#68M

[allfifaworldcup]

Cubs, Jameson Taillon agree to 4-year, $68M deal

Cubs, Jameson Taillon agree to 4-year, $68M deal

The Chicago Cubs bolstered their starting rotation Tuesday night, reaching agreement with free-agent pitcher Jameson Taillon on a four-year, $68 million deal, sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Jesse Rogers. Taillon, 31, was among the top pitchers remaining in free agency and is the latest big acquisition for the Cubs, who earlier Tuesday reached a one-year, $17.5 million agreement with slugger…

[luphorics]

i'm so tired and scared. this country is doing a full marathon backwards and you mean to say i have to witness all this shit unfold.

why must i have to live through a stressful nationwide event every 4 years on november good lord

[flightyalrighty]

On a similar topic, I was thinking of Sonic's capabilities earlier and how scary it is if he decided to go apeshit *glances at last page*

Like seriously, anything going super sonic is scary, but to also be a living thing that's doing it by themselves and also can turn into a deadly ball of spikes? That can think and strategize? You'd be dead before you knew it, before you could think it. It takes nerve signals like what, 0.2 seconds to travel? Sonic could travel, bare minimum (speed of sound), around 68m in that time frame. Fucking scary, man.

Also partly why I'm very excited to see this comic lol

I think about these two panels in Archie Sonic a lot for the exact thing you're describing.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

aita for taking money from my biological father, but not telling him my name?

i (37f) won't go into specifics, but my bio father (68m) sucked. he was never there, nothing was ever good enough, he ignored my mental illnesses, he treats my siblings (18x & 13f) so much better, etc, etc, pick your cliche.

when i grew up, i moved into my bff's (38f) house, adopted her family, and legally changed my last name to theirs more than 10 years ago. i now live with my adopted dad (60m), 1000 miles away from my bio father.

my bio father has gotten older, and i think he's trying to make up for things with money. he's written me a few checks (up to $1000) over the last couple of years, as birthday and xmas presents, and i've always accepted them, but i never told him i changed my last name. most recently, i even lied and told him my venmo wasn't working because i didn't want him to know what my legal last name is. part of it is i don't want to hurt his feelings, but a lot of it is i don't think he deserves to know. on the other hand, i'm cis, so he probably thought i'd change my last name eventually, anyway.

so aita for taking his money and not telling him i changed my name?

[astriiformes]

AITA FOR TRYING TO SOLVE A MURDER?

Hear me out. I (26M) have been working as a freelancer for an abbey for several months. Yes, an abbey, yes, I know it's the 16th century. The work is fine, I'm mostly using it as a chance to finish a personal project. The other day though, a visiting nobleman (45?M) was killed here, and now one of my friends (68M) is under investigation for the murder. I promise there is no way he could have done it, so I am trying to solve the case before he gets executed. Everyone seems to be really mad at me for it though -- my boss, the abbot, even some of my friends in town. They say I might get someone else innocent hurt. I get where they're coming from, but is it really such a bad thing to try to clear my friend's name so he doesn't die?

[ropesbypatricia]

Hoist ~ spin ~ lower x3

A video montage of some recent self-suspension practice

For each of these 'chaos balls' I begin by creating a single column tie around my joined ankles and moving my legs in a yokozuwari or "mermaid" position. Then I begin wrapping my lower body in a freestyle web comprised of approximately 56-68m of 6mm jute rope. Finally, I hoist myself up a few inches and tuck in for a low and cozy cradle in the sky

[allthegeopolitics]

The European Union announced Friday it is stepping up funding for Palestinians in response to the deepening humanitarian crisis in the besieged Gaza strip. “We are witnessing a true humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza. The critical condition of Palestinians in extreme peril is getting disastrous beyond words,” said European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič. “The dramatic death toll and injuries among civilians, of which mostly women and children, the destruction of vital infrastructures and the impending famine in Gaza must be a wakeup call for the entire international community,” he said. “Palestinians cannot wait any longer for meaningful aid to arrive.”

Continue Reading.

[belovedrat]

(I forgot to post this,this happened on Aug 3..🤫)

I WINNNN AHHHHHHHH HUGE BLUE SQUID MY BELOVED 🦑 💙

I’ve finally escaped my cave and seen the WORLD

I WENT TO GREAT AMERICA (an amusement park) AND WON THIS SILLY GOOBER

ALSO THEY HAD A SNOOPY LAND

@atomic-rattz AHHHHHHHHHH

@lotus-sunn HEHHEHE LOOKY

AND THEY HAD A COOL LOOKING RESTAURANT TYPE THING (me and my nephew shared some nacho fries :3)

ANDD here are a few pics of a few rides I went to (I wanted to film me on most of the rides but I would’ve lost my phone into oblivion TvT)

Little facts about the Drop Tower : it’s 224 feet (68m) next info taken from the website ! :

Your Drop Tower experience begins by strapping into an open car, feet dangling, and spending the next 35 tension-filled seconds ascending 224 feet into thin air to the peak. That brief peace is soon lost as the countdown of 4, 3, 2, 1 begins and the entire vehicle plummets down—sending riders screaming -you drop - you plunge - you are completely emptied into a free fall of 20 stories in 3.5 seconds, reaching frenetic speeds of up to 60 miles per hour before the brakes kick in and – did that really happen? – you're at the bottom and back to normal.

End of info :3

It seems super dramatic and while it is , I loved the ride and was only mildly panicking, but I would do it again 10 times more, that shit was fun asf, I had to take my glasses off as I was worried about them flying off, but next time they’re staying on, as the view (from what little I could see if you ignore how blurry my vision is) was beautiful and it’s way more beautiful at night, is when I rode this ride, def recommend if you ever go to amusement parks, to ride the rides at night as the lights are beautiful >w<

[londonedge]

Maydew House in Bermondsey

Maydew House has been empty since 2015 when the residents had to leave following the discovery of asbestos. Since then Southwark Council has spent over £15m refurbishing the building. However the costs of refurbishment have now risen to over £68m which the council cannot afford. Instead the council has now decided to demolish the building.

[blackmoonlightexpress]

TTEOTM is the most viewed non-dangai xianxia drama since Ashes of Love 😮

With the conclusion of Yunhe (云合)'s airing period on Jun 11, we can officially say that TTEOTM is the biggest non-dangai xianxia drama since 2018, with 68M views/episode!

2023 Yunhe Playback per Episode - #1 is The Knockout, #2 is TTEOTM

Kuyun (酷云), a different data platform unaffiliated with any online streamer, also put TTEOTM at 70M views/episode, but its data only go back two years, so we use Yunhe to compare further back.

This makes TTEOTM the #2 show in 2023. Since 2023 is not yet over, if it aired in another year, it would overtake #2 in 2022, #4 in 2021, and #6 in 2020. (Viewership used to be higher in past years, more on that later)

Just to provide a bit context on why this is so insane, so beyond anyone's expectations:

TTEOTM aired exclusively on Youku, the weakest of the big 3 platforms. Youku only has 1/3 to 1/2 of iQiyi and Tencent's daily active user base. If you look at the top 10 dramas in 2018-2022, all of them aired on iQiyi, Tencent, many of them on both or even all 3 platforms. Before TTEOTM, Youku's biggest web exclusive drama is Who is He, police mystery featuring Knockout Star Zhang Yi at 44M views/episode. And before 2023, the highest a Youku exclusive web drama has ever ranked on the annual list is #15 (The Blue Whisper).

The xianxia genre is thought to have a limited audience (young women) even though it generates a lot of fanfare. This might be surprising given how well it travels abroad. However, if you look at the top 3-4 shows each year, it's usually a mix of historical family dramas, crime/thrillers, modern/urban dramas.

April is considered a shit airing slot, especially for xianxias which rely on students on break. Almost all of the top shows in previous years aired during summer or winter holidays. The #1 show in 2022 aired in Nov-Dec, but that was when everyone in China was stuck at home with Covid...

TV viewership has been on the decline with share of attention shifted to short form content and other forms of entertainment. Since 2019 there have been very few mega hits at the same level of Eternal Love or Yanxi Palace until Knockout came along. Very few costume dramas are able to land a coveted TV slot, and web dramas now tend to air on one instead of multiple platforms.

Therefore, most of the data observers thought that 35-40M would be a win and 50-60M near impossible. It's fun to see people bumping up old posts/polls to see how far off predictions were (especially when commenters start backtracking and raising the bar for an explosive hit.) Most people, like myself, benchmarked against Youku's 2022 xianxias: Blue Whisper (37M) and Immortal Samsara (36M). Both featured dual dinglius and the latter aired during the summer.

There are also a few other things stacked against TTEOTM's playback numbers:

Yunhe is affiliated with iQiyi (created to provide data to advertisers). It tends to discount views more harshly when it comes to Youku & Tencent dramas.

Youku has weaker "long-tail" effect again due to its smaller default user base. The drama is bringing users to the platform, not the other way around. After the big promotional push and buzz dies down, it's harder for new viewers to discover the show.

Immediately after TTEOTM finished airing, Youku pushed users towards Back from the Brink and stopped promoting TTEOTM on its main page.

In fact, Youku locked most episodes unusually quickly (such that people have to purchase VIP to watch older episodes) and only unlocked it for the last few days of the airing period. (Some fans argue it's because TTEOTM is a "copyright" drama. This means Youku only has the airing rights and may even have to pay Otter a bonus for high playback volume)

That's why it's a pretty exciting/shocking that TTEOTM is now just behind Ashes of Love, which aired during the summer on all 3 platforms and 2 TV channels back in the heyday of 2018. (Basically we just love watching LYX being bullied and spitting blood)

Online playback volume of non-dangai xianxia dramas, 2018-2023, *Year not over yet

(Before 2018, there's also Eternal Love and Journey of the Flower which are definitely bigger hits, but I don't have the data and the industry landscape is too different back then for fair comparison.)

====

TTEOTM seems to have attracted a group of "data fans" who enjoy watching expectations blown apart. (Some don't even rate the story or the actors. They just like the idea of data prevailing over fan wars.) It's especially fun when the drama is strong in every dimension possible. Here's a compilation (and a bit of explanation) of the drama's achievements:

Commercial Value

1. Viewership

This is the most important & direct measurement of a drama's success in general.

Opening - good indicator of how much drawing power the stars have, but not how well the drama does overall (big debuts often flop while dark horses emerge)

>5.4M reservations ahead of the premiere, highest of any drama in Youku history

Reaches Youku's maximum heat index of 10,000 in 29 hours, fastest in Youku history

23.74M views on its premiere day, highest of any drama in 2 years (Yunhe) - In fact, it's nearly double the views of other dramas led by bigger stars

22.76% market share on its premier day, highest of any costume drama in 3 years (Dengta)

Top Dramas by Opening Viewership, 2021-2023

Market Share - how well the drama is doing compared to other shows airing at the same time

33.2% peak daily market share, highest of any xianxia drama in history (Yunhe)

24.39% peak daily market share on Kuyun (very high considering that it includes TV)

#1 drama in Dengta (everyday), Yunhe (all except 3 days)

Playback Volume per Episode during Extended Airing Period - how well the drama retains its viewers till the end and performs overall; since it's per episode, it penalizes shows where viewers drop midway. Because the airing period ends X days after the last episode airs, it's also an early indicator of whether the drama will have a long tail (which is key to becoming a classic)

67.98M views per episode during airing period (Apr 6-Jun 11), #2 in 2023 (see above)

70.06M views per episode during airing period (Apr 6-Jun 8), #2 in web drama since 2022

Most number of days at heat index of 10,000 for the full day (Youku)

2. Platform new user acquisition 

Arguably what matters most, at least to online streaming platforms, whose income mainly derives from members. Youku is the underdog, so I'm sure customer acquisition is their #1 KPI and why they've invested so much in promoting TTEOTM

TTEOTM has generated the highest number of Youku iOS app download in 5 years

Highest premiere day viewership, new user count, and membership income in Youku history

Youku App Downloads, 2018-2023

3. Advertisement

A major income for platforms. Brands can place ads on specific shows (should be cheaper if you bet right) or pay for random, dynamic placement (you can tell based on whether the drama's title is on the ad itself). The earlier the brand buys in, the cheaper the rates, which I believe is a fixed amount based on production class. Often big IP, big stars, modern dramas get the most upfront, especially if the star brings in their own "brand daddies" (sorry, that sounds naughty).

Some shows start out with nothing, but as more and more people watch, advertisers place more ads in subsequent episodes. The opposite also happens. That's why it's also an indicator of how well the show is performing according to the industry. Advertisers have access to proprietary data and are putting a lot of money on the line.

TTEOTM has 27.6 seconds of ads per episode, 2nd highest of any costume drama in 2023

This includes 26 brands, highest of any xianxia drama in 3 years

It is only one of 12 dramas this year so far with ads in every single episode

Big brands like Huaiwei and Master Kong placed ads as the show progressed, with ad time peaking in episodes 26-30. This is a big stamp of approval from advertisers.

After the drama finished airing, a brand "chased" the hype by placing more ads, which is quite rare

4. Merchandise Value 

Beyond being supplementary income (more here), this is also an indicator of fan engagement. Expect this to become bigger going forward as platforms perfect the process of commercializing IP and fusing e-commerce with entertainment.

TTEOTM has broken the merchandise sales record for TV shows, selling >25M RMB to date (this number does not include Shi Shan Yu costumes and other co-branded products like the ice cream, video game, and photography studio)

>10M RMB came from the bracelets alone, with 3M RMB worth of Ancient Demon God bracelets sold within 24 hours (it's likely a new record but no one has kept track before)

Tantai Jin and Ye Xiwu's costumes were auctioned off for charity for 170K RMB and 100K RMB respectively

=====

Buzz-worthiness

In addition to commercial value, another major dimension of success is buzz/heat -- whether fans are talking about a show, whether the general population knows about the show. This gets into subjective territory, but there are three broad types of data sources:

5. Heat Indices

Heat indices such as Maoyan, Datawin, VLinkage, pull data from the social media platforms like Weibo, Douyin, Xiaohongshu, Kuaishou and have their own proprietary methodology to assess how "hot" a drama or a character is based on views, likes, comments, trending topics.

Maoyan (tends to peak on the first few days)

Peak daily index of 9898.15, highest of any drama in 3 years

Heat index of >9800 for over 20 days, on par with historical record

Most popular character in the weekly ranking for over 6 weeks

Datawin (penalizes for negative sentiment)

Avg index of 2.188, #1 drama in 2023

Peak index of 2.669, #2 drama in 2023 behind Knockout

6. Social Media Platforms

This is where fans congregate, so more a measurement of how much fan engagement and discussion there is, or fan intensity in general.

Douyin (biggest platform by daily active users right now, and the new battleground for marketing)

>29B views on the official hashtag, highest of any costume drama and 2nd highest behind Knockout (~60B views)

Heat index of 120M on the platform, a new record for dramas

35 clips with >1M likes (of which 11 were from the official account)

More importantly, TTEOTM inspired a lot of user-generated/led trends & memes on the platform (e.g. the Black Moonlight dance, Bengbu tourism) which engage viewers in a deeper way than just watching clips from the show.

Read Douyin's own "battle report' here.

Weibo (China's Twitter, where different fandoms congregate)

5774 ranked trending hashtags, highest of any drama in 2022-2023 (TTEOTM is differentiated in having a lot of low-ranking trends in the "rising" and "trending outside fan circle" tables. These are not bought but truly user-generated)

>30B views on Weibo, #3 highest in 2023

TTEOTM's official account has the highest number of followers (622K) of any drama that aired in 2023. It'd be the third highest if including dramas from 2022.

Read Weibo's own "battle report" here

7. General Indices

Not entertainment specific and mostly pulling data from parts of the internet that are more functional, where the show doesn't even have an official presence. Good indicator of general population interest and awareness. Difficult for fans to manipulate and "manufacture data"

Baizhi (Baidu search, equivalent to Google): Heat index of 790K, highest of any xianxia in the last few years. TTEOTM is also #5 drama in 2022-23 combined, behind Knockout (1894K), Sword Snow Stride (936K) (both aired on CCTV), Dream of Splendor (913K), and Reset (892K)

Weixin Index (WeChat, equivalent to Facebook & Whatsapp): Peak heat index of 166M, #1 drama in 2023 (even in front of Knockout) and highest of any xianxia or costume idol drama in the last few years. (Note Weixin is owned by Tencent)

Baike Page Visits (Wikipedia): A bit random, but if you take it at face value, it's just how many people have heard about the show and looked it up. A good indicator for general awareness. Note that this is cumulative so we cannot fairly compare across years. TTEOTM is #1 costume drama (likely #2 overall) 2023 and even ahead of some of the dramas from previous years

====

Socio-economic Contribution

8. Tourism GDP

Finally, people are starting to look at tourism GDP as TTEOTM unintentionally generated a lot of interest in Bengbu (literally "clam town"), which has sculptures related to Mingye and Sangjiu. According to the local government, Bengbu gained an incremental 1.5B RMB in tourism GDP during the May 1 holidays thanks to interest from TTEOTM fans. (I feel like this might be a post for another day)

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for tracking my friends?

I (26M) have had a study group for 4 years, and somewhere into year two, i started tracking them. after our friend's (68M) funeral, my friend's found out.

apparently, tracking them without their permission was bad, i don't see how, i just want to make sure they don't have to count bumps in the road if they get kidnapped. they all got pretty mad at me. am i the asshole?

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Alberta's provincial government has announced $68 million in grants for affordable housing projects.

The money, announced on Monday, will go to successful applicants from public, private and non-profit organizations who apply before the Oct. 16 deadline.

It’s the second installment of the Affordable Housing Partnership Program.

The first round wrapped up in January, approving $124.7 million in funding for 30 projects, according to the ministry of seniors, community and social services.

The province says those approvals resulted in 1,100 additional affordable units across Alberta. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada, @abpoli

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for putting dishes I didn't know were washed in the dishwasher?

SMH this is the stupidest fight but I need outside perspective.

I (33f) still live with my dad (68m); reasons why aren't important it's just been a life thing.

We've lived in the same house since I was an infant, and the house is in great shape except for one thing: we have mice. We never used to this bad, maybe one or two a year, but it's gotten to the point we have to set traps out every night (Dad doesn't believe in humane traps and cats are out of the question).

They've recently started getting into our silverware drawers, making me reluctant to use anything since I don't know how clean anything is; mice pee as they go and it's apparently only visible by blacklight? So anything that looked clean could actually have been dribbled on.

Over the past 6 months I've gotten tired of being the only one who cares and flat out told my dad we needed to do something like hire an exterminator to find where they're getting in and he refused. IDK why, maybe because he knows I'm moving out eventually, and he wants to sell the house when that happens and he figures he can leave it for the next owners? Anyway, I told him he can clean the silverware the next time the mice use the drawer as a litterbox. Well they did the other day, and I reminded him today that he still hadn't cleaned it. He said he would. I checked later and all the poop was gone, but I didn't know if he'd washed everything or just picked up the poop (which he's done in the past and said "It's fine") and started loading everything into the dishwasher. He came in mid-loading and got angry I did that instead of asking him.

So am I the AH for trying to keep us from ingesting mouse droppings?

What are these acronyms?

[perezhilton]

Ben Affleck recently bought his own mansion, and now his wife - Jennifer Lopez - is looking for her own!

[batdongsangiatot123]

Cập nhật giỏ hàng căn hộ chung cư Times City đủ nội thất giá rẻ nhất chỉ từ 3,65 tỷ

Danh sách các căn hộ chủ nhà muốn bán với giá rẻ nhất tại Times City Park Hill và Park Hill Premium vào tháng 9 năm 2023.

Khu T:

Căn hộ 75m² tầng trung tòa T1, giá 3,6 tỷ.

Căn hộ 83m² tầng cao tòa T08, giá 3,65 tỷ.

Căn hộ 95m² hướng nam tòa T2,3, giá 4,3 tỷ.

Căn hộ 108m² tòa T2,3, giá từ 5,1 tỷ.

Căn hộ 118m² 3 phòng ngủ tầng trung tòa T3, giá từ 5,7 tỷ.

Căn hộ góc 110m² tầng trung tòa T5, giá 6 tỷ.

Căn hộ góc 110m² tầng trung tòa T6, giá 6,2 tỷ.

Căn hộ góc 110m² tòa T9, giá 6 tỷ, đầy đủ nội thất mới.

Căn hộ 83m² tòa T8,9,11, giá từ 3,69 tỷ.

Căn hộ 90m² tòa T01, giá từ 3,8 tỷ.

Căn hộ 106m² tầng 11 tòa T10, giá 5,3 tỷ.

Căn hộ 108m² tòa T567, giá từ 5,3 tỷ.

Căn hộ góc 4 phòng ngủ 160m² tòa T11, giá từ 10 - 11 tỷ.

Khu Park Hill:

Căn hộ 2 phòng ngủ 70m² tầng trung tại Park 3, giá từ 4.2 tỷ bao gồm phí.

Căn hộ 2 phòng ngủ 80m² tầng trung tại Park 6, giá 4.2 tỷ có chỗ đỗ xe ô tô dưới hầm.

Căn hộ 2 phòng ngủ 82m² tòa Park 8, giá từ 4.7 tỷ với nội thất đẹp.

Căn hộ 80m² tòa Park 5, giá 4.1 tỷ bao gồm phí.

Căn hộ 86m² tại Park 5, giá 4.5 tỷ.

Căn hộ 3 phòng ngủ 115m² tầng trung tại Park 6, giá 6.8 tỷ có chỗ đỗ xe ô tô dưới hầm.

Căn hộ 118m² tòa Park 7 với view Quảng trường, giá 6.8 tỷ.

Căn hộ 120m² tòa Park 8, giá 7.25 tỷ.

Căn hộ 3 phòng ngủ 92m² tầng trung tại Park 1, giá 5.5 tỷ.

Căn hộ 88m² tầng trung tại Park 8 với view quảng trường, giá 5 tỷ.

Khu Park Hill Premium:

Căn hộ 2 phòng ngủ 68m² tầng trung tại Park 11, giá 3.8 tỷ.

Căn hộ 79m² tầng trung tại Park 12, giá 4.5 tỷ với nội thất đầy đủ.

Căn hộ 3 phòng ngủ 100m² tầng trung tòa Park 9, giá 6 tỷ.

Căn hộ góc 3 phòng ngủ tòa Park 12, giá 6.5 tỷ, nhà mới hoàn toàn.

Căn hộ góc 4 phòng ngủ 160m² tòa Park 10, giá 11.3 tỷ.

Ngoài ra, chúng tôi còn có nhiều căn hộ khác với diện tích và giá phù hợp với nhu cầu của quý khách. Tất cả các thông tin về giá cả đều được công bố một cách minh bạch giữa chủ nhà và khách hàng, và chúng tôi sẽ hỗ trợ hoàn toàn trong việc thủ tục giấy tờ pháp lý cho cả hai bên.

Nếu bạn muốn tìm mua căn hộ chung cư giá rẻ uy tín, vui lòng truy cập tại: https://bds123.vn/ban-can-ho-chung-cu.html.

[detentiontrack]

I (13f) tried to kill my best friend's (13f) found family (68m & 10m) (frogs) to extinguish a rebellion but she won't forgive me even though I apologized and it was only ONE time!