European Stocks Extend Losing Streak on Weak Data, Luxury Drop
European equities posted their sixth straight session of declines on Wednesday, as the recent rise in oil prices
1970-01-01 08:00
NBA 2K24 Season 1 Rewards: Full List
NBA 2K24 Season 1 rewards include a Diamond Kyrie Irving, Amethyst Jayson Tatum, Gold Floor Setter, extra VC, Tier Skips, and plenty of cosmetics.
1970-01-01 08:00
Is Valorant Night Market Arriving in September 2023?
There will not be a Valorant Night Market in September 2023. The next Valorant Night Market will be in October 2023 and last for about three weeks.
1970-01-01 08:00
Why is Elon Musk obsessed with the letter X?
Elon Musk formally renamed Twitter “X” in July, cementing the rebrand by bolting the symbol to the top of the social network’s San Francisco headquarters and replacing Larry the Bird, its mascot since 2012, with a grungy black logo soon afterwards. Linda Yaccarino, X’s new CEO, declared at the time of the rebrand: “X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.” Mr Musk had already renamed the company itself X Corp in March, six months after acquiring it for $44m, a purchase he described at the time as “an accelerant to creating X, the everything app”, his vision for a multipurpose competitor to China’s WeChat. The decision was just the latest example of the entrepreneur’s preoccupation with the 24th letter of the alphabet: his first business venture was X.com, he shortened the name of Space Exploration Technologies Corp to SpaceX, he launched the Tesla Model X and has a new artificial intelligence startup named xAI. He even calls his son X Æ A-12 just X for short. So what is the obsession about and where did it begin? His first venture, X.com, was an online banking and financial services platform launched in Palo Alto, California, in 1999 that would ultimately be merged with Confinity to become PayPal, which was in turn then sold to eBay for $1.5bn in 2002, Mr Musk using some of the capital he earned as its largest shareholder to found SpaceX. Julie Anderson Ankenbrandt, a former PayPal executive, explained how Mr Musk’s platform got its name in a Quora post in 2016. “Elon, the other founders of the company that was X.com… and I sat around a backroom table at a long-defunct bar called the Blue Chalk in Palo Alto, trying decide what the name of the company should be… and the question at hand was whether to be Q, X or Z dot com,” she wrote. “Finally, when the waitress/female server brought the next round of drinks Elon asked her what she thought, and she said she like[d] X.com. Elon pounded the table and said ‘That’s it then!’ and everyone laughed, but in the end that was pretty much how it was decided.” Not everyone was happy with the decision, according to Mr Musk’s biographer Ashlee Vance, who told NPR: “Everyone tried to talk him out of naming the company that back then because of the sexual innuendos, but he really liked it and stuck with it.” He liked the name so much he bought the X.com domain back from PayPal in 2017 and thanked the company in a tweet, explaining that it had “great sentimental value” to him. The domain now redirects to the social network that has since taken on its old moniker. Elsewhere, the Tesla Model X – a midsize luxury crossover SUV with falcon wing doors – was named so that, with three other models, the range would spell out “S3XY”, giving you an insight into Mr Musk’s gawky sense of humour. As for his son, the boy’s mother Grimes explained in a tweet of her own that the symbol is used in algebra to denote any unknown variable, perhaps suggesting the child is free to grow up to be whatever they choose to be. The rebranding of Twitter to X sparked a great deal of musing about the letter’s possible significance (or lack thereof), with Lora Kelly of The Atlantic writing: “The letter is associated with such varied contexts as Christian symbolism, middle-school-math equations, gender neutrality, pornography, a kiss.” In Psychology Today, Leon F Selzer discussed its “nihilistic” values, noting that it has associations with everything from the Nazi swastika to a skull-and-crossbones danger warning on a bottle of poison to Roman numerals, voting and Christmas (at least when abbreviated to “Xmas”) and therefore can mean everything and nothing. Meanwhile, in The New York Times, Stella Bugbee suggested the choice was arguably a bit dated and perhaps represented a case of Mr Musk showing his age as a member of, appropriately enough, Generation X. “For marketing purposes in the 1990s, X had a certain cool,” she explained. “It conferred a rejection of authority.” While that observations rings true of such turn-of-the-millennium cultural detritus as, say, the arrival of Microsoft’s XBox in 2001 or Vin Diesel’s action film XXX (2002), it has also been used in the same way before and since: think of country star Loretta Lynn’s notoriety-courting 1972 single “Rated X” or the cult 1980s Los Angeles punk band X, for instance, or the more recent Ti West horror film X (2022). As Lora Kelly observed: “X both reinforces absence and electrifies objects with meaning. It is sacred and profane.” Read More Elon Musk ‘borrowed $1bn from SpaceX’ at same time as Twitter acquisition SpaceX abandons YouTube for live streams of launches in favour of X/Twitter Elon Musk threatens to sue the Anti-Defamation League over lost revenue on X Elon Musk ‘borrowed $1bn from SpaceX’ at same time as Twitter acquisition Starship ‘ready to launch’, Elon Musk says Elon Musk vows to sue ADL for calling him antisemitic over X campaign
1970-01-01 08:00
Red Flags: 5 college football teams on upset alert in Week 2
Breaking down college football upsets picks for Week 2 of the 2023 season with three SEC teams and a Pac-12 team showing all kinds of Red Flags.
1970-01-01 08:00
YouTube Music Review
The streaming music field is packed with companies battling for your auditory attention. YouTube Music,
1970-01-01 08:00
UK expected to re-join Horizon science scheme
An announcement is likely soon on the UK becoming a fully-fledged member of the multi-billion euro programme.
1970-01-01 08:00
Wendy's is selling a pumpkin spice-flavored Frosty
Wendy's is entering the pumpkin spice wars.
1970-01-01 08:00
YouTube Testing Stadia-Like Service Called 'Playables'
Google might be reviving its Stadia game-streaming service through an experimental YouTube feature. The video
1970-01-01 08:00
Christie says DeSantis put 'politics ahead of his job' by not seeing Biden during hurricane visit
Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie says Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis put “politics ahead of his job” by declining to meet with President Joe Biden during Biden's weekend visit to survey Hurricane Idalia’s damage in DeSantis’ state
1970-01-01 08:00
Lee could approach Category 5 hurricane strength in record-warm Atlantic
Lee rapidly intensified into a strong tropical storm Wednesday morning as it tracks over record-warm ocean waters and an environment favorable for strengthening, which will fuel the storm to near Category-5 strength as it approaches the eastern Caribbean.
1970-01-01 08:00
NBA rumors: Lakers add another player to their center logjam
According to an NBA insider, the Lakers have signed Christian Wood. How likely is Wood to crack the Lakers starting rotation?
1970-01-01 08:00
