See, it seems like there are ways to mask your transactions but the greed pushes them too far.

I successfully "stole" a game console from when I worked at a popular adult arcade+restaurant/bar.

Normally only the regular gamers or no-lifers would ever win the systems.

But over the course of 7 or so months on Fridays, Saturdays and some Holidays I would:

a) collect the cards people left that only had a few tickets left. If they couldn't buy anything they would usually toss them, so I started asking if they wanted it back and would sneak then into a pocket of my Hoodia I kept under the desk.

b) Pad the ticket count at during times where the prize area wasn't super busy, but I knew management would be. Weekends and holidays were hell, but I knew no one would be monitoring the cameras at that time. So it was easy to sneak a quick free 200 tickets here or there but finding papers/other things to weigh or shred. We counted tickets by weight, and would add the approximate amount to the card. If the weight of the bag didn't match the virtual weight of the tickets that should be reflected, it would be an issue if it was off a lot.

On the busy days I knew I could get away with it.

c) Once I had about 50 discarded cards or so, I would have a friend come in so I could consolidate them. I had about 5 main cards that had the tickets stored. And once I calculated that I had enough, I had a friend go in and combine all 5 of the main cards and redeem the game console.

Never got caught. I don't know if anyone was ever suspicious.

In most companies there are exploits that can ve used if they are used properly. It's when you rush or get greedy/cocky that you ruin it.

If you read the article, it said the security for the mall was shocked as well. It seems she would have gotten away with it if one of the other co-workers didn't notice a million-dollar transaction the 19-y/o failed to clear out.

It sounds like the company has a very poor transaction system that leaves opportunity to exploit it.

She got caught after taking a $25,000 trip to Hawaii, buying a Tesla, and a bunch of expensive accessories/clothes.

I'm sure eventually someone else would have said something at some point. All that money would raise flags somewhere down the line I feel, as the card company would notice a recent string of high-value spending.

That's what I assume would happen anyway. The thing is I could be wrong on that because the article doesn't mention anything like that.

So it's possible if she never forgot to clear the transaction the company might never have noticed.

I don't think you're presenting an adequate parallel

I mean, aren't they kind of basically just admitting to a secret we all kind of assumed was possible anyway?

I think we're all kind of holding our breath to hear what they are definitively, if we even get that. The implications of what these objects are could change our understanding of the universe we live in, and I care far more about that then if the government "knew all along".

If it's true, it's not that hard to believe.

Here's the thing though. If it was aliens advanced enough for space travel or to make stuff like this, they wouldn't declare war on what is essentially a primitive tribe of creatures for shooting down an object they didn't understand.

We wouldn't start war with the isolated tribes in whatever part of the world if they shot down one of our drones.

A more likely scenario is they were never peaceful to begin with and were testing our capabilities.

Assuming it's aliens.

All the comments about stars and sex ads are really funny, but I didn't see anyone bring this up so I will.

I was pretty disappointed to learn most photos of space that show off a c9lorful cosmos are edited or enhanced to allow us to see those colors. They aren't natural because our eyes cannot detect the visible spectrum (I think) on which the things in this photo exist. I might have the exact reason wrong but you get the general idea.

If we were actually out in space, it would be a lot of darkness, grey clouds and masses, with indistinct lumps everywhere.

It would not be a pretty LSD trip like every source of media from the beginning of the space race has taught us to believe.

I didn't get a real difference from the two photos either. Not sure what OP is talking about. The second photo just looks like a Philippino kid or something

God... this really sucks. We might eventually find a way to reverse/manage the fallout that our species has caused, but I will never forgive us for taking away polar bears and Emperor penguins.

Protesting in super markets isn't going to work. People aren't going to trust or listen to anything that is present behind a screen by a person doing something frivolous or disruptive.

We need to educate people on why things need to change and ways that change can come about in a reasonable matter.

People don't like change, they need to understand their life doesn't have to be upended to start helping the planet. It's about steps we all can take to do something. Eventually maybe we can all take the step of holding our governments accountable as well. But it all takes time and these creatures don't have that time, so I fear they will perish before any meaningful change will come.