The Off Topic Topic

[Sheilbh]

Sky History's initial line was:

"Darren's tattoos denote significant events in his life and have no political or ideological meaning whatsoever. Amongst the various numerical tattoos on his body, 1988 is the year of his father's death," a spokesman said.

"The production team carried out extensive background checks on all the woodworkers taking part in the show, that confirmed Darren has no affiliations or links to racist groups, views or comments. Sky History is intolerant of racism and all forms of hatred and any use of symbols or numbers is entirely incidental and not meant to cause harm or offence."

They've now deleted those statements on social media but not withdrawn them. Their new line is "While we investigate the nature, and meaning, of Darren's tattoos, we have removed the video featuring him from our social media pages, and will not be broadcasting any episodes of The Chop: Britain's Top Woodworker until we have concluded that investigation. Sky HISTORY stands against racism and hate speech of all kinds."

All-in-all an absolute dumpster fire of a day at Sky's offices

I can only assume the investigation isn't going great

[Syt]

[Josquius]

I've recently learned of a odd phenomena in France which is apparently spreading to other countries too.
"Viager Occupé": apparently the idea is you buy a lovely house for a massively knocked down price on the condition that the old person who is selling it gets to live there for life and you have to pay a monthly stipend to support them until they die and you can take the house.
This sounds.... Disturbing. Though I can see advantages considering the amount of old folks losing their home for nothing or being conned with equity release and such.
On the other hand... I have an excellent idea for a French comedy movie about some slime ball buying such a house and trying his darndest to shorten the lifespan of the lovable old lady who owns the house.

[celedhring]

I've recently learned of a odd phenomena in France which is apparently spreading to other countries too.
"Viager Occupé": apparently the idea is you buy a lovely house for a massively knocked down price on the condition that the old person who is selling it gets to live there for life and you have to pay a monthly stipend to support them until they die and you can take the house.
This sounds.... Disturbing. Though I can see advantages considering the amount of old folks losing their home for nothing or being conned with equity release and such.
On the other hand... I have an excellent idea for a French comedy movie about some slime ball buying such a house and trying his darndest to shorten the lifespan of the lovable old lady who owns the house.

Sounds similar to a reverse mortgage. Those are not new, and not exclusive to France.

[Duque de Bragança]

I've recently learned of a odd phenomena in France which is apparently spreading to other countries too.
"Viager Occupé": apparently the idea is you buy a lovely house for a massively knocked down price on the condition that the old person who is selling it gets to live there for life and you have to pay a monthly stipend to support them until they die and you can take the house.
This sounds.... Disturbing. Though I can see advantages considering the amount of old folks losing their home for nothing or being conned with equity release and such.
On the other hand... I have an excellent idea for a French comedy movie about some slime ball buying such a house and trying his darndest to shorten the lifespan of the lovable old lady who owns the house.

Too late for the movie.
Commonly known just as viager. A movie, called precisely Le Viager (adapted in English as the Annuity) has been done already, in 1972 at least:

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Viager
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069460

One of France's supercentenarians, dead in 1997 at 122, signed such a deal when she was 90 in 1965. The "buyer" died 30 years later in 1995.

In 1965, aged 90 and with no heirs left, Calment signed a life estate contract on her apartment with notary public André-François Raffray, selling the property in exchange for a right of occupancy and a monthly revenue of 2,500 francs (€380) until her death. Raffray died in 1995, by which time Calment had received more than double the apartment's value from him, and his family had to continue making payments. Calment commented on the situation by saying, "in life, one sometimes makes bad deals".[11]

https://www.nytimes.com/1995/12/29/world/a-120-year-lease-on-life-outlasts-apartment-heir.html

PS:

even if she's the oldest, she is still one of these French supercentenarians.   
It was contested some years ago by some Russians but nothing came out of it.

[Grey Fox]

One of

Oldest person ever recorded.

[Barrister]

I've recently learned of a odd phenomena in France which is apparently spreading to other countries too.
"Viager Occupé": apparently the idea is you buy a lovely house for a massively knocked down price on the condition that the old person who is selling it gets to live there for life and you have to pay a monthly stipend to support them until they die and you can take the house.
This sounds.... Disturbing. Though I can see advantages considering the amount of old folks losing their home for nothing or being conned with equity release and such.
On the other hand... I have an excellent idea for a French comedy movie about some slime ball buying such a house and trying his darndest to shorten the lifespan of the lovable old lady who owns the house.

In the english common law it's called a life estate and it's not uncommon.

Hugh Hefner sold the Playboy Mansion on the same (or similar) terms.

[crazy canuck]

I've recently learned of a odd phenomena in France which is apparently spreading to other countries too.
"Viager Occupé": apparently the idea is you buy a lovely house for a massively knocked down price on the condition that the old person who is selling it gets to live there for life and you have to pay a monthly stipend to support them until they die and you can take the house.
This sounds.... Disturbing. Though I can see advantages considering the amount of old folks losing their home for nothing or being conned with equity release and such.
On the other hand... I have an excellent idea for a French comedy movie about some slime ball buying such a house and trying his darndest to shorten the lifespan of the lovable old lady who owns the house.

In the english common law it's called a life estate and it's not uncommon.

Hugh Hefner sold the Playboy Mansion on the same (or similar) terms.

Correct, it is also essentially what a reverse mortgage is - and those have become very common.

[Razgovory]

(Sidenote - why is the far-right so obsessed with numerology? )

For precisely that reason. For the longest time this code was known to the initiates, which allowed them to recognize each other, without attracting too daily much attention, and having a chuckle at the clueless normies.

Southern Poverty Law Center has catalogued all the know racist symbols.  Handy, that.

[Barrister]

I've recently learned of a odd phenomena in France which is apparently spreading to other countries too.
"Viager Occupé": apparently the idea is you buy a lovely house for a massively knocked down price on the condition that the old person who is selling it gets to live there for life and you have to pay a monthly stipend to support them until they die and you can take the house.
This sounds.... Disturbing. Though I can see advantages considering the amount of old folks losing their home for nothing or being conned with equity release and such.
On the other hand... I have an excellent idea for a French comedy movie about some slime ball buying such a house and trying his darndest to shorten the lifespan of the lovable old lady who owns the house.

In the english common law it's called a life estate and it's not uncommon.

Hugh Hefner sold the Playboy Mansion on the same (or similar) terms.

Correct, it is also essentially what a reverse mortgage is - and those have become very common.

You use the word essentially, which I guess is true - the idea is basically the same.

But to the best of my understanding a reverse mortgage does not grant a life estate, which is the key to Tyr's movie idea.  If you get a reverse mortgage and you draw all of the equity out of your house the mortgage company gets the house.  Now typically no one goes into a reverse mortgage with the idea that they'll draw down 100% of the equity, and the mortgage company doesn't plan on doing so either, but the mortgage company is protected from that downside risk, unlike in a life estate.

[Josquius]

Yeah, as said we have funds release in the UK. I don't think it's been around more than a few decades but it exists.
The whole selling the house to a private person and continuing to pay support thing though is odd.

Interesting the film was so long ago. I thought this was a fairly recent thing. Really mad story with the old lady. I'd feel dodgy enough trying this anyway then there's that "risk" and it meaning celebrating someone's death.

[Barrister]

Interesting the film was so long ago. I thought this was a fairly recent thing. Really mad story with the old lady. I'd feel dodgy enough trying this anyway then there's that "risk" and it meaning celebrating someone's death.

Nah, it's actually a quite ancient thing.  In Pride and Prejudice for example the family house only belongs to the family through a life estate belonging to the father - on his death the house goes to a distant cousin and the family would be homeless.

[Syt]

How deep were they probing? 

[Barrister]

How deep were they probing? 

[Eddie Teach]

Amazing how those eluded all the people dissecting cadavers or performing autopsies for the last 500 years.