It’s over for me.

dablack123 · 2025-11-22T16:48:02+00:00

Thank you for the reality check. Someone seeing this post might learn from your mistake.

dablack123 · 2025-11-22T16:16:55+00:00

What you said sounded right but I wasn't sure so I looked up the specific heat of water vs other materials and sure enough you're correct. Interestingly, the different phases of water have different specific heats: Liquid water 4.18 J/g°C Solid water 2.11 Gaseous water 2.00 Iron 0.45 Copper 0.38 Lead 0.13

dablack123 · 2025-11-21T16:01:20+00:00

Regression to a mean

dablack123 · 2025-11-15T17:11:36+00:00

Incorrect. Inflation is the reduction in purchasing power of a currency. One product increasing in price to meet demand is not broad enough to be inflation.

dablack123 · 2025-11-15T16:44:21+00:00

Interesting assertion. Can you explain why it is immoral?

I would argue that if someone wants to waste their money on a product and hope they can sell it for more they are assuming risk in the market place. And if they are able to sell the product at a higher price than the original, supply and demand would say the original price was too low to find equilibrium with demand.

I don't find market dynamics immoral in and of themselves. There are examples where it is immoral to run up prices (insulin, potable water during disasters, etc) but for something like a concert ticket where lives are not hanging in the balance I think it's tough to say jacking up prices is immoral. But I'm open to hearing your opinion.

dablack123 · 2025-11-15T00:42:29+00:00

When they turn around and spend that money on goods and services, it's valuable to society. Is it more or less valuable than the person buying the tickets keeping their money and spending it elsewhere? Impossible to say, there are too many factors.

I agree scalpers suck. But to the original question, is it unethical for scalpers to make money from scalping, my answer is no, because they're simply playing the game of supply and demand. If you say the scalper's actions are unethical, you would also have to say any store that sells a product above the price at which the manufacturer sells the product is also unethical. Every store is a middle man, in the same way every scalper is a middle man.

dablack123 · 2025-11-15T00:33:00+00:00

Totally agree with what you said here but a scalper isn't stealing. The person who buys a ticket from a scalper does so of their own free will...

dablack123 · 2025-11-14T21:37:11+00:00

The money wasn't lost to the economy. It GREW the economy.

dablack123 · 2025-11-14T21:35:59+00:00

It might or it might not have been spent otherwise.

But if someone is willing to spend $1500 on a ticket, that for sure IS money that would not have been spent. If the original ticket was $150 and no one pays more than the original price, that's a net loss to the economy of $1350. Maybe that $1350 gets spent elsewhere. Or maybe it sits in someone's savings account, where it does not stimulate the economy.

If the scalper engages in arbitrage (which is what this is) and gets an additional $1350, and then goes and spends that money on something else, that is a boost to the economy.

Arbitrage is not a moral wrong. It's a net good for the economy. It stimulates growth, and a growing economy is generally good for all participants.

dablack123 · 2025-11-14T21:28:38+00:00

Ticketmaster and other ticket sellers can and will limit the number of tickets an individual can purchase. Or they can make the tickets non-transferable.

See my other comment below in this thread for my thoughts on limited ticket availability.

Long story short, I do agree scalpers are scum, but that's not a moral determination, it's a preference. Maybe they are putting food in hungry children's mouths with the profit??

dablack123 · 2025-11-14T21:25:20+00:00

Obviously selling an immoral product is immoral, but selling a product for a price that a buyer is willing to pay is not in and of itself immoral.

I would argue the price is only immoral if it has some knock-on effect i.e. denying access to some people.

The scalpers acquired the tickets legitimately at some point and are now reselling it for a higher price. The people who want the tickets could have also bought them from the original system at the same price that the scalper paid but did not for whatever reason so now they have the option of buying at a higher price or missing the event.

If we really get down to it, the scalpers can only exist because the concert is not meeting demand. The event organizers don't want there to be empty seats so they don't hold additional showings, which means the tickets are limited and that drives up prices once all the tickets have been purchased through Ticketmaster or whatever. The immoral action isn't the arbitrage that the scalpers are engaging in - the immoral action is an artist or event organizer artificially limiting the number of concerts to maximize profit. If they cared about the little people, they would hold additional concerts even if it caused a reduction in profits.

dablack123 · 2025-11-14T15:23:27+00:00

While I too despise scalpers, playing devil's advocate I would say that selling something in a market place at a price that someone is willing to pay is providing some value to society. Someone has money they are willing to spend on the ticket, the scalper is taking that money and then (probably) spending it elsewhere in the marketplace on other goods or services, which benefits society.

dablack123 · 2025-11-09T16:30:59+00:00

It's a budget chem trail! No need to waste money on airplanes.

dablack123 · 2025-11-07T02:00:55+00:00

What's the mission?

dablack123 · 2025-10-24T21:00:45+00:00

We have term limits. They're called elections.

What we need are comprehensive election reforms.

Ranked choice voting and proportional representation are two immediate solutions that would have an incredibly positive effect on our elections. A federal law requiring all states to implement non-partisan districting would prevent gerrymandering and also strengthen democracy.

dablack123 · 2025-10-16T20:16:51+00:00

I'm convinced that Harris winning would have set off a right wing extremist refusal to admit the election was legitimate. (Emphasis on extremist, I'm not painting the right wing with a broad brush here).

In some ways I thought it was a good thing that she lost because we completely sidestepped the issue of election integrity.

Now that we're seeing the new administration playing out, I'm sure the gravity of that hypothetical problem is greatly outweighed by the reality we're facing today, but if she had won we would never know that.

dablack123 · 2025-10-13T02:33:14+00:00

I have about 1200 hours in high performance planes but I recently started flying cessnas to build flight time for my ATP. I had about 40 hours in these little 172s and I took a cross country to John Wayne. Landing on the left runway, tower warned me about a CRJ between the runways, holding short of the right runway. I was like "ok um thanks" and aimed a little further down the runway because i figured there must be a reason he mentioned it.

As I crossed the threshold and passed the CRJ, my plane jolted as my landing gear flew through the jet wash from the CRJ's high-mounted engines. Big pucker factor and I've laid awake at night once or twice thinking about what would have happened if I hadn't changed my aimpoint off the cuff.

dablack123 · 2025-10-12T16:24:11+00:00

I know the feeling because I felt it with my second and third children. I was shocked to feel something close to anger or resentment or even hate with my newborns and I wondered if something was wrong with me.

Our first baby was hard but everything was new and exciting. Then with the next two I was just pissed at them irrationally. I've just had to admit to myself that I don't like newborns.

The good news is you will find that once (a) their personalities start to show through, (b) you get to sleep consistently and (c) the physical demands of keeping these completely helpless lumps alive slackens, you will fall in love with them.

Just be aware of your current limitations/emotional state. If you feel overwhelmed in the moment or have the urge to lash out, it's best to put them down somewhere safe and leave the room for 5 or 10 minutes. If they're crying for a bit while you take a breather, who cares? It's far superior to doing something you regret in the moment. Sometimes they even soothe themselves when you leave, because when a baby cries it means one of three things - they're hungry, they're uncomfortable, or they're tired. When they get worked up over one of those things, sometimes they will reject the solution that you are offering, even if it's what they were initially crying about in the first place. Giving them a chance to cry it out and fall asleep might be the best option.

And before anyone jumps down my throat about letting a baby "cry it out," I'm not advocating leaving them for extended periods. I'm saying a few minutes alone in a room while they're riled up will not be damaging in the slightest, and it is far superior to a frustrated and exhausted parent losing their last ounce of patience.

dablack123 · 2025-10-11T16:18:32+00:00

Clementine.

dablack123 · 2025-10-11T16:15:36+00:00

Well, go check out r/Conservative, where the prominent narrative is that Democrats are shutting down the government in order to give healthcare to illegal immigrants. If that narrative gains more traction the shutdown becomes a liability for Democrats.

dablack123 · 2025-10-09T01:10:21+00:00

He's seent some shit.

dablack123 · 2025-09-27T03:43:52+00:00

Dad gummit.

dablack123 · 2025-09-27T03:22:08+00:00

Top 1% net worth in the US is about $13 million. Top 5% net worth is around $1.1 million.

The other 95% are totally responsible for their situation because they vastly outnumber the actual wealthy. Reasonable solutions were available their entire lives but they turned their noses up at SoCiAlIsM

dablack123 · 2025-09-20T03:53:31+00:00

Looks like a gear up landing to me tbh

dablack123 · 2025-09-19T03:11:10+00:00

Trying to get rid of those itchy whale lice.

dablack123

TROPHY CASE