Twitter

Xee you on Xe Other Xide

An unbelievably hype corn field find. Also, welcome to Xwitter, Florida wants to tell kids that Black people benefited from slavery, Netflix's stock plummet, and a bloody battle in Scotland.

Endeavorance

Jul 24, 2023 — 4 min read

Oops, Millions of Dollars Worth of Coins

A man who wishes to remain anonymous found over 800 gold coins in a corn field in Kentucky. Dude literally struck gold, and oh yeah: the estimated value of the coins is in the millions of dollars, as they date back to the Civil War era.

The discovery is being referred to as "The Great Kentucky Hoard". Here's a quote from Jeff Garrett, an official Big Coin Boy from the Mid American Rare Coin Galleries:

"The importance of this discovery cannot be overstated, as the stunning number of over 700 gold dollars represents a virtual time capsule of Civil War-era coinage, including coins from the elusive Dahlonega Mint. Finding one Mint condition 1863 Double Eagle would be an important numismatic event. Finding nearly a roll of superb examples is hard to comprehend."

So next time you're out in your local corn field, be sure to keep an eye out for a massive cache of Civil War era gold coins. Lighting is famously known to strike twice.

I Posted a Xeet to X and it Got a Lot of ReXeets

For some god awful reason, Elon Musk wants to rebrand Twitter to "X", and says that we should expect the Twitter brand and "all the birds" to go away.

At a random time of the night, Musk just kinda tweeted that the branding will be changing. Totally pivoting the name and branding of a massive online presence is a very easy and straightforward thing to do, especially during a time of ongoing confusion around product direction and issues with investor and advertiser retention. That was a joke. Like Elon Musk.

He's been doing this for a minute. His new "AI company" is called X.AI, he's also got SpaceX, and he rolled Twitter into his "X Corp" company. The theory is that long ago he wanted to have a company called X, but he's a dingus and it didn't work out and now he's trying to prove a point.

Here's something I wanna call out though: he keeps talking about wanting to turn Twitter (soon to just be "X"? I guess?) into an "everything app" and uses China's WeChat app as an example. If you're not familiar, WeChat is like, a whole-ass internet on the internet. You can chat, pay, shop, do a whole ton of shit all in the same app. It's kinda terrifying actually how omnipresent it is, and is a prime example of a thing we'd usually point to in China and be like "this is why China bad". But I guess if Elon Musk does it that's cool? I don't even know anymore.

Oh, also they're limiting the ability to send DMs unless you pay for a subscription lol

DeSantis Florida School Curriculum to Teach That Black People Benefited in Part From Slavery

Because of course they did, Ron DeSantis' Board of Education has put out new teaching standards which require teaching "how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit". That is a quote from the document itself.

The teachers union is not for this, with the Florida Education Association statement saying this "confirmed many of the worst fears" for them.

To be clear: what started as a completely needless attack on "Critical Race Theory" has now begun to alter middle school education curriculum to teach that "well, Black people kinda did benefit from slavery!"

Real country etc etc

Netflix Stock Went Kaput Despite Signups Going Tapuk

I am hereby coining the term "Tapuk" to mean "doin' great"

Netflix's stock went extremely not-Tapuk after an earnings report, dropping about 20% nearly instantly due to a slight miss on expected revenue. Notably, signups were looking great, they "only" took in $8.2 Billion in revenue, while expectations were for them to make $8.3 Billion. Literally just that sent their stock into a tailspin.

Meanwhile, the Writers and Actors guilds are striking for better pay and working conditions, specifically in the era of streaming services. And streaming services risk—for some reason—massive stock losses for tiny retractions on their bottom line.

So like. What the fuck are we doing here?

On This day…

On this day in 1411, the Battle of Harlaw took place in Scotland. The battle is considered one of the bloodiest battles to take place in the country, as rival barons from the north and west of the country fought over claims to the Earldom of Ross. 1500 people died in the battle which ultimately ended without a clear victor. Ultimately, the highland forces withdrew.

The battlefield is now a historic site.