HamsterHookah

So where were you when Exxon lost an historic $20 billion dollars (article from 8 quarters ago, as I mentioned: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/pandemic-pushes-exxon-historic-annual-loss-20-bln-cut-shale-value-2021-02-02/)? Were you offering to pay double for gas to be a good guy and take on some of the loss? Why not if you expect a business to do so for you out of hand (and not because there are advantageous reasons for doing so, like positive customer brand and loyalty, etc.)

I just read that. I hope there is some investigation going on right now because this seems like a super entertaining and interesting long con plot by a clever group, be it animal rights or anarchists' or animal traffickers. Someone needs to write the story and sell it to netflix

In the case of the covid vaccination: 1) I did take it. I took it because historically it is an extremely low percentage that die from vax complications. However, these are vaccinations that are created using more traditional and time-honored approaches (thus more understanding of short, medium and long term effects and issues) and that have been around for a while. That said, I still figured I'd rather keep my job and the odds are low that I'd one of the ones drawing the short straw. But I still know someone, somewhere will be drawing a short straw. 2) Blindly taking it because it was rushed to market and there wasn't a lot of time that lapsed from creation->trials->wide public consumption. The blindly adjective meaning not being able to see with your own eyes a public response over time but trusting what institutions are saying (Government, Pharma companies, etc.). edit to add: I don't mean blindly as a necessarily bad thing (though I personally view it as a negative), just a description of how there wasn't visibility.

In a lot of businesses that are cyclical (and a lot of commodities) it is because these "boom times" make up for the "bust times" when organizations break even or lose money when looking at the longer term business model and timelines. Think of the Oil & Gas industry for example. I find it funny that people begrudge a company like Chevron/Exxon for making record profits and passing on costs instead of being patriots and taking lower profits because they can afford it right now, but were not offering to pay more for gas when it was cheaper and Chevron/Exxon were losing billions just a handful of fiscal quarters ago. Human beings are emotional creatures and don't realize or don't like that good business, while being lawful and ethical and fair, is not emotional.

Vaccine Injury is a real thing (and the DoJ has a compensation program: https://www.justice.gov/civil/vicp) It's baked into the formulas and data models and there is an acceptable % that will be tolerated, as with anything within a law of large numbers. Nothing is 100% safe. That is why it's pretty weird when people act hostile to those who don't want to just blindly take new vaccines created in a rush, especially if they are in a low-risk profile (e.g. your risk of being vaccine injured is higher than dying of Covid, in this case if you are a young, active, healthy person). Especially when the companies that created the vaccines waive any legal responsibility to any adverse effects or issues that can happen to you (e.g. you can't sue Pfizer if your loved one draws a short straw and is one of the extremely low percentage of people who die from vaccine complications). Edit to add: for clarity, I personally did take the two doses of the vaccination as mandated by my employer, gambling that the probability is in my favor that I would not have complications. That said I have empathy for those who made a different, personal decision.

Intel is in a free fall man. And at the risk of turning Google thread into an Intel thread, but I know @TwiceHorn will appreciate the topic:

Buy the dip'; midweek we will announce a .25 increase which will get everyone excited to buy because it's nearing the end of having to do this crap.

Yep and good for those who were able to come up on the come up!

The route was 870 miles long and the capsule is smaller than a penny. But what it lacks in size, the capsule makes up for in radiation. Containing the radioactive isotope cesium-137, the capsule emits the equivalent of 10 X-rays in an hour. Contact could cause burns, radiation sickness, and skin damage, and prolonged exposure could lead to cancer. So, what’s it even used for? Mining companies deploy these capsules as sensors to calculate things like the thickness of pipes. The mining company that managed to lose this capsule, industry giant Rio Tinto, apologized and said it was launching an investigation into the perplexing circumstances of how this tiny object fell off a truck.

I know we've talked a lot the last couple of years, mostly laughing at, the iBuyers and how they lost and folded, but I read this today and I think it might put our perennial sourpuss friend Captainant in a good mood to read about the man taking it on the chin here. This is a funny story we can all get behind and enjoy: Bolded the parts that I think will make captainant smile.

I meant I hope you weren't paying an arm and a leg for tuition at a clearly inferior and insufficient private school. That would be worse than a bad free education, probably. I have just started using Miro boards myself, now that you say that, at work and like it a lot!

I am fascinated by the economics of the industry and movies and I think we've all read famous case studies of movies that completely bomb (Too many to name) or nearly bankrupt studios (Fantasia) and maybe even have heard of the ones that come out of nowhere and make a ton of money (Blair Witch Project). More recently Cameron was quoted as saying Avatar 2 needed to make $2bn globally to make a profit, which is absurd (and it did). I was reading a blurb about this small budget film. https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt21307994/ Filmed for $15,000 budget I think I read and it's at a $1.8mm box office. 1200x return. Amazing story. I love to see it. But the reality is that with streaming, studios aren't going to greenlight as many films as they will movies, as Scorsese would say.

Your experience is interesting, but it's just that-- your experience. Specifically, your private school sounds like it sucks bad and you were right to get out and go to a better school. Sounds like it worked out fantastic for your kiddo and you are a proud papa! I, too, have had kids in the West Plano (Ohio/Tulane is where we lived) school district and I was pretty disappointed. The private schools we look at go above and beyond what you described you had to do supplementary at home-- I hope you weren't paying an arm and leg for that "privilege" to have to teach your kids basic stuff. Beyond office 365 proficiency (creating decks in ppt/google and spreadsheets), my middle school kids were tasked with learning new software like Canva and Figma which I thought were cool because they were teaching me new things. YMMV

Sorry. Yea it was from an email newsletter and I don't click into them for links usually but here you go, from NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/30/us/memphis-officer-suspended-tyre-nichols.html

Here is actually breaking and factual update information:

He's from Gunspoint after all.

So anyways, Kellen Moore is now the OC for the LA Chargers. Let's see what that means for him and/or Herbert.

Dang, I'm kinda getting excited about the Texas Rangers this year. This is a feeling I haven't had in like 5 years....

Fair enough. LA Rams being 4-12 this year is a miserable experience for fans, but they have the Super Bowl season of last year to keep them warm. I think Cowboys nation would buy 5 years of being 4-12 for one Super Bowl season after 28 years, so I can get on board.

Do you think they could work deals and do things because they have more capital to play with? I ask without having gone to spotrac or sporting news to see the eagles salary cap and money they had available last off season, but assume it goes back to what we've been saying: they have a rookie deal QB so they can flexibly add to a myriad of other positions. We have Dak on a huge contract and so our secondary was swiss cheese.

Probably not the most responsible thing to spread unsubstantiated rumors, right? At least provide some sort of link or source.

What is being reported this morning (from the Dallas Morning News, literally reported this morning) is this below. I guess revisionist history for damage control? When the offensive coordinator’s job opened up at the end of the 2018 season, Prescott lobbied for Moore to get the job. McCarthy had never worked with Moore when he took over as the Cowboys’ head coach in January 2020. Moore wasn’t part of the same coaching tree, yet McCarthy made the decision to keep him on as offensive coordinator. Why? Chris Petersen was Moore’s college coach. McCarthy remembered how highly Petersen thought of Moore as a player and his football mind coming out of Boise State. McCarthy also saw how Prescott had developed from his rookie season and quickly recognized the bond the quarterback had forged with Moore. When he sat down and spoke with Moore, he was convinced it was best for the Cowboys for Moore to stay. “I thought it was clearly the best thing for Dak, and this is what I’ve been telling Dak when we talk football,’’ McCarthy said after taking over as the Cowboys’ coach. “This is his offense. I want him to have the same offense his whole career.’’

This would be concerning for me as well. I know a lot of people are content to outsource and let the public/government raise and develop their kids, but that is too much influence and control. My kids are encouraged to email their teachers with questions on assignments or grades or what have you's, but the mandate is that the parent is CC'ed on every email a teacher and student engage with. That should be the norm as children are minors. On the other hand, I can see it from the public school educators POV as well. They are underpaid and overworked with a mixed bag of children on a variety of different personalities and behaviors with a mixed bag of positive/negative parenting and home influence. They can't be 1x1 with every student's parents and even if they wanted they have their hands tied by administration and resource constraints. Parents wanting more from a public school is like going to McDonald's and expecting a nice steak and a server who knows the wine list and is there to maximize your experience. At some point you have to be realistic and set your expectations correctly or vote with your feet. And at the risk of sounding like someone stumping for private schools-- trust me private schools have their own warts and suck too. There is no such thing as a perfect school unless you have the unlimited resources and the superhuman ability to homeschool.

My point is the Cowboys have needed to look at rebuilding differently. Instead of being scared to scar the fan base or lose forecasted revenue which would hurt the valuation of the team and the net worth of the owners, the Cowboys needed to strategically tank. That's the point, because it seems like trying to win it all with an above average team built organically is a fool's errand that has a ceiling of a good regular season and mediocre playoff run, usually one and done. This is what the data says of the Cowboys for the last 3 decades, not just my opinion today. It seems like you have to give yourself a chip and a chair to get the top 10 draft pick to even be in the game. The alternative is to have an average/above-average QB like Dak and you have to mortgage the entire future by building via FA and having no draft capital in the future (e.g. LA Rams selling their organization's soul for the Super Bowl last year). And even then it's a razors edge of luck/officiating-- I think LA Rams won 3 playoff games (Divisional, Championship and Super Bowl) by a total of 9 points (3 points each).