George Floyd, the Tulsa Massacre, and Memorial Days - The two tragedies make for easy inferences about the importance of commemoration. But this is not how trauma works. - link
Great Britain Needs a Vacation - A nation of devoted international travellers has been bottled up by the coronavirus. - link
Bitcoin’s Troubles Go Far Beyond Elon Musk - Recent moves by China have exposed the vulnerability of the cryptocurrency. - link
Is Online Test-Monitoring Here to Stay? - Despite students’ complaints and the coming return to in-person learning, Proctorio and its rivals are betting on a lucrative future. - link
Big Oil’s Bad, Bad Day - Crushing blows to three of the world’s largest oil companies have made it clear that the arguments many have been making for decades have sunk in at the highest levels. - link
From Vox
Who wins Instagram giveaways? An investigation. -
Who is actually winning cash and prizes from Instagram giveaways? | Getty Images/fStop
Influencers and marketing firms keep teaming up to give you cars, cash, and more. No one ever seems to win.
In 1851, the inventor and entrepreneur Benjamin T. Babbitt began traveling around the United States in a wagon, offering consumers free lithographic prints with the purchase of baking soda. According to historian Wendy A. Woloson, this new mode of marketing inspired enterprising salesmen to launch their own prize giveaways, many of which ended up being scams. We can trace the history of the giveaway from the 1850s right up through March 23, 2021, when Kris Jenner, the matriarch of the Kardashian family known fondly for working harder than Satan, posted a photograph of herself on her Instagram page sitting on a grand staircase surrounded by thousands of dollars’ worth of Louis Vuitton luggage.
“Who wants a 20k USD preloaded credit card + the luxury purses pictured here with me,” she asked, adding a credit card emoji, four exclamation points, and two notices that the post was an #ad. (An ad for what, exactly? It’s complicated.) All entrants had to do, said Jenner, was follow a few dozen other Instagram accounts and comment on Jenner’s post.
Peering at the display, I wondered: Who wins these things? The answer has been difficult to ascertain.
“It takes 90 seconds”
I started paying attention to Instagram giveaways such as Jenner’s last year, when I was spending [redacted] hours per day on my couch, scrolling through Instagram. All of the Kardashians, save for Rob, have participated in one at some time or another, tempting their followers with Saint Laurent handbags, luxury baby strollers, and credit cards “preloaded” with thousands of dollars. (“Girl this looks like a scam,” said one commenter on a Kylie Jenner giveaway post from November 2020. “No one ever wins these,” said another.)
Plenty of lesser influencers have gotten in on the action, too. Last month, erstwhile Vanderpump Rules star Stassi Schroeder offered her followers the chance to win a MacBook Air, a Canon camera, a Gucci purse, and a $1,500 prepaid Visa gift card, so long as they turned around and followed the 55 accounts that the marketing firm @socialstance was following. Among these accounts were even lesser influencers and fledgling brands, including an organic cosmetics company, a self-described “wellness hacker,” and a boutique that sells those oversize bows that people like to make their babies wear now.
This kind of suspicious marketing is what’s known as a “loop” giveaway: The lesser influencers and brands pay a marketing firm like Social Stance to be on the must-follow list, and Social Stance pays the featured influencer, like Schroeder, to post about the giveaway. Overnight, the influencers and brands that bought in can gain thousands of followers. (The cost to participate in such a scheme reportedly ranges from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands.)
Social Stance, the company that administered the Schroeder giveaway, has also partnered with personalities like the actress Lucy Hale, Keeping Up With the Kardashians star Malika Haqq, and several former contestants on The Bachelor. The company, which did not respond to a request for an interview, describes its business this way on its website: “We partner with celebrities, cultural icons and established business’ [sic] to drive large scale influence and rapid growth of brands.” On its “Results” page, it claims that the Schroeder giveaway led to 9,400 new followers for participants.
The benefit to the average contest entrant is less clear. The company does not disclose how it picks the lucky Instagram user to win the Canon and the MacBook and the Gucci. A few days after Schroeder first advertised the giveaway, she deleted the post without announcing a winner.
When the Kardashians advertise giveaways, they work primarily with Curated Businesses, a marketing firm based in Australia. On the FAQ page on the company’s website, the first question is “Is this real?” and the answer is “Yes!”
Reading this, I was undoubtedly reassured, but still I wondered: Who wins? Curated Businesses is slightly more forthcoming, at least, about how it conducts its giveaways, though it also did not respond to a request for an interview, so I’m unable to confirm that the following is true. On the same FAQ page, the company claims that it obtains the “necessary government issued lottery permits for our campaigns and the final draw is conducted by an independent third party and overseen by a certified scrutineer.”
A certified scrutineer! Despite this official-sounding surveillance mechanism, entering one of these contests still feels a bit like writing your name on a piece of paper and throwing it into the street in the hope that someone will find it and bring you a million dollars. Has this worked for anyone?
“If I see 10,000 comments, I’m not bothering”
Unlike most digital agencies dedicated to the project of giving away luxury items on Instagram, Curated Businesses does make a point to announce at least some winners after its contests conclude. The company has a separate Instagram page, @cbwinners, where it shares the Instagram handles, and sometimes the photos, of people who have allegedly won those prepaid Visas and designer bags. The winners tend to be young women, probably because the people inclined to enter such contests tend to be young women. They look real enough, but I could not independently confirm their identities or their wins — I contacted over a dozen of them on Instagram, and no one responded.
Occasionally, Curated Businesses posts Instagram-DM testimonials from winners, which offer some insight into what it’s like to win a prize. In February, the firm shared a missive from a young man who said winning a Kendall Jenner giveaway “changed my outlook on life in so many ways.” I thought perhaps he would be open to elaborating, but he also did not respond to a request for an interview.
But Curated Businesses is just one marketing firm among many. Plenty of smaller giveaway schemes have proliferated on Instagram, some of them orchestrated by influencers themselves. Last May, several groups of fashion and fitness influencers joined forces to give away Peloton bikes — lots and lots of Peloton bikes — in multiple different loop giveaways. One team of influencers, made up of former reality stars like Jade Roper and mommy bloggers like Peyton Baxter, upped the ante: They bought a 2020 Hyundai Accent SE car to give away to a (randomly selected?) follower. (The scheme was later investigated by Instagram.)
With each new day, it seems there is another chance to (possibly, maybe, who knows) win something by “Liking” and following and commenting. Among these more casual, haphazard giveaways, I found someone who did.
This lucky individual did not win a collection of luxury handbags or an overpriced exercise bike or thousands of dollars in cash, but she did win something. Lauren McDowell, a 36-year-old living in Houston, Texas, said she won a collection of high-end soaps and candles from a giveaway organized by Joya Studio, a perfumery in Brooklyn, New York.
How did she do it? In this case, the randomness of the universe bent in her favor, and also she kind of knows what she’s doing on Instagram, given that she is a marketing professional herself. She co-owns a small communications company in Houston and is familiar with the many ways brands can market themselves on the app. The Joya Studio giveaway was not the first one she entered — she said she keeps an eye out for giveaways from smaller brands and influencers that do not have the same reach as, say, a Kardashian. If she sees only a couple hundred comments on a giveaway post, she thinks, Hey, I could win that.
Her sister, she said, does not employ the same strategy: She’s always participating in the big-time influencer giveaways, which she does not win. Waste of time, said McDowell. “If I see 10,000 comments, I’m not bothering.”
The Joya Studio giveaway fit her qualifications: To enter, she had to follow seven brands on Instagram, including the perfumery D.S. & Durga and the soap company Malin + Goetz. She also had to tag a friend in the comments. She chose her sister, because “I know that I can reliably tag her and she’ll tag me on giveaway posts, and I don’t have to feel bad inconveniencing a friend where they’re like, what is this?”
A few days went by, and McDowell forgot about her entry. But then she got a DM from Joya Studio telling her she had won. The company sent a prize package to both her and her sister.
“I feel really good about the brand now, which is the whole point of the thing,” she said.
“Another lucky winner”
As happy as I was to learn that someone somewhere won something on Instagram, I still wondered about the Louis Vuitton handbags and $20,000 preloaded credit card that Kris Jenner advertised on her Instagram in March. Did anyone win them? And what do you do with a $20,000 preloaded gift card? Can you use it at a grocery store or a gas station? Do you have to pay taxes on it?
To answer that last question, I talked to my accountant, Ben Sargent, who works with some influencers. He said that, oh, yes, you have to pay taxes on it.
“Many winners are surprised to find that they owe taxes on the new car, vacation, or other prize that they won when they receive a form 1099 reporting the income to them,” he explained. “Winning a $60,000 new car could mean you end up with a roughly $20,000 tax bill that you don’t have the extra cash to pay, leading many people to instead take the lower ‘cash’ option for prizes, or to sell the car for cash.”
Sargent said this applies even if the company administering the prize is based in, say, Australia.
On April 1, @curatedbusinesses posted about the Kris Jenner giveaway. “Remember: Winners are chosen randomly by a government audited organisation,” it said. “They are not chosen based on anyone’s financial status, skin colour, location or follower number … It could be you next!!”
The company announced that this time, Instagram user @luvnlyte was the winner. She did not respond to a request for comment.
Here’s who owns everything in Big Media today -
Rani Molla
It probably won’t look like this for long.
The media landscape used to be straightforward: Content companies (studios) made stuff (TV shows and movies) and sold it to pay TV distributors, who sold it to consumers.
Now things are up for grabs: Netflix buys stuff from the studios, but it’s making its own stuff, too, and it’s selling it directly to consumers. That’s one of the reasons older media companies are trying to compete by consolidating. Disney, for example, bought much of 21st Century Fox — though much of the early success of its Disney+ streaming service looks like it’s a result of earlier purchases of Lucasfilm, Marvel, and Pixar. Meanwhile, distributors like AT&T, which bought Time Warner, and Verizon, which bought AOL and Yahoo, thought they wanted to become media companies — and have now done an about-face and are bailing out of those acquisitions.
Giant tech companies like Google, Amazon, and Apple that used to be on the sidelines are getting closer and closer to the action — and now Amazon has jumped in with both feet, with a plan to buy MGM, the studio that makes James Bond movies and TV shows like Shark Tank. If regulators approve, Amazon will pay $8.5 billion (including debt) for MGM, with the hopes of turning brands and characters like Rocky and the Pink Panther into new shows and movies.
To help sort this all out, we’ve created a diagram that organizes distributors, content companies, and internet video companies by market cap — the value investors assign to the companies — and their main lines of business.
Here’s what the Big Media universe currently looks like. We will update it periodically:
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
A Quiet Place Part II takes a good premise and extends it -
Emily Blunt and Noah Jupe in A Quiet Place Part II. | Paramount Pictures
The sequel to the 2018 hit is a fun, taut tease for an expanded universe.
When A Quiet Place appeared in theaters in April 2018, it was a worldwide smash hit, and I’ve spent a while since then trying to figure out why. Setting aside its star power (namely, Emily Blunt and John Krasinski), it was not obviously poised for success more than any other horror film.
The premise is simple: A family of five lives alone in the woods. The world outside their home is stalked by alien-monsters who are triggered into murderous rage by noise of any kind. They’re just trying to survive.
It’s a remarkably restrained film, mostly taking place over the course of one day, filling in only the barest background details, and letting us focus singularly on the terror of staying alive, and protecting vulnerable children, too. And I think that’s why it was such a hit: It delivers some excellent jump scares and whittles down a common theme in horror — keeping your kids alive in a world that’s trying to kill them — to its essence. It’s sincere and bittersweet, and it clearly tapped into something that moved audiences.
If the first Quiet Place movie was efficient horror storytelling, A Quiet Place Part II expands a little into the post-apocalyptic, answering some questions about what happened before the invasion and also setting the table for what will happen next. (It’s definitely meant to be, at minimum, the middle part of a trilogy; it’s also easy to imagine a TV series, not that one should.) The characters move around a bit more than in the previous film, and the outlines of the world they used to inhabit start to fill in. A Quiet Place was uneven in spots, but still felt like a startling discovery, which means its sequel has a lot to live up to.
And, for the most part, it does. A Quiet Place Part II starts in the story’s past. On day one of the rest of their lives — not in a good way — the Abbott family are in their quiet New England hamlet with their neighbors, watching a Little League baseball game. There’s no threat, yet. Evelyn (Blunt) and Lee (Krasinski) keep tabs on their three kids: daring Regan (Millicent Simmonds), who is deaf; timid Marcus (Noah Jupe), swinging away at home plate; and curious Beau (Dean Woodward), hanging onto the fence and watching his big brother play. Nearby on the bleachers, gruff neighbor Emmett (Cillian Murphy) hangs onto his radio and watches his kids play.
Paramount Pictures
Emily Blunt in A Quiet Place Part II.
Suddenly, fireballs from the sky crash onto the field, and havoc breaks loose. The opening sequences of A Quiet Place Part II feel obviously influenced by Spielbergian visions of apocalyptic catastrophe (there are echoes of War of the Worlds everywhere). And they’re skillfully executed. Krasinski returns to this sequel as director and sole writer (he co-wrote the first film), and he has a good sense of how to build tension in what we’re seeing and what we’re hearing.
Or not hearing. Soon we jump forward in time, to the moments after A Quiet Place ended, and pick up the story from there. I’m reluctant to reveal many details since suspense is so vital to a film like this, but there’s plenty else of note. Blunt remains one of Hollywood’s most reliably interesting action performers, swinging between the extremes of vulnerability and boldness that make perfect sense for a terrified, bereaved mother of three.
Jupe is stuck with the hard work — playing the kid who’s terrified all the time — but Simmonds (who, like her character, is deaf) also extends her run of great, emotionally resonant performances, turning into a bit of an action hero herself. The pair are two of the best teen actors working today, and their sibling chemistry is enough to carry the whole movie without any adults.
Murphy also figures largely into this installment, and boy, did I miss seeing Cillian Murphy in movies. (He’s been around, but mostly busy with TV’s Peaky Blinders.) Few actors are quite as skilled at keeping the audience on edge; he can walk a fine line between heroic and deranged, unsettling and secure, and in this role, those possibilities play to his advantage.
The performances in A Quiet Place Part II make it very watchable, when combined with some heart-pounding action scenes that deploy the presence or absence of sound to ramp up the anxiety. The movie sticks the landing, too, even if that landing clearly leads into some future sequel. Filmmakers sometimes struggle to know where to pull back, but Krasinski seems to sense that less is more, and turns in a confident, capable sequel. (Plus, it’s just so nice to see a summer blockbuster — even a sequel — that’s based on an original story, rather than endlessly recycled IP fare.)
Paramount Pictures
Millicent Simmonds in A Quiet Place Part II.
The heart of AQuiet Place Part II remains the same as that of its predecessor, and, to be honest, it will probably resonate more now than it would have in early March 2020, when it was originally scheduled for release. Parents seeking to protect their kids from a vengeful, baffling, indiscriminate threat to their lives by staying quietly at home? Mourning the world that was and hoping for respite, a place to live freely that is once again safe? Well, that’s pretty relatable at this point in time.
Yet as with all of the eerily “relatable” movies that came out during the pandemic — none of which could have anticipated what was next — A Quiet Place Part II feels relevant because the pandemic exacerbated what was already going on in our lives, agitating feelings we already had. The world feels dangerous, whether or not you’re a parent. We simultaneously need and fear our neighbors in a society where everyone’s out only for themselves.
A Quiet Place Part II retains the horrorof its predecessor, butstarts to raise the questions that post-apocalyptic entertainment often asks best. In the wake of earth-shattering catastrophes and unspeakable loss, how does a culture rebuild itself? Can a society find a new and better way to live? Or will we simply fall back on the old ways? As we approach the first big summer weekend of 2021, that question couldn’t be more resonant. A Quiet Place Part II is one place to start thinking about it.
A Quiet Place Part II opens in theaters on May 28.
From The Hindu: Sports
Kerala’s chess players mobilise to checkmate COVID-19 - Chess Kerala organises online tournaments to raise funds for the COVID-19 vaccine drive in the State
Real Madrid says Zidane stepping down as team’s coach - He had a contract through June 2022
Rashford faces racist abuse on social media after final loss - “For those working to make me feel any worse than I already do, good luck trying.”
Citing mental health concerns, Naomi Osaka says she won’t do press at French Open - Expecting players to answer questions after losses amounted to “kicking a person while they’re down,” she said.
It felt like I beat the virus: Shiva Thapa talks about record 5th Asian medal - “I never thought I would be the first to do something like this.”
From The Hindu: National News
Toolkit | Twitter refusing to cooperate, says Delhi Police - Only courts can judge and ‘adjudicate the truth’, says statement.
Coronavirus | Sons of deceased Hurriyat leader test positive in custody: kin - The family of two jailed sons of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (TeH) chairman Ashraf Sehrai, who died in the custody on May 5, on Thursday claimed that the duo h
KEAM entrance exams on July 24 - The Commissioner for Entrance Examinations has decided to conduct the KEAM 2021 entrance examinations for engineering and pharmacy courses on July 24.
Coronavirus | Despite dip in cases, Maharashtra to extend lockdown-like restrictions after May 31 - While the Maharashtra government may consider easing some curbs, the current lockdown-like restrictions are to remain in force after May 31, informed
Covid-19 | Following workers’ protests, Ford suspends operations in Chennai plant for three days - The workers’ demands include a compensation of ₹1 crore each to the kin of two Covid victms and covering the medical expenses of those testing positive.
From BBC: Europe
Belarus: I’m ready to beg for help, says mother of detained woman - The mother of Sofia Sapega, who was arrested when her flight was grounded in Minsk, speaks to the BBC.
Nexta: The journalists taking on Belarus’ regime - The BBC visits the colleagues of Roman Protasevich, the journalist arrested off the diverted Ryan Air flight.
Azerbaijan captures six Armenian troops on border - The six were surrounded by Azeri troops who foiled a sabotage mission, Azerbaijan says.
Macron asks Rwanda to forgive France over 1994 genocide role - At a memorial to the 1994 genocide in Rwanda’s capital President Macron admits French mistakes.
Zinedine Zidane leaves Real Madrid for second time as manager - Zinedine Zidane resigns as Real Madrid manager after their first season without a trophy since 2010.
From Ars Technica
We got our first ride in the electric Lucid Air sedan - The stylish and spacious electric sedan goes into production later this year. - link
Sony lists PC version of Uncharted 4 in investor report - Listed under “more PC releases planned” amid strong returns for Horizon’s port. - link
Scientists induced hallucinations in mice to learn more about human psychosis - Study uncovered a surprising link between how human and mouse minds malfunction. - link
Windows 10 21H1 available now, improves document load times - The changes in 21H1 are mostly minor—much bigger things are coming in October. - link
These offline, disc-based games require an online check-in on Xbox Series X - One-time connection required for configuration on Xbox One and Smart Delivery discs. - link
From Jokes Subreddit
Dad, a girl invited me over to her house -
“Oh that is great, Billy. But you should be careful, you are young and an STD or unwanted pregnancy is going to be devastating. Please, remember to wear a condom if the situation arises… Actually, no. I don’t trust you, son. Put it on right now, because at the heat of the moment you will forget.”
And so Billy did. And he head over to the girl’s place. After a chat and some drinks, things got saucy.
" Wait" she said, “In order to continue, you have to pass a test.” She then removed her shirt, proclaiming “My breasts! Pure and untouched. Only the sun on beach days had ever had a feel of them”
She then removed her skirt. “My thighs. Pure and touched by no one. Only the wind on breezy days has ever felt their softness.”
Finally, she removed her panties. “And last, my vagina, pure and untouched. No one has ever felt its warmth, nor the wind nor the sun. So tell me, Billy, should I let you feel my body? Are you capable to match my purity?”
“Sure”, he claims as he pulls downs his pants, “I am so pure and untouched, my willy is still in the the wrapper”
A guy walks into a bar, notices a “free beer for life challenge” on the front door. -
A guy walks into a bar, notices a “free beer for life challenge” on the front door.
He goes inside, and asks the bartender what he needs to do to receive free beer for life. The bartender reaches under the bar and pulls out a bottle of vodka, " First, drink this whole bottle in one go, no crying, breathing, or puking allowed." The man grabs the bottle and starts chugging.
He slams the bottle on the counter, burps, and asks what’s next. The bartender, totally aloof says, " Alright, there’s an alligator outside with a loose tooth, go pull it for me. Next, there’s a woman upstairs who has never had an orgasm, go up there and give her one." The man, visibly worried steps outside, the bar room falls silent. The bartender hears screaming and rustling in the bushes outside.
After a few minutes the man comes inside, all bloodied with ripped clothes he asks, " Okay, where is that lady with the loose tooth again?"
A horny gorilla sees a lion bent over a small stream, taking a drink. [NSFW] -
A horny gorilla sees a lion bent over a small stream, taking a drink.
The gorilla runs up behind the lion, grabs on, and has his way with him. The gorilla then takes off running, with the very angry lion on his heels. As they run through the jungle, the gorilla gets a bit of a lead, and sees a British safari camp ahead.
The gorilla enters the camp, grabs some khakis that are hung out to dry, and puts on pants, a shirt, and a hat. He sits on a chair by the campfire and grabs a copy of the local paper, pretending to read, to hide his face.
The lion enters the campsite and lets out a huge roar. He yells, “did anyone see a gorilla run through here?”
The gorilla, in full disguise, calls out, “you mean the one that fucked the lion up the ass?”
The lion exclaims, “oh my god! It’s in the paper already?”
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Paramount Pictures
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Paramount Pictures