Support the Arts & Independent Publishing During our Annual Spring Membership DriveApril 7, 2025ColossalColossalWeve made it through the depths of winter, and spring is finally here. That means its time for our annual spring membership drive. Each year, we like to do something fun to encourage the growth of our creative community, and this year were not only offering $20 off your first annual subscription but also giving away 10 art books! Whether youve been wanting to build your very first art library or are looking to add some incredible gems to your current collection, wed love for you to take part in this exciting offer.All new Colossal Members through April 15 will automatically be entered to win a 10-book starter art library. Curated in collaboration with Colossal editors, well help you handpick a unique collection right from theColossal Shop. (If youve had your eye on certain titles for a while but havent yet taken the plunge, were especially talking to you!)As the art world faces growing challenges andrevenue forindependent publishing becomesincreasingly challenging, its incredibly crucial to preserve safe, creative spaces for diverse perspectives and marginalized voices. Our small team in Chicagoworks hard to do this every single day,but it takes a community to thrive.Click here to join our creative community and put yourself in the running for some free books, all while supporting the stories that matter most.No purchase necessary. See official rules and guidelines here.Next article

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) has rejected government demands for complete secrecy over Apples legal challenge against a Home Office order requiring the tech giant to give UK law enforcement backdoor access to encrypted data stored by users of its Advanced Data Protection (ADP) service.The tribunal today rejected arguments from the Home Office that public disclosure of even the bare details of the involvement of Apple or the Home Office would be damaging to national security.Following weeks of government officials refusing to confirm or deny the court action, the IPT confirmed that Apple has filed a complaint challenging the secretary of states powers to issue technical capability notices (TCNs) under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016.The existence of the order, which was first reported by the Washington Post, has raised tensions between the UK and the US, attracting criticism from Donald Trump and US lawmakers that the order will allow UK law enforcement access to the encrypted data of US citizens using Apples ADP service in the US and other countries.The tribunals decision follows legal submissions from Computer Weekly jointly with nine other media organisations, PA Media, members of US Congress, and civil society groups Big Brother Watch, Privacy International and Liberty, strongly arguing in favour of open justice and against the case being heard in secret.There has been extensive media reporting to the effect that the United Kingdon government has signed a technical capability notice requiring the claimant to be able to maintain access to its users data in decrypted form, so that such data is available to be passed to the intelligence agencies, the tribunal said.In the ruling issued today, tribunal chairman Lord Justice Singh and Justice Johnson rejected Home Office arguments that disclosing the bare details of the case including publicly acknowledging the identity of Apple and the Home Office would damage national security or prejudice the public interest.They did not rule on whether future hearings in the case would be held in open court but left open the possibility that it may well be possible for some or all future hearings into the case to incorporate a public element with or without reporting restriction.Apple brought the case against the Home Office after it received a technical capability notice from the Home Office requiring it to extend existing UK law enforcement powers to access encrypted data stored by users on Apples iCloud to users of its Advanced Data Protection service.Apple responded to the order in February by withdrawing ADP from users in the UK, in a move that was criticised as exposing UK citizens to greater cyber threats. As we have said many times before, we have never built a backdoor or master key to any of our products or services, and we never will, Apple said in a statement at the time.According to the ruling, the Home Office wrote to the tribunal asking it not to disclose the existence of a planned tribunal hearing on 14 March into Apples complaint in court listings so that the hearing would take place entirely in secret for national security reasons.Apple told the tribunal on 6 March 2025 that there was no reason not to list the fact that a hearing was taking place, even if Apple and the Home Office were not named, and that open justice required judicial proceedings to be published in the absence of compelling reasons to the contrary.Tribunal president Lord Justice Singh and Justice Johnson agreed. It would have been a truly extraordinary step to conduct a hearing entirely in secret without any public revelation of the fact that a hearing was taking place. That would be the most fundamental interference with the principle of open justice, they said in the ruling.The IPT listed a closed-door hearing on 14 March, without publicly disclosing the role of Apple or the Home Office.The court heard arguments from the Home Office that the bare details of the case would be prejudicial to national security. Apple, with some support from the Counsel to the Tribunal, argued that the Home Offices concerns were overblown and unjustified.Singh and Johnson found in favour of Apple: We do not accept that the revelation of the bare details of the case would be damaging to the public interest or prejudicial to national security.Civil society groups Privacy International and Liberty have filed separate complaints, along with two individuals challenging the Home Offices powers to issue technical capability notices against Apple and other technology companies. They have asked for their claims to be heard together with Apples claim in the Investigatory Powers Tribunal.The tribunal judges found that there was no need to rule on Privacy International and Libertys application for the proceedings to be made public or to make a decision on whether or not to allow them to intervene in the Apple case before the Home Office had submitted a defence.The tribunal said it was at least possible that the early stages of the litigation would involve the resolution of issues of law, which would mean, by implication, that the early hearings could be heard in open court. It was also possible that Apples claim could be stayed behind the Privacy International and Liberty case.The court also acknowledged the receipt of a letter from US senators and members of Congress, but did not consider it necessary to rule on the issues raised. The letter seeks permission to discuss the technical capability notice issued by the Home Office with US Congress, but the court said it had no power to grant that request.A submission from PA Media asked the tribunal to impose the least prescriptive measures possible, including holding a public hearing with reporting restrictions.It may well be possible for some or all future hearings to incorporate a public element, with or without reporting restrictions. It is not possible to rule on that at this stage, the court said.Commenting on the ruling, a Home Office spokesperson said the government could neither confirm nor deny the existence of the TCN.The Investigatory Powers Act and technical capability notices allow the UK to maintain existing and long-standing counter-terrorism and serious crime investigative capabilities in the face of fast-changing technology, especially when we know that terrorists and child abusers organise and seek to hide evidence of their crimes online, they said.TCNs themselves do not directly provide access to data relevant targeted warrants and authorisations must also be in place. Nor do TCNs extend powers to obtain access to data; their purpose is to ensure that those existing powers can continue to be exercised effectively, the spokesperson added. The Home Offices order to break encryption represents a massive attack on the privacy rights of millions of British Apple users, which is a matter of significant public interest and must not be considered behind closed doors Rebecca Vincent, Big Brother WatchRebecca Vincent, interim director of Big Brother Watch, said the judgment was a welcome step in the right direction and effectively chipped away at the pervasive climate of secrecy surrounding the case.The Home Offices order to break encryption represents a massive attack on the privacy rights of millions of British Apple users, which is a matter of significant public interest and must not be considered behind closed doors, she said.Jim Killock, executive director of Open Rights Group, said the case was bigger than the UK and Apple, and would have implications for millions of people around the world.Such an important decision cannot be made behind closed doors and we welcome the IPTs decision to bring parts of the hearing into the open so that there can be some public scrutiny of the UK governments decisions to attack technologies that keep us safe online, he said.Jemimah Steinfeld, CEO of Index on Censorship, said the judgment did not stipulate that the case will be held in the open moving forward as it should be only that we can know the bare details. We welcome this news, but we continue to fight for full transparency here.The media companies jointly challenging the secrecy of Apples appeal in the Investigatory Powers Tribunal are Associated Newspapers Ltd, the British Broadcasting Corporation, Computer Weekly, Financial Times Group, Guardian News & Media, News Group Newspapers, Reuters News and Media, Sky News, Telegraph Media Group and Times Media. PA Media has filed a separate challenge.According to the judgment, neither Apple nor the Home Office have confirmed or denied that media reporting of the technical capability notice issued against Apple is accurate. This judgment should not be taken as an indication that the media reporting is or is not accurate, it said.Timeline of UK governments order for a backdoor into Apples encrypted iCloud service7 February: Tech companies brace after UK demands backdoor access to Apple cloud The UK has served a notice on Apple demanding backdoor access to encrypted data stored by users anywhere in the world on Apples cloud service.10 February: Apple: British techies to advise on devastating UK global crypto power grab A hitherto unknown British organisation, which even the government may have forgotten about, is about to be drawn into a global technical and financial battle, facing threats from Apple to pull out of the UK.13 February: UK accused of political foreign cyber attack on US after serving secret snooping order on Apple US administration asked to kick UK out of 65-year-old UK-US Five Eyes intelligence sharing agreement after secret order to access encrypted data of Apple users.14 February: Top cryptography experts join calls for UK to drop plans to snoop on Apples encrypted data Some of the worlds leading computer science experts have signed an open letter calling for home secretary Yvette Cooper to drop a controversial secret order to require Apple to provide access to users encrypted data.21 February: Apple withdraws encrypted iCloud storage from UK after government demands backdoor access After the Home Office issued a secret order for Apple to open up a backdoor in its encrypted storage, the tech company has instead chosen to withdraw the service from the UK.26 February: US intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard probes UK demand for Apples encrypted data 5 March: Apple IPT appeal against backdoor encryption order is test case for bigger targets The Home Office decision to target Apple with an order requiring access to users encrypted data is widely seen as a stalking horse for attacks against encrypted messaging services WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal.11 March: Secret London tribunal to hear appeal in Apple vs government battle over encryption A secret tribunal is due to meet at the High Court in London to hear tech giant Apple appeal against a Home Office order to compromise the encryption of data stored by its customers on the iCloud service worldwide.13 March: US Congress demands UK lifts gag on Apple encryption order Apple and Google have told US lawmakers that they cannot tell Congress whether they have received technical capability notices from the UK.14 March: The Investigatory Powers Tribunal holds a day-long secret hearing into an appeal brought by Apple against a government notice requiring it to provide law enforcement access to data encrypted by its Advanced Data Protection service on the iCloud, despite calls for the hearing to be opened to the public.24 March: Gus Hosein, executive director of Privacy International Why I am challenging Yvette Coopers secret backdoor order against Apples encryption.31 March:Apple devices are at most risk in UK following government backdoor order, Lord Strasburger tells the House of Lords as a Home Office minister declines to give answers.

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Artificial Intelligence, once for data processing, now reshapes entertainment, education and social media.

Editor's take: Let's be brutally honest here. The first-generation Switch controllers were horrible. The Joy-Cons were not comfortable to use and suffered from severe joystick drift. At least the Pro controller was more comfortable to use, but it had drift issues, too. So it's weird that Nintendo is refusing to explain or directly address what it has done about the problem in its second-generation controllers. Nintendo has nixed hopes that Switch 2 Joy-Cons (Joy-Con 2) feature Hall-effect sensors. Rumors emerging around Christmas last year suggested that Joy-Con 2 would implement the Hall effect to deal with the joystick-drift problems plaguing the original units. However, according to a Nintendo Life interview with Senior Vice President of Product Development and Publishing Nate Bihldorff, Nintendo built the Joy-Con 2 "from the ground up," but inexplicably did not implement the Hall effect.Considering all the headaches resulting from joystick drift and how easily Nintendo could correct it with Hall-effect thumbsticks, it is incomprehensible that it didn't. That's not to say that the Joy-Con 2 will have the same issues the first-generation controllers had it takes a while for the problem to set in so we'll have to wait and see.However, Bihldorff didn't elaborate on what Nintendo did to mitigate this problem, which has sparked multiple lawsuits for the company, one of which the judge dismissed on a technicality. He just mentioned that they are not "Hall Effect" and then quickly diverted attention away from the question."Well, the Joy-Con 2's controllers have been designed from the ground up. They're not Hall Effect sticks, but they feel really good," the VP said before quickly trading roles with the interviewer by asking, "Did you experience both the Joy-Con and the Pro Controller?"He then explained that he likes the Pro Controller because it feels like a GameCube gamepad. So, while he answered the original question no, they don't employ the Hall effect he diverted the subject from the logical follow-up: "What have you done to eliminate drift?" It's a legitimate concern, and the lack of transparency on the subject speaks volumes amid what is already a very controversial pre-launch.However, Nintendo is still fighting lawsuits over the drift issue. So, it is equally likely that its legal team has instructed staff and other representatives to avoid discussing the issue until the dust settles. After all, saying, "We fixed the drift issues," is legally admitting that it was a problem in the first generation, which will not help Nintendo's defense. // Related StoriesThere has been much negative commentary regarding the price point for the console and its games. Critics have compared the $450 MSRP or more, depending on where you live to PlayStation and Xbox consoles, noting that the Switch 2 doesn't hold a candle from a price-per-compute standpoint.They are equally annoyed at the lack of transparency regarding the Switch 2's APU. Many have made hypothetical (and sarcastic) comparisons to the RTX 4090 because of Nvidia's dubious claims of 10 times the processing power over the original Switch.Judging new controllers before they have even reached the public's hands is premature without question, but it will surely come up on social media and forums. So, Bihldorff's dodging of the question is not a good look, and the situation will be 10 times worse if the thumbsticks end up with the same mechanical problems as the first-gen Joy-Con.

The popular HBO series The White Lotuswrapped up its third season on Sunday night. Where will the location be for The White Lotus season 4?After the episode aired, HBO ran a special inside-the-episode interview with creator Mike White. With season 4 already renewed, White hinted that the shows location might abandon the ocean for the first time in series history.Recommended VideosFor the fourth season, I want to get a little bit out of the crashing waves of rocks vernacular, but theres always more room for more murders at the White Lotus hotels, White said in the interview.RelatedThe White Lotus locations so far have been Hawaii (season 1), Italy (season 2), and Thailand (season 3).HBO EVP Francesca Orsi told Deadline in February that a European location was the leading candidate for season 4.While White might leave the ocean for the fourth season, dont expect him to brave the cold anytime soon. I feel confident well never do a season in the cold, White Lotus EP David Bernad told Bill Simmons when asked about doing a season revolving around skiing. Mikes not built for it. Hes a California guy. Hes not built for the cold. Never say never, but I would be surprised.The White Lotus season 3 finale garnered 6.2 million U.S. cross-platform viewers, per a Warner Bros. Discovery press release. This marked the third consecutive week of record-breaking viewership highs for the series. The season 3 finale outperformed the season 2 finale (4.1 million U.S. viewers) by 51%.Stream all episodes of The White Lotus on Max.Editors Recommendations

The actress talks about her characters conservative politics and bringing her partner, Sam Rockwell, with her to Thailand.

Not quite open source Metas surprise Llama 4 drop exposes the gap between AI ambition and reality Touted 10M token context proves elusive, while early performance tests disappoint experts. Benj Edwards Apr 7, 2025 3:54 pm | 3 Credit: Rocter via Getty Images Credit: Rocter via Getty Images Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreOn Saturday, Meta released its newest Llama 4 multimodal AI models in a surprise weekend move that caught some AI experts off guard. The announcement touted Llama 4 Scout and Llama 4 Maverick as major advancements, with Meta claiming top performance in their categories and an enormous 10 million token context window for Scout. But so far the open-weights models have received an initial mixed-to-negative reception from the AI community, highlighting a familiar tension between AI marketing and user experience."The vibes around llama 4 so far are decidedly mid," said independent AI researcher Simon Willison in a short interview with Ars Technica. Willison often checks the community pulse around open source and open weights AI releases in particular.While Meta positions Llama 4 in competition with closed-model giants like OpenAI and Google, the company continues to use the term "open source" despite licensing restrictions that prevent truly open use. As we have noted in the past with previous Llama releases, "open weights" more accurately describes Meta's approach. Those who sign in and accept the license terms can download the two smaller Llama 4 models from Hugging Face or llama.com.The company describes the new Llama 4 models as "natively multimodal," built from the ground up to handle both text and images using a technique called "early fusion." Meta says this allows joint training on text, images, and video frames, giving the models a "broad visual understanding." This approach ostensibly puts Llama 4 in direct competition with existing multimodal models from OpenAI (such as GPT-4o) and Google (Gemini 2.5).The company trained the two new models with assistance from an even larger unreleased 'teacher' model named Llama 4 Behemoth (with 2 trillion total parameters), which is still in development. Parameters are the numerical values a model adjusts during training to learn patterns. Fewer parameters mean smaller, faster models that can run on phones or laptops, though creating high-performing compact models remains a major AI engineering challenge.Meta constructed the Llama 4 models using a mixture-of-experts (MoE) architecture, which is one way around the limitations of running huge AI models. Think of MoE like having a large team of specialized workers; instead of everyone working on every task, only the relevant specialists activate for a specific job.For example, Llama 4 Maverick features a 400 billion parameter size, but only 17 billion of those parameters are active at once across one of 128 experts. Likewise, Scout features 109 billion total parameters, but only 17 billion are active at once across one of 16 experts. This design can reduce the computation needed to run the model, since smaller portions of neural network weights are active simultaneously.Llamas reality check arrives quicklyCurrent AI models have a relatively limited short-term memory. In AI, a context window acts somewhat in that fashion, determining how much information it can process simultaneously. AI language models like Llama typically process that memory as chunks of data called tokens, which can be whole words or fragments of longer words. Large context windows allow AI models to process longer documents, larger code bases, and longer conversations.Despite Meta's promotion of Llama 4 Scout's 10 million token context window, developers have so far discovered that using even a fraction of that amount has proven challenging due to memory limitations. Simon Willison reported on his blog that third-party services providing access, like Groq and Fireworks, limited Scout's context to just 128,000 tokens. Another provider, Together AI, offered 328,000 tokens.Evidence suggests accessing larger contexts requires immense resources. Willison pointed to Meta's own example notebook ("build_with_llama_4"), which states that running a 1.4 million token context needs eight high-end NVIDIA H100 GPUs.Willison documented his own testing troubles. When he asked Llama 4 Scout via the OpenRouter service to summarize a long online discussion (around 20,000 tokens), the result wasn't useful. He described the output as "complete junk output," which devolved into repetitive loops.Meta claims that the larger of its two new Llama 4 models, Maverick, outperforms competitors like OpenAI's GPT-4o and Google's Gemini 2.0 on various technical benchmarks, which we usually note are not necessarily useful reflections of everyday user experience. So far, independent verification of the released model's performance claims remains limited.More interestingly, a version of Llama 4 is currently perched at No. 2 on the popular Chatbot Arena LLM vibemarking leaderboard. However, even this comes with a catch: Willison noted a distinction pointed out in Meta's own announcement: the high-ranking leaderboard entry referred to an "experimental chat version scoring ELO of 1417 on LMArena," different from the Maverick model made available for download.A potential technical dead-endThe Llama 4 release sparked discussion on social media about AI development trends, with reactions including mild disappointment over lackluster multimodal features, concerns that its mixture-of-experts architecture used too few activated parameters (only 17 billion), and criticisms that the release felt rushed or poorly managed internally. Some Reddit users also noted it compared unfavorably with innovative competitors such as DeepSeek and Qwen, particularly highlighting its underwhelming performance in coding tasks and software development benchmarks.On X, researcher Andriy Burkov, author of "The Hundred-Page Language Models Book," argued the underwhelming Llama 4launch reinforces skepticism about monolithic base models. He stated that recent "disappointing releases of both GPT-4.5 and Llama 4 have shown that if you don't train a model to reason with reinforcement learning, increasing its size no longer provides benefits."Burkov's mention of GPT-4.5 echoes that model's somewhat troubled launch; Ars Technica previously reported that GPT-4.5 faced mixed reviews, with its high cost and performance limitations suggesting a potential dead-end for simply scaling up traditional AI model architectures. This observation aligns with broader discussions in the AI field about the scaling limitations of training massive base models without incorporating newer techniques (such as simulated reasoning or training smaller, purpose-built models).Despite all of the current drawbacks with Meta's new model family, Willison is optimistic that future releases of Llama 4 will prove more useful. "My hope is that well see a whole family of Llama 4 models at varying sizes, following the pattern of Llama 3," he wrote on his blog. "Im particularly excited to see if they produce an improved ~3B model that runs on my phone."Benj EdwardsSenior AI ReporterBenj EdwardsSenior AI Reporter Benj Edwards is Ars Technica's Senior AI Reporter and founder of the site's dedicated AI beat in 2022. He's also a tech historian with almost two decades of experience. In his free time, he writes and records music, collects vintage computers, and enjoys nature. He lives in Raleigh, NC. 3 Comments

HealthFrom dampening inflammation to boosting mental health, the many types of dietary fibre have a surprisingly large impact throughout the body. Here's how to get your fill 7 April 2025 Lisa SheehanDeep inside your lower intestine is a 24/7 dinner party. The trillions of microorganisms that live in your colon are feasting on foodstuffs you ate but failed to digest. Their motives are selfish but they are still doing you a favour, tending to the health of your gut, brain, heart and immune system.Meanwhile, in the background, even-more-indigestible food is quietly drifting past. Even the microbes wont touch it, but it, too, has a positive effect on your health.The name of all this undigested food? Fibre. Perhaps the most unglamorous of nutrients, it has so many things going for it that it deserves to be lauded as a superfood. But while the health benefits of a fibre-rich diet have been recognised since the 1950s, only in recent years have we gotten a firmer handle on the full complexity of this diverse substance and how to maximise these positive effects.New research is uncovering the power of different types of fibre to dampen inflammation, improve our immune function and mental health and even act as natures Ozempic by dialing down our appetite. These studies are also revealing why the fibre often added to processed food wont do the same trick.Dietary fibreDietary fibre also known as roughage is defined as the portion of ingested food that cannot be broken down by our own digestive enzymes. You could be forgiven for thinking that all fibre is basically the same, just humdrum rough stuff that goes in at one end and ultimately comes out at the other. After

The author had her son after being unable to transfer her credits to another college. Courtesy of the author 2025-04-07T20:34:01Z SaveSaved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now.Have an account? I was in my third year in college in 2007 and I was working to graduate without debt. The effect of the recession hit me overnight, with the prices of my rent and groceries going up.I moved and my degree was put on hold indefinitely. In 2007, I was in my third year of college at FIU in Miami, studying Environmental Science. I knew I wouldn't graduate with a high-paying job, so I didn't want to graduate with student loan debt. I worked two part-time office jobs and went to school full-time. I was paying for tuition out-of-pocket and was totally financially independent, which meant I was responsible for my own rent, utilities, groceries, and car expenses. Since I lived alone and didn't have a roommate, I had no one to split the expenses with.The effect of the recession seemed to happen overnight, with the cost of my rent, groceries, and gas rising from one day to the next. Since I had already been living month-to-month, the increased expenses led me to feel a massive amount of stress. I began to have episodes where I felt faint and experienced heart palpitations. I know now that I was experiencing panic attacks. I lived in Miami, where there was always somewhere to beI loved Miami. It had been my home my whole life, and all of my friends lived there, but even before the recession, I always felt like I would never get ahead. There was always a party to go to, a last-minute dinner invitation, or a concert I wanted to attend, so the minimal cash I had leftover after my bills got paid seemed to go out as quickly as it would come in. Even when I did my best to budget, something always came up, like needing to buy something to wear for an event or having to split the bill with friends at a restaurant.I began to think a lot about what my future would hold if I continued to live in Miami. Even after graduation, I couldn't see a lot changing as far as finances went. I'd likely be renting forever, unable to save up for a house. But what bothered me the most was the amount of pressure I felt. Since I could never save up any money, I worried about how quickly things could go wrong if I got sick even for just a week and couldn't go to work.I made a dramatic change in order to lower my expensesDuring this time, I had been visiting family that had moved a few hours north of Miami every couple of months. It was a dramatically different way of life in the small town they now lived in, with less traffic and less noise. I caught myself calculating how much less it would cost to live there and allowed myself to envision a different way of life.I ended up moving over the summer with my partner at the time and finding a house to rent together. Just the fact that we could afford a house for less than what I was paying for a one-bedroom apartment felt like things were looking up. We each got jobs that we enjoyed, didn't have to work as much, and were able to spend more time together. We were even able to afford more groceries and started to save up money again. That was the most important part of our plan because we eventually wanted to move out of state once we had saved up enough money to do so.It worked out well at first, but I eventually questioned my decisionsAt the time, it seemed like a temporary change, but it altered the course of my life forever. I was unable to transfer to the local college, so my degree was put on hold indefinitely. I went from feeling like I was finally moving in the right direction to feeling stuck again. Once a couple of years passed by, I began to miss home and wondered if I should have just stuck it out and found a way to sustain my life as it was. Why, for instance, hadn't I decided to get a roommate or simply take a semester off to destress and save up some money before returning?Please help BI improve our Business, Tech, and Innovation coverage by sharing a bit about your role it will help us tailor content that matters most to people like you. What is your job title? (1 of 2) Entry level positionProject managerManagementSenior managementExecutive managementStudentSelf-employedRetiredOther What products or services can you approve for purchase in your role? (2 of 2) Advertising / MarketingClient / Account ManagementCompany strategyHR / Training / Office supportManaging budgetsIT / Telecoms / TechRecruiting new employeesSalesSoftware developmentFinancialOtherNone of the above By providing this information, you agree that Business Insider may use this data to improve your site experience and for targeted advertising. By continuing you agree that you accept the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . Thanks for sharing insights about your role. Eventually, I had my son, which changed everything for me. I didn't want to leave the family I had close by, and once again, I knew I would never be able to afford the life I wanted to have with my son somewhere with a higher cost of living. I started doing my best to make the best of the situation, and I ended up never leaving the area.The recession resulted in more for me than simply higher pricesI still look back at the recession as a turning point in my life. Since I could already barely afford my life as it was when the higher prices hit, it led me to make dramatic changes I wouldn't have otherwise. While I'm certainly not unhappy with the way my life turned out, I know it would have been very different if the recession hadn't come at such a delicate financial time for me.Recommended video