phdhorn

I'd drive to a cliffside and jump off, but I can't afford the gas anymore.

Whoo-HOO! Great 4-digit dive! What's that I see down the road? Full-blown RECESSION!!

While Musk has been outspoken about his desire to see political balance come to Twitter, I don't think he's going to seriously re-structure the business model, as he doesn't have to. And in fact, his #1 goal isn't political - but rather technical/autocratic: Musk has been critical of Twitter’s failure to crack down on automated accounts – describing the bots earlier this month as the “single most annoying problem” on the platform. The billionaire also slammed the bot problem during his recent appearance at a TED conference in Vancouver. “A top priority I would have is eliminating the spam and scam bots and the bot armies that are on Twitter,” Musk said during the event. “They make the product much worse. If I had a Dogecoin for every crypto scam I saw, we’d have 100 billion Dogecoin.” https://nypost.com/2022/04/22/elon-musk-plots-twitter-changes-defeat-the-spam-bots-or-die-trying/ Two other points: 1) Musk is an exceptional "engineerish" person - Bachelors' both in Economics and Physics, PhD work at the UPenn (before he "dropped out" to become an entrepreneur). I think he knows social media platforms a lot more than people think. 2) His vision for Twitter I think isn't merely political - it's true exchange, free of any "diarrhea" of auto-shit and over-regulation. I think he knows those fields well, both from a technical perspective, and most of all now, from 20+ years of real experience. Five years ago the world was watching Tesla's problems and waiting for the final shoe to drop on it. But Musk made shrewd changes on the fly, and now it's without question the leading paradigm-changing auto company much as Apple was in the early 2000's with tech. I think he'll leave alone what isn't broken (which is probably the 80% of people on Twitter who don't post nor give any shits about politics) and streamline it and get rid of as much stink as possible. If this is his aim, I'm all for it. Edit: Just for fun I looked it up again, and according to this 2021 (May) Pew Research poll, only 9% of Twitter users identify themselves as "Often" political posters. Of the remaining 91%, 40% say "never," 30% say "rarely," and 20% say "sometimes." And - surprise - political posts are made more by Repubs than Dems. Anyway, the overwhelming majority of Twitter users do.not.care. about politics. And if you use the "movers and shakers" argument (i.e. influence), that doesn't scour at all into the company's bottom line. Musk is concerned first with finances, not politics. I think Musk's desire for Twitter is to be a true communal exchange, beyond politics, as very few Twitter subscribers post about, or give any shits, about politics (maybe people aren't so dumb after all!).

Well, if your metric of opinon shows is a baseline, not much at all. Most of those channels can't get a million at night. Reruns of F-Troop are doing better.

He does know his shit in financials. He knew that he had a huge bonus rider with Tesla that's about to release. From the Financial Times (behind paywall; also, bolded mine): The margin loan to fund a Twitter bid requires a pledge of nearly 59m Tesla shares, or about 85 per cent of Musk’s total stake. His remaining unpledged stock is worth about $25bn at current prices so if sold, and allowing for an overhang discount, there would be just enough to cover the cash component of the offer. It’s a big ask. But such calculations ignore a big event looming in the Muskonomy: the final payout from Tesla’s 2018 bonus scheme. Musk’s last awards will unlock shortly, assuming board approval, and will carry a five-year selling lockup. Each of the three tranches due Musk give him the right to buy 8.4m Tesla shares at $70, a more than 99 per cent discount to the prevailing market level. So, based on a $1,061 share price at pixel time, Musk could buy Tesla stock worth $25.4bn for about $588m. Factor in those shares and the margin loan financing looks a bit less onerous. He's got this. Not sure if even this will get him past it but he also has a Plan D from what I understand.

If Warner Bros/Discovery can steer it back to actual news if they have indicated, CNN itself might actually have a chance to last a little longer than those Nikes as well.

I understand your reference, but I still think more of this: Dumbest ideas since New Coke. Planned in the heady days of idiot/sexual abuser Jeff Zucker's higher ratings 2-3 years ago. But news network streaming is success-proof, and today CNN couldn't draw enough people to occupy a Yugo. Throwing the fact that streaming itself is about to take a huge dump because people are sick of paying five different accounts for crap they never watch, just like cable in the last cycle. Netflix out front should have told ya, and Disney+ is at its peak according to a number of market analysts I've seen lately. Couldn't have happened to a more appropriate bunch of idiots.

Add the fact that desalinization is one of the most polluting, environmentally disruptive things you can do, both in energy/waste needed to work the process, and even more the aftermath - what do you do with the filtrates? None of these are necessarily permanent roadblocks to doing it, but the technology has to be greatly improved to account for it. No way in this life or the next a desalinization plant using seawater would be feasible on a large scale, but possibly a Texas-only (or for any locale of a much smaller size) could be developed. The great majority of desals work with brackish water, which is far less expensive and wasteful to de-salt than seawater. Probably the most successful one in the States serves San Diego and the lower Cal coast. But it's only a portion and is pretty expensive (look up property values in SD). L.A. is never going to be able to do it with current technology, at least more than an adjunct source - 100 years later, they're still getting their water the way they did in the Gilded Age - enormously long water duct systems from the north. I think the most reasonable solution is to build a de-sal plant down on the coast and pipe it as far as municipal water sites in the large cities, and let them do the rest. But not sure it would work after a certain distance. The reason you hear about successful projects like most of Israel and some places in that locale are simple - the distances involved and scope of the de-sal (i.e. # of people served) is small (Israel e.g. has about 6m people). Some day, something will happen to change this I think, but for now, probably not gonna happen over more than a municipal or small regional scale.

So, which is it gonna be this year? OR

Not to mention, pertaining to either of the dipshits in that cartoon above where it came from:

dubble post, site's fault, not mine

I couldn't agree more. I've been 3 times (all DisneyWorld/Epcot), once as a kid, once on a H.S. trip (way too much fun ifyaknowwhudImean), and once as a chaperone to a youth group. But never with the family, though, and not since the mid-80's when it was somewhat managable. And thank god. In the old old days it was kind of fun, but tickets weren't fifty bejillion dollars and lines so long the Last Judgment seems like a walk-thru by comparison. And nowadays you need to get into line to get into the line to save time over getting into the line. My kids never wanted to go, and were marginally into Disney stuff, but not overly so. And to me DW is a glorified amusement park - at 10 times the cost. Worst fucking place to take a family IMHO. It's one thing to go yourself maybe as an older kid, but holy shit, no way I'd ever want to go with the brood. Nope. Never. I think I'll leave extra in my will for my kids not wanting to drag me there.

We are not fooked. Very good chance of rain esp. on Monday. Good rain. You mean the summer? Oh, of course we're probably fooked. I'm jes' talkin' bout next week.

The site is double dealing. Borkish.

Boy, you can say that again! This is slightly cooler and rainier than predicted. I actually have puddles on my patio and driveway. Time to build an ark.

Boy, you can say that again! This is slightly cooler and tainier than predicted. I actually have puddles on my patio and driveway. Time to build an ark.

What? No April 19 posts? Koresh ('93) and McVeigh ('95) would haz disappoint - if they weren't deadized.

Yes but only at the North location, and by the night shift.

Why? You're going to hear that the quarterbacks were throwing pinpoint lasers, the receivers were moving faster than the speed of sound, and the defense was graphite solid. And that even though a few small things have to come together, this team just looks like it could be the one too make noise around New Year's. Everybody's going to be ecstatic. You know, like they have the last 11 years after the game.

For those into drought discussion (which I am, oh I guess a little bit, maybe), pretty good articles in lake Travis/Westlake Community Impact this week. I think well worth the read. https://communityimpact.com/austin/lake-travis-westlake/environment/2022/04/14/climatologist-says-future-megadrought-could-harm-lake-travis-area/ I'd have a lot more to say on the upcoming summer but I'll skip it - for now.

From that crucial staple of important news, the Sun... too ripe for easy jokes, so I'll just get to the point (pun intended, check out the chart): American men’s penises are only the 59th biggest in the world, study finds – beaten by Haitians, Australians & French Chris Bradford David Jarvis 4:49 ET, Apr 18 2022 Updated: 12:38 ET, Apr 18 2022 AMERICAN men’s penises are only the 59th biggest in the world, a study reveals The average length of 5.35 inches is shorter than their Haitian, French, and Aussie counterparts" American men have shorter penises than their French and Australian counterparts, a survey reveals But the US ranks above the UK, according to the poll The poll, of 86 nations, revealed that French men’s genitals are 6.20 inches in length, while Australia ranks 43rd at 5.6 Men in Haiti have an average penis size of 6.30 inches when erect, according to the data.' Ecuadorian men apparently have the biggest penises, at an average of 6.93 inches, while the smallest can be found in Cambodia at just 3.95 inches long when erect. Men in the US narrowly beat those in the UK as the average size recorded was 5.17 inches. https://www.the-sun.com/news/5145341/american-men-penis-size-beaten-by-australians-french/

Yeah, he traded in about 3-4 great years pre-Perkins years (# of years (we think) he was fucking around on wifey) for 12 (relatively) bad post-skank"coulda-shoulda been" ones, with one major win and cutting off his exceptional play. Only the recent car market has seen worse tradeoffs. No way, no how, was it worth it. Sounds like the skanks got the better end of that deal.

I hear you. A Tele is of course unique and historically a cultural icon. And it got hella popular in the 50's as "country dudes" found you could play Old Style but then this Great New Rock And Roll stuff. That said, it looks like it was done by a designer who had to satisfy both his buddies and his wife (and mother-in-law) and it sort of meanders to wherever. Mostly it just seems kinda small for me (6'3"). To some degree the knob bar just seems to be hammered on as an afterthought... just kinda plunks straight down, more or less disregarding the shape or any relationship to it. But of course time heals all wounds and now it's such a standard that it defines guitars, esp. electrics, which Fender wanted to look as "un"-like the archtops and acoustics of the time. I have a Strat (because I love the less bulky neck and the particular bright sound that so much defines it) and the Gretsch I just bought (because it's big and pretty and man kicks ass on thick-but-not-muddy power chords!). That said, no one here sanely would ever try to argue the Tele soundwise is lacking to anything like it, nor that the GOAT's don't play a lot of stuff on them - nor that it might be the most diverse solid body ever. I'd probably never opt for one but not wanting one personally doesn't equal appreciating it. Oh, anyone interested, really nice '54 original Tele for (well, relatively) cheap on Reverb. Seems like a great price (well that shipping is OUTRAGEOUS!):

Wisely, you cite. A new Surly motto, my candidate for. This secret, guard well, and far you shall go.

Semantics and Wordles bullshit notwithstanding, "person of interest" has now changed to "suspect." Oh, that and the sun rose in the east this a.m. https://abc7ny.com/brooklyn-subway-shooting-frank-james-sunset-park-new-york/11743662/ On Wednesday morning, Mayor Eric Adams said James was no longer just a person of interest and would be considered the suspect and a wanted fugitive going forward.