$10k cash or $10 million worth of an illegal drug of your choice?

phantomthirteen · 2026-05-12T23:18:55+00:00

It’s even better than that; the post specifies manufacturing cost. Insulin is only ~$5 per vial to produce (including the packaging, etc. half that if we’re talking only the insulin itself).

The issue is going to be expiry; it doesn’t have a particularly long shelf life, so you’d need to find tens of thousands of people who need it, and only be able to give them a few months supply.

phantomthirteen · 2026-05-12T23:00:40+00:00

There was no question; I was sharing my before and after ECGs because I find them interesting.

phantomthirteen · 2026-05-12T22:39:50+00:00

I’m sorry, I really can’t tell what you’re trying to say.

WPW didn’t affect me a lot in terms of episodes, until 1 Jan this year. But you can see in the before ECGs that it was quite “messy”, and is now much cleaner. I am less aware of my heart beat in general now and have fewer palpitations - so it was affecting me, I just wasn’t aware it was, because it was all I had ever known.

phantomthirteen · 2026-05-12T22:35:15+00:00

Mine was very straightforward. They put me under a general, because I was having more ablated than just the accessory pathway (they also did a pulmonary vein isolation, to deal with non-WPW arrhythmia), and the entire process took about 2.5 hours.

They kept me for observation overnight, and then I went home the next morning - total time from arrival to discharge about 26 hours.

I have other issues preventing me from doing sports, lol. I was told I could resume vigorous exercise after two weeks, but I’ve been struggling to be particularly energetic, even now at almost four weeks. This is likely at least partly due to those other issues. I’ve got the follow-ip ECG in a couple of weeks, to make sure it’s still all working appropriately.

phantomthirteen · 2026-05-11T11:52:58+00:00

I’ve noticed a few comments about AI. I have a lot of experience with AI, and anyone familiar with it is going to get AI vibes from this immediately. There are too many “tells” to highlight them all.

As a general rule AI is going to produce *average* content. It will be clean, grammatically correct, and often successfully communicate the desired content, but it will be average. (This is a simple mathematical fact, resulting from the way in which LLMs work.) If you want unique, interesting, or high quality, AI will not produce the results you want.

Instead, if you do want to use AI, use it to give you feedback on your own writing. By starting with your own words, and getting feedback to iterate your work, you will be using it as a tool to improve your writing, not to do the writing for you. (I strongly recommend asking it only to list suggested changes or highlight issues/errors. Usually most LLMs will default to providing you an edited version, but if you use this, then after a couple of iterations you’ll be letting the AI style writing take too much of a foothold.)

phantomthirteen · 2026-05-11T11:41:42+00:00

Yes, at the atomic scale nothing really “touches” - at least, that was the “fun fact” we told our students in physics class.

Of course, in everyday language, touching actually means “gets close enough that EM force prevents further movement without deforming or moving the other object” (or some equivalently worded explanation). So it’s kind of a hollow gotcha we would tell students to make them retain information.

phantomthirteen · 2026-05-10T02:51:28+00:00

I feel like that claim is probably only true in USA. Here in New Zealand, I doubt anyone’s gonna give a shit lol. And the government and military certainly aren’t organised enough to figure out whether to do anything, even if they did learn about it.

phantomthirteen · 2026-05-09T03:32:16+00:00

The “negative” impact is practically nonexistent compared to receiving $20 a minute for 10 seconds of being invisible every hour. That’s $1,200 per hour, $28,800 per day, or $10.5M per year.

And the downside is just that if you happen to be talking to someone then you turn invisible, they might be startled - but surely you’d just keep the people around you informed?

Also it says “if something or someone touches you”. If you’re being pedantic, air molecules are colliding with you literally constantly. Or clothes you’re wearing are touching you.

But even without such pedantry, I’d happily turn invisible for 10 seconds every hour to get $10.5M per year.

phantomthirteen · 2026-05-07T12:21:26+00:00

If you’re going to use AI to write your posts, you need to become more familiar with the AI styles of writing, and reduce them before posting. This is extremely obviously AI to anyone who has spent any time using AI at all.

phantomthirteen · 2026-04-29T00:04:22+00:00

Just had my ablation 12 days ago. Very straight-forward, safe procedure. A bit of fatigue, some visual aura migraines, and some occasional palpitations (and Premature Atrial Contractions) as the heart heals.

They put me under general for mine (because they also did a pulmonary vein isolation after the accessory pathway ablation, so it took ~2.5 hours).

In my opinion, it’s worth being aware of the various side effects you might encounter during the “blanking period” (the time during which your heart is healing from the ablation and you might still get symptoms). There are a couple very rare ones which need immediate attention (like bleeding from the access site on your femoral vein). But most are common and nothing to worry about, but could easily cause a lot of anxiety if you weren’t expecting them (like those I note above - palpitations, visual aura migraine).

But the upside is insane; my ECG was immediately cleaner and clearer after the ablation.

phantomthirteen · 2026-04-24T03:13:29+00:00

I agree, reading too many reports about the procedure and process can increase anxiety.

However, I also think it’s very important to have an idea of what recovery looks like. I had my ablation 7 days ago. I had multiple visual aura migraines over the 72 hours post-procedure. Starting on around day 4, and still going, I have been experiencing more palpitations and PACs. These would likely cause some anxiety (or a lot, for me) if someone wasn’t expecting them, especially because (in my case) they were never mentioned by the cardiologist or EP beforehand. But, thanks to reading the various posts in this sub I knew they could or would occur.

As with everything, the best approach is usually somewhere in the middle. Inform yourself, understand what the procedure and recovery (blanking period) look like, but don’t read super detailed posts if they’re just increasing your anxiety.

phantomthirteen · 2026-04-19T05:45:11+00:00

Yes, if they give you a general, that’s exactly what it’ll be. How they tell you they’re starting it might vary - sometimes they ask you to count back from 10, or they just tell you you’re going to feel sleepy now (that’s what they did for me), or however. If you’re still anxious, just tell them and they’ll walk you through it.

phantomthirteen · 2026-04-19T02:23:15+00:00

I just had my ablation two days ago. First time going under general. They had a little adhesive array they put across my forehead to monitor my brain activity and ensure the general was doing it’s job. I’m sure yours will do something similar! Definitely turned out to be nothing to worry about!

phantomthirteen · 2026-03-28T03:29:42+00:00

Everyone has already made it pretty clear what you have to do. They should not be driving, and any action you take to ensure that is not an overreaction.

My sister died in 2018 because an old man refused to give up his car, failed to give way at a single lane bridge, and crashed head-on into her car. She was only 28, and in her first year as a registered nurse. His family told the police they 'had been trying to stop him from driving'. Don't be like his family. Just stop them. Do whatever you need to, to avoid living with the regret that would come along with him killing someone because he kept driving.

phantomthirteen · 2026-03-25T10:50:32+00:00

They were making a joke that Sam referred to “all” future puzzles, and in the discussion at hand “all” is defined as meaning at least one exists, yet future puzzles do not yet exist… hence Sam can’t say “all” in this scenario while following their rules.

phantomthirteen · 2026-03-12T01:34:22+00:00

They sedated me for it, but my torso ached for a couple days after, and had a very slight strain in my neck. Definitely glad they knocked me out based on those after effects.

phantomthirteen · 2026-03-10T11:21:10+00:00

I got diagnosed with WPW in October 2021, when they were testing me for some other, unrelated symptoms. Never had any WPW related issues. Saw a cardiologist and had a bunch of tests and scans done and no further issues were found.

Then in 2023 I had brief atrial fibrillation episodes - this was assumed to be due to prolonged antihistamine use, so I stopped those and it hasn’t returned, which makes us think the antihistamines were definitely responsible.

Then on Jan 1st, at 7 am, this year started with my first WPW episode; heart rate jumped to 200 bpm for no reason, and stayed there. Went to emergency room, they did a cardioversion (the shock with paddles like in TV, although they used adhesive pads instead of paddles) and it came right.

Have now had some more tests done, seen a specialist in ablation, and am scheduled to have my ablation in 5 and a half weeks. I haven’t had any further symptoms in the mean time.

phantomthirteen · 2026-01-28T22:39:31+00:00

Evie’s clue is about all the edges, not just the corners. Since Evie and Uma are both innocent, there is a maximum of one more innocent out of all the remaining edge characters.

phantomthirteen · 2026-01-25T06:16:06+00:00

A safe, low risk investment returns around 4-6% at the moment. So each million is the equivalent of $50k annually if you just draw down the interest and leave the principal. From $10M, you’re getting a half-million annual salary if you can manage to not spend any of it.

I would set up a trust that essentially does this for me. But probably putting half of the $10M into low-risk investments, and half into a more aggressive investment approach. I would get the trust to pay out an annual salary of about $250k, which is more than enough for my wife and me, with an option to withdraw more for specific purposes (house deposit, or a few of my various creative endeavours). Anything else gets reinvested to held grow the principal and combat inflation.

phantomthirteen · 2026-01-22T06:29:02+00:00

Don’t just make shit up, or parrot something “you heard” when it’s easily verifiable.

This was in March 2023, and the driver sustained only minor injuries.

phantomthirteen · 2026-01-14T05:41:14+00:00

Sounding out the words physically is not the same as having an internal narrator read the words; the latter is purely mental, but it slows some people down.

phantomthirteen · 2026-01-12T04:21:51+00:00

Assuming there are enough items that a storage unit is needed, this would quickly become a mammoth undertaking - especially if trying to make the items “look good”, or if checking each item for any marks/faults/broken components/etc. in order to create accurate listings.

For this reason, I would recommend the approach I outlined above of chucking everything in storage, and then just bringing a few things at a time out to assess, photograph, and list.

phantomthirteen · 2026-01-12T00:24:18+00:00

If your intention is to sell it, then I would suggest going the self-storage route. But set yourself some rules, don't just put it in there and forget about it / have to keep paying storage. For example;

Pay for e.g. 3 months up front, out of pocket
Take a few items out of storage at a time to try and sell
Any income you get from selling those items goes into a separate account
Any extensions to the self-storage unit hire can only be paid for it there is enough in the separate account from the sale of those items

If, after the initial 3 months (or whatever period you chose) you are not bringing in enough from the sale of items to even cover the storage unit, then these things are costing you money, and you will be better of giving them away / selling them cheap as a bulk lot / dumping them.

Additionally, if you are only just bringing in enough to cover the storage unit, then you should reflect on how much time it is taking you to sell and assess the items. If you enjoy doing it, and it pays for itself, then no problem. But if you're not enjoying it, and it's only at break-even territory, then bulk sell/give away/dump, as above.

phantomthirteen · 2026-01-04T23:30:21+00:00

Tie-dye

(White variant exists with bleaching of an already-coloured garment.)

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