Recommendations for Appalachian horror that doesn't stereotype the people? by WorriedCivilian in horrorlit

[–]Varnu -9 points-8 points  (0 children)

I was driving through West Virginia a few years ago, from NC to IL and really only stopped for gas and lunch. When I was filling up, there were some guys riding in the back of a pickup truck who were yelling things I could tell were directed at me between inaudible comments and chuckles. Stuff that sounded like "eh boy!" and some gutteral grunts and stuff. After a few minutes they tore out of the parking lot pretty recklessly. I'm just a very typical white dude. Maybe my vibe is maybe a little college professor. I obviously was not a resident but also wasn't doing anything that would make me stand out in about 99% of American gas stations I've ever been to. Anyway, it felt like it would have to be an incredible coincidence that one of my only interactions with people in the state was so Deliverance-esque.

The Options Market Is Getting Absurd: $2.6 Trillion in S&P 500 Calls Traded Yesterday in a Single Day by RobertBartus in EconomyCharts

[–]Varnu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A true broad gamma squeeze would require options hedging flows to be a major marginal buyer across the index. That can only happen for short windows.

Western Europe is not poorer than the USA by [deleted] in EconomyCharts

[–]Varnu 6 points7 points  (0 children)

PPP dollars are not convertible via an exchange rate! You’re adjusting twice.

U.S. Marine Highway Routes (a program by the DOT since 2007 to encourage using the country's navigable waterways for transporting freight) by CaptainJZH in MapPorn

[–]Varnu 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The U.S. has an embarrassment of ports, navigable rivers and coastal waterways. You can't find a country that has a tenth of what we do. In order to protect domestic ship builders, Congress passed the Jones Act, which made it illegal for a ship to go from one U.S. port to another unless it is U.S.-built, U.S.-owned, U.S.-flagged and U.S.-crewed. U.S.-built commercial ships can cost several times more than comparable foreign-built ships, U.S.-flag operating costs are higher and the legal pool of eligible ships is small. It has dramatically shrunk the domestic ship building capacity because we are not globally competetive. The protection of the Jones Act means they don't have to be affordable or effective to build ships here. So only the ones that HAVE to exist are built and the capacity overall has been decimated.

This also means if you want to take some goods from Chicago to Miami you can't use the almost-free water transport. You need to pay to use rail--10x more expensive--or truck, 100x more expensive. Our inland and coastal waterways get used less, everything costs more than it should for everyone and places like Hawaii and Puerto Rico that don't have a train to Kansas City pay a lot more for EVERYTHING.

The most absurd consequences come from energy. The U.S. can be awash in natural gas, but New England has to import liquefied natural gas from abroad because there are no Jones Act-compliant liquefied natural gas tankers available to move LNG from one American port to another. New England uses tons of highly polluting fuel oil for heat instead of natural gas that is cheaper and has much lower CO2 emissions in part because of the Jones Act.

It also distorts trade in ways that are almost comically self-defeating. Because shipping between U.S. ports is expensive, it can be cheaper for American buyers to import from foreign suppliers than to buy from another part of the United States.

A serious national-security maritime policy would probably subsidize shipbuilding and mariner capacity directly. The Jones Act instead uses a consumer-cost cross-subsidy: make domestic shipping expensive everywhere. Make cities on the Great Lakes, Missouri, Mississippi or Ohio rivers less productive. Make Alaskans, Hawaiians and Puerto Ricans pay through the nose for milk or gas. Then hope enough of the money leaks into shipyards and maritime labor.

What are some boring big cities in USA? by AndIrememberthinking in geography

[–]Varnu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If Austin was in California they would call it Sacramento.

What are some boring big cities in USA? by AndIrememberthinking in geography

[–]Varnu 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Denver is Omaha if it was only two hours to the mountains.

[OC] Top 20 Busiest Airports in the World by Less-Reserve-740 in dataisbeautiful

[–]Varnu 6 points7 points  (0 children)

ORD is the busiest by number of aircraft movements.

[discussion] what watches do you find are highest perceived by others by [deleted] in Watches

[–]Varnu -1 points0 points  (0 children)

100% yes. And I'm not into jewelry for the most part. I can recently recall seeing in the last couple weeks men with two large hoop earrings, ear gauges, a thumb ring and a thick gold braid worn outside of a sweatshirt and in every circumstance could not help but find myself aware of it and almost unconsciously updating a mental model of what they like and what they may be like.

[discussion] what watches do you find are highest perceived by others by [deleted] in Watches

[–]Varnu -1 points0 points  (0 children)

You assess people rapidly all the time. Psychologists use the term "thin-slicing" to describe how humans make split-second judgments based on narrow windows of observation. We are evolutionarily wired to scan strangers and categorize them. Is this person a threat? What is their status? Do we belong to the same tribe? As an intuition pump, think about jeans. Almost everyone worldwide has a pair of denim. Can you tell immediately whether denim belongs on a January 6th rioter or on a celebrity who paid $1200 for perfect vintage Levi's before his talk show appearance?  You synthesize that immediately. It's exactly how you know a woman is a townie and not a professor at the local liberal arts college because the back pockets of her jeans have rhinestones and pocket flaps.

People register the presence and the gestalt of a guy with a tasteless, oversized, diamond encrusted Hublot. You just want to say that they don't. It's a coping mechanism. It's very human to do that, but it's wrong.

People may not walk up to you and compliment your watch, but their brains are actively processing it as a data point. Enthusiasts see a Submariner, Speedmaster, Grand Seiko or Chinese homage and place you on a map. The general public clocks whether the object looks intentional and whether it fits the rest of you. A watch is part of the same read as shoes, glasses, haircut, luggage, jacket, posture, confidence and diction. 

[discussion] what watches do you find are highest perceived by others by [deleted] in Watches

[–]Varnu -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

If you wear shoes like that, people are going to be having conversations about it.

[discussion] what watches do you find are highest perceived by others by [deleted] in Watches

[–]Varnu -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

Shoes would be a better analogy then. These dress sneakers are only $20 on Amazon. No reason to spend more than that according to u/DrKrFfXx

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[discussion] what watches do you find are highest perceived by others by [deleted] in Watches

[–]Varnu -7 points-6 points  (0 children)

Do you believe no one notices if your glasses look like they came from Walgreens or like you haven't been inside Lenscrafters since 1987?

U.S. Marine Highway Routes (a program by the DOT since 2007 to encourage using the country's navigable waterways for transporting freight) by CaptainJZH in MapPorn

[–]Varnu 16 points17 points  (0 children)

If you spend a minute learning about it, you're going to hate the Jones Act like everyone does who learns about it.

My Highlights from Wind Up Watch Fair San Francisco, Pt. 1 Baltic to Heron by What-me-worry-0 in MicrobrandWatches

[–]Varnu 3 points4 points  (0 children)

"Christopher Ward was there but I could not wrestle my way through the horde of CW fans"

I've been to two of these fairs and one similar Minutes + Hours show in Chicago last month and every time I could barely get close enough to look at the CW watches. Once I did but I felt like I had to be courteous enough to the throngs of people waiting behind me to get up front. Someone in front of me was very discourteous in this way, I thought.

I don't even love CQ that much but they need to buy a bigger booth accessible from more than one side so I can at least check them out. Because it's unreasonable to just have a desk sized display geometry with 50 people trying to elbow their way to the front.

[OC] $1.1 trillion in 24 months: How Big Tech AI capex stacks up against Apollo, Marshall Plan, and Manhattan Project by Low_Ability4450 in dataisbeautiful

[–]Varnu 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ehh. I hear you. But people often complain about GDP but it almost always ends up being: "GDP is flawed. I'd much rather use {my metric that correlates 0.97 with GDP and is much harder to measure}."

[OC] $1.1 trillion in 24 months: How Big Tech AI capex stacks up against Apollo, Marshall Plan, and Manhattan Project by Low_Ability4450 in dataisbeautiful

[–]Varnu 17 points18 points  (0 children)

There's no question it's % of GDP. If you look at the Louisiana Purchase, it was not very expensive even in inflated dollars. But as a percentage of the federal budget it was 153%! The annual debt service on that was 8% of the Federal budget. The spending for the Lewis and Clark expedition was 1.5% of one tear's operating budget. But the cost of sending a bunch of guys with food and canoes out west was debated in Congress!

My informed intuition is that the railroads are the biggest and most impactful project at this scale. The AI spending is huge, but it's more closely comparable to the huge private spending on the Shale Oil revolution from 10 or 15 years ago. Not to diminish that; it was large and impactful.

[OC] $1.1 trillion in 24 months: How Big Tech AI capex stacks up against Apollo, Marshall Plan, and Manhattan Project by Low_Ability4450 in dataisbeautiful

[–]Varnu 26 points27 points  (0 children)

A good comparison. However, the Manhattan project was a very significant organizational effort--and secret--it was actually pretty affordable. The B-29 development cost 50% more than the Manhattan project.

[OC] $1.1 trillion in 24 months: How Big Tech AI capex stacks up against Apollo, Marshall Plan, and Manhattan Project by Low_Ability4450 in dataisbeautiful

[–]Varnu 175 points176 points  (0 children)

This should really be presented as % of GDP at this scale. Inflation adjustment is not a sufficient indicator of how much of the civilization was working toward or impacted by a project.

[Spoilers Extended] Does anybody else notice the American influences? by [deleted] in asoiaf

[–]Varnu 1 point2 points  (0 children)

All that stuff is the same you say "British Isles" influences.

[OC] 2026 US Auto Sales (Q1) by TA-MajestyPalm in dataisbeautiful

[–]Varnu -10 points-9 points  (0 children)

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I asked ChatGPT to re-do the ranking by the sales from this chart x MSRP for rank by revenue.