I used to like Shaq, but he’s been involved in promoting a lot of seriously sketchy stuff. He will put his name on literally anything if they pay him enough. Few celebrities put their name on more stupid scummy crypto bullshit. He lost my respect with that. I bet he had a financial relationship with Univ of Phoenix
It’s an example of why monopolies are harmful. They create distorted economies that don’t serve consumers. Like ecosystems overcome by a monoculture, monopolies are inherently less resilient, less functional and prone to sudden disruption.
If there were multiple sources of traffic, the pressure to optimize to one source would be lower, and the disruption caused by algorithm changes would be muted. Which would mean more interesting content less driven by a narrow set of metrics
That’s the rationale Google uses. “We’re the best, that’s why users pick us.” They built a moat of investment in search and the browser that other companies can’t compete with. But as a consumer, I am not willing to accept that argument. Ma Bell claimed the same thing. We’re a lot better off economically in a world where Ma Bell was broken up, and Microsoft was forced to stop their anticompetitive activities. Google will be better off as separate companies, worth more than the sum of its parts
I recently read The Parable of the Sower and it really affected me, both because I felt empathy for the characters and because I saw some uncomfortable parallels in the recent history of our world. I also was disturbed by The Sparrow. Though frankly I wouldn’t recommend it for a lot of reasons. Battle Royale is intensely violent, in a really personal way. For graphic novels, From Hell is a really rough read honestly, but also really interesting
Dippy (fossil) (en.wikipedia.org)
Place names considered unusual (en.wikipedia.org)
Abraham Ortelius (en.wikipedia.org)
First to note the continents likely originally fit together!
Saemangeum Seawall (en.wikipedia.org)
CueCat (en.wikipedia.org)
Shaq (i.imgur.com)
Metal umlaut (en.wikipedia.org)
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo (en.wikipedia.org)
Incremental game (clicker game) (en.wikipedia.org)
Enclave and exclave (en.wikipedia.org)
Curonian Spit (en.wikipedia.org)
Squeegee man (en.wikipedia.org)
Caesar cipher (en.wikipedia.org)
It's Over for Fossil Smartwatches (www.droid-life.com)
D'Nealian (script) (en.wikipedia.org)
Bento (en.wikipedia.org)
Baháʼu'lláh (en.wikipedia.org)
CAR T cell (en.wikipedia.org)
Google Kneecaps Loads Of Very Big Websites After SEO Change (aftermath.site)
Which are the most fucked up books you've read?