Merl Mayienga

Technical Product Manager | alumna @Carnegie Mellon University

[a @aslikadinnn]

tokyo’nun en iyi üniversitesi yıllardır kız öğrencilerin sınav sonuçlarını değiştirip üniversiteye girmelerini engelliyormuş. biz fırsat eşitsizliğinden bahsedince beyler sene 2026 diye ağlıyor, al sana sene 2026

[ຸ @fvckfemi_]

and suddenly it's September, and the thing i thought would destroy me back in March barely crosses my mind anymore lol

[Matheus @seguematheus]

normalize a cultura de dar livros de presente com dedicatória na primeira página. Isso precisa voltar e urgente

[‘Tunde Omotoye @TundeTASH]

African parents deserve some credit for taking 100% responsibility for their kids University/College tuition.

[Shiku🌼 @shikumungai_]

The titties should be near the chin today for the queen!!!
Prep your push up bras!

[Neli @MainNeli_]

From an Endometriosis expert himself

[Salim M Ishmael, M.D 🇰🇪 @salimishmael_]

Endo is having the tissue that sloughs out during periods in other areas other than the uterus. So ni kama you have period tissue on you ovaries, bowel, bladder, perineum, stomach even lungs

So during periods, hormones zikitoka, you are "menstruating" from those areas ☝🏾pain!!

[THE VOICELESS! @THEVOICELESS3]

SPEAK UP. DON’T STRIKE. CHOOSE PEACE.
Being angry is understandable, but being heard should never require violence. Speak, listen, and choose dialogue over destruction. Protect your school, your future and each other.
#SpeakDontStrike #StudentVoice #PeaceInSchools #ChooseDialogue

[Seven🌻 @MynameisNiro]

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. What a book!

[Yehgha @yaygha]

Allow me give a not so brief history lesson so we can all understand what is going on here.

For much of European history, pale skin was a marker of status. An elite woman was supposed to have skin that had barely been under the sun because pale skin signalled she did not work outdoors.

In a world where most people spent their lives labouring under the sun to survive, avoiding the sun was evidence of wealth.

The rich could stay indoors and send the poor outside to work for them. This is why they wore gloves and wide hats when outside. It is also where the term blue blood comes from; rich families who never did physical labour and thus were rarely in the sun had skin so pale the veins underneath would show.

So to be tanned meant to do outdoor labour, and to do outdoor labout meant to be poor.

But as the industrial revolution came around and factories multiplied, the poor who had previously laboured outdoors were pulled indoors to work in factories, workshops and later offices rather than under the sun

And their skin became paler.

Now if the poor could become pale skinned simply by working indoors, then pale skin could no longer communicate wealth, so the elite abandoned the old signal and switched to a new one: tanned skin.

Because now it meant only they had the time and money to lie in the sun while everyone else worked indoors.

Pale meant rich, tanned meant poor. Then pale meant poor so the rich did a 180 and went back to tanned.

That is exactly the same thing that is happening here. Wiresless ear buds generally, and airpods specifically meant rich. Wired earphones meant poor.

Then when everyone could afford wiresless ear buds and their replica knock-offs, wireless meant poor and the 'rich' who differentiated themselves with wiresless in the past, switched back to wired.

It is not because they "got tired of charging their wireless earbuds"

Away from the history lesson, the broader explanation is that humans crave to be seen. We do not want to go through life unnoticed. This is why we do only spend money to enjoy ourselves, we spend money so that others can see us spending money.

And one of the most common, socially acceptable ways of doing so is through the things we wear. For example. We do not spend money on watches that could buy a car so we can check the time. We spend that money so others can see that we spent money.

The point of the spending is the spending witnessed.

And with that, we signal that we are high status and that signal brings us attention .

But this flex has a fundamental flaw in the sense that the moment the status signal works, those below begin to copy it until it loses its utility.

So what happens to a status marker when those below can afford it too?

Simple; those above abandon it.

In conclusion, The things we buy, wear, drive, or use are driven by 1) the desire to belong and 2) the desire to stand out.

You want to look like the people above you to feel among, but you also want to look different from the people below you to stand out.

So the rich adopt a signal
The wannabe middle class copies it
And the majority poor copy the wannabes

And once the signal becomes widespread enough, it stops doing the job it was intended to do. Then the elite abandon it and look for a new one.

Sometimes they move to something more expensive or difficult to acquire. Sometimes they move to something obscure enough that the wannabes and the poor can't even grasp it. And sometimes, as with tanning and wired earphones, they do a 180 and move in the opposite direction.

It happens with clothes, bags, earphones, restaurants, language and so on.

The rich keep moving. The middle class keeps chasing, and the poor keep copying. And the markers of status keep changing. And on and on and on it goes.

[Ciku @HEunissia]

Aki mimi si ras, mimi ni loc'd girlie😭😭

[khaleesi🧍🏽‍♀️ @shelovesore]

I found some funny book dedications and i just wondering how these people think of these things😭😂😂

first one😭

[María Benavente @merybenavente]

… and they say romance is dead.

[hera @shiningdaisies]

top reasons to do something:
1. funsies
2. spite

[Dr. C @chao_mbogho]

Even beyond dating, I believe any type of short or long relationship is sustained by curiosity, from the mundane 'why do you like this hobby' to the major 'how are you handling grief over xyz'. And, mutual curiosity is the spice of great conversations.

[Chief Chilo💋 @therealchilotam]

I always find it interesting how countries from other continents are recognized, but when it comes to African countries, it’s just “Africa”.

[femiiiiii. @femiiiszn]

graduating is such an achievement. do you understand how difficult uni is???

[Boniface G. Mwangi @GathogoBMwangi]

Dear @SafaricomPLC @Safaricom_Care this is utmost inconvenience for users of Mpesa outside the country.

You have logged out all of us and the only way to login again is to have the Safaricom network connected, which doesn’t work on roaming. One had to wait to come to Ke so they can activate the app.

Now tell me, what do you want me to do with the money in my mpesa? How will i continue using it?? Huge disappointment!