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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: June 12th, 2023

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  • Market capitalization is just simple math, multiplying a company’s stock price by the number of shares that have been issued. Tesla has issued roughly 3.2 billion shares and is currently trading at around $550, which makes their current market cap about $1.75 trillion dollars.

    I don’t understand how the value can be that high compared to all of the other companies, especially China.

    On its face it seems utterly nonsensical that Tesla is worth as much as all other auto makers combined, when Tesla only accounts for something like 5% of total US car sales. There are two reasons I can think of why this is currently so:

    • Tesla accounts for roughly half of all US electric vehicle sales, and electric vehicle sales are roughly 10% of all US vehicle sales. If electric vehicles largely replace ICE vehicles and if Tesla maintains that share of EV sales, then Tesla will be an extremely valuable company. Investors might be betting on a) electric vehicles and b) Tesla continuing to the win the lion’s share of electric vehicle sales.
    • Tesla investors are irrational. Personally, my money is on this one. I think long-term Tesla is going to get crushed by cheaper and better-built EVs, probably from China but also possibly from other existing car manufacturers. Sometimes I’m tempted to short Tesla’s stock based on this belief, but to quote John Maynard Keynes: “Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.”


  • CountVontoPatient GamersWhat's next after Pentiment?
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    14 days ago

    are there games that try to portray life and folklore of people I may not know about?

    Kingdom Come: Deliverance might fit this. It’s set in 15th century Bohemia (modern day Czechia), and was designed with input from archaeologists and historians. That may present too much overlap with 15th century Bavaria, though. It’s an immersive sim with at least some jankiness, though I believe many bugs have been squashed since release. It can also be a bit tough in the early going as your character starts out pretty weak by design. Your character gets better at skills as you use them and the game starts to shine more once you’ve established some basic competency.

    Are there games that play with this kind of meta mystery (I don’t know what word best describes it) where you have a glimpse that there’s something bigger behind the scenes?

    I’d recommend There Is No Game: Wrong Dimension. Chock full of 4th wall breaks and meta commentary on games, game design and game development, plus lots of humour and a ton of heart. There is a bit of a mystery component as well. I’d recommend avoiding spoilers if at all possible, I went in blind and I think it made for a much better overall experience.







  • was there iconic scratchy rapid frenetic drum electronic scraping noises before Bowie?

    You can find elements of that in earlier 90s industrial, like Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson. Bowie collaborated with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails on the Outside Tour, which supported Bowie’s prior album Outside, before the release of Earthling. They also collaborated on remixes of I’m Afraid of Americans. You can probably also find some elements Earthling’s sound in earlier drum and bass, techno and jungle music.

    Skrillex’ influences include 90s industrial acts like Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson, plus 90s electronica acts like Aphex Twin and Squarepusher. Bowie’s Earthling reminds you of Skrillex because the two share many musical roots.


  • Pelosi is in denial. Trump ran under a big banner that said “Trump will fix it.” Banner doesn’t say what “it” is, or how he’s going to fix “it.” And of course the majority of people who voted for him will likely have buyer’s remorse when they discover that “it” doesn’t mean what they thought, and the solution for “it” is actually not great for them at all.

    But the banner at least acknowledged that things are not good. Prices are up, wages are not, layoffs are rampant, and everyone under 40 has basically given up on ever owning a home. Things fucking suck, economically speaking. Meanwhile, the Kamala campaign could basically be summed up as “4 more years of the same because Trump bad.” The majority of American voters rejected that outright because they would not accept another 4 years of dim economic prospects. Most of them probably never even got as far as the “because Trump bad” part before they said “fuck that”!

    Pelosi can try to deflect the blame all she wants, but the reality is that this collosal failure belongs to the Democrat establishment as a whole, including her. Democrats needed to find a way to make the average voter believe that a Democrat president was going to make things better than they’ve been for the last 4 years, and they failed to do that. They absolutely fucked it up. They fucking failed. Hard.

    Much has been said about transgender this, woke that, Gaza genocide over there and climate change on top. The harsh reality is that the average western voter does not give a shit. You wanna lead? You wanna get elected? You need to meet the average moron voter where they’re at and say something that makes them feel seen. Trump’s team did that, so he won. Simple as.

    And for the record, I fucking hate it. I cannot stand that man. The very sound of his voice sets my teeth on edge. His policies will create untold misery, he will probably destroy American democracy and may even drag down Western democracy as a whole. He is truly awful, in every sense. But the Democrat establishment deserves condemnation for turning in such an absolutely dogwater performance.


  • CountVontoFunnyJust a little bit of trolling
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    2 months ago

    There are lots of wild foods that are poisonous, but that didn’t stop our ancestors from figuring out ways to make them edible. In the case of bitter almonds I can find a reference to baking and boiling being effective methods of reducing cyanide content. Cold leaching might also work but it would take a lot more time.

    I have to imagine that dire necessity was a catalyst for these discoveries. I’m guessing the thought process was more like “These are bitter as shit and they killed Bill, but we’re gonna starve to death if we don’t find some food, so let me try boiling these to see if the bitter goes away.”



  • The software subscription fee was an ongoing cost to whoever installed the equipment, now that fee has been replaced by a per-use fee that’s part of what drivers pay. It’s easier for businesses to justify installing chargers if they know that it’s a one-time purchase with no ongoing subscriptions, fees, or management hassles.

    Off topic: how much would it cost to run a charger continuously?

    Depends where you are and how much electricity costs there. Could also depend on time-of-day if electricity metering in that area has time-of-use rates. The biggest level 2 chargers put out 19kw, where I live it would cost about $60 per day to run one of those chargers at absolute maximum. Realistically speaking it would be hard to run one full-time though, since the average EV has ~80kw of battery and would be full after 4-ish hours.






  • CountVontoScience Memes@mander.xyzHoney
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    3 months ago

    Is it exploitation? I’d argue slave or prison labor is exploitation because the workers have no freedom of choice. Bees are free to leave, and the queen will in fact do so if not content with the conditions in the hive. If the queen leaves, all of the bees will swarm with her and you’d be left with an empty box.

    Beekeeping strikes me more as symbiosis. The beekeeper provides ideal conditions, far better than the average location that would be found in the wild, and can help protect the hive against threats like mites. In exchange the beekeeper receives a share of the honey produced by the hive.

    No beekeeper takes all of the honey from the hive. Only the top box (the “honey super”) of a typical hive stack is harvested. A grate below the top box (a “queen excluder”) prevents the queen from entering it so no larva are laid in the top box. The workers bee are smaller and can pass through the grate to build out comb and produce honey. The comb and honey in the bottom boxes are left to the hive to feed its workers and produce the next generation of bees, ensuring the survival of the hive.

    A queen excluder cannot be used to prevent swarming long-term as the drones that gather the pollen also won’t for through the grate! An excluder might be used to delay swarming and buy time so the beekeeper can offer another solution, like adding more boxes to the hive or splitting it into two hives. Better beekeepers proactively manage their hives, e.g. by setting up an empty hive in advance to essentially offer a swarming hive a new ideal home whenever they’re ready for it.