ZDL

joined 10 months ago
[–] ZDL@ttrpg.network 3 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

This will be an unusual challenge for you. I'm intrigued which angle you'll try to guess my age from.

[–] ZDL@ttrpg.network 1 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

I learned it from ancient Orkney technology called "sauna". 😉

[–] ZDL@ttrpg.network 1 points 16 hours ago

What it does is trigger your parasympathetic nervous system (or maybe the sympathetic, I always lose track of which does what). And yes, that makes blood vessels constrict and dilate and I just find that it enervates me and makes me feel really good.

I'll try taking a shot after such a shower and report back. 🤣

[–] ZDL@ttrpg.network 2 points 16 hours ago

Yeah, I got it because the price was incredibly low, so if it's usable at all it's a bonus.

And it's actually very usable. I just think the gold chrome plastic pieces are a bit naff.

But for $1.40? HELL yeah! I'm in.

[–] ZDL@ttrpg.network 10 points 1 day ago (5 children)

I have a shower as warm as I can to open all my pores and clean them out.

Then I slam the water all the way to the coldest possible and force myself to stay under it for two minutes.

That's a huge wake-up call.

[–] ZDL@ttrpg.network 12 points 1 day ago

There are several problems with this report.

The Line Doesn't Go Up

As others have pointed out, this implies that Tesla (and to a significantly lesser extent his other enterprises) continues its valuation increase at the current rate. This is not going to happen. Indeed looking just at this graph should show that this is unlikely:

The 2024-09-16 close isn't even the highest of the past 52 weeks, not to mention the highest of all time (which is c. 2021-11-05). (It isn't even the highest close of the past 30 days—or of even the past 5 days!) It is, in fact, 55-56% of the all-time high, and that was almost three years ago.

And the pattern of its financials will prevent that line from going up:

See, most investors invest not because they're cult members (like the fanboi day traders Apartheid Manchild grifts so well) but because they expect to see ROI. And the fundamentals of Tesla are not showing ROI potential.

So the line isn't pointing up.

Stock Valuation Is Fantasy

And on top of this, this is all "paper wealth". All of the Manchild's stocks and five bucks buys you a small coffee at Starbucks. To actually buy more than that small coffee at Starbucks (ideally without an extra five bucks handed to him) the Manchild would have to cash in those stocks. And when he starts selling stock, the stock value will drop. The more he sells, the faster it will drop. That stock bonanza he has is not cash and its valuation is purest fantasy. It's points for score-keeping, not something you can actually spend.

Basically the only thing you can spend are "liquid assets" and most of Apartheid Manchild's assets are not liquid (which is why he had to borrow to buy Xhitter). Attempting to liquidate them will drop their value like a concussed bee.

Apartheid Manchild is a Moron

Apartheid Manchild is not the Tony Stark of Real Life like he seems to think he is. He is a guy who started rich and fell upwards. His most valuable company is not one he founded. It's one he paid for the right to be called the founder of. He didn't invent electric cars. He didn't invent reusable rockets. He didn't invent much of anything, in fact. He has 29 patents to his name. Compare and contrast with James Dyson¹ and his almost 550 patents. The most cited of his patents (with 202 citations) would be #10 on Dyson's list of influential patents. How about a more recognizable name: Sergey Brin at 141 patents.

And when you look at Apartheid Manchild's actual patents, the 9 that are actually currently active (9 have expired, and 10 are pending) are singularly unimpressive for such a "world class genius". Again Dyson will eat his lunch for sheer volume of practical patents, as will Brin (who himself looks like a playing toddler next to Dyson).

Yet if you listen to the Manchild, he is the leading expert on everything that Trump isn't the leading expert on. He's the leading expert on logistics (says the man who has chronic supply problems). On manufacturing (says the man whose cars frequently have major quality issues). On electric cars (says the man whose cars are beginning to look positively quaint next to the competition's). On robotics. On AI. On rockets. On ...

And he's not an expert in anything. Except falling upward in a system whose feedback loops guarantee that once you crack a certain level of cash you fall upward.

This is unsustainable, and once it stops sustaining, his net worth will fall like so many wealthy idiots before him. The higher he sails on the crack of his quisling's praise, the harder and faster his inevitable fall will be.

Apartheid Manchild is His Own Worst Enemy

As a special case of being a moron, a few years back Apartheid Manchild was something that you could kind of find adorable if you had a certain personality type. He seemed like the bumbling nerd made good. Further his fiction of the self-made billionaire tackling the Big Names with gumption and talent is the kind of stuff the American (Opium) Dream is made of. If he'd kept his mouth shut and kept himself out of the spotlight he might not be in the pickle he's found himself in now.

But he has too large an ego for that, and a serious grudge against the world to nurse.

So instead he mouthed off on Twitter. Then he trapped himself into having to buy Twitter for waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much. Then he turned Twitter into an echo chamber to amplify his real personality.

And his real personality is repugnant to most people.

He is damaging the Tesla brand. He is damaging the SpaceX brand despite the herculean efforts of Shotwell and co. He has a long string of business failures behind him that are making people think he isn't the genius he claims to be. And all of this is going to negatively impact his wealth.

So he won't ever be a trillionaire.


¹ Who? Exactly my point.

 

I already showed one of mine, but here's another. This is a 莫兰迪 (Mòlándí) brand and it's ... ah ... decidedly inexpensive. Everything you see in this picture (the brush with suction reservoir, 50 ink cartridges, ten copybook pages for calligraphy practice) cost the equivalent of about $1.40.

After shipping.

That being said, though cheap, the only part that's chintzy is the really badly plated plastic of the brush mount and the little plated plastic disks top and bottom. The cap and barrel are decent metal with fairly good what seems to be electrostatic vapour deposition coloration. (I chose "champagne" coloured.) Disappointingly, though the barrel is long enough for it, something inside of it prevents putting a spare ink cartridge inside of it. It will only hold one.

It has one advantage over the linked one, however: it's long enough that I can use the standard grip for Chinese calligraphy making it a perfect practice pen to carry with me. (Carrying a traditional pen and an inkstone is not practical.) This means I'm likely to start learning how to do it soon.

[–] ZDL@ttrpg.network 6 points 4 days ago

I'd reward you with an elephant ear sandwich for this joke, but I'm fresh out of those giant buns.

[–] ZDL@ttrpg.network 1 points 5 days ago

That's the one!

[–] ZDL@ttrpg.network 4 points 5 days ago (3 children)

I found an '80s show that I somehow completely missed: "Sledge Hammer!" I don't know how I missed this show, but I've binged it now.

[–] ZDL@ttrpg.network 4 points 6 days ago (1 children)

It hasn't dripped yet, and I haven't used it enough to answer that fraying question.

[–] ZDL@ttrpg.network 5 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] ZDL@ttrpg.network 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

I'm in China, so I'd be using it for Chinese calligraphy. When I get around to learning it.

 

I've had this one for a while, but am looking to get some more because the entire concept tickles me pink.

 

For me it was "Hollyhock God" from Nobilis.

Why do game designers do this? Does anybody, anywhere, actually use these weird terms while actually playing?

 

…because they take everything literally.

1
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by ZDL@ttrpg.network to c/fuck_ai@lemmy.world
 

The funniest line from social media:

"Maybe it's because we don't need a computer to automate mansplaining when there's already an excess supply produced by men," answers one woman.

 

This is a Pixelfed post for further information. TL;DR summary: Wooden barrels with machined brass section adapters and caps.

 

...that I didn't Nintendo.

 

Just in case that URL doesn't replicate the session properly I've added a screenshot of the session to the end.

A few things are obvious here. First the choice to trumpet the "strengths" of degenerative AI while qualifying the weaknesses is clearly a choice made in the programming of the system. In later interactions it claims that this was not specifically programmed into it but, as it says, it's a black box and there's no way to confirm nor deny anything it claims.

Which is, you know, pretty much the reason why degenerative AI can't be trusted.

 

Can't they afford the real stuff?

 

It's 5050.

 

Up until now I thought he was only a theoretical physicist!

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