Comments by mark94 (page 20)

The best TV show to portray modern politics was “ Yes, Minister”. We are controlled by entrenched, self serving, bureaucrats.

Vatican City

Carl Jung said that every patient he had over the age of 40 had a fear of death as a root cause of their psychological problems.

Yes, I’ve gotten alerts from my phone

When I lived in England in the 1980s, The Times and The Economist were reliably conservative. Now, I consider them both to be woke, politically correct, elitist, big government supporting publications. I think fiscal conservatism and individual freedom no longer has a voice in the UK. The Conservative Party is no longer conservative. As a result, there is no context for understanding the populism represented by Trump unless you are old enough to have experienced Margaret Thatcher. I miss Maggie.

The concept of Left and Right is Kabuki theater. There is the Uni-party and the People. Everyone in Washington is part of a corrupt system that gorges on the wealth of regular working people while it tries to control them. Everyone who is in on the grift looks out for each other and protects the system. That’s why no one in Washington ever goes to jail.

Over the last 50 years, the majority of extreme poverty has been eliminated worldwide. We’ve also added lots of billionaires. Capitalism and the free market is responsible for both thos things. Billions of people no longer face starvation. Plus, a handful of people have billions. Is that a bad thing ?

The Las Vegas stratosphere casino used to have a museum of historical objects. The casino owner explained that if you put the word “ purported” in the item description, you could claim anything you wanted about the item.

FDR believed in Keynesian Modern Monetary Theory even before it had a name. The idea that all government spending leads to economic growth and is, therefore, always smart. We now know this theory is utter horseshit.

Under FDR, the federal government grew in ways never envisioned ( or allowed ) by the Constitution. Today, about 70% of government spending is income redistribution. That can all be traced back to FDR. Additionally, the growth of government in the 1930s delayed the economic recovery by a decade. If FDR had allowed natural economic forces to operate, the Depression would have lasted 2-3 years.

It can still be fun getting $10 dances but many of the dancers ramp up pressure for VIP after a couple floor dances. I’ve noticed BSC is more crowded, and HL less crowded, lately.

A young guy in my company had his bachelor party at a friends house. Strippers, etc. They found out the homeowner used a hidden camera to record it. They should have hung him.

Dissension, not dissection 😊

Some people delight in using information to harm others. I’ve got a couple people in my extended family who use gossip to cause dissection among family members. Maybe it makes them feel powerful. More likely, they just want others to be as miserable as they are. People like that are truly toxic.

As a general rule, no. But, for exceptional service, yes.

Years ago, I was told by a friend in LV that you should assume everyone you meet there is trying to rip you off. Everyone has a con for getting your money. That’s just the culture and the type of people who are drawn to the Strip. The suburbs might be normal but there is a creepy vibe associated with gaming and other entertainment.

Do you plug a tracking device into your OBD port on the car ? If so, I’ve seen claims that harms the car mechanically.

Chicago schools will now allow illegal migrant children to enroll in schools without any health records. American students will still require over 16 different shots before they can enroll. What could possibly go wrong ?

AI can absorb all the research from a scientific field then use it. For example, it can already be used for cancer diagnosis and treatment, identifying what treatment is best in each individual case. The same approach would work for any technical field. A human cannot keep track of every bit of research in a technical field. A computer now can. Think about the implications of that. A computer could absorb the knowledge of engineering and architecture, then design a skyscraper with blueprints, materials list, and construction schedule. It could even manage the construction. This doesn’t exist now, but there is sufficient computing power so it could. It’s just a matter of giving AI access to the data. There are a thousand different ways AI can be used. In each case, the first company to implement that will dominate its industry. The race is on.

This is the article from 2021 that first opened my eyes to what artificial intelligence could do. In fact, is already doing. Breakthroughs in science and medicine that were unimaginable a few years ago. Companies that don’t embrace this will be left in the dust. https://www.science.org/content/article/breakthrough-2021#section_breakthrough

The interview Elon had with the WSJ a couple days ago was both informative and entertaining. He firmly believes that AI will change our world dramatically and it will be noticeable in 5 years, not 50. Maybe it’s all bullshit, but I’m starting to believe it. If he is right, then the stocks that are involved with AI will outperform everything else. And, a lot of companies may not survive. I think the NVidia stock price jump is a sign that some people are listening.

The magic words this week/month are “ artificial intelligence”. If you can get your company associated with those words, the stock will pop.

There are clubs in South Korea, so I read, where you pay to have long make out sessions with college age girls. Nothing else happens ( usually ).

Most baby strippers are timid until they learn the ropes. Occasionally, you get one who just assumes DFKs are required and standard until she learns otherwise. Hasn’t happened to me in a long time, but it has happened.

I agree. It seems like all dancers walk through clubs along the same path in the same direction ( clockwise or counterclockwise ). The best seats are those where it’s easy to establish eye contact and dancers have easy access. They also prefer the back of the club so, when they get rejected, others don’t see that. The exception to the rule is when they are confident they will get a yes. In those cases, they make a beeline for the customer. I suspect that dancers who understand where the dead zones are could have a better hit ratio by doing the opposite of everyone else ( that’s a Seinfeld reference ).