A lot of us may say we want Tony Stark’s job, but how many of us want it bad enough to make it happen (cosplayers aside)? Sure, most folks could likely handle the billionaire play-boying tasks involved, but how many could strap on miniature kerosene-fueled micro gas turbines to their wrists to accomplish the flying part? Well, at least one person could, and he did: Richard Browning.

Amala Gallery in Tokyo is wrapping up this year with the first international solo show by Mike Lee. After two successful solo shows earlier this year, the NY-based artist painted a small series of new oils titled Happier Together.
Over the last couple of years, Lee has been developing recognizable visual language that is strongly influenced by his professional career as the digital media professional. After working mostly with pencils and creating detailed images that portrayed peculiar spaces and characters interacting with them, he recently moved onto more simpler oil compositions. Aiming to create work that people can relate to, the new images are placed in a void and feature the most basic representation of human characters. Without any recognizable attributes, such as race, age or even gender sometimes, the Lee is hoping to produce work that is universally relateable. The new pieces he painted for this landmark show are some of his most graphic-based ones, and are somewhat of a nod to the Japanese love for anime and manga. Introducing a new direction in his work, the images are constructed from simplified subjects forming surreal compositions within an empty space. Using the richness of oils to render profound light effects, the new pieces are metaphors for moments of happiness, something that is becoming scarce in these tense and uncertain times.
Discuss Mike Lee here.

As the storm clouds of peak stupidity gather over the heads of the millennial generation who were conned by banks, government, and universities to take out excessive amounts of leverage in auto loans, credit cards, and student debt; millions have flocked to a new website seeking ‘Sugar Daddies’ and or even ‘Sugar Mommies’ to pay off their debt amid an economic environment where wage growth remains non-existent.

Today’s real simple get-out-of-debt option for the broke college/post college millennial is through an unconventional dating website called SeekingArrangement.com.

In 2016, the website identified some 2.5 million college students who turned to the site in an act of desperation to find a ‘Sugar Daddy’ or even a ‘Sugar Mommy’ in exchange of personal time for straight cash.

The website’s mission is to “delivers a new way for relationships to form and grow. Sugar Babies and Sugar Daddies or Mommas both get what they want, when they want it”.

We find it hard to believe the intention of the website, when created by MIT graduate Brandon Wade in 2006, was to have 25% of the 10 million users—broke college millennials.

According to Business Insider,

In total, Americans owe more than $1.3 trillion in student loan debt to federal government agencies and or private lenders.

As explained by UBS strategist Matthew Mish, millennials have never been more in debt and this shocking development could hint why millennials are resorting to an online dating site, in the millions to trade sex for their next debt servicing payment.

Exploring the data from UBS, the divergence between consumer delinquencies and the unemployment rate at record lows signals wage growth is non-existent at a time when millennials’ leverage is high.

We further summarized: “Per the charts below, when you break out rising consumer delinquencies into their individual buckets the catalyst for the trend above suddenly becomes more clear. While delinquency rates on mortgages, HELOCs and credit cards are improving, or at least not deteriorating rapidly, delinquency rates on student loans and auto loans are a completely different story."

And lastly, who took on all those $40,000, 0%, 80-month loans all so they could drive around in a brand new BMW they couldn’t afford? Well, if you guessed millennials in the lowest quintile of wages earners in the country then you’re absolutely right!

As Mish points out in Figure 7 below, the median debt-to-asset ratio for Americans under the age of 35 has surged over the past couple of decades from ~40% to a staggering 100%”.

With the financial security of the millennial in grave danger, as per UBS strategist Matthew Mish’s charts, we start to get the sense of why millennials are flocking to SeekingArrangement.com.

First, Sugar Daddies and or Mommies have an average annual income of $250,000 and the average net worth of $1.5 million. The simple term in life: ‘follow the money’ seems to be at play here. Sugar Daddies and or Mommies have a monthly membership of $80.00 per month, meanwhile the website allows a broke college student free of charge.

Here are the benefits of a ‘Sugar Daddy’:

Browsing the ‘Sugar Baby Female’ mill of broke millennials. We find this:

Here are the disturbing ‘Sugar Daddies’ preying on broke desperate college millennials:

Business Insider, Tanza Loudenback, interviewed a broke college millennial by the name of  Christina, 29-year old, and user of SeekingArrangement.com.

Christina said she isn’t willing to have sex for money, but has received over $90,000 for education-related costs from her ‘Sugar Daddies’.

The MBA student at Michigan State University living in Las Vegas said,

In addition, she made it clear that she isn’t interested in “one-night stands”.. We find that hard to believe.. Here’s what she said:

Bottomline: The millennial generation has turned desperate with debt up to their eyes balls and it shows how this avocado and toast generation will do anything for a debt service payment.

Our friend Doug Gillen at Fifth Wall TV just posted a video commentary on Lush’s visit to Palestine, part of a residency at Banksy’s Walled Off Hotel. I’ve written very positively about Lush in the past, we released a product of his through Vandalog, and he even contributed to the site once upon a time. […]

In this ongoing body of sculptural works, Brazillian artist Vanderlei Lopes creates temporary interventions where his polished brass objects appear to pour and drain like gold from the walls or floors of galleries. Much of Lopes’ work plays with aspects of transformation, be it through the tension of liquid and solid forms seen here, by subtraction, or experimenting with orientation. You can see much more of his work on Artsy and Athena Contemporânea. More

Your phone was faster yesterday than it is today, and will be slower tomorrow. Bit Rot is a real thing.
Computers are kind of like people — as they age they tend to get a little slower and flaws are easier to see.
Our phones are computers shrunk down to be pocket-sized and easy to carry around. And that means as time goes by, things aren’t happening as quickly as they used to or things can get a little buggy. This is universal; it happens to Galaxy phones and LG phones and Pixel phones and iPhones and every other phone that does more than make calls and send texts. Some people say they don’t see it happening, and that’s because of why it happens and the way software is written for all the different phones out in the wild. But it is still happening on your phone right now, and always will be.
Let’s take a look at what is commonly known as "Bit Rot" and see if we can’t understand things a little better.
What is Bit Rot, exactly?
It’s a term that gets thrown around a lot by p…

CHICAGO—Worrying that he could be caught off guard anywhere, at any time, area man Dan Moritz on Friday was reportedly afraid some woman might come out of the woodwork to hold him accountable for something. “I’m honestly starting to get a little freaked out that a woman could, out of nowhere, start demanding that I…

Read more…

The pamphlet Black Book Volume 1: Principles of Extreme Living by Christopher S Hyatt, with Nicholas Tharcher, S Jason Black, has a lot of quotable quips, but one must consider them in context of the question “to what end?” I suspect that far too many would read this as a primer on how to justify […]

Read more at HYPEBEAST

I know that the headline sounds absolutely crazy, but this is actually a true story.  A Silicon Valley executive named Anthony Levandowski has already filed paperwork with the IRS for the nonprofit corporation that is going to run this new religion.  Officially, this new faith will be known as “Way Of The Future”, and you […]

"She walks in beauty, like the night. Of cloudless climes and starry skies." So begins the eloquent poem written in 1813 by the powerful pen of none other than Lord Byron.

What ancient stones on a tiny Pacific island can teach us about Bitcoin, blockchains and the future of money.   Future of Money click for video Source: Quartz (11:26)

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