Self-proclaimed “free-speech absolutist” Elon Musk announced a crackdown Sunday on parody Twitter accounts impersonating him, or anyone else.
“Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” Musk tweeted Sunday evening.
“Previously, we issued a warning before suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning. This will be clearly identified as a condition for signing up to Twitter Blue,” he continued in a thread. Furthermore, “Any name change at all will cause temporary loss of verified checkmark.”
That came after a number of prominent verified Twitter users — including comedians Kathy Griffin and Sarah Silverman and actress Valerie Bertinelli — switched their account names to read “Elon Musk” to prove that Musk’s new plan to give blue verification checkmarks to anyone who’ll pay $8 a month is flawed, allowing anyone with $8 to impersonate anyone else and potentially spread disinformation. As of Sunday night, Griffin’s account was suspended, while Silverman and Bertinelli had gone back to their real names.
Musk has described himself as a “free-speech absolutist,” and that content on Twitter should not be censored much past the the law. Last week, after completing his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, Musk tweeted: “Comedy is now legal on Twitter.”
In April, Musk said: “I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means.”
But perhaps more telling, in a 2019 interview in The Atlantic, Musk said “Accurate and entertaining satire is vital to a functioning democracy,” then quipped: “Unless it’s about me.”
A number of Twitter users called out Musk for Sunday’s changes:
This is a transcribed excerpt of the “Bitcoin Magazine Podcast,” hosted by P and Q. In this episode, they are joined by Erik Dale to talk about how bitcoin can be used as a defensive weapon and the positive effect of Bitcoin’s incentives on the alignment of morals across humanity.
Q: I need you to defend your claim that Bitcoin is a weapon.
Erik Dale: You try to drag me into these “Jason Lowery” conversations.
P: Choose your words carefully, sir.
Dale: But this is the best way to become popularized in Bitcoin, right? If you wanna go on a lot of podcasts, just say something like this. So you know, Jason is a security expert … I’m maybe sort of a philosophical linguist and the way language shapes the way we see things and the way we understand and conceptualize things and so on.
I am definitely one of these people who use language in very broad senses. And so when I conceptualize Bitcoin as a weapon, weapons have two functions: To attack or to defend. Traditionally today, maybe the blurring of the lines is stronger than they have [been] and attack of aggressive weapons have had a huge advantage in the last 500 years with scaling. They have been able to scale much more than any other kind of weapon. Shields not so much, but guns, yeah. Bigger and bigger, stronger and stronger, all the way until we can annihilate the fucking planet.
And so you’ve had a very big imbalance between this defensive and aggressive weapon and what Bitcoin defends of course, the thing that it defends is the thing that people might want to take from you. The very motivation for war. The very motivation for conflict itself. So not only is Bitcoin defensive in the sense that it reduces the incentive to cause aggression or conflict, because potential profitability is much lower, it’s much harder to take the bitcoin, even if you take the country. But it is also a tool where if somebody does take your country, it is indeed something that you can bring with you to anywhere else or send to somebody else or whatever. And thus defend and protect that life energy, that life force, regardless of how tough your assailant might be. Of course, it’s not a perfect theory, and again this is not an angle that I’m particularly interested in. This weapon thing is just like I use it this much with much less thorough thought than some people have.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose nearly 600 points on Friday to its highest level in two months as the blue-chip gauge remained on track for a sixth straight session in the green in what would be its longest winning streak since May 27, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
All three major indexes were trading higher as expectations that the Federal Reserve will shift toward smaller interest-rate hikes after its November meeting have offset weak earnings this week from some of the market’s biggest megacap technology names.
How are stocks trading?
The S&P 500 SPX, +1.67%
gained 59 points, or 1.6%, to 3,866.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +1.98%
rose 589 points, or 1.8%, to 32,623.
The Nasdaq Composite COMP, +1.80%
advanced 181 points, or 1.7%, to 10,974.
Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were on track to cement their second weekly gain in a row on Friday, although the tech-heavy Nasdaq has substantially lagged after Thursday’s performance, where it was the only one of the major indexes to finish in the red following abysmal earnings from Meta Platforms Inc.
Barring an intraday turnaround, the Dow is on track to log its fourth straight weekly advance. It remains down just 10.2% so far this year.
The blue-chip gauge has risen 5% so far this week, while the S&P 500 is up 3.1% and the Nasdaq has risen 1.1%.
What’s driving markets?
All eyes were on the Dow Friday as the blue-chip gauge was the only major index to reach new notable highs late this week as its advance during the month of October has somewhat ameliorated its losses for the year so far.
The Dow has risen 13.5% since the start of the month, leaving it on track for its best October performance since it was created in the late 19th century.
Perhaps the biggest reason for the Dow’s rise this month is tied to its composition. The average is generally light on technology stocks, while including more of the energy and industrial stocks that have outperformed this year.
“The Dow just has more of the winners embedded in it and that has been the secret to its success,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B.Reily Wealth.
Despite some volatility in the premarket session, all three major indexes turned higher after the open as investors remained fixated on expectations for the Fed to down shift to smaller interest rate hikes after next week’s policy meeting — an expectation that endured after the latest reports on inflation and wage growth released Friday.
Brad Conger, deputy chief investment officer at Hirtle, Callaghan & Co., said Friday’s data didn’t interfere with mounting expectations that the Fed might soon pause its campaign of aggressive rate hikes.
“Basically, the market is starting to price in a pause, not a pivot, but maybe a pause. The end is in sight,” Conger said.
The September core personal consumption expenditures price index — the Fed’s preferred gauge of inflation pressures — came in roughly in line with economists expectations, while a more modest 1.2% gain in private wages and salaries in the third quarter was interpreted as a sign that wage growth may have finally peaked, according to Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics.
“The Federal Reserve has not yet broken the persistent trend in core inflation and so will likely stay aggressive at next week’s meeting. However, some areas of the economy show significant weakness and could build the case that the Fed downshifts to smaller rate hikes in 2023,” Jeffrey Roach, Chief Economist for LPL Financial in Charlotte, NC, said.
Since the start of the week, investors have digested a batch of disappointing numbers from some of America’s largest tech companies, which helped to sully the overall quality of S&P 500 earnings this quarter.
On Thursday night, Amazon.com AMZN, -9.29%
joined Microsoft Corp. MSFT, +2.75%,
Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, +2.76%
and Meta META, +0.34%
by publishing disappointing earnings for the quarter that ended Sept. 30.
But despite the disappointing results reported this week, in aggregate, S&P 500 firms are beating earnings expectations by 3.8%, according to Refinitiv data. That’s compared to a long-term average of 4.1% since 1994. However, if energy firms are excluded, the picture darkens substantially.
Shares of Amazon were off 10% after the e-commerce giant, which dominates the consumer-discretionary sector, predicted slower holiday sales and profit while also reporting slower-than-expected growth in its key cloud-computing business.
Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, said investors were unnerved by Amazon’s guidance cut.
“The outlook for Q4 was what terrified investors with the retailer guidance operating income in the range $0-4 billion vs est. $4.7 billion and revenue of $140-148 billion vs est. $155.5 billion,” he said in a note.
One notable exception to the downbeat earnings news this week was Apple Inc. AAPL, +7.21%,
which proved a bright spot after the iPhone maker’s revenue and earnings topped forecasts, helped by record back-to-school sales of Macs. Shares were up nearly 0.9% in premarket trading.
Companies in focus
Oil giants Chevron Corp.CVX and Exxon Mobil Corp. XOM were climbing on Friday after reporting strong results. Chevron is a Dow component.
Intel Corp.INTC shares advanced more than 8% after reporting an earnings beat. The chip maker said it would cut costs by $3 billion next year, and lay off employees, as it trimmed its outlook again.
This story was updated with a more current tally of shares from Twitter’s most recent proxy statement.
When Twitter Inc.’s top executives walked out of its San Francisco headquarters Thursday, they may as well have been carrying bags of Elon Musk’s cash.
Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s head of legal policy, received a “golden parachute” clause in Twitter’s TWTR, +0.66%
merger with Musk’s X Holdings. Musk reportedly fired all three Thursday evening upon officially taking control of the social network in a $44 billion acquisition, and will be obligated to give more than $204 million of it to those three, according to Twitter’s filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Agrawal, Segal and Gadde own roughly 1.2 million shares of Twitter, more than half of that a $34.8 million stake owned by Gadde. The trio’s roughly $65 million stake would be purchased by Musk like any other shareholder’s stock.
Additionally, a clause in the merger agreement provided accelerated vesting of promised future stock compensation — and that’s where the biggest chunk of money comes in. The “Golden Parachute Compensation” clause in Twitter’s SEC filing — which was the deal approved by Twitter shareholders — shows the trio would automatically vest stock worth $119.6 million as severance if terminated, with the largest payout there going to Agrawal at $56 million.
They’re also entitled to a year’s salary and health benefits. In 2021, Agrawal had a base pay of $623,000, while Segal and Gadde’s base pay was $600,000 each.
In total, Gadde is set to walk away from Twitter with the biggest haul: Nearly $74 million. Agrawal and Segal aren’t far behind her, though, at roughly $65 million and $66 million, respectively.
Twitter shares have rallied 26% over the past month and closed Thursday at $53.70, close to the $54.20 share price Musk, who’s also CEO of Tesla Inc. TSLA, +0.20%
and the world’s wealthiest individual, agreed to pay in April.
Twitter Inc. is now owned by Elon Musk, with multiple media outlets reporting Thursday night that the long-anticipated sale had officially closed.
The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and others reported, based on unnamed sources, that the top executives of Twitter TWTR, +0.66%
were fired and escorted from the building, including Chief Executive Parag Agrawal, Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal and Vijaya Gadde, head of legal policy, trust and safety.
Musk himself is expected to assume the role of interim CEO, though in the longer term may appoint someone else, Bloomberg reported early Friday, citing unnamed sources. Twitter did not respond to a request by the publication for comment.
The acquisition ends months of legal wrangling after Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla Inc. TSLA, +0.20%
and SpaceX and a frequent Twitter user, offered to buy Twitter in April. After reaching an agreement with Twitter’s board to buy the social media company for $44 billion, Musk tried to back out of the deal and Twitter sued him. He faced a Friday deadline to complete the deal or face trial.
In a tweet late Thursday night, Musk said only: “the bird is freed.”
Thursday morning, Musk signaled a deal was imminent when he tweeted a statement aimed at assuring advertisers, some of whom might be concerned about his plans for content moderation. Musk has said one of his motivations for buying the platform is related to complaints about censorship, mostly from people who have been banned because they have violated Twitter’s terms of service.
Twitter did not immediately return a request for comment late Thursday.
The Bloomberg report added that Musk also plans to end lifetime bans for users, meaning former President Donald Trump could return to Twitter, though it’s unclear how soon that could happen, the source said.
Twitter shares have rallied 26% over the past month, closing Thursday at $53.70, close to the $54.20 share price Musk agreed to pay in April.
Data-center stocks buoyed an otherwise down chip sector Thursday as shares of Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. cratered on torn-in-half profits and a hike in capital spending to fuel Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse ambitions, prompting one analyst to ask if server chips can only go up now.
As shares of Meta dropped as much as 25% Thursday, shares of Nvidia Corp. NVDA, +2.31%
surged as much as 7%, compared with less than 1% declines on the PHLX Semiconductor Index SOX, -1.51%
and S&P 500 index SPX, -0.69%.
Late Wednesday, Meta reported that quarterly profits fell by more than 50% and added that it expects 2022 capital expenditure of $32 billion to $33 billion, compared with a previous range of $30 billion to $34 billion. In 2023, the company said, it expects capital expenditure in the range of $34 billion to $39 billion, “driven by our investments in data centers, servers, and network infrastructure.”
Meta META, -24.64%
noted that an “increase in AI capacity is driving substantially all of our capital expenditure growth in 2023.”
Soon after Meta made that announcement, Jefferies analyst Mark Lipacis said in a note that “positive capex commentary from Alphabet GOOGL, -2.80%,
Microsoft MSFT, -2.03%
and Meta” was all a positive for data-center equipment providers Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices Inc. AMD, -1.92%,
Broadcom Inc. AVGO, -1.26%
and Marvell Technology Inc. MRVL, +3.61%.
Lipacis has buy ratings on all four stocks.
Jefferies noted that Meta’s capital expenditure for 2023 alone charts a 12% year-over-year hike at midpoint, compared with the Wall Street consensus of $29 billion, or a 5% year-over-year decline.
“We sense investor caution around Nvidia’s datacenter business this quarter, but we expect all four [equipment providers] to discuss positive datacenter trends this earnings season,” Lipacis said, noting he was a buyer of Nvidia stock “in front of its earnings call.”
From the perspective of the chip industry — which has gone from a two-year global chip shortage to a sudden glut in a matter of months as PC and consumer-electronics demand has dropped sharply, causing chip fabricators to pump the brakes on investments in new capacity — Lipacis questioned whether the glut will ever reach data-center sales, as many have feared.
“The most common comment we hear from investors on Nvidia is ‘the Datacenter Shoe has to Drop,’” Lipacis said, noting that his data shows that the shoe has already dropped and an uptick is on the horizon.
Lipacis explained that data-center sales from Nvidia, AMD and Intel combined declined to $10.5 billion in the second quarter from $12 billion in the fourth quarter of 2021 and that he is modeling another $10.5 billion quarter in the third.
“This looks consistent with the pattern since 2017 of 4-to-5 qtrs above trendline, followed by 2-to-3 qtrs of below trendline ‘digestion,’ i.e., it looks like the datacenter shoe has already dropped,” Lipacis said.
Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. on Wednesday became the latest tech titan tattooed by a precipitous drop in digital advertising, reporting less than half the profit it had in the same quarter a year ago and sending its stock plummeting toward the lowest prices in more than six years.
Meta META, -5.59%
posted third-quarter earnings of $4.39 billion, or $1.64 a share, down from $9.2 billion, or $3.22 a share last year. Total sales, most of which come from ads, were $27.17 billion, down from $29 billion a year ago. Both results missed the average forecast for profit of $1.90 a share and sales of $27.44 billion, according to analysts polled by FactSet.
Meta executives issued a fourth-quarter revenue forecast of $30 billion to $32.5 billion, while analysts were forecasting $32.3 billion.
Daily active users, which edged up 3% to 1.98 billion, were in line with analysts’ projections of 1.98 billion for the quarter.
“While we face near-term challenges on revenue, the fundamentals are there for a return to stronger revenue growth,” Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a statement announcing the results. “We’re approaching 2023 with a focus on prioritization and efficiency that will help us navigate the current environment and emerge an even stronger company.”
In prepared comments, Meta’s departing chief financial officer David Wehner said it is “making significant changes across the board to operate more efficiently. We are holding some teams flat in terms of headcount, shrinking others and investing headcount growth only in our highest priorities. As a result, we expect headcount at the end of 2023 will be approximately in-line with third-quarter 2022 levels.”
Shares in Meta plunged nearly 20% in after-hours trading, which would put it at levels the stock has not seen since 2016 if the decline were to last into Thursday’s regular trading session. Meta’s stock has been among the worst in tech this year, crashing and burning 61% so far, while the broader S&P 500 index SPX, -0.74%
has declined 19% in 2022.
After closing with a 5.6% decline at $129.82, Meta shares cratered to less than $115 in after-hours trading; shares have not traded at that level in a regular session since the end of 2016, and have not closed that low since July 2016.
“Meta is on shaky legs when it comes to the current state of its business,” Insider Intelligence analyst Debra Aho Williamson said in a note late Wednesday. “Mark Zuckerberg’s decision to focus his company on the future promise of the metaverse took his attention away from the unfortunate realities of today: Meta is under incredible pressure from weakening worldwide economic conditions, challenges with Apple’s AppTrackingTransparency policy, and competition from other companies, including TikTok, for users and revenue.”
In a conference call outlining the results, Wehner pointed out softness in advertising among buyers in online commerce, gaming and financial services.
Meta’s mess of a quarter came a day after Alphabet Inc.’s GOOGL, -9.14%
GOOG, -9.63%
Google reported disappointing ad sales — it missed FactSet analyst estimates by $2 billion — and warned of a deepening pullback in online ad spending. Last week, Snap Inc. SNAP, -0.21% posted slackening ad revenue that sent its shares tumbling more than 25%.
Meta announced the results two days after a hellacious Monday, when a major shareholder chastised its metaverse strategy and called for a 20% reduction in payroll costs, as well as a Bank of America note that downgraded the stock.
While acknowledging that some people object to Meta’s multibillion-dollar investment in the metaverse, Zuckerberg believes the investment will ultimately prove to be vitally important to Meta’s — and tech’s — future, he said in the conference call.
Meta executives have blamed inflation, a decline in ad sales, the war in Ukraine, supply-chain issues, increased competition from services such as TikTok, and — most significantly — wrenching changes Apple Inc. AAPL, -1.96% made to its mobile operating system that make it more difficult for apps to track consumers in ads.
“We continue to see strategic diversification away from Meta by many advertisers, largely due to stubbornly high CPMs relative to other social platforms and persistent challenges in performance measurement,” Josh Brisco, group vice president of acquisition media at search-engine marketing company Tinuiti, told MarketWatch.
One factor is a 13% decline in traffic to the Facebook web page in September, year-over-year, according to new report from Similarweb SMWB, -0.47%.
“It’s been down all year, which makes you wonder if they’re going in too many directions — social media, the metaverse, Reels — and whether they are no longer the flavor of the month with competition from TikTok,” David Carr, senior insights manager at Similarweb, told MarketWatch.
“First and foremost, the discussion needs to pivot to how to build an engaged community of users,” Alex Howland, president and founder of Virbela, which builds virtual worlds, told MarketWatch. “And for that, the metaverse must improve or compliment real-world experiences in some way so that people find value and keep coming back.”
“Brands have to be focused on what is paying the bills now,” Mike Herrick, senior vice president of technology at Airship, an app-experience platform, told MarketWatch. “Metaverse is going to happen, but not during the life of this recession.”
Shares of Twitter plunged in premarket trade on Friday after a report Biden administration officials are considering subjecting some of Elon Musk’s ventures to national-security reviews.
Twitter TWTR, +1.18%
shares plunged 9% to $47.64 in premarket trade, below the $54.20 per share buyout price.
Bloomberg News reported late Thursday that some U.S. officials have become concerned in recent weeks by Musk’s Russia-friendly tweets and his threat to cut off Starlink satellite internet service to Ukraine. The Tesla TSLA, -6.65%
and SpaceX CEO’s pending $44 billion acquisition of Twitter has also reportedly drawn concerns because of its foreign investors, including a Saudi prince, Binance Holdings — a crypto exchange that was initially based in China — and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.
Citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg said discussions are still in the early stages and officials are trying to figure out what regulatory tools are available to them. One option could be a national-security review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the report said.
When Snap Inc. went public in 2017, this column boiled down the entire investment opportunity to one, simple question: Do you trust Evan Spiegel?
As Snap SNAP, -0.64%
stock heads toward its lowest prices since March 2020, and potentially even lower, that question is even more important, and answering “yes” should be even harder.
Three months ago, amid the beginning of a huge slowdown in the ad business, Snap initiated a unique dividend meant to ensure that the founders maintained control of the company, even if they sold their stock — protecting themselves. Then in August, news came that Snap was laying off one in five employees. As Snap again reported disappointing results Thursday and saw the stock plunge again, the company decided now was the time to initiate a stock buyback plan, promising to spend up to $500 million to offset the dilution from employee stock plans — in the past nine months, Snap has spent $937 million on stock-based compensation.
As the company’s largest individual shareholders, Spiegel and Murphy are among the key beneficiaries of Snap’s plans to buy back stock, which usually leads to a boost in the stock price. Those two still control over 99% of the voting power of the company’s capital stock, and as the parent of Snapchat reminded investors in its annual report, “Mr. Spiegel alone can exercise voting control over a majority of our outstanding capital stock.”
Shares of Snap tumbled an additional 25% to just under $8 in after-hours trading, putting them near the lowest prices since March 2020. On Thursday, the company ended regular trading hours with a market capitalization of around $17.91 billion, but that was headed toward $13 billion with the after-hours collapse.
Besides protecting themselves and their investment, Snap’s executives have shown little ability to head off big issues, nor offer any worthwhile solutions to the current ad downturn. In the third quarter, its revenue grew a paltry 6%, down from the most recent second-quarter revenue growth of 13%. Snap appears to be in a steady revenue slowdown, from its peak growth of 116% in the June 2021 quarter.
Snap has blamed both privacy changes that Apple Inc. AAPL, -0.33%
made to the iPhone that affected ad tracking, and more recently, the macroeconomic advertising climate, while avoiding one of the biggest factors — the rise of TikTok. Top executives didn’t seem to see any of those challenges coming early enough, and did not do enough about them once they did.
“The company was slow to react — or acknowledge — the significant headwinds faced by privacy initiatives, compounded by competition, and more recently macro headwinds,” Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Baird Equity Research, wrote in a note.
The competition factor, mostly from China’s TikTok, was addressed briefly on the company’s call with analysts, but was not really acknowledged by Snap leaders.
“We believe that the differentiated nature of our service is what’s contributing to the daily active-user growth, which grew 19% year-over-year to 363 million daily active users,” Spiegel said. “In terms of the content specifically, I think there’s a lot of headroom, of course, to continue to grow content engagement.”
In the company’s shareholder letter, Spiegel acknowledged that the results were “far from our aspirations,” and that Snap would use this time of reduced demand “to pull forward and accelerate changes to our advertising platform and auction dynamics that we believe will deliver better results for our advertising partner.”
Spiegel is known for going by his own instincts and not listening to other executives, employees or even market forces, as was noted in a Wall Street Journal report that detailed his push for an unsuccessful product redesign in 2018. While the company appeared to have snapped back from that debacle last year, it is now facing a fiercer rival for young people on social media in the form of TikTok.
Investors who still have patience to wait and see if this stock ever recovers will also have to stick around with Spiegel — and as our IPO column noted — Snap is unapologetically founder-controlled. No change at the top can ever come unless it is initiated by Spiegel himself. Investors have to make a leap of faith that Spiegel can turn things around, but they need to remember that Spiegel usually thinks about himself first.
A bruising year for Snap Inc.’s shares worsened Thursday, as the stock plummeted more than 20% in after-hours trading as executives launched the company’s first major share-repurchase program amid revenue issues in a poor environment for online advertising.
Snap SNAP, -0.64%
executives revealed that revenue increased less than 6% year-over-year in the quarter — its slowest quarterly grow ever recorded — and said that the holiday season is shaping up similarly, with sales increasing 9% so far in the quarter. The social-media company, which laid off roughly 20% of its staff this summer in response to the issues, also declined to provide a full forecast for the important fourth quarter.
“Our revenue growth continued to decelerate in Q3 and continues to be impacted by a number of factors we have noted throughout the past year, including platform policy changes, macroeconomic headwinds, and increased competition,” executives said in a letter to shareholders, outlining the results. “We are finding that our advertising partners across many industries are decreasing their marketing budgets, especially in the face of operating environment headwinds, inflation-driven cost pressures, and rising costs of capital.”
“Forward-looking revenue visibility remains incredibly challenging, and this is compounded by the fact that revenue in Q4 is typically disproportionately generated in the back half of the quarter, which further reduces our visibility,” executives explained about the lack of guidance in a letter to investors.
The board did approve a $500 million share repurchase, a first for the young company. In a news release, executives said that the move was meant “to opportunistically offset a portion of the dilution related to the issuance of restricted stock units to employees as part of the overall compensation program designed to foster an ownership culture.”
Snap’s results —the first among the major tech companies who rely heavily on digital advertising — likely portend even more turbulent times ahead for Alphabet Inc.’s GOOGL, +0.34%
GOOG, +0.24%
Google, Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc. META, -1.28%,
Twitter Inc. TWTR, +1.18%,
Pinterest Inc. PINS, -0.30% and others in the grip of inflation, a war in Ukraine, foreign-exchange worries and a widening recession.
Snap’s desultory news sent shares tumbling in extended trading for Pinterest (-8%), Trade Desk Inc. TTD, +2.26%
(-5), Meta (-4%) and Google (-3%).
Deteriorating macroeconomic conditions have left advertisers with little choice but to delay or cancel buys. At the same time, intensifying competition from the likes of TikTok and others has deepened headwinds.
“As a smaller player, Snap is more susceptible but no platform is immune,” Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg told MarketWatch. “I expect more of the same results next week” when Google and Meta report, she added.
Snap reporteda third-quarter net loss of $359.5 million, or 22 cents a share, compared with a loss of 5 cents a share a year ago. Analysts on average were expecting a loss of 24 cents a share.
Snap’s sales increased less than 6% to $1.13 billion, barely falling short of Street estimates of $1.14 billion. Daily active users rose 19% to 363 million. FactSet analysts had modeled 358.2 million.
Snap shares initially fell more than 20% in after-hours trading. They closed the regular trading session down 0.6% to $10.79. Shares of Snap have nosedived 77% this year, while the S&P 500 index SPX, -0.80%
is down 23%.
Elon Musk would lose about 13.5 million Twitter followers, if he pushes through his plan to get rid of most spam accounts, according to data crunched by CodeClan, a Scottish digital skills academy.
The Tesla Inc. TSLA, -3.84%
CEO on Tuesday gave up a legal battle and agreed to pay $44 billion to take over the social-media company. Musk has said he wants less than 5% of Twitter TWTR, -2.35%
accounts to be spam.
But Musk’s losses pale in comparison with singer Justin Bieber, who would lose 27.6 million of his 114.2 million followers, according to the data.
Britney Spears would lose the highest percentage of fake followers out of the top 20 with some 48% of her 55.8 million followers being classified as fakes.
Former President Barack Obama would lose 19.3 million of his 131.9 million followers, the data shows.
Among other high profile names; Katy Perry has about 23.3 million fakes among her 108.9 million followers, or 21.4% of the total; Rihanna has about 26.5 million fakes, or 24.9% of her 106.5 million followers; Lady Gaga has 10.9 million fakes in her roster of 84.7 million followers, for 12.9% of the total; Kim Kardashian has about 14 million fakes, or 19.4% of her 72.4 million followers, and Ellen DeGeneres has about 24.4 million fakes, equal to 31.5% of her 77.5 million followers.
In the world of politics, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has about 17.5 million fakes in his 78.8 million followers, equal to 22.2% of the total.
CNN Breaking News has about 7.7 million fakes, or 12.2% of its 63.1 million followers. Bill Gates has about 14.3 million fakes, or 24.2% of his 58.9 million followers. And NASA has some 14.7 million fakes, or 26.8% of its 57.1 million followers.
Twitter shares were slightly lower premarket, while Tesla was down 1.1%.
Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp. DWAC, +0.03%,
the special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, buying the company behind former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social social-media company, was slightly higher premarket after falling more than 5% Tuesday in the wake of the Musk/Twitter news.
The SPAC has fallen 67% in the year to date, while the S&P 500 SPX, -1.28%
has fallen 20%.
The Tesla Inc. TSLA, +2.90%
CEO agreed to buy the social media company back in April for $44 billion, but in recent months said he wanted to terminate the deal, publicly citing concerns about bots on the platform. The two sides had been entrenched in a legal battle over the past few months, and a Delaware Chancery Court judge was scheduled to hear arguments on the case in October, a case Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives said Musk was “highly unlikely” to win.
Twitter users reacted to the news on Tuesday afternoon, many of them joking about a potential resolution to the seemingly never-ending Elon Musk Twitter saga.
One Twitter user said she believes Musk will look to reinstate the account of former President Donald Trump, which was banned shortly after the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump has claimed he won’t return to Twitter even if the Musk deal is executed, and he’ll continue to post on his platform, Truth Social.
“We’re doing a big platform right now, so I probably wouldn’t have any interest,” the former president said.
Another user tweeted that supporters of the meme crypto dogecoin DOGEUSD, +1.11%
are excited by Musk’s move to proceed with the deal. Musk has touted dogecoin on several occasions in the past few years.
Similar to bitcoin, dogecoin is a peer-to-peer, open-source cryptocurrency. It trades under the ticker symbol “DOGE” and features the face of the shiba inu from the popular Doge meme as its logo. Dogecoin was up as much as 9.16% after the Bloomberg news was published.
Musk has not publicly commented on the report, but one Twitter user pointed out that he tweeted about his satellite internet project Starlink after the news broke, but did not mention Twitter in any way.
Shares of Tesla Inc. dipped after the news, and are now up just 1.31% during Tuesday’s trading. Shares of the EV maker were up as much as 5.65% on the day before the Musk news.
Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk now plans to close his proposed $44 billion deal for Twitter Inc., according to a Tuesday filing that arrived less than two weeks before a judge was scheduled to hear a case on the disputed acquisition.
Musk’s lawyers sent a letter to Twitter’s management team indicating that he was proposing to move forward with the original acquisition terms late Monday, and that letter was released as a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission Tuesday afternoon. A Twitter spokesperson later confirmed to MarketWatch that the company intended to proceed with the deal for $54.20 a share.
Twitter TWTR, +22.24%
shares jumped 22.2% to $52 in Tuesday’s session, after an hours-long trading halt that started after Bloomberg News first reported the move around noon Eastern time, suggesting a possible end to the legal saga between the two parties. The increase is the second best daily percentage gain on record for Twitter stock, behind only the 27.1% gain experienced when Musk disclosed his initial ownership stake in Twitter in April. Twitter was the best performing stock Tuesday in the S&P 500 index SPX, +3.06%,
and is now up 20.3% on the year.
The two sides have been locked in a legal battle for months, and a Delaware Chancery Court judge was expected to hear from both sides in a five-day trial slated to begin Oct. 17. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the Delaware judge asked the two sides to come up with a plan by the end of the day that could bring about an end to the litigation.
“Musk could see the writing on the wall that he was going to lose the trial,” said Josh White, an assistant finance professor at Vanderbilt University, in an email to MarketWatch. “By doing this, he can save legal costs, time and ultimately losing in a very public trial.”
Musk agreed in April to buy Twitter in a deal that valued the company at roughly $44 billion, but he later said that he was terminating the deal. The Tesla TSLA, +2.90%
CEO cited concerns about bot activity on Twitter and said he believed the company’s management team wasn’t accurate in its public disclosures about the extent of spam activity on the platform.
White noted that text messages released in conjunction with the case showed that Musk was aware of Twitter’s bot issue before going forward with his original deal offer, and he doubted that Musk would be able to show that “something really changed” after that point.
“If he offered less than $54.20, Twitter might have proceeded with the trial, and he would be deposed,” White continued. “By offering the original price, he maximizes the chance that Twitter accepts and the trial ends. I expect Twitter’s board to accept the deal and for it to close rather quickly.”
Wedbush analyst Daniel Ives agreed that the Tesla leader’s latest move marked a “clear sign that Musk recognized heading into Delaware Court that the chances of winning vs. Twitter board was highly unlikely and this $44 billion deal was going to be completed one way or another,” he wrote in a note to clients. “Being forced to do the deal after a long and ugly court battle in Delaware was not an ideal scenario and instead accepting this path and moving forward with the deal will save a massive legal headache.”
Vanderbilt’s White noted that a deal at the original price would be a “big” win for Twitter shareholders.
“The stock price of Snap SNAP, +8.42%
and Twitter seemed to trade around the same price level before the offer,” he told MarketWatch. “Snap is now a ~$10 stock with a $17 billion market cap. So Twitter’s shareholders win by getting $54.20 rather than having the price drop to $10-20 per share.”
Additionally, he deemed Delaware business law another winner: “This deal shows that even the richest man in the world cannot overcome well-written contracts enforced in a neutral and fair way by the Delaware courts.”
Changing leaves, cooler weather, the scent of pumpkin spice — break out the flannel, Autumn’s here! For many, that might mean back to school, but even if not, it’s a great time to refocus your Japanese studies. Here’s some of the best Japanese learning resources that were new to us over the past few months. So get cozy and get studying!
Migaku Pitch Trainer
Have trouble getting the pitch of that word just right? This is where Migaku Pitch Trainer comes in! With both a free and paid version, users can take lessons and practice training their ears to distinguish between different types of pitch accents used when pronouncing Japanese words. Unlike some other apps with fantasy words to focus on pitch or computer-generated recordings, Migaku Pitch Trainer uses real Japanese words, and has recordings by native speakers.
The home page contains four main areas: Learn, Train Now, Custom Session, and Achievements. Near the bottom are links to a placement test, as well as a reference guide. Many of these features are free to use to a point, but some (like the Custom Session and placement test) require a paid account from the get-go. Later lessons also require a paid account. For the overall design and quality, it seems like a site worth using. And the audio sound quality is great which makes being able to distinguish between different pitch patterns easy.
Some of the audio files may not play immediately upon being clicked, and some of the recordings may cut off at weird places, but other than that, this site is a great place to get in some pitch accent practice. The addition of a fluid interface and an achievements section really add to the appeal of the site. Going through the lessons is fun, and you can really feel the improvement in your pitch accent skills.
Pokémon Kids TV Japan
Pokémon-loving learners of Japanese, rejoice! If you didn’t know already, there is a Pokémon-themed YouTube channel with lots of great videos in Japanese (and English) that may be useful for listening practice and immersion. Videos are designed for kids, so the Japanese used in each one is relatively simple, slow, and many videos come with Japanese subtitles!
There are a number of different kinds of videos. The channel currently boasts 23 different playlists ranging in content from ASMR, to exercise videos, to stories, and more. The Experience Adventure playlist is also very educational. Ever want to learn more about airplanes and pilots? There’s a video for that! What about sumo or dentistry? There are videos all about those too.
Even though these videos are aimed at Japanese children, they can be very valuable to learners of Japanese as well. The inclusion of subtitles in Japanese helps viewers confirm what they are hearing, and can serve as a way to encounter new vocabulary. It’s fun to use Pokémon Kids TV to learn new words in context. Learners looking to improve their listening skills can use the audio as listening practice, while confirming later with subtitles. But learning aside, the videos on this channel are top-notch quality and overall enjoyable to watch. The abundance of topics also means that there is just about something for everyone to enjoy!
JLPT Grammar List and Example Sentences by Chika Sensei’s Japanese Academy
Chika Sensei’s Japanese Academy is a site dedicated to helping Japanese learners study for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) at all levels. They offer a range of services, from private classes to grammar explanation videos on YouTube. Now, Chika Sensei has a list of Japanese grammar points into documents differentiated by JLPT level. By submitting your name and email address at her website, you will be sent an email containing links to these grammar lists free of charge.
The lists themselves are high quality, and contain a large amount of grammar structures. In every level, she demonstrates each point with an example sentence. At lower levels (N5-N4), she includes an English equivalent of the grammar structure, as well as an English translation of the example sentence in Japanese. And in the N1 lists, all English goes away and is instead supplemented by multiple example sentences in Japanese. It seems that N1 learners get some tough love here, as they will have to look up each grammar point via other resources if they desire an explanation.
A major plus about these grammar lists is the fact that there is a checkbox for every grammar point. This allows learners to physically check off any grammar structure they think is mastered. Paper-and-pen studiers may particularly enjoy this feature. And arguably the best part about these lists is that they are all free. To create such a nice, useful resource and put it out on the Internet in this way is absolutely amazing.
JPDB.io
JPDB.io is a web app combining a rich Japanese native material database with an SRS to learn the vocabulary for anime, dramas, novels, and more; before you dive in to immerse yourself. Many Japanese learners are familiar with using reading or other native material to learn Japanese as it’s used in context, from grammar to vocabulary. However, rather than making flashcards from words you don’t know from a book you’re currently reading, for example, JPDB.io allows you to learn and review the words you don’t know before even opening the cover.
Combined with this novel approach to vocabulary building is a full-featured Japanese media database. While other sites offer lists of various recommended books or TV series for Japanese learners, by combining this with an SRS that knows your vocabulary, JPDB.io is able to offer recommendations for media that should already be very comprehensible to you.
It’s still in active development, so it’s not quite perfect yet, but JPDB is quickly becoming a one-stop-shop for Japanese learners who want to build their vocabularies and practice with native media all in one place.
Immersion Kit
Ever find a Japanese word out of context, and want an example sentence you’ll actually remember? Or find a word in a novel, news article, or out in the world, and want something a little more dynamic to make a flashcard out of? Look no further than Immersion Kit!
Immersion Kit is a dictionary site containing over 400,000 different Japanese sentences from various anime series. Additionally, every sentence has a screenshot from that moment in the anime, as well as the audio of the line from the show. From there, users can download entire flashcards to add to their Anki decks, or just the audio or picture if you’d like to make your own.
By default, the sentences are sorted by length, with the shortest appearing up top, but you can filter by JLPT level, WaniKani level, or even the anime it comes from (if you wanted to make a deck with only sentences from Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, for example). The anime database is by far the largest, though sentences from dramas, games, news, and literature are slowly being added as well.
All in all, Immersion Kit is a great site for Japanese learners who appreciate seeing words in context to learn.
Speak Japanese Naturally
Speak Japanese Naturally is a Japanese-language learning YouTube channel launched in June of 2020. The host, Fumi, offers a wide range of instructive videos, focusing on grammar, pronunciation, and as the name implies, getting closer to how Japanese is actually spoken rather than “textbook language.”
Fumi uses a ton of different sources, from interviews, music, and anime, to help convey her explanations. These explanations are offered in English, making Speak Japanese Naturally a great channel for even beginner or lower-intermediate Japanese learners.
While pitch accents, pronunciation, and natural phrasing are cornerstones of Speak Japanese Language, the content isn’t quite as honed in as some channels, which might only focus on grammar, for example. But on the other hand, this keeps videos feeling fresh, offering a spread of videos interesting to many different types of learners. If you want to make your Japanese sound a bit more natural, or just want to mix up your YouTube rotation, give Speak Japanese Naturally a try!
週末の酒がうまい、BRUTUSの聞くレシピ
Cooks and foodies alike are in for a treat with the Brutus Weekend Cooking podcast, 週末の酒がうまい、BRUTUSの聞くレシピ. If you’re not yet familiar with BRUTUS, it’s a Japanese lifestyle magazine with articles on fashion, travel, and more. Each of these podcast episodes is around 20 minutes long and focuses on one dish and one beverage that pair nicely together. The podcast hosts and occasional guests discuss how to make the food and drink as well as related topics, like the best place to enjoy these meals.
Unlike a cooking video, where viewers can watch the cooking techniques and mimic them later, the lack of visuals forces you to test your listening comprehension. If you’ve been wanting to learn more cooking-related terminology, this will be a good opportunity for you to hear more about how to mix, chop, or sauté in Japanese. The speed of the conversation is relatively slow despite being a podcast for native speakers. Japanese learners from upper beginner on will be able to enjoy this series.
Each podcast episode is also accompanied by an article on the menu, which you can find on the BRUTUS website under the “Cook” or 料理する section. The articles are in Japanese and include the recipe as well as some beautiful photos of the pairings. Listen before your next dinner party and see how your creation turns out!
AxTongue
Do you learn best through music? Are you a fan of Japanese karaoke? If so, AxTongue could be a resource you want to know about. AxTongue is a website that features YouTube videos of Japanese songs with user-submitted lyrics in both Japanese and English. That means that you can listen to Japanese songs and practice the language at the same time.
While watching a music video, you can follow along with the captions conveniently displayed below. The highlighted portion of the Japanese lyrics will correspond to the highlighted portion of the English lyrics. There’s an added element of learning with some words removed from the lyrics, and later revealed when that part is sung. There are also more detailed explanations in the upper corner for specific grammar and word help.
Currently, AxTongue primarily features songs, but also includes some language learning conversation videos as well. This resource could be used by any level of learner but is particularly good for upper beginners and intermediate learners. Whether you’d like to give these songs a listen or contribute your own lyrics to a video, head on over to their site.
にほんごで働く！ビジネス日本語30時間
Have you ever thought about working for a Japanese company? Does the thought of using honorific speech and strict business mannerisms scare you? If so, you may want to check out にほんごで働く！ビジネス日本語30時間 (meaning Work in Japanese! Business Japanese in 30 Hours). Originally published in 2009, this book was updated in early 2022. Like your standard business Japanese textbook, it makes sure you are well-versed in using honorific speech (keigo) and provides plenty of opportunities to practice through sample conversations and role-play activities.
Separated into eight chapters, you will learn what to do and say at a Japanese company in a number of situations: taking phone calls, asking requests, receiving permission, making appointments, and more. Each chapter begins with a warm-up quiz, special expressions, and business-related vocabulary. Then it goes into short interactions, which become the basis of longer conversations in the following section. After that is a role-play section, a practice section (with an emphasis on honorific speech), and finally, a business column in which aspects of Japanese business culture and manners are explained.
As the title indicates, the entire book can be completed in just 30 hours if you dedicate around 3-4 hours per chapter. The design is minimalistic and completely in monochrome which may not be ideal for some learners. It also does not directly teach you honorific speech in each chapter; an explanation of honorific speech is provided in the back of the book.
That said, it does include a separate word booklet with English, Chinese, and Korean translations of all the vocabulary and phrases, which is convenient for people who dislike having to flip to the glossary in the back of the book when they want to look up a word. Additionally, furigana is used above every kanji, so that every word is readable. Plus, all vocabulary presented in each chapter includes pitch accent information. This is valuable for learners who wish to sound as native as possible. And as with many textbooks, there is an accompanying CD with native recordings of all of the sample conversations.
While the minimalist, wordy design may not be everyone’s cup of tea, the amount of content and features packed into this book is definitely worth the price. There’s a consistent flow throughout, and the business culture information at the end of each chapter is really valuable. According to the teacher information at the front of the book, this text’s difficulty is somewhere around JLPT N2 and above. If you are studying for those tests (or just for business Japanese in particular), then this book may be just what you are looking for.
RiceBurger Studios
If you’re looking for some cute and entertaining videos to watch to learn Japanese, RiceBurger Studios has you covered. These videos can be found on both their YouTube channel and Instagram page, with slightly different content depending on the platform. The main two characters, Oni and Han – derived from the words onigiri and hanbāgā — are a talking riceball and hamburger duo that teach Japanese in a fun and approachable way. This is similar to their creators, two friends whose imagination inspired the voices and animation behind it.
The videos that RiceBurger offers cover various topics like helpful conversational phrases, casual speech, grammar points, and other exercises. Most of these videos are under two minutes in length so you can breeze through them quickly. In these videos, the characters use a mix of Japanese and English. Oftentimes, there are captions to go along with the dialogue in both languages as well. Learners who are around intermediate level will find this the most helpful, but these can be viewed and enjoyed by almost all learners.
Let’s Learn Japanese with Movies Podcast
Any film buffs out there? The Let’s Learn Japanese with Movies Podcast is a podcast designed for people just like you! The way it works is there are three parts to the resource — the film, the podcast, and the transcripts of the podcast. You can choose the order of operations here based on what you’d like to focus on. The films are short, mostly award-winners, and in various languages, including silent films.
Each film is broken down into multi-part podcast series where the host, Aki, discusses the film in slow and simple Japanese. The speed and level of vocabulary makes this a good podcast for beginner learners, which it’s intended for. The episodes are all about ten minutes long and are entirely in Japanese, except for the occasional English translation word used to help listeners. There is also a Q&A session during the podcasts where Aki asks the listener questions based on what’s been said, motivating the listener to pay close attention to the details. Give it a watch, a listen, and a read!
Kanji Adventures for Gamers and Vtuber Fans by Nihongo Picnic
Kanji Adventures for Gamers and Vtuber Fans is an online course by Nihongo Picnic, a Japanese language school that offers a variety of different courses geared towards the JLPT, business Japanese, kanji, and more.
The class is geared towards learners around the JLPT N3 level but can accommodate learners at the N4 and N2 levels as well. Words with kanji that are common in the Japanese gaming and vtuber (short for virtual YouTuber — someone that makes videos on YouTube using a virtual avatar) communities make up the main content of each lesson. And while word meanings and usages are broken down, the real focus is on their kanji. The entire course covers about 140 kanji and lasts three months, meeting once a week. English is often used by the teacher to explain difficult concepts.
A typical lesson will open with a theme and short discussion. The theme for the sample class was ゲームスキル (game skills) and introduced six words made up of two kanji each, totaling 12 kanji to be learned in that session. For example, we covered two words: 連打 (renda, button-mashing) and 裏技 (urawaza, hidden move or life hack).
Learners are first taught how to pronounce each word
using standard pitch-accent based on the NHK pitch accent dictionary.
Then, kanji for each of these words are broken down into their
individual components and memory hints are provided (similar to what WaniKani does). Learners are also given a chance to write each character on the screen. Once each character is broken down and the full word can be recognized, there is a short conversation that utilizes the word in question. Students are given a chance to practice the dialogue with other students and the teacher. When the class finishes going through all of the words for that lesson, homework is assigned. The class also references WaniKani a lot, offering students a coupon code, and optional homework connected to the app; though being a WaniKani user is not required.
We sampled this Kanji Adventures for Gamers and Vtuber Fans class and it was highly enjoyable; the instructor was very understanding and really made sure all the students were accommodated. The colorful slides, and opportunities to use what one has learned are a huge plus that learners of any level will benefit from.
The course can seem a bit pricey, but that stems from the fact that Nihongo Picnic offers small courses with certified professional, native Japanese teachers. If you would like online lessons with a small class size, Nihongo Picnic likely has something you can take for the right price.
While that might be all for this edition, the fun doesn’t have to stop here! Should you happen across any other great resources, send us an email at hello@tofugu.com, or reach out to us on Twitter @tofugu. We love hearing from you, and finding new study resources to share together!
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David Honeycutt, Ian J. Battaglia, and Rachel Grant
An innovative product, Pro Electric Screwdriver, has just been introduced on Kickstarter. With the smart motion sensor and control system, it could be your must-have tool.
HONG KONG, May 27, 2021 (Newswire.com)
– Welcome to this fresh project, let’s jump right in. Arrowmax is excited and proud to introduce its product of the year, the SES smart control electric screwdriver. The SES has been recognised and won the Reddot award – “Innovative product” in this year 2021.
Build, repair and adjust even the tiniest DIY project effortlessly with the right amount of torque with Arrowmax SES (Smart Motion Control Electric Screwdriver).
Arrowmax Smart Motion Control Electric Screwdriver SES is equipped with a 32-bit microcomputer chip, a three-axis gyroscope and an OLED high-definition digital dynamic display. It can intelligently sense through complex and accurate algorithms.
The SES screwdriver has a comfortable, ergonomic handle; the rechargeable lithium battery (500 mAh) design increases convenience. This tool is perfect for those who enjoy precision assembly/disassembly with the desired torque.
It is understood that everyone has different needs when it comes to daily tasks. So, being able to store and use different hex bits improves productivity and quality of life. With a full spectrum of stem and bit sizes, SES is equipped with 34 different screwdriver heads to handle varying types and sizes of screws. It can be used for a wide variety of household tasks, such as disassembly and assembly of small furniture, tables and chairs, 3C products like computers, consumer electronics, communications devices; and toys, radio-control cars, unmanned aerial vehicles (drones), etc.
Each part has been vigorously tested to ensure that this product holds up under the most rigorous industrial settings. It’s a time-consuming and expensive process, but something exceptional is made that could be passed down for many generations to come. These tools and products are developed to empower people to take charge with the simple turn of a wrench or twist of a screwdriver. SES is available now on Kickstarter with special pricing and incentives. Learn more here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/209443490/ses-pro-smart-motion-control-electric-screwdriver
Santa Fe, New Mexico, October 17, 2017 (Newswire.com)
– Homeowners and gardeners know this truth: having the right yard and garden tools is an essential component in maintaining a healthy and attractive yard and garden. From pruners to shovels, garden tools help to keep plants healthy and yards looking great.
Sometimes a well-designed tool is required to efficiently weed a perennial bed or vegetable garden. Sometimes the tool you need provides a time-saving and labor-saving way to dig holes when you’re planting flower bulbs. And sometimes the right garden tool can make all the difference when pruning dead branches from a tree, or gathering and hauling off fall leaves.
Weeding gardens just got easier
Good gardeners want well-made tools that make gardening easier—and more enjoyable. Removing weeds from flower beds and vegetable gardens can be tedious, but having the right tool makes the job go much faster. A new hand tool called the CobraHead “mini” Weeder and Cultivator is the perfect tool for precision weeding in garden beds. The sharp, tempered steel blade cuts through even the toughest clay, and it makes short work of cleaning weed-choked gardens.
The CobraHead “mini” Weeder is smaller and lighter than the original CobraHead Weeder, so it’s easier to use in tight spaces. The comfortable, ergonomically designed handle (made from a mix of recycled plastic and wood fiber) fits perfectly in smaller hands, so women and seniors love it. The handle is molded around the unique blade to ensure it can never work loose. The CobraHead “mini” Weeder and Cultivator hand tool sells for $21.95 directly from the manufacturer at www.cobrahead.com.
Why dig holes– drill them instead
Fall is the perfect time to plant tulip, daffodil and other spring-flowering bulbs. Instead of digging holes for the flower bulbs you plant this fall, why not drill them with a bulb auger? A sturdy metal planting auger helps you plant more bulbs in less time with a lot less work.
The 3-inch by 7-inch bulb auger from Power Planter breaks up soil as it drills planting holes, which gives bulbs great soil contact from the start. Just drill a planting hole using the bulb auger and lift the loose dirt out with the auger. Drop a bulb into the hole, where a nice bed of loose dirt waits in the bottom. Then fill the hole with the remaining loose dirt. It’s as simple as that. The auger’s 7-inch length digs every hole to the perfect depth.
Get the Power Planter 3” x 7” bulb auger and the 2” x 7” planting auger (great for spring flower planting) together for $37.79 directly from the Power Planter online store at www.powerplanter.com, and shipping is free.
Loppers are great for fall pruning—and they make a great holiday gift
The best gardeners know a secret that beginners have yet to discover: better tools can make anyone a better gardener. A high-quality pair of loppers is a great tool when it’s time to prune a tree, trim a hardy shrub or even cut off dead canes from a favorite climbing rose.
The Fiskars Power-Lever lopper features precision-ground steel blades and durable Softgrip handles for maximum comfort and stability. The adjustable arms extend to more than three feet long, making it easier than ever to reach high branches and cut them with ease and precision.
The Power-Lever mechanism utilizes compound lever technology, which maximizes leverage and doubles the branch-cutting capabilities of regular loppers. The fully hardened steel blades are coated to resist rust and decrease friction—so it still cuts like new even after years of heavy use. These loppers, which are covered by a lifetime warranty, sell for $36.95 at www.waysidegardens.com or call 800-845-1124.
An EZ way to gather fall leaves
Raking and gathering leaves in the fall can be a back-breaking chore. Using a power leaf blower makes the job faster, but the noise and pollution created by power equipment creates its own set of problems. Homeowners looking for an easier and greener solution to fall yard cleanups now have a new, cleaner and quieter option.
The patented EZ Leaf Hauler is like a giant dustpan for leaves. It has an innovative yet simple design that makes it easy and efficient to rake away large piles of leaves. It holds four times more leaves and debris than a wheelbarrow, and it has six built-in handles for easy transport. With the EZ Leaf Hauler, just stake it, rake it, and take it away. The EZ Leaf Hauler retails for $34.99 from ezlawnandgarden.com, or call 401-339-7836 for more information.
To see more tips and ideas for a better home and garden—plus great ideas for holiday gifts, visit www.HomeGardenandHomestead.com.
What’s new and trending for Homes, Gardens and Homesteads is included in the new online guide
Press Release –
updated: Oct 3, 2017
SANTA FE, N.M., October 3, 2017 (Newswire.com)
– HomeGardenandHomestead.com has released its Fall/Holiday Season 2017 online guide to what’s new and trending for homes and gardens. New for the fall and holiday seasons are fall yard and garden tools, new varieties of indoor plants, gifts for the home, gifts for gardeners, holiday season décor, eco-friendly deer control, backyard greenhouses, homestead and ranch products, and tips for a healthy home.
Also included in the fall and holiday content on Home Garden and Homestead are informational stories about home and garden topics including “Five Terrific Trees to Plant this Fall,” from NatureHills.com, “One Good Tool Deserves Another,” from CobraHead.com, and “Natural Fungus Gnat Control,” from Summit Responsible Solutions.
The modern home is a place where a family can enjoy all of the benefits of high-speed web access and also enjoy organic herbs harvested from a backyard greenhouse. It’s an interesting melding of the old and the new.
Randall D. Schultz, Content Editor, HomeGardenandHomestead.com
“Fall is when temperatures cool off and we split our time between inside our homes and outdoors in our yards,” said Randall D. Schultz, content editor for Home, Garden and Homestead. “As the holiday season approaches, our focus turns toward making our homes festive places to celebrate the holidays and stay comfortable during winter. So our stories for fall and holidays feature lots of late-season and indoor gardening ideas, gift ideas for home and garden, and festive holiday decorating. We want Home, Garden and Homestead to serve as an online destination that brings people closer to the lifestyle they want to live.”
Featured in the new content on HomeGardenandHomestead.com are stories about new and cool products from American Meadows, Bird-X, Bison Pumps, CobraHead, Cozy Products, Exaco, EZ Lawn & Garden, Gothic Arch Greenhouses, Jackson & Perkins, Logee’s Tropical Plants, Nature Hills Nursery, Park Seed, Power Planter, Repellex, Sloggers, Summit Responsible Solutions, Wayside Gardens and more.
Information for the Digital Age
HomeGardenandHomestead.com has been called “the guide to modern living in the digital age.” The website’s content includes new and unique home and garden products ranging from tools and technology to seasonally appropriate gifts, plants and decor.
“One of the ironies of the digital age is that millions of people want to get closer to a more natural, simpler way of life,” said Schultz. “The modern home is a place where a family can enjoy all of the benefits of high-speed web access and also enjoy organic herbs harvested from a backyard greenhouse. It’s an interesting melding of the old and the new.”
Consumers are encouraged to read the information posted on the Home Garden and Homestead website and follow the links to the products that interest them. Media professionals can use Home, Garden and Homestead as an online resource where they can download editorial content and royalty-free photos. Editors, writers, producers and other media professionals can instantly download text and digital image files by simply clicking on the Media Room link at the top of the Home page and then selecting a story category from the left navigation list. All of the content on HomeGardenandHomestead.com is royalty and copyright free, and it can be used and disseminated by any editor, writer, blogger, producer or media person.
Holland, MI, June 16, 2016 (Newswire.com)
– Improvements For Your Home, a comprehensive home maintenance platform dedicated to bringing homeowners information, tips, and advice when it comes to home maintenance, is providing people nationwide with the free insight they need to develop and sustain the home of their dreams.
Borne from a passion for enabling everyday citizens to perform handy work around the house and save money, Improvements For Your Home provides ingenious insight all homeowners have been searching for.
“Knowledge is power, and having the ability to acquire and read about home maintenance tips and tricks is going to save homeowners thousands,” said Kenneth Poll, Founder and Owner of Improvements For Your Home. “Our passion is home building, and we love nothing more than providing information about leading industry tricks.”
