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sybarita commented on Why Richard Branson’s flight matters   arstechnica.com/science/2... · Posted by u/yusuf_giftworks
echelon · 4 years ago
If you're referring to stemming climate change, you won't succeed. I doubt anyone will. Modern society depends on manufacturing, food, and travel, and nobody will give it up. It's a steep fitness landscape and doesn't really work because someone "breaking the rules" will have a substantially easier time.

Climate change prevention is a meme for rich countries. It's an unwinnable battle.

I'm not saying we shouldn't be paying attention. We absolutely should. But humans follow gradient ascent and won't be willing to handicap every area of life to make modest gains on the climate front.

Paper straws don't even make a dent.

It's happening, and we'll just have to adapt. Sucks immeasurably for the current biodiversity, but life has adapted to much warmer climate in the past. We should catalog what we can while we can.

To address your comment, I think you'll find greater success in extending the lives of rich and powerful people. Once they realize there's a long term ahead, they'll adjust their thinking and time horizons.

sybarita · 4 years ago
lmao
sybarita commented on Met Police seize record £180m of cryptocurrency in London   bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england... · Posted by u/ColinWright
carnitine · 4 years ago
That seems like a reasonable thing to do. I don’t really see the problem, don’t they generally refer to that as ‘street value’ anyway?

Besides, what could they have done similarly in this case? Why would they not just be referring to the current spot value of the currencies?

sybarita · 4 years ago
"Street value" per gram goes down significantly as the weight of the transaction goes up. If someone has 100 pounds of weed the cops go by the absolute highest street price for the absolute smallest unit sizes (~$20/g) and call it a $1M haul.

In reality, it's not really feasible to move 45,000 individual grams in a timely manner (especially with products like cannabis that noticeably degrade fairly quickly), not to mention that you'd be opening yourself up to 10,000x the necessary risk to do so.

So while it's true on a certain level that 100 pounds of weed can eventually be worth about a million dollars once it makes its way through a distribution network, in reality it'll only ever probably net maybe 1/4 of that and the majority of that profit won't ever make it back up the chain even in an organized criminal network.

But when the pigs inflate their numbers by pulling these kinds of disingenuous tricks it makes them look good, and they know they'll never get in trouble for doing it.

sybarita commented on Met Police seize record £180m of cryptocurrency in London   bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england... · Posted by u/ColinWright
cyberge99 · 4 years ago
Along the same lines: To “”throw the book at him” is a double entendre euphemism (American) for both bringing a lot of charges against someone, and/or beating them with a phonebook because it (purportedly) doesn’t leave bruises.
sybarita · 4 years ago
Pretty sure you just made that up tbh
sybarita commented on Mexico's Supreme Court has decriminalised the private use of cannabis by adults   bbc.co.uk/news/world-lati... · Posted by u/pmoriarty
aardvarkr · 4 years ago
I really like your post and only have this small point to add to it.

> The only reason I am hesitant for heroine, meth and fentanyl is because if I remember right, heroine and meth get laced with fentanyl which is very easy to overdose on. But I am willing to be corrected if that's not the case.

When you look at this through the lens of business it doesn’t really make sense. Drug dealing is a financially driven business and there’s not an incentive to cut drugs like heroin and meth with fentanyl. Both are HIGHLY addictive in their own and in the case of meth it’s actually really counterproductive. Neither drug needs assistance from fentanyl to become more addicting. But beyond this, fentanyl is pretty dang valuable by itself on the streets and hard to come by. Why cut heroine with something valuable when you can use baking soda or sugar?

Honestly the whole “laced drugs” thing is a scare tactic that doesn’t pass the smell test in my eyes. I’m willing to change my opinion but it really doesn’t make sense to me.

sybarita · 4 years ago
What? Fentanyl is so so so much cheaper and 100% does get added to heroin all the time. It also gets added, to a lesser extent, to meth, coke, fake xanax pills, ketamine, etc. Especially in many places in the US, it's actually hard to find heroin without at least a trace of fentanyl.

Fentanyl is synthesized in China or Mexico (with precursors from China) extremely cheaply and without the need to maintain large plantations. It can then be imported to the US much more easily than heroin (extremely potent by weight and doesn't smell as much) where it's then diluted/mixed with other drugs. This is easily provable, there's tons and tons and tons of evidence/documentation of all of this.

I don't understand the original posters point either though, because providing addicts with clean drugs and access to treatment is the only real way to curb the current fentanyl epidemic.

sybarita commented on California homeowners made more money in equity than workers made in income   twitter.com/samdman95/sta... · Posted by u/throwkeep
iammisc · 5 years ago
The vast majority of homeowners work... You know that right?
sybarita · 5 years ago
I never said they didn't... The point is they don't have to hand over a majority of their income to pay someone else's mortgage. Even if home prices stagnate in their area and they can't sell for years, they get to keep a roof over their head for much, much less than someone renting a comparable place.

More likely is that their property values are going up somewhat, so what they spend on property taxes/upkeep is likely preserved as equity. Renters pay more and keep nothing in the end.

sybarita commented on California homeowners made more money in equity than workers made in income   twitter.com/samdman95/sta... · Posted by u/throwkeep
lotsofpulp · 5 years ago
> Anyway you look at it homeowners come out way ahead every time, for doing absolutely nothing.

Homeowners in less demanded areas do not.

sybarita · 5 years ago
I mean sure, and some "workers" make 500k/year, but these are obviously exceptions to the rule when we've established that California homeowners made more money in equity on average than workers made in income.

Also pretty sure there aren't many places in California where owning a home is such a liability that your annual losses would exceed those of one renting a comparable property. You might still have to work, but you're still ahead of someone who has to work and pay rent.

sybarita commented on California homeowners made more money in equity than workers made in income   twitter.com/samdman95/sta... · Posted by u/throwkeep
solidddd · 5 years ago
Isn't this sort of a strange comparison, though: income, which is liquid, vs equity, which usually isn't?

Since most homeowners live in their investment and prices have risen almost everywhere, there's no way to cash out on the investment and remain housed.

You would have to sell and gamble on renting until a market correction, or moving to a cheaper housing market, or own multiple properties to be able to actually cash in on this equity earning

.. whereas of course income is just cash

Maybe I'm missing something

sybarita · 5 years ago
Sure but the point is these already wealthy people gain all this wealth for doing literally nothing, while the people who slave away and actually keep the economy going work hard all year for much, much less. And then of course workers end up having to hand most of that "cash" directly back to the land-owning classes for rent (among other things).

Homeowners could cash out on their investments and remain housed by getting jobs and renting, like the rest of us, which of course they won't do, because they recognize how exploitative the system is and that they earn more just sitting on property.

Anyway you look at it homeowners come out way ahead every time, for doing absolutely nothing.

sybarita commented on LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison   psymposia.com/magazine/wi... · Posted by u/miles
eindiran · 5 years ago
There was an article several years ago in Vice which mentioned him: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/nndz9z/life-is-a-cosmic-g...
sybarita · 5 years ago
Please read this, Krystle is an evil person https://thislandpress.com/2013/07/28/subterranean-psychonaut...
sybarita commented on LSD chemist William Pickard to be released from prison   psymposia.com/magazine/wi... · Posted by u/miles
sibeliuss · 5 years ago
A+ interview and history
sybarita · 5 years ago
I urge you to look into Krystle's story more. She's an absolutely vile person who participated in the torture and attempted murder of her boyfriend, Brandon Green.

https://thislandpress.com/2013/07/28/subterranean-psychonaut...

sybarita commented on The Strip Clubs of Instagram. Going digital may be better for dancers   nytimes.com/2020/04/10/st... · Posted by u/tren-hard
econcon · 6 years ago
>. I'm also confused why you would need to use Tinder to find sex workers online

This in response to some guy who was talking about strippers.

>Uh or just be a friendly, sociable person with at least something to offer

Doesn't work on tinder, you've to be extremely good looking to get matches from good looking girls.

sybarita · 6 years ago
Parent comment says "strippers or escort" (sp). Escort is a nice/legal term for a prostitute. "Strippers" (they're typically called dancers actually) also fall under the umbrella term "sex worker" though, for the record.

u/sybarita

KarmaCake day112December 14, 2019View Original