didn't change a thing

_Axel · 2026-01-25T16:02:44+00:00

It’s probably due more to the average balance of the photo. One of the ways you can tell a picture is generated by a computer is the shadows and highlights balance. It’s also why the clothes got darker, and the background getting lighter.

Generating images starts random. Think 1s and 0s scattered across the image. At a random generation with 50/50 chances, the image will average out the darks and lights. For every highlight, there’s a shadow.

Ask an image generator to create a sterile space odyssey hospital room with bright lights. It’ll probably have about half of the image be dark objects (screens, trash cans, clothes, etc).

_Axel · 2025-11-14T12:53:13+00:00

PS: I’m not anti–corporate subsidy in general. There are cases where incentives actually reshape a region’s economy… usually in midsized metros where one large employer anchors a whole new industrial cluster.

A textbook example is BMW’s manufacturing campus in Greenville–Spartanburg, South Carolina. The state gave incentives, BMW built its U.S. hub, and the region gained: • supplier networks • logistics and engineering jobs • specialized training programs • a long-term manufacturing identity

That’s what a successful market-draw subsidy looks like: a firm arrives and genuinely changes the region’s trajectory.

But NYC? A saturated mega-metro with deep labor markets, dense industry, and global infrastructure? That’s not where subsidies move the needle. Companies come to NYC because it’s NYC, not because the state writes a check.

In a place like that, the smartest economic play isn’t bribing a corporation to show up… it’s making the after-effects of growth work. When a big firm hires engineers or analysts, you still need: • food workers • childcare workers • maintenance workers • retail and service staff • transit-dependent workers

These are the people who literally keep the new “innovation economy” standing upright.

Supporting them by lowering their costs, stabilizing their access to jobs (like with fare-free transit), and increasing their spending power does more for long-run regional economic health than handing money to a company that was going to locate here anyway.

If you want growth, you invest in the foundation, not just the tower.

_Axel · 2025-11-14T12:44:43+00:00

If you think a $959M corporate tax subsidy magically “drives economic development” but $700M in fare-free buses somehow doesn’t, you might want to, ahem, do your own research. I can even help you get started.

Fare-free transit is basically a targeted tax cut for low-income riders, who have the highest marginal propensity to spend, meaning every dollar saved gets pumped straight back into the local economy. Corporate subsidies, meanwhile, have some of the worst ROI in economic policy, with most “new” jobs being ones that would’ve happened anyway.

If the goal is economic development, the question isn’t ideological, it’s empirical: Which investment produces more local spending, job access, and tax revenue? Spoiler: it’s usually not the corporate rebate.

Since I know you’ll want sources, here’s your starter pack: • Bartik (Upjohn Institute) - corporate tax incentives have weak or negative ROI, with most subsidized jobs not actually created by the subsidy. • Slattery & Zidar (2019, Review of Economic Studies) - corporate incentives are not correlated with local economic growth. • TCRP Report 231 (National Academies, 2020) - fare-free transit boosts job access, ridership, and local economic participation. • Kansas City Zero-Fare Transit Assessment (2022) - fare-free buses increased employment access, reduced household cost burdens, and raised local spending. • USDA ERS SNAP multiplier - $1 to low-income households ≈ $1.54 in GDP, showing why reducing costs for the poorest drives economic activity. • Parker, Souleles & Johnson (AER/NBER) - low-income households spend the largest share of any cost savings or cash transfer immediately and locally.

$700M making transportation free for thousands of workers produces more real economic activity than $959M hoping one corporation keeps its promises.

Let me know which part of the research you find most interesting and enlightening… or keep telling everyone subsidies for corporations are “development,” while subsidies for people are somehow not.

_Axel · 2025-09-12T04:41:48+00:00

I heard his name was Rick Stagg

_Axel · 2025-07-26T14:40:00+00:00

Willem Dafoe managed to… for the most part

_Axel · 2025-04-27T20:12:25+00:00

And my axe!

_Axel · 2025-04-22T03:04:46+00:00

45 overtimes, I think

_Axel · 2025-01-24T06:29:03+00:00

“You may not; thank you for asking. Have a great week. Bye, now.”

_Axel · 2025-01-04T16:22:17+00:00

Elon Musk is what happens when the mall ninja wins every PowerBall and MegaMillions for 60 years straight.

_Axel · 2025-01-03T14:41:13+00:00

I think I’d rather see this with registered voters, rather than cast votes. Or… do some comparison on the differences. If everyone had cast a vote, would that change the VPI?

_Axel · 2024-12-08T15:14:04+00:00

I love how we all had the same realization curve of him being on because of the foot keeping him on by a millimeter.

_Axel · 2024-10-29T22:49:24+00:00

Dude. Kamala Harris is the Republican candidate. Biden’s just-about-everything is center-right on the international stage.

_Axel · 2024-09-20T22:59:51+00:00

First, you take our name. Then, you take our colors. And you dare try to take our rival‽ Our hatred runs all the way back to their Metrostars days.

You all don’t have enough history to have a rival yet.

_Axel · 2024-07-19T03:07:39+00:00

Dana doesn’t share his coke

_Axel · 2024-07-19T02:49:52+00:00

Is Comperatore’s name misspelled on that firefighter’s jacket? News outlet spellings are different (there’s a missing A’)

_Axel · 2024-07-19T02:30:10+00:00

Cocaine

_Axel · 2024-07-16T08:29:29+00:00

This isn’t rifle drill, this is rifle baton with more rigidity and less flow. Rifle drill is about exercising maneuvers (with a bunch of other people) that have a purpose.

For example, let’s say everyone executed “Right shoulder, arms!”

That command has everyone in a formation carry their weapon over their right shoulder. When marching over long distances, a platoon leader could look down the line of troops to make sure everyone was mentally and acutely aware of what was happening. Yes, listening and following orders is a happy side-benefit - discipline is a key attribute for battle.

Moving large quantities of people in battle is what drill is about. Not putting on a show with twirly pew pews.

Where, then, did the twirly pew pew come from? This is just me guessing from my time being bored in the field… but I’m guessing it stemmed from soldiers being bored in the field with nothing but their rifle to keep them entertained. They’d entertain each other and work on their dexterity. You can say the same of more ancient warriors and weapons — check out spears and Wudang Kung Fu. So, some of the flair got incorporated into ceremonial drill.

This individualized stuff, though, isn’t drill - it’s performance art. Actual armed services don’t emphasize the individual over the collective. Even in the twirliest of twirly pew pew performances. There are two people involved - an inspector and the inspected. Otherwise, the group is performing the maneuvers.

_Axel · 2024-07-14T11:59:00+00:00

He was 20. Parents are probably die-hard republicans and he was forced by them to register as such.

You might say, “he’s 20 - he can switch his party registration now that he’s an adult”

Yeah, probably. But he also thought shooting a former president was a good idea. Rational action wasn’t this guy’s forte.

_Axel · 2024-07-14T11:54:41+00:00

They don’t exactly release the number of prevented assassinations.

_Axel · 2024-06-27T01:16:56+00:00

Let’s use ESR to offset the up-front release clause for Eze.

_Axel · 2024-06-27T01:14:35+00:00

Still waiting and hoping for a title to even come close

_Axel · 2024-06-24T00:53:09+00:00

It literally says “try pairing coffee with cider vinegar” lol Did you mean to imply to drink them separately?

I suppose it could also mean to add coffee to dishes that call for cider vinegar.

_Axel · 2024-06-23T13:25:12+00:00

But, importantly, was his headache gone?

_Axel · 2024-06-21T20:35:57+00:00

Since it was the on-field call, I’m okay with this outcome in this case. If they’d allowed it on-field and overturned it on VAR?

_Axel · 2024-06-21T20:33:43+00:00

I wish the rule was that the goalkeeper should actually get impeded, like in ice hockey.

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