Why Elon Musk has suddenly gone ballistic on Twitter
San Francisco, June 4: From attacking media to criticising nanotechnology researchers, SpaceX Founder and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has made Twitter his new battleground, mostly replying to users rather than sharing original posts.
According to a Quartz report, Musk has steadily moved away from original posts and retweets to engaging with other Twitter users.
"In May, almost 80 per cent of Musk's Twitter interactions consisted of replies rather than original posts or retweets," said the report on Sunday.
Over the last two months, Musk's tweeting has quadrupled, surging to nearly 400 in May.
"Prior to this month, his average tweets per month was 88 going back to September 2015 (median 84). Something is clearly different, and it's not just the sheer number of tweets," the report noted.
The time Musk devotes to online disagreements "has expanded dramatically".
Amid all his firing tweets, Musk has been highly critical of media, and has even floated an idea of creating a media credibility rating website called "PravDuh!"
"The holier-than-thou hypocrisy of big media companies who lay claim to the truth, but publish only enough to sugarcoat the lie, is why the public no longer respects them," Musk tweeted recently.
Reacting to a user, Musk said last week that he would love to roll out Tesla cars in India but the tough government regulations have forced him to apply the brakes on his India plans till date.
"Would love to be in India. Some challenging government regulations, unfortunately," Musk tweeted in a response to a Twitter user who wrote "No Tesla in India" to him.
"Deepak Ahuja, our CFO, is from India. Tesla will be there as soon as he believes we should," added Musk, who has been talking about bringing Tesla cars to India for some time.
Although he has garnered more followers -- from 21.6 million to 21.9 million -- in May, the public's appetite for his new combativeness may be waning, said the report.
"While the average popularity of each tweet should naturally decline as the number of posts rises (and more are buried as replies), the drop has been precipitous, starting a few months before Musk's latest outbursts. Despite far more followers, his tweets are attracting fewer fans," the report added.
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England sticking with Key, McCullum and Stokes despite Ashes humbling
London (AP): England is not sacking anybody following the 4-1 Ashes loss in Australia.
A review of the tour by the England and Wales Cricket Board, announced within hours of the final match in January, was concluded on Monday. Firing people would “be the easy thing to do,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said but he insisted, "This is not the time to throw everything out."
Managing director Rob Key, coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes kept their jobs after the best England side to go to Australia in 14 years lost the Ashes in 11 days with two games to spare.
“Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That's not the route that we're going to take,” Gould said. “I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward.”
Gould previously was the chief executive of Bristol City soccer club and said the ECB would not follow the same route as soccer's hire-and-fire culture.
“Cricket is a very unique sport in that it takes a team of leadership ... it's not like football where there's a single point of failure or success with a manager," he said. He added the ECB would not “select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign.”
The main criticisms of England's tour were poor preparation, player misbehavior, and selection mistakes.
At a press conference at Lord's, Gould and Key said McCullum and Stokes have not had a “bust up,” they did not want McCullum to “completely change” but “to evolve,” the behavior of some players was “unprofessional,” there will be more consequences for underperforming, and a commitment to “better long-term planning” ahead of major test series.
Some changes were already implemented for the Twenty20 World Cup, where England reached the semifinals. Gould implied that performance saved McCullum.
Key acknowledged that England supporters would be disappointed to see the management team go unpunished.
“I know people want punishment and that people then should be sacked for that,” Key said. “That doesn't mean we don't feel like we've gone through some serious pain: Brendon, myself, Ben. It's been as tough a time as I think I've had.”
