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February 1, 2022
A college student who runs a Twitter account that tracks Elon Musk's private jet is now negotiating toe-to-toe with the billionaire. He turned down Elon's initial offer of $5k to delete it and demanded $50k. Elon then said he'll think about it, showing that reinventing the car and building rockets to space is nothing compared to squeezing a 19-year-old in need of beer money.
The long-time Riders may remember Roca co-founder Max Frost's trip to Ukraine last summer. For today's Wrap, he wrote about the people he met there and how they are reacting to the risk of war.
Let's Ride!
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Sell Me These Games
Overview
- Sony announced a deal to buy Bungie, the game company behind the Halo and Destiny franchises, for $3.6B
- The deal comes 2 weeks after Microsoft announced its purchase of Activision Blizzard — the company behind Call of Duty, Candy Crush, and World of Warcraft — for $68.7B
- Sony makes the PlayStation; Microsoft makes rival console Xbox
- While Bungie created Halo, one of the biggest videogame series ever, Microsoft owns the Halo brand and IP. That means Halo, which is only available on Xbox, is unlikely to come to PlayStation
DIG DEEPER
Companies are pouring cash into video game as demand for them grows. Last year, people spent about $180B on video games globally, ~25% more than in 2019.
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Robots Operate on Abs
Overview
- A robot performed the first minimally invasive abdominal surgery without human help
- Johns Hopkins University researchers designed the robot, which operated on 4 pigs. The researchers believed the robot could conduct a more precise surgery than a human could
- "Our findings show that we can automate one of the most intricate and delicate tasks in surgery: the reconnection of two ends of an intestine. The (robot)... produced significantly better results than humans performing the same procedure," a Johns Hopkins professor said
DIG DEEPER
The robot is called a Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR). Like a human, it can instantly adjust its surgical plan. "We hypothesize that this will result in a democratized surgical approach to patient care with more predictable and consistent patient outcomes," a researcher said.
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NYT Buys Wordle
Overview
- The New York Times bought the viral word game Wordle for an undisclosed price in the "low-seven figures"
- Software developer Josh Wardle created Wordle for his partner. The game went live in October of 2021 and has picked up millions of players since
- Wordle gives users 6 tries to guess a 5-letter word that updates once a day. The Times said it won't change the game and will keep it free for all
- The NYT has over 1M subscribers to its games section, including Spelling Bee and the daily crossword. The publisher hopes Wordle will boost that number
DIG DEEPER
Wardle said he is working with the Times to transfer wins and streaks to the new platform. You can try the game here.
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Record Bad Month for Stocks
Overview
- January was the worst month for stocks since March 2020 and the worst January since the financial crisis
- The S&P 500, indicative of the aggregate US stock market, fell 5.3%; the tech-focused Nasdaq fell 9.0%, its worst 1-month drop since November 2008
- The drop was driven by expectations of interest rate hikes: The Federal Reserve (US Central Bank) plans to raise rates in the coming months to fight inflation. Higher rates generally hurt stock prices
- Investors have also been concerned about potentially shrinking corporate profits and global unrest as Russian troops amass on the Russia/Ukraine border
DIG DEEPER
Last week, the head of the Fed made clear that he expects interest rates to rise in March and maybe again beyond that. That and related concerns may end a years-long trend of rising stock prices.
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 What do you think?
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See yesterday's results below the Wrap!
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 Popcorn
Culture & Sports
- Brady has spoken! Tom Brady posted on Instagram that he is officially retiring. Football requires "100% competitive commitment," he said, and "I am not going to make that competitive commitment anymore"
- Rihanna and A$AP Rocky are having a baby! Rihanna showed off the baby bump in photos taken in NYC over the weekend
- The Super Bowl will feature the youngest matchup of Super Bowl head coaches ever. Sean McVay and Zac Taylor are 36 and 38, respectively
- Cut to... a sabbatical? MSNBC host Rachel Maddow will take a multi-week break from her show starting Friday to pursue other projects
Business
- Wolves of K Street: US lawmakers traded an estimated $355M of stock last year, buying ~$180M and selling ~$175M worth of stock
- NFT Belieber: Justin Bieber became the latest celebrity to join the Bored Ape Yacht Club after dropping $1.3M on one of their NFTs
- Jeff Bezos' deal with Smithsonian to have his name featured on buildings after his $200M donation does not include a "morals clause"
Wildcard
- Don't trust your gut: "Long Covid" risk may be tied to the composition of your gut microbiome according to new research
- Woody Allen posted the lowest box office opening weekend of his career. His 49th film, Rifkin’s Festival, grossed just $24,000
- The glove that Antonio Brown tossed into the MetLife stands during his mid-game meltdown on January 2 is now up for auction
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― Roca Wrap
A Newsletter Exclusive
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Last July, Roca sent co-founder & editor Max Frost to explore Ukraine and meet the people impacted by the war that has been simmering there since 2014. Here are some notes from him.
***
There are countless ways to explain the war that may be about to break out in Ukraine. When it comes down to it, though, it’s power politics: If Russia invades, it is because Vladimir Putin has decided it is in his, or Russia’s, interest to do so. Ukraine and its allies – mainly the US and the NATO alliance it leads – have been unwilling or unable to stop it.
That’s international relations theory. What’s not theory, though, are the lives of the 40M+ Ukrainians whose lives hang in the balance, dozens of whom I met traveling in the country last summer.
In the small western Ukrainian city of Chernivtsi I met Oleg, a barber, DJ, and Ukrainian breakdancing champion. After cutting my hair, he invited me to watch that night’s Euro Cup football match with him and his friends Anya, a student, and Sasha, a barber. We ate ribs, drank a sickening amount of vodka, smoked a pack of cigarettes, and joked about when everyone would get married.
Nearby, I hitched a ride with Mikhael, a Ukrainian soldier, who was traveling to visit his girlfriend. Americans had come to Ukraine to train Mikhael’s unit – their discipline wowed him and they became good friends. Mikhael’s dream was to come to America. If he couldn’t do that, he wanted to marry his girlfriend, a teacher, and get out of the army. “People die every day,” he told me. And the money wasn’t good enough.
In Kharkiv, a city in northeastern Ukraine near the border with Russia, I met Sasha, Marie, and Volodya. Sasha was a Russian journalist who moved to Ukraine to work in tech because journalism had become too difficult in Russia. Marie and Volodya had just moved to Kharkiv because Volodya took a job there. Marie taught English remotely, so she could be anywhere. They live about 50 miles from the Russian border.
My friend Alex lives in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. We talked about the future of Ukraine and its relationship with Russia. “You can’t understand someone like Vladimir Putin,” he said. “He lives in a different world. He believes in power – that’s it. He’s not like us.”
In Mariupol, 10 miles from the frontline of Ukraine’s war with Russia-armed separatists, I met Andrew and Natalya, both in the Ukrainian army. Andrew loved Ukraine – he kept disarmed landmines on his bookshelf as a reminder of his recent experiences on the frontline in Ukraine’s war against the separatists. Natalya, an army nurse, was a proud ethnic Russian who disagreed with Andrew on everything political. Yet they lived together and loved each other.
There’s no telling what will happen to these people’s lives if war breaks out. But they’re not worried:
“Is Russia going to invade ukraine??” I wrote to Alex in Kyiv.
“Hah, no [crying laughing emoji],” he responded. “Russia doesn’t do conventional wars because she loses every one of them [crying laughing emoji]...It will be Chechnya for them multiplied by 30.”
Mikhael, a soldier, DM’d me on Instagram last week to tell me that he’s hoping to leave the army. Not because of the risk of war – but because “my salary doesn’t satisfy me :(“ He shrugged off the risk of war with Russia: “We having war against Russia for 8 years,” he wrote.
Oleg and his friends at the barbershop have not stopped posting pictures of haircuts.
Andrew, another soldier whose city and army unit will almost certainly be in the firing line if war breaks out, wrote to me: “I think Russia is bluffing. I believe that we should always think positively. There are a lot of bad things in life, and if you constantly think about it, you can go crazy.”
So is Ukraine about to find itself at the center of Europe’s largest war since the 1940s? My friends there make me optimistic the answer is “no.”
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If you have thoughts, let us know at Max@RocaNews.com!
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 Games
Guess the 4 most common words in the English language (going by the Oxford English Corpus... don't expect "swag" to be in there).
- ?
- ?
- ?
- ?
- and
- a
Find out the answer at the bottom of Roca Clubhouse.
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 Roca Clubhouse
Yesterday's Poll:
Who is the better TV commercial mascot?
Flo from Progressive: 24.2%
Mayhem Guy from Allstate: 75.8%
Yesterday's Question:
Name a time when an ad has convinced you to buy a product. Why?
Laura from North Carolina: "Never, unless you count Costco samples as advertisements"
Carter from Houston: "RXbar had a really cool advertisement with Ice-T when they came out with their whole food protein bars. It was simply no BS. The bars are actually good too."
Becca from Kansas City: "Old Spice. I'm a girl and I was even influenced by that muscular man to buy my boyfriend Old Spice! Their advertisement style started the trench of marketing that is so out there that it sticks in your mind."
General Feedback:
Linda from Minnesota: "Today’s Ukraine Crisis wrap is the best and most concise distillation of this conflict’s background and context I have seen. Very well researched and written—kudos, and thank you!"
Jerry from Virginia: "Just a thought, I think the old dude from the State Farm insurance commercials is better than Flo or Mayhem - Yeah, we covered that!"
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20 Questions: 6-10
Every Friday, we ask the Roca Riders 20 questions and feature a few of our favorite answers. Last Friday, however, we did our first-ever "This or That" 20 Questions. Here is the breakdown of your preferences....
6. Sleeping on the couch or on an air mattress?
Couch: 66%
Air Mattress: 34%
7. British accents or Australian accents?
British accents: 55%
Australian accents: 45%
8. Tater tots or onion rings?
Tater tots: 52%
Onion rings: 48%
9. Instagram or TikTok?
Instagram: 86%
TikTok: 14%
10. General Tso's chicken or anything else from a cheap Chinese restaurant?
General Tso's chicken: 25%
Anything else: 75%
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Games Answer(s):
1. the 2. be (includes all conjugations) 3. to 4. of
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― Final Thoughts
Happy Tuesday, riders. Today is the first day of February, which means January, the month experts (the Roca Team) consider the worst of the year, is officially behind us. So go out in the world and make the most of this new month. Before you know it, it'll be summer!
And to our Southern Hemisphere riders (shoutout South Africa, Australia, Papua New Guinea): Enjoy the warmth while you still can. The tides will soon turn...
Have a great day!
-Max and Max
Today's Instagram Wrap is about the monkeys in Thailand that we covered here last week. By popular demand, we're putting it up for the IG riders.
Thanks for reading! See you again tomorrow!
As always, send thoughts and feedback to Max@Rocanews.com |
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