idk man im just kinda here arent i

For personal context, before I went to the '98 Burning Man festival, one of the things I'd read from a couple different journalists was that "everybody" runs around naked. Which, fine by me, I'd already spent a lot of time in clothing-optional spaces, I'm not fanatic about it but it's nice.

So I got there early and set up a public shade structure on one of Black Rock City's main roads and spent most of each afternoon just watching the crowds go by. I don't remember seeing more than one actually naked person the whole week. I think a topless woman passed by my intersection maybe every half an hour, sometimes once an hour. So why in the hell were people, normally pretty smart and observant writers, coming away with the impression that everybody was naked?

Then I remembered an unrelated passage from Joel Garreau's great book about the history of the outer-ring suburbs, Edge City. Mall developers told him flat-out that they tried to keep the crowds in their malls less than 5% black. Not because they themselves were racist, but because they had determined, experimentally, that if more than 5% of the people in the mall are black, the median white shopper will wrongly describe the mall as at least half black, as mostly black. And not a few of them would describe it, at 6% black, as a mall where "only black people go." Why?

Because, emotionally, they were still upset over the last one when the next one came into view.

1. The FBI's Famous Cases & Criminals archive (fbi.gov/history/famous-cases) has detailed breakdowns of real fraud cases, Ponzi schemes, and confidence operations. The language they use is clinical and precise, which is perfect for getting the procedural details right.

2. The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network publishes annual reports on the most common fraud tactics in the US. Great for understanding how modern scams actually work and what makes people fall for them.

3. The Smithsonian's American Art Museum has a free digital collection of forgery case studies. If your character forges documents or art, this is gold.

4. Court Listener (courtlistener.com) is a free legal database where you can read actual court transcripts from fraud trials. Want to know how a real con artist talks under oath? This is where you find out.

5. The Internet Archive's collection of old newspaper crime sections. Search for "confidence man" or "swindle" in papers from the 1920s through 1960s and you'll find incredible real stories that would feel too dramatic for fiction.

Bonus: The Psychology of Fraud section on the Association for Psychological Science website has accessible articles about why people trust, how deception works cognitively, and what makes someone a convincing liar. Essential reading if you want your con artist characters to feel psychologically real.

the woman who named her rooster after badboyhalo and went viral on fox news

amazingphil reacting to ranboo and dream on youtube shorts

mckenna grace aka most famous child actress alive being a dnfer on main

the stucky instagram artist who posted a story like ‘fuck the dream smp except philza minecraft that one bee boy and his tall goth boyfriend’

jack manifold in his blue wig on the australian news

that tiktok guy who got told he looked like karl jacobs and replied with “please don’t say that”

someone on tumblr thinking a post abt c!wilbur being manipulative was about wilbur from charlotte’s web

tom simons rollercoaster vlog appearing on spanish tv

ranboo my beloved locket being projected on a billboard in times square

ted cruz wishing dream happy birthday because his daughters are dream stans

anthony mackie saying his kids care more about minecraft youtubers than the fact that he’s the falcon

the kpop stan who called georgenotfound their little meow meow

ben shapiro rting velvetiscake

[ID: A screenshot of @dessertbitch​‘s reblog which is tagged with a frowny face. End ID]