The ‘Looksmaxxing Mainstream’. Is this what Michael Jackson was going for?:
Clavicular is 6-foot-2, weighs 180 pounds and has a 31-inch waist. His biacromial width — basically the span of the clavicle, from which the 20-year-old streamer gets his name — is 19.5 inches. He has a midface ratio, which is derived by dividing the distance from the pupil to the mouth by the distance between the pupils, of 1.07. His chin to philtrum ratio is 2.6.
According to Clavicular, these calculations make him handsome. Just not as handsome as the actor Matt Bomer.
Clavicular is a Looksmaxxer, the first star from an online community that holds male attractiveness as the key to worldly achievement. He considers Mr. Bomer to possess the most harmonious man’s face in existence, beyond even his own. That’s where the bimaxillary osteotomy, also known as double jaw surgery, comes in. The streamer wants one.
Because, like all Looksmaxxers, he believes any step toward increasing his beauty to be virtuous. But it’s a certain kind of beauty. The Looksmaxxing community prefers people who look like Mr. Bomer: lantern-jawed, symmetrical, white. (A Black man who attempted to make looksmaxxing content was racially harassed, Wired reported last year.)
Clavicular dismisses concerns that the subculture is racist as “dumb.” Since the age of 14, Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Peters, has injected and ingested dozens of controlled substances to “ascend” — Looksmaxxer lingo for becoming more handsome. He has a single goal in mind, and his philosophy requires him to get there as fast as possible. If most people regard self-improvement as a pleasant hike to a more attractive destination, Clavicular’s version of it resembles a grim speed test on a salt flat.
Clavicular’s extreme methods, bizarre argot and nihilistic worldview, in which the universe is a Darwinian nightclub full of aggressive men jockeying for status, have in recent months made him a social media sensation. Uncanny clips of him “mogging” other men — that is, standing next to them and making them look common by comparison — and mercilessly appraising women’s looks have gone viral on TikTok and Instagram. Videos of Clavicular have become so ubiquitous on X that its head of product recently threatened, jokingly, that he would shut down the site if he saw one more.
Clavicular was preparing to stream, which he does most days for upward of eight hours. He’s especially known for “IRL” streaming: going out in public and interacting with strangers in an attempt to create viral moments that can be clipped and distributed over social media. He makes more than $100,000 a month from Kick, his preferred streaming service. (Well, it is porn of a sort.)
I admit, I can’t relate to any of this. Only explanation–aliens live among us.
It’s still Valentine’s Weekend, so…:
Rom-coms aren’t lying to you: love at first sight is a real phenomenon. It’s a strong—but not all that common—initial attraction, and it has the potential to grow into an enduring relationship.
But science shows us that it’s not your heart that falls in love fast, it’s your brain. Through neuroscience, behavioral experiments, and psychological research, scientists are mapping how attraction can spark almost instantly. Entire labs at research universities are dedicated to better understanding romantic love, although the speed at which love at first sight happens makes it more difficult to study. Still, researchers have an idea of how our brain reacts—and how we’re actually hardwired to quickly form impressions of people—based on their understandings of the early phases of love.
The ability to experience love at first sight rests on a cognitive skill you might not even realize you have: Humans are incredibly good at quickly assessing other people. “In less than seven seconds, we can form impressions that are actually fairly accurate,” says Wendi Gardner, a social psychologist at Northwestern University.
That right there explains whatever success I’ve had. Once I learned to fake sincerity for seven seconds, I was golden.
A would-be thief was caught by police after a hero herd of llamas cornered the suspect in a field until officers could arrive.
Heidi Price and Graham Oliver were alerted to the intruder on their farmland when the animals began making a loud alarm call on Monday evening, Feb. 2.
Moments earlier, the crook had stolen tobacco from a woman before he decided to jumped over a fence into the farm off Carnfield Hall in South Normanton, Derbys. in a bid to flee from police officers.
But his escape did not go to plan after eight llamas galloped over to him as he was running through the field in the dark and surrounded him.
Their warning cry alerted stunned farm owners Heidi and Graham who then discovered the crime-fighting llamas had made a “citizens arrest.”
Graham went outdoors to find the “terrified” suspect circled by the 6ft animals before police arrived on the scene and arrested him.
Heidi said: “This was after dusk and an offender who just escaped police jumped over the fence into our farm.
“He had a torch with him, and he was running across the field.
“We’ve got eight llamas and llamas don’t like people entering their personal space after dusk.”
You have been warned.
Meanwhile, in Peru:
The Ancient Sport Of Stone Lifting. Step One–Find A Big Stone:
David Keohan surveyed the County Waterford beach and spotted a familiar mound half-buried in sand: an oval-shaped limestone boulder. It weighed about 115kg.
He wedged it loose with a crowbar, wiped it dry with a cloth, dusted his hands with chalk and paused to gaze at the Irish Sea, as if summoning strength from the waves pounding ashore.
He hunkered down, gripped the boulder and hoisted it to his lap. Legs trembling, Keohan straightened his knees and hoisted the weight up to his chest, close enough to kiss it. Two seconds later he lowered and dropped the boulder, which thudded back on to the sand.
It was a demonstration of the ancient sport of stone lifting. Keohan has almost single-handedly revived the practice in Ireland and helped stir global interest.
“It’s not just about strength. Every single lifting stone has an amazing story attached to it,” said Keohan, 47. “It’s opened up a whole culture that was lost.”
To his fanbase Keohan is better known by his Instagram handle Indiana Stones. On there, he is a scholarly Hercules who parses myth, folklore and literature to locate boulders around Ireland that for centuries were used to test strength and bond communities.
Cue Ian and Mott:
