I hate going to you about this. I know I don't have the right, but I can't deal with this myself. I've tried. It's not fair to you. I know that. As I told your mother, I did this to myself, and it's mostly about Asperger's Syndrome. I never thought you owed me anything. Your contribution, such as it was, ended forty years ago and was completely innocent. You smiled at me in church, and, for the record, I smiled back. You had no way of knowing what would happen. Neither did I. I didn't even know it was happening until the depression hit.
I'm here, because I want to tell you what I did, and I want you to respond as honestly as possible. That's it. It's not a scam; it's not a business deal. It's therapy. Nothing more. I don't expect anything from you. I am in pain, and I am frozen. My life has been on hold for six months, and I want it back. I can't do that unless I confront this part.
What happened was weird and complicated, even for me. I won't be offended if you have doubts. I certainly did. But everything I'm going to tell you is true, as far as I know it. Some of it is speculation, but I'll point that out. Some of it will also be uncomfortable. I'm very sorry for that.
For the past six months, I've tried to keep this away from you. Part of me has. Part of me wanted to tell you everything. I've tried distracting that part of myself and tricking it and forcing it down, and it worked for a while. My therapist suggested reaching out to you for a neutral conversation. That's when I sent you the LinkedIn request, but I eventually knew that wouldn't work. Then, I asked my mother to go through the grapevine and ask about you. I wanted to trick myself into thinking I'd contacted you when I hadn't. That got me through March. In April, it started to break down.
I was doing okay in February and March. I seemed to have leveled out. I thought that would be my new normal, just a low grade depression for the rest of my life. But that didn't happen.
I had good days and bad. The worst was December. I lost entire days to it. I had trouble eating, trouble sleeping, trouble working. I probably lost five pounds. January was almost as bad. I punched a wall and broke a knuckle. In February and March, the good and bad days were about even. In April, I started getting worse. I had more bad days, and they were more severe. I saw the direction I was headed. I needed to diffuse it before it got really bad. That's when I decided I had to reach out to you. And I was right. May has been even worse. It's almost as bad as January.
I promise, I won't contact you again after this. I'm going to hate myself a lot for what I'm doing. The guilt and the promise will keep me away. They've always been strong motivators for me. I don't need to worry about tricks and distractions anymore.
That's the first reason I contacted you. The second reason is to hear your response. I don't have any unreasonable expectations for that. You will answer honestly and in a way that best suits your life, whatever that happens to be. But, I need to hear it from you, because I can't move past this part. It hurts too much.
I'll start with Asperger's Syndrome. What Asperger's does to me, specifically, damage to my fusiform gyrus prevents me from reading non-verbal communication, and my brain never receives the signal to release oxytocin in response, so I never form emotional connections.
Imagine you could lose the pain of everyone you've ever lost or everyone you've ever seen suffer, but you would also lose all the love and happiness that went with them. And, not just them. You would lose the closeness of everyone around you now. You wouldn't forget them; you just wouldn't feel anything for them.
Imagine feeling guilty if you try to tell your mother you love her, because you know it's a lie. You don't hate her, but you don't love her. You know it hurts her that she can't hear that from you, but it doesn't change anything.
Imagine knowing, when your parents die, you won't feel bad. You won't feel good. You won't feel. You know this absolutely, because it's happened with people you've already lost.
Imagine standing next to your grandmother's coffin and feeling cheated, because you can't participate in the grief of everyone around you. Imagine going to her funeral hoping to feel pain, because it would be something.
Imagine being attacked your whole life, because you "don't want to feel." Imagine feeling alone in a room full of people when you're with your family. Imagine being on the outside of every group. Imagine being born into this, like being punished every day, but you don't know what you did wrong.
For thirty-six years, that was my life. When I learned I had Asperger's, I had an answer. I could stop feeling guilty at funerals. I was disappointed. I still wanted connection, but I understood the neurology. I was able to accept it, to come to terms with it. That was my mindset last November, before the depression began.
However, it's important to understand that the release mechanism for oxytocin is damaged, not the processing mechanism. I know from pets, that if I can get oxytocin into my system some other way, in their case tactile interaction, that it will work.
This is where we get to you and church and a self-soothing, autobiographical memory. That's just a memory that makes you feel good. It could be anything, first pet, first kiss, whatever. For me, it's you smiling at me. My family went back for a visit about a year after we moved. You and I saw each other before church. You didn't know I was back. We talked. We caught up. We smiled at each other during the service. That was the first time I ever flirted with a girl. I have Social Anxiety Disorder on top of the Asperger's, so that's easy for me. When you smiled at me, you gave me butterflies.
For forty years, I used that memory as intended. It didn't help if things were really bad, but, as a quick pick-me-up, it was fine. Every time, it gave me butterflies. That's the Asperger's. We can sometimes recall the full emotional effect of an event.
What I didn't know is that the self-soothing part is a release of dopamine and oxytocin. They were giving me the butterflies. I've studied psychology. I took it for the humanities credits and liked it. I use it when developing my characters. I've also used it to research my conditions, but I never researched that memory. I had no reason to.
For forty years, I released dopamine and oxytocin into my system with that memory. As far as I can tell, they functioned as intended: reinforcing memory pathways of that memory and all of the other memories I have of you, because I would think of all of them, and linking them to a positive emotional response. In a neurotypical brain, that wouldn't be the case. The amount of oxytocin from other sources would mostly drown out the amount from the self-soothing memory. In an Asperger brain, especially one with Social Anxiety Disorder, it would be different. Every drop would be noticed.
Around Thanksgiving, I hyperfocused on you. It's a common ADD trait. Usually, it's about a project I'm working on. It's great at work. I can get a lot done. This time, it happened to be about you. When it's about a person, I search for a lot of information online, then stop. I never save it; I never reach out to the person; I just search. I think it satisfies some hunting instinct. That is what has happened every other time. I focused on you twice before. That's what happened. The first time was about twenty-five years ago. I was searching for a lot of people then. I wanted to see what search engines could do. The second time was when I moved to the area. That's when I saw you were married. I still used that memory of you, because I wasn't hurting anyone, but that was it.
When I focused on you this third time, I didn't think anything of it. It seemed like any other episode. I found your LinkedIn page. I think I found your Twitter page. I found that photo of you. You looked good. That should have been it. I should have stopped. Instead, I sank into severe depression. I don't have a history of depression. I had no idea where it came from. Over the course of three weeks, I went from completely normal to crippling depression. If anyone had asked me about you in November, I would have said nice things. I would have said you were someone I had a crush on once. That would have been it. Suddenly, you were the only thing I could think about.
So, I wrote an essay about you. I'm a writer, and it can sometimes clear my head. And it did help. It ended the episode and eased the depression. I thought I was better. But, I had this essay, and it told me the impossible. It didn't say it explicitly, but it did say it. I had to reconcile everything I knew about my life and about Asperger's with what the essay told me. That's when I researched that memory. That was the only thing different about you and every other woman I ever thought about. I found information on oxytocin release and reinforced pathways. Some of it is speculation, but it's reasonable, and it doesn't violate anything. I had a mechanism, and it explained a few things. Minor details, but it maintained consistency. I knew I succeeded.
This is where it gets uncomfortable.
Reinforced memory pathways linked to a positive emotional response is the neurological mechanism of falling in love. Without knowing what I was doing, I fell in love with you.
Again, I did this to myself. I've known that from the beginning. I never thought you felt the same way. You had a neurotypical life. And you did nothing wrong. You don't owe me anything. I don't expect anything from you. Not ever. I want you to understand: I'm not delusional, I'm not irrational, and I'm not stupid. I never thought you would upend your life for me. If I thought that, I would have told you all of this in December. I created this self-contained soap opera. I've tried to deal with it myself, but I can't.
I'm not sure if you understand what I did, exactly. I didn't cure Asperger's. I found a loophole, but it only worked once. I didn't have other self-soothing memories. If I'd spread the oxytocin too thin, it wouldn't have worked. You're the only person in the world I love. Probably, the only one I will ever love. I don't have the time or the associated memories to do this again, and I don't have anyone else in my life like you. You weren't the only woman to flirt with me, you weren't the only one to smile at me, but I used the memory of you over and over for a reason. You were the best I ever found. Honestly, I don't want to love someone else, even if it means depression for the rest of my life.
I want to tell you, the emotion itself is very normal. It's very healthy; it's very stable. It feels a bit like contentment. Apparently, the processing part of my brain works exactly the way it should.
As I said, I'm here for therapy. I was getting worse, and I needed to deal with this part of it. I also needed the guilt to keep me away from you. The other reason is because I can't move on. I create scenarios about you in my head. That's a writer's habit, not specific to this situation. But, every day for six months, I have fantasized that you're getting a divorce.
I hate myself for that.
At the beginning, that was the only thing I could think. Literally. I had days in December when you were the only thought in my head. I have ADD. I've never had one thought in my head all day. Later, the fantasies were the only thing that kept me functional. They were the only times I felt close to happy. But I can't stop. I know it's not healthy, but the real answer hurts too much. I pull away from it every time. I've reached the point that I can accept I'm not with you now if I can pretend I'll be with you later. I can't face the idea that I'll never be with you. I know the truth, but I need to hear it from you. I won't listen to it from anyone else, not my family, not my therapist, and not me. You're the person I had to tell, and you're the person who needs to respond. And I hate that. I'm not strong enough to do this myself.
The problem is the Asperger's. I don't have a support system in place. I don't know how to be in love. I've never done it before, and I'm not very good at it. I also don't have anyone around me who can help. My family would want to. I know that. But they can't. They've tried comforting me before for whatever it was at the time. It never worked. I heard the words, but I didn't have the connection to the person. They were just words. I've been given a crash course in the worst part of love with no kind of support. My therapist tries, but she can't do much either.
And, I want my life back. I don't have that right now. I have work and you. And pain that freezes me or leaves me sobbing.
I have a good idea what your response will be, and I will feel like crap for the next few months. Or years. But that's for me to worry about. You will go back to your life, and I will be a hiccup in your day or a blip on your screen. You probably don't believe any of it. I'm not offended. But I know what I did. When I think about you, I can feel it. I can't imagine anything else feeling that good or hurting that much.
I'm not sorry I fell in love with you. I will never be sorry for that. You were the best I ever found, and I will love you for the rest of my life. This emotion is too important to me, and you are too important to me. Depression is a small price to pay.
Once more, I will never reach out to you again, or anyone around you. I will not go near you. I promise.
That's it. I hope you don't hate me, even though I probably deserve it. I'm not horrible; I'm just in pain.
Now, it's your turn. Please respond as honestly as possible.

Hi ecommerce - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry pretty closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of this week's top stories, which I cover in depth in the newsletter. .

1. STAT OF THE WEEK: 70% of e-commerce shoppers experienced shipping delays without any reason provided by the business for the delay. Faced with that experience, 90% of respondents said they are less likely to buy from a brand again after a poor online shopping experience, while 29% say they are increasingly willing to share a negative review online. – According to Koerber .
2. If some of Temu's deals appear too good to be true — it's because they are! An analysis of the company's supply chain costs by WIRED shows that Temu is losing an average of $30 per order as it throws money at trying to break into the American market. Most of Temu's subsidies are in the form of free international shipping, with even a small package costing the company around $14 to ship to the US (although it offers the shipping for free). When adding in the additional product discounts and cash coupons that Temu gives to customers, the average loss per order jumps to $30. .
3. The FTC has proposed new rules in the US called “click to cancel” that will impact e-commerce subscriptions — but in a good way for consumers! The rules would require any business selling subscriptions to add a simple cancel mechanism on the same website as the initial transaction, and include the same number of steps. In other words, a “one click subscription” would require a “one click cancelation.” This “click to cancel” rule is part of the FTC's proposed changes to its 1973 Negative Option Rule, which establishes how subscription sellers must communicate offers, ensure consent, manage billing, and simplify cancellation. .
4. BigCommerce announced new leadership including the appointment of Daniel Lentz as the company's CFO, Chuck Cassidy as its General Counsel, and Hubert Ban as its Chief Accounting Officer. .
5. Google is launching Product Studio, a new tool that allows Shopping merchants to quickly edit and customize their product images for free using generative AI. According to Google's data, product listings with more than one image typically see a 76% increase in impressions and a 32% increase in clicks compared to listings with a single image. With the new generative AI tool, text prompts can be used within Product Studio to quickly make visual adjustments to product images, such as generating new backgrounds for seasonal campaigns. The tool also allows sellers to instantly remove the existing background of an image if they need a blank backdrop, and increase the quality of small or low resolution images. .
6. Morning Consult published their annual report of Most Trusted Brands for 2023. The survey ranks roughly 1,500 brands in the US, most of which were dominated by big, well-established names including: #1 Band-Aid, #2 UPS, #3 Amazon, #4 Lysol, #5 Kleenex, #6 Cheerios, #7 Visa, #8 Dove, #9 The Weather Channel, and #10 FedEx .
7. Axios, in collaboration with market research firm Harris Poll, also ran a recent survey to determine the Most Reputable Brands in the US. The results were very different from Morning Consult's most trusted brands. Only one company overlapped in the top ten which included: #1 Patagonia, #2 Costco, #3 John Deere, #4 Trader Joe's, #5 Chick-fil-A, #6 Toyota, #7 Samsung, #8 Amazon, #9 USAA, and #10 Apple . Bottom of the list included: #90 Family Dollar, #91 Balenciaga, #92 BP, #93 Bitcoin, #94 TikTok, #95 Spirit Airlines, #96 Meta, #97 Twitter, #98 Fox, #99 FTX, and #100 The Trump Organization .
8. The latest data from PYMNTS shows that high earners are feeling the pinch of credit card debt and that their wages aren't keeping up with inflation. This is resulting in higher-end retailers who depend on wealthier households feeling the pinch as well. The data shows a number of correlations including that for bouseholds earning more than $100k annually, 42% were living paycheck-to-paycheck in April 2022. That number has crept up to over 49% this past year. .
9. Netflix must have forgotten what love is since 2017 when it made its famous tweet that “Love is sharing a password.” The company has finally launched its ill-awaited crackdown on password sharing in the US and the UK. The new rules state that subscribers are permitted to share their account with members of their own household, which Netflix defines as “you and the people you live with.” Netflix will begin using a variety of tools, such as IP checking, to spot when people are using another household’s account and prevent them from doing so, or give them the option of adding a household for $7.99/month. The company expects cancellations, but optimistically (or idiotically) predicts that those same people will come back again, which will overall lead to more people paying for subscriptions. .
10. Laws are changing in Australia to treat BNPL as a credit product. Finally! When was it NOT a form of credit? BNPL should have been recognized as a credit product the day the first BNPL company put up a coming soon landing page. Australia’s Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones said that a litany of issues reported to the Australia Securities and Investments Commission have added up to “unacceptable levels of unaffordable lending occurring, largely concentrated amongst low-income borrowers.” He added that “BNPL looks like credit, it acts like credit, it carries the risks of credit.” Jones promised draft legislation in the coming months and the introduction of a final bill to the Australian Parliament by the end of the year, which will include the need for BNPL firms to hold Australian Credit Licenses and comply with Resonspible Lending Obligations. .
11. Bill Gates said that AI could kill Google Search and Amazon as we know them, and that the technology could radically alter user behaviors, resulting in people never needing to visit a search website again or use certain productivity or shopping tools. Gates remarked that the first company to develop it will have a leg up on competitors. .
12. A recent study conducted by Lloyds Banking Group revealed that a UK consumer falls victim to a purchasing scam that originates on Facebook or Instagram every seven minutes, resulting in a cost of over £500k per week. (That man is Michael Scott.) The banking group is now urging Meta and other tech giants to take responsibility and contribute to refunding innocent victims of scams. .
13. Analysts at Bernstein project that Reliance Industries is poised to outpace Amazon and Flipkart in the race for India's $150M e-commerce market, citing the conglomerate's robust retail network, mobile network, and home field advantage as its biggest assets. Reliance already operates the country's largest retail chain with over 18k stores and is leveraging its presence to form partnerships with Meta, Shein, and other companies as a strategic advantage against its competitors. .
14. Shopify is introducing its POS hardware to the Canadian market. Its mobile selling device, the POS Go, which is built to run Shopify’s POS software, was first rolled out to retailers in the US in 2022. .
15. Meta announced that ads in Instagram search results will now be available through the Instagram Marketing API, allowing third-party social-management platforms to offer a new Instagram ad-placement type in their apps. Meta began testing the placement in March and are now opening it up to all brands. .
16. Shein is exploring plans to build a factory in Mexico as one of its manufacturing hubs outside China, which could shorten shipping time and cut distribution costs for customers in Latin America and USA. Earlier this month I reported that Shein is creating a hub in Brazil. .
17. Amazon opened the first phase of its Metropolitan Park on Monday, its long-awaited second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia that can hold up to 8k employees. However not all Amazon employees are excited about the new office location (or any office location). At least 1,000 office workers are planning a walkout this Wednesday to take a stand against the company's return-to-office mandate. .
18. The Vietnamese government is putting pressure on TikTok to police its content and remove videos that fall short of the state’s standards, or risk a ban. Eight government departments are targeting toxic content deemed “to pose a threat to the country’s youth, culture and tradition” — including videos that simply criticize college degrees. .
19. eBay unveiled generative AI on its mobile app to help sellers list new items for sale, however the company forgot to inform sellers and didn't label the icon. When clicked, the icon replaced sellers' entire product descriptions with AI generated text, with no way to recover the original description. .
20. Boozt AB, a Sweden-based online fashion retailer, blocked 42,000 customers for returning too many items, calling their actions too costly for the company and the environment. The company said that these particular customers represented less than 2% of their 3M customers, but around 25% of the total return volume. .
21. Twitter withdrew from an agreement with the EU to cut down misinformation on its social network, which the company joined alongside other tech companies in 2018. Thierry Breton, the EU internal market commissioner, noted that fighting disinformation will be a legal obligation from August 25th, due to the EU's Digital Services Act, so the agreement would become irrelevant. .
22. Jeff Bezos is ripped now! The Amazon founder started working with personal trainer, Wes Okerson, who's also trained Tom Cruise and Gerard Butler, and now he's gotten super buff. This is about the least e-commerce specific news you'll ever see me share in this newsletter, but the Jeff Bezos before / after photo is kind of wild! .
23. Amazon will close its official Amazon app store in China on July 17, which launched in 2011 as an alternative to the Google Play Store. Amazon noted that its marketplaces and AWS services will remain operational in China. However while it may be leaving China, the Amazon App Store will soon be bringing more Android apps to the Windows ecosystem. The expanded partnership will allow Windows users to access a wider range of Android apps seamlessly. .
24. Google updated the badges some merchants display for their product listings in Google Search to say “Top Quality Store” instead of the original “Trusted Store” badge. Google said this is just a name and title change and won't have any impact on search rank or performance. .
25. Auctane, an e-commerce shipping specialist that operates brands such as Metapack, ShipStation, Packlink, ShipEngine, Stamps.com, and others, appointed Albert Ko as its new CEO, who previously served as CEO of EWS, which is best known for the Zelle payments network. Current CEO Nathan Jones will join the company's Board of Directors. .
26. eCampus.com, a website that sells textbooks and course materials, announced that it would keep offering textbook rentals, even though its retail partner Amazon was exiting the business. The company had been powering the program behind the scenes for Amazon since 2012, and plans to keep it going through its own website. .
27. Walmart is partnering with Pawp, a veterinary telehealth provider, to offer Walmart+ subscribers free access to virtual veterinarians for a year, starting this week. Currently Pawp charges $99 for an annual membership. .
28. Alibaba Group said that it aims to hire 15,000 people this year, dismissing rumors circulating that the company planned to cut 20% of its staff. They also mentioned that more than 3,000 of those hires would be newly-graduated students. .
29. Plus 7 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest including a $12M Series A round by Laced to grow its resale marketplace for authenticated sneakers.

I hope you find this news recap helpful. See you next week!
-PAUL

Hi ShopifyeCommerce - I'm Paul and I follow the e-commerce industry closely for my Shopifreaks E-commerce Newsletter. Each week I post a summary recap of this week's top stories, which I cover in depth in the newsletter. .

1. STAT OF THE WEEK: 70% of e-commerce shoppers experienced shipping delays without any reason provided by the business for the delay. Faced with that experience, 90% of respondents said they are less likely to buy from a brand again after a poor online shopping experience, while 29% say they are increasingly willing to share a negative review online. – According to Koerber .
2. If some of Temu's deals appear too good to be true — it's because they are! An analysis of the company's supply chain costs by WIRED shows that Temu is losing an average of $30 per order as it throws money at trying to break into the American market. Most of Temu's subsidies are in the form of free international shipping, with even a small package costing the company around $14 to ship to the US (although it offers the shipping for free). When adding in the additional product discounts and cash coupons that Temu gives to customers, the average loss per order jumps to $30. .
3. The FTC has proposed new rules in the US called “click to cancel” that will impact e-commerce subscriptions — but in a good way for consumers! The rules would require any business selling subscriptions to add a simple cancel mechanism on the same website as the initial transaction, and include the same number of steps. In other words, a “one click subscription” would require a “one click cancelation.” This “click to cancel” rule is part of the FTC's proposed changes to its 1973 Negative Option Rule, which establishes how subscription sellers must communicate offers, ensure consent, manage billing, and simplify cancellation. .
4. BigCommerce announced new leadership including the appointment of Daniel Lentz as the company's CFO, Chuck Cassidy as its General Counsel, and Hubert Ban as its Chief Accounting Officer. .
5. Google is launching Product Studio, a new tool that allows Shopping merchants to quickly edit and customize their product images for free using generative AI. According to Google's data, product listings with more than one image typically see a 76% increase in impressions and a 32% increase in clicks compared to listings with a single image. With the new generative AI tool, text prompts can be used within Product Studio to quickly make visual adjustments to product images, such as generating new backgrounds for seasonal campaigns. The tool also allows sellers to instantly remove the existing background of an image if they need a blank backdrop, and increase the quality of small or low resolution images. .
6. Morning Consult published their annual report of Most Trusted Brands for 2023. The survey ranks roughly 1,500 brands in the US, most of which were dominated by big, well-established names including: #1 Band-Aid, #2 UPS, #3 Amazon, #4 Lysol, #5 Kleenex, #6 Cheerios, #7 Visa, #8 Dove, #9 The Weather Channel, and #10 FedEx .
7. Axios, in collaboration with market research firm Harris Poll, also ran a recent survey to determine the Most Reputable Brands in the US. The results were very different from Morning Consult's most trusted brands. Only one company overlapped in the top ten which included: #1 Patagonia, #2 Costco, #3 John Deere, #4 Trader Joe's, #5 Chick-fil-A, #6 Toyota, #7 Samsung, #8 Amazon, #9 USAA, and #10 Apple . Bottom of the list included: #90 Family Dollar, #91 Balenciaga, #92 BP, #93 Bitcoin, #94 TikTok, #95 Spirit Airlines, #96 Meta, #97 Twitter, #98 Fox, #99 FTX, and #100 The Trump Organization .
8. The latest data from PYMNTS shows that high earners are feeling the pinch of credit card debt and that their wages aren't keeping up with inflation. This is resulting in higher-end retailers who depend on wealthier households feeling the pinch as well. The data shows a number of correlations including that for bouseholds earning more than $100k annually, 42% were living paycheck-to-paycheck in April 2022. That number has crept up to over 49% this past year. .
9. Netflix must have forgotten what love is since 2017 when it made its famous tweet that “Love is sharing a password.” The company has finally launched its ill-awaited crackdown on password sharing in the US and the UK. The new rules state that subscribers are permitted to share their account with members of their own household, which Netflix defines as “you and the people you live with.” Netflix will begin using a variety of tools, such as IP checking, to spot when people are using another household’s account and prevent them from doing so, or give them the option of adding a household for $7.99/month. The company expects cancellations, but optimistically (or idiotically) predicts that those same people will come back again, which will overall lead to more people paying for subscriptions. .
10. Laws are changing in Australia to treat BNPL as a credit product. Finally! When was it NOT a form of credit? BNPL should have been recognized as a credit product the day the first BNPL company put up a coming soon landing page. Australia’s Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones said that a litany of issues reported to the Australia Securities and Investments Commission have added up to “unacceptable levels of unaffordable lending occurring, largely concentrated amongst low-income borrowers.” He added that “BNPL looks like credit, it acts like credit, it carries the risks of credit.” Jones promised draft legislation in the coming months and the introduction of a final bill to the Australian Parliament by the end of the year, which will include the need for BNPL firms to hold Australian Credit Licenses and comply with Resonspible Lending Obligations. .
11. Bill Gates said that AI could kill Google Search and Amazon as we know them, and that the technology could radically alter user behaviors, resulting in people never needing to visit a search website again or use certain productivity or shopping tools. Gates remarked that the first company to develop it will have a leg up on competitors. .
12. A recent study conducted by Lloyds Banking Group revealed that a UK consumer falls victim to a purchasing scam that originates on Facebook or Instagram every seven minutes, resulting in a cost of over £500k per week. (That man is Michael Scott.) The banking group is now urging Meta and other tech giants to take responsibility and contribute to refunding innocent victims of scams. .
13. Analysts at Bernstein project that Reliance Industries is poised to outpace Amazon and Flipkart in the race for India's $150M e-commerce market, citing the conglomerate's robust retail network, mobile network, and home field advantage as its biggest assets. Reliance already operates the country's largest retail chain with over 18k stores and is leveraging its presence to form partnerships with Meta, Shein, and other companies as a strategic advantage against its competitors. .
14. Shopify is introducing its POS hardware to the Canadian market. Its mobile selling device, the POS Go, which is built to run Shopify’s POS software, was first rolled out to retailers in the US in 2022. .
15. Meta announced that ads in Instagram search results will now be available through the Instagram Marketing API, allowing third-party social-management platforms to offer a new Instagram ad-placement type in their apps. Meta began testing the placement in March and are now opening it up to all brands. .
16. Shein is exploring plans to build a factory in Mexico as one of its manufacturing hubs outside China, which could shorten shipping time and cut distribution costs for customers in Latin America and USA. Earlier this month I reported that Shein is creating a hub in Brazil. .
17. Amazon opened the first phase of its Metropolitan Park on Monday, its long-awaited second headquarters in Arlington, Virginia that can hold up to 8k employees. However not all Amazon employees are excited about the new office location (or any office location). At least 1,000 office workers are planning a walkout this Wednesday to take a stand against the company's return-to-office mandate. .
18. The Vietnamese government is putting pressure on TikTok to police its content and remove videos that fall short of the state’s standards, or risk a ban. Eight government departments are targeting toxic content deemed “to pose a threat to the country’s youth, culture and tradition” — including videos that simply criticize college degrees. .
19. eBay unveiled generative AI on its mobile app to help sellers list new items for sale, however the company forgot to inform sellers and didn't label the icon. When clicked, the icon replaced sellers' entire product descriptions with AI generated text, with no way to recover the original description. .
20. Boozt AB, a Sweden-based online fashion retailer, blocked 42,000 customers for returning too many items, calling their actions too costly for the company and the environment. The company said that these particular customers represented less than 2% of their 3M customers, but around 25% of the total return volume. .
21. Twitter withdrew from an agreement with the EU to cut down misinformation on its social network, which the company joined alongside other tech companies in 2018. Thierry Breton, the EU internal market commissioner, noted that fighting disinformation will be a legal obligation from August 25th, due to the EU's Digital Services Act, so the agreement would become irrelevant. .
22. Jeff Bezos is ripped now! The Amazon founder started working with personal trainer, Wes Okerson, who's also trained Tom Cruise and Gerard Butler, and now he's gotten super buff. This is about the least e-commerce specific news you'll ever see me share in this newsletter, but the Jeff Bezos before / after photo is kind of wild! .
23. Amazon will close its official Amazon app store in China on July 17, which launched in 2011 as an alternative to the Google Play Store. Amazon noted that its marketplaces and AWS services will remain operational in China. However while it may be leaving China, the Amazon App Store will soon be bringing more Android apps to the Windows ecosystem. The expanded partnership will allow Windows users to access a wider range of Android apps seamlessly. .
24. Google updated the badges some merchants display for their product listings in Google Search to say “Top Quality Store” instead of the original “Trusted Store” badge. Google said this is just a name and title change and won't have any impact on search rank or performance. .
25. Auctane, an e-commerce shipping specialist that operates brands such as Metapack, ShipStation, Packlink, ShipEngine, Stamps.com, and others, appointed Albert Ko as its new CEO, who previously served as CEO of EWS, which is best known for the Zelle payments network. Current CEO Nathan Jones will join the company's Board of Directors. .
26. eCampus.com, a website that sells textbooks and course materials, announced that it would keep offering textbook rentals, even though its retail partner Amazon was exiting the business. The company had been powering the program behind the scenes for Amazon since 2012, and plans to keep it going through its own website. .
27. Walmart is partnering with Pawp, a veterinary telehealth provider, to offer Walmart+ subscribers free access to virtual veterinarians for a year, starting this week. Currently Pawp charges $99 for an annual membership. .
28. Alibaba Group said that it aims to hire 15,000 people this year, dismissing rumors circulating that the company planned to cut 20% of its staff. They also mentioned that more than 3,000 of those hires would be newly-graduated students. .
29. Plus 7 seed rounds, IPOs, and acquisitions of interest including a $12M Series A round by Laced to grow its resale marketplace for authenticated sneakers.

For more details on each story, see the full edition: https://www.shopifreaks.com/how-much-money-does-temu-lose-per-orde
What else is new in e-commerce? Share stories of interesting in the comments below (including in your own business) or on shopifreaks.
See you next week.
-PAUL

AI exacerbates longstanding fears about deepfakes even more. Even a few years ago, in order to create a high-quality deepfake that not only my grandmother would believe in, really good skills were necessary. Now almost anyone can easily make a high-quality deepfake.
Now the problem of fake content extends beyond text-based news to visual content as well. As companies and creators become increasingly active on social media, sharing more photos and videos, we have seen a rise in deepfakes and other manipulations of visual and audio representations of people. For example, Symantec discovered several cases of large-scale fraud where deepfake audio was used to mimic the voices of company executives instructing employees to transfer money to specific accounts.
To combat this growing threat, it is crucial to be aware of and employ effective strategies to avoid falling victim to deepfake news.

1. Educate Yourself about Deepfake Technology: Understanding what deepfake technology is and how it works is the first step toward protecting yourself. Familiarize yourself with the concept of deepfakes, their capabilities, and the potential risks they pose. Stay updated on the latest developments in this field to better identify potential threats.
2. Verify the Source: One of the most critical practices in combating deepfake news is to verify the source of the information. Always question the credibility of the content you encounter online. Verify whether the news comes from a reputable and reliable source. Look for multiple independent sources that can confirm the accuracy of the information. It can be very useful to study the reliability of the content, comparing it with what is available in other languages. Translation and dubbing services like vidby can help you do this easily.
3. Analyze the Context: Deepfake videos or images are often created to spread false narratives or manipulate public opinion. Analyzing the context surrounding the content can help you discern its authenticity. Consider the timing, location, and events surrounding the news. Misleading information may be accompanied by inconsistencies, implausible scenarios, or unusual behavior that can serve as red flags.
4. Scrutinize Video and Audio: When encountering a video or audio clip, pay close attention to the details. Deepfake videos may exhibit subtle anomalies that can betray their artificial nature. Look for discrepancies in facial expressions, eye movements, or lip sync. Similarly, listen for irregularities in audio, such as unnatural voice modulation or inconsistency in the speaker's tone and accent.
5. Rely on Trusted Fact-Checking Sources: To combat the spread of deepfake news, rely on reputable fact-checking organizations. These organizations employ experts and employ stringent verification processes to expose false information. Consult fact-checking websites and platforms dedicated to debunking rumors and misinformation.
6. Utilize Digital Forensics Tools: Various digital forensics tools are available to assist in detecting deepfake content. These tools analyze video or image metadata, identify editing artifacts, or use machine learning algorithms to detect manipulations. By utilizing such tools, you can add an extra layer of scrutiny to the information you encounter online.
7. Promote Media Literacy: Enhancing media literacy is crucial in the fight against deepfake news. Educate others about the existence of deepfake technology and its potential impact on society. Encourage critical thinking and responsible sharing of information. By spreading awareness, we can collectively reduce the spread of deepfake news.

I've recently come across a job opportunity that initially seemed quite promising but has started to raise some red flags for me, and I was hoping to gather your thoughts and insights. The company name is FLORIDA INVESTMENTS LLC I found the company while trawling through Indeed, and subsequently visited their official website. Everything seemed legitimate on the surface; the site was professional, the company details were comprehensive, and there were no immediate signs of it being a fraudulent operation. Following my application, I was contacted by a representative from the company who walked me through the initial process, including a brief interview. They then proceeded to send me an Employee Probationary Period Agreement, which appeared standard at first glance. However, where I began to feel uneasy was the next step: the background check. Contrary to the typical process I've experienced with other companies, they do not utilize a third-party service for conducting these checks. This seemed somewhat unusual to me, and it has given me some pause.
THey asked me to provide the selfie photo with an identity document holding next to face. Also take a photo of the front and back of the document separately. Valid documents include: passport national identity card (front + back photo separately) drivers license (front + back photo separately) The opportunity seems to be really good and I don't want to let it go without careful consideration. But the distinct deviation from the norm in terms of the background check process makes me somewhat skeptical. Given the expertise and wide range of experiences present in this community, I thought this would be the perfect place to seek advice. Has anyone here experienced a similar process, or do you have any thoughts or insights on this? Is this a red flag or am I being overly cautious? Thanks in advance for your help! Your insights could potentially prevent me from falling into a scam, or conversely, assure me that I'm simply overthinking a good opportunity. I'm looking forward to your responses!

I hate going to you about this. I know I don't have the right, but I can't deal with this myself. I've tried. It's not fair to you. I know that. As I told your mother, I did this to myself, and it's mostly about Asperger's Syndrome. I never thought you owed me anything. Your contribution, such as it was, ended forty years ago and was completely innocent. You smiled at me in church, and, for the record, I smiled back. You had no way of knowing what would happen. Neither did I. I didn't even know it was happening until the depression hit.
I'm here, because I want to tell you what I did, and I want you to respond as honestly as possible. That's it. It's not a scam; it's not a business deal. It's therapy. Nothing more. I don't expect anything from you. I am in pain, and I am frozen. My life has been on hold for six months, and I want it back. I can't do that unless I confront this part.
What happened was weird and complicated, even for me. I won't be offended if you have doubts. I certainly did. But everything I'm going to tell you is true, as far as I know it. Some of it is speculation, but I'll point that out. Some of it will also be uncomfortable. I'm very sorry for that.
For the past six months, I've tried to keep this away from you. Part of me has. Part of me wanted to tell you everything. I've tried distracting that part of myself and tricking it and forcing it down, and it worked for a while. My therapist suggested reaching out to you for a neutral conversation. That's when I sent you the LinkedIn request, but I eventually knew that wouldn't work. Then, I asked my mother to go through the grapevine and ask about you. I wanted to trick myself into thinking I'd contacted you when I hadn't. That got me through March. In April, it started to break down.
I was doing okay in February and March. I seemed to have leveled out. I thought that would be my new normal, just a low grade depression for the rest of my life. But that didn't happen.
I had good days and bad. The worst was December. I lost entire days to it. I had trouble eating, trouble sleeping, trouble working. I probably lost five pounds. January was almost as bad. I punched a wall and broke a knuckle. In February and March, the good and bad days were about even. In April, I started getting worse. I had more bad days, and they were more severe. I saw the direction I was headed. I needed to diffuse it before it got really bad. That's when I decided I had to reach out to you. And I was right. May has been even worse. It's almost as bad as January.
I promise, I won't contact you again after this. I'm going to hate myself a lot for what I'm doing. The guilt and the promise will keep me away. They've always been strong motivators for me. I don't need to worry about tricks and distractions anymore.
That's the first reason I contacted you. The second reason is to hear your response. I don't have any unreasonable expectations for that. You will answer honestly and in a way that best suits your life, whatever that happens to be. But, I need to hear it from you, because I can't move past this part. It hurts too much.
I'll start with Asperger's Syndrome. What Asperger's does to me, specifically, damage to my fusiform gyrus prevents me from reading non-verbal communication, and my brain never receives the signal to release oxytocin in response, so I never form emotional connections.
Imagine you could lose the pain of everyone you've ever lost or everyone you've ever seen suffer, but you would also lose all the love and happiness that went with them. And, not just them. You would lose the closeness of everyone around you now. You wouldn't forget them; you just wouldn't feel anything for them.
Imagine feeling guilty if you try to tell your mother you love her, because you know it's a lie. You don't hate her, but you don't love her. You know it hurts her that she can't hear that from you, but it doesn't change anything.
Imagine knowing, when your parents die, you won't feel bad. You won't feel good. You won't feel. You know this absolutely, because it's happened with people you've already lost.
Imagine standing next to your grandmother's coffin and feeling cheated, because you can't participate in the grief of everyone around you. Imagine going to her funeral hoping to feel pain, because it would be something.
Imagine being attacked your whole life, because you "don't want to feel." Imagine feeling alone in a room full of people when you're with your family. Imagine being on the outside of every group. Imagine being born into this, like being punished every day, but you don't know what you did wrong.
For thirty-six years, that was my life. When I learned I had Asperger's, I had an answer. I could stop feeling guilty at funerals. I was disappointed. I still wanted connection, but I understood the neurology. I was able to accept it, to come to terms with it. That was my mindset last November, before the depression began.
However, it's important to understand that the release mechanism for oxytocin is damaged, not the processing mechanism. I know from pets, that if I can get oxytocin into my system some other way, in their case tactile interaction, that it will work.
This is where we get to you and church and a self-soothing, autobiographical memory. That's just a memory that makes you feel good. It could be anything, first pet, first kiss, whatever. For me, it's you smiling at me. My family went back for a visit about a year after we moved. You and I saw each other before church. You didn't know I was back. We talked. We caught up. We smiled at each other during the service. That was the first time I ever flirted with a girl. I have Social Anxiety Disorder on top of the Asperger's, so that's easy for me. When you smiled at me, you gave me butterflies.
For forty years, I used that memory as intended. It didn't help if things were really bad, but, as a quick pick-me-up, it was fine. Every time, it gave me butterflies. That's the Asperger's. We can sometimes recall the full emotional effect of an event.
What I didn't know is that the self-soothing part is a release of dopamine and oxytocin. They were giving me the butterflies. I've studied psychology. I took it for the humanities credits and liked it. I use it when developing my characters. I've also used it to research my conditions, but I never researched that memory. I had no reason to.
For forty years, I released dopamine and oxytocin into my system with that memory. As far as I can tell, they functioned as intended: reinforcing memory pathways of that memory and all of the other memories I have of you, because I would think of all of them, and linking them to a positive emotional response. In a neurotypical brain, that wouldn't be the case. The amount of oxytocin from other sources would mostly drown out the amount from the self-soothing memory. In an Asperger brain, especially one with Social Anxiety Disorder, it would be different. Every drop would be noticed.
Around Thanksgiving, I hyperfocused on you. It's a common ADD trait. Usually, it's about a project I'm working on. It's great at work. I can get a lot done. This time, it happened to be about you. When it's about a person, I search for a lot of information online, then stop. I never save it; I never reach out to the person; I just search. I think it satisfies some hunting instinct. That is what has happened every other time. I focused on you twice before. That's what happened. The first time was about twenty-five years ago. I was searching for a lot of people then. I wanted to see what search engines could do. The second time was when I moved to the area. That's when I saw you were married. I still used that memory of you, because I wasn't hurting anyone, but that was it.
When I focused on you this third time, I didn't think anything of it. It seemed like any other episode. I found your LinkedIn page. I think I found your Twitter page. I found that photo of you. You looked good. That should have been it. I should have stopped. Instead, I sank into severe depression. I don't have a history of depression. I had no idea where it came from. Over the course of three weeks, I went from completely normal to crippling depression. If anyone had asked me about you in November, I would have said nice things. I would have said you were someone I had a crush on once. That would have been it. Suddenly, you were the only thing I could think about.
So, I wrote an essay about you. I'm a writer, and it can sometimes clear my head. And it did help. It ended the episode and eased the depression. I thought I was better. But, I had this essay, and it told me the impossible. It didn't say it explicitly, but it did say it. I had to reconcile everything I knew about my life and about Asperger's with what the essay told me. That's when I researched that memory. That was the only thing different about you and every other woman I ever thought about. I found information on oxytocin release and reinforced pathways. Some of it is speculation, but it's reasonable, and it doesn't violate anything. I had a mechanism, and it explained a few things. Minor details, but it maintained consistency. I knew I succeeded.
This is where it gets uncomfortable.
Reinforced memory pathways linked to a positive emotional response is the neurological mechanism of falling in love. Without knowing what I was doing, I fell in love with you.
Again, I did this to myself. I've known that from the beginning. I never thought you felt the same way. You had a neurotypical life. And you did nothing wrong. You don't owe me anything. I don't expect anything from you. Not ever. I want you to understand: I'm not delusional, I'm not irrational, and I'm not stupid. I never thought you would upend your life for me. If I thought that, I would have told you all of this in December. I created this self-contained soap opera. I've tried to deal with it myself, but I can't.
I'm not sure if you understand what I did, exactly. I didn't cure Asperger's. I found a loophole, but it only worked once. I didn't have other self-soothing memories. If I'd spread the oxytocin too thin, it wouldn't have worked. You're the only person in the world I love. Probably, the only one I will ever love. I don't have the time or the associated memories to do this again, and I don't have anyone else in my life like you. You weren't the only woman to flirt with me, you weren't the only one to smile at me, but I used the memory of you over and over for a reason. You were the best I ever found. Honestly, I don't want to love someone else, even if it means depression for the rest of my life.
I want to tell you, the emotion itself is very normal. It's very healthy; it's very stable. It feels a bit like contentment. Apparently, the processing part of my brain works exactly the way it should.
As I said, I'm here for therapy. I was getting worse, and I needed to deal with this part of it. I also needed the guilt to keep me away from you. The other reason is because I can't move on. I create scenarios about you in my head. That's a writer's habit, not specific to this situation. But, every day for six months, I have fantasized that you're getting a divorce.
I hate myself for that.
At the beginning, that was the only thing I could think. Literally. I had days in December when you were the only thought in my head. I have ADD. I've never had one thought in my head all day. Later, the fantasies were the only thing that kept me functional. They were the only times I felt close to happy. But I can't stop. I know it's not healthy, but the real answer hurts too much. I pull away from it every time. I've reached the point that I can accept I'm not with you now if I can pretend I'll be with you later. I can't face the idea that I'll never be with you. I know the truth, but I need to hear it from you. I won't listen to it from anyone else, not my family, not my therapist, and not me. You're the person I had to tell, and you're the person who needs to respond. And I hate that. I'm not strong enough to do this myself.
The problem is the Asperger's. I don't have a support system in place. I don't know how to be in love. I've never done it before, and I'm not very good at it. I also don't have anyone around me who can help. My family would want to. I know that. But they can't. They've tried comforting me before for whatever it was at the time. It never worked. I heard the words, but I didn't have the connection to the person. They were just words. I've been given a crash course in the worst part of love with no kind of support. My therapist tries, but she can't do much either.
And, I want my life back. I don't have that right now. I have work and you. And pain that freezes me or leaves me sobbing.
I have a good idea what your response will be, and I will feel like crap for the next few months. Or years. But that's for me to worry about. You will go back to your life, and I will be a hiccup in your day or a blip on your screen. You probably don't believe any of it. I'm not offended. But I know what I did. When I think about you, I can feel it. I can't imagine anything else feeling that good or hurting that much.
I'm not sorry I fell in love with you. I will never be sorry for that. You were the best I ever found, and I will love you for the rest of my life. This emotion is too important to me, and you are too important to me. Depression is a small price to pay.
Once more, I will never reach out to you again, or anyone around you. I will not go near you. I promise.
That's it. I hope you don't hate me, even though I probably deserve it. I'm not horrible; I'm just in pain.
Now, it's your turn. Please respond as honestly as possible.

A few worthy items that will make fine users for someone. First, I don’t have paypal or any other EFT gizmos, so payment in US Postal money order please; all prices are plus shipping and I’ll combine to get you the best rate. First Private Message (don’t use the chat, I’m old that that is hard to keep track of) with an unequivocal “I’ll take it” gets priority in line and I’ll respond to every PM promptly. Please put your name and shipping address in the PM so I can print shipping labels, this avoids a lot of back and forth. Many pics in this link to a Flickr album; items are described below in their order of appearance in the album linked here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/albums/72177720308668944
Note: For the benefit of those not familiar both sets of bits are full sets of 13 bits, #4 through #16, sized in increments of 1/16th, so a #4 bit is 1/4", a #16 is a 1" bit, and so on. I put them together from buying them at flea markets one by one, so various makers as noted in the descriptions given. However, each bit is in very good user shape, has good flute life and is not used up, and the lead screws are not buggered up. A bit file is recommended to sharpen them, available at Lee Valley or TFWW. Price bits new and you'll see the value here.
First up is a full set of Irwin pattern bits; some made by Irwin, some marked Craftsman (likely made by Irwin) and all truly vintage. Again, flutes and lead screws are in good shape. Note that the #13 bit is a Jennings pattern (I didn't have one to make a full set and I filled it in, and it will give more than fine performance) and also note the #15 bit is a NOS (new old stock) Millers Falls bit never used (I have three others I'm selling for $12 each below). I've also included a bonus of two screwdriver brace bits. Yours for a very reasonable $60 plus shipping - again, price these new and you'll see the value.
Next up are three NOS Millers Falls 15/16th brace bits, never used and still in their wax paper as boxed. Not much more to say, but if you need a #15, one can be yours for $12 plus shipping, an excellent price for NOS bits.
Next up is a full set of Jennings pattern bits, again, screws and flutes are good (see closeup pic) and the majority are marked Jennings and Stanley/Jennings (after Stanley bought them); bonus here is a brace bit for countersinking screw heads. These will make good users for someone. Yours for an equally reasonable $65 plus shipping.
Last is a Stanley #42 saw set, fully functional, works as it should, no defects. Lost its japanning long ago, sawsets lead a tough life in the bottom of tool chests, but this will do someone just fine. The new production saw sets are total chit, this one will outlast you. A necessity if you're sharpening handsaws. $35 plus shipping.
Again, note the terms in the first paragraph above, and please include your full name and address in your Personal Messages.
Thanks for looking.

Hello! Hoping to get some professional advise on my redneck-mobile-wood-fired hot tub time machine project. Please let me know if I am going to blow myself up! Ok here goes...
Heating water with 4x 50' lengths of 1/2" copper pipe wrapped around the outside of the barrel and insulated with ceramic insulation. Using a PVC one way valve on the cold end and a brass one way valve on the hot end.
The concept is using a small Marine battery powered pump (1/10hp did the trick) during active heating from 0 - 40 Celsius but then allowing the heat syphon to take over for quiet, passive circulation given the heater is much lower than the mass of water. It does, infact circulate during testing last fall and I got it up to temperature. I am aware that if the water boils it will expand explosively and so I have a hot water tank's safety release valve (150PSI and/or >100C to trigger). See photos.
200ft of Type L 1/2" copper pipe = 2.42 Gallons of water. Worst case scenario - If all that water turns into steam at once will it overwhelm the pressure release valve pictured on the bottom Right of the back of the heater? Where is my weak point/ what would explode? (Cold end PVC would be my guess) Any other safety measures you could advise?
Questions and comments welcome, I am 2 years into this and friends are tired of hearing about it! ^^
I did observe a banging phenomenon at the tub where the water connects to the 2" hose (pictured) for the jets when I had the pump off for a long period. I suspect this was small amounts of water turning to steam and causing a shock wave/ water hammer. I intend to add a water hammer arrestor on the back end of the heater to prevent damage to the fiberglass tub/ jets.
Additional information: A gas powered water transfer pump will be used with a milk crate rigged to be a crude filter. This tub will be usable anywhere near a body of water where you also have firewood. The 1/10HP pump has a bypass to push through a standard hot tub filter. If chlorine/ bromine is used correctly the water may be drained safely onto grass without damaging local vegetation. Improved tub insulation and a potential pump upgrade are planned to improve heating efficiency. Estimated output is ~ 150K BTU/hr but remains to be proven. I intend to try this out ice fishing!
Thoughts?

For context, I'm only a 13 year old girl so my mom does have control over my life but i feel like she is asking too much of me.
My mom is a travel influencer which may sound fun at first but it's become really stressful and has completely destroyed my life. She forces me to be in photos for her instagram even though I really don't want to be in a photo that she will post publicly. I've told her this before and she says it's necessary for her work. I know I'm being kind of a brat to complain but it gets really embarrassing when my classmates make fun of me for it and repost and reshare every bad photo of me. I get teased about it in school all the time. I feel like it's kind of my right to privacy to not have to have photos of me shared online.
Another thing that's also been stressing me out is the amount of travelling we have to do. I really don't mind travelling to hotels where there is internet and i can still do homework but i am often dragged to the middle of nowhere and i'm not able to complete any of my assignments. i have horrible grades and usually end up staying up till 1am to try and finish my homework during the week. if i'm not doing homework at night, i can't sleep due to anxiety and i end up only getting 5-6 hours of sleep a night. My teachers haven't noticed but i usually fall asleep every math class.
Lately, I also have no social life and struggle to keep up. i'm never home and never able to hang out, so all my friends have found new people to hangout with. no one bothers to invite me anywhere because they all know I won't be home anyways.
My mom also expects me to work for her as well. I understand a lot of children do help out with their family business but when I help my mom it requires a lot of time that i don't have and conflicts with my life. i wouldn't mind helping her but i hate being in photos and spending entire weekends creating content. There is absolutely no time for me and I'm always stressed. Many of my classmates make fun of me for having no energy and joke about my mental health which can feel very degrading.
Since I have no control over my life, i have also restricted my eating. i feel like the only thing i can control is what i eat so i refuse to eat rice because it's a carb and never really eat much. I never eat breakfast unless my mom is awake to force me to and i haven't packed a lunch to school in over 6 months. During the school week, the only meal I eat in a day is dinner and during the weekend I usually wake up really early to pretend i already ate breakfast and I eat very small portions at lunch and throw out half my dinner. My mom hasn't noticed at all because she's too consumed with herself.
There are so many more problems caused by my mom and she is negligent to all of them. All she does is yell at me and call me ungrateful and lazy. She doesn't even try to understand what I'm going through. I've been able to live like this for years but I'm almost 14 now I really really really want my life back. I want to be normal again and not have to live like this. i'm done with always being sick and tired and having migraines and feeling nauseous all the time.
At this point I just want to run away. Does anyone know how to cope with this or how i should confront my mom? i have a really unhealthy relationship with her and i'm terrified of even talking to her. Any help would be greatly appreciated, so sorry for the long rant, I just feel like there's no one irl that i can actually talk about this stuff with.
Thanks for reading and considering!

So my boyfriend and I have been together for 7 months now and at the very beginning he told me about how him and his female best friend had “adult relations” before but it was nothing more. I took a moment to process but I eventually got over it.
Well…not really. I wanted to but something felt different about the way I felt about her than with his other exs. Maybe it was the fact that they were still friends? Or the fact that she looks like everything I ever wanted to be(beautifully curvy, looser hair, and light skinned; while my curves are just coming in, dark skinned with thicker hair(we’re both African American btw)), it’s not to say that I don’t believe that I’m not beautiful but I don’t know. Later on the relationship, while lightly crossed, I unlocked his phone and went on a spiral. I looked through his dms, women that he followed, and in the process founded old nudes of his bsf saved in his snap. (For more context, we started falling for each other in Oct. and these pics were sent in that first week of Oct.). He was, reasonably, upset with me for breaking his trust while he was asleep and seeing the photos. I was more upset that they were on his phone in the first place, but still apologized profusely before expressing that of course.
We’re slowly moving past it for the better as our communication gotten better as well(tho he would still make comments about it here and there, which is fair again). Recently, however, he has told me something that has been messing with my head since he told me.
He has told me the full story of how they first met, and how they started talking to each other on snap. He met her through her sister and they hit it off from there. They had started becoming semi-sexual with each other (he told around this time he jerked to her pics which isn’t something I wish he didn’t tell me) and when they first met they started making out. But then they decided to distance each other for her sister’s graduation party. He expressed to me how he wanted to kiss her then and how she regretted then that he never did. Then there relations where kind of on and off with her finding another boyfriend or him finding a girlfriend, this won’t work out and they’ll end up going back to each other and it was a cycle like this for 2-3 years. He even stated that they’re were many times that she even professed her love to him and how she wish he would move own from his crazy girlfriends. Alas, they never became official but he was her first.
The entire time I was hurt, like I wanted to cry. Especially in the moments where he told me he had love for her too but he pushed them away cause they were such “good friends”. (Later on that same day and the next day he would deny it, even after I told him that they were madly in love with each other. He would just say ‘naahhh I just cared for her deeply’”).
God I feel so bad for feeling this way but at the same time what if she is still in love with him? What if he’s actually secretly in love with her but he has yet again never realized. I’ve been through this situation before but this one hurts more cause we both agreed that we love each other so deep that in every reality we would be in love. But what if I’m actually the side character here to there love story. I just need help figuring out how to express these feelings to him. He has never gave any evidence that he is in love with someone else or would cheat. He expressed his love for me and only me in so many ways, but I have never been in a situation this deep before. The one I had, my most recent ex, left me in a terrible place, but not as bad as this one would leave me.

I really need to clear my head after yesterday's elections. Help Me™
I want more international friends (and maybe even more as time passes???????????? who knows........) in the age range of 22-25. I would love for it to become a long-term thing, either friendship or something else! Here's a list of facts about me:
–​I love playing The Sims 4 –If you asked me what my favorite game is I'd say Undertale even though I spend A LOT of time playing The Sims 4 –I would like to think I'm perfectly balanced between Golden Retriever and Black Cat energy –I LOVE horror movies and Bridget Jones' Diary (oddly specific?????) –I love occasionally hoarding indie games and then never playing them (THOUGH i've been recently getting rid of this habit!!) –I can play the guitar and the ukulele a little! –I'm a 4th-year uni student (and I WILL BE ABLE TO GRADUATE!!!! YAY!!!!!!) –My top 3 Spotify artists of the last 4 weeks are Fall Out Boy, Taylor Swift, and Waterparks So if these sound fun to you, message me! I'm willing to send photos if you are willing too! Promise I won't bite!

We have been waiting for this cabinet to arrive since we bought it in February. It finally arrived only to fall apart after just 1 week of extremely light use. We only just filled it with items.
Is there anything that can be done to reattach the door in a secure way so that it won’t fall off again?
Any help would be really greatly appreciated
Here is a photo of it https://i.imgur.com/iKhTs85.jpg

Garrett Watts just tweeted this a few minutes ago:
"People with new babies are wild they will just randomly send you a 3 min video of it like just eating on a weird chair or watching tv. Like ok hit me up when it falls over or does something cool."
It made me laugh because one of my friends became an aunt about a week ago, and I swear I have already seen a hundred photos of the baby on my Facebook feed. Someone keeps tagging her in them, so it's not just her sharing them, but it got so annoying to the point where I just snoozed her posts for a while.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001mljl

Disk 05 June 2023

The Digital Human Series 29
They were ubiquitous - taped onto magazines covers, bursting out of overstuffed office cabinet drawers, used to hold everything from secret family recipes, to photo albums, to legal documents, operating systems; anything you could cram on 1.4mb of storage was contained on floppy disks.
After a 40 year career as the go to storage method of, even gateway to, the digital world, they were declared effectively obsolete. But are they?
Aleks discovers some of the last people to be trading in, and experimenting with, floppy disks. She finds out which industries still depend on them, how artists are repurposing them, and how they birthed a new niche genre of music - despite never having been a means for storing or creating music in their heyday.
Why is it only when a technology falls into obscurity that we test its boundaries, and how can floppy disks guide us in our relationship with technology in a future world of unbridled, unlimited, data.

Hi. I have recently broken up from a pretty long relationship, and want to understand how does one go about meeting new people to date/marry.
All my life, the people who i know and am friends with became friends with me by accident i think. i have never made efforts to actively go out and make friends with a person but i think i have quite a decent amount of friends, people i can hang out with and talk about stuff.
Same goes with girlfriends, both my relationships were with my best friends (at their respective times) who i met by chance, and started to fall for. i have never proposed to a woman, i’m simply not that attractive (although both my girlfriends were significantly more attractive than myself), and i have barely any game. so i don’t know how that worked twice.
if i give it a hard thought, i’m not sure about how to make friends with people because i have simply never put any effort into it.
i want to know how do people just go out and find people they want to be with, intentionally. i have tried the generic dating app route to no avail, firstly because im not that attractive (a 6 or 7 on my best day, 5 generally), and secondly i have no photos of me shot by other people (im too shy to ask people to take photos of me), so all photos are generic selfies, and gym stuff (i am moderately built, kind of vascular, but no defined abs and stuff)
sorry if this post is not up to people’s grammatical standards but i hope i got my point across, and someone is willing to share stuff