Brainrot is mainstream

+ OnlyFans = Cash Machine

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OVERWORLD:
-OnlyFans is a cash machine-

ONE BETWEEN:
-Kamala Harris tries brainrot ads-

THE DEPTHS:
-The device that controlled minds for 70 years-

“Here I am: My brain is open.”
Paul Erdős

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✦DISCOVERY PICKS✦

▶️ YouTube:
Eggland

Nasty money

OnlyFans is a cash machine

OnlyFans, where humans show off their pussies and cocks for money, has reported some insane financial results for 2023. Record growth everywhere:

Make porn: More and more people are getting an OnlyFans. The platform saw a 29% increase in creators, reaching 4.12 million. Make of that what you will.

Consume porn: Also, more and more people are using OnlyFans. The number of registered users on OnlyFans also grew, with a 28% increase bringing the total to 305 million. Make of that what you will as well.

Cash circulation: Gross payments made through the platform rose by 19%, jumping from $5.55 billion in 2022 to $6.63 billion in 2023

Pockets fat: After taxes and fees, creators earned a total of $5.32 billion, averaging nearly $1,300 per creator.

Billion: The platform’s net revenue surged by 20% to $1.31 billion, while pre-tax profits soared 25% to $658 million. 66% of this revenue was generated in the U.S.

Winner takes almost all: OnlyFans' owner, Leonid Radvinsky, received $472 million in dividends, a 40% increase from the previous year.

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✦QUICK HITS✦

✦Business & Tech✦

Sick: Last month, a Google team AI-generated a playable Doom. Now, some other researchers created MarioVGG, which uses similar methods to generate Super Mario Bros. gameplay. While promising, MarioVGG's results are glitchy, slow, and require improvements for real-time gaming — but it’s happening.

Bad bad: Coinbase had its worst week of the year, dropping 20%, amid a broader crypto selloff driven by economic concerns. Crypto-related equities hit lows, while Bitcoin fell 4% to its lowest since February.

Real money: Roblox is about to allow game developers to charge players real money instead of Robux. The idea is that Roblox becomes almost a traditional video-game distribution channel, allowing developers to make money from selling titles, and to raise and lower prices based on market demand.

✦Fashion & Culture✦

Referencing the reference: The Ralph Lauren brand has since forever been synonymous with the aesthetics of the Hamptons flavor of Americana. And so, sense was made when Ralph Lauren's Spring 2025 show in Bridgehampton made a huge homage to the Hamptons. Take a look.

Yeah, right: Barack Obama defended his 2024 Summer Playlist, stating he listens to all featured music, including Charli XCX's Brat, which he praised. He also said he gets put on to music from his daughters and younger staff.

Lol: The Austrailian breakdancing lady, Raygun, apologized for backlash following her viral Olympic breaking performance, admitting her unique style faced criticism. She described the experience as surreal and said the negative response was "pretty devastating."

✦Hmm… Interesting✦

Get smart: The Art of Finishing

Test yourself: Is my blue your blue?

Watch: How a 16th Century Explorer's Sailing Ship Works

ONE

BETWEEN

New normal

Kamala Harris tries brainrot ads

Brainrot has gone mainstream.

Kamala Harris's presidential campaign has gone full TikTok content sludge with split-screen content to hold the attention of fried brains.

You’ve probably seen this before; content where the top portion of the video is the main message, and the bottom is unrelated but visually stimulating media, like mobile game footage, Family Guy footage, or soap-cutting videos.

 

In one ad, the top screen shows Harris discussing her policies and criticizing Donald Trump, while the bottom half plays a 3D animation of rolling marbles.

Another version swaps the marbles for a spinning chrome shape, offering a similarly engaging visual contrast to the political message above.

Data from Google and Meta ad libraries show that these ads are primarily being distributed on platforms like YouTube Shorts and Instagram, with relatively low spending but targeted distribution.

One ad in Pennsylvania, for instance, has reached a substantial audience but garnered only a modest number of impressions, mostly among viewers aged 25 to 34.

THE DEPTHS

Laff

The device that controlled minds for 70 year

Humans are stupid monkeys. If our whole flock jumps off a cliff, we will too. If our whole flock laughs at something, even if it isn’t funny, we will too - which is why sitcoms have laugh tracks.

Sitcom laugh tracks started with American TV fossils like the 50s “The Hank McCune Show,” and kept being used for larger-than-culture hits like “Friends,” “Seinfeld,” and “Big Bang Theory.”

It’s actually not til the past 20 years that sitcoms started breaking form with naturally paced humor without laugh tracks. Think “Community,” “The Office” and “Arrested Development.”

Before we erase them completely, it might be worth wondering; where did they come from?

✦The birth of canned hahahas✦

The first laugh tracks were on radio, not TV.

According to legend, a kinda lame joke had ignited a booming audience laugh on a 40s radio show called “The Bing Crosby Show”.

Some sound engineers thought “That joke sucks, but those laughs are amazing, we should box them up and use them for jokes we think are good.”

So, Charles Douglass, sound engineer and inventor of the laugh track, created the Laff Box; literally a box on wheels that played recorded laughs out of a speaker.

✦Here’s how the Laff Box works✦

The box is operated by a piano-ish keyboard; pressing one key would release a single type of laugh, pressing multiple keys at once would create a combination or "symphony" of laughter.

Each key represented a different demographic factor, such as age, sex, and style of laugh. It was capable of holding a total of 320 laughs.

Douglass charged $100 per session to roll the Laugh Box to studios and help integrate the laugh tracks into television productions.

As demand grew, Douglas hired assistants to manage the workload, which involved sweetening around 100 hours of television weekly.

By salvaging recordings of authentic laughs, he could insert them after unfunny jokes, making your monkey brain cave to peer pressure and force a laugh. This technique became known as “sweetening” recorded radio content.

Transitioning to TV, producers tried creating that theater feel with an audience watching and reacting. But live audiences were sporadic, they didn’t laugh at the correct moment. Luckily, they had Douglass’ Laff Box.

Now, a producer could control the timing and intensity of audience reactions, ensuring that every joke landed perfectly.

And that’s why, 60 years later, “Big Bang Theory” makes people laugh.