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      Have We Reached Peak Baby Name?

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      Tank? Afternoon? Flick? Orca?After the birth this spring of her third child, a baby girl named Whimsy Lou, the lifestyle influencer Nara Smith posted a TikTok listing some of the names she and her husband liked but did not ultimately use. Among them were Tank, Clementine, Flick, Halo and Dew.Francesca Farago, a reality television star, posted a similar video recently, including names like Heart, Ethereal, Prosper and Afternoon. Her husband also liked the name Orca, she said. (Ms. Farago vetoed naming her child after the killer whale.)Baby names have come a long way since Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin made headlines for naming their daughter Apple two decades ago. In 2024, almost anything can be a name. A recent TikTok trend seems to offer a satirical critique of just how out there some parents are willing to go in search of unique names for their progeny.The joke setup goes like this: “Normalize naming your kid after something you love.” Users respond with something hyper-specific that they would probably never actually name a child, like Diet Coke, Velveeta or “cheeky bit of work gossip.”Emily Kim, a full-time baby name consultant, said the trend seems like a direct response to “how extreme” baby naming has become.Ms. Kim, who is 33 and lives in Minneapolis, made a name for herself on TikTok thanks to her uncanny knack for predicting what celebrities and influencers will name their children based on their internet aesthetics. Last year, she correctly guessed what the football player Jason Kelce and his wife, Kylie, would name their third daughter, Bennett. (Ms. Kim said she knew it would be a traditionally male name, given the Kelces’ two other daughters were named similarly.)We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Musk’s Friends and Fans Applaud Shareholder Vote on His Payday

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      On the social media platform X, which Mr. Musk owns, reactions to a vote that reaffirmed Mr. Musk’s $45 billion package were buoyant.Tesla shareholders reaffirmed a pay award worth more than $45 billion for Elon Musk on Thursday, but before the announcement was made official at the company’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas, Mr. Musk posted the news on X, his social media platform.“Both Tesla shareholder resolutions are currently passing by wide margins!” he wrote in a post late Wednesday night. “Thanks for your support!!”For months, Mr. Musk’s supporters have used the social media site, which he purchased for $44 billion in 2022, to drum up support for his massive payday, and Tesla board members warned he could leave the company if shareholders voted against him.But for some Tesla investors, Mr. Musk’s involvement with X has been the primary cause of concern, stirring complaints that the pay package has drawn his attention away from Tesla and into other ventures. Mr. Musk has also used the platform to promote right-wing conspiracy theories and vulgar content, offending some of his employees and investors.On X, shareholder approval of the pay package was met with praise from Mr. Musk’s legion of supporters — some cheering before the official vote was announced. They included retail investors, friends in the technology industry and media personalities.“Congrats on getting paid what you’re owed E!” wrote Jason Calacanis, a prominent tech investor and podcast host who is close to Mr. Musk.“The most important message of the vote,” wrote Alex Voigt, a blogger and YouTube personality, “is that Elon knows now he has the support of 90% of retail investors and more than 73% of all shares, and that matters for him personally and for the future of Tesla.”“Means a lot,” Mr. Musk replied.“Looks like Tesla shareholders are approving Elon’s CEO package by a wide margin — good for them,” wrote Lulu Cheng Meservey, a tech executive with 80,000 followers on the platform. “People with actual skin in the game can see the business logic that a Delaware judge blinded by her personal agenda could not.”“The vast majority of Tesla shareholders approved Elon’s comp package in 2018 and have re-approved it now. An activist judge voided it for nothing. The trial lawyers who are asking for billions in fees should get nothing,” wrote David Sacks, a Silicon Valley tech investor, who is also close to Mr. Musk.Critics of Mr. Musk also chimed in, albeit in smaller numbers.“It’s official — Tesla shareholders are the stupidest humans to walk the face of the planet,” one poster wrote.But many Tesla shareholders who were critical of the pay package in the weeks leading up to the vote were mostly silent in the hours after the decision. More

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      Questions Dog a Case Involving a Suspended License and a Viral Video

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      Video of a man appearing behind the wheel via Zoom for a court hearing over a suspended license drew widespread attention. But there’s more to the story.The irony was too much for the video not to go viral: A Michigan man charged with driving without a license shows up for a court hearing via video … while driving a vehicle.But the story behind Corey Harris’s day in court — and the many memes, jokes, fan art and commentary it has spawned since the May 15 video made the rounds last week — is more complicated than it seems.Two years ago, a judge in another Michigan county had rescinded the suspension of Mr. Harris’s driver’s license, which he had lost because of a child support case.That revelation, first reported by WXYZ Detroit, provided some context to the comical exchange between Corey Harris and Judge J. Cedric Simpson of Washtenaw County and drew attention to the varying and potentially confusing bureaucratic processes for reinstating a driver’s license in Michigan.Mr. Harris’s license was suspended in 2010 in connection with a child support case in Saginaw County, Mich, according to WXYZ. In January 2022, Judge James T. Borchard of Saginaw County ordered that the license suspension be rescinded, court records show.But the suspension was never lifted — the reason is a source of debate — and Mr. Harris, 44, was cited in October for driving with a suspended license in Pittsfield Township.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 100 Shares159 Views

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      GameStop Stock Surges Again on Social Media Buzz

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      A post on a long-dormant Reddit account suggested the trader known as Roaring Kitty had amassed a large stake in the video game retailer.GameStop’s shares soared on Monday after the long-dormant Reddit account associated with Keith Gill, the trader known as Roaring Kitty who helped spur 2021’s meme-stock mania, appeared to show a big stake in the video game retailer.It was GameStop’s second major rally in as many months, seemingly prompted by social media buzz. The stock more than doubled at one point in premarket trading, before posting a gain of about 50 percent shortly after the open of regular trading, a move adding billions of dollars to the company’s market value.Monday’s surge was driven by a screenshot uploaded to Reddit on Sunday by the account associated with Mr. Gill, after more than three years of inactivity. The post showed a holding of five million shares in GameStop worth just under $116 million, nearly $30 million in cash and a large number of options that give the holder the right to buy more stock at $20 per share. The market data provider Unusual Whales posted that there had been a spike in trading for those options.Adding fuel to the rally was a post to the X account associated with Mr. Gill that featured an image of a reverse card from Uno, the card game. Followers largely interpreted the picture — in line with the cryptic memes that punctuated Mr. Gill’s social media posts in 2021 — as a rallying cry to bolster GameStop’s stock price, which had fallen after a Roaring Kitty-inspired spike last month.GameStop benefited from that rally by selling new shares, raising $933 million. The move “prudently” gives GameStop “a greater level of reserves while it struggles to refocus its business and reverse continuing operating losses,” according to a recent research note by analysts at Wedbush.The new posts continue a flurry of activity from Mr. Gill’s accounts, which had been quiet since 2021. The X account TheRoaringKitty resumed posting on May 13, with another cryptic meme largely interpreted as a pro-GameStop call, followed by dozens of rousing clips from television shows, movies and music videos.Online sleuths have been debating the revival of the accounts since last month, with some speculating that Mr. Gill had sold his X account to a conceptual artist with a history of trolling. While Mr. Gill’s X and Reddit accounts have shown signs of life, his YouTube channel — where he regularly posted videos of himself talking up his stock recommendations — remains inactive.Mr. Gill gained a cult following during the coronavirus pandemic with lively videos and posts arguing that GameStop was undervalued. In 2021, that stock and others, like AMC Entertainment, soared in value as armies of small investors piled in and cheered each other on with irreverent memes. The chaos inspired the 2023 film “Dumb Money.” More

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      in US Politics

      Revenge: analysis of Trump posts shows relentless focus on punishing enemies

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      A major study of Donald Trump’s social media posts has revealed the scale of the former US president’s ambitions to target Joe Biden, judges and other perceived political enemies if he returns to power.Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew), a watchdog organisation, analysed more than 13,000 messages published by Trump on his Truth Social platform and found him vowing revenge, retaliation and retribution against his foes.The presumptive Republican nominee has threatened to use the federal government to go after Biden during a second Trump administration 25 times since the start of 2023, the study found. These threats include FBI raids, investigations, indictments and even jail time.He has also threatened or suggested that the FBI and justice department should take action against senators, judges, members of Biden’s family and even non-governmental organisations.“He is promising to go after what he perceives to be his political enemies,” said Robert Maguire, vice-president for research and data at Crew. “He is promising to essentially weaponise the government against anyone he sees as not sufficiently loyal or who is openly opposed to him.“He has constantly seeded this idea that the numerous charges against him are trumped-up charges and it seems almost to have given him licence to openly say, ‘You’ve done this to me, so I’m going to do it to you.’”Trump launched Truth Social in early 2022 after he was banned from major sites such as Facebook and the platform formerly known as Twitter following the 6 January 2021 attack on the US Capitol. Although he has since been reinstated to both, he has mostly stayed off X, as it is now called, the Elon Musk-owned platform that was once his primary megaphone.Trump reaches far fewer people on his platform, where he has fewer than 7 million followers, than he might on X, where he boasts 87 million. The research firm Similarweb estimates that Truth Social had roughly 5m monthly visits in February of this year. This compares with more than 2bn for TikTok and more than 3bn for Facebook.The study is part of a larger Crew project tracking and analysing Trump’s Truth Social posts. The watchdog says that Trump’s niche following means that the extent of his threats has flown mostly under the radar. There have also been concerns about Trump fatigue over the past decade, with some voters numbed and inured to statements that would have been jaw-dropping from any other president.Maguire said: “His comments are often reported on or discussed as one-offs. ‘Trump said this today,’ and people talk about it and then it fades away because Trump said something else the next day or the next week or the next month.“We figured it would be helpful to quantify these comments that he’s making to show this isn’t just a whim or a passing idea that he put out in the world because he saw somebody say something on TV. It’s a fixation of his, it’s a promise he’s making to use the government in ways that are squarely unethical.”Crew duly analysed more than 13,000 of Trump’s Truth Social posts from 1 January 2023 to 1 April 2024 and found that, while the former president has recently dialed down some of his more violent rhetoric, he remains fixated on threatening political opponents.View image in fullscreenIts report, the first in a series, says his attitude can be summed up in one Truth Social post from August 2023: “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” Indeed, last December Trump posted a word cloud based on his speeches: the biggest word was “revenge”.Many of his threats to Biden reflect Trump’s now familiar tactic of reversing charges against his opponents, conjuring a mirror world in which he claims they are guilty of the very offence of which he is accused.In one post about the special counsel Jack Smith, he warned that there will be “repercussions far greater than anything that Biden or his Thugs could understand” and, if the investigations continue, it will open a “Pandora’s Box” of retribution.In another, Trump wrote that his federal indictments are “setting a BAD precedent for yourself, Joe. The same can happen to you.” In July last year Trump reposted rally coverage quoting him that “Now the gloves are off.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTrump has explicitly threatened Biden with a special counsel investigation and indictment. In one post he called on the attorney general, Merrick Garland, to “immediately end Special Counsel investigation into anything related to me because I did everything right, and appoint a Special Counsel to investigate Joe Biden who hates Biden as much as Jack Smith hates me”.In another he asked: “When will Joe Biden be Indicted for his many crimes against our Nation?” Trump has posted about this repeatedly, promising to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Biden, and indict him if Trump returns to the White House for a second term.Trump has “reTruthed” others’ posts about Biden that are even more ominous. In June last year he reposted a clip from Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene asserting: “Joe Biden shouldn’t just be impeached, he should be handcuffed and hauled out of the White House for his crimes.”The former president also posted a screenshot of a different post saying the FBI should “raid all of [Biden’s] residences and seize anything they want, including his passports”.Some posts announced plans for retribution against the specific lawyers, judges and other officials whom Trump blames for his legal troubles. Two months before he was found guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records, he reposted a call for the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, to be “put in jail”.He has reposted calls for Jack Smith and others to be locked up and to “throw away the key.” One reTruth promised to charge the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, along with Bragg, Smith, Garland and Biden, with conspiracy and racketeering.Trump has also made threats to non-profit organisations because of their work. Last November he posted on Truth Social: “For any radical left charity, non-profit, or so called aid organizations supporting these caravans and illegal aliens, we will prosecute them for their participation in human trafficking, child smuggling, and every other crime we can find.”Crew argues that the posts should not be taken as empty threats but as a wake-up call for Congress to erect meaningful guardrails against the weaponisation of law enforcement agencies before it is too late.The group has called on Congress to pass the Protecting Our Democracy Act (Poda), which would curb abuses of power by presidents of any party and strengthen Congress’s ability to fulfil its constitutional role as a check on executive branch overreach. The legislation passed the House of Representatives in 2021 on a bipartisan basis but has since languished in the Senate.Maguire added: “It is critical in making sure that law enforcement and the Department of Justice – all of the things that that entails, both the federal prosecutors and the FBI – cannot be manipulated by the president to go after political enemies. That would go a long way to hamstringing any effort by any president, to be clear, to use those law enforcement powers to go against political enemies.” More

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      Deepfake of U.S. Official Appears After Shift on Ukraine Attacks in Russia

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      A manufactured video fabricated comments by the State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller.A day after U.S. officials said Ukraine could use American weapons in limited strikes inside Russia, a deepfake video of a U.S. spokesman discussing the policy appeared online.The fabricated video, which is drawn from actual footage, shows the State Department spokesman, Matthew Miller, seeming to suggest that the Russian city of Belgorod, just 25 miles north of Ukraine’s border with Russia, was a legitimate target for such strikes.The 49-second video clip, which has an authentic feel despite telltale clues of manipulation, illustrates the growing threat of disinformation and especially so-called deepfake videos powered by artificial intelligence.U.S. officials said they had no information about the origins of the video. But they are particularly concerned about how Russia might employ such techniques to manipulate opinion around the war in Ukraine or even American political discourse.Belgorod “has essentially no civilians remaining,” the video purports to show Mr. Miller saying at the State Department in response to a reporter’s question, which was also manufactured. “It’s practically full of military targets at this point, and we are seeing the same thing starting in the regions around there.”“Russia needs to get the message that this is unacceptable,” Mr. Miller adds in the video, which has been circulating on Telegram channels followed by residents of Belgorod widely enough to draw responses from Russian government officials.The claim in the video about Belgorod is completely false. While it has been the target of some Ukrainian attacks, and its schools operate online, its 340,000 residents have not been evacuated.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Sleepless in Seattle as a Hellcat Roars Through the Streets

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      As much of Seattle tries to sleep, the Hellcat supercar goes on the prowl, the howls of its engine and the explosive backfires from its tailpipes echoing off the high-rise towers downtown. Windows rattle. Pets jump in a frenzy. Even people used to the ruckus of urban living jolt awake, fearful and then furious. Complaints have flooded in for months to city leaders and the police, who have responded with warnings, citations, criminal charges and a lawsuit, urging the renegade driver to take his modified Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat from the city streets to a racetrack. Instead, the “Belltown Hellcat,” with its distinctive tiger-stripe wrap, has remained on the move.For hundreds of thousands of people with Instagram accounts, the driver is a familiar character: @srt.miles, otherwise known as Miles Hudson, a 20-year-old resident of one of the Belltown neighborhood’s pricey apartments. For all the aggravated residents who view him with increasing disdain — “Entire neighborhoods are angry and sleep deprived,” one resident wrote their local council member — many more are tracking his escapades on social media, celebrating a life unencumbered by self-consciousness or regret. When Mr. Hudson posted a video (350,494 likes) showing his speedometer topping 100 miles per hour during a downtown outing to get boba tea, a follower asked: “How does it feel living my dream?” When he posted a video (698,712 likes) showing the rowdy rattles of the Hellcat, another replied: “You really make the town so fun at night.”In one self-reflective post, Mr. Hudson captured video (68,715 likes) of himself watching a television news segment that discussed the city’s concern about his driving, and proceeded to rush frantically around the apartment, pretending to be fearful that the police were on to him. “I like your content so when they arrest you I’m coming to get you,” one follower replied.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

    • 200 Shares169 Views

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      The US attempt to ban TikTok is an attack on ideas and hope | Dominic Andre

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      I’m a TikTok creator. I’ve used TikTok to build a multimillion dollar business, focused on sharing interesting things I’ve learned in life and throughout my years in college. TikTok allowed me to create a community and help further my goal of educating the public. I always feared that one day, it would be threatened. And now, it’s happening.Why does the US government want to ban TikTok? The reasons given include TikTok’s foreign ownership and its “addictive” nature, but I suspect that part of the reason is that the app primarily appeals to younger generations who often hold political and moral views that differ significantly from those of older generations, including many of today’s politicians.The platform has become a powerful tool for grassroots movements challenging established elites and has amplified voices advocating against capitalism and in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and women’s rights. Moreover, for the first time in modern history, Americans’ support for Israel has sharply fallen, a shift I would argue can be attributed in part to TikTok’s video-sharing capabilities. In particular, the app’s stitching feature, which allows creators to link videos, correcting inaccuracies and presenting opposing views within a single video, has revolutionized how audiences access information and form more informed opinions.US Congress has cited concerns over Chinese data collection as justification for proposing a ban. This rationale might be appropriate for banning the app on government-issued devices, both for official and personal use. Other Americans, however, have the right to decide which technologies we use and how we share our data. Personally, I am indifferent to China possessing my data. What harm can the Chinese government do to me if I live in the United States? Also, I’d point out that viewpoints critical of Chinese policies have proliferated on TikTok, which would seem to indicate that the platform is not predominantly used for spreading Chinese propaganda.If politicians’ concern were genuinely about foreign influence, we would discuss in greater detail how Russia allegedly used Facebook to bolster Trump’s campaign and disseminate misinformation. Following this logic, we might as well consider banning Facebook.I spent a decade in college studying international affairs and psychology for my masters. So while I’m somewhat prepared for tough times in the event of TikTok ending, many others aren’t. TikTok hosts tens of thousands of small businesses who, thanks to the platform, reach millions worldwide. This platform has truly leveled the playing field, giving everyone from bedroom musicians to aspiring actors a real shot at being heard. A ban on TikTok would threaten those livelihoods.A ban on TikTok would also threaten a diverse community of creators and the global audience connected through it. As a Palestinian, TikTok gave my cause a voice, a loud one. It became a beacon for bringing the stories of Gaza’s suffering to the forefront, mobilizing awareness and action in ways no other platform has.Using TikTok’s live-streaming feature, I’ve been able to talk to hundreds of thousands of people each day about the issues Palestinians face. I personally watched the minds change of hundreds of people who asked me questions out of honest curiosity.TikTok has made a real difference in educating people about what is happening in Palestine. The stitch feature is one of the most powerful tools for debunking propaganda spread against Palestinians. This feature does not exist on other platforms and was first created by TikTok; with it, creators can correct information and respond to the spread of misinformation in real time.Removing TikTok would do more than disrupt entertainment; it would sever a lifeline for marginalized voices across the world – people like Bisan Owda, an influential young journalist in Gaza whose TikToks each reach hundreds of thousands of views – or creators like myself, whose family was driven out of Palestine in 1948, and killed during the Nakba. I’ve used TikTok to show all the paperwork of my great-grandfather’s land ownership in Palestine – and his passport – to show how his existence was taken away from him.On TikTok, you’ll find thousands of creators from different ethnic groups teaching the world about their cultures. You’ll also find disabled creators sharing their journeys and experiences in a world designed for able-bodied people. UncleTics, for example, is a creator who lives with Tourette syndrome and creates content about his life while also bringing joy to his audience.Banning TikTok wouldn’t just mean an enormous financial hit for the creators who use the platform – it would stifle the rich exchange of ideas, culture and awareness that TikTok uniquely fosters. We stand to lose a tool that has brought global issues out of the shadows and into the public eye. A ban on TikTok is a ban on ideas and hope.Almost every creator and consumer of TikTok I have spoken to does not care about potential data collection by China. Creators, in particular, don’t expect privacy when we’re posting about our lives on a public platform. If Congress wants to enact laws that make it harder for social-media companies to potentially harvest our data, Congress should do it across the board for all social media platforms – not just ones which happened to be based in non-Western countries.A TikTok ban threatens to destroy millions of jobs and silence diverse voices. It would change the world for the worse.
      Dominic Andre is a content creator and the CEO of The Lab More