Many miss that Musk’s companies don’t have any measure of success because of him, but instead have it despite him. A lot of intelligent people work for SpaceX and Tesla. Imagine what they could and would do if they didn’t have a petulant man-baby constantly interfering.
Here’s an old but short one. I was selling my Xbox 360. A couple comes to pick it up, so I start it up so they can test it out. Red ring of death. It never had any issues before. I was so flustered and embarrassed that I just gave it to them.
This is a great idea! I also get tons of time wasters. We once had over 10 people flake on picking up a free couch. I could instead list things for cheap and just give them away to whoever shows up.
I’ll start with one that happened over the last two weeks. I had a weight set I was giving away. I was first contacted by a fellow who was interested but couldn’t pick it up for two weeks. He asked if I’d hold it for him. For two weeks. WTF. I refused and told him that I’ve literally never had anyone follow through when I’ve held items, so hit me up in two weeks if the posting is still up.
He calls me and lays this sob story on me: his mother needs it for physical therapy but they don’t have a lot of money. They’d pick it up now but his father is out of town with their only vehicle for two weeks. He promises me that he’s a man of his word and he will keep his word to get it if I keep mine to hold the gym set. My inbox is already blowing up from others wanting to get it, so I know I’ll be able to offload it, no problem. I decide to give him a chance and hold it.
A week later, I text him to verify he’s still interested. He assures me he is and that he’s so grateful I’m holding it. I text him again the day before he’s supposed to pick it up to check again. He tells me they bought a new set instead. I respond, telling him how I made an exception to not holding things and he gave me his word. He tells me to go fuck myself.
I relisted it and it was gone within two hours. Just for giggles, I check a few local listing apps later that day. My former weight set is now listed on Facebook Marketplace, using the same picture I had, for $100.
Same. I just switched a few months back. My laptop runs cool and quiet on Linux. When I need to boot to Windows, I hear that poor cooling fan laboring even when Windows is idle, plus everything is much slower and poorly organized. Why does my context menu have 14 selections?! Going back to Linux feels like coming home.
Instant micro plastics: just add seawater!
Of course! I’m a biologist, I try to use my powers for good.
Functional changes in coloration are much “easier” (read: more likely) to develop through random mutation than functional changes to complex mechanical structures like bone structure or musculature. Given their predecessors were already under selective pressure by predation for millions of years prior, it’s reasonable to assume they’d developed countershading (light bottom, dark top). Plus current agnathans are usually pretty dull.
Edit: oh geez, I misunderstood your message. It totally could have been a rainbow party blimp. That mostly depends on what their habitat was like.
Definitely. The minimum infective dose is around 10-100 million CFUs.
I got laid off in January, still looking! Zero interview so far. I’m sorry to hear others are having a rough time too, although it’s a bit of a relief to know I’m not just super toxic or something.
Even with the fine, it’s still financially advantageous for the landlord. They’ll make that $100k back in about four years (accounting for taxes) given the extra $700 they’re pulling in per tenant. Then they’ll just make an extra $2800/month ad perpetuum. There really needs to be greater repercussions for actions like these.
How did you react when you found out you won?
How about making their city have more pet capybaras per capita than anywhere else in the United States?
Paracetamol?! Not only would that be largely ineffective at preventing pain, it takes 30-60 minutes to start working. The incompetence astounds.
I just love the feeling of when it stretches.
Likely both. I used to be involved in creating educational material for employers. First, voiceover artists were replaced with shockingly low quality AI models. This was about two years ago. Training prices didn’t drop and no employers complained.
The industry experts we’d pay for consultation were increasingly replaced with ChatGPT queries. Information was sometimes wrong but the employers purchasing these trainings would catch and correct it (for free) in the proofing process. Prices stayed the same, employers still didn’t complain.
After launching trainings, we’d monitor engagement. When asking relatively simple questions that anyone who paid attention would be able to answer immediately, the average response time was initially about 2-3 minutes, then about 60-90s for subsequent questions. They were likely finding ChatGPT and using it to answer the questions. We shared these findings and, you guessed it, employers didn’t care.
Often they only want the illusion of output, just enough to keep the profits eternally rising.
I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir here, but there’s so much commonly misunderstood classic literature. The Great Gatsby, Fahrenheit 451, Wuthering Heights, and Romeo and Juliet come to mind. I’ve bitten my tongue more than once as I’ve listened to others use Romeo and Juliet or Wuthering Height as enviable examples of romance.
How’s your colon?
It might even make smarter decisions. The last few companies I worked for had total morons for CEOs, but they sure maximized short-term profit (by burning the company down).