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It’s Friday, TFP. If you’re a cinephile, you probably regard David Lynch as one of the titans of the art form. He sadly passed away yesterday at 78, and the outpouring of love for the soft-spoken filmmaker who created a mysterious, dreamlike atmosphere in classics like The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet, Mulholland Drive, and Twin Peaks have popped up everywhere. If you’re unfamiliar with his work, do yourself a favor this weekend and get lost in one of his movies. It’s all you’ll be able to talk about next week.

DAILY TOP TRENDS

Blue Origin Is Back On Flight Track

Courtesy of Blue Origin

Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket finally took off yesterday, marking the Jeff Bezos-run space firm’s first major rocket launch that could one day transport payloads and astronauts.

The Big Picture: Bezos has been in a heated race with Elon Musk and his SpaceX firm to explore the stars. Musk is much further ahead, but Bezos is betting that there will be enough business for more than one company to thrive — a win for the private space industry and the US government relying more and more on it.

Behind the Launch: A few days ago, Bezos said, “All of the things we want to do in the future rely on New Glenn.” 

He’s likely breathing a big sigh of relief right about now.

  • After a month of delays (and years of development), the 320-foot rocket took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, and reached orbit.

  • But the rocket’s booster didn’t successfully land back on a ship out in the Atlantic Ocean — a vital part of Blue Origin’s mission to bring down the cost of space travel. It’s something SpaceX’s Starship pulled off on its last mission.

  • New Glenn will eventually ferry satellites to space (including Amazon’s Project Kuiper) and astronauts for both private missions and NASA’s lunar-focused Artemis missions.

  • This first flight also served as a certification system for the Pentagon to get clearance for flying up national security satellites in its payloads.

The Future: New Glenn is a huge step up for Blue Origin, which has been using a much smaller rocket for space tourism trips and other research missions. The company hopes to launch New Glenn up to eight times this year. Expect the space race with Musk to really heat up in 2025 as SpaceX also plans more tests of Starship.

Together with Superplastic

WARNING: You’ve Been Selected As A Test Subject

The mad scientists at Superplastic just dropped their wildest creation yet:

The Dopeameme Institute for Pleasure Research in Las Vegas. 

This in-person, reality-bending adventure challenges you with interactive rooms, choice-based pathways, sensory-rich environments, and physical elements. 

  • Who’s it for? All ages.

  • Will I have fun? Heck, yeah.

  • Is it legal? We’re pretty sure. 

(Don’t worry — you don’t have to be a fan of Superplastic collectible icons to be part of the fun.)

Get your tickets here and score $5 off with the code DOPEFP25 now.

TikTok Refugees Flock To Duolingo

Courtesy of Duolingo

Duolingo is seeing a surge in new users because of people deciding to learn Mandarin, so they can better enjoy the Chinese equivalent of Instagram, RedNote (Xiaohongshu in Chinese).

Why It Hits: Politicians on both sides of the aisle regret having passed the divest-or-ban TikTok law, learning the hard way that a majority of Americans aren’t happy about it. The fact that millions of people are deciding to learn Mandarin and download more Chinese apps proves that people will choose entertainment over almost anything else (i.e., national security and data privacy).

Behind the Lessons: Duolingo’s infamously cheeky social account posted Monday: “Oh so NOW you’re learning Mandarin.”

It seems people really want to understand RedNote.

  • RedNote’s default language is Mandarin, which isn’t a language most Americans know.

  • But, boy, do they want to. Duolingo reported that Mandarin learning has skyrocketed 216% on the platform over the past year, with the biggest jump occurring this month.

  • There was also a 36% increase in downloads, which means that many of the people learning Mandarin are new users.

  • The biggest surge in usage and downloads happened at the same time that RedNote has picked up American users, making it top the Apple Charts — a major feat.

Final Test: In case you haven’t seen the (endless) headlines, TikTok says it’s going completely dark on Sunday when the ban takes effect. Now, there’s a mad scramble to save or buy it because… well… Pandora’s Box is already open. In the meantime, over 700,000 new users, mostly Americans, signed up for RedNote in a two-day period. 

Will RedNote really become the next TikTok? Unlikely. But it’s a stark message to the federal government that users are unhappy with the TikTok ban. How this all plays out is anyone’s guess.

DEEP DIVES

Do you speak more than one language?

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83.8% of you voted No in yesterday’s poll: Would you watch an animated rendering of a live sports event?

“That’s further on the cringe scale than what I can handle.”

“It’s just not the same as live action.”

“What’s the point then?”

“I give the Australian Open points for creativity but… just… no.”

“I already do on YouTube, but I don’t like it!”

“I absolutely would if it were a free alternative. And the cuteness would honestly make things that much less stressful for me as a viewer.”

Let’s keep the conversation going. Join our Poll Of The Day newsletter, so your opinions can shine. Discover how your views line up with your peers’, check out cool insights, and have some fun. It’s data with personality.

QUICK HITS

→ Entertainment / Media

🎸 Fire Aid, the benefit concert to support survivors of the devastating LA fires, announced its lineup, which includes Lady Gaga, Stevie Nicks, and Green Day.

📺 Beast Games is Prime Video’s biggest non-scripted hit after nabbing 50 million global viewers in its first 25 days.

🎮 Nintendo announced the Switch 2, which will launch later this year.

→ Technology

🤖 Character AI hired an exec to ink media partnerships, giving companies the opportunity to create chatbots around their IP.

📱 Mark Cuban wants to fund an answer to TikTok that could be built on the AT Protocol — the same infrastructure as Bluesky.

🧠 A startup called NeuroBionics wants to thread tiny bioelectric fibers in the human brain to treat ailments like depression and Parkinson’s disease.

→ Fashion / E-commerce

💳 Apple is in discussions with Barclays to take over the credit partnership it previously had with Goldman Sachs.

👜 You can now buy Chanel and Prada bags secondhand on Walmart’s Rebag partnership.

👃 Estée Lauder is disrupting the scented candle via a new collaboration with the smell-science company Exuud.

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Today’s email was written by David Vendrell.
Edited by Nick Comney. Copy edited by Kait Cunniff.
Published by Darline Salazar.

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