Vegas64

I want the Alligator Tecovas in a zip boot. I check every few weeks to see if they will drop one, but nope. They came out with a lizard. I have noticed in Texas that Tecovas has become a bro thing and I get like a dozen compliments every time I wear a pair in a professional setting.

David Epstein, author of Range, has an interesting blog I follow and I like it because it's short. He brought up a good point about Replacement Theory in his latest, I'll copy and paste it below. Worth a read: Replacement theory is a fear-stoking ideology. I’m not particularly interested in discussing that claim further. But I do wonder if an actual understanding of demographics might make it harder for one to be radicalized around this particular “theory.” At the end of this sentence, please stop reading for a moment and estimate the percentage of the U.S. population that is composed of Muslims. Take at least a few seconds to think… Seriously, just guess; nobody’s grading you. Let’s say you meant to make the three-hour drive from New York City to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (to check out the incredible Midtown Scholar Bookstore, naturally) and overshot by that magnitude, going 17 times the actual distance. You’d end up in Los Angeles. While we’re at it, what percentage of the American population is Black? Jewish? Make a guess! Again, you’re not getting graded, and according to a psychological finding known as the “generation effect,” you’ll better retain the correct information if you struggle to come up with your own answer first. Answers: I think people's awareness of the numerical context of their world has a major impact on, for example, what they’re afraid of, and how they view inequality. I’ve been in rooms of 0.1-percenters who talk about the 1% as if they’re someone else. On that note, the Ipsos study asked: “What percentage of total household wealth do you think the least wealthy 70% own?” Morning Brew (probably my favorite newsletter, alongside Eric Barker’s Barking Up the Wrong Tree) noted that replacement theory, “once a far-right fringe concept…has been increasingly cited on cable news.” According to a poll conducted in December by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, one in three American adults “believes an effort is underway to replace U.S.-born Americans with immigrants for electoral gains.” If there is such a plot afoot, it’s not going so well. According to data from the Census Bureau, immigrants make up a smaller percentage of the American population than they did in the late 19th century. Our values around not killing people obviously shouldn’t depend on how prevalent those people are. At the same time, I can’t help but wonder if these killers would be more resistant to radicalization if, while spelunking the internet, they became as curious about the numbers around them as they are about finding reasons to hate people. I think we should all strive to develop number sense for our world, especially because it’s so easy now to find basic data with a few seconds of search. Perhaps familiarizing young people with the numbers around them would also be a great thing to do in school, year after year. If you’re interested in improving your number sense, just spend a few minutes searching for a relevant number next time a news story intrigues you. Or just peruse the best website on the internet, Our World in Data. No need to be perfect with your number sense, but I think there is an urgent need to be curious.

Read this today about the ESG stuff and I think Musk probably has a point that the ESG indicies are all pretty much subjective and good for PR and that's about it: This particular ESG index, which is controlled by the S&P Dow Jones Indices, ranks companies in the S&P 500 based on criteria like whether or not they release sustainability reports, use renewable energy, pay fair wages to their employees, have ethical supply chains, and have a diverse board of directors, among other metrics. During its annual rebalancing, the S&P said Tesla didn’t make the cut for inclusion this year. Margaret Dorn, the S&P’s head of ESG indices for North America, wrote in a blog post that Tesla lacked “low carbon strategy,” amassed complaints of poor working conditions and racial discrimination in its Fremont factory, and mishandled investigations into injuries and deaths involving the car’s Autopilot feature. As part of his barrage, Musk argued that electric-vehicle leader Tesla has done “more for the environment than any company ever!” while noting that Exxon Mobil, which literally extracts oil from the ground, was rated in the top 10 for ESG. And a growing number of ESG critics think Musk has a point, arguing that the climate pledges and disclosures measured by the index lack the teeth to do anything but get them on a fancy list. For example: JPMorgan, the largest lender to the fossil-fuel industry, remains on the index this year. Same with Amazon, which has had its own spats with the National Labor Relations Board. Even influential ESG proponents are questioning whether the approach has lived up to its principles. BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, said it won’t support as many climate disclosure proposals this year because most are pretty arbitrary.

Agree 100%. If nothing else this has been a refresher to how funny and charming JD can be. Not since Nic Cage have you seen a public relations rehab so quick and fast.

Welp. Seems to be teh same thing that happened in Game 1 against PHX. No need to overreact. Rest Luka, ice his shoulder. He wasn't good today.

brutal game. Luka not playing well. Call it what it is.

I guess that is the crux of the debate. And thriving is subjective, but to your point about basic living (rent, food, etc.) that is the big debate flashpoint lately with cities like Austin today or San Francisco and Manhattan and other expensive places in the past. Historically the answer has been "sorry, live somewhere else and/or commute in when you want to be a part of the cosmopolitan crowd and scene." royiv beat me to it.

What restaurant was that? Assuming it was near AA Center?

I think I see the problem. That said, everyone is about to be in for a very rude awakening. Winter is coming. Just hang on to your job and continue doing well and when we make it out of this nasty recession that's coming, you'll be in good shape. Stock market is bludgeoning us today after a dead cat bounce earlier this week. 2K more more drop and we will be back to pre-pandemic market!

Yea but they had Bone Thugs n Harmony one year. Jewish Frat 1, Heathen Frats 0.

Gotcha, I thought the defenders hand touching the rim superseded it. But this makes sense.

Looks like a goaltend though

Is it any wonder, then, that those who have this now are fighting so hard to keep it? An argument could be made that your main job as a parent is to either endow or imbue, depending on your resources, the most and best privileged situation you can to your children.

As I read Briskettexan's posts and others who have either given up hope for our political institutions or way of life or are almost there and I read a statement by Biden yesterday in Buffalo with the families of the tragic hate crime, and I've been considering the language used. Biden said, and I'll quote him here, "“American experiment in democracy is in danger like it hasn’t been in my lifetime.” We are implicitly acknowledging that what America is trying to do, in breadth and scope and sheer complexity, is an experiment. How many times have we used or heard that word in relation to the unique American motion of integrating politics, rights, people, business, freedoms, etc.? Experiments have a reasonable expectation of failure. That is why we engage with them, to see if things work because we don't know the answer beforehand. I guess what I'm saying is, maybe we shouldn't be so surprised that our experiment might have worked when easier managed with a lower complexity of a smaller population size, a more homogenous group of people with more homogenous north star values. When opening up the aperture, our experiment might be too overloaded and fail at scale. And failure in experimentation is okay. Trial and error are necessary. After all that is why we experiment. The risk and the problem is if we fail and we don't have any Plan B's or other hypothesis to test that could be better, which I think is where the doomscrollers should focus the conversation.

14 blocked shots through 3 quarters? Block Party.

Miami defense has really come on in this 3rd quarter.

I’m generally a fan of Elon, but this is getting embarrassing: “I think it is important to be clear here that Musk is lying. The spam bots are not why he is backing away from the deal, as you can tell from the fact that the spam bots are why he did the deal. He has produced no evidence at all that Twitter’s estimates are wrong, and certainly not that they are materially wrong or made in bad faith. (Musk can only get out of the deal if Twitter's filings are wrong in a way that would cause a “material adverse effect” on Twitter, which is vanishingly unlikely.) His own supposed methodology for counting spam bots is laughable. Yesterday Twitter’s chief executive officer, Parag Agrawal, tweeted a threadexplaining in general terms how Twitter estimates that fake accounts represent fewer than 5% of its count of active users, and how this analysis can’t be easily replicated by outsiders (because they don’t know which accounts are real, and also because they don’t know which accounts Twitter counts as daily active users). It seems clear that Agrawal’s thoughtful answer is basically correct.[1] Musk responded with a poop emoji.”

I read that eminem was speechless after hearing Kendrick's new album which has me geeked to hear it.

The schadenfreude is delicious. Couldn't happen to a more unlikable and hate-able guy.

Pat Bev clearly has beef with CP3, which is fine and hilarious, but come on now Pat. You are who you are.

Pumped for this game!

This thread is wild’n out now. If you disclose “I have HIV+ and/or AIDS, still want to do this?” Then okay, caveat emptor and let your freak flag fly. Consenting adults should be free to do whatever they want morally and legally (and I understand sex work is illegal in this scenario). If there is no forthcoming disclaimer then that should criminal assault with a deadly weapon. Also the guy who used Uber as an example, what are you even talking about? The worst trick finance heads ever played on business was that EBITDA was a good metric. Charlie Munger has a funny blurb about it. Still, Uber also posted a $5.9 billion loss in the period. "We are serving multi-trillion dollar markets, but market size is irrelevant if it doesn't translate into profit," he said

Very telling of your blindspot and/or privilege that you would say “most everyone says 1950’s-1970’s” was the golden age for America. As C.K. Lewis said, “if I’m black and have a time machine I don’t want to go anywhere before 1980 at least!”. Also, I think the nature of work and industry has dramatically changed to where 1950’s-1970’s jobs and skills and what those average jobs and skills can be valued at will never the be same. Lastly, are you just unaware that a cataclysmic population event called a great world war 2, plus being stronger and richer than everyone who had to fight and have their infrastructure destroyed, along with artificial and unsustainable government intervention created the era you are longing for again? You realize it was not an organic or naturally occurring result?

Yea, a Game 7 against the #1 seed is house money for Mavs fan. I'm an anti-Suns fan. Suns hater, I guess.

Let's be honest, Mavs forcing a Game 7 after the first 2 game blowouts is a win. The fact that it's any Given Sunday and a one-game playoff means anything can happen and that's pretty cool. Worst case scenario the detestable and easy to hate Suns are forced to expend 7 games of energy and risk some injuries. Best case we get to laugh at Chris Paul and Booker for choking. House money.