#people are charging like $50 or more FOR THE CASE ALONE

[delightfuldevin]

Why can people get away with horrendously overcharging older games

I don’t care how popular a game was, there is no reason a game that came out over a decade ago should cost more than twice as much now, and it especially shouldn’t be more than games coming out right now.

[mariacallous]

Perhaps you’ve heard: Young people aren’t dating anymore. News media and social media are awash in commentary about the decline in youth romance. It’s visible in the corporate data, with dating-app engagement taking a hit. And it’s visible in the survey data, where the share of 12th graders who say they’ve dated has fallen from about 85 percent in the 1980s to less than 50 percent in the early 2020s, with the decline particularly steep in the past few years.

Naturally, young people’s habits are catnip to news commentators. But although I consider the story of declining youth romance important, I don’t find it particularly mysterious. In my essay on the anti-social century, I reported that young people have retreated from all manner of physical-world relationships, whether because of smartphones, over-parenting, or a combination of factors. Compared with previous generations of teens, they have fewer friends, spend significantly less time with the friends they do have, attend fewer parties, and spend much more time alone. Romantic relationships theoretically imply a certain physicality; so it’s easy to imagine that the collapse of physical-world socializing for young people would involve the decline of romance.

Adults have a way of projecting their anxieties and realities onto their children. In the case of romance, the fixation on young people masks a deeper—and, to me, far more mysterious—phenomenon: What is happening to adult relationships?

American adults are significantly less likely to be married or to live with a partner than they used to be. The national marriage rate is hovering near its all-time low, while the share of women under 65 who aren’t living with a partner has grown steadily since the 1980s. The past decade seems to be the only period since at least the 1970s when women under 35 were more likely to live with their parents than with a spouse.

People’s lives are diverse, and so are their wants and desires and circumstances. It’s hard, and perhaps impossible, to identify a tiny number of factors that explain hundreds of millions of people’s decisions to couple up, split apart, or remain single. But according to Lyman Stone, a researcher at the Institute for Family Studies, the most important reason marriage and coupling are declining in the U.S. is actually quite straightforward: Many young men are falling behind economically.

A marriage or romantic partnership can be many things: friendship, love, sex, someone to gossip with, someone to remind you to take out the trash. But, practically speaking, Stone told me, marriage is also insurance. Women have historically relied on men to act as insurance policies—against the threat of violence, the risk of poverty. To some, this might sound like an old-fashioned, even reactionary, description of marriage, but its logic still applies. “Men’s odds of being in a relationship today are still highly correlated with their income,” Stone said. “Women do not typically invest in long-term relationships with men who have nothing to contribute economically.” In the past few decades, young and especially less educated men’s income has stagnated, even as women have charged into the workforce and seen their college-graduation rates soar. For single non-college-educated men, average inflation-adjusted earnings at age 45 have fallen by nearly 25 percent in the past half century, while for the country as a whole, average real earnings have more than doubled. As a result, “a lot of young men today just don’t look like what women have come to think of as ‘marriage material,’” he said.

In January, the Financial Times’ John Burn-Murdoch published an analysis of the “relationship recession” that lent strong support to Stone’s theory. Contrary to the idea that declining fertility in the U.S. is mostly about happily childless DINKs (dual-income, no-kid couples), “the drop in relationship formation is steepest among the poorest,” he observed. I asked Burn-Murdoch to share his analysis of Current Population Survey data so that I could take a closer look. What I found is that, in the past 40 years, coupling has declined more than twice as fast among Americans without a college degree, compared with college graduates. This represents a dramatic historic inversion. In 1980, Americans ages 25 to 34 without a bachelor’s degree were more likely than college graduates to get married; today, it’s flipped, and the education gap in coupling is widening every year. Marriage produces wealth by pooling two people’s income, but, conversely, wealth also produces marriage.

Contraception technology might also play a role. Before cheap birth control became widespread in the 1970s, sexual activity was generally yoked to commitment: It was a cultural norm for a man to marry a girl if he’d gotten her pregnant, and single parenthood was uncommon. But as the (married!) economists George Akerlof and Janet Yellen observed in a famous 1996 paper, contraception helped disentangle sex and marriage. Couples could sleep together without any implicit promise to stay together. Ultimately, Akerlof and Yellen posit, the availability of contraception, which gave women the tools to control the number and the timing of their kids, decimated the tradition of shotgun marriages, and therefore contributed to an increase in children born to low-income single parents.

The theory that the relationship recession is driven by young men falling behind seems to hold up in the U.S. But what about around the world? Rates of coupling are declining throughout Europe, as well. In England and Wales, the marriage rate for people under 30 has declined by more than 50 percent since 1990.

And it’s not just Europe. The gender researcher Alice Evans has shown that coupling is down just about everywhere. In Iran, annual marriages plummeted by 40 percent in 10 years. Some Islamic authorities blame Western values and social media for the shift. They might have a point. When women are exposed to more Western media, Evans argues, their life expectations expand. Fitted with TikTok and Instagram and other windows into Western culture, young women around the world can seek the independence of a career over the codependency (or, worse, the outright loss of freedom) that might come with marriage in their own country. Social media, a woman veterinarian in Tehran told the Financial Times, also glamorizes the single life “by showing how unmarried people lead carefree and successful lives … People keep comparing their partners to mostly fake idols on social platforms.”

According to Evans, several trends are driving this global decline in coupling. Smartphones and social media may have narrowed many young people’s lives, pinning them to their couches and bedrooms. But they’ve also opened women’s minds to the possibility of professional and personal development. When men fail to support their dreams, relationships fail to flourish, and the sexes drift apart.

If I had to sum up this big messy story in a sentence, it would be this: Coupling is declining around the world, as women’s expectations rise and lower-income men’s fortunes fall; this combination is subverting the traditional role of straight marriage, in which men are seen as necessary for the economic insurance of their family.

So why does all this matter? Two of the more urgent sociological narratives of this moment are declining fertility and rising unhappiness. The relationship recession makes contact with both. First, marriage and fertility are tightly interconnected. Unsurprisingly, one of the strongest predictors of declining fertility around the world is declining coupling rates, as Burn-Murdoch has written. Second, marriage is strongly associated with happiness. According to General Social Survey data, Americans’ self-described life satisfaction has been decreasing for decades. In a 2023 analysis of the GSS data, the University of Chicago economist Sam Peltzman concluded that marriage was more correlated with this measure of happiness than any other variable he considered, including income. (As Stone would rush to point out here, marriage itself is correlated with income.)

The social crisis of our time is not just that Americans are more socially isolated than ever, but also that social isolation is rising alongside romantic isolation, as the economic and cultural trajectories of men and women move in opposite directions. And, perhaps most troubling, the Americans with the least financial wealth also seem to have the least “social wealth,” so to speak. It is the poor, who might especially need the support of friends and partners, who have the fewest close friends and the fewest long-term partners. Money might not buy happiness, but it can buy the things that buy happiness.

[acetypeface]

The New Mutants Play DnD

They're still in my brain soup.

DANI: Is the DM. A fantastic storyteller, although she can be a bit of a stickler for the rules. Loves to prep days in advance, and includes as many elaborate schemes and puzzles as she can. Prefers to run a game that's evenly 50% roleplay and 50% combat. Brings lots of drinks and snacks so people (Roberto) won't leave the table mid-session with the munchies.

SAM: Plays a Human Fighter (Champion). Played the most basic character because he didn't want to challenge himself too much at first; has become the party's most talented member. Wants to be the leader of the party (no one listens to him). Somehow got knighted in their first session. The best at accents when roleplaying, but gets increasingly more southern when he gets frustrated during a session. Accidentally married a dwarven princess and can't figure out how to divorce her.

XUAN: Plays a Half-Drow Warlock (Great Old One). Has no idea what a drow is, just thought they sounded cool. Came up with an elaborate and tragic backstory for her character, which has fucked her over multiple times. Prefers deception and trickery to direct combat; has soothed over multiple of Roberto's accidental fights that way. Is really good at remembering all of the tiny things about each player's character. Is the resident healer of the party (the only one who remembers to grab important items, like food and healing supplies).

ROBERTO: Plays a Fire Genasi Bard (College of Eloquence). LOVES the roleplay aspect. Wants to be the face of the party, but tends to start fights. Talks a little too much; Dani has to remind him to give others a turn. Has successfully seduced the dragon. In charge of the party's money. Tends to power up when he gets too excited. Has "accidentally" led Doug into a trap more than once.

ILLYANA: Plays a Tiefling Paladin (Oath of Vengeance). Doesn't like to roleplay, but drops absolute bangers when she deigns to join in. An absolute beast in battle; has killed the most enemies to date. Was banned from being the party's face after starting an interdimensional war. Isn't afraid to engage in a bit of friendly fire. Has almost broken her oath several times. Gets really worked up and competitive during the tiny side quests.

AMARA: Plays an Earth Genasi Monk (Way of the Sun Soul). Loves elaborate descriptions of her character. Has already commissioned drawings of her character several times. One of the more cautious players; has saved Roberto alone upward of five times. Loves to dress up for each session, artful body paint included. Has mastered the eloquent speech of the fantasy realm.

DOUG: Plays a Human Wizard/Artificer (Order of Scribes/Alchemist). Takes too long choosing his spells and has to be reminded he would not be allowed to pause and contemplate mid-battle. Gets really excited by the terminology and world-building. Tends to have a panic attack when his character is about to die. Is known to "accidentally" cast area spells around Roberto. Loves solving all of the puzzles and riddles. Takes notes during the session, to the bewilderment of all.

WARLOCK: Is Doug's construct. Gets confused when they can't solve battles by talking things out. Is prone to running off to save Doug if his character is in danger. Incredibly distractable mid-game, but will always have his friends' backs. Gear hoarder who picks up absolutely everything, in case the party needs it later.

RAHNE: Plays a Human Druid (Circle of the Moon). Spends most of her time in Wildshape. Refuses to kill any animalistic enemies. Gets squirrelly whenever clerics or gods are mentioned; has been known to pray for forgiveness after a session. Gets genuinely frightened by some of Dani's descriptions. Strangely enough, is one of the party's best faces. Usually has a wolf following her at all times, and she cries if it dies.

[cerastes]

Hey, would you recommend nabbing Gnosis or nah?

For context, I'm a Day 1 Player with 289 total Operators. Mainly just missing Gnosis, Archetto, Swire Alter and Ejya Alter.

I'm like 5 certificates away from affording him in Gold Cert shop, just trying to balance the scales on to use them for him or continue to hoard the monthly headhunters like a dragon sitting a top their funny little gold.

Hey, dope icon first of all.

Yes, but I need to elaborate on that yes a little: I'm very biased in favor of Supporters, and specifically I like Gnosis a lot, both as a character (fail INTJ garbage guy) and as a gameplay element.

So, why is this a Yes with an asterisk? It depends on how you go about your gameplay, really. Specialists and Supporters, or as I call them, "Also Specialists", are the classes that most heavily fall into "some players may not even use them". They are powerful, but generally require more than activating Thorns S3 twice and calling yourself the strongest Doctor in the landship.

Now, Gnosis himself: Is he powerful? Very much so! His Freezing crowd control and how easily he can inflict it, in addition to the immense Fragile he inflicts on Frozen enemies, his Hexer range, and the ability to knock low altitude hovering enemies with Freeze make him a valuable unit is a ton of different situations. In SSS, if you stack ASPD on him, he permafreezes (and thus, permafragiles) his target. In IS, he synergizes with a baffling about of items, with S1 and S2 being Spinach skills, benefiting from every CC buffing item besides the new Levitate items (so, he benefits from extended duration and Arts dmg during Frozen very easily), and in general gameplay, Hexer range is very good, and can enable incredibly solid killboxes with S2 and S3.

His obvious weakness is Freeze-immune enemies. He's not completely useless, because he can still land Cold on them if they are not Cold immune, but still, that's where his weakness lays. Still, even in those cases, it's important to note that he's still very good at dealing with every other enemy in the map, since bosses don't come alone in a vacuum. For example, the Trees of Rot enemies, the ones that become stronger the more enemies you kill before they bloom? When those start getting out of control due to engaging them late, Gnosis is god tier at handling them with constant Freezing and Fragile. Again, Supporters are Also Specialists, and when they are in their zone, they perform.

The trick to Gnosis is that, for single priority targets, you want to activate uncharged S2 right after he uses an autoattack. That way, that enemy will be frozen for 4 seconds (at S2M3) on a charge of 6 seconds. That makes that particular enemy actionable for (approximately) 2 seconds and then on Fragile Timeout for 4 seconds before repeating. That's very powerful! If you have many enemies in range, you let the skill overcharge and Freeze everyone, making a nice, nice Fragile killbox for Fia, Horn, Firewhistle, Dusk, Mostima, Omertosa S3, you name it. Please keep in mind that enemies Frozen in Gnosis E2 range receive 50%(!!!) Fragile, 60% with Module and no Potentials! That's a lot of Fragile!

So, if you're going to use him? Yes, he's a stupidly powerful support unit. If his gameplay or inclusion to your general playstyle doesn't spark light in your heart? You should continue cosplaying Reed and sitting nice and cute on your golden hoard. I personally use him a lot, as people that come to my Arknights streams can attest to!

*As an extra: Enemies with Cold have -30 ASPD, and enemies that are Frozen have -15 RES.

[fishmech]

It's just like, damn man communication and getting info cost so much around 2000.

You wanna look up some information on the phone so you can call someone that isn't in your phone book? That's like $4 in modern money.

You wanna call your aunt who lives a couple of states away and you're not paying the extra monthly landline cost for unlimited long distance? $15 in modern money for a 10 minute call in daytime hours, still like $3 nights and weekends, and these are both like "you got a pretty good deal" cases. Worse for most people.

OK so you just want to call your buddy who moved like 25 miles away? Maybe it's free cuz you lucked into still being in the same local call zone, but maybe you're still paying $3 in modern money for a 10 minute conversation because you managed to hit through two long distance zones. Especially if you're on opposite sides of a metro area or something. And if he had a cell phone you were calling, it might mean you paid even more because it registered as a further call.

But that's landline, let's say you were going cell. You might be paying the equivalent of $50 a month in modern money for 120 minutes of call time and no included texting. This service would likely charge you extra for "roaming", that is being out of your designated home calling area, as well as exceeding 120 minutes of talk time (and you would be billed a full minute minimum for any call that connected, mind), and texting once might be 75¢ in modern money on a cheaper provider, as much as $2 modern on others. Your excess call minutes might cost between 50¢ and $3 in modern money per minute and roaming calls would cost similar amounts even when you were within your plan. And on such a plan there was no cell data service so it would be an addon around $5 a month in modern money to have it at all - and prices of between 35¢ up to $5 in modern money per kilobyte transferred. Even if you were using strictly plain text that piled up quick.

You could of course move up to significantly more expensive plans per month in fixed costs to have much bigger pools of call minutes, freedom from roaming charges texts, and data. And to have significantly cheaper per-unit overage charges if you exceeded those. But that would quickly take your bill beyond $100, even $200 a month in modern money for a single line.

And of course if you wanted a couple songs from favorite singer? You ain't streaming it on a cheap monthly plan or likely even paying individually: your ass is paying nearly $38 in modern money for the whole album on CD, maybe $23 in modern money if you got a good sale price. And the artists still got a fraction of a penny off it cuz music royalties have been fucked forever. (of course you could pirate it probably... If you had internet service, if it was fast enough, if you could afford it for generally $36 a month in modern money for slow dialup, often much more if you had broadband available at all)

You wanna watch TV shows? Well like now you could watch the over the air stations for free. With tons of ads on the non-public stations ofc. But this is generally pre digital so there's much fewer stations on the air.

Or you could pay around $85 modern a month to get a pretty decent cable or satellite package and well you know, hope the time the shows you like line up with your schedule and of course it's full of ads too. Maybe you will setup a vcr or DVD recorder to catch what you couldn't be around for, and if you're not willing to wipe your old recording then you're going to need to drop serious cash to have fresh tapes and rewritable DVDs to keep that stuff around.

You want the higher end cable/satellite stuff? Well HBO alone back then was like $28 in modern money for a month on top of the rest of your bill - and most other similar no-ads premium channels were similar.

And let's not forget that this was still a time where getting official copies of shows on any kind of media often just Didn't Happen. Or they'd do it but they'd only put out random single episodes, maybe one full season on a multi season show. You might easily pay $26 in modern money for two half hour episodes or one full hour episode on a tape or DVD. Maybe you'd get lucky and instead be buying a whole season set for $75 in modern money, admittedly a much cheaper price per episode. Otherwise though, it's record it yourself in often pretty bad quality or trading and copying recordings from other people who liked that thing, if you got in touch with any.

And on-demand cable/satellite was just getting started and often required upgrading to a higher package, including paying more to rent a higher end TV box, with miniscule libraries. And the pay per view costs were often like $5 modern to watch a single movie squished to fit your TV, sometimes up to $35 modern for "new releases". Similarly, typical rental store costs were in the ball park of $7.50 to $30 in modern money per item, depending on overnight versus all week and sometimes old release vs new release. That shit added up quick! And Late fees could easily double up or triple up in just a few days.

And of course newspapers and magazines and books all cost money. We generally expect most of these to have some at least limited amount of free access on demand today, whether it's the free few articles a month before the paywall or getting free access digitally through your library. But of course back then, that's no such thing. A lot of online versions of publications were strict pay only, others only posted summaries for free, and that's if you were even online. It may not sound so bad to shell out 65¢ to $2 in modern money for a newspaper issue, or $4-$15 in modern money an issue for various magazines, but you'd be buying them pretty often if you wanted to keep up with things in more detail than they got into on TV. Even if you subscribe and get that discount for everything in a year, that's like maybe $90 a year in modern money for a major city paper, or $70 to $150 in modern money for a magazine depending on its frequency and size and content.

Shits just so fucking easy and cheap these days for real. You want to call someone you don't think about distance charges or roaming, you just fucking call. If you're calling overseas you probably use some app or program on a computer to call for free. A text message does not cost more than sending actual mail, it's nothing. Even all those stupid streaming services, which I don't use personally, you can have like 5 of those damn things, have way more to watch for less than cable back then, let alone modern cable prices, and have somewhat more reliability in what will be available next month!

Even when you're stuck on something like a strict budget, using prepaid cell service with blocks of minutes now, like some Tracfone "I only can afford $15 a month" stuff? It's like shlt at least that's 500 minutes/texts/megabytes of data. Like you're still getting screwed but it's much less so than what you got for that 10 or 20 or 25 years ago, and a lot more places have wifi you can use to stretch your data usage out.

[danthediamondminecart]

Hello! Took a two month-ish break from asking questions. But I have some now!

Q1: In your AU, why do the hosts sort of sabotage us during season 2? I don't want you to explain it in a really long form essay since that would be sort of tedious, so instead, just make it short but understandable. It really depends on you.

Q2: How do developers and admins work in your rbb world?

Q3: If I recall correctly, you mentioned in BLSMP that there are sort of God-like figures in Robloxia. If so, what are these God-like figures?

Q4: Is Robloxia mostly comprised of humans or mostly non-human beings (such as animal hybrids, creatures, etc.)

Q5: You mentioned before that you have rbb character. If so, any headcannons regarding them?

Q6: How on earth do you find motivation (Istg I have been working on my reworked rbb au, but I just kept being lazy T-T)

Q7: Random headcannons please (any ammount)

That's all, and off for another 2 months wait for me !

Hello hello hello! I like how you told me to Shut The Fuck Up in the first question, that's funny thank you

Q1) ...Admittedly though, this isn't too deep. For one reason and one reason alone: Shits and giggles. Purely to mess with us. I like to think they didn't actually care whether we got it or not, they just tried to make getting the items harder for everyone to get so the reward felt more worth it and so they could have a little bit of fun being the villains. Backfired on them massively, but it was fun while it lasted.

Q2) So. Devs and Admins both have an understanding of the code that Robloxia runs on. Admins can alter playercode (as in, the stuff that makes up the actual people) but Devs can only alter worldcode (the stuff that makes the games).

Devs can take ownership of a world (basically their own private dimension) and shape it however they please to make their games and their lobbies. Admins can do this too, but they are also in charge of the 'home worlds' (where people live & worlds that just spawn in without dev creation), the 'hub world' (basically the home page but...real) and ensuring people don't break laws / aren't affected by glitches, hence why they're allowed to do the difficult risky job of altering playercode.

Q3) That line is a bit of a throwaway, there's no real 'lore' behind it. Think of your favourite game/world. Is there a god established in that game? That's one of them! ...Most gods are NPCs as a result. Player gods, like in the case of the hosts, are rare, but not impossible, there's probably some admins who are gods too.

Q4) When it comes to players, it's a 50-50 split between human and non-human. It's approximately 50% full humans, 20% hybrids/animals, 7.5% cryptids, 7.5% elementals, 15% others (robots, cyborgs, anything else not in those categories). Including NPCs means there's a lot less humans and a lot more robots. (those stats may change, i'm still roughing them out)

Q5) I'm guessing by this you mean original characters in the RBB-universe, right? If you mean my sona trio (YanDan, BN and Pyro), pls let me know I will happily talk about them.

As for OCs in the RBB-world, I would generally call them 'worldbuilding OCs.' Fanmade parents to give the characters backstories, fanmade scientists and people to fill out the world, the likes. I've got a few parent HCs for the finalists, but I suppose I should talk about the two I've actually designed, Lapis and Alan-

I would've made you guess whose parents they are, but...I literally wrote whose parents they are. Instead, I can make you guess who is the better parent! Lapis is the Shadow-demon equivalent of a military general (i am gonna be so fr atp the whole shadow demon species can be considered my own original species all of this lore was me) and Alan is a scientist at Wayfind Labverse.

Q6) My motivation is my posting schedule and my need to be ahead of my posting schedule. As I said, I'm usually...6-7 chapters ahead of where the fic is posted? That way, in case I go a long time writers blocked / unable to write, I still ahve things to post. Also, my motivation is to explore these characters - hence why I have so many AUs I work on intermittently, sometimes, I just need to explore them in different scenarios. Yknow how it is.

Q7) Ooh, I made an update to my host HCs recently! This is a threat.

DJ, what with his powers of agility, has energy constantly so that he can always be ready to move and never tire out. This means that, unless he is knocked out, he cannot sleep. He got used to this after a while, after all he can't experience the effects of sleep deprivation so there were no negative side effects except having 8 extra hours in his day.

Tanqr has a younger brother called Teal. He doesn't know about his brother though.

Leah is now officially a Cupid-aligned angel in my headcanons, I Guess. Thank you Dress to Impress for that. (This will not retroactively affect BLSMP btw, all species mentioned in that are important to the plot/the character in some way to leave room for the reader to imagine things for the others. I wrote Leah's story without her being an angel in mind, so there's no point in me adding it in now. But it will affect future canon/adjacent stuff I write with her moving forward.)

Russo uses his resonators to make the slot bots be his back-up singers. If he was in a musical, he'd do this if he had a solo.

(That's the art I posted on Twitter recently! Meant to post it separately, but might as well put it here.)

I'm afraid that's all I got off the top of my head right now, sorry :(

[thoughtlessarse]

On a warm afternoon in 1970, Cleo Silvers, then a young member of the Black Panther Party, boarded the subway from the Bronx to Harlem. COINTELPRO was at its height. Fred Hampton had recently been assassinated by police in Chicago. Huey Newton was imprisoned on false charges. She was still on the subway when police stopped her.This piece was published with support from the International Women’s Media Foundation. “I told them, ‘I’m going to the Black Panther office, and you better leave me alone,’” recalled Silvers, now 78. And they did. By the time she got to the Panther headquarters on Seventh Avenue, she breathed a sigh of relief, and continued with her work: within a few months, she’d be helping to take over a hospital. Silvers recounted this day recently, sitting at her kitchen table, bedecked in a mauve headwrap and gold jewelry. Anyone looking in the window would see just another Tennessee academic, the rooms she shares with her husband, Ron, overflowing with books on racial justice and radical organizing. But Silvers’s life has been one of boldness: as a Young Lord in the South Bronx in 1970, she took part in the Lincoln Hospital Takeover, when activists demanded better care for patients, supported by Assata Shakur and other Panthers. After the takeover, Silvers helped run a door-to-door program with the Young Lords, testing people for tuberculosis and lead. Throughout this time, Silvers, like so many of her radical peers, was on the radar of the FBI. The bureau’s notorious COINTELPRO program—a campaign of covert and illegal operations aimed primarily at subverting civil rights and anti-war movements—was in full swing. Government operatives spied on, intimidated, smeared, harassed, blackmailed, wrongfully imprisoned, and assassinated dozens of Black leaders and radicals like Silvers until it was officially shuttered in 1971. Silvers’s name appears repeatedly in the 110,000-page cache of declassified FBI files on the Black Panthers, according to Bob Boyle, the attorney who obtained them. Decades later, congressional hearings and public apologies have served to frame COINTELPRO as a dark American chapter, one relegated to the dustbin of history. It’s 40 years since Silvers was last arrested and questioned about the Black Panther Party. About 45 years since the FBI visited her family to interrogate them about her whereabouts. More than 50 since she was betrayed by her own boyfriend, who she found out decades later was an FBI informant. And though the FBI’s pursuit of the Black Panthers officially ended, the government’s targeting and surveillance of radical activists never did.

continue reading

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Avital Norman Nathman at Rewire:

Within hours of Vice President Kamala Harris’ announcement that she had chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, Donald Trump’s followers mockingly dubbed him “Tampon Tim.” Named for a recent Minnesota law that provides free menstrual products in public schools, the opposition took joy in deriding a man who signed a bill that addresses a very real public health need. I can’t be the only one who has had to stuff scratchy, one-ply toilet paper in my underwear after an ill-timed or unexpected period while in school. In fact, I know there are others like me, because as a teen, not a month went by without a friend asking if I had a spare pad or tampon.

In the days after the Tampon Tim moniker gained momentum, many friends shared their own stories of menstrual malfunctions and humiliations, where access to free supplies would have been a lifesaver. According to Alliance for Period Supplies, which leads a national network of more than 140 independent, community-based nonprofits working to end period poverty, 86 percent of people who menstruate have started their period unexpectedly in public. So to find out that Minnesota public schools are now stocking bathrooms to ensure that students, teachers, and staff have the supplies they need? I don’t think it’s shameful in the least. It’s exemplary.

However, conservatives took a cursory look at the law and decided to run with the sensationalized spin that Walz was forcing fourth-grade boys to have tampons in their bathrooms. Grasping to find some way to sell this to their base, they infused a “trans panic” on the public health policy that states Minnesota public schools “must provide students with access to menstrual products at no charge. The products must be available to all menstruating students in restrooms regularly used by students in grades 4 to 12 according to a plan developed by the school district.” The language actually provides schools with flexibility, and nobody is being forced to use any products.

[...]

The shock and outrage over boys as young as 10 coming across a pad or tampon while at school is just a smokescreen for transphobia—because yes, there are most likely nonbinary or trans students, staff, and faculty who now really appreciate having access to health-care products they require. And perhaps, some schools will provide products in their boys’ restrooms, but as the mother of a teen son who “bravely” uses the bathroom in our home with unfettered access to tampons and pads of various sizes, I can tell you that the boys will be alright. Worst-case scenario, these young dudes get some free toys to play with. But best-case scenario, they grow up thinking of pads and tampons as boring and normal—because they are.

In our house, menstrual products aren’t dirty, gross, or shameful, just items needed on occasion. When I asked my son if he had heard of the Tampon Tim nickname, he thought it had actually come from the Harris camp as a positive endorsement, and laughed at the thought of anyone using it to ridicule someone.

[...]

Minnesota is not alone. The state joins Hawaii, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, and Oregon in providing state-funded, free period products in public schools. Ten other states, along with Washington, D.C., require free products to be available in public schools despite not offering funding, and eight other states (including conservative-leaning ones like Alabama, Arizona, and Georgia) have no state mandates, but do provide funding for schools that want to offer free products. So while online critics may be attempting to attack Walz, more than 50 percent of states are tackling this public health need.

Why are the right obsessed with lobbing tampon attacks against Tim Walz? Their campaign against menstrual equity is part of their campaign of reinforcing traditional gender roles.

[ukrfeminism]

The number of 10 to 19-year-olds charged with rape in London has more than doubled in two years, according to shock new figures.

In the year to December, 802 suspects were charged out of 8,839 reports — nine per cent of the total, compared with 364 over the same period in 2021.

For those aged 10 to 19, the number shot up from 35 to 74 individuals — a rise of 111 per cent.

The Metropolitan Police figures were revealed as a leading expert issued a stark warning over the rise of teenage boys copying what they see in violent pornography.

Sian Ruddick, an NHS specialist in supporting adolescent rape victims, said many consider choking girls during sex as “normal” behaviour after viewing it on their phones.

She called for teachers to hold regular workshops on consent and boundaries because it had become “really horrific” for teenage girls in and out of the classroom. 

Ms Ruddick, who works at The Havens — three clinics for survivors run by King’s College Hospital in Camberwell, Whitechapel and Ladbrooke Grove — wants schools, colleges and universities to become “zero tolerance” places for sexual violence. She said “turning the tide” on wrongdoing starts at school.

“You’re never going to be able to wipe out everyone’s access to porn, but you can have a safe and rigid conversation about consent. 

“The normalisation of strangulation in sex among teenagers does feel like a step backwards. Boys see it in porn and then it’s expected. We need to have more sex-positive conversations but pornography has filled that void.”

Last month, the UK police’s lead in tackling child abuse revealed that hardcore porn and access to smart phones had turned children into abusers — with more than 6,813 alleged rapes committed by youngsters aged 10 to 17 across Britain in a year.

Ms Ruddick — a member of the pan-London rape scrutiny panel — runs a team supporting 350 women going through the justice system. Funding restraints mean another 50 are on the waiting list.

The advocates provide information, emotional and practical support, including going to meetings with police and attending court if the case goes to trial. 

They work as part of a wider team at The Havens, where specialist doctors, nurses and therapists work together to support people who have been recently assaulted.

Anyone sexually assaulted or raped can ask for a forensic medical examination in order to gather DNA evidence for a criminal investigation – the timescales are different for different assaults but for vaginal rape tests can still find forensics after seven days. Last year, 1,200 examinations were carried out in the capital.

Not everyone wants to report to the police, and for those that do, keeping underwear, clothing, sanitary products, images or used condoms and not to wash or bathe helps to preserve evidence.

Later this year, a pilot will see survivors being able to give live video link evidence to Croydon Crown Court from a suite at The Havens.

Ms Ruddick said: “We don’t try to steer people to what they should or shouldn’t do.

“The most important thing is they have the information, access and time.

“We know the withdrawal rates, particularly in London, are very high. The criminal justice system can be an overwhelming place to be.

“We want survivors to know you are not alone - you will have someone with you seeking to understand and advocate. We don’t speak on behalf of our clients but we hope to amplify their voices and get to the ears of people making the decisions.”

Ms Ruddick says many victims have been left uneasy due to low trust and confidence in the Metropolitan Police following the murder of marketing executive Sarah Everard, 33, by PC Wayne Couzens who worked in the same armed unit as serial rapist PC David Carrick.

Baroness Louise Casey’s scathing review of the force painted an alarming picture of how crimes against women and children are investigated.

A lunchbox was found in the same fridge as rape samples and appliances were so full they had to be strapped shut. One fridge containing rape kits broke down, meaning evidence could not be used.

Ms Ruddick says “There is no getting away from the Met having had a really difficult couple of years. For that to be someone’s anxiety, is understandable. Things need to significantly improve if survivors are going to have faith in the process.

“But too few cases are charged and too few found guilty.

“In the past three years, we see more and more people struggling with the length of time it is taking.

“The shame that ends up being put on survivors. It’s never their fault - they are not to blame. That message feels so important. This was someone else’s choice that was inflicted on you.

“People often don’t feel able to tell their parents, friends or people at university. However, one thing we hear from clients is having their voices heard made them feel valued and believed.

“For survivors, it feels very mixed even with a guilty verdict. They find hardest an expectation from other people that they should now be fine and it’s all over. So often, it’s the start of the recovery, a different type of beginning.”

In December, teenage serial rapist Kevarnie Queen, 19, dubbed the “Brixton R Kelly” was jailed for 12 years after committing a three-year campaign of sexual violence against six girls under 18.

Commander Kevin Southworth, the Met’s lead for public protection, said: “We are dedicated to putting victim-survivors of rape at the heart of everything we do to eradicate sexual violence largely caused by predatory men and support those who are impacted.

“We’ve transformed the way we investigate rape and sexual offences, more than doubling our number of rape charges since 2021.

“We’re not complacent and remain absolutely resolute in our commitment to target offenders and protect women and girls, but we cannot do this alone.

“Listening to victim-survivors, and working together with charities and partners across the criminal justice system, we’re working to ensure that all victims-survivors have the confidence to report these most awful crimes and do all that we can to get them the justice they deserve.

“If you have been a victim of sexual violence and not yet reported it – please contact your local police service and we will do all that we can to help.”

Recent Ministry of Justice data shows the average London rape victim waits three years and three months to get a court result, down from over four years at the start of 2022.

A MoJ spokesman said ministers introduced a raft of measures to speed up hearings since the start of the pandemic, including funding unlimited Crown Court sitting days for a third year in a row.

She added: “We know that victims who feel supported are 50 per cent more likely to stay engaged in the criminal justice system and Independent Sexual Violence Advocates and Domestic Violence Advisors offer crucial emotional support to victims regardless of whether they report to the police.

“This is why we are quadrupling funding for victim and witnesses support services and committed to recruiting 300 more specialist advisors by 2025.”

[hourglassstationacademy]

About some HSA School Facilities

So what kinda food does the HSA cafeteria have and what is the main thing?

Given its a very advanced Technology school and many Talerenea members help out, often its a basic menu of things that cater to Vegans, Vegetarians, Allergie friendly, Glutenfree and just simple everything is covered with the basic menu…

Each week there is a few specialty dishes, maybe from another culture, maybe some sort of theme, On halloween there is like Spider cupcakes or something… The Basic HSA menu already covers over 50 different dishes, the school is huge so there is often like many people at once taking orders and working in the kitchen, Angelica is just the head of the this group and mainly in charge.

So each day is busy in the HSA cafeteria.

About some of the the HSA specialty dishes:

New Years: Fortune teller cookies and a big golden pig shaped dessert Amore wings day: Butterfly cake and cakepops Springs beginning: Sakura Mochi and Sakura Onigiri April fools: Russian Roulette Takoyaki Easter: Omelette of beginnings, many boiled egg dishes Summer time: Tropical Ice cream parfait, Big bang burger challenge Autumn: Pumpkin pie with Carrot juice Halloween: Spider cupcakes, skeleton candy, bleeding cake and ghostly cakepops Winter: Snowmountain cake and Snowman ice cream Christmas: Baked apple cake, Bûche de Noël, Santa hat cupcakes

About the HSA Gym: -Lots of things are already technology locked. Aka use your gem again. Your own personal lockers for your stuff and everything will be set and Psynched up with it, so only you can open your locker -Teachers often only 1 or 2 are present hence their room is so small -there is a pool too for the swimming club and general lessons -The showers are locked as well automatically after entering and open once you press a switch inside the place -often there is enough showers so 25 people can shower at the same time, -Girls and boys dressing rooms are not locked to Cis-Gender, but also as what you identify as, I was unsure about making an extra one but I had no idea what would be better.

Actually HSA infirmary facts: -Beatrice doesn't really do her Job alone, on Occasion some students help out Volunteering as well as Pherea to fetch her stuff, she may only look pretty but Beatrice with her old age and observer powers is quick to find the pain and find spells to mend it quick -There is enough beds to house a whole 3 classes of students, yets still some prefer to stay in their dorm room… if so she has the allowance to get into the dorm despite the whole old rules, cause this is an emergency -Angelica who is close with Beatrice also has a professional doctor as friend if things go that far that someone has to go to an actual hospital, but that is rarely the case cause most can be fixed on its own -Beatrice is kind and Caring to most students but people like Greg who get into fights for unessesary reasons might get the worse tasting medicine or a bit more of a menacing aura from her -Its mostly full on Combat tournament days aside that many also rely on the Exodus dorm as well, but in all some students like Kome or Eleafy are daily people who come for medicines and all

[golbrocklovely]

Hi, so the thing about the volunteer mods on xplrclub kind of rubs me the wrong way. They absolutely have made millions in their career, I mean their channel has been blowing up steadily for years. Their channel on top of merch sales, tours, xplrclub, they're living rather comfortably. One of the other anon's said colby has admitted to spending 10k a month on just clothing?? 10k is what I make in 5 months of working full time, dropping that on clothing in one year is insane let alone one month. Plus they have 2 mansions and not just rent but own. I'm the same age as them and I'm still living at home because despite having an MA and working full-time, my job doesn't pay me a wage that would allow me to live on my own without going completely broke and ending up in even more crippling debt.

I do like snc, as people I think they're probably really nice guys, but I think they've been in the influencer sphere for too long and no longer have any grasp on the real world. We're in a cost of living crisis right now, so asking anyone to essentially work for free is a bit tone deaf. I know they're not asking for crazy work, but they're still asking someone to give up their free time to put in labor for something they pay snc to be able to access. It's just a bit icky to me. Either don't charge them the monthly subscription if they're going to mod for you, or pay them. It just kind of strikes me as snc think their fans should be grateful to them for allowing them this opportunity to mod for them, that money shouldn't even be a factor. Idk, maybe I'm being a bit too harsh, but in the economy we're currently in, asking people for free labor while you are raking in hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars a year is gross.

Sorry for this long post, I just felt like I wanted to get it all out, haha.

you're totally fine to vent. i agree with a lot of what you're saying. i think it's ridiculous that snc would think mods should be volunteers and not paid employees.

but to defend snc just a small amount….

snc haven't stated what the "perks" will be of being a mod. so it's possible it's negotiable to ask for a free membership as a mod, if not possibly more. on top of that, now that it has been a day and i'm not as upset as i was, i think the reason snc think this volunteer system is okay is bc when they did a livestream on wednesday, they mentioned getting mods and ppl in the comments started asking to be a mod.

not to mention the amount of ppl that have already applied to be mods. i mean the last time i checked the post (and this was yesterday mind you), there was 50+ comments, and only three of them were critical about this whole thing and one of them was me. so a lot of ppl are fine with being mods without being paid.

that, tied with ppl being on twitch and streamers pick randos from their fandom to be mods, i bet snc think this is the best case scenario and way to go about things.

i would like to believe that it's mostly this, tied with a little bit of snc being cheap lol

and look, personally idc how snc spend their money. they made it, they can do what they want with it. even if i think it's outrageous to spend 10k on clothes in a month. reality is, we're just in a different tax bracket than them. i don't relate to them on that level. and i wouldn't want them to act poor, so to speak. so….. it is what it is.

that being said, they should pay for mods. mods should be ppl not in the fandom. bc even tho snc also stated in the post that there is no amount of time you have to be online and moderating, i know there are some fans that if they do it, will be on 24/7 and will neglect their lives just to be in snc's good graces assumingly. and i think that's where an extra layer of problems lie. the lack of money is an issue, the trusting of fans is an issue, the possible future problems is another, and so on.

it would be better to get rid of chat, impo. but they ain't gonna listen to me lol

[elennare]

Poetry-inspired flash-fic

It has been far too long since a. I posted here, b. I wrote fic, c. I did this fun little meme, so here I am again!

Rules 1: Pick five fandoms. List them in alphabetical order. 2: Visit this site to find your first RANDOM POEM OF POWER. Write down the 5th line (yes, even if it's an E.E. Cummings poem and you wind up with an apostrophe). Repeat five times and - you guessed it - list them in alphabetical order! (No cheating, mind! This is a challenge and it's always been about creativity.) 3: I think you can see where this is going. Write a very quick 50-word half-drabble for each fandom (try to do it all in one sitting), using the line from the poem as a prompt. You don't have to include it in the half-drabble - it's just inspiration. 4: Bravo! Have a cookie.

(I always forget to alphabetise the poems, I just take them in order - and I had to find another random poem generator, the old one was broken. This one is very Canadian, but it's the best I could find - suggestions for other ones welcome!)

Chalet School - informed crowded alloys detect no (Rita Wong, “fluorine” from forage) “I don't expect scientific brilliance from Corney and Co,” Nell Wilson assured the Staffroom. “But is basic coherency really too much to ask for?”

Hilda Annersley's eyebrows rose as she read some samples. “Leave them to me, Nell,” she replied, in a tone that boded no good for the miscreants.

High Rollers : Aerois - too large for this body. Too willing to (Joshua Jennifer Espinoza, "COMFORT" from There Should Be Flowers) It's not that Quill doesn't feel the lure of the spark of divinity. But it's too big, too powerful. What will he be if he takes it? Not an aarakocra any more, not really… will he even still be Quill? No. He'll stay mortal, stay with his friends, stay himself.

High Rollers: Curse of Strahd - “Forward, the Light Brigade! (The charge of the Light Brigade, Tennyson) Yesper hears stories, on his trips outside Barovia. Songs of glorious last stands, heroic charges, victories against seemingly insurmountable odds. He likes these tales, memorises them for the campfire. But he doesn’t believe them, not really… Maybe they’re true, maybe in Faerun they can be true, but not in Barovia.

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London - Forsaken by my parents (Alootook Ipellie, "Walking Both Sides of an Invisible Border," from Gathering: The En’owkin Journal of First North American Peoples: A Retrospective.) Vivien and Merlin rarely talk about their parents. What is there to say? Their father is birthday cards with dutiful invitations to visit Cambridge, that Vivien takes up occasionally and Merlin mostly avoids. Their mother is a case file Vivien doesn’t want to think about and Merlin can’t leave alone.

Swallows and Amazons - travels a direction it cannot find, (Kevin Irie's "Current") Susan peers blindly into the fog, trying to make out anything at all. Why did she let Titty and Roger go back by themselves? It’s all very well Nancy and Peggy saying they’ll have been back at camp for ages; Susan won’t be happy until she sees it for herself.

[hollisofficial]

49 and 50 for the OC ask game 😎

THANK YOU DAME!!!!!!!!!!! YIPPEE

49. Which one of your OCs would most likely enjoy memes

100% cena, whos entire existence is based around a meme from jr high. hes since became an actual oc with his own serious story, but his roots still remain and i continue to only make fun of him and redraw him over memes. his seriousness can continue to live in only my head.

alternatively: geb, who, if they knew what memes were, would fucking love them.

50. Give me the good ol’ OC talk here. Talk about anything you want

UNFORTUNATE FOR YOU im going to talk abt ttt. forever.

for background: ttt and a decent chunk of other characters only fit into my (human oc) stories via a character named jeanie who can see ghosts. i know. marry sue but i am free<3

ok!! so, ttt is a ghost and hes the second oldest ghost in the story (time on earth wise). my story is set in the way future of (maybe) this world, and ttt is introduced around the time that theres a giant nuclear war and subsequent fallout. while he was alive he was a doomsday prepper which was (for the time) rightfully so. he spends about 5 years living down in a bunker eating a shit ton of shelf stable doomsday prepper stuff. as you can imagine living alone in a concrete hole for years didnt treat him very well mentally, but thats besides the point for now. it will all be erased once he becomes a ghost (and replaced with more trauma). at any rate, he ends up running out of food/water earlier than planned and has to wander out into the wasteland to try to find supplies. he doesnt last too long out there (havent decided on a time but probably a little less than a year). he gets stabbed in the remains of a walmart over a can of beans. and ends up dying.

ttt becomes a ghost! in this universe when people become ghosts its usually for a reason (think unfinished business, need to atone, or have some grander purpose type stuff) but for whatever reason t just got fucked over and wasnt actually supposed to become a ghost. his ghost-ness coincides with a time period where a lot of fucked up things are happening with the deities that are in charge of the solar system and at the time the deities that controlled things like death + fate were MIA. so all in all ttt becoming a ghost was genuinely just a glitch in the system type thing.

because of this ttt is. interesting as a ghost. unlike all other ghosts he doesnt really have an appearance. instead hes just vaguely brown/gray humanoid (ignore the ttt sign on him for now, thats not part of his appearance and i'll get to that later). additionally, t cant remember a single thing about his time as a human nor what his name is, hence the name ttt. i know what his human name is but thats secret information not in the story. most importantly to t's story is that he cant be seen by 99.9% of other ghosts.

the reason behind this fact has to do with the weird mechanics of being a ghost. it kind of works like channels or levels on a tv. when you become a ghost youre randomly given a handfull of 'channels' you can access and this ties into certain powers that ghosts can have. for example: being able to touch a ouija board or mess with radio-frequencies would require you to have access to those two channels- not all ghosts can do so. almost everything runs on channels, even just simple things like 'have an appearance' and 'being seen by others' and 'see others'. theres also an insane number of duplicate channels, so for example one ghost could have quite a large number of 'being seen by others' channels which allows them to be seen by a large number of ghosts that share those channels. conversely, (in ttts case) he only has a few 'being seen by others' channels and quite a few 'see others' so basically he can see other ghosts, but they cant see or interact with him. sorry that was longwinded but i love my ghost mechanics. theres more to the mechanics via a ranking tier system but for the sake of brevity i WILL NOT BE GETTIN INTO THAT.

at any rate. because of weird ghost mechanics and because t was fucked up and wasnt supposed to be a ghost, he cant be seen by almost anybody, but he can still see them. as you can imagine this is horrible. ttt spends centuries wandering through the post-nuked world as a ghost trying to find other ghosts to interact with. as the centuries go on he just slowly loses hope more and more and bitterly resigns himself to the fact that he'll never be able to interact with people in the way that he wants. (small sidenote: despite ttt not having baseline/low level channels like being seen, he does have some fairly high level channels that let him interact with the physical world (think like typical poltergeist stuff like throwing small objects ect). this ofc is not a very good substitute for being able to interact with people).

so anyway, ttt spends centuries being functionally alone again. kinda meant to mirror his time in the bunker. resigning to not being able to mess with anything, ttt just tends to pass the time people watching and trying to entertain himself other ways. one day hes people watching and happens upon a literal murder (theres more to this bc its someone elses story but i wont get too detailed bc its edgy emo). this ofc isnt the first time t's seen something like this and (being a touch bitter abt his unable-to-interact-with-anybody situation), t basically just watches and once the murdered guy's ghost drags himself outta the river t just starts roasting the new ghost for being stupid and getting murdered, thinking he cant be seen or heard.

unfortunately this is the first ghost that can actually see and hear ttt.

the new ghost (whos name is perry) is basically just like. (status: doesnt know hes dead or whats happening) HUH?? WH?? WHO ARE YOU?? ttt proceeds to freak the fuck out bc HOLY SHIT THE FIRST PERSON WHO CAN SEE AND HEAR ME?!? WHAT?!? hes completely elated and brain short circuiting at the same time, so hes falling over his words and trying to explain things and say sorry for being a dick to him (thats the least thing perrys worried about). amongst the confusion perry somehow gets it into his head that ttt is his guardian angel because hes some like shapeless entity that appeared after perry (apparently??) died (perry voice: wh huh what do you mean i got shot???).

they speedrun getting to know each other bc ttts just railroading the conversation bc hes so excited and perrys still on like “my name… its perry right..?” brain . perry sticks with t for a while (still assuming hes his guardian or smth) but it literally only takes like half a night for perry to realize like . ok maybe im wrong . (ttt hotwires a car and drives the two of them around before crashing it [another pastime] and thats when perry kinda decides like . no i dont think this guy is an angel.) (during the carride perry also keeps phasing thru the seat + out of the car bc he cant do ghost stuff yet) (also ttts able to hotwire + drive the car bc touching irl stuff to an extent is one of his aforementioned powers).

oh also, the name ttt came from perry and t's first interaction. perry asked what t's name was and t (who didnt know his name) just made something up on the spot and ttt it was.

after that the two of them just end up constantly being together (bc perry really hasnt met anyone else yet so he doesnt exactly like, know theres others out there . and t is ofc not leaving perrys side). it is very evident that ttt is basically attached at perrys hip and VERY afraid to lose him. i mean, perrys the first person who hes been able to talk to for literal centuries and now that ttt has that lifeline hes clutching to it for dear life.

the more they get to know each other t opens up and lets perry know that like . yea youre the first person thats been able to see me and ive KIIIINDA been alone and unable to interact with anyone for a few thousand years . no big deal or anything (<-guy whos brain was becoming mush from lack of interaction). perry starts to understand just everything t must have been through + why he acts so.. like that. he assures t that theres no way he would leave t behind.

i dont have very much for what the two of them did between their meeting and the current timeline in the story, but basically the two of them fuck around for 400 years or so. sometime during that time perry finds a super old (prewar) magazine ad for fiji and the two of them decide they wanna go. so now their thing is perry constantly is trying to teleport (one of his powers) them to fiji but he cant bc fiji doesnt exist anymore and he keeps (unknowingly) teleporting them to the remnants of old fiji water bottles. theyre on like a mission to find fiji.

eventually, one of such teleporting incidents lead them to meeting the character jeanie by chance, who, by the power of I Say So (and a whole nother plot i wont get into), can see ghosts. perry and t end up staying with jeanie as well as a couple of other ghosts that hang with jeanie (their names ade hummingbird and ekr). the five of them become very found family. the rest of their story becomes the group getting wrapped up in/uncovering weird deity politics and subsequently trying to change jeanie and his friend pattersons fate and keep them from dying.

oh yeah, and the ttt thing on ttt's head is a floating apparition of a stickynote that perry controls so the other two ghosts can tell where ttt is.

more doodles:

[mahmoudahmed60]

I Booked a $1500 Trip for Just $320 — No Joke

Have you ever dreamed of jetting off to an exotic destination but felt discouraged by the skyrocketing costs of flights, accommodations, and travel expenses? What if I told you that scoring incredible travel deals isn’t just for lucky lottery winners or secret agents with insider knowledge? Spoiler alert: it’s possible — and I’m living proof.

Recently, I booked what should have been a $1500 vacation for only $320 . Yes, you read that right — no hidden fees, no strings attached, and absolutely no joke. Here’s how I did it, and how YOU can too — with help from my favorite travel experts at Click here.

The Secret Sauce: Smart Travel Hacks

Let’s break it down step by step so you can replicate my success and start saving big on your next adventure.

1. Timing is Everything

When it comes to booking travel, timing truly makes all the difference. Airlines and hotels often release discounted rates during off-peak seasons or last-minute cancellations. For my trip, I waited until the “sweet spot” (about 6–8 weeks before departure) when prices were at their lowest due to lower demand.

Pro Tip: Use tools like Google Flights or Skyscanner to set price alerts for your desired destination. But if you want access to exclusive deals without the hassle of searching, check out the curated offers available through Click here. Their team knows exactly when and where to find unbeatable bargains!

2. Leverage Budget Airlines & Alternate Airports

Instead of flying directly into major hubs, I opted for budget carriers and nearby airports. Sure, it added an extra hour or two to my journey, but the savings were well worth it. For instance, flying into a smaller regional airport instead of a city center saved me nearly $200 alone.

But here’s the catch — not everyone has time to research every low-cost carrier or alternate route. That’s why I rely on Click hereto handle the logistics for me. They specialize in crafting affordable itineraries that maximize value without sacrificing convenience.

3. Book Smart Accommodations

Forget overpriced hotels! I used platforms like Airbnb, Hostelworld, and even lesser-known sites like Booking.com to find affordable yet comfortable stays. In some cases, boutique guesthouses or local hostels offer far more charm (and better locations) than chain hotels — at half the cost.

Bonus Hack: With Click here, you don’t even need to spend hours comparing options. Their packages include handpicked accommodations that balance comfort, style, and affordability — all included in one seamless booking process.

4. Stack Discounts & Promo Codes

This is where things get exciting. Many people don’t realize they can combine discounts to maximize savings. Before finalizing my booking, I scoured the internet for promo codes, cashback offers, and loyalty program points. Websites like Honey and RetailMeNot are goldmines for finding instant discounts on almost anything.

For example, I applied a 10% discount code from my airline’s newsletter, stacked it with a seasonal sale, and redeemed reward miles to shave hundreds off the total price.

Good news — you don’t need to be a coupon wizard to save big anymore. When you book through Click here, you’ll automatically unlock exclusive promotions and bundled deals that take the guesswork out of saving money.

5. Travel Light, Save Big

Here’s a game-changer most travelers overlook: baggage fees. By packing light and sticking to carry-on luggage, I avoided unnecessary charges that can easily add $50-$100 per person. Plus, traveling light means less stress and faster transitions between destinations.

At Click here, they also provide helpful packing tips and recommendations tailored to each destination. Whether you’re heading to Bali or Barcelona, their guides ensure you’re prepared for any adventure — without overpacking.

Where Did I Go?

Now for the fun part — the destination itself. After crunching numbers and researching affordable yet breathtaking spots, I settled on Bali, Indonesia , a tropical paradise known for its lush landscapes, vibrant culture, and mouthwatering cuisine. A round-trip flight, four nights in a cozy villa, daily meals, and activities like snorkeling and temple tours came to a grand total of… wait for it… $320 .

Yes, Bali may seem exotic and expensive, but with careful planning and strategic booking, it’s one of the most wallet-friendly destinations out there. And guess what? You can explore Bali — or countless other dreamy locations — through Click here. Their Bali packages start at jaw-dropping prices, making luxury travel accessible to everyone.

Why You Should Take the Leap

If someone like me — a regular traveler with no VIP status or endless bank account — can book a luxury-worthy trip for pocket change, so can you. The key lies in adopting a mindset of resourcefulness and being willing to think outside the box.

Imagine swapping crowded tourist traps for serene beaches, savoring authentic street food instead of overpriced restaurant meals, and experiencing life-changing adventures without breaking the bank. That’s not just travel — that’s smart living.

Ready to Score Your Dream Trip?

Don’t let sticker shock keep you grounded any longer. Start small by applying these tips to your next getaway, whether it’s a weekend road trip or an international escape. With patience, persistence, and a dash of creativity, you’ll be amazed at what you can achieve.

And now, thanks to Click here , planning your next adventure has never been easier. From discounted flights to all-inclusive packages, their platform puts the world within reach — all while keeping your budget intact.

🔗 Start Exploring Today: Visit Click here to browse exclusive deals and turn your wanderlust into reality.

🌍 Your Next Adventure Awaits! So go ahead — book that dream vacation, share your stories, and inspire others to follow in your footsteps. Because let’s face it: Life’s too short not to explore every corner of this beautiful planet.

Happy travels ✈️

[visionaryvogues03]

The Creator Economy’s Impact on Performance Marketing: Are Influencers the New PPC?

The influencer marketing sector has become a crucial element these days. The creator economy has been gaining a boom lately. It helps to gain instant reach & recognition. In less than a decade, Instagram has become the leading platform for creators & influencers to share their content online. Relatability & authenticity are the factor that gains them followers on these social media platforms. Such a phenomenon represents an entirely new emerging community that will bring in a disruptive wave of content consumption.    

The Rise of the Creator Economy

The creator economy, defined as the ecosystem of independent content creators monetizing their influence, has exploded in recent years. Platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram have empowered millions of creators to build followings and partner with brands in ways that were unimaginable a decade ago. According to a recent Goldman Sachs report, the global creator economy is currently worth over $250 billion and is expected to grow to $480 billion by 2027. In the U.S. alone, over 50 million people now identify as content creators—full-time or part-time—many of whom drive substantial consumer engagement.

Influencers vs. Traditional PPC: A Shift in Strategy

Performance marketing has long leaned on pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to drive measurable results. But as user behavior shifts and ad fatigue grows, marketers are facing diminishing returns from traditional PPC channels like Google Ads or Facebook Ads. In contrast, influencers within the creator economy offer authenticity and trust—two qualities modern consumers demand.

Influencer campaigns now deliver ROI that rivals, and in many cases exceeds, that of traditional PPC. A study by Influencer Marketing Hub found that businesses earn an average of $5.78 for every dollar spent on influencer marketing. With algorithms becoming more unpredictable and cookie-based targeting increasingly regulated, brands are turning to creators to fill the engagement gap.

How the Creator Economy Aligns with Performance Marketing Goals

Unlike traditional celebrity endorsements, creators in the U.S. market often cater to niche audiences. This specificity allows brands to achieve hyper-targeted reach, a cornerstone of performance marketing. Micro-influencers—those with 10,000 to 100,000 followers—typically deliver higher engagement rates than macro-influencers or celebrities. They offer not only affordability but also a greater perceived trustworthiness.

Moreover, the creator economy offers scalable content solutions. Brands can collaborate with a network of creators to A/B test content styles, hooks, and calls-to-action, much like they would test ad copy in a PPC campaign. This agility enables data-driven decision-making while preserving the human touch.

Performance Metrics That Matter

One of the most compelling arguments for integrating the creator economy into performance marketing is measurability. Influencer campaigns today are far more quantifiable than they once were. Engagement rates, click-through rates (CTR), conversion rates, and even customer acquisition cost (CAC) are now standard metrics available through creator platforms and brand dashboards.

Platforms like Impact, LTK, and AspireIQ provide U.S.-based marketers with tools to analyze influencer performance in real time. Furthermore, affiliate links and unique discount codes make it easier than ever to track ROI down to the cent.

Case Study: DTC Brands Leading the Charge

[Source - The Independent]

Direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands have been among the earliest and most aggressive adopters of creator-led performance marketing. U.S. companies like Glossier, Gymshark, and Dollar Shave Club have relied heavily on influencers to build brand equity and drive sales. Instead of traditional PPC ad buys, these brands focus on long-term relationships with creators whose audiences align with their own.

Gymshark, for example, attributes a significant portion of its billion-dollar valuation to its community of fitness influencers, many of whom started as micro-creators. Their content, from honest product reviews to workout vlogs, outperforms standard PPC ads in both reach and trust.

Regulatory Landscape and Ethical Considerations

As the creator economy matures, so too does its regulatory framework. In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has stepped up its scrutiny of influencer marketing practices. Clear labeling of sponsored posts and transparent disclosure are now legal requirements. Marketers integrating creators into their performance strategies must ensure compliance to avoid legal pitfalls.

Still, this scrutiny has a silver lining: it enhances consumer trust. Transparency, once a buzzword, is now a competitive advantage.

Challenges in Scalability and Consistency

Despite its benefits, integrating the creator economy into performance marketing isn't without challenges. One key hurdle is scalability. PPC can be adjusted in real time and duplicated across platforms. Creator content, while more engaging, often requires individualized negotiation, content review, and approval processes that don’t scale as easily.

Additionally, consistency in message and branding can vary when working with multiple creators. This makes it critical for U.S.-based companies to maintain clear brand guidelines and use centralized platforms that standardize communication.

Leveraging AI and Data for Creator Selection

[Source - CreatorIQ.com]

As performance marketing becomes more data-driven, brands are leveraging AI tools to identify the right creators. Platforms like CreatorIQ and Upfluence use algorithms to analyze audience demographics, engagement authenticity, and brand fit. This ensures that companies aren’t just picking popular influencers—they’re picking the right influencers.

Incorporating machine learning also allows marketers to predict campaign outcomes, optimize budget allocations, and even forecast customer lifetime value (CLV) based on historical creator data.

What the Future Holds

The future of the creator economy and performance marketing in the U.S. is intertwined. As ad-blockers, privacy concerns, and content fatigue rise, creators represent a more organic, trusted way to reach consumers. Instead of competing with PPC, many experts believe that influencers will complement and, in some industries, even replace it.

Forward-thinking CMOs and performance marketers are already integrating creators into their paid media strategies—seeing them not as a novelty, but as a new norm.

Conclusion: 

To answer the question: Are influencers the new PPC?—the evidence increasingly points to yes. While they may not completely replace PPC, influencers within the creator economy are redefining what performance marketing looks like in the U.S. landscape. Their authenticity, hyper-targeting, and measurable impact make them not just viable alternatives but strategic assets in a marketer’s toolkit.

The brands that recognize this early and build robust, scalable influencer programs stand to gain a significant edge in a market where attention is the new currency.

Uncover the latest trends and insights with our articles on Visionary Vogues

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Turn X Into Your Side Hustle: 10 Proven Hacks for (Yes, Even With 500 Followers!)

This is a quick insight from the article How to Earn Money on X originally published on March 26, 2025

Ever dream of turning your casual X (Twitter) posts into a money-making machine? You’re not alone. With the right strategies, people are pocketing an extra $500–$5,000 every month—no Hollywood fame needed. Below are ten practical methods to start earning on X, from sponsored tweets to subscriptions, along with tips on how much does X pays for views and more.

Who Can Monetize on X?

Age & Account Requirements: Be at least 18 years old with 500+ followers.

Active for 3+ Months: Lurkers need not apply—X wants regular posts.

Follow X’s Monetization Policies: Break the rules and risk getting booted.

Pro Tip: Grow your followers with regular, engaging tweets. No audience = no income.

1. X Ads (Formerly Twitter Media Studio): Get Paid for Video Views

What It Is: Upload videos that display ads; you get a cut of the ad revenue.

How Much?: Typically $1–$3 per 1,000 views. Viral hits can bring in hundreds—or thousands—depending on location and engagement.

Requirements:

Quick Math: A 500,000-view video might earn $500–$1,500, especially if most viewers are in high-value regions like the US or UK.

2. Sponsored Tweets: Brands Pay You to Post

How It Works: Companies pay you to mention or promote their products in a tweet.

Earnings Breakdown:

Land Deals Faster:

Case Study: A fitness creator with 10,000 followers scores $150 per tweet x 3 tweets/month = $450 monthly.

3. Ticketed Spaces: Host Paid Audio Events

What It Is: Live audio “rooms” where people pay to join.

Who It’s For: Coaches, comedians, musicians—anyone who can talk, teach, or entertain.

Money Potential:

Getting Started:

Apply for Ticketed Spaces (need 1,000+ followers).

Pick a hot topic (people pay for insights or entertainment).

Promote heavily so your event is packed.

4. Affiliate Marketing: Earn Commissions on Recommended Products

The Basics:

Possible Earnings:

Pro Tip: Weave product mentions into personal stories, so it doesn’t feel “salesy.”

5. Sell Digital Products & Subscriptions

What to Sell:

Platforms: Gumroad, Patreon, or your own website.

Keys to Success:

Example: A graphic designer sells a $30 e-book on quick logo design tips. Even 50 sales per month = $1,500.

6. Creator Revenue Sharing: Get Paid for Tweet Engagement

How It Works:

Requirements:

Earnings Potential:

Strategy: Post daily, reply to comments, and write threads that people love to share.

7. X Subscriptions: Charge for Premium Content

What It Is: Followers pay $2.99–$9.99/month for exclusive tweets, insights, or perks.

Earning Example:

Best For:

How to Sell It: Show valuable free posts first; tease advanced or more detailed content behind a paywall.

8. X Tips: Let Followers Donate

What It Is: A tip jar on your profile so fans can send you money.

Set-Up:

Potential Earnings: Some creators easily make $500/month if they consistently post great content.

Tip: Pin a tweet thanking tippers, and encourage supporters to show love.

9. Promote Your Own Products or Services

Why It Works:

Ideas:

Remember: Genuine engagement + authentic offers = more sales.

10. Build an Email List: Convert Followers into Customers

Why It Matters: Email is yours forever (social platforms can change or vanish).

How to Do It:

Income Potential:

Pro Tip: Tweet the link to your newsletter often, especially after viral posts.

How Much Does X Pay for Views & 10,000 Followers?

Views (Video): About $1–$3 per 1,000 views. 500,000 views could mean $500–$1,500.

10,000 Followers: X won’t pay you just for the number. But with 10k engaged fans, you can:

Bottom Line: Engagement is king. The more people interact with your content, the more you can earn.

Final Thoughts

Learning how to earn money on X can be a game-changer for anyone looking to make an extra $5

00—or even build a full-time income. Whether it’s X Ads, sponsored tweets, or selling digital products, the opportunities are huge if you stay consistent and authentic. Start by picking one or two methods, focus on growing engagement, and watch the cash start rolling in. Happy tweeting!