- REGALIER
- Posts
- It's getting banned, maybe.
It's getting banned, maybe.
+ Prada hit a €1B record
In this issue:
OVERWORLD:
-TikTok’s ultimatum: sell it to the US, or get banned-
-Mini-Stories: Prada kills it
+ The Oscars, in short
+ Breathable air outside of Jupiter-
THE DEPTHS:
-How a legendary accident created tea 6700 years ago-
“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
 | O |  |
✦Trend Picks✦
▶️ YouTube: Casually Explained: Bodybuilding ✖️ X: Godzilla 🔎 Google: Zone of Interest | 🎵 Spotify: Babyface Ray - Money On My Mind |
Media
The very real US TikTok ban, quickly explained.
Imagine TikTok with no American users.
No rizzers showing you how to charm ladies on campus.
No 17-year-old dropshipping moguls showing you how to make the salary of a Medical Director from your bedroom.
And no American Zoomer girls melting down over unemployment - despite their business marketing degree putting them “a cute $80,00 in debt.”
You’d just be left with German perfume pervert/superstar Jeremy Fragrance. Which is OK, just not ideal.
Left, Jeremy Fragrance. Right, depressed American Zoomer.
✦It’s happening✦
This might turn into a reality very soon, as a TikTok ban is rapidly passing the US legislative system.
Here’s the gist of it: A not-so-catchy bill called the ‘Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act’ aims to make it illegal to distribute apps in the US that are controlled by entities in adversary countries, such as Big Bad China.
This bill is currently speedrunning the system, as it recently passed the committee by unanimous vote and is headed for a full house vote. President Biden also seems very down with this ban.
That would mean chopping off 170M valuable users from the platform - as Americans spend 4.43B minutes per day on TikTok.
✦But why?✦
Much of America’s government has a classic modern folklore perception of Tiktok: It’s addictive Chinese spyware that corrodes the American conscience. Which might be true, even if a little bit so.
This has been in the works for a long time. Almost exactly one year ago, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was getting grilled in a congressional hearing. To accusations of TikTok’s corrosiveness and Chinese governmental influence, he responded:
✦ Chew repeatedly denied sharing data with the Chinese Communist Party and argued that he’s committed to ensuring the safety of its 150 million American users.
✦ Chew highlighted efforts to create a "firewall" to protect U.S. user data from unauthorized foreign access, emphasizing that American data is stored on American soil, managed by an American company, and overseen by American personnel.
✦ He also noted that TikTok has invested more than $1.5B in data security efforts under "Project Texas," employing nearly 1,500 full-time employees and partnering with Oracle Corp to store U.S. user data.
✦Despite these defenses, lawmakers are critical.✦
They’re still hung up on content they argue could harm children; such as promoting eating disorders, facilitating illegal drug sales, and enabling sexual exploitation.
Chew responded that these issues were "complex" and not unique to TikTok, emphasizing the company's commitment to screening content that could harm children and asserting that TikTok does not promote or remove content at the request of the Chinese government.
✦Now, TikTok gets an ultimatum.✦
ByteDance, the company behind TikTok has two decisions: either sell TikTok to us, or we ban it. As this bill passes, they’ll give TikTok a little more than 5 months to comply.
Recently, TikTok responded by rallying its U.S. user base to protest against the bill, emphasizing the potential infringement on free expression. Which, honestly, won’t make much difference.
✦Mini Stories✦
-Prada kills it-
-Oscar winners speedrun-
-There’s a breathable air by Jupiter-
💸 Consumers won’t stop throwing money at Prada - Miu Miu sales surge 82%.
Times are rough for fashion. Prices are rising, pockets are hurting, and luxury shopping is slowing down - unless you’re the Prada Group.
Yes, the legendary Milan titan has outpaced expectations. For the fourth quarter, analysts expected a modest 14% growth in retail sales, which was shattered by a reported 17%.
Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons’ collaboration is a hit - the flagship Prada label is currently spearheading growth with a 10% increase in retail sales.
But the real star as of late is Miu Miu - Prada’s sister brand. An insane surge in interest for Miu Miu manifested in an 82% leap in sales. Again, insane.
For 2023, the Prada Group celebrated a 12% rise in net revenues, reaching €4.73B, effortlessly surpassing its mid-term goal. Operating profit also saw a significant boost, increasing by 37% and crossing the €1B mark for the first time.
Executive Chairman Patrizio Bertelli says that this success boils down to Prada’s diverse product range and innovation in repositioning Prada’s legend status. Good job guys.
🏆 Here are all the Oscar winners, if you care lol.
✦ Best Picture: "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
✦ Actress in a Supporting Role: Jamie Lee Curtis, "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
✦ Actor in a Supporting Role: Ke Huy Quan, "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
✦ International Feature Film: "All Quiet on the Western Front," Germany
✦ Documentary (Short): "The Elephant Whisperers"
✦ Documentary Feature: "Navalny"
✦ Original Song: "Naatu Naatu" from "RRR"
✦ Animated Feature Film: "Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio"
✦ Adapted Screenplay: "Women Talking"
✦ Original Screenplay: "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
✦ Actor in a Leading Role: Brendan Fraser, "The Whale"
✦ Actress in a Leading Role: Michelle Yeoh, "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
✦ Director: Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
✦ Production Design: "All Quiet on the Western Front"
✦ Cinematography: "All Quiet on the Western Front"
✦ Costume Design: "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever"
✦ Achievement in Sound: "Top Gun: Maverick"
✦ Animated Short Film: "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse"
✦ Live Action Short Film: "An Irish Goodbye"
✦ Original Score: "All Quiet on the Western Front"
✦ Visual Effects: "Avatar: The Way of Water"
✦ Film Editing: "Everything Everywhere All at Once"
✦ Makeup and Hairstyling: "The Whale"
🌝 There’s breathable air on one of Jupiter’s 95 moons.
Good news, we might be able to live on one of Jupiter’s moons, Europa. Bad news, it’s -160 degrees Celsius. But still! You know, in case shit goes south on Earth.
Here’s how your new home looks: Europa is covered in an ice shell that might be hiding an ocean beneath. Think of it as a Ferrero Rocher, crispy on the outside, liquid-y on the inside.
Alien neighbors: NASA's Juno spacecraft has unveiled that Europa generates about 1,000 tons of oxygen daily, which is enough for 1M humans. Also, the presence of oxygen and ice has been intriguing astrobiologists with the potential for life in its subsurface ocean.
The smart people at NASA figured this out by studying how hydrogen gas escapes from Europa. Basically, its icy surface makes oxygen and hydrogen by breaking up water when it interacts with Jupiter's magnetic field.
As Juno moves on to explore further, future missions like NASA's Europa Clipper and ESA's JUICE are set to further probe Europa's mysteries. promising exciting developments in understanding Jupiter’s system and the quest for life beyond Earth.
✦Quick hits✦
• Novo Nordisk shares surged and hit a record high. This comes after they presented some early data teasing a new obesity drug that might be even better than their worldwide blockbuster, Wegovy.
• Elon Musk says xAI is going to open-source their ChatGPT competitor, Grok, this week. This comes days after suing OpenAI for leaving their open-source non-profit roots.
• In GTA5, somebody did a fully in-game play of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Now, a fully in-game documentary about the making of the play is being made. It’ll follow two out-of-work theater actors who had the idea of producing Hamlet in-game during the UK’s Covid-19 lockdown.
• A Singapore hotel will pay its residents if rain ruins their plans. A sweet deal, as it rains an average of 171 days per year in Singapore. But there are criteria, you only get paid when “rain duration exceeds 120 cumulative minutes within any 4-hour block of time during daylight hours.”
• Shannon Sharpe says he made more money off the Katt Williams interview than he ever made in an NFL season.
• Drake’s OVO label snatched and signed viral RnB singer 4Batz following a bidding war.
• Read: ‘How Hackers Dox Doctors to Order Mountains of Oxy and Adderall’
• Watch: Here’s how Chilean TV avoided cutting to commercial breaks during Star Wars - they simply edited in footage where Obi-Wan and Palpatine reached for a beer mid-conversation.
THE DEPTHS
History
How a legendary accident created tea 6700 years ago.
One day, some 4500 years ago, Emperor Shen Nong was boiling some water - simply minding his business. Then he got annoyed. Nature was messing with him. The wind had knocked some wild tree leaves into his pot. But the Emperor was hard-headed. Nature would not ruin his day. Besides, he may have been Emperor, but Shen Nong was not the bougie type - he drank it anyway.
Yes, he loved it. Yes, he ordered his empire to grow tea trees. And yes, all of China’s elite started drinking tea.
Now, this is a folktale. Shen Nong ruled in 2737, and nothing proves that people were drinking tea back then.
The first archaeological evidence that proves tea’s presence in China is from the Shang dynasty (1600–1046 BC). Still, a long ass time ago - 3600 years, ish.
Even then, it was the elite’s drink. But by the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD), tea became with common people. Actually, the first known book on tea, "The Classic of Tea" by Yu Lu is from 760 AD.
These days the British are synonymous with tea drinking. But how’d it get from the grand steppes of China to a dinky wet rock outside of Europe?
In their mission to spread God to Asia, Catholic Portuguese priests couldn’t help but notice the herbal drink in all of the heathen Taoist ceremonies. Was this a devil's drink? Temptation lured and there was only one way to find out. So they drank it, they loved it, and they sent it with some merchants to sell it back home.
And so, a new exotic drink had entered the European markets. It became fashionable in the Dutch and English courts before spreading to the public. Soon it became a staple in British culture, particularly with the advent of afternoon tea culture in the 19th century.