the fisherman of halicarnassus

elon musk’s twitter takeover was one wild ride! it all started back in april 2022 when musk revealed he’d bought a 9.2% stake in twitter, making him the largest shareholder. people were shocked, wondering what his plan was. soon after, twitter’s ceo announced musk would join the board, but then, in true musk fashion, he changed his mind and decided not to join. this left everyone guessing his next move.

not long after, musk dropped a bombshell by offering to buy twitter outright for $54.20 per share, valuing the company at about $44 billion. he said twitter needed to go private to become a true platform for free speech. to fund this massive deal, musk planned to use $21 billion of his own money and got banks to pitch in with $25.5 billion in loans.

twitter’s board wasn’t too keen on this idea initially and put up a “poison pill” defense to stop musk from easily taking over. but as the days went by, they eventually caved in and accepted his offer, probably because the shareholders liked the 38% premium on their shares.

then things started getting messy. musk suddenly announced that the deal was “on hold” because he was worried about the number of fake accounts on twitter. this threw the whole deal into doubt, and some people thought musk was just looking for an excuse to get out or lower the price.

things escalated when musk said he wanted to pull out of the deal, claiming twitter wasn’t being transparent about the number of bots. twitter wasn’t having any of it and took him to court in delaware to force him to go through with the buyout.

just as they were gearing up for a big court battle in october, musk did another 180. he decided to go ahead with the purchase at the original price. by the end of october 2022, the deal was done. musk took over twitter, fired top execs like the ceo and cfo, and immediately started making big changes. he laid off about half the workforce, relaxed some content moderation rules, and even hinted at turning twitter into an “everything app” called x.

now, with a massive debt to handle and some big changes to twitter’s direction, the platform is in a pretty uncertain spot. musk’s moves have made waves, and it’s still unclear where he’ll take twitter (now x) next. it’s been a rollercoaster, and the ride isn’t over yet!

big threat to the decentralized cryptocurrency world.

everything gets less complicated if you think love is just "a hormonal reaction".*

let's see what notable people said about love:

theodor seuss geisel:
you know you're in love when you can't fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.

taylor swift:
when you are missing someone, time seems to move slower, and when i'm falling in love with someone, time seems to be moving faster.

kim kardashian:
i think you have different soul-mates throughout your life, that your soul needs different things at different times. i do believe in love. i will always believe in love, but my idea has changed from what i've always thought.

oprah winfrey:
lots of people want to ride with you in the limo. but you want someone who'll help you catch the bus.

william watson purkey:
you've gotta dance like there's nobody watching,
love like you'll never be hurt,
sing like there's nobody listening,
and live like it's heaven on earth.

elie wiesel:
the opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. the opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. the opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. and the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.

william shakespeare:
love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.

neil gaiman:
have you ever been in love? horrible isn't it? it makes you so vulnerable. it opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.

lao tzu:
being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

chuck palahniuk:
the one you love and the one who loves you are never, ever the same person.*

paulo coelho:
when we love, we always strive to become better than we are. when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.

one is loved because one is loved. no reason is needed for loving.

mahatma gandhi:
when i despair, i remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won. there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. think of it, always.

where there is love there is life.

sarah dessen:
love is needing someone. love is putting up with someone's bad qualities because they somehow complete you.

oscar wilde:
never love anyone who treats you like you're ordinary.*

plato:
every heart sings a song, incomplete, until another heart whispers back. those who wish to sing always find a song. at the touch of a lover, everyone becomes a poet.

john krasinski:
when you're lucky enough to meet your one person, then life takes a turn for the best. it can't get better than that.

katy perry:
first and foremost, self-love, and then give love away.

fyodor dostoevsky:
above all, don't lie to yourself. the man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. and having no respect he ceases to love.

edgar allen poe:
we loved with a love that was more than love.

sigmund freud:
psychoanalysis is in essence a cure through love.

command and conquer: red alert 2. released in 2000 as the sequel to the first game of its namesake. it is a real-time strategy game focused on a conflict between two parties; the soviets and the allies.

has the hottest girls on campus.

almost failed state.

its president* is considering banning netflix and regulating social media.

it will completely erase shared culture.

in the '80s and '90s, people more or less watched and listened to the same things. the next day, they would discuss and critique these in the office or at school, sharing their thoughts with friends. with the widespread adoption of social media, instead of a collective culture, a niche culture that only followers are aware of has started to emerge. someone might become famous somewhere, but you don't know who they are, right? yet, they have hundreds of thousands or maybe even millions of followers.

with the advent of artificial intelligence, this niche culture will be replaced by a completely "personalized culture." for example, think about spotify. you have marked the songs you like one by one. with the development of ais that produce good music, songs created specifically for you based on your preferences will start to play. no one else will know about them. you can extend this to films, series, and other types of content. thus, everyone will be exposed to what they like. in a way, it's good, but in another, it's bad. in the end, everything will become more individualized. there will be no common ground for sharing.

if i live long enough, i would love to see a high-quality ai that allows me to choose the actors in a film made just for me.

for the first time, they deleted donald trump's post about children and covid-19 due to false claim.

a technology company founded in 1998 by larry page and sergey brin at stanford university. headquarters located in mountain view, california. (see: googleplex) (see: google search)

fallacies are mistakes in reasoning or arguments that are based on incorrect or flawed logic. there are many different types of fallacies, and they can occur in written or oral arguments. it is important to be aware of fallacies in order to critically evaluate arguments and make informed decisions, and to avoid using fallacies in your own arguments.

aka truth serum. allegedly, it was used by secret service experts to make prisoners speak during corporal punishment. bbc's journalist* took it to show its effects. video

after world war ii, many nazis and collaborators fled europe to escape trial for war crimes. surprisingly, some of them found refuge in the united states. there were a few different ways this happened.

operation paperclip: this was a secret program in which the u.s. government recruited scientists from nazi germany to work on america's behalf during the cold war. these scientists, some of whom were alleged to have ties to nazi war crimes, were invaluable assets due to their advanced knowledge in rocketry, medicine, and other fields. perhaps the most famous of these was wernher von braun, a former member of the nazi party who played a key role in developing the v-2 rocket during wwii and later became an integral part of nasa's moon landing program.

intelligence use: the u.s., like many nations during the cold war, was focused on gathering as much intelligence as possible to gain an edge over the soviet union. some former nazis and collaborators were used as spies or informants, despite their criminal pasts.

immigration: some nazis managed to immigrate to the u.s., often hiding their past affiliations. they lived in the country for decades, typically maintaining a low profile. many were later tracked down and prosecuted or deported, particularly after the formation of the office of special investigations (osi) in 1979, a unit of the department of justice tasked with identifying and expelling former nazis.

it's important to note that the presence of nazis and collaborators in the u.s. after wwii has been a source of controversy. these events have been subject to numerous investigations and have led to changes in u.s. policies regarding war criminals and immigration. as of my knowledge cutoff in september 2021, these efforts to hold former nazis accountable continued, even as the number of surviving wwii-era nazis dwindled.

it is being used by outdoor cats as self-heating beds. image

did the cats affect the performance?

accused of promoting pedophilia with cuties.
twitter thread
netflix's tweet

1900 poem by thomas hardy. originally titled ‘by the century’s deathbed,’ the haunting piece describes the changes the narrator has observed through the turn of the 20th century. intriguing piece for many english majors as it contains strong pulls to both romanticism and modernism, and is deeply layered with opposing ideas which are interwoven. read it here