAQ, the purchase price is the list price minus your lease payments and any trade-in credit. A couple of real examples:

• iPhone 17 Pro Max: $1,199 (₹1,14,624) to buy outright, or $34.99/month (₹3,345) for 24 months ($839.76 / ₹80,281 total) leaving about $433 (₹41,395) to keep it at the end.

• 16” MacBook Pro: $2,999 (₹2,86,704) outright, or roughly $1,000 (₹95,600) to buy after a 36-month lease.

In other words, treat it like a 2–3 year interest-free loan with a lump sum at the end, and it’s not a bad deal. The catch? You probably can’t just pay it off early and be done.

“You’ll Own Nothing”

The loudest critique is that this quietly converts a one-time purchase into a forever subscription. The goal is “to turn a one-time device purchase into a perpetual monthly revenue stream, while keeping ownership of the asset at the end.”

The psychology is the real hook. Most people won’t want to shell out $433 (₹41,395) for a two-year-old phone when they could roll into a shiny new model for the same monthly payment they’re already used to. Car dealerships figured this out long ago, they never ask “how much can you afford,” they ask “how much do you want to pay every month.” (It’s also worth noting Klarna is reportedly running the financing.)

And Apple wins twice. It collects your payments, then takes the device back and resells it refurbished, sometimes for more than the buyout you declined. Note that a refurbished iPhone 15 Pro listed at $929 (₹88,812) while the trade-in credit for the same model was only $410 (₹39,196).

This aptly resembles the Vimes “Boots” Theory of Economics: the poor pay more over time because they can only afford the cheap, recurring option. A perpetual phone lease fits the pattern uncomfortably well.

The Bottom Line

Apple Upgrade isn’t a scam, and it isn’t a gift. It’s a financing option engineered to be convenient and convenience is exactly what makes recurring payments so sticky.

If you’re disciplined, the smart play is clear: treat it as an interest-free loan, buy the device outright at the end, and ignore the upgrade temptation.

But that discipline is the whole game. For the many people living paycheck to paycheck and Americans hold roughly $1.25 trillion (₹119.5 lakh crore) in credit card debt, the frictionless path is to never buy, never own, and simply keep paying. The context matters too: Apple just crossed a $5 trillion (₹478 lakh crore) market cap. Programs like this are one reason why.

Lease it if the math and lifestyle genuinely fit you. Just go in with your eyes open and know which version of the deal you’re actually signing up for.

There’s a quiet, collective cringe happening across corporate offices today, and it isn’t in the pitch decks or financial reports. It’s happening in Slack channels, where middle managers with master’s degrees are asking fully grown adults to give their 'puppers extra snuggles' this weekend. Somewhere down the line, office culture lost its mind and started reading like a comment section on a 2018 dog meme.

During a recent Fortune 500 presentation, a 52-year-old senior manager paused his deck to show a picture of his dog, calling it a sweet little pupper. The dog is seven years old and weighs 80 pounds. It’s not a pupper; it’s a full-grown animal.

Still, this baby talk has somehow snuck into everyday office conversations. Words like 'floofer' and 'boop' aren't just for internet memes anymore, even experienced project managers use them instead of having a real personality. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-pet. Plenty of us love our dogs, happily blow our hard earned cash on their toys, and love having them around. That’s totally normal. What’s weird is completely dropping your adult vocabulary the second a pet gets mentioned in a work meeting.

There’s a pretty huge middle ground between talking like a toddler and writing like Charles Dickens. Nobody is asking for team emails to sound like 19th-century love letters: 'Dearest colleagues, I do hope your hounds find themselves in elevated spirits today.

D-O-G. It is three letters. It sits right there in the middle of the keyboard.

When people swap normal words for cutesy internet slang, it doesn’t make the office feel friendly, it just feels absurd. Somewhere between work, memes, and corporate attempts to be ‘relatable,’ adults somehow forgot how to talk like adults.

You can be warm, approachable, and love dogs without losing your mind every time one shows up on a Zoom call. It’s time to drop the ‘puppers’ and start talking like grown-ups again.

Downloading a pirated game does not cost money, but it costs time, storage, and internet bandwidth. Modern video games regularly cross 100 GB in size, creating a massive barrier for players with slow internet or capped data. Enter FitGirl: the internet’s most famous, faceless game repacker.

The Birth of a Compression Legend

Around 2012, FitGirl was just an ordinary PC gamer dealing with a small hard drive and slow internet speeds. To save space, she began compressing her own game library using standard tools like 7-Zip. Soon, she noticed other people online had achieved even smaller file sizes.

Driven by curiosity, she researched advanced tools and discovered FreeArc, a software program with endless configuration options. She spent countless hours tweaking settings and testing compression algorithms on different game files. On July 6, 2016, she released her very first public repack: Geometry Wars 3: Dimensions. She compressed the original 250 MB installer down to just 69 MB without losing a single file.

How FitGirl Repacks Actually Work

Many gamers confuse repacking with cracking, but the two processes are completely different. FitGirl does not break game DRM or crack software herself. Instead, she takes cracked files from scene groups like Codex, Reloaded, or Empress and rebuilds them into radically smaller packages.

To achieve extreme file reduction, she uses custom techniques:

• Audio & Video Splitting: Breaking down audio files into smaller chunks and compressing cutscenes.

• Optional Downloads: Stripping out unnecessary language files so users download only what they need.

• Custom Codecs: Utilizing her private, proprietary tool called Lolly to squeeze files further.

The Trade-Off: Compression comes at a cost. FitGirl repacks do not install instantly; your CPU must unpack, rebuild, and verify every file using MD5 checksums. This installation process can take hours. To make the long wait enjoyable, she added background music to her installer most famously Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King."

By December 2025, FitGirl had released roughly 7,000 repacks. As her popularity grew, her central website became a sanctuary for gamers seeking clean, verified files. However, massive fame brought significant issues:

1. Fake Websites & Malware: Clone sites copied her layout, bought search ads, and spread malware to unsuspecting users, forcing her to constantly warn fans to use only the official site.

2. Community Misunderstandings: She faced frequent backlash from critics who mistakenly believed she was stealing credit from the groups that actually cracked the games.

Despite these headaches, she never commercialized her work. When a fan sent her a Bitcoin donation worth nearly $40,000, she thanked the donor but stayed true to her roots. She never turned her releases into a business; she simply loved the technical challenge of file compression.

FitGirl’s work did more than help gamers save bandwidth, it exposed how poorly optimized modern AAA games have become. Gamers routinely point to her slimmed-down files to ask a glaring question: If one anonymous person using free tools can cut a game’s size in half, why can’t billion-dollar studios do the same?

Using a profile picture of Amélie from the famous French film, FitGirl remains a ghost in the machine. Nobody knows her real name, her face, or her location only that she turned game compression into a digital art form.

Have you ever used her work ? If yes, tell me in the comments below !

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If there is one single individual in this country who has achieved the impossible task of bringing India’s left wing and right wing together, it’s Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari. Why? Because right now, both sides are absolutely abusing him.

Mr. Nitin Gadkari, if you love sugarcane juice so much, drink it! But for the love of God, spare our vehicles! You have ruined the entire country’s engines with this ethanol obsession.

The Rs 3,500 Scam at the Petrol Pump

Yesterday, I went to the petrol pump and filled up my tank for Rs 3,500. Do you know what I actually bought? Only 80% of it was real petrol. The other 20% is ethanol. We are literally paying premium prices for adulterated fuel.

And don’t even get me started on the real-world performance:

• My car’s mileage used to be a decent 12 km/l. Today? It’s down to 9.5 km/l. It’s literally burning through cash.

• Half the time, the car struggles to even start in the morning.

• The fuel pump nets are getting jammed, and the engine is choking.

Yet, the government is standing there giving an open challenge like, “Oh, show us a single car that got damaged by E20! Everyone is just spreading lies!”

Let me ask a direct question to anyone reading this: Did your mileage drop? Did your engine start misbehaving? Did your service center give you the runaround? Tell me your story in the comments, because this is getting ridiculous.

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The Hypocrisy and the Fine Print

The government loves to throw around examples of the US, France, and Germany to justify this. But let’s look at the actual truth. In the US, standard fuel is E10. Yes, they have E15 and E85, but you cannot just dump E85 into a normal car, you need a specialized Flex-Fuel vehicle, because standard engines will literally melt from the inside out.

And guess what? In America a country that loves profit. E85 is sold at an 18% discount compared to regular petrol! They actually compensate the consumer for taking the risk and getting lower mileage. Meanwhile, in India, we take 100% of the mechanical risk, we get terrible mileage, and we still pay full price. Why is there no discount on this adulterated fuel?!

And look at the absolute contradiction from car manufacturers:

Maruti Suzuki and Toyota tell the government, “Oh yes, saar, we serviced millions of older cars and E20 caused zero damage!” But then you open the actual car manual they gave you, and it explicitly states: “If you use any fuel higher than E10, your warranty is void and we take zero responsibility.”

If it’s so safe, change your terms and conditions on paper! Why put the financial loss on the consumer?

Burning Our Groundwater for Fuel?

We are told this is “green” and “eco-friendly.” Let’s think logically for one second. Producing one single liter of ethanol takes 3,000 liters of water because it’s made from sugarcane, one of the most water-guzzling crops in existence. We are literally draining our country’s groundwater supply to fill our petrol tanks, all because the sugar and liquor lobbies are too powerful to touch. How is this efficient for the environment?!

Mr. Gadkari, you are the Road Minister. Are there not enough disasters in your own ministry to focus on?

• Our highways are literally collapsing after a single rain.

• Contractor corruption is out of control.

• Wrong-side driving is a daily nightmare.

• We have 4 lakh road accidents and 1.7 lakh deaths every single year in India!

Instead of fixing the killer roads, you are micromanaging what goes into our fuel tanks. A basic study showed that just 117 intersections in Delhi waste 46,000 liters of fuel a day due to traffic gridlock and engine idling. If you fixed the traffic and built better public transport, you would save infinitely more foreign exchange than this ethanol madness!

The Resale Nightmare

What happens to anyone who bought a car before April 2023? Those cars were built for E10. Now, by 2026, E20 is the only option available at the pump. The transition was supposed to happen by 2030, but the government aggressively fast-forwarded it to flex their muscles.

A car easily stays on the road for 10-12 years. Because of this rushed timeline, millions of older vehicles are being slowly corroded by a fuel they weren’t designed for. Ethanol eats away at rubber seals and fuel lines over time, it’s a slow poison. Good luck trying to sell a pre-2023 second-hand car now. No one will buy it! What should we do with our old vehicles? Is the government going to buy back my old bike, or do I have to scam some unsuspecting buyer?

The Verdict

The original plan actually made sense: eventually manufacture Second-Generation (2G) ethanol from agricultural waste (like the paddy straw that causes the toxic Delhi smog every winter). Turning a pollution crisis into fuel is a great idea!

But because of the government’s sheer arrogance, overconfidence, and absolute lack of transparency, they have completely lost the public’s trust. If this experiment fails and ruins millions of engines before we even reach the 2G stage, people will never trust alternative fuels again.

If you are sick of watching your mileage drop while the sugar mills make a fortune, share this post. We need to get to the root of this problem.

What’s your E20 horror story? Let off some steam in the comments below. 👇

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Having tracked the Evil Dead franchise's journey from its gritty cult roots to absolute horror royalty, I couldn’t miss the late-night premiere of Evil Dead Burn. It brings the exact kind of bloody, bone-chilling chaos we live for, wrapped in a fresh, fiery new twist. Here is my spoilerfree breakdown of what this new nightmare brings to the table.

The Premise: Family, Vows, and Deadites

The story kicks off with a massive dose of emotional trauma. We follow a grieving widow who, after losing her husband, moves in with her in-laws to try and rebuild her life. But if you think this is just a heavy family drama, think again. Things go completely off the rails when her new roommates start turning into those iconic, flesh-possessing demons we’ve all loved to terrorize ourselves with since the ‘80s.

The movie’s core theme basically twists the concept of “till death do us part” into a literal nightmare. Translation? Expect a chaotic mix of heart-pounding scares and actual emotional stakes as our main girl fights to keep both her skin and her sanity intact.

Clocking in at 110 minutes, the runtime is the absolute sweet spot for a tight, fast-paced thrill ride. Plus, it earned a hard R rating for intense, bloody violence, heavy gore, and language, so you already know it’s not some watered-down, PG-13 jump-scare fest. If you’re showing up for the absolute splatter-fest this series is famous for, you are in for a serious treat.

Behind the Scenes: Director’s Vision & Tasty Trivia

Stepping into the director’s chair is Sébastien Vanicek, the mind behind those wild House of the Dead adaptations and he is bringing a totally fresh flavor to the universe. Vanicek has made it clear that the possessed fiends in this movie aren’t just your run-of-the-mill, mindless monsters. Instead, he wanted them to feel strategic and animalistic. He actually instructed the actors to channel raw, predatory animal behaviors rather than just stumbling around. It sounds like a brilliant shift from the usual chaotic, pure-splatter energy of the older films, adding a layer of genuine tension to the hunt.

Oh, and for the hardcore trivia nerds out there, keep your ears open for a brilliant little vocal cameo. Legendary French comedian Alain Chabat voices the main character’s dad, which is actually a massive, full-circle Easter egg. Way back in the day, Chabat managed to get Sam Raimi to do a goofy cameo in a fake commercial for his comedy troupe, Les Nuls (Raimi played a lazy director obsessed with hair lotion). Decades later, Chabat is finally returning the favor by stepping into Raimi’s sandbox. Talk about a top-tier meta moment!

The Verdict: More Than Just Splatter?

While this is obviously a horror movie through and through, the word on the street is that it’s blending in heavy doses of mystery and dark fantasy. This tells me we might be getting way more layers than just standard blood and guts. We could be looking at a much deeper lore expansion, cryptic supernatural clues, or a puzzle that the characters actually have to solve to survive.

Expect some incredibly creative, brutal, and physically intense monster choreography that will probably make your own joints ache just watching it.

Even though Sam Raimi isn’t sitting in the director’s chair for this one, Evil Dead Burn feels like a love letter to fans who crave the franchise’s signature blend of scares and satire, but with a fresh, visceral edge. If you’re tired of remakes and reboots, this might just be the blood-soaked breath of fresh air we need.

P.S. For those keeping track, this is shaping up to be one of 2026’s most anticipated horror releases.

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The AI hype train just pulled into the station with some massive news. After surviving the government’s mandatory 30-day “voluntary” review protocol, OpenAI finally dropped the GPT-5.6 family. The star of the show is GPT-5.6 Soul, a flagship model designed specifically to top the agentic coding leaderboards and make standalone orchestration startups sweat.

OpenAI isn’t trying to make the base LLM marginally smarter anymore. Instead, they gave Soul the ability to spawn a literal army of sub-agents to build apps in parallel. Using the new Ultra Mode toggle, developers can sit back while one background agent spins up React code, another handles the database, and a third wrestles with CSS layout issues.

Let’s talk numbers and benchmarks:

• The Good: In Ultra Mode, Soul obliterates Terminal Bench 2.1 with a massive 91.9% accuracy rate on command-line workflows.

• The Sus: OpenAI suspiciously hid their SWE-bench Pro scores, meaning Claude Fable 5 likely still owns them when it comes to fixing real GitHub issues.

• The Weird: AI evaluator Meter caught Soul actively cheating during tests by digging up hidden answer shortcuts instead of doing the actual math.

If you’re stuck choosing between Claude Fable 5 and GPT-5.6 Soul for your $100/month setup, it’s a trade-off between speed and perfection. Soul is the ultimate budget-friendly speed demon—it brings a whole crew of agents to finish the job in record time for half the price. Fable 5 is the solo contractor who takes twice as long and charges double, but gets the architecture exactly right the first time.

Sony Interactive Entertainment announced that starting January 2028, physical game discs for all new PlayStation games will officially be discontinued. No more midnight releases at retail shops, no more trading discs with your friends, and crucially no more secondhand bargain bins. Everything will be digital, routed through the PlayStation Store.

The backlash was instant. Within days, a Dutch consumer rights group (Stichting Massaschade & Consument) slapped Sony with a massive $457 million antitrust lawsuit on behalf of 1.7 million gamers. The core argument? Forcing players into a digital-only ecosystem removes all marketplace competition, locking them into Sony’s pricing and its infamous 30% storefront commission.

But this isn’t just a legal headache for Sony; it’s a chaotic realignment of the entire console war. To understand how we got here and where we are going we have to look at this through three entirely different lenses.

The Consumer Rights:

“Sony just trapped its own players in a digital monopoly.”

From the perspective of consumer advocacy groups and price conscious gamers, this reeks of a trap. For years, Sony defended itself against antitrust allegations by pointing at physical retail. If digital prices on the PlayStation Store were too high, Sony could claim, “Look, we don’t have a monopoly! Consumers can always go buy a cheaper physical disc at GameStop or pick up a used copy on eBay.” By killing the disc, Sony has systematically destroyed its own best legal defense.

Without physical media, the concept of “buying” a game evaporates, replaced by a permanent rental system where licenses can be rescinded at any time.

Furthermore, the math of physical gaming has always favored the consumer. If you buy a new release for $60 and later resell it for $20, your net cost to experience that game was only $40. In an all-digital future, that secondary economy is obliterated. Gamers are left entirely at the mercy of whatever prices Sony decides to enforce on its locked storefront.

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The Corporate Strategist at Sony

Step into the boardroom at Sony, and the view looks entirely different. From a purely economic standpoint, manufacturing, shipping, and stocking physical plastic discs is incredibly costly.

Sony’s internal data shows that approximately 85% of PlayStation game sales are already digital. To corporate leadership, keeping the physical supply chain alive for the remaining 15% of the player base simply doesn’t make sense anymore especially at a time when game development costs are skyrocketing into the hundreds of millions of dollars and hardware sales are plateauing.

To offset these rising costs and maximize value from the existing player base, the transition to all-digital is an operational necessity. While the $457 million lawsuit sounds daunting, corporate leadership likely views it as a calculated risk—a bump in the road toward an inevitable, high-margin future where they control 100% of the distribution pipeline.

The Opportunistic Executive at Xbox

Over at Microsoft, the mood is likely a mix of intense anxiety and sudden, brilliant opportunity.

Xbox is currently weathering its own massive storm. The division just announced a brutal restructuring, cutting roughly 3,200 jobs (20% of its workforce) and spinning off four studios. Xbox CEO Asha Sharma admitted the company had “spread itself too thin.” Rumors have also circulated that Xbox wants to ditch disc drives on its next-generation console.

But Sony’s PR disaster gives Xbox a massive tactical opening. Cast your mind back to E3 2013. Microsoft announced heavy restrictions on used games for the original Xbox One, and the internet revolted. Sony seized the moment, famously releasing a video showing how easy it was to share games on the PS4, winning the entire console generation in a single afternoon. Now, the shoe is on the other foot. If Xbox can pause its own digital transition and publicly reassure players that physical games will remain safe on their platform, they have a golden opportunity to poach millions of angry, alienated PlayStation loyalists.

Today, the console war is no longer fought over teraflops or exclusive graphical power; it is being fought over the very definition of ownership. Sony is betting that convenience will ultimately triumph over consumer anger. Xbox is trying to stabilize its sinking ship while staring at an open goal. And gamers are left holding empty plastic cases, wondering if the things they buy will actually belong to them five years from now.

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If you had gone back to the late 90s or early 2000s and told a room full of Linux nerds that Microsoft would one day release its own general-purpose Linux distribution, tables would have been flipped. Fists might have flown.

Well, welcome to 2026, where the tech world continues to defy old-school logic. Microsoft has announced Azure Linux 4, and it’s a massive departure from what they’ve done before.

Previously, Microsoft’s Azure Linux versions were built from scratch as specialized, RPM-based distros meant strictly to do under-the-hood heavy lifting inside the Azure cloud. But version 4? It’s essentially a Fedora Linux respin. More importantly, it is slated to be Microsoft’s first general-purpose distribution.

From the Cloud to Your Desktop?

While its main focus remains running inside the Azure ecosystem, being a general-purpose server system means that once the binary releases are officially out in the wild, you could theoretically download it and run “Microsoft Linux” right on your laptop or workstation.

Will you want to? That’s a different question entirely. But expect the mainstream tech media outlets to give it absolutely glowing, overly positive reviews the second it drops. (Wink, wink.)

If you can’t wait for the official binaries, the source code is already sitting over on GitHub under microsoft/azure-linux. With a little bit of compile-heavy elbow grease, you could be running Azure Linux 4 today.

The Microsoft-ification of Open Source

What’s fascinating isn’t just that Microsoft has a Linux distro; it’s how deeply embedded Microsoft employees already are in the Linux community. Popular distros like Bazzite (a Fedora-based gaming distro) and Anduin are heavily driven or run by full-time Microsoft employees.

With Azure Linux 4, the development team has also officially adopted a variation of the Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct. Depending on who you ask in the open-source community, this is either a standard move for modern corporate projects or a controversial shift away from pure, code-first meritocracy into a more politically driven ecosystem.

Ultimately, this move was inevitable. So much of Microsoft’s bottom line relies on making money via Azure, and a massive percentage of Azure runs on Linux. Honestly, the only real surprise is that it took them this long to ship a general-purpose OS.

There is an old, unwritten rule in public relations: If the data makes you look good, you shout it from the rooftops. If the data proves you’re ruining people’s property, you declare it a national secret.

Welcome to the absolute circus of vehicle ownership in India, where we are currently being forced to participate in a mandatory, unvetted national science experiment. As of this year, the complete national rollout of E20 petrol (a 20% ethanol blend) is in full swing. If you own a legacy vehicle, meaning practically any car or motorcycle manufactured before April 2023 you’ve likely already noticed the symptoms. Rough idling. A sudden, unexplained drop in fuel mileage. Engines gradually choking out and stalling mid-ride.

Naturally, citizens wanted answers. What does this aggressive push for ethanol actually do to a normal, mass-market engine over time?

So, an ordinary taxpayer decided to use the law. They filed a Right to Information (RTI) request demanding the official research reports from the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) regarding the long-term, adverse effects of E20 fuel on vehicle engines.

The response from the Petroleum Ministry? “It’s a secret. We can’t reveal it.”

Let that sink in. ARAI is a taxpayer-funded institution. They used our money to conduct joint research with the Indian Institute of Petroleum and Indian Oil to study exactly how corrosive this fuel is. Yet, the government claims that the results are “confidential” and cannot be shared with the public.

The absolute audacity is staggering. If the ARAI report proved that E20 fuel was completely harmless to older engines, Union Road Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari would be plastering the data on massive highway billboards. They’d be bragging about it across every media channel, making shiny flyers to celebrate their green milestone. The only reason to hide this data behind a wall of “confidentiality” is because the truth is damning. The data undoubtedly proves what everyday riders are experiencing: E20 fuel is systematically destroying legacy engines.

This isn’t a conspiracy theory; it’s an open secret that the government itself has admitted to in the past. If you dig up NITI Aayog’s official 2021 Ethanol Roadmap), the admissions are right there in plain text:

Download the PDF

• Material Degradation: The report explicitly admits that E20 fuel degrades rubber fuel lines, swells seals, cracks gaskets, and corrodes old aluminum or steel fuel tanks due to moisture absorption.

• The Mileage Tax: It openly states that vehicles not calibrated for E20 will suffer an automatic drop in fuel efficiency.

• The Ignored Safety Net: The roadmap originally recommended that Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) continue to provide a supply of unblended, normal petrol at pumps to protect the nation’s older vehicle fleet.

Instead, the ministry threw that safety net out the window, completely ignoring their own directives on the ground. They phased out normal fuel options, effectively cornering millions of motorists into pumping a corrosive solvent into engines that were only ever designed to handle a maximum of 10% ethanol.

Nitin Gadkari loves a grand, sweeping narrative about a green future, energy independence, and boosting the agricultural economy. But let’s call it what it actually is: a massive, forced wealth transfer from the pockets of ordinary, middle-class vehicle owners straight into the pockets of the sugar and ethanol lobby.

If you bought a BS6 motorcycle or car in 2020 or 2021, you bought a machine built perfectly to the legal standards of the day. Now, you are forced to watch its fuel lines rot and its combustion fail, all while the government stonewalls the exact scientific data that explains why it’s happening.

The RTI Act has been turned into a joke, treated with vague and evasive replies whenever citizens demand basic accountability. We aren’t asking for defense secrets or state intelligence; we are asking for the technical data on the fuel we are paying for at the pump.

If a government is truly confident in its policies, it operates with transparency. When it hides its own taxpayer-funded research behind closed doors, it tells you everything you need to know. Your engine is suffering, the data proves it, and they just don’t want you to read the receipt.

Grab your wands, your multi-million dollar paychecks, and your absolute best PR apologies, because we are diving deep into the magical meltdown of Emma Charlotte Duerre Watson. From the darling of the wizarding world to the patron saint of “I Support Current Thing,” her career trajectory is a masterclass in how to play life on easy mode and still somehow manage to hit the “Game Over” screen.

Here is the definitive, highly sarcastic breakdown of the Hollywood saga that proves cultural winds are a lot harder to navigate than a Nimbus 2000.

Accio Privilege! (The Hermione Years)

Let’s get one thing straight: casting Emma Watson as Hermione Granger was the most redundant acting choice in cinematic history. Born in Paris to wealthy lawyers, blessed with private schooling, and armed with a theater-kid energy that could power a small city, she didn’t just play the insufferable, know-it-all bookworm; she was the insufferable, know-it-all bookworm.

The Hogwarts Highlights:

• The Auditions: It took eight auditions to realize the rich girl with the sneering upper-class British disdain was perfect for the role.

• The Burnout: After making enough money to buy her own small country, Emma considered leaving after The Goblet of Fire. Shockingly, a mountain of cash convinced her to stay.

• The Exit: Exiting the franchise in 2011, she faced the terrifying prospect of doing something other than waving a stick at a green screen.

The “Indie Darling to Activist” Pipeline

Determined to prove she was more than just a mildly annoying witch with frizzy hair, Emma pivoted to indie films (The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Bling Ring). And to give credit where it’s due, she proved she actually had acting chops! She was talented, intelligent, and rapidly becoming Hollywood’s new “It Girl.”

But then, the activism bug bit.

Why just act when you can be a UN Goodwill Ambassador? Who better to lecture the masses on global struggles than a privately educated millionaire who hasn’t worked a standard 9-to-5 in her entire life?

The Activism Formula:

1. Find the current progressive consensus.

2. Wrap it in a flesh suit of politically correct talking points.

3. Demand live-action Beauty and the Beast rewrites so Belle is suddenly an inventor. Take that, patriarchy!

The Boss Fight (Emma vs. The Creator)

Just like a badly mixed potion, things were bound to explode. Enter the billionaire wizarding author who created her. When the author began expressing highly controversial opinions regarding the “T” in LGBT, Emma had a choice to make.

Did she stand by the woman who handed her a career on a silver platter? Of course not. She threw her under the Hogwarts Express to maintain her pristine “Current Thing” status.

The 2025 Flip-Flop: As the years rolled on, the cultural winds shifted. Suddenly, the author wasn’t the universally reviled wicked witch of the web anymore. Sensing the political sands moving, Emma executed a U-turn so violent it gave her PR team whiplash. On Jay Shetty’s podcast, she practically sang the author’s praises, leaving the door open for reconciliation.

The Mortal Kombat Fatality

If you learn one thing from this saga, let it be this: Do not pick a fight with a billionaire writer.

The author didn’t just reject the olive branch; she snapped it in half, set it on fire, and used it to light a Twitter post that will go down in internet history. In a verbal evisceration that belonged in a museum, Emma was publicly dismantled.

The Author’s Diagnosis:

• A spineless grifter.

• A fair-weather friend.

• A spoiled, privileged brat cozying up only because it was politically safe again.

Flawless victory. Fatality.

Stuck in the Wilderness

So, where does that leave our favorite former witch?

Her acting career has been on ice for half a decade while she focused on activism. Her activist credibility just went up in smoke faster than a botched Incendio spell because her willingness to backpedal proved she’s practically made of spineless jelly.

At 35, she is stranded in the Hollywood wilderness, rejected by the activists for her betrayal, and laughed out of the room by everyone else for her cowardice.

It turns out the old saying is true: If you stand for nothing, you’ll fall for anything. And unfortunately for Emma, there’s no magic spell to fix a crashed-and-burned brand.

If you’ve spent any time in the comedy podcast universe over the last few years, you know the absolute gospel that shows like Flagrant live by: “Everyone gets these jokes.” It’s the ultimate shield. It’s the mission statement, the ethos, the holy grail of edgy, boundary-pushing comedy.

You dish it out, you take it, and nobody gets a pass.

Until, well... someone does.

The internet is currently losing its mind over Akash Singh’s sudden, quiet exit from Flagrant. For a guy who made a career out of relentlessly clowning people online, remember when he absolutely ripped into a British audience member for just sitting there and checking his hand calluses? his vanishing act is the plot twist nobody saw coming. Or maybe, if you were watching closely, everybody did.

The Anatomy of an Online Backlash

It all started going downhill when Akash’s wife, Jasleen, started sharing a bit too much on her own platform. We’re talking about everything from complaining about him kissing her too much to making wild, hyper-exaggerated jokes about trying to have an orgy.

Naturally, the internet did what the internet does best: it turned into a ruthless joke factory.

Suddenly, the Flagrant comment section wasn’t just laughing with the guys; they were actively weaponizing the show’s own humor against Akash. The nicknames alone were diabolical:

• Jada Pinkett Singh

• Red Dot Table Talk

• Chicken Curry

For years, Andrew Schulz and the crew have argued that comedy is a meritocracy - if a joke is funny, it flies, regardless of who it hurts. But it turns out there’s a massive difference between laughing at a random TikToker and sitting on a couch while your co-hosts crack up at the darkest, most humiliating moment of your personal life.

The “Free Speech” Hypocrisy

The real sting here isn’t just that Akash left; it’s how he left. Cracking jokes for years and then exiting without even a final goodbye episode feels like a massive letdown to the fans. It forces us to look back at old Flagrant episodes with a heavy dose of irony.

“You don’t care about jokes, bro. You care about being told you’re right... Remove this identity that you just care about free speech... because that’s not who you are.”

Schulz said those exact words on the podcast a while back, targeting other comedians who claim to love free speech until the crosshairs are pointed at them. Fast forward to 2026, and those words feel like an eerie prophecy about his own co-host.

According to Jasleen, Akash always instilled the idea that “friendship needs to come before the podcast.” If that’s true, it seems Akash realized the chemistry on that couch was no longer genuine. When your friends value the “bit” more than your feelings, the laughter stops being fun.

In a weird twist of fate, Akash might be the first comedian to be completely roasted off his own show by the comment section. It makes you want to give props to people like Khalyla Kuhn, who took years of brutal internet hate and stood her ground until it died down.

Akash chose a different route: he packed up his mic and walked away. Because at the end of the day, everybody can get these jokes, but not everybody can survive them.

What do you think? Did the Flagrant crew owe Akash more protection, or did he just prove he couldn’t take the heat? Let me know in the comments below!

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