#250 percent !?

[dreamings-free]

By Tom Skinner 25th July 2023

A proposed increase in visa fees for foreign acts touring the US has been delayed amid pressure from the industry to reconsider the move.

Back in January, the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that it was planning to raise touring visa fees for international artists by more than 250 per cent.

read the full article here at nme.com

[krc-krc]

Writing a synopsis will in fact kill me.

(It will not directly strangle me, but I can print it out and choke on it if you prefer it to be less subtle)

[derangedgirl53]

Your Ana guide of 2025

“We’re all winter girls this year!”

Effective tips

- drink 500 ml of water before you eat (can be ice cold or warm)

- cut all your food into small pieces (half,then cut the half ibi quarters,etc)

- don’t binge or purge, it’s worse than restricting

- don’t do high intensity exercises because they make you hungrier

- avoid doing a keto diet,yes I know.

- eat your dinner late so you won’t binge

- skip breakfast

- avoid chewing and spitting ,focus on restriction instead

- have a long time before your next meal for proper digestion like 7-9 hours

- try to eat homemade food 80 percent of the time

- go on the 5 bite diet

- go on the treadmill 2-3 times a week and burn 500 cals or go every other day and burn 200

- always find excuses to not eat like “I’m not hungry”,” I just recently ate lunch by thank you!” “Sorry, I have a stomach we”, “I feel sick, I think I’m going to lie down”

- always say no when people offer you food

- if you can’t estimate the calories of it or don’t know the exact ones,don’t eat it

- drink about 1.5 to 2 liters of water daily

- don’t eat fast food,pizza,cookies,biscuits,chips,cinnamon rolls,cereal,Nutella,pb and j,candy,chocolate,fries and burgers (unless it’s homemade or air fried),cakes,cupcakes,

- eat\drink oatmeal,soups,rice cakes,rice,pasta,salmon,tuna,chicken,beef,bread,diet sodas,yogurt,tea,coffee,fruits,vegetables

- eat sometimes or rarely pancakes,waffles and pizza (1 a month only)

- eat in front of family so they don’t get suspicious

- keep busy to avoid eating ; watch movies and tv shows,read books,exercise,stretch,draw,paint,listen to music,go on TikTok or tumblr,watch YouTube,crochet,talk to friends,etc

- do multiple diets so you always know what’s your calorie limit or plan ; this avoids binges

- stop doing metabolism days,they are a myth and just an excuse to shove food in your mouth, just keep restricting even more once you reach a plateau

- do cardio first to get rid of fat,then Pilates to tone yourself

- skip as much meals as you can and replace them with drinks (tea,coffee,water,monster,smoothies,etc)

- if your stomach is really and I mean REALLY flat at ANY point of the day, not just when you wake up, that means you’ve been starving yourself effectively so continue doing it UNLESS someone asks “did you eat?” Then that’s your signal to eat or drink something so they don’t get suspicious

How to survive eating out or at restaurants

- share your food with a family member or a friend,let them eat most of it like all the fries and you can just eat your burger or cut the burger and fries into half

- NEVER say yes to dessert or if you don’t,don’t be eating a meal as well! Trust me,desserts are usually high calorie

- always order Diet Coke or water or any other diet beverage

- eat slowly and cut your food into small pieces

- sit up straight while you eat so your digestion is good and you can tell when your hungry

- use less or no sauces

[alternative* don’t go out to eat and just air-fry a burger and fries (preferably 10-12 fries) at home,pick your lowest calorie bread and cut off all the crust,add some tomatoes,drink a Diet Coke or water with it and use less sauces! This will usually come around to 250-400 calories for everything which isn’t too bad than an 1200 meal at a restaurant)

- drink lots of water before and after your meal

- ask your family and friends if they want to walk after eating (usually they would as it’s good to walk after eating) this will burns cals and help your digestion!

Getting into the honey moon phase

My method for getting yourself into restrictions of all types or a “honeymoon phase”.

- drink tea right when you wake up

- 5 after after that, eat a small lunch. Preferably, home cooked food that either you or your parents made (like rice and salmon or some pasta and beef) Make sure it’s a SMALL meal

- don’t eat or drink ANYTHING for the next 9 hours

- you should notice your stomach is super flat right now like REALLy flat as you only drank tea and has a very small meal for kind

- it’s probably late now, around 10-12 at night so grab a Diet Coke and whatever you want to eat

( hint: it CAN be something like fast food or not, if it’s pizza then grab the thinnest,smallest slice. If it’s a burger,cut it into half/a quarter and eat it,its fries only eat 5 of them)

- drink more tea then go to bed

- weigh yourself the next morning (you’ll lose a lot don’t worry)

- because you lost a lot,now you’ll be motivated to continue starving and BOOm honeymoon phase is back and better than ever.

[wilwheaton]

Donald Trump threatens the entire existence of the American republic. He is able to do this because the Supreme Court he created is assisting him in doing so. It is a corrupt Court – on which more later. It overturned a central right for half of our population. It routinely mixes and matches rationales, jurisprudences, logics to arrive at the end point of transforming America into their extremist vision. We’ve heard that yesterday’s decision was a terrible decision, an extremist decision, that it changes the American experiment fundamentally. No disagreement with any of those points. Most importantly, in my mind, it’s a fake decision. Yes, it will now be controlling within the federal courts. But it doesn’t change the constitution any more than a foreign army occupying New England would make Massachusetts no longer part of the United States. That may seem like a jarring analogy. But it’s the only kind that allows us to properly view and react to this Supreme Court.

The rationale for the decision yesterday has literally no basis whatsoever in the US constitution.

Josh Marshall is correct, but I don’t think it matters. This corrupt, activist, fascist SCOTUS does not care. The majority has decided that the Constitution, 250 years of precedent, popular opinion, and the foundational ideas that have made America what it is since 1787 are what they say they are.

I live in a country of three hundred and forty million people.

In this country, six unelected christian nationalists, five of whom were placed on the court by presidents who lost the popular vote, who are opposed by SEVENTY PERCENT of the population, are making up laws out of whole cloth because their power is unchecked. A country that allows this to impose their regressive authoritarianism on that entire population is not a free country. It is not a Democracy.

America has not been attacked like this since 9/11. Six unelected people forcing their christian nationalist agenda on a population of three hundred and forty million is not a Democracy. It is tyranny.

Everyone is missing the central message of yesterday’s ruling: SCOTUS is going to install Trump as dictator for life, by any means necessary. Somehow, after he loses the popular vote again, and after he’s even lost the Electoral College again, these six Fascists will invent a reason to overturn the will of the electorate, again. Every single one of their rulings this term have been part of their coup. Now, just line them all up and connect the dots.

We are four months away from the likely end of what passes for freedom in America, and once it’s gone, it’s not coming back in my lifetime.

[thatweirdtranny]

you know? it’s really fucking wild that my actual opinions about israel/palestine — not the opinions people assume i have based off bad faith interpretations of my posts or what others have said my opinions are — are so fucking controversial???

my opinions:

a permanent ceasefire that everyone involved will adhere to needs to happen, and this ceasefire needs to at the very least include bringing the hostages home and allowing distribution of aid to palestinians

on that note, aid needs to be given to palestinian civilians in a manner that ensures they will actually receive it

netanyahu needs to go (not controversial but it needs to be said)

hamas needs to go (somehow this is a controversial statement?????)

tokenizing jews who agree with you while demonizing the other 80+ percent of jews is bad

palestinians and israelis are both entitled to this region of land and ideally a 2-state solution should be the goal, but any solution that a) respects the humanity and safety of both jews and palestinians, and b) is based in reality, is acceptable

the land of israel is the homeland of both jews and palestinians and both deserve to live there in peace

jews and palestinians deserve to safely visit their holiest places

people in general deserve not to suffer through wars, and i’d personally love if the next ceasefire doesn’t get broken and if this cycle of violence could be broken

the antizionist movement has a problem with antisemitism

there is an extreme amount of misinformation surrounding this conflict that gets spread widely without any consideration or scrutiny

oct 7 was a heinous and disgusting act of evil, and anyone justifying it as an act of resistance needs to understand that most jews are terrified of you and rightly so

NOT my opinions:

palestinian children deserve to die

palestinians don’t deserve a state

islamophobia is okay

anti-arab sentiment is okay

anything that could be described as kahanism

antizionist jews deserve to be targets of antisemitism

anyways!! i am once again begging people to support solidarity organizations that promote peace between israelis and palestinians like: standing together, allmep, eco peace, etc

[mariacallous]

In 2024, wealth concentration rose to an all-time high. According to Forbes’ Billionaires List, not only are there more billionaires than ever—2,781—but those billionaires are also richer than ever, with an aggregate worth of $14.2 trillion. This is a trend that looks set to continue unabated. A recent report from the financial data company Altrata estimated that about 1.2 million individuals who are worth more than $5 million will pass on a collective wealth of almost $31 trillion over the next decade.

Discontentment and concern over the consequences of extreme wealth in our society is growing. Senator Bernie Sanders, for instance, stated that the “obscene level of income and wealth inequality in America is a profoundly moral issue.” In a joint op-ed for CNN in 2023, Democratic congresswoman Barbara Lee and Disney heiress Abigail Disney wrote that “extreme wealth inequality is a threat to our economy and democracy.” In 2024, when the board of Tesla put to vote a $56 billion pay package for Elon Musk, some major shareholders voted against it, declaring that such a compensation level was “absurd” and “ridiculous.”

In 2025, the fight against rising wealth inequality will be high on the political agenda. In July 2024, the G20—the world’s 20 biggest economies—agreed to work on a proposal by Brazil to introduce a new global “billionaire tax” that would levy a 2 percent tax on assets worth more than $1 billion. This would raise an estimated $250 billion a year. While this specific proposal was not endorsed in the Rio declaration, the G20 countries agreed that the super rich should be taxed more.

Progressive politicians won’t be the only ones trying to address this problem. In 2025, millionaires themselves will increasingly mobilize and put pressure on political leaders. One such movement is Patriotic Millionaires, a nonpartisan group of multimillionaires who are already publicly campaigning and privately lobbying the American Congress for a guaranteed living wage for all, a fair tax system, and the protection of equal representation. “Millionaires and large corporations—who have benefited most from our country’s assets—should pay a larger percentage of the tab for running the country,” reads their value statement. Members include Abigail Disney, former BlackRock executive Morris Pearl, legal scholar Lawrence Lessig, screenwriter Norman Lear, and investor Lawrence Benenson.

Another example is TaxMeNow, a lobby group founded in 2021 by young multimillionaires in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland which also advocates for higher wealth taxation. Its most famous member is the 32-year old Marlene Engelhorn, descendant of Friedrich Engelhorn, founder of German pharma giant BASF. She recently set up a council made up of 50 randomly selected Austrian citizens to decide what should happen to her €25 million inheritance. “I have inherited a fortune, and therefore power, without having done anything for it,” she said in a statement. “If politicians don’t do their job and redistribute, then I have to redistribute my wealth myself.”

Earlier this year, Patriotic Millionaires, TaxMeNow, Oxfam, and another activist group called Millionaires For Humanity formed a coalition called Proud to Pay More, and addressed a letter to global leaders during the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Signed by hundreds of high-net-worth individuals—including heiress Valerie Rockefeller, actor Simon Pegg, and filmmaker Richard Curtis—the letter stated: “We all know that ‘trickle down economics’ has not translated into reality. Instead it has given us stagnating wages, crumbling infrastructure, failing public services, and destabilized the very institution of democracy.” It concluded: “We ask you to take this necessary and inevitable step before it’s too late. Make your countries proud. Tax extreme wealth.” In 2025, thanks to the nascent movement of activist millionaires, these calls will grow even louder.

[spidybaby]

Guess the price

Summary: You do the trend where you lie about the price of your products to your boyfriend.

Warnings: cursing

Barca Boys x Influencer!reader

Pedri

"Hola a todos!" You say to the camera in the bathroom. "I'm going to prank Pedri today, I will be doing a "sephora haul" but I'm exaggerating the prices of the things I got."

You grab the camera and cut the recording. You moved to your setup corner. Pedri knew it was your corner, so he tried to keep it free of mess.

"Pepi, please pass me the black and white bags on the bed?" You ask him. He nods, leaving his phone on the bed and walking over to you with the two bags of sephora makeup products. "Gracias." You smile.

"I'll be quiet over here." He says, kissing your cheek. "You look amazing, by the way."

"Thank you, guapo." You smile, grabbing his hand and squishing it. "I'll try to be quick so we can leave."

He nods, going back to the bed to check his phone. You place a mirror on the back wall behind you where you can see pedri on it. Exactly what you need to for the video.

You hit record once again. "Hi, let's unbox this bags I got at sephora." You smile. "As I said in my last video, I asked you guys for recommendations on makeup products that I can integrate on my routine." You say, taking the products off the bags.

Pedri is listening, he loves listening to you talk. Does he understand? No, but he hears how happy you sound and that's enough.

"I have this hourglass makeup brushes." You show them to the camera. "This one is their ambient soft glow foundation brush, this brush retails for 130 euros and -"

Pedri turns his head to where you are, 130 euros for a brush? He can get you a brush at the store for 1 euro.

"Before using the brush, I'm using this primer from ELF." You show the product. "I know it's super viral, and only for 76 euros."

He puts his phone down. "Qué mierda?" He whispers.

You can't help but smirk. Your eyes watch his reaction in the mirror from your phone screen. "So while I apply this, let me tell you about this foundation I got." You say, showing the foundation. "This is the ambient soft glow foundation, this was on sale for only 250 euros." You smile.

He covers his face with his hands. "No fucking way." He says loud enough for the camera to capture it. "250 fucking euros."

You smile, trying not to laugh. You place it on your face and take a few seconds of you using the brush.

You pause the video, grabbing other products. "Amor," He calls, you press record. "Not to be trying to mind your things, but isn't 250 a little too much?" He asks.

"What, no babe." You smile. "That's just normal makeup pricing." You say, noticing how he shakes his head no. "For concealer I have the Armani Beauty concealer, this retails for 199 on sale." You smile.

"No, Y/n." Pedri says. "You spent more than 600 euros in four products."

"Bebé, shhhh" You shush him. "Now guys, this concealer brush from rare beauty retails for 9-"

"A brush?" He scuffs. "Joder."

You can't help the scuff. "Shh, just a few steps more."

"Mamita querida." He sighs.

"This powder is the One Size powder, I love it so much, and the price is honestly a deal."

"Please don't." He says, covering his face again.

"Since sephora is about to have a sale, you can get this for only 379.99."

"Almost 400 euros." He says in a high-pitched voice. "How is that a deal?"

"Because it's 20 percent off." You say. "And this blush, Patrick Ta."

"Let me guess." He interrupts. "100 bucks?"

"Oh, Pedri." You laugh. "Don't be silly, it's 475." You smile.

"Stop, don't touch that," He yells. "We are taking this back."

You hold your laugh. "Pepi, this was final sale." You say. "Now this contou-"

"Noup," He says, grabbing the product out of your hands. "Videos over." He says, touching the screen, trying to pause it.

"Pedri." You say, taking it from him. You can't help but laugh. "It's a prank, amor. This stuff is not that expensive."

"Pero-" He says. "What?"

You can't help but laugh even harder at his confused face. "Guys, this is why we need to tell our boyfriends about makeup prices." You say, talking to the camera.

"Y/n, wait." Pedri says, reading the receipt. "Why is this brush 65 euros?" He asks, holding the brush.

You look at his and then at the camera. "Maybe they don't need to know about the prices."

"And who's is path and why his eyeshits more than 100?"

"Anyways, love you all." You say, cutting the video. "Pedri, give me that." You say, taking the receipt away. "Your t-shirt costs 400 euros, so cut it."

He opens his mouth. "I'll wait for you downstairs, my love." He smiles. "Take your time."

"That's what I thought." You say, smiling.

Gavi

"Hi guys, today my boyfriend is forcefully doing my makeup." You say, smiling at him.

"I don't know what I'm doing." He says.

"So, this is my routine." You say, giving him a paper with the order or the products. "Also, he's going to try to guess the price of the products."

He looks at the things with curiosity. "Where do I start?" He asks, eyebrow lifted. "How do I know if I'm doing great?"

"You'll do fine, Pabs." You peck him. "The products are in line in the same order as in the paper. The brushes are next to the products that they need to be used for."

He nods, checking the foundation. "Okay, this is the found-" He tries to read the name. "Who's Bobbi Brown?"

"The owner of the brand, love." You smile "how much do you think this costs?"

He tries to apply the foundation as he sees you do it. "Maybe 10 euros?" He asks, concentrating on the blending. "15?"

"Noup, 200." You say.

He pauses. "Two hun-"

"You're missing a spot." You say, pointing at tue spot. "Then you can use the egg like thing."

He nods. "Egg." He chuckles. "Vamos, that's fun." You smile.

"You have to guess the price." You remind him.

"For the egg?" He asks, you nod. "Mmm, 5 euros." He smile.

"Noup, 76."

He opens his eyes.

"No me jodas." He says. "This shit?"

"Amor" You chuckle. "Language."

"Joder, why is this so expensive?" He asks.

"It does the work." You nod. "Now after this, we need concealer." You smile.

He nods. "Don't tell me this is 300."

"Pfff, no." You say. "Only 175."

"Me cago en la p-"

"Pabs, why don't you tell the story of you getting the captain armband?" You change the topic.

"Ufff, eso fue increíble." He smiles, moving the Blender in the wrong way. "I only wore that band twice, and honestly, Pedri is the real one for allowing me to do it."

"We love Pedri." You smile.

"My hermano." Gavi chuckles. "Even tho he is a loser, I won last night ping pong game."

You smile. "Now, do some powder."

"Sip." He says, grabbing the powder.

"Tell my chicos what you are using. You smile.

"This is the hourglass powder." He reads the back of the product. "I think she likes it because it's really used." He jokes.

"Well, I need to save some coin because it is a 430 euros powder."

He lifts his eyes from the powder to your eyes. "How much did you just say?"

"But I think I like my loose powder even more." You grab the powder. "This is the YSL loose powder, it's 734 with discount."

"Fuck." He whispers. "What about the pink thingy?"

"Oh, that's cheap." You say, uninterested. "Only 225."

He drops the powder by accident. "Me cago en la -"

"My powder." You say, pretending to be mortified. "Pablo, that was limited edition."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to break."

"That was a thousand euros ." You say, pretending to cry.

"A thousand?" He yells. "You said it was 400."

"I lied." You fake cried. "I just didn't mean to sound so greedy."

You noticed him trying to pick the powder up from the flood. You look at the camera and try to hold your laugh.

"I'll get you a new one." He says, getting up and handing you the pieces of the powder. "Two if that makes you feel better." He pouts.

You kind of feel bad, he was all pouty, and with those big glassy eyes that make your heart go crazy.

"Oh Pabs, don't worry." You grab his face. "It's nothing."

"No, listen, it was me." He says, hugging you. "Let me make it up to you, let's go and get you a new everything."

You look at the camera and then at him, you shrug and smile at him. "Alright." You smile. "I'll grab my purse, wait for me in the car?" You ask.

He nods, happy that he can fix his mistakes. "Bueno." He pecks you, running out of the room.

You wait for him to close the door. "Listen, you and I know that you would do the same." You say to the camera. "Anyways, I'll post this as soon as I go back." You say, throwing the broke packaging of powder on the trash can. "And you are getting a haul, so don't judge me."

"Who's judging you?" Gavi asks.

"Nobody, let's go." You say, stopping the recording and pressing the "drafts" button to save the video. "Nobody, baby."

Ferran

"Vamos!" Ferran says, seating next to you. "Let's play the game."

"Calm down, Fer." You laugh. "You are so winning this."

You can't help but want to laugh at him. He seems so confident, but he didn't even guess what's next for him.

"Want to do the honors?" You ask, pointing at the phone.

"Hola, chicos" He smiles. "I'm the one and only, the shark, the inimaginable hat trick scorer." He says, smiling and posing for the camera.

"And I'm Y/n!" You laugh. "And WE are playing Guess the Price. Where Ferran will try to guess the price on my makeup."

"Easy, I know a lot about makeup." He smiles. "I know my Dior." He praises.

"Is this the best time to tell you I don't wear Dior?"

"Well, if I win I'm getting you some Dior." He smiles. "Let's begin."

You grab the product. "This is a primer, the brand is Gucci." You show him. "Price?"

"Easy, 90 dollars." He says, proud of himself.

You smile. "And your answer is," You sto to make drums sounds. "Incorrect, it's 300."

"For a cream?" He asks. "I get it, it's Gucci."

"What about this one?"

"That's a Chanel thing." He thinks. "And Gucci was 300, maybe 250?"

"Noup, 75." You smile.

He frowns. "No!" He says, taking the bottle out of your hands. "How?"

You look over at the camera, lifting your eyebrows. "What about this?"

He shakes his head. "Never heard of ELF." He looks at the packaging. "30?"

"That's 175." You smirk. "Did you guys see last night game?" You ask the camera. "Ferran scored a hattrick! Oh my gosh! Now this one."

You take the ELF packaging out of his hands, now placing the Too faced one.

"Better than sex?" He asks, looking at it confused. "Nothing is better than sex." He scuffs. "Five, and that's being generous."

"That's a 200 euros mascara."

"Damn, does it spit on it to make it slide easier?" He asks, throwing it back on the counter.

"Ferran!" You say, looking surprised at him. "What is wrong with you?" You laugh.

"What's next? He asks, laughing too. "Is this a thousand euros Blush?"

"No, it's 65." You say, giving him a look. "What? I like my blushes from Hermes!"

He looks over at the camera. "Are you hearing this?" He asks. "Anyways, what's next?"

You grab a lipstick from primark. Placing it on his hand. "Mmm 3 euros?"

"Yes!" You smile, even tho he's not right, you are giving him the satisfaction. "Good job, babe."

"You hear that?" He asks to the phone. "Shark mentality, never give up, eat your greens, meditate and remember you are amazing!"

"We are not done." You call him, watching him getting out of the room.

"I win, now let's go." He smiles. "Drinks on me!"

Your mouth forms an "o," looking at him and back at the camera.

Fermin

"Hello" You whisper. "Fermin is about to come here and watch something on the TV, I want to pull this prank where I talk to you about my skin care and makeup routine, but faking the prices."

You wait for fermin to walk and get comfortable on the sofa. You try your best to set up the camera so you can film his reaction.

"As I promised yesterday, I'm going to be going through my skincare and makeup routine." You explain at the camera.

You grab your moisturizing cream. "This is my favorite cream, it hydrate really well, and it helps with skin smoothening." You show the bottle. "I got this during a trip to Italy, it was around 2 thousand euros, but its worth it."

Fermin can't help but turn his head around. The price you just mentioned was crazy for the small bottle you are holding.

"I also have this night cream, it was a little bit more expensive, but it works wonders." You show the night cream. "It was 3 thousand, and that's with a discount."

Fermin makes a sound, you can describe it as a surprised one. "Are you okay, Fer?" You ask, turning your head.

"Si," He clears his throat. "Continue, sorry."

"So guys, this foundation I told you about on a video." You show a random foundation. "This is liquid magic, and for the price? Can you believe that 750 euros can make you look so smooth and glowy?"

"Seven, what?" He says. "Wow."

You pretend you can't hear him. "And if you want a real deal, this powder from La Praire is on sale with the code D U M B." You spell the letters, trying to hold the laugh. "It will take 50 percent off. You only pay 979 with shipping included."

You can see on the screen how he's now turned all the way. "How is that a deal?" He asks.

"Because it is 50 percent off." You say, sounding obnoxious about it. "The first time I bought it, I paid 135 for the shipping. It comes all the way from Paris."

"For shipping?" He asks again. "Just the shipping?"

"Fer, it's a very expensive brand." He smiles.

"Oh my God." He says, grabbing his head. "You spend how much on a cream you mentioned?"

"Which one?" You ask. "The pink one, the blue one or the green one?"

"You only mentioned the pink and green one." He points out.

"True, the blue one is a very nice one. Use it to fill your pores and to smooth texture, it will cost you some money but you can work it amazingly."

"How much?" He asks, getting up from his place.

"5 thousand." You smile. "But if you use the code S T U P I D, you get a 5% discount."

"S T U-" He tries spelling. "Hey!"

You laugh, mistakingly throwing the blue cream fall on to the floor. You can't help but feel your stomach hurt for so much from the laughs.

"The cream!" He yells, trying to save it.

"Fermin! That cream is on sale at sephora, for fifteen euros." You laugh.

He looks at you confused, then at the cream, then at you, then at the cream again. "So, no expensive cream?"

"Amor, this is a prank!" You say, pointing at the phone that is still recording. "Say hi!"

He looks at you confused, "hi?"

"Anyways, love you, bye bye!"

🏷: @gadriezmannsgirl hi 😋❤️

By the way, some anons asked me if they could be on my tag list, and you can! Let me know if you want!

[seat-safety-switch]

With the ever-present rush towards convenience, so many sit-in restaurants are becoming take-out-only instead. Let's be honest: none of us really want to go outside and talk to people in order to get food. Just flip that app and bingbong® yourself a drunk order of fried treats for only $25 in fees.

Pizza Hut was one of the first to abandon the pull of large square footage, throwing millions of nostalgic red plastic cups into industrial grinders in a mad rush to stop bleeding so much goddamn money all the time. Today, those cups are worth $250 on eBay, so they look pretty stupid now, don't they?

The problem with all this is, in the time of our foreparents, it was real hard to fake the existence of a restaurant. If you went to a Pizza Hut, it was a real-ass physical building. It probably had not been copy-pasted together by a bunch of Taiwanese scam artists using Google Image Search fifteen seconds before you appeared. That was more of a Taco Bell thing. Nowadays, you can't be sure. Computers treat bullshit the same as any other kind of shit, so sometimes you'll be ordering from a completely imaginary restaurant. Feels weird, doesn't it?

As with many other cases in my adult life where I figured out everyone was just faking it, I decided to try and make some quick money. Papa needed a new engine, you see, and Slant Sixes don't exactly grow on trees anymore. With just a couple wonky Excel spreadsheets and a glob of code the size of Upper Tonawanda, I was in business with Switch's Fun-Time Pizza, an entirely non-fictitious restaurant whose address happened to be at the same place as a Pizza Hut.

Folks would pay me money, and then I'd quickly pay Pizza Hut to have a pizza ready by the time the delivery guy rolled up. Nobody seemed to care that the box said the wrong thing, and soon I was collecting fat stacks of money for doing nothing at all, just like the platforms themselves. This went on for a few weeks, fattening my bank account for slaughter. Until the first complaints came in, that is.

Yes, friends: it turned out that the local Pizza Hut had hired someone who wasn't very good at washing their hands. Soon, I was handing out big-time refunds on behalf of a massive international corporation, except I was doing so out of my own ill-gotten profits. My rickety, strung-together bullshit engine made entirely out of spreadsheets and chewing gum simply could not comprehend the idea of a refund, much less one for a weak human phenomenon such as food poisoning. Soon, all the money was gone.

Have I learned something from this whole experience? Yes. The most important thing in food service is to wash your hands thoroughly before (and after!) handling the customer's meat. The second most important thing is to charge at least a hundred percent premium over your supplier, to leave room for little hiccups such as this.

That's way easier to do if you position yourself as an upscale luxury restaurant, such as Lord Switchington of Canterbury's Refined Palate Pizza Parlour For Bourgeois Assholes Only, which will be launching this weekend in the very expensive neighbourhood next to mine. Hopefully their Pizza Hut is a little bit better at keeping the bathroom soap dispenser stocked.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Lawless tyrant Donald Trump plans to enact a grossly authoritarian power grab by ending nearly 55 years of USPS having political independence and wreck the e-commerce economy, and place it within the Department of Commerce

Jacob Bogage at Washington Post:

President Donald Trump is preparing to dissolve the leadership of the U.S. Postal Service and absorb the independent mail agency into his administration, potentially throwing the 250-year-old mail provider and trillions of dollars of e-commerce transactions into turmoil. Trump is expected to issue an executive order as soon as this week to fire the members of the Postal Service’s governing board and place the agency under the control of the Commerce Department and Secretary Howard Lutnick, according to six people familiar with the plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals. The board is planning to fight Trump’s order, three of those people told The Washington Post. In an emergency meeting Thursday, the board retained outside counsel and gave instructions to sue the White House if the president were to remove members of the board or attempt to alter the agency’s independent status. Two of the group’s GOP members — Derek Kan, a former Trump administration official, and Mike Duncan, a former chair of the Republican National Committee — were not in attendance, according to a person familiar with the gathering. The two did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Trump’s order to place the Commerce Department in charge of the Postal Service would probably violate federal law, according to postal experts. Another executive order earlier this week instructed independent agencies to align more closely with the White House, though that order is likely to prompt court challenges and the Postal Service by law is generally exempt from executive orders. Members of the Postal Service’s bipartisan board are appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

Trump, at Lutnick’s urging, has mused about privatizing the Postal Service, and Trump’s presidential transition team vetted candidates to replace Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a retired logistics executive and GOP fundraising official who took office in 2020 during Trump’s first term.

[...] From its founding in 1775 until 1970, the U.S. mail system was a political organ of the White House. Presidents were known to appoint their political allies or campaign leaders as postmaster general, and the mail chief was often a key White House negotiator with Congress. But the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970, the product of a crippling nationwide mail strike, led Congress to split the agency off into a freestanding organization, purposefully walling it off from political tinkering. Americans consistently rank the Postal Service among their most-beloved government agencies, second only to the National Park Service. A 2024 study by the Pew Research Center found more than 70 percent of Americans had a favorable view of the agency, a view that was similar among Democrats and Republicans. Trump’s first administration sought to test the agency’s independence. Steven Mnuchin, Trump’s first-term treasury secretary, attempted to control the 2020 hiring process that brought DeJoy to the Postal Service, and a task force run out of Mnuchin’s department recommended dramatically shrinking the scope of the agency and preparing it for privatization via an initial public offering.

This is tyranny full stop.

[eightyonekilograms]

Ignore the attention-getting headline about fertility. I made a pledge a little while ago to stop talking about fertility issues; I'll do a longer post about that pledge later, but I'm sick of that discourse and how it's now just going in circles with nothing to show for it. But click through to the post anyway about South Korea's dysfunctional small business culture.

One of the awkward findings in business and economics is, despite how much people dislike them, giant megacorporations are much more efficient than small businesses, in terms of worker productivity (as long as those corporations have to compete in a global marketplace and aren't propped up by subsidies, protectionist trade policy, or monopoly protection).

This happens everywhere, but I didn't realize it was particularly bad in South Korea:

Between the Hyundai apartments and Samsung theme parks, South Korea certainly looks like a nation of big business. But looks can be deceiving: peak beneath the hood and you find that the Republic of Samsung is a nation awash in shitty small businesses.  With just 14 percent of jobs at companies with over 250 employees, South Korea has the lowest proportion of jobs at big companies of any nation in the OECD. Contrast this with the U.S., where 58 percent of jobs are at such companies. ... Small businesses aren’t always bad for employees—maybe you get more autonomy and fewer shrill HR managers. But South Korea’s small businesses are distinctively unproductive and retrograde in their work cultures, making them far less attractive employment options.  While SMEs are rarely as productive as large ones, it is truly striking how unproductive South Korea’s small businesses are compared to those in Western nations. The OECD, for example, found small service sector firms in Korea are 30 percent as productive as larger firms with over 250 workers. In the Netherlands and Germany, that figure is 84 and 90 percent, respectively. Similarly, the Asian Development Bank found that in 2010, small Korean firms with five to 49 workers were just 22 percent as productive as firms with over 200 workers. ... The story of South Korea’s ingenious use of corporate subsidies, it turns out, has been oversold. South Korea’s government in fact shells out lots of money keeping unproductive small businesses afloat, with little in the way of economic gain to show for it. ... So why does South Korea spend so much money subsidizing poorly run small businesses? The simple answer may be that it is especially good politics in a nation where chaebols are met with suspicion over their ties to the government. Politicians can point to this “support” for small businesses as evidence that they are not in bed with firms like Samsung.

This is a fascinating example of policy backfire: Korea's chaebols are so big and politically unpopular that voters demand tons of subsidies for the romantic ideal of small family businesses, which keeps them permanently uncompetitive and unproductive, where people have to work much longer hours for the same pay you'd get anywhere else.

[autotopic]

1938 Mercedes-Benz W154

In September 1936, the AIACR (Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus), the governing body of motor racing, set the new Grand Prix regulations effective from 1938. Key stipulations included a maximum engine displacement of three liters for supercharged engines and 4.5 liters for naturally aspirated engines, with a minimum car weight ranging from 400 to 850 kilograms, depending on engine size.

By the end of the 1937 season, Mercedes-Benz engineers were already hard at work developing the new W154, exploring various ideas, including a naturally aspirated engine with a W24 configuration, a rear-mounted engine, direct fuel injection, and fully streamlined bodies. Ultimately, due to heat management considerations, they opted for an in-house developed 60-degree V12 engine designed by Albert Heess. This engine mirrored the displacement characteristics of the 1924 supercharged two-liter M 2 L 8 engine, with each of its 12 cylinders displacing 250 cc. Using glycol as a coolant allowed temperatures to reach up to 125°C. The engine featured four overhead camshafts operating 48 valves via forked rocker arms, with three cylinders combined under welded coolant jackets, and non-removable heads. It had a high-capacity lubrication system, circulating 100 liters of oil per minute, and initially utilized two single-stage superchargers, later replaced by a more efficient two-stage supercharger in 1939.

The first prototype engine ran on the test bench in January 1938, and by February 7, it had achieved a nearly trouble-free test run, producing 427 hp (314 kW) at 8,000 rpm. During the first half of the season, drivers such as Caracciola, Lang, von Brauchitsch, and Seaman had access to 430 hp (316 kW), which later increased to over 468 hp (344 kW). At the Reims circuit, Hermann Lang's W154 was equipped with the most powerful version, delivering 474 hp (349 kW) and reaching 283 km/h (176 mph) on the straights. Notably, the W154 was the first Mercedes-Benz racing car to feature a five-speed gearbox.

Max Wagner, tasked with designing the suspension, had an easier job than his counterparts working on the engine. He retained much of the advanced chassis architecture from the previous year's W125 but enhanced the torsional rigidity of the frame by 30 percent. The V12 engine was mounted low and at an angle, with the carburetor air intakes extending through the expanded radiator grille.

The driver sat to the right of the propeller shaft, and the W154's sleek body sat close to the ground, lower than the tops of its tires. This design gave the car a dynamic appearance and a low center of gravity. Both Manfred von Brauchitsch and Richard Seaman, whose technical insights were highly valued by Chief Engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut, praised the car's excellent handling.

The W154 became the most successful Silver Arrow of its era. Rudolf Caracciola secured the 1938 European Championship title (as the World Championship did not yet exist), and the W154 won three of the four Grand Prix races that counted towards the championship.

To ensure proper weight distribution, a saddle tank was installed above the driver's legs. In 1939, the addition of a two-stage supercharger boosted the V12 engine, now named the M163, to 483 hp (355 kW) at 7,800 rpm. Despite the AIACR's efforts to curb the speed of Grand Prix cars, the new three-liter formula cars matched the lap times of the 1937 750-kg formula cars, demonstrating that their attempt was largely unsuccessful. Over the winter of 1938-39, the W154 saw several refinements, including a higher cowl line around the cockpit for improved driver safety and a small, streamlined instrument panel mounted to the saddle tank. As per Uhlenhaut’s philosophy, only essential information was displayed, centered around a large tachometer flanked by water and oil temperature gauges, ensuring the driver wasn't overwhelmed by unnecessary data.

[physics-of-one-piece]

Welcome to Doffy's Physics Lab.

In this post, we'll calculate how big Doflamingo's hands are and how long his fingers are.

Let's dive right in!

Okay, so the thing Oda did very very well is capture how long Doflamingo’s limbs are. He has a very strong chest, and his arms are as previously calculated 1.5m. What I say Oda captured well is actually (after some checking) that the proportions of Doflamingo’s body are not THAT bad compared to irl logic.

The man who has the largest hands in the world is Sultan Kosen (Turkey). His hands are 29 centimeters, but his height is 250 centimeters. Mr Kosen has gigantism and acromegaly, this is why he’s so tall and this is why his hands are bigger. Hands are usually 10% of the body height, so his hands should actually be 25 cm, but biology comes into play here, and after seeing some pictures, his hands look very normal for his size. They fit him. When I say how large the hand is, it means the length of the hand from the wrist to the middle finger.

So, this means, taller people’s hands most likely are not 10% of their height, but 11%. You may be wondering why I only heightened it for 1% percent. 1% proportion increase is about 4 cm increase on the real hand already. This fits for how big Mr Kosen’s hands are and follows bone structure that he has, which we can use to then calculate Doflamingo’s.

Also, body mass and body build goes into account. Even tall people have bigger hands than they should sometimes. Skinny people who are tall may have hands that aren’t 10% their body height, so the mass influences the proportion. The reason behind this is genetics and the aforementioned body structure. So, yes, it can depend! Not everyone has 10%! It doesn’t mean you are not healthy, it varies from person to person!

So, for tall people with a larger body mass, let’s put 10% for now; he is weighty but he is also lean in the arms and legs.

This is how we calculate:

10% proportion

Hand = height • proportion

hand = 305 • 0.10

hand = 30.5 cm

This is already huge. Absolutely huge. His hand is bigger than an average human’s head. His hands are 1.5 cm longer than an A4 paper. Yeah. Awesome! That’s awesome.

Sorry, geeking out and fangirling, please stand by.

Okay, we’re gonna do it with Oda’s proportions now. We’re gonna make it 11%.

The anime makes his hands so big. He a big boy.

This with 11% is the most accurate I like to believe.

0.11 • 305 = 33.55cm

We’ll call this next one the extreme but still possibly accurate version

With 12% body proportion (this is extreme of extremes I think this is too much, but fuck it, One Piece doesn’t follow rules so neither will I)

Hand= 305 • 0.12

Hand = 36.6 cm

These are all big.

Okay, now for the fingers. The anime keeps them good on proportions! Oda, as well! They look outta proportion to us midgets but they’re normal size for Doflamingo.

(rubs hands giddily) Hehe, I wanted to know this for AGES.

For this, we use the length of the hand and then anatomical proportions.

Middle finger is 35-40% of the total hand length

Index finger: 30-35%

Ring finger: 30-35%

Little finger: 30-35%

Thumb: 22-27%

Yeah, for normal people.

Not for One Piece, me thinks. I always imagine Doflamingo’s middle finger is half the length of his entire hand. Big boy has long fingers.

But fine, we’ll go with this first. And THEN we’ll have fun in the One Piece proportions.

Okay, so this is where we need to know the finger-length type classification of the hand. There are 4 types.

Most artists, Oda included, draw the hands with the mountain type ie middle finger is the longest. If there are any artists who can confirm/deny so I can later fix it, that’d be great.

Based on this study with men, their index finger is longer than their ring finger, and only by a few mm. We’re gonna put everything in the middle. We’ll make his index finger 1 cm shorter from his middle finger. Ring and index finger are gonna be the same length to get that “mountain” curve.

Now we will go with his hand being 30.5 cm ie with 10% proportion.

Warning, I am breaking dreams with this one, and once again, I like to think his middle finger is 15 cm long! Is it too long? Maybe. Do I care? No. The fun thing about knowing rules is knowing how to break them.

Formula:

percentage • hand length = finger length

30.5cm hand

Middle finger = 0.40 • 30.5 = 12.2 cm

Index finger = 0.35 • 30.5 = 10.67 cm

Ring finger = 0.35 • 30.5= 10.67 cm

Little finger = 0.325 • 30.5 = 9.91 cm

Thumb = 0.27• 30.5 = 8.23 cm

To put his thumb into visual, 8 cm is the average length 180 cm tall men have of their middle finger.

Okay, now onto the official One Piece proportions the 11%. We just need to have his big hand size, he has HUGE hands. Okay.

33.55 cm hand (most likely to be Doflamingo’s hand size)

Middle finger = 0.40 • 33.55 = 13.42 cm

Index = 0.35 x 33.55 = 11.74 cm

Ring = 0.35 x 33.55 = 11.74 cm

Little = 0.325 x 33.55 = 10.90 cm

Thumb = 0.27 x 33.55 = 9.05 cm

Last Possible Version (Extreme Version)

36.6 cm hand

Middle finger= 0.40 • 36.6 = 14.65 cm

(chokes) Holy Mariejois and celestials. Okay. Okay.

Index finger = 0.35 • 36.6 = 12.81 cm

Ring finger = 0.35 • 36.6 = 12.81 cm

Little finger = 0.325 • 36.6 = 11.89 cm

Thumb = 0.27 • 36.6 = 9.88 cm

Woah, his thumb is huge 🤣🤣🤣 (I have a 30cm ruler sitting on the paper rn so yeah these are crazy numbers)

And there you go.

Okay, now width of fingers, we have no way of calculating it except to use known information.

For example, palm width of a hand of 19.3cm long is 8.9cm. let’s cut our losses and divide that to see how much smaller is the palm (this is cheating btw but it gets the job done). Usually your fingers are half the length of your palm. Sth like that. The palm is drawn mostly as a square or a curved parallelogram depending on the angle in which it’s drawn in. I am going with the easier option where all sides are equal.

We got 2.16

So we can say…

Average Palm width without adjusting for OP proportions

for 30.5 cm hand = 30.5/2.16 = 14.12 cm

Doflamingo’s Palm Width (adjusted for OP Proportions)

33.55 cm hand = 33.55/2.16= 15.50 cm

(I just realised I can just go minus his middle finger because that is how we got the length of his hand omg I am an idiot, no need for complex stuff)

33.55 cm - 13.42 cm = 15.13

(Okay, this is the better and easier way and makes good sense!)

(Whispers) Jesus fucking Christ

Extreme Palm Width

for 36.6 cm hand = 36.6/2.16 = 16.96 cm

Dear fucking GOD.

I really like the 30.5 cm from an accuracy standpoint but also, usually, hands are bigger than the average, and the taller you are, basing on your body type & genetics, that proportion can shift slightly.

So 33 cm isn’t a far reach at all for Doflamingo. He absolutely can wrap his single hand around a woman’s throat depending on the circumference of the woman’s throat. He cannot wrap them around a man’s neck fully to enclose it. He can, single-handedly with a 33 cm hand, absolutely completely envelop a woman’s neck.

There’s that. His finger thickness is probably 2-3cm.

And that's it!

Taglist: @fanaticsnail

[antiporn-activist]

A Marketplace of Girl Influencers Managed by Moms and Stalked by Men

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/22/us/instagram-child-influencers.html

Seeking social media stardom for their underage daughters, mothers post images of them on Instagram. The accounts draw men sexually attracted to children, and they sometimes pay to see more.

Feb. 22, 2024

By Jennifer Valentino-DeVries and Michael H. Keller

The ominous messages began arriving in Elissa’s inbox early last year.

“You sell pics of your underage daughter to pedophiles,” read one. “You’re such a naughty sick mom, you’re just as sick as us pedophiles,” read another. “I will make your life hell for you and your daughter.”

Elissa has been running her daughter’s Instagram account since 2020, when the girl was 11 and too young to have her own. Photos show a bright, bubbly girl modeling evening dresses, high-end workout gear and dance leotards. She has more than 100,000 followers, some so enthusiastic about her posts that they pay $9.99 a month for more photos.

Over the years, Elissa has fielded all kinds of criticism and knows full well that some people think she is exploiting her daughter. She has even gotten used to receiving creepy messages, but these — from “Instamodelfan” — were extreme. “I think they’re all pedophiles,” she said of the many online followers obsessed with her daughter and other young girls.

Elissa and her daughter inhabit the world of Instagram influencers whose accounts are managed by their parents. Although the site prohibits children under 13, parents can open so-called mom-run accounts for them, and they can live on even when the girls become teenagers.

But what often starts as a parent’s effort to jump-start a child’s modeling career, or win favors from clothing brands, can quickly descend into a dark underworld dominated by adult men, many of whom openly admit on other platforms to being sexually attracted to children, an investigation by The New York Times found. 

For this investigation, the reporters analyzed 2.1 million Instagram posts, monitored months of online chats of professed pedophiles and interviewed over 100 people, including parents and children.

Thousands of accounts examined by The Times offer disturbing insights into how social media is reshaping childhood, especially for girls, with direct parental encouragement and involvement. Some parents are the driving force behind the sale of photos, exclusive chat sessions and even the girls’ worn leotards and cheer outfits to mostly unknown followers. The most devoted customers spend thousands of dollars nurturing the underage relationships.

The large audiences boosted by men can benefit the families, The Times found. The bigger followings look impressive to brands and bolster chances of getting discounts, products and other financial incentives, and the accounts themselves are rewarded by Instagram’s algorithm with greater visibility on the platform, which in turn attracts more followers.

One calculation performed by an audience demographics firm found 32 million connections to male followers among the 5,000 accounts examined by The Times.

Interacting with the men opens the door to abuse. Some flatter, bully and blackmail girls and their parents to get racier and racier images. The Times monitored separate exchanges on Telegram, the messaging app, where men openly fantasize about sexually abusing the children they follow on Instagram and extol the platform for making the images so readily available.

“It’s like a candy store 😍😍😍,” one of them wrote. “God bless instamoms 🙌,” wrote another.

The troubling interactions on Instagram come as social media companies increasingly dominate the cultural landscape and the internet is seen as a career path of its own.

Nearly one in three preteens lists influencing as a career goal, and 11 percent of those born in Generation Z, between 1997 and 2012, describe themselves as influencers. The so-called creator economy surpasses $250 billion worldwide, according to Goldman Sachs, with U.S. brands spending more than $5 billion a year on influencers.

Health and technology experts have recently cautioned that social media presents a “profound risk of harm” for girls. Constant comparisons to their peers and face-altering filters are driving negative feelings of self-worth and promoting objectification of their bodies, researchers found.

But the pursuit of online fame, particularly through Instagram, has supercharged the often toxic phenomenon, The Times found, encouraging parents to commodify their children’s images. Some of the child influencers earn six-figure incomes, according to interviews.

“I really don’t want my child exploited on the internet,” said Kaelyn, a mother in Melbourne, Australia, who like Elissa and many other parents interviewed by The Times agreed to be identified only by a middle name to protect the privacy of her child.

“But she’s been doing this so long now,” she said. “Her numbers are so big. What do we do? Just stop it and walk away?”

In investigating this growing and unregulated ecosystem, The Times analyzed 2.1 million Instagram posts, monitored months of online chats of professed pedophiles and reviewed thousands of pages of police reports and court documents.

Reporters also interviewed more than 100 people, including parents in the United States and three other countries, their children, child safety experts, tech company employees and followers of the accounts, some of whom were convicted sex offenders.

This is how The Times found its sample of 5,000 mom-run accounts.

The accounts range from dancers whose mothers diligently cull men from the ranks of followers, to girls in skimpy bikinis whose parents actively encourage male admirers and sell them special photo sets. While there are some mom-run accounts for boys, they are the exception.

Some girls on Instagram use their social media clout to get little more than clothing discounts; others receive gifts from Amazon wish lists, or money through Cash App; and still others earn thousands of dollars a month by selling subscriptions with exclusive content.

In interviews and online comments, parents said that their children enjoyed being on social media or that it was important for a future career. But some expressed misgivings. Kaelyn, whose daughter is now 17, said she worried that a childhood spent sporting bikinis online for adult men had scarred her.

“She’s written herself off and decided that the only way she’s going to have a future is to make a mint on OnlyFans,” she said, referring to a website that allows users to sell adult content to subscribers. “She has way more than that to offer.”

She warned mothers not to make their children social media influencers. “With the wisdom and knowledge I have now, if I could go back, I definitely wouldn’t do it,” she said. “I’ve been stupidly, naïvely, feeding a pack of monsters, and the regret is huge.”

Account owners who report explicit images or potential predators to Instagram are typically met with silence or indifference, and those who block many abusers have seen their own accounts’ ability to use certain features limited, according to the interviews and documents. In the course of eight months, The Times made over 50 reports of its own about questionable material and received only one response.

Meta, Instagram’s parent company, found that 500,000 child Instagram accounts had “inappropriate” interactions every day, according to an internal study in 2020 quoted in legal proceedings.

In a statement to The Times, Andy Stone, a Meta spokesman, said that parents were responsible for the accounts and their content and could delete them anytime.

“Anyone on Instagram can control who is able to tag, mention or message them, as well as who can comment on their account,” Mr. Stone added, noting a feature that allows parents to ban comments with certain words. “On top of that, we prevent accounts exhibiting potentially suspicious behavior from using our monetization tools, and we plan to limit such accounts from accessing subscription content.”

Influencers use TikTok, too, but Instagram is easier for parents to navigate and better suited to the kinds of photos that brands want. It is also home to a longstanding network of parents and brands that predated TikTok.

From time to time, Instagram removes child-influencer accounts for unspecified reasons or because people flag them as inappropriate, The Times found. In extreme cases, parents and photographers have been arrested or convicted of child exploitation, but barring evidence of illegal images, most of the activity does not draw the attention of law enforcement.

Like many parents, Elissa, who received the threatening messages about her daughter’s photos, said she protected her daughter by handling the account exclusively herself. Ultimately, she concluded, the Instagram community is dominated by “disgusting creeps,” but she nonetheless keeps the account up and running. Shutting it down, she said, would be “giving in to bullies.”

The account’s risks became apparent last spring when the person messaging her threatened to report her to the police and others unless she completed “a small task.” When she did not respond, the person emailed the girl’s school, saying Elissa sold “naughty” pictures to pedophiles.

Days later, the girl tearfully explained to her mother that school officials had questioned her about the Instagram account. They showed her images that her mother had posted — one of the girl in hot pants and fishnets, another in a leotard and sweatshirt.

Elissa had reported the blackmail to the local sheriff, but school officials only dropped the matter after an emotional interrogation of the girl.

“I was crying,” the girl said in an interview. “I was just scared. I didn’t understand what was going on.”

‘Walking Advertising’

In today’s creator economy, companies often turn to social media influencers to attract new customers. Giants like Kim Kardashian, who has 364 million followers on Instagram, have turned the phenomenon into a big business.

Young girls strive to do the same.

In the dance and gymnastics worlds, teens and preteens jockey to become brand ambassadors for products and apparel. They don bikinis in Instagram posts, walk runways in youth fashion shows and offer paid subscriptions to videos showing the everyday goings-on of children seeking internet fame.

“We costumed somebody for ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ thinking that would be huge P.R., but we ended up finding out the bigger return on investment is these microinfluencers,” she said. “We have parents that will spend thousands of dollars to buy styles that no one else will have. That’s our best market.”

The most successful girls can demand $3,000 from their sponsors for a single post on Instagram, but monetary gain can be elusive for others, who receive free or discounted clothes in exchange for their posts and have to pay for their own hairstyling and makeup, among other costs. Even youth fashion shows, including events in New York that coincide but are not affiliated with New York Fashion Week, charge the girls to participate and charge their parents to attend.

In interviews, parents defended spending the money to promote their daughters’ influencer ambitions, describing them as extracurricular activities that build confidence, develop friendships and create social media résumés that will follow them into adulthood.

“It’s like a little security blanket,” said a New Jersey mother whose mom-run account has led to paid modeling jobs for her daughter and invitations to work with sought-after choreographers. “She can help pay for college if she does it right,” she said.

A mother in Alabama said parents couldn’t ignore the reality of this new economy.

“Social media is the way of our future, and I feel like they’ll be behind if they don’t know what’s going on,” the mother said. “You can’t do anything without it now.”

One 12-year-old girl in Maryland, who spoke with The Times alongside her mother, described the thrill of seeing other girls she knows wear a brand she represents in Instagram posts.

“People are actually being influenced by me,” she said.

In 2022, Instagram launched paid subscriptions, which allows followers to pay a monthly fee for exclusive content and access. The rules don’t allow subscriptions for anyone under 18, but the mom-run accounts sidestep that restriction. The Times found dozens that charged from 99 cents to $19.99. At the highest price, parents offered “ask me anything” chat sessions and behind-the-scenes photos.

Child safety experts warn the subscriptions and other features could lead to unhealthy interactions, with men believing they have a special connection to the girls and the girls believing they must meet the men’s needs.

“I have reservations about a child feeling like they have to satisfy either adults in their orbit or strangers who are asking something from them,” said Sally Theran, a professor at Wellesley College and clinical psychologist who studies online relationships. “It’s really hard to give consent to that when your frontal lobe isn’t fully developed.”

Instagram isn’t alone in the subscription business. Some parents promote other platforms on their mom-run accounts. One of them, Brand Army, caters to adult influencers but also has “junior channel” parent-run subscriptions ranging from free to $250 monthly.

“Message me anytime. You will have more opportunities for buying and receiving super exclusive content😘,” read a description for a $25 subscription to a minor’s account. For $100 a month, subscribers can get “live interactive video chats,” unlimited direct messages and a mention on the girl’s Instagram story.

The Times subscribed to several accounts to glean what content is being offered and how much money is being made. On one account, 141 subscribers liked a photo only available to those who paid $100 monthly, indicating over $14,000 in subscription revenue.

Some of the descriptions also highlight the revealing nature of photos. One account for a child around 14 years old encouraged new sign-ups at the end of last year by branding the days between Christmas and New Year’s as “Bikini Week.” An account for a 17-year-old girl advertised that she wasn’t wearing underwear in a workout photo set and, as a result, the images were “uh … a lot spicier than usual.”

The girl’s “Elite VIP” subscription costs $250 a month.

Brand Army’s founder, Ramon Mendez, said that junior-channel users were a minority on his platform and that moderating their pages had grown so problematic that he discontinued new sign-ups.

“We’ve removed thousands of pieces of content,” he said. “The parents’ behavior is just disgusting. We don’t want to be part of it.”

‘The Wealth of the Wicked’

“You are so sexy,” read one comment on an image of a 5-year-old girl in a ruffled bikini. “Those two little things look great thru ur top,” said another on a video of a girl dancing in a white cropped shirt, who months later posted pictures of her 11th birthday party.

For many mom-run accounts, comments from men — admiring, suggestive or explicit — are a recurring scourge to be eradicated, or an inescapable fact of life to be ignored. For others, they are a source to be tapped.

“The first thing I do when I wake up and the last thing I do when I go to bed is block accounts,” said Lynn, the mother of a 6-year-old girl in Florida who has about 3,000 followers from the dance world.

Another mother, Gail from Texas, described being desensitized to the men’s messages. “I don’t have as much of an emotional response anymore,” she said. “It’s weird to be so numb to that, but the quantity is just astounding.”

Meta does not provide public information about who uses Instagram, so The Times analyzed data from the audience firms Modash and HypeAuditor, which estimate follower demographics based on their own algorithms.

The proportion of male followers varied greatly in The Times’s sample, according to the estimates. Many accounts had a few thousand followers who were mostly female. But while men accounted for about 35 percent of the audience overall, their presence grew dramatically as accounts became more popular. Many with more than 100,000 followers had a male audience of over 75 percent, and a few of them over 90 percent, the analysis showed.

To be sure, not all men following the accounts have bad intentions. Some are grandparents and fathers of the young influencers. Many have inoffensive profiles and simply post compliments or greetings, and mothers react appreciatively.

“In responding or even hitting ‘like’ on it, it boosts your algorithm,” said a mother in Florida whose 16-year-old daughter has been an Instagram influencer for six years. “We tried shutting comments off at one point, and some of the brands didn’t like that.”

Brands that feature children from mom-run accounts face similar challenges.

Dean Stockton, who runs a small clothing company in Florida called Original Hippie, often features girls from the Instagram accounts, who earn a commission when customers use personalized discount codes. After initially deleting many male followers, he now sees them as a way to grow the account and give it a wider audience because the platform rewards large followings.

“The Bible says, ‘The wealth of the wicked is laid up for the righteous,’” he said. “So sometimes you got to use the things of this world to get you to where you need to be, as long as it’s not harming anybody.”

Mr. Stockton said he deleted male followers who were disrespectful or sexual in their interactions. An examination by The Times of the three dozen brands that are popular among mom-run accounts found inappropriate, predatory or pornographic followers in almost all of the brands’ accounts, including Original Hippie.

Many of the men posted pornography, or their bios included sexual language and emojis that child protection experts say pedophiles can use to signal interest in children. For instance, one follower of a children’s dance wear brand described himself as a “thong & anl sx lover.” A user named “sexy_69nazi” followed a children’s apparel company and exclusively posted pornography.

Chixit, a brand selling swimwear and other clothing, describes itself as “an International Sorority,” but business records show that it was run by Philip Russo, who advertised himself as a tutor operating out of his home in the Hudson Valley of New York. Other websites registered to Mr. Russo’s email are a tutoring business and inactive domain names describing sex with animals.

After The Times reached out to Mr. Russo, the website for his tutoring business went offline. He did not respond to multiple messages seeking comment.

‘Girls Become a Currency’

The vast world of child-influencer followers on Instagram includes men who have been charged with or convicted of sex crimes, and those who engage in forums off platform where child sexual abuse imagery, including of girls on Instagram, is shared.

The Times traced the account of one follower, who goes by the moniker “jizzquizz,” to a man named Joshua V. Rubel, 39. He was convicted in 2008 of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl and is listed on the New Jersey sex offender registry. (Instagram’s policy bars sex offenders from using the platform, and the company said it removed two accounts after The Times pointed them out.)

Another account belongs to Daniel Duane Huver, a man in Lansing, Mich., who told law enforcement in 2018 that he had “top fan status” on girls’ pages, a designation bestowed by Instagram’s sister company, Facebook. The police searched Mr. Huver’s cellphone after it was confiscated by his probation officer and found hundreds of images and videos of children, including many considered inappropriate and sexually suggestive and two believed to be illegal (showing minors engaged in explicit acts.)

Mr. Huver told officers he was sexually attracted to children and masturbated to images of them, according to police records. He was charged with possession of child sexual abuse material, but the prosecutor in Eaton County later dropped charges, citing insufficient evidence because of the poor quality of the imagery.

Mr. Rubel did not respond to requests for comment. Mr. Huver said that the police mischaracterized his words and that the lack of prosecution was evidence he had done nothing wrong.

In monitoring multiple Telegram chat rooms, The Times found men who treat children’s Instagram pages and subscription services as menus to satisfy their fantasies. They trade information about parents considered receptive to producing and selling “private sets” of images.

A group with more than 4,000 members was highly organized, with an F.A.Q. page and a Google sheet that tracked nearly 700 children, identifying them by hashtags to help members find them within the long chat history. The group’s logo showed a child’s hand in an adult hand.

The Times asked the Canadian Center for Child Protection, an organization that monitors online child exploitation, to review links and other potentially illegal material posted by the Telegram groups and elsewhere. The center identified child sexual abuse imagery involving multiple underage Instagram models from around the world, as well as sexualized videos of others, including a preteen girl wearing a thong and a young teenager raising her dress to show her bikini bottom.

Men in these groups frequently praise the advent of Instagram as a golden age for child exploitation.

“I’m so glad for these new moms pimping their daughters out,” wrote one of them. “And there’s an infinite supply of it — literally just refresh your Instagram Explore page there’s fresh preteens.”

A small group of men go even further and cultivate business and patronage relationships with mothers.

One man posts videos and photos on Instagram of girls thanking him for shopping sprees, gifts like iPhones and iPads, and cash. If he does not receive a message of gratitude quickly, he sometimes shames the mother and daughter on his private Instagram account.

Another makes recommendations about increasing visibility by using specific hashtags and photographers. But two mothers said they became suspicious, and stopped working with the man, after he suggested they make certain their daughters’ nipples and other private areas could be detected through their outfits.

A third man tried to persuade a mother to sell her daughter’s used leotards because many men, including himself, were “collectors,” according to a recording of the conversation.

“In retrospect I feel like such a stupid mom, but I’m not stupid,” said a mother of a young gymnast, who dealt with similar men before she realized they were predators and received threatening messages from several of them. “I didn’t understand what grooming was.”

Sometimes the men flirt or try to develop virtual romances with mothers, offer to protect them and become possessive and angry if they interact with other men.

“It’s almost like the girls become a currency,” said the gymnast’s mother, who did not want to be named.

This feeling of ownership and jealousy can drive attempts at blackmail, The Times found.

Instamodelfan, who sent threatening messages to Elissa, sent blackmail threats to at least five other mom-run accounts. When one mother responded, he demanded that she sexually abuse her child and send him photos and videos, emails to the mother show. She refused and contacted law enforcement.

The Times communicated with a person identified on Telegram as Instamodelfan who said that he lashed out at the mothers because he believed other men got illegal images of children and he wanted them for himself.

Reporters also received information from an anonymous tipster, who they later found was linked to the blackmailer, indicating that some parents had produced explicit imagery of their daughters.

The Canadian center reviewed the imagery and said it included illegal nude photos of two girls. One girl’s mother said she was shaken to learn of the photos and did not know who could have made them. The other girl, now 17, said in an interview that the photos were for her and a girlfriend and that she told law enforcement that they had been stolen.

Others images either were borderline illegal, were too poor quality to be conclusive or were digitally altered, the center said.

Several mothers who had been identified by the tipster said they reached out to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which, they said, had conducted an investigation. The F.B.I. declined to comment.

Ultimately, the gymnast’s mother said, a federal agent told them to stop talking to men online.

“They told everyone to get off Instagram,” she said. “‘You’re in over your head. Get off.’ That’s what they told us.”

‘My Limit of Pedophiles’

Meta failed to act on multiple reports made by parents and even restricted those who tried to police their own followers, according to interviews and materials provided by the parents.

If parents block too many followers’ accounts in a day, Meta curtails their ability to block or follow others, they said.

“I remember being told, like, I’ve reached my limit,” said a mother of two dancers in Arizona who declined to be named. “Like what? I reached my limit of pedophiles for today. OK, great.”

Mr. Stone, the Meta spokesman, said “there are lots of reasons an account might face limitations or restrictions based the account’s activity,” and therefore it was difficult to know why parents encountered these problems.

Ms. Pastore of LA Dance Designs said it was “very much overdue” for Instagram to add the ability to filter by age and sex to help identify suspicious followers. “If you’re starting to gain a following, there needs to be some sort of way to control it,” she said.

Even some egregious violations led to no action by Meta.

One parent reported a photo of erect male genitalia sent in a direct message. Another reported an account that reposted children’s photos with explicit captions. A third reported a user who propositioned her child for sex, offering $65,000 for “an hour” with the girl.

In response to those three reports, Meta said either that the communications did not violate “community guidelines” or that its staff did not have time to review them. In other cases, Meta told parents that it relied on its “technology” to determine the content was “probably” not a violation.

Separately, The Times found comments that included links to sites identified by the Canadian center as trading illegal, nude imagery of children. None of those reports received a response from Meta.

Former Meta trust and safety employees described an organization overwhelmed despite knowing about the problem for years.

“You hear, ‘I reported this account, it was harassing my daughter, why is he back?’” said a former investigator for the company who requested anonymity. “There are not enough people, resources and systems to tackle all of it.”

In recent years, conspiracy theories like QAnon, which claims Democratic politicians are trafficking children, have led to an excess of unfounded reports that have muddled the evaluation of child abuse tips, three former Meta trust and safety employees said.

A 2020 document that surfaced in a lawsuit described child safety as a “non-goal” at Meta. “If we do something here, cool,” the document said. “But if we do nothing at all, that’s fine too.” The lawsuit was brought against Meta and other companies claiming damage from using social media. Lawyers for the plaintiffs declined to provide more information about the document.

In documents from 2018 included in a separate lawsuit making similar claims of harm, a top Facebook executive told Instagram’s chief executive that unless changes were made, Facebook and Instagram were “basically massive ‘victim discovery services,’” an allusion to the considerable evidence of abuse on the platforms.

Mr. Stone, the Meta spokesman, disputed the suggestion that the trust team was understaffed and underfunded, saying that 40,000 employees worked on safety and security and that the company had invested $20 billion in such efforts since 2016. He also referred to a previous statement about the lawsuits, saying they “mischaracterize our work using selective quotes and cherry-picked documents.”

In addition, he noted that Meta reported more suspected child abuse imagery to the authorities than any other company each year. In December, it announced plans to encrypt its messaging services, which would reduce the reports.

‘It’s All Over Instagram’

Experts in child protection and development say young people should never be made to have negative feelings about their bodies. But clothing that is appropriate in a gym or dance competition may take on an unintended meaning when shared online.

Children’s dance attire regularly features strappy bra tops, sheer fabric and bikini bottoms, and popular cheer outfits combine sports bras with little skirts — part of a long-term trend toward more revealing clothing for girls.

“In the dance world we’re in, they’re half naked all the time and their legs are in the air,” said a mother in Massachusetts who declined to be named. “And if you’re not used to seeing that, maybe it’s different.”

Lynn, whose granddaughter in Texas is an ambassador for a cheerleading brand, said there was no logic to the reactions her posts received. Photos of the girl’s feet attract the most extreme comments, she said. “You can’t stop weird people, I guess.”

Still, many of the would-be influencers suffer. In some instances criticism of the posts, and accompanying bullying, becomes so severe that mothers turn to home-schooling.

“She got slaughtered all through primary school,” said Kaelyn, the mother in Melbourne. “Children were telling her, ‘We can’t play with you because my mom said too many perverts follow you on the internet.’”

In the United States, parents have substantial leeway in making decisions about their children. But people who suspect illegal behavior on Instagram quickly discover that the authorities are overwhelmed and typically focus on the clearest-cut cases.

Even the most unsettling images of sexualized child influencers tend to fall into a legal gray area. To meet the federal definition of so-called child pornography, the law generally requires a “lascivious exhibition” of the anal or genital area, though courts have found the requirement can be met without nudity or sheer clothing.

There have been criminal prosecutions against parents accused in child sexual abuse cases.

In Louisiana last year, a mother was arrested and charged with working with a photographer to produce illegal images of her daughter in a thong bikini. In Texas, a mother was sentenced to 32 years in prison in December for producing nude photos of her 8-year-old daughter with the same photographer. And in North Carolina, a mother is awaiting trial on charges that she took her 15-year-old daughter to a photographer who sexually abused her and she failed to get medical help when the girl tried to kill herself, according to court documents.

Still, those prosecutions are rare, and some male followers of the mom-run accounts openly welcome the windfall.

“As long as this stuff legally exists, I just enjoy it :),” one of them wrote on Telegram.

“Exactly,” another responded. “It’s all over Instagram.”

[reasonsforhope]

In 2022, something happened in Britain for the first time in 6,000 years. Deep in the Kent countryside, a wild European bison calf was born as part of the Wilder Blean rewilding project. The last time wild European bison roamed Britain’s landscapes was after the last Ice Age, some 10,000 years ago, so it’s no wonder the calf’s arrival caused a stir. European bison were once a common sight across most of Europe. As the largest herbivore to roam the continent, European bison could be found from France all the way to the tip of the Black Sea in the Ukraine. The fossil record tells us that European bison have been roving the continent since the end of the Paleolithic Ice Age, with the earliest fossils dating back to 9,000 BC.

Now, bison are bouncing back. They have experienced a 166-fold increase in their population in the last 50 years. And these rates of return are not solely the reserve of the mighty bison. Other wild European mammals are also making a roaring comeback, and the speed of their resurgence suggests that wider, rapid natural regeneration is possible with multiple ecological, and therefore human benefits.

From 1960 to 2016, Eurasian beaver (Castor fiber) populations have ballooned 167-fold, from just a few thousand at the start of the 20th century to over 1.2 million wild beavers today. Grey seal populations have also grown by 6,273 percent and the population of Alpine ibex has risen by 417 percent. Eurasian badger populations have doubled, while Eurasian otter populations have tripled.

While these impressive rates of recovery are not reflected across all of Europe’s 250 wild mammal species, they do provide some evidence-based hope that wild mammals can once again flourish across Europe’s diverse and varied landscapes with the right support and policies in place.

The big picture

... Over the last 50 years the fate of some wild mammals across Europe has shifted. Some populations have experienced a rapid and dramatic increase over the last half century, reversing millenia of decline and offering fresh hope that nature can recover – if it’s given the chance.

Brown bear numbers have risen by an average of 44 percent between 1960 and 2016, while the Iberian lynx has seen its population grow by 252 percent. Humpback whales have seen their numbers rise by 37 percent between 1986 to 2016, while the pine marten – a natural predator to the invasive grey squirrel – has seen its population grow by 21 percent from 1986 to 2016. Some reptile species, such as the loggerhead turtle, have seen its numbers grow by 68 percent over the last 40 years.

The most impressive bounce backs, however, are among the beaver and bison – two species that play vital roles within ecosystems. Both beaver and bison populations have seen 167-fold increases over the last 50 years. These mammals help support a rich mosaic of habitats and biodiversity. Wild bison, for instance, trample and wallow in the soil and sand to create niche habitats for plants, insects and lizards, while also playing an important role in the dispersal of seeds.

Context and background

The impressive recovery rates over the past 50 years have been possible due to a shifting cultural and economic context. Alongside this, there is a growing scientific consensus of the importance of small and large mammals for sustaining biodiversity and helping ecosystems flourish. The sheer diversity of mammals, both in terms of their morphology and their roles within ecosystems, is testimony to the functions they perform. From the tiny bumblebee bat, which weighs just two grams, to behemoth blue whales, weighing in at 150,000 kilograms, mammals really do come in all shapes and sizes.

Wild mammals play a variety of leading roles within an ecosystem, from dispersing seeds, pollinating plants and regulating insect populations, to reducing disease transmission and creating niche habitats for other species. The European bison reintroduced to Kent in the UK have already started clearing paths through undergrowth, ripping the bark off trees, and wallowing around in the mud to make space for seeds and other habitats – natural processes that humans would struggle to replicate. Bison and other large herbivores are often labelled ‘ecosystem engineers’ for this very reason – they shape and manage the land they reside on.

Some species of mammals – such as the magical beaver – are considered keystone species due to their ability to shape the ecosystems around them, creating entirely new habitats through building dams where fish, birds and all manner of species can thrive. Other mammals, like bats, act as indicators of healthy and functioning ecosystems. Between 1974 and 2016, Geoffroy’s bat populations have increased 53-fold across Europe.

Wild mammals also have a role to play in reducing the damage and destruction wrought by climate breakdown. In the temperate climate of Europe, large mammals have been proven to reduce the risk of forest and wildfires by creating gaps in vegetation through grazing and trampling. In the summer of 2022, wildfires ravaged Europe, burning the second-largest area on record. As global temperatures continue to rise, wildfires will increase in their frequency and severity. Bolstering the population of large mammals could provide a useful tool in the fight against fires alongside deep and immediate cuts to emissions...

What’s more, the grazing of wild mammals can also help retain the carbon stability of soil over long periods of time. Soil contains vast amounts of carbon – more than all plants and the atmosphere combined – which makes ensuring its stability important for both climate efforts and environmental conservation. Mammals like the alpine ibex, which have seen their numbers grow by 417 percent from 1975 to 2016, are highly effective at stabilising soil carbon within grazing ecosystems.

-via Rapid Transition Alliance, March 29, 2023

[afkmylajah]

His little baker

Nanami

Summary: A baker who recently moved after a toxic relationship is looking for a new start. Who opens a new bakery in the peaceful but busy side of town? A wealthy CEO who is stressed out and never knows how to relax looks up how to and decides to give a bakery a try.

Warnings : mentions of abuse and sexual assault (just mentioned, not explained), Female pronouns used.This is my final draft, so I might make some changes if needed. :)

Flipping over the open sign in the window, you smelled the sweet air. You opened a bakery just 4 months ago, and business was going well. You only lived here for 6 months total. You decided to leave your hometown after your nasty breakup with Kai.

You walked in on him cheating on you with your closest best friend. He got upset when you said it was over. He snapped even though he was the one in the wrong. He gave you a couple of bruises; luckily, the neighbors heard the noise and came running in. You got a restraining order against him, and he was arrested for assault, physically and sexually.

Your aunt, who was a therapist, called and visited to make sure you were ok. She called almost every day for two months and helped you move. You had enough money saved for a small apartment and a building by busy workplaces. You made a couple of friends and managed to hire 8 employees.

You walked behind the counter ready to serve the first customer. A few minutes passed, and a taller blond businessman walked in, and he looked like he came from a dream. He wore a blue dress shirt underneath a tan blazer with matching slacks and light shoes. He was a bit older and looked exhausted.

“Good morning, sir. Welcome to My Love Sweets. What can I get you this morning?” You put on the sweetest smile and the sweetest voice to match. However, he just gave you a tired look before his eyes slowly scanned the menu. A few more awkward minutes, and finally a deep voice replied.

“I’ll have a black coffee and 4 different sweets that you would recommend, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure! What size coffee mug or coffee cup”?“The medium cat mug would be fine.”

“I’ll bring it to your table; feel free to sit wherever, and if needed, the WiFi password is on the picture frame.” He nodded, then walked off.

Earlier this week he had been looking for a place to wind down and maybe do some planning. He had been way too stressed out with work, not to mention his friends acting like fools. He saw the bakery a couple of times while taking a walk on his lunch break. His coworkers even talked of the place, so why not give it a try?

As soon as he walked in, he knew he would like the place. It was quite cozy and smelled wonderful. Then he happened to see a beautiful woman who looked sweeter than any dessert there. He scanned your body and then the menu. He almost melted when he heard your voice; he barely registered the question until he realized a couple of minutes later you were looking at him a little confused.

Anyways, he sat down writing in his planner when you brought his coffee to him and a plate of desserts.

“I got you our vanilla macaroons, lemon cheesecake, Nutella croissant, and strawberry shortcake cookies. Are you allergic to anything?”

“No, how much?”

“5.96 It’s 50 percent off for the first customer, and since you’re new, it went up to 75 percent off (did I do the math right? We will never know). I’ll leave the tab here and leave you to it!”

“Thank you, miss?”

“(Name)”

“What a beautiful name; it fits your beauty.” He takes a bite out of his cookie while going back to his planner. You walk away a blushing mess. He actually enjoyed each sweet and got another coffee.

20 minutes past, he put the tab on the counter when you came back from making fresh desserts. He waited on you to come back to give you the tab. Even though there were other waiters and bakers, he waited for you. He smiled, told you to have a wonderful day, and you didn’t notice at first, but he left you a 250 tip! Jaw dropped, you rush out to thank him, but he already was in his car, making sure to write in his planner to come here at least twice a week.

Should I make this into a mini story or keep it like this?

Word count: 785

[mariacallous]

One of the staggering things the latest Cybertruck recall has revealed—other than Tesla’s use of the wrong glue—is that Elon Musk’s company appears to have sold 46,096 of these 7,000-pound electric pickups since customer deliveries began a little over 14 months ago. This is far fewer sales than Musk predicted for the Cybertruck just weeks before the rollout; he told investors that Tesla would soon sell 250,000 Cybertrucks per year.

On an earnings call a month before the November 2023 launch of the production vehicle, Musk boasted that Tesla had bagged “over 1 million” Cybertruck reservations and that “demand is off the charts.”

“Reservationists” initially paid $100 to join the queue, a refundable deposit later raised to $250. Car companies often open wait lists for models expected to outstrip supply, but most auto executives don’t expect that all of those who lodge deposits will follow through.

“The automotive industry aims for a conversion rate of around 2 to 16 percent” on reservations, Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights for car tech firm Cox Automotive, tells WIRED.

By that reckoning, Tesla’s conversion rate is just under 5 percent. That’s at the lower end of the conversion scale, but many experts, used to Tesla’s stratospheric sales, might consider that a flop. Analysts generally don’t treat the world’s richest automaker like a regular car company. Its stock trades at many times earnings, valuing it multiples higher than companies that sell more cars.

If manufacturing capacity is any gauge of the sales numbers that Tesla was expecting, then the company must be sorely disappointed, because the Texas Gigafactory, where the Cybertruck is made, has the capacity to build more than 125,000 of the pickups per year. But, according to a Business Insider report from January, poor Cybertruck sales led to workers being taken off the “Cyber” production line and moved to a Model Y line.

Tesla’s current elevated worth is based not on its actual sales but on predicted sales of yet-to-be-launched robotaxis and humanoid Optimus robots, which—like the Cybertruck, slated to arrive three years before it went into production—could be several years away from being mass produced.

“My predictions have a pretty good track record,” Musk told Tesla staff at an all-hands meeting on March 20, but none of those present dared to ask him whether he had predicted the anti-Musk backlash that is tanking Tesla sales around the world.

And for all Musk’s bluster at the staff meeting that Tesla is “by far the most innovative company in the car industry,” it really isn’t. Chinese automakers such as XPeng, Nio, and Li Auto are far ahead of Tesla on autonomous driving and other technologies.

Waymo is already offering driverless taxi rides. Nor is Tesla the only company plotting a future for humanoid robots. In a recent TechFirst podcast, author Peter Diamandis stated there were 15 other companies also in this race—and none of those have a leader as controversial or as divisive as Musk.

“This year, we hopefully will be able to make about 5,000 Optimus robots,” said Musk. “That’s the size of a Roman legion. Which is like a scary thought. Like a whole legion of robots. I'll be like, ‘whoa.’”

Musk’s exuberance continued as he claimed Tesla would make “probably 50,000-ish [Optimus robots] next year.” He further claimed that Optimus “will be the biggest product of all time by far—nothing will even be close. It’ll be 10 times bigger than the next biggest product ever made. Ultimately, I think we’ll be making tens of millions of robots a year.” Seconds later, he upped the ante even further, stating that, no, Tesla would actually make “maybe 100 million robots a year.”

Grandiose predictions excite Tesla bulls who believe him when Musk says “I know more about manufacturing than anyone currently alive on Earth,” but back in the real world Musk is in charge of a car manufacturing company that can’t even spec the correct grade of panel glue.

Now on its eighth recall in the past 14 months—prior recalls involved failing windshield wipers, trapped accelerator pedals, and possible loss of power to the wheels—Musk’s polarizing polygonic pickups are in sales free fall. Month-over-month Cybertruck sales were down by 32.5 percent in February, according to estimates by Cox Automotive.

“The Cybertruck generated significant buzz with its unique design and ambitious specifications,” says Cox’s Streaty. “However, sales have fallen short of expectations due to higher-than-promised prices, lower driving range and payload capacity, and production issues. The unconventional design hasn’t resonated with traditional truck buyers, and strong competition from Rivian and Ford has intensified the market.”

The Cybertruck, she adds, is a “niche product with a unique design and high price point, which may not resonate with mainstream consumers. Additionally, recalls and quality concerns can significantly undermine customer confidence and sales, posing a substantial challenge for the Cybertruck’s market success.”

When unveiled in 2019, Musk promised the production vehicle would launch within two years, starting with a $39,900 model. At the actual launch in 2023, the base model cost $21,000 more than that. The Foundation Series model—an early-doors special—cost an additional $20,000 despite offering no physical differences other than a look-at-me logo. Nonphysical perks included lifetime cellular connectivity and “free” access to Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system.

Forbes spoke with experts who estimate that Tesla sank at least $2 billion into the development of the Cybertruck. A traditional car might need 200,000 units per year to cover the research and development costs, Olav Sorenson, professor of strategy and sociology at UCLA and faculty director of its Price Center for Entrepreneurship & Innovation, has estimated.

Sorenson calculates that the Cybertruck, with its stainless steel body panels and unconventional construction, might require as many as 300,000 sales per year.

At current levels of Cybertruck sales Tesla “probably loses money on every one,” claims Sorenson. “It’s an innovative vehicle, but whether such an unusual design would appeal to consumers has always been a gamble. The DeLorean, the original stainless steel car, sold only about 9,000 units. Even more mainstream cars with unusual designs, such as the PT Cruiser, have struggled to reach profitable sales levels.”

Sadly for Tesla, Musk’s wedge wagon went from a million or more reservations—which many thought would take some years to work through—to walk-up availability at dealerships within months.

This swifter-than-expected softening of demand might have been partly due to the Cybertruck’s now notorious quality-control issues. “When we launched reservations for the Valkyrie, we knew that this would be a highly desirable car due to its limited production and the personnel involved in the car’s development,” says former Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer. “People could rely on Aston and knew [the new car] was something we’d deliver. For the Cybertruck, we’ve seen a string of delays and a moving of the goalposts, which conveys a lack of reliability, and if the OEM isn’t reliable, why should customers be?”

A reservationist from northern Maryland, who says he was sold early on Musk’s promise of an electric pickup, spoke to WIRED on condition of anonymity. “I was planning on buying a truck and wanted my next vehicle to be electric,” he says. “At the time, the Cybertruck was the only EV pickup that seemed like it would be available soon. I placed an order with $100 refundable for the mid-tier one, but then the Cybertruck took much longer than originally promised, so I canceled my reservation.” He didn’t regret this decision. “With the events of the last couple of years, and especially the last couple of months, I would never now consider buying a Tesla vehicle.”

The deal breaker for many reservationists was the cost hike. “The Cybertruck was promised to start at $39,990 when the initial reservations began—a stratospheric difference from the $99,990 Foundation Series trucks that were first available,” says Joseph Yoon, consumer insights analyst at the car-shopping website Edmunds. “Even the cheapest base model now has an expected base MSRP of $60,990, and it’s likely that not many customers are willing to bridge the vast pricing gap.”

Tesla sold merely 38,965 of the angular EVs last year, according to Kelley Blue Book estimates. In January, Tesla introduced discounts to clear Cybertruck inventories with Foundation Series models still in stock, a variant Tesla was supposed to have stopped selling in October.

Tesla is now offering low financing rates to move Cybertrucks. Indeed, it has reportedly buffed out the badges on Foundation Series vehicles that failed to find a buyer so they can be sold as regular models. To clear yet more Foundation Series Cybertrucks from inventory, Tesla dealerships have also listed perks such as free lifetime Supercharging. The electric pickups are even piling up on used-car lots.

President Trump publicly encouraging Americans to buy Musk’s cars at a White House sales event is unlikely to have moved the needle much—and Tesla, which did not respond to a request for comment on this article, is facing a “brand tornado crisis moment,” says Dan Ives, a Tesla bull. The company’s shares have dropped nearly 40 percent since the start of the year, erasing the value hike it enjoyed in December after the election of Trump, a victory bankrolled in part by Musk.

The subsequent animus directed at Musk adds to the many other challenges that Tesla faces, including—the refreshed Model Y Juniper excepted—a jaded lineup of offerings.

Any novelty bump that may have boosted the Cybertruck’s initial sales has now most certainly worn off. Earlier this year, a research note issued by Morgan Stanley cited “decelerating Cybertruck volumes” as a reason for expectations of lower 2025 Tesla volume growth.

Other analysts have also expressed concern, with the Cybertruck cited as a drag on Tesla’s value. Swedish billionaire and hedge fund manager Christer Gardell recently issued a stark warning about Tesla stock. Talking on Swedish TV, he said Tesla’s valuation could drop steeply.

“Tesla,” said Gardell, “is probably the most expensive stock on the global stock exchanges right now. It could go down 95 percent—and maybe it should go down 95 percent.”

While other analysts see Telsa as a tech company with massive potential for non-auto sales, Gardell sees merely a car company. He does not understand why the market treats Tesla with such reverence. Tesla’s “valuation is incomprehensible,” he told the EFN channel. A crash is coming, he believes. “It’s always hard to say when. It could happen in a month, six months, a year, three years, or five years.” But it was clear in the interview that Gardell thinks it is coming.

And, for all of Musk’s recent praise for the Cybertruck’s five-star overall safety rating from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration—Musk has stated the Cybertruck is “apocalypse-level safe”—any Tesla market crash will at least partially be due to the lower-than-expected sales of the Cybertruck.

Ultimately, Tesla’s CEO might rue the day he categorized his predictions as having a “pretty good track record.” On a 2023 earnings call, Musk confessed that the auto brand had “dug our own grave with the Cybertruck.” If things for the brand continue on their current trajectories, he may well have got this one right.