Titanic never sank

+ The secret Wu-Tang album

August 30, 2024

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OVERWORLD:
-The story of the secret Wu-Tang album keeps unfolding-

ONE BETWEEN:
-Yelp vs. Google is getting spicy-

THE DEPTHS:
-Conspiracy theory — the Titanic never sank-

“Haste makes waste.”
Benjamin Franklin

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✦DISCOVERY PICKS✦

Once upon a time

The story of the secret Wu-Tang album keeps unfolding

PleasrDAO, the decentralized digital organization, is embroiled in a legal battle with Martin Shkreli over the rare Wu-Tang Clan album, Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.

Here’s what’s going on:

What is it? Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is an artifact, a critique of the digital age's devaluation of music. The album was presented in a two-CD set housed in a custom-made nickel and silver box, complete with a 174-page leather-bound book containing lyrics and production anecdotes.

Bought: When it released, Shkreli bought the single copy album in 2015 for $2 million. But he lost it. In March 2018, after Shkreli's conviction for securities fraud, a federal court seized assets belonging to him, including Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.

Confiscated, then bought: In 2021 PleasrDAO spent for $4.75 million to acquire the album from an intermediary who had acquired it from the government and created a non-fungible token (NFT) to represent ownership of the physical album, with the 74 members of the DAO sharing collective ownership.

Plot twist: Now, the DAO discovered that their "one of a kind" acquisition was less unique than they had hoped. Shkreli had made multiple copies of the album. Shkreli recently claimed that he had "burned the album and sent it to like, 50 different chicks"—and that this had been extremely good for his sex life.

Treasure spread: In June 2022, Shkreli played tracks from the album on his YouTube channel, brazenly claiming that he had hidden MP3 copies "in safes all around the world." Shkreli even boasted about sharing the album with "over 5000 people" and hosted listening parties on his X account.

PleasrDAO responded by suing Shkreli, accusing him of violating the asset forfeiture order and misappropriating trade secrets. Shkreli, however, argues that he was within his rights to make copies before the album was seized, as he held partial copyrights.

Now, a federal judge issued an injunction preventing Shkreli from disseminating any copies and ordered him to turn over all existing copies by the end of September 2024. The case remains ongoing as both parties prepare for further legal battles.

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✦QUICK HITS✦

✦Business & Tech✦

The mover moves: Nvidia beat Wall Street expectations for Q2 with strong earnings and revenue, but shares fell 8% post-report. Revenue surged 122% year-over-year, driven by AI demand. Nvidia approved $50 billion in share buybacks.

Also: Global chip stocks fell as Nvidia's strong Q2 earnings failed to meet traders' high expectations for growth. Key suppliers, including SK Hynix and Samsung, saw significant losses, while European chipmakers gained.

OpenAI is raising a funding round led by Thrive Capital at a $100 billion valuation, up from $80 billion earlier this year. They're also testing a new search engine, SearchGPT.

Huh: Apparently, some Israeli Google ads have been propagated to discredit the UN agency UNRWA by linking it to Hamas. Despite Israeli efforts, UNRWA USA's fundraising surged amid the Gaza crisis, though they faced challenges in Google's ad auctions.

✦Fashion & Culture✦

Pink phone: HMD launched a Barbie-branded flip phone with no internet or social media, targeting the Gen Z "digital detox" trend. Priced at £99 in the UK, a U.S. release is planned soon.

Kanye’s former Malibu home is getting bought by a California startup for under $22 million, planning $5 million in renovations to restore the Tadao Ando-designed property after West’s controversial modifications. The residence was originally purchased in 2021 for $57.3 million.

✦Hmm… Interesting✦

Cool copywriting: Marketing to Engineers

ONE

BETWEEN

Search wars

Yelp vs. Google is getting spicy

If you didn't know, Yelp fucking hates Google.

And if you didn't know what Yelp is, it's a where people review local businesses and services worldwide.

Anyway, just filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google. This stings extra bad because Google is now also fighting a federal court ruling that declared Google an illegal monopolist.

Point: Yelp's lawsuit accuses Google of maintaining its monopoly in local search services by prioritizing its own local search results over those of competitors. Basically, those reviews you get of coffee shops and restaurants are often Google's

Problem: This, Yelp says, stifles competition and diminshes the quality of local search services. Yelp argues that Google's practice of directing users from its general search results to its own local search vertical is illegal tying of products, effectively preventing rival services from gaining traction.

Price: The lawsuit seeks not only to halt Google's alleged anticompetitive practices but also demands damages. Big money. Yelp's decision to pursue legal action was influenced by the recent victory of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in its antitrust case against Google, which challenged the company’s exclusionary practices related to the distribution of search services.

Obviously, Google has dismissed Yelp's claims, with a spokesperson stating that similar accusations have been previously rejected by the Federal Trade Commission and by the judge in the DOJ’s case. Google plans to appeal the ruling related to other aspects of the DOJ case.

THE DEPTHS

Tinfoil

Conspiracy theory — the Titanic never sank.

People don’t know this, but the Titanic had two sisters. All three ocean liners built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast. The other two were the RMS Olympic and RMS Britannic.

And here’s a conspiracy:

The Olympic also crashed, twice. One of those was a collision with the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Hawke, and it caused severe structural damage.

So, the Olympic became the subject of a controversial theory that it was secretly swapped with the Titanic in a bid to recover financial losses through an insurance scam.

The two ships were pretty much identical;  the disguise would mean simply swapping a few nameplates and plaques. Meaning, the Olympic was the ship that sank in the Atlantic.

Why? They didn’t want to repair it. Repairs were insanely expensive, like millions of pounds. The White Star Line was already facing a potential financial disaster. Building a new ship would further fuck shit up.

This theory, popularized by Robin Gardiner in his 1998 book Titanic: The Ship That Never Sank?, suggests that White Star Line, facing financial ruin, switched the identities of the two ships.

The argument lies partly in the flawed design of the portholes, the unevenly spaced windows, and a reported list to port observed on the Titanic—traits more characteristic of the already damaged Olympic.

Rumors among the Titanic's crew and last-minute cancellations by prominent passengers, including the ship's owner, J.P. Morgan, also fuels speculation.

Skeptics argue that the differences between the two ships were too significant to conceal. Also, the Titanic’s identification number was found throughout the wreckage.

But it’s just a theory. The “Olympic” continued to serve for years after the Titanic disaster, with no evidence emerging to support the idea that it was the Titanic in disguise.