Notable that Black Friday sales data shows:
-A 9.1% increase spend from last year.
But:
-A -1% in total item volume from last year.
-Prices +7% higher.
-Consumers bought on average 4.1% fewer items.
And:
-An 11% increase on buy-now-pay-later use.
-Klarna specific use up 45% by volume since last year
Meaning:
-Roughly 11% of ALL Black Friday spending was financed through BNPL.
-And 84% of all purchases were financed by credit cards, where 67% of those consumers expect to not pay the full balance in the first month.
So overall:
-A total of 95% of Black Friday shopping ($11.2B) was financed.
-And, 67% ($7.9B) was financed on debt that consumers do not expect to be able to pay in the next 30 days.
This is the sign of a weakening and stretched consumer.
Skull Mask (ritual dance mask). Origin: Bhutan. Date: c. 1850–1920. Medium: Carved and painted wood, with metal eye fittings. Collection: Science Museum Group, London (image via Wellcome Collection).
"...These dancing skeletons are not merely theatrical performers but serve as a rehearsal for the moment of death specifically the intermediate state known as the bardo. the terrifying deities encountered during this transition are actually projections of the deceased person's own mind and if one recognizes these skeletal visions as reflections of their own intellect rather than external demons they can achieve instant liberation instead of being dragged back into the cycle of rebirth..."
Francesca Fremantle, Luminous Emptiness: Understanding the Tibetan Book of the Dead
New addition to the Discordian Archives!
TALES OF ILLUMINATUS! #2 "The Invisible Crown" by Bobby Campbell and Todd Purse, published 2025.
Courtesy of the Discordian Archives.
Starship Troopers (1997) was widely panned on release because critics didn’t catch the satire. The film isn’t just sci-fi action, it’s a biting commentary on propaganda and militarism, intentionally over-the-top to make the point.
those little bumps aren’t time markers at all. they’re handling bosses, temporary lugs left so ropes or levers could grip a block while it was moved and set.
in egypt you can actually catch the process frozen mid job: on unfinished walls such as the first pylon at karnak and at kalabsha and philae, bosses were left to protect faces during handling and would have been trimmed off in the last dressing stage if work had continued. see: https://t.co/wtfSQP3WT2
greek builders did the same. on the unfinished east side of the propylaia some bosses are so shallow they could never have lifted anything, showing they were provisional work aids, not mysterious symbols. see: https://t.co/BT9dgbPHuS
and in the andes, jean pierre protzen’s experiments showed raised faces help protect edges during transport and explain the sunken joints of inca masonry. the nubs read like construction fingerprints, not clocks..
https://t.co/bYPJx44PTQ
FUNDRAISING ASK: my friend is trans, disabled, and about to lose SNAP benefits. there's a day left on their fundraiser and it's only at 48%. Can people please donate and boost? we really need all hands on deck for this one. https://t.co/OL7gZ8LgNu
the doors themselves are magnificent, but the most astonishing detail is hidden: the massive, complex internal lock is the original 4th-century mechanism, and it still functions.
they survived because the building was converted in 527 AD into the vestibule of the christian church Santi Cosma e Damiano, sparing them from later bronze spoliation.
🚨 South Park didn’t just go scorched earth, they napalmed the narrative.
This week’s episode has Dora the Explorer getting ICE-raided at her own show, then trafficked straight to Mar-a-Lago to give old men massages. That’s right. A kids’ cartoon character ends up massaging a geezer in Trump’s palace of denial.
Kristi Noem shoots a puppy in the opening scene. ICE raids Heaven. Trump, Vance, and Satan rub elbows on Fantasy Island. And when Mr. Mackey sees what’s happening, even he nopes out of the job.