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The Story of the Two Towers 📖
双塔故事 📖
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The first record of the parable commonly known as the "Blind Men and the Elephant" showed up around 2500 years ago, in a Buddhist text from India. At this point it's pretty commonly known. I assume that most folks reading this will be familiar with some variation of it.
If not, it's essentially a story about people who have limited information making assertions about something: one man grabs a tail and says, "it's like a rope," another the trunk and says, "it's like a snake," a third the leg saying, "it's like a tree," and so on. Later variations are less kind to the men, having them not simply report their findings, but fight over them. The first English translation draws a parallel to religion.
This comes to mind for me, because social media has a tendency to incentivize us to make those hard assertions, to dig in, to argue our perspective as part of a spectacle. Free and federated social media isn't structurally that different from corporate media, so the incentive models built to maximize engagement by maximizing conflict tend to leak through the similarities in the user experience and the conditioning of other platforms.
I didn't really come here to critique the fediverse, but rather to remind everyone, "no one sees the whole fucking elephant." We are limited and there are necessarily some things so big they will never be individually comprehensible. Any system that relies on us all agreeing cannot possibly respond to those big things.
We can see that concretely if we look at the difference between "democratic unity" and "diversity of tactics." In the first model, everyone either agrees or gets forced to behave as though they agree (at least on some issues). That's how liberal democracy works. Diversity of tactics (which systematically described, for example, in the "St Paul Principles"), on the other hand, let's people align on goals without needing to agree on exactly how to achieve them. The reality being that often there are multiple "correct" paths, and sometimes those paths can only work if multiple paths are taken in unison.
No one sees the whole elephant. We won't even see the elephant later. People will still be arguing about the elephant long after it's gone. But if you want to get rid of the elephant, you're gonna need to accept that you can't comprehend it all and you're gonna have to figure out a way to work together that doesn't require a unified approach.

Sources: Qualcomm is in advanced talks to acquire Modular in a transaction valuing the AI chip startup at ~$4B, up from a $1.6B valuation in September 2025 (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-22/qualcomm-is-…

At Cornell University in upstate New York, researchers are testing how a deep geothermal system can work
far from the tectonic boundaries and volcanoes that have long defined where distributing their energy is even viable.  
By tapping into the planet's internal warmth, the project, known as
"Earth Source Heat",
could supply the 2,300-acre
(931-hectare) campus in Ithaca with fossil fuel-free heat to help the university become carbon neutral by 2035.…

How geothermal energy could power US homes
Advancements in geothermal systems and sustained political support in the US provide an opportunity for this clean energy industry to scale.

"How one woman’s farm is a model for small-scale farmers in Malawi"
#Malawi #Farming

How one woman's farm is a model for small-scale farmers in Malawi
In Malawi’s Chiradzulu district, located in the southern region of the country, Diana Sitima’s farm shows how a combination of agroecology and secure land ownership can create a thriving commercial enterprise. Many neighboring farmers rely primarily on growing and selling maize. But, on her 3.5-hectare (8.6-acre) farm, Sitima combines diverse crops of fruits and vegetables […]

Sources: marketing tech startup AppsFlyer raised a $1B Series E at a $2.7B post-money valuation; Moloco, Google, Meta, and Unity acquire minority stakes (Kerry Flynn/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2026/06/22/appsflyer-billion-moloco-google-meta-unity

AppsFlyer raises $1B from Moloco, Google, Meta and Unity
Four major ad platforms are betting on independent measurement as AI reshapes digital advertising.

Our pick this week is a slice of melodeath from #TheHaloEffect ... which some could argue is essentially In Flames from the good timeline (jokes, we still love you #InFlames). No further questions, Your Honour.
Drop your suggestions in the comments and follow us for weekly picks from acro…

The Halo Effect - Shadowminds
One awesome, hand picked song from the world of rock and metal, showcased every week. Nothing more, nothing less! 🤘

Sources: marketing tech startup AppsFlyer raised a $1B Series E at a $2.7B post-money valuation; Moloco, Google, Meta, and Unity acquire minority stakes (Kerry Flynn/Axios)
https://www.axios.com/2026/06/22/appsflyer-billion-moloco-google-meta-unity

AppsFlyer raises $1B from Moloco, Google, Meta and Unity
Four major ad platforms are betting on independent measurement as AI reshapes digital advertising.

Turkiye has revoked the operational licence ⁠for ⁠a top private university with liberal values,
effectively forcing it to close in the middle of the academic year,
after the institution was seized ⁠by the state in a criminal investigation last year.
In a presidential decree, published in the Official Gazette on Friday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan revoked the operating licence for Istanbul Bilgi University,
which has an estimated 20,000 students from Turkiye and acr…

Turkiye shutters liberal Istanbul university seized in criminal probe
Council of Higher Education promised to take measures to ensure Bilgi University students ‘suffer no harm’.