- REGALIER
- Posts
- Neanderthals were incels
Neanderthals were incels
+ The birth of the Michelin Man
084
OVERWORLD:
-In 2024, you can set yourself on fire to get rich-
ONE BETWEEN:
-Neanderthals were lonely incels, which killed them-
THE DEPTHS:
-The birth of the Michelin Man-
 | O |  |
We’re here
In 2024, you can set yourself on fire to get crypto-rich
In May, a Solana meme coin creator was set on fire — or rather, he set himself on fire.
In a stunt, he drenched himself in isopropyl alcohol, and attempted to dodge an arsenal of fireworks fired toward him.
He did not succeed. For a moment, he was a flesh bonfire — then his friends poured water over him. This was all livestreamed.
The idea was to promote his meme coin, Truth or Dare — or $DARE.
The creator, Mikol Ayala, got third-degree burns and continued promoting $DARE from his hospital bed. The coin pumped to $2 million the next day.
This story is just one in a trend of creators performing extreme, often reckless stunts to gain attention for their cryptocurrencies.
Here’s a little chronicle, with clickable links:
One guy got punched so hard in the face he lost a tooth.
Another blacked out after smoking God knows what drug.
Two girls in lingerie rubbed up against one another in front of a rising candle chart.
Favorite: One teenager promised to pour milk over his supposed mother’s breasts, if his coin got a $300,000 valuation.
Mikol Ayala, the $DARE martyr
The meme coin ecosystem has exploded, largely due to platforms like Pump.Fun, which lets users create coins instantly and for free. Since its launch in January, Pump.Fun has generated around $100 million from a 1% fee on trades, making it the fastest-growing crypto app. Over two million meme coins, including $DARE have been launched via the platform.
“live with mom”, the Kick-stream where LIVEMOM, the mother-pimping coin was pumped.
If you don't get it: Meme coins serve no real purpose beyond speculation, with their value driven mainly by hype and attention. This gives coins the ability to grow in market cap.
If you're famous, this attention:success ratio is easy to leverage. For example, celebrities like Caitlyn Jenner, Andrew Tate, and Jason Derulo have made their own meme coins. Rapper Iggy Azalea’s coin, MOTHER, launched through Pump.Fun, quickly reached a $200 million valuation, which she heavily promoted to her 7.7 million followers on X.
If you're not famous, do something crazy to get attention... like pouring milk on your mother's breast.
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Refer a friend with this link.
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✦QUICK HITS✦
✦Business & Tech✦
Erasure: Iron Mountain, the storage and destruction company, warns that roughly 20% of 1990s hard drives sent for archiving are unreadable. The entertainment industry faces risks as hard drives, even stored correctly, fail.
The Flappy Bird Foundation announced a new game, but original developer Dong Nguyen isn’t involved. Nguyen lost the trademark after it was abandoned. The game may include crypto elements and launches in 2024.
✦Fashion & Culture✦
Truly worldwide: Ye's recent China performance sold out 42,000 tickets at Haikou Wuyuanhe Stadium, marking his first show there in 16 years.
Niiiiice: Fashion designer Raf Simons is auctioning 131 pieces from his personal art and design collection, including Picasso ceramics and furniture by Jeanneret, Royère, and Le Corbusier, starting September 18 via Piasa Auction.
✦Hmm… Interesting✦
ONE
BETWEEN
Survival
Neanderthals were lonely incels, which killed them
Scientists think that Neanderthals, like humans, had an incel problem.
Researchers unearthed the remains of a Neanderthal male in France, believed to have lived around 50,000 years ago — and dude was lonely.
Named "Thorin" after the exiled Dwarf-King from The Hobbit, his remains provide new insights into Neanderthal society and their extinction.
It may be that Thorin's tribe, and other Neanderthal groups, were isolated for tens of thousands of years. And it may also be a crucial factor contributed to their downfall.
Loner: Thorin's DNA separated from other European Neanderthals around 100,000 to 105,000 years ago. This means his group was genetically cut off from others for a long time before the end of the Neanderthals in Europe.
No pussy: Thorin’s genetic isolation may indicate that Neanderthals avoided gene exchange, even with geographically close populations and early modern humans.
Isolation: The findings suggest that different groups of Neanderthals lived separately for thousands of years, with very little interaction between them. This lack of connection might have played a role in why they eventually died out.
THE DEPTHS
Origin
The birth of the Michelin Man
One day, Édouard Michelin saw a stack of tires at the 1898 Lyon Exhibition.
The man made a living off tires. He saw them every day. This time, however, it was an extra peculiar stack of tires. They had been arranged in a way that made them look like half a human.
"With arms, it would make a man." Edouard said to his brother. Just like that, a silly, whimsical thought birthed the Mickey Mouse of the automotive industry.
And so, with the help of the French artist O'Galop, they made this ad with a tire-dude toasting:
The tire man declares: "Nunc est bibendum" ("Now is the time to drink") in Latin.
This wasn't just any drink. It was a toast to the downfall of Michelin's competitors, humorously depicted as crushed glasses and nails, the enemies of good tires.
And so, the Michelin Man AKA Bibendum was born. And he was a little bit more gangster than modern cartoon mascots.
Here he is with a cigar, leopard fur undies, and spikes in his foot:
By 1910, Bibendum was so popular that Michelin commissioned an outfit for actors to wear at events. At the time, it was a charming - "Haha, tire man!", you know.
Today, they look like dystopian space terrorists.
If you thought Gordon Ramsay was horrifying, imagine these guys coming to rate your restaurant.
Eventually, Bibendum ditched the beer and cigars and slimmed down. Now he looks kinda superhero-ish.
In retrospect, maybe space taliban Bibendum had more flavor.
