Scissors or Sword? The Symbolism of a Medieval Haircut - "He offered the Queen an ultimatum. Would she wish to see her grandsons live with their hair cut short, or would she prefer to see them killed? Beside herself with grief, Clotild stated that if they were not to succeed to the throne she would rather see them dead than with their hair cut short. Rejecting the scissors, she opted for the sword.The sequel to this story, told by Gregory of Tours (d. 594), reveals an alternative to death or short-haired dishonour. A third grandson, Chlodovald, was well guarded and escaped his uncles. Seeking to escape the fate of his brothers, he cut his hair short with his own hands and became a priest. Voluntary tonsuring did not carry the ignominy of shearing under duress... The Merovingian kings, who had established themselves in the ruins of Roman Gaul, were known as the Reges criniti, the long-haired kings. For them, their long hair symbolised not only their aristocratic status but also their status as kings. It was invested with a sacral quality and believed to contain magical properties... Hair was able to carry such symbolic meanings because it is a body part which is easily subject to change: it can be dyed, shaped, worn loose, bound or be removed. Moreover, since it surrounds the most expressive part of the body, the face, any changes made to it are inherently visible and noticeable... The relationship between long hair and high birth was an ancient one and was present in societies other than Merovingian Gaul. In Ireland, for example, cropped hair denoted a servant or slave. Tacitus had noted the importance of long hair in early Germanic society, commenting that it was the sign of free men. Hair colour, too, bore social significance. In the Irish epic, Tain bo Cuailnge, King Conchobar has golden hair which is associated with royalty, while brown and black hair are also attributed to chieftains and heroes. The association of long hair with a warrior class possessed strong Biblical validation in the story of Samson in Judges 16:17. Long hair denoted strength and virility. In women, moreover, it represented fertility. Since long hair was part of the social badge of a warrior aristocracy, it was protected by law. In the law codes of the Alamans, Frisians, Lombards and Anglo-Saxons, the cutting of hair brought forth penalties. According to the Laws of King Alfred, anyone who cut off a man's beard had to pay a compensation of 20 shillings, and in Frederick Barbarossa's Landfried of 1152, it was forbidden either to seize a man by the beard or to tear any hairs from his head or beard. In the Frankish Pactus Legis Salicae, if a puer crinitus (long-haired boy) was shorn without the consent of his parents, the heavy fine of forty-five solidi was imposed, while among the Burgundians there were heavy fines for cutting the hair of a freewoman... A particularly ancient function of hair treatment was the manner in which it denoted ethnicity and hence could be used to distinguish different ethnic groups. Tacitus thought that the Suevi were characterised by their distinctive, knotted, hair. Other groups like the Lombards and the Frisians were named after their particular fashion for styling beard or hair. The Byzantines, for example, remarked how the Avars 'wore their hair very long at the back, tied with bands and braided'. Both the great sixth-century Spanish churchman, Isidore of Seville, the author of the Etymologiae, a concise encyclopedia of classical culture, and Paul the Deacon, the historian of the Lombards, derived the name Lombard from the German Langbarte or long beard. Gregory of Tours recounts how, in 590, Queen Fredegund ordered the army of the Saxons in the Bayeux area to attack a Frankish duke but to disguise themselves as Bretons by cutting their hair in the Breton way and wearing Breton clothing. William of Malmesbury's Gesta Regum distinguished Saxons from Normans at the time of the Norman Conquest by reference to the differences between the hair styles of the two ethnic groups. Just before the Norman invasion of England, Harold sent some spies who reported that all the Norman soldiers were priests, ...because they have their entire face, with both lips, shaved, whereas the English left the upper lip uncut, with the hairs ceaselessly flourishing. William was writing in the twelfth century, but his evidence is confirmed by the Bayeux Tapestry which shows almost all the Norman soldiers clean shaven and the Anglo-Saxon soldiers with long moustaches... Whereas the period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the emergence of the Carolingian Empire seems to have been dominated by a tolerant, and indeed encouraging, attitude towards facial hair and beards, the Carolingian period and the subsequent post-millennial European world saw the development of a hostility towards long hair and considered it an issue characterised by scandal. In the eighth century, Bede had written that, '...the beard which is a mark of the male sex and of age, is customarily put as an indication of virtue'. However, on Ash Wednesday 1094, Archbishop Anselm of Canterbury refused to give either ashes or his blessing to men who `grew their hair like girls'. At Rouen in 1096, a church council decreed `that no one should grow his hair long but have it cut as a Christian'."
Man Finishes 480-Mile Hike in Bear Suit, Describes Stench Inside His Costume - "Jessy Larios walked almost 500 miles from Los Angeles to San Francisco in a bear suit."
Meme - "I've noticed a trend in life. The larger a thing is, the more likely it is to be evil. This applies to companies, youtubers, people, and mountains."
"in cases of dogs the direct opposite is true"
"A notable outlier"
Meme - "GLORY HOLE TRAINING CAMP"
Higher quality
Meme - Jack Posobiec: "Never mess with occult and black magic. Even tarot cards, seances, fortune telling etc. You dont know what you're getting into. Or who you're talking to."
compOs3r.crypto @compOs3rcoin: "I feel the same way about prayer"
Henrietta @Pet_day_diva: "For me it's glory holes"
'Never disrespect my mum': Singaporean buys multiple bags after mum was ignored at Dior outlet in Rome - "On the second visit, a different sales associate served the middle-aged woman, now accompanied by her daughter. "He gave us basic customer service, he gave us coffee and water and it was super hot," Nahtyourbby explained. From the video, it looked like they bought several bags. Not that it impressed the sales associate who first ignored Nahtyourbby's mum, as she allegedly turned to her colleague to wish him congratulations in a sarcastic manner just as they were making payment. With the TikTok video getting over eight million views, some netizens were left scratching their heads as they wondered if there was a need for Nahtyourbby to flaunt her wealth. "Rich people's problems are so funny," one said. Others pointed to the fact that the sales associate's behaviour is a common sales tactic and unfortunately, the mother-daughter pair fell for it. Nahtyourbby disagreed, suggesting there might have been racist undertones to the staff's behaviour."
Staff provide bad service = racism
Bad service and "racism" are a very effective sales tactic, so...
Ben Davis comes back to haunt Singapore as Thailand claim massive first win at Southeast Asian Games - "Davis, who is technically still a Singaporean citizen but defaulted on the country's mandatory national service in order to further his professional career -- then opting to switch his international footballing allegiance to Thailand -- opened the scoring at the Thien Truong Stadium on the stroke of halftime when he converted from the penalty spot after baiting Syahrul Sazali into bringing him down inside the area."
National Religions cannot be challenged
Vice tried to alter history with photoshopped Khmer Rouge victim photos - "The article covered a project by Matt Loughrey, an Irish artist who has been working to colorize headshots of the people that were murdered in the S-21 prison in Cambodia, now known as the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. A quarter of Cambodia’s population died as a result of the Khmer Rouge’s genocide. “These portraits, recently colorized,” the article noted, “humanize the tragedy.”... John Vink, a photojournalist who was based in Cambodia for sixteen years, tweeted that Loughrey had gone beyond simply adding color to the photos. No, he had gone quite beyond that: the smiles themselves had been photoshopped. “He is falsifying history,” Vink said, with a side-by-side comparison of the original photo and Loughrey’s version attached. Loughrey issued a response, calling the accusation “nonsense.” The families in Cambodia that he had worked with, Loughrey says, had requested those smiles be added, and in some instances the prisoners had genuinely been smiling. “That my altered pictures were published alongside my quote is happenstance,” he said. That explanation in itself pushes the blame towards Vice’s editors, who had for some reason or another failed to clearly note that the editing on the photos had gone beyond color alterations, yet still tries to justify a reason for why the smiles had been added. Then, however, National Cambodian Heritage Museum and Killing Fields Memorial then pushed a statement that said the coloring and addition of smiles had been done without the consent of family members. At this point, we must ask: then for what reason were the smiles added?... Vice retracted this piece. Although they did so only after threat of legal action from the Cambodian government, it was the right decision. They owed at least that much to the historical record on one of the 20th century’s worst genocides, and to all the people that this tragedy affected."
Meme - "NOTE TO TRAVELLERS: The public bus may be an hour early OR an hour late. Plan accordingly. Also, the last bus, 18.30, may not come at all."
From Thailand
Ahh third world countries
Daiso to open new stores in Singapore amid ‘stable future’; wants products to be 'not just something cheap' - "Daiso, a budget retailer known for its S$2 items, announced in April that it would be rolling out a new 15-tier pricing system due to rising raw material and logistics costs. Since May 1, prices of its products in Singapore, both in stores and online, now range from S$2.14 to S$25.47."
"Always $2" does not mean always $2
Climate change: Could beer made from urine help water shortages? - "Singapore’s water agency is rolling out a craft beer that is mostly made from wastewater. The sewage is treated to become “ultra-clean” water, before it is used to create the tropical blonde ale... NEWBrew - a craft beer which describes itself as having a “toasted, honey-like aftertaste” - is another way of keeping Singapore hydrated while protecting its water supplies."
FTC Fines Twitter $150 Million for Using 2FA to Generate Ad Revenue
Commentary: Be concerned about unhealthy mindsets about dating and marriage, not fewer babies - "Even couples who have made the decision to settle down and have children early might find their plans stymied by practical constraints. Eligible Singaporeans have a strong financial incentive to apply for subsidised Built-to-Order flats, which come with up to three years of waiting time even after successful balloting. Although rental options for married couples waiting to collect their keys have expanded, couples may prefer to give birth only after their flat is ready. Apart from housing considerations, a climate of economic insecurity and the large salary chasm between top-tier and mid-level employees can create excessively competitive work environments, especially among those who have already invested heavily in their education. To prove themselves, employees may feel pressured to put in more hours and remain mentally engaged with their jobs at all times. Such high demands on worker physical and mental health can take a toll on family life and even interest in marital sex. A recent survey released in July found that working hours and work-related stress were the top reasons for lack of interest in sex among Singapore newlyweds. Since the probability of conception per cycle is twice as high among couples who have unprotected sex every other day compared to those only have sex once a week, these factors can substantially lengthen the interval from marriage to parenthood... nearly 70 per cent of couples see assistive reproductive technologies as a panacea for fertility issues. Nearly 75 per cent did not know that success rates are lower than 50 per cent, or that the rates are highly age dependent. The tendency to be overly optimistic regarding one’s chances of successful pregnancy is by no means peculiar to Singaporeans. Multiple studies in developed countries document that women tend to greatly overestimate the probability of pregnancy at all ages, especially after age 40. The evidence suggests that men are even less informed about the effects of age on fertility. Apart from the risks of involuntary infertility, there is also low awareness of the increased risks of birth defects, complications during pregnancy, births associated with delayed childbearing, or the health risks of in-vitro fertilisation to both mother and child... many put their faith in the unfounded fertility myth that age is no obstacle to fertility, since a woman is in good health and has access to the latest reproductive technologies. By contrast, public education campaigns can come across as insensitive, akin to asking an older woman her age, or even appear coercive, by pushing a deadline on those not yet ready or able to conceive. To others who remain optimistic, the messages can seem irrelevant (“It won’t happen to me”)."
Liberals were very upset by the modern fairy tales - because they only like "science" when it agrees with their prejudices
Babies are not compatible with the relentless pursuit of GDP
Is the Government Buying Science or Support? A Framework Analysis of Federal Funding-induced Biases - "The purpose of this report is to provide a framework for doing research on the problem of bias in science, especially bias induced by Federal funding of research. In recent years the issue of bias in science has come under increasing scrutiny, including within the scientific community. Much of this scrutiny is focused on the potential for bias induced by the commercial funding of research. However, relatively little attention has been given to the potential role of Federal funding in fostering bias. The research question is clear: does biased funding skew research in a preferred direction, one that supports an agency mission, policy or paradigm? Federal agencies spend many billion dollars a year on scientific research. Most of this is directly tied to the funding agency mission and existing policies. The issue is whether these financial ties lead to bias in favor of the existing policies, as well as to promoting new policies. Is the government buying science or support?"
Of course, we are told that government grant funding does not induce conflicts of interest
12 Reasons Science Shows Conservative Women Have The Best Sex - "a new study of 19,000 people in five European countries that found “very right-wing” people are the most satisfied with their sex lives. Center-right people, however, were slightly less satisfied than centrists, and it all went down from there. “The old rules about correlation not equalling causation always apply,” study publisher Joe Twyman of YouGov told Ball. “Being very right wing doesn’t make you sexually satisfied, but nonetheless, these results suggest it is, in contrast to at least some stereotypes popular in the political world, those on the very right of the political spectrum who enjoy their sex life the most.” This is only surprising to cultural libertines, who have for a century (Alfred Kinsey, anyone? Freud?) if not more maligned their political opposition with implications and outright statements that we conservatives are oh, so dull in bed. Don’t tell my husband, because I don’t want that to happen to us, okay?... Because women are more vulnerable than men, we gain the most benefits from the clear sexual boundaries and expectations that traditional morality teaches...
1. We’re Okay With Men and Women Being…Men and Women
2. Waiting for Something Makes It Better
3. A Lower Number of Sex Partners Makes for Better Sex
4. The More You Do It With One Person, the More You Both Like It
5. Turns Out Hookups Aren’t Very Sexy
6. We Know Chaotic Love Lives and Missing Parents Suck
7. We Know Sex Isn’t Everything
8. We’re Not Scared of Children
9. Marriage Alleviates Relationship Anxiety
10. Pornography Is a Proven Libido-Killer
11. We Actually Care About Women
12. We’re Romantics At Heart"
I've seen a lot of hilarious liberal cope over the fact that right wingers have better sex
The Missing Right-Wing Firms: A Beckerian Puzzle - "the labor market is full of right-wing workers. If left-wing employers don’t want to hire them, you would expect both pragmatic and right-wing employers to pick up the slack. If left-wing workers don’t want to toil alongside right-wing workers, similarly, you would expect both pragmatic and right-wing employers to tacitly create politically segregated workplaces. If left-wing consumers don’t want to buy products from right-wing firms, finally, you would expect both pragmatic and right-wing employers to keep politically disfavored workers out of the public eye. In the real world, however, it seems very hard to find businesses that warmly cater to moderate and right-wing workers. Sure, you can work for a right-wing think tank, a conservative church, Fox News, or Republican-allied lobbyists. And I just visited a decidedly right-wing gift shop in West Virginia; it really stood out! Yet all such establishments sum to a tiny sliver of GDP. I understand, of course, why few businesses warmly cater to libertarians, or theocrats, or monarchists. There aren’t enough monarchist barbers to economically justify a monarchist barbershop. Where, though, are the firms where Republicans don’t look over their shoulders before they say they’re pro-life? Where are the firms where moderates don’t look over their shoulders before they declare that affirmative action has already gone far enough? Where are the firms where males don’t look over their shoulders before they express solidarity with the latest target of #MeToo? Billions of 360-degree glances look like a massive profit opportunity. Why then are so few businesses trying to capitalize on said opportunity?...
Explanation #4. Few moderates or right-wingers care enough to create a major profit opportunity. While they don’t relish looking over their shoulders, they prefer their current job to an alternative where they can shoot their mouths off but earn a $1000 less per year. In this story, the left proverbially just “wants it more.” And as usual, the market takes the intensity of conflicting preferences into account.
Tentative evaluation: Very plausible, especially considering how strong the age-ideology correlation has become. When today’s conservatives encounter politics on the job, they don’t start polishing their resume to find a more politically hospitable home. They tell themselves, “I’m too old for this @%!&!” and get back to work.
Note: A slight variant is that left-wing consumers are more willing to boycott firms they dislike than right-wing consumers. The media’s liberal bias could easily amplify this: The left is more likely to hear about corporate policies they find objectionable than the right. (Though this in turn raises the question, “Why does a highly competitive media market lead to such pronounced left-wing bias?”)
Explanation #5. Discrimination law covertly stymies the creation of right-wing firms. Most obviously, any firm that openly and aggressively opposed #MeToo and #BLM would soon be sued into oblivion.
Tentative evaluation: Even more plausible. Imagine what would happen if a firm’s top brass loudly declared that, “Discrimination simply isn’t a problem here” – and routinely fired complainers for contradicting the party line. Picture a firm blanketed in propaganda telling workers to “Be color-blind,” “Laugh it off,” and “No one likes a tattle-tale.” A small business in a conservative area might get away with this for a few years, but a Fortune 500 company that stuck to its right-wing guns would go down in flames. This does not prevent firms from promoting a mildly right-wing corporate culture, but you won’t attract many politically homeless workers with such marginal improvements."
These Virtual Reality Headsets Make Farmed Chickens Believe They Roam Free
Meme - Flora Gill @FloraEGill: "Someone needs to create porn for children. Hear me out. Young teens are already watching porn but theyre finding hard core, aggressive videos that give a terrible view of sex. They need entry level porn! A soft core site where everyone asks for consent and no one gets choked etc"
Flora Gill @FloraEGill: "Absolutely not getting swept up into another twitter cesspool so deleted tweet before it picks up steam! Obviously not an actual solution, but it is a real problem. Everyone take a deep breath"
Toronto chef says we need to stop eating avocados - "our appetite for guac and all things avocado is wreaking havoc with both the environment and the culinary culture of much of Latin America... "The current rate at which this fruit is being consumed, and its increase in demand, directly threatens the way of life of millions of people," Camarena tells blogTO. "Be it from lack of access to water, deforestation, land erosion, criminal activity or inaccessibility to our produce."... Water is a big issue. It takes 60 gallons of water to grow a single avocado, and as Camarena says, Mexico already has an issue with available clean drinking water... not only is it an inefficient food to grow, a variety of factors including mishandling, over-handling, pests and a notoriously finicky ripening process mean that a lot of those avocados never make it to the consumer... "The price of avocado continues to increase, and with it, so does its disappearance from the tables of those who count on it as part of their diets," says Camarena. "To many Latin Americans, avocado, also known as aguacate and palta among others, is not just a dip to watch the Super Bowl with," he says. "It isn't a trendy superfood, nor is it something to overindulge on. For many of us Latin Americans, that naturally ripe, local product is pretty central to our diet, culture and identity.""
If avocados are so bad, Latin Americans should stop eating them too
To Attract The Best, First Understand Why They Leave - "According to a study of 19,700 post-exit interviews, 89% of employers think their people leave for more money. The employees who actually leave for more money? Just 12%. So, if it’s not about money, why do people leave for greener pastures? There’s an old adage in HR: People quit their bosses; not their jobs...
Compensation and benefits: Money isn’t the most important factor, but it matters. The good news is you don’t have to pay top dollar to retain good people – as long as you’re fulfilling other job satisfaction needs. If you pay in top 75th percentile in your geographic area, you won’t lose many people due to money alone."
Many people are contemptuous of the fact that pay isn't a major factor for why most leave
Meme - "Seven Deadly Sins
Pride
Greed
Lust
Envy
Gluttony
Wrath
Sloth"
"James Charles (makeup youtuber, extremely prideful) , Ethan Klein (gave up his reaction content to make podcasts) ,Chris Chander (less said the better) Ricegum, Nicoado Avocado (former vegan vlogger, gained about 15 stone with his clearly attention seedling mukbangs), Sam Hyde (a comedian popular among the alt right, often named as the perpetrator of mass shooting and terror attacks as a meme) Yandere Simulator Developer (been working on the game for about 6 or 7 years now)"
The Perils of Audience Capture - "In 2016, 24 year old Nicholas Perry wanted to be big online. He started uploading videos to his YouTube channel in which he pursued his passion—playing the violin—and extolled the virtues of veganism. He went largely unnoticed. A year later, he abandoned veganism, citing health concerns. Now free to eat whatever he wanted, he began uploading mukbang videos of himself consuming various dishes while talking to the camera, as if having dinner with a friend. These new videos quickly found a sizable audience, but as the audience grew, so did their demands. The comments sections of the videos soon became filled with people challenging Perry to eat as much as he physically could. Eager to please, he began to set himself torturous eating challenges, each bigger than the last. His audience applauded, but always demanded more. Soon, he was filming himself eating entire menus of fast food restaurants in one sitting. In some respects, all his eating paid off; Nikocado Avocado, as Perry is now better known, has amassed over six million subscribers across six channels on YouTube. By satisfying the escalating demands of his audience, he got his wish of blowing up and being big online. But the cost was that he blew up and became big in ways he hadn't anticipated. Nikocado, moulded by his audience’s desires into a cartoonish extreme, is now a wholly different character from Nicholas Perry, the vegan violinist who first started making videos. Where Perry was mild-mannered and health conscious, Nikocado is loud, abrasive, and spectacularly grotesque. Where Perry was a picky eater, Nikocado devoured everything he could, including finally Perry himself. The rampant appetite for attention caused the person to be subsumed by the persona. We often talk of "captive audiences," regarding the performer as hypnotizing their viewers. But just as often, it's the viewers hypnotizing the performer. This disease, of which Perry is but one victim of many, is known as audience capture, and it's essential to understanding influencers in particular and the online ecosystem in general... I'm suspicious of those with strong, sharply delineated brands. Human beings are capricious and largely formless storms of idiosyncrasies, so a human only develops a clear and distinct identity through the artifice of performance... This is the ultimate trapdoor in the hall of fame; to become a prisoner of one's own persona"
This is just a specific case of chasing the money
Do Companies Have Too Much Power? - "Capitalism works best when competition is strong. When companies have too much power, they are able to charge consumers far more than it costs to make a product or deliver a service, generating huge profits. Companies facing fewer challengers also have less incentive to innovate or pay their employees well. A world dominated by powerful companies may also lead to slower economic growth. Many researchers believe we already live in this world. Economists Jan De Loecker of Princteon and Jan Eeckhout of University College London are sounding the alarm particularly loudly. In 2017, they reported that markups in the US, defined as the amount above cost at which a product is sold, had jumped from about 18 percent in 1980 to 70 percent in 2014. They suggested that this rise could account for many of the problems in the US economy, from inequality to fewer startups. Now, in 2018, De Loecker and Eeckhout are back with another paper about the power of companies, and it’s more bad news (pdf). According to their analysis of the financial statements 70,000 companies across 134 countries, the rise in markups is a worldwide phenomenon. They find that while global average markups were less than 10 percent in 1980, they were at almost 60 percent in 2016. For most countries, the companies in the dataset represent more than two-thirds of that country’s economy. While the greatest increases in markups have come come in North America and Europe, every region but South America saw large rises—and that’s because markups in South America were already high. The economists’ latest analysis does not attempt to explain the rise, but in their examination of the US, De Loecker and Eeckhout offer a few possible explanations, including deregulation and an increase in mergers and acquisitions. Not everybody agrees with their analysis. The dispute is a technical one... University of Chicago economics PhD student James Traina points out that costs of goods sold ignores most of a company’s marketing and management expenses. Marketing and management costs have skyrocketed in the US since 1980, and he finds that when these costs are included the rise in US markups is much smaller. De Loecker and Eeckhout dispute Traina’s methodology, contending that many marketing and management costs are not truly short-term in nature. The IMF has since weighed in, and come down on the side of De Loecker and Eeckhout... companies with the highest markups invest the least, basking in their market power and resting on their laurels"
Miscellaneous: Today, I went to the pharmacy to purchase a brace for my sprained... - FML - "Today, I went to the pharmacy to purchase a brace for my sprained wrist. My wife and I had recently ran out of KY lotion, so I decided to pick up a bottle while I was there. It didn't occur to me that these two items could be perceived as being related until the cashier began to giggle. FML"
Eamonn Maxwell (he/him) on Twitter - "Q/ What's the hardest part of playing Wordle?
A/ Keeping it to yourself, apparently...
Meme - "Today, my boyfriend wanted to take our relationship to the next level. I assumed since we live together that he meant marriage. I was wrong; the next level is me jacking him off with my feet. FML"
Miscellaneous: Today, when I am asked to do something and I don't do it immediately,... - FML - "Today, when I am asked to do something and I don't do it immediately, my mother threatens to "twerk" in front of my friends. FML"
Meme - "Today, I found out why the parents whose children I babysit use me so often and on such short notice. It's not because they have abrupt nights out; it's because their kids hate me, and me being around is their way of punishing them. FML"
Study: Investing in Legos Will Earn You More Money Than Gold - "the market prices of retired Lego sets sold on the secondary market grow by at least 11% annually, which is higher than the average returns provided by gold, large stocks, bonds, and alternative investments. For their study, the authors analyzed the prices of 2,322 unopened Lego sets from 1987 to 2015 and information about primary sales and online auction transactions... prices for Lego sets on the secondary market, which vary greatly and range in returns from between -50% to +600% on an annual basis, typically start to increase two or three years after a set has been retired. This means you have to factor in high costs like delivery and storage into your investment. Secondly, the prices of small or very big sets will grow faster than medium-sized sets, the researchers found. The sets that see the biggest growth in value on the secondary market are those related to famous buildings, movies, or holidays. As such, it shouldn’t be a surprise that some of the most expensive Lego sets include the Millennium Falcon, the Death Star II, and the Imperial Star Destroyer. Other highly valued Lego sets include limited edition sets and those given out at promotional events. And finally, the secondary Lego market is not something you can jump into easily if you’re not a fan, Dobrynskaya said. There are a lot of Lego sets out there, and it takes a true fan to analyze the market and make a bet on a set that might be worth a lot more someday."