Poland's Allegro shares weighed down by international weakness
(Reuters) -Poland's biggest e-commerce platform Allegro expects losses in its international segment in the fourth quarter, it said on Thursday,
2023-11-16 18:15
US in antitrust trial accuses Google of illegal methods to push up ad prices
By Diane Bartz WASHINGTON A lawyer for the U.S. Justice Department pressed a Google executive on Wednesday about
2023-10-05 01:52
FBI steps up search for members of cybercrime group 2 years after announcing it had taken its systems down
The FBI has stepped up its search for members of a multimillion-dollar cybercrime group more than two years after the bureau and its European allies announced they had taken down the group's computer systems, according to newly unsealed court documents reviewed by CNN.
2023-09-23 02:15
Meta's Twitter rival Threads launches web version
Threads, Meta's challenger to depose Twitter as the go-to platform for celebrities, companies and governments, is now available on the web as it seeks...
2023-08-25 06:18
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
2023-09-07 00:16
Rishi Sunak backs Jeremy Clarkson's cringe A-Level results tweet
When A-Level results day comes around, the annual Jeremy Clarkson tweet is tradition - and this year's tweet has been backed by Rishi Sunak. Since 2014, the former Top Gear presenter has taken to Twitter/X to share the fact that he got a C and 2 U's when he was at school and that despite his results, he ended up doing well for himself. At the end of each tweet, there is a new and not-so-humble brag about his success - such as having "loads of friends and a Bentley [in 2021]," and "a Mercedes Benz [in 2014]." So what was Clarkson's 2023 results day tweet? "It’s not the end of the world if your A level results aren’t what you’d hoped for. I got a C and 2 Us and here I am today with my own brewery," the 63-year-old tweeted. Now, prime minister Rishi Sunak has supported Clarkson's message with a retweet and noted how he has a "good point." "Jeremy has made a career of being the exception not the rule but he does have a good point here: Results day is important, but not necessarily a deal-breaker," Sunak tweeted. He added: "Whatever results you got today, there are lots of options available to you." Though some were far from impressed by the endorsement given the presenter's controversies over the years and the fact that both Sunak and Clarkson went to private schools. Elsewhere In Pictures: Smiles abound as A-level results are released, Gary Neville's hot take on results day is being praised for 'accuracy', and Nadine Dorries shares bizarre message to anxious A-Level students. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-08-17 20:47
The gutting of affirmative action is a 'clear and present danger' to equal education, critics say
The Supreme Court's landmark decision to bar colleges and universities from considering race as a specific basis for admission will make it more difficult for schools to achieve a diverse student population, civil rights leaders and education advocates say.
2023-06-30 00:47
Worldly Ushers in a New Era, Appoints Experienced Tech Leader Scott Raskin as New CEO
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 5, 2023--
2023-07-05 20:18
Nintendo Switch 2: Every single thing we know so far
Nintendo has been tight-lipped about the potential successor to its highly successful Nintendo Switch console.
2023-10-15 01:58
Andrew Tate’s manager says influencer has "no respect" for Adin Ross
Andrew Tate’s manager has hit out at Adin Ross, saying he has “no respect” for the streamer. Ross has been associated with Tate since he first came to prominence last year. He was even on the visitor list while he was in custody in Romania. Now, the unnamed manager who works for Tate and his brother Tristan has spoken about him and said that he doesn't believe Ross isn’t worthy of Tate’s time. Speaking to internet personality Sneako on a podcast, the manager said: “Man I had no respect for the guy before. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter “Look if you’re going to have access to powerful motivators and powerful clear feedback from someone like Tate and you’re still going to choose drugs, gambling, hedonism then I really couldn’t care.” The manager could be referring to Ross’s past experiences with opioid addiction, which he has been vocal about with his followers in the past. He added: “As far as I’m concerned, he’s a nothing person. As far as I’m concerned people like that don’t exist, they’re not worth my time. I don’t consume their content if you even call it that. “Those sorts of people don’t even exist in my reality, and I would encourage young men to do the same.” The two social media influencers exchanged some back-and-forth on social media last year before meeting up in Dubai to film a live stream together. After Tate's arrest, Ross went on a podcast and called his friendship with Tate "genuine" and voiced support for his friend. "People don't really understand that this all happening actually affects me because it's like, that's my friend," Ross said. Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.
2023-07-04 20:15
Meta is developing a new, more powerful AI system -WSJ
Meta Platforms is working on a new artificial-intelligence system intended to be as powerful as the most advanced
2023-09-11 05:24
McAfee Launches Privacy & Identity Guard in Staples Stores Nationwide, Helping Americans Take Control of Their Personal Data Online
SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 5, 2023--
2023-09-05 22:59
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