The Extensions - 72023
The Extensions - 72023
No, not extinction. Extensions!
I am extending my thoughts to you once again on a Thursday. Let’s jump on in!
The Daily Rabbit Hole: The Inspector Gadget Theme Song
The theme was “inspired by Norwegian composer Edvard Greig’s piece ‘Hall of the Mountain King.”’ A song that resurfaced into millennial consciousness in The Social Network. (You see how these rabbit holes work for me?)
Extended Stay America was founded in January of 1995, and IPO’ed in December of the same year. It serves a unique purpose in the American economy which is interesting in its own right, but with how quickly it went from non-existent to trading on Wall Street it left me wondering who holds the title of “fastest to boom.”
Intrepid Potash Inc - yes that is a real company name - provides minerals for agricultural purposes and it took all of 5 months from incorporation to IPO. However, if you feel as if you may have missed the boat on a rocket ship (I love mixing metaphors) then fear not.
If you had invested $1000 into the ticker symbol IPI at the time of the IPO in April of 2008, you would be holding a truly remarkable $51.60 in 2023.
That’s down 94.86% all time. For additional context, that same $1000 invested into Apple in April of 2008 would now be $33,533.04. As if you needed another reminder to have invested in Apple in the early iPhone era.
The ‘Wait, What?’ Vortex: Google Chrome has between 176,608 and 188,620 extensions.
About ~31,000 of these are categorized as “fun.” I’m not sure what that means and my search reached a dead end, so … does that mean there are 31,000 extensions that could be making my Internet consumption more fun? I’m guessing no.
Phone extensions …
I recently saw a clip on Twitter of Marshall Mathers (Eminem for the older crowd) making a surprise appearance during an Ed Sheeran concert. A fun moment to be sure, but something else caught my eye. In the immediate moments following the crowd reaching a fever pitch, the number of phones being whipped out and held up to document the occurrence was astonishing.
I don’t know what about this specific moment made me realize this, as it isn’t the first time in the last few years that something like this happened, but our phones are already an extension of us. We haven’t even mastered the ability to put the technology into glasses or wearable contacts let alone our brains, and yet what these devices do have become a part of being human in industrialized society.
I’m not really sure what to do with that, but I needed others to participate in my existential crisis du jour.