Screwball

4 hours ago, Deleterious said:

 

After hours chart porn is pretty uneventful. I don't know what that means.

In related market news, and I'm not following like I used to, but the Space X stuff - from NBC;

SpaceX confirms plans for an IPO that could make Elon Musk a trillionaire

FTA:

Quote

SpaceX’s IPO is expected to draw wide investor interest because of the company’s success in rockets and satellite-based internet — two areas where SpaceX has a wide lead over potential competitors. The IPO is expected to take place next month after a marketing period in which Musk can try to drum up further interest in the company’s stock.

Next month? Doesn't an IPO of this size take longer than that? Who's the bank? Like I said, I don't follow the casino much other than to look at the chart porn. Has this been going on for a while?

Related; NVDA reports earnings tomorrow after the bell.

13 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

This one makes me wonder:  AI can find and generate attacks on an IT system faster that a hacker can - so inevitably our IT security systems are going to be turned over AI defense bots. So that sounds like Even Steven right. But then some malicious young mind that happens to be *creative* finds a hack that no-one ever thought of before, and exactly as you note, since no-one ever thought of it before AI cannot think of it at all, so in effect, these system will be exactly vulnerable to *human* attack. Thus the current big push for Agentic AI, where at least one of the idea/hope/aspirations is actually to reach credible synthetic 'thinking' ability. It would be a hoot if they achieve without ever even understanding what it is a human brain.

The best way to secure your network is to hire a security expert that was a hacker.

***

I can't think of too many good things about the AI revolution. It's not good for schools (I was a professor), it's not good for the manufacturing / design world (I was an engineer), and it's not good for our energy grid and the resources needed to cool it.

For society as a whole to grow and flourish, you need energy. Building huge data centers that consume massive amounts of energy, along with massive amounts of water is a disservice and huge misallocation of investment capital to the public at large. Once built, they don't employ enough people to make much difference, but they still eat the energy and water. We the people don't benefit.

Already stories out there about data centers making people lives miserable who live close by. Higher bills, water problems, noise, etc. I talked to a guy who works for a concrete company working on a data center in mid-Ohio that need 8 trucks with generator's running 24/7 to power the damn thing. They would also need to be re-fueled on a regular basis. Probably has online power to and electric company that can't supply enough. What exactly, is so good about this? Who does it benefit? And for what?

So we can ask it how to fix our car, or write some code? And hope it's right? Plenty of stories about that too, and not all have happy endings. 

I remember when renewable energy was the thing. First thing that was said is we need to improve our infrastructure. Without a doubt. Our power grid needs a massive upgrade for EV's, charging stations, wind farms, solar farms, hydro or nuclear. Massive upgrades. Add in cryto mining that uses the power of small countries/cities...Now the AI craze... Good ****ing luck with all that.

There is a local company here who runs electric lines all over the state. Huge money. It's all for data centers according to the warehouse manager I talk to at the local **** hole bar. They are working for the electric companies like AEP. This might be the only good thing about this - new and improved transmission and distribution lines that may eventually do some good other than feed the AI data center hunger when they turn into the failure they are destined to be. We'll see I guess.

Of note; I have tracked my electric bill for about 5 years. AEP Ohio is the supplier, but I shop for my electric rates. AEP has 3 charges; transmission, distribution, and customer charge. The customer charge has been $10.00 a month as long as I remember. Last month, it went to $13.50. I wonder why?

6 hours ago, oblong said:

There's going to be a backlash I think against AI.  We cannot predict the future.  Regarding the doom and gloom... if everybody's replaced by AI then who will the customers be?

We were all given AI objectives this year and we laugh at it.  Maybe off the cliff but we see the holes already in trying to implement it in our work.    Then it becomes "Well, just call this AI to check the box".

Using in place of something like google has been fantastic.  It absolutely helps me do my job faster but it does not replace what I do.  I'm not special. Just a hack grinding away.

7 years ago I spent 3 months on something because autonomous vehicles was the way forward.

 

I'm in total agreement, but let's take it a step further.

I think many who pay enough attention know the downside to this AI craze, including the massive market bubble, but many many others don't. They think it is the next best thing, the latest and greatest, and it will make our lives better. Look what we can do now, think what we will be able to as time goes on. They have a point. But...

Where the computer world really changed things was time. They took math, therefore physics, and turned them into zero's and ones. IPS they call it - instructions per seconds. The rest is history. A football size room full of drafting boards using pencil, paper, a mechanical arm, and a slide rule used to design our cars, homes, bridges, airplanes, and the NASA crafts.

The binary number system was the Oscar winner when it came to computers. But this AI stuff isn't the same thing. The internet has been a huge step forward for everyone, without a doubt, but it comes with a price. Usually jobs, because that's how things work. Zero's and ones gave us computers, CAD systems, CNC machines, and robots - the physical AI that can do manual labor (and a whole bunch of other things - like being armed). It always starts with the blue collar workers, then the white collar. Physical jobs, then mental jobs. Indirect labor they call us.

This will be no different, except if this isn't all it's cracked up to be, and I don't think it is; the damages might be very bad. Company commits to AI, fires people because AI will do their job. Doesn't work, can't hire anyone back. Then what? And everything is all ****ed up because of bad decisions like this. In the quadrant lesson on efficient production from an Edward Deming class they are in the state of chaos. Don't know how to get out.

And AI won't work, because it can't.

We are teaching it, not the other way around. It can't know what I know because it didn't do what I did for 40 plus years. Doesn't matter the job. There are things we know because we know. I can't explain that, but it's true. We have a hard enough time teaching humans how to do their job FFS.

We are training these bots, their fine print tells us that. It's the only way it can work. This is all fool's gold.

Still reminds me of crazy Teddie the Uni*omber. He was a Luddite. For those who like to read, long article from April 2000 by a guy named Bill Joy, chief scientist of Sun Microsystems and Java language expert.

Why the future doesn't need us - Wired magazine

30 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

My niece graduated from law school this past weekend.  The commencement speaker mentioned AI a few times and was booed loudly each time.

Good.

Here in the hated land of Ohio, they have put together a commission to study this. Might be the second group. I don't know where that will go. There is also a movement to stop them if too big. 

Ohio lawmakers create bipartisan committee to get 'accurate, relevant' info on data centers - statehouse news bureau

FTA;

Quote

An effort to put a constitutional amendment to ban data centers that use more than 25 megawatts monthly before Ohio voters in November continues. The deadline for the volunteer groups working on that petition drive is July 1, and they need 413,487 valid signatures from half of Ohio's 88 counties.

We'll see where that goes.

One of the problems, as usual, so many don't understand what the ramifications are. A local guys who covers news ran an article on FB a few weeks ago about the data centers. He is all for them and thinks they are the future. Someone chimed in about the "bad" parts of this and some went ape-****.

How dare someone talk about not wanting this. One guy was told; you just posted on FB. How do you think you could do that without this stuff? Look at all the pictures on FB - we wouldn't have that without this. What the hell is wrong with you?

OK. Dude, this stuff was here long before these data centers and AI, just so you know.

I have no doubt if there is a way to **** this all up they will find a way to do it. 

Microsoft AI chief gives it 18 months—for all white-collar work to be automated by AI - Fortune

What could possibly go wrong?

29 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

I never heard that expression until I just saw it over and over again in a book recently: "The River" by Peter Heller.  Excellent book by the way. 

I thought it might just be a made up expression for the book, but now I know it's for real!

From the movie Office Space - so fitting.

37 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Not much funny anywhere. Did Cooper have any OEM business? Selling tires in the after market only has to be tough business. 

To answer this question - no. Just replacement. Kind of...

When we started shipping stuff to China, we had to build the tires there or we couldn't sell them. So we sent them the tire molds and they would make the tires. You never knew how that was going to work. Some shop would run your tires for a while - then get a better deal from one of the other tire companies - and your molds end up out in the back lot. Sorry...

But it got better - someone would steal the molds and go make tires and sell them as ours, in China and here.

You can't make this **** up.

My last job before I told them to stuff it, was 120 tire molds to the China tiremaker because they lost the molds we sent them about a year before. We're talking about 3 million dollars worth of tooling.

Lost...

14 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Not much funny anywhere. Did Cooper have any OEM business? Selling tires in the after market only has to be tough business. 

There is a tale of a once great company who ****ed it all up. I worked there.

A guy who became CEO started out in the factory and worked his way to the top when I started. They were a replacement tire company and built a great supply chain all over the states. Made a bunch of people in Findlay and NW Ohio a great living, and was a great company to work for.

Things changed. This guy retired as CEO. They were going strong at the time. The new CEO - ironically - came from a company that I worked for prior to that part of my life. Didn't know him, couldn't find out anything from my contacts at the old company (Dana Corp).

He was a disaster in so many ways. Embarrassing enough he got caught banging the head of HR in his office, among other cluster ****s he did. Example above - he cheated our books with the profitable BG plant when we didn't make the numbers. Finally the board **** canned him. Cost us a 5 million dollar buyout. He went to a cosmetics company as CEO.

****in' A!

The prior CEO had a great advantage. He did every job on the shop floor over the years. Nobody could bull**** him. Today, I got a piece of paper that says I know Jack ****.

No you don't. Or most don't.

Not funny this; Cooper Standard in Bowling Green to close facility, nearly 200 jobs affected

I think Cooper tire division was bought out by Goodyear a few years ago. They have a plant and mold shop (on the other side of town) in Findlay. So apparently Goodyear didn't buy that plant. Another NW Ohio company shuttering the doors. We have two other plants (not related) closing here in Cornhole. Not good.

Related; If you look at the WHR stock price in the last 3 months - not pretty. They even suspended their dividend. Forward guidance not good. Many of these small places supply the appliance and auto companies. **** runs down hill. We have 3 large WHR plants within a few hours.

The real barometer; the **** hole bar hasn't been near as busy. I see the after work crowd at 3:30. They live paycheck to paycheck. Their getting pinched. Gas around $4.65 here. Then there is food...

I wouldn't give two ****s on what some Fed ****wad has to say. They have been an abysmal failure since the creature of Jekyll Island. Their not going to fix ****.

Markets are at almost all time highs. Saw a headline today somebody says S&P to 8000. Giddy up!

It's really this simple; all we have to watch for is when demand destruction takes over. As most of us believe the numbers are bull****, they also tell a tale when you look at them rationally. They are not good. Many indicator's show this. Not difficult.

The global supply chain has been broken - bad. Not only energy related. As they say about oil prices, and it holds true for all prices - the solution to high prices is high prices.

We haven't felt the pain - yet - ****'s about to get real.

There's your Debbie Downer for the day.

4 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

A reporter asked Trump if he's concerned about the Hantavirus. Really? Why don't they ask him if he learned anything from Covid? Between Trump and that wacko RFK, if there was another covid, we're all doomed.

Maybe he could do another Operation Warp Speed? Ironic, that was launched on May 15, 2020. Ain't that wild?

4 hours ago, Tenacious D said:

Anyone know where Alex Cobb is?

The way this season is going, we might need Ty Cobb. Did he pitch?

Quote

 

On May 4, 1970, in Kent, Ohio, 28 National Guardsmen fire their weapons at a group of anti-war demonstrators on the Kent State University campus, killing four students and wounding nine. The tragedy was a watershed moment for a nation divided by the conflict in Vietnam, and further galvanized the anti-war movement.

Two days earlier, on May 2, National Guard troops were called to Kent to suppress students rioting in protest of the Vietnam War and the U.S. invasion of Cambodia. The next day, scattered protests were dispersed by tear gas, and on May 4 class resumed at Kent State University. By noon that day, despite a ban on rallies, some 2,000 people had assembled on the campus. National Guard troops arrived and ordered the crowd to disperse, fired tear gas, and advanced against the students with bayonets fixed on their rifles. Some of the protesters, refusing to yield, responded by throwing rocks and verbally taunting the troops.

 

This wouldn't be complete without the following. Remember this well. Live about 2 hours away. Knew people on both sides. Sad day for America.

**** war!

Spirit Airlines reminds me of my stock market mentor I met back around the dot-com bubble. Canadian who graduated from Queen's U, came to the states with a wife, two kids, a car, and 400 bucks.

He got a great job for Pfizer (PFE ticker) in their minerals division. Traveled all over the world. Ended up a multi-millionaire. Job, stocks, real estate, you name it. He was also the biggest cheap ass on planet earth. 

He had a home in NW Ohio, and one in Key Largo FL. He had a deal with Spirit. Went back and forth all the time. Tickets would be less than a 100 bucks. Him and his girlfriend would load up with the little ounce bottles of liquor and hide them on their body and pour them in their drinks so they didn't have pay on the plane. This was of course, quite a few years ago.

We took a trip to the Amish country in Ohio and lunch was the samples at the cheese factory. While driving his motor home. Cost money to eat at a restaurant. Too funny.

If you are old enough to remember nights like this when it's cold, and using a wooden bat, you almost don't want to hit a ball. If you get it on the screws, you are fine, but if you don't your hands get punished. It really hurts. I said almost. 🙂

19 minutes ago, Zakk_Wylde said:

On the topic of broadcast markets, it still blows my mind that Windsor, Ontario is considered Blue Jays market.  Windsor is significantly closer to Comerica Park than most suburbs of Detroit, let alone the rest of Michigan. Yet we are supposed to be Blue Jays fans due to the international border. 

But I'll tell you what really pisses me off, are all these games that are blacked out because they are on some streaming service.  AppleTV for example.   So generally we are expected to have subscriptions to half a dozen different streaming services (in addition to MLB.tv) to watch the Tigers?!   Maybe that's the norm in certain households, but definitely not mine.  I just don't watch that much TV to justify subscriptions to Netflix, AppleTV, Peacock, etc.  Yet there are baseball games scattered on these services which causes a blackout on mlb.tv?!   That pisses me off!  End of rant.

I read last week somewhere that for next year if you wanted to watch ALL of the NFL games you would need 10 streaming services to do so. That's nuts. That's the NFL, not MLB, I understand.

I gave up a long time ago and spent 25 bucks on a Firestick and hacked it. I don't get them all, but most of them. Not without issues, but I'm not paying squat. Screw them all.

Gas prices were this high in 2022 due to the Russia/Ukraine conflict (the chart porn proves it) and the BlueMAGA cult members just put Ukrainian flags in their yard and cheered. How's that for politics?

The country is a ****ing mess, has been a ****ing mess, and will continue to be a ****ing mess, and well over half the population has their heads stuffed up their ass and think electing ANY of these worthless pukes will fix the ****ing mess. 

How's that for politics since we have to go there?

Somebody's delusional, or reading too much green BS.

1 minute ago, monkeytargets39 said:

McGonigle almost gets hit in the face but then lines the next pitch for a hit.  Suck on that Abbott

Yea, that was impressive. Wonder if that guy was trying to bust him a bit - he answered. 

4 hours ago, CMRivdogs said:

I know that I'm basically preaching to the choir here, but IMO we need to find a way to get Big Money out of politics. Citizens United opened the door to a lot of the mess we're seeing now. Too many PACs, who knows how much dark money. There has to be a way to police this. Personally I'd start taxing contributions over $1,000 at 75%, no business contributions allowed what so ever. 

 

Or maybe they quit taking it.

3 minutes ago, Sports_Freak said:

When reporters questioned his lineups, he would get riled up. He used to play hunches and they seemed to work pretty often. Against all odds at times, totally anti-stat decisions.

Maybe. I had good enough seats at Comerica to sit with the guys who had radar guns. They know who's throwing what and how good all the time. Matchups. Who knows better than the guys on the field at that time.

Some is pretty simple though. If I'm a left handed batter and Skub is pitching I'm telling Skip I'll guard the bat rack that day.

9 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

or second baseman.  The left fielder batted third.  He had the highest batting average and a lot of doubles.  The clean-up hitter was the big slow slugging first baseman.  

Do the stat guys have a position on how lineups should be constructed? I know us old school guys like Jimmy did. I would love to play for that guy.

If I remember right, the Tigers got beat and were out of the playoffs that year so I was really bummed out. The next day Jimmy retired. That was even worse. Spit, and double spit.

17 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I love a speedy center fielder who can steal a bunch of bases as much as the next guy. I like one who can get on base a lot and win you a few games with his glove even better. 

News at 11.

I think Lee said above putting the third hitter as the best batter is a fishermans tale, or something like that. I would guess, honest question, according to the stats, the best should be first?