Chase Down

Chill Political Economy

Startup founder convicted of defrauding JPMorgan Chase of $175M by faking firm’s success.

I see no problem here. Many more people should defraud JPMorgan Chase.

Apart from any law broken, it’s the buying firm’s responsibility to conduct adequate due diligence. JPMorgan’s audit of the books seems to have been, “Welp, looks good to me.” That wouldn’t mitigate the actual fraud in the eyes of the law, but were I the judge I’d just laugh at JPM and sentence Charlie to time served and let her keep the money1.

  1. Yes, I realize the judge cannot do that in reality.

Companion

Chill Movies

Wow, Companion is much better than I expected! Good film. A dark comedy take on what the world would look like if tech like in Ex Machina were to be commercialized.

Best line:

“I am not robo-shaming you!”

Spoilers below.

Such a clever, clever film. There’s a cute part in the beginning. If you go in cold you don’t know the protag, Iris, is a machine. Of course, she does not know either. When the two main characters are exiting their self-driving car, she says “thank you” to the car and won’t let them get out of the vehicle until her human partner does the same thing. This implies that she somehow intuits that she shares more with the car than she consciously knows. Great little detail.

Second favorite line that one of the robots says of his implanted, artificial memories in a more serious moment: “I mean, it may have never happened but my memory of it’s real.”

The movie is actually a better and more incisive critique of “nice guys” and the incel phenomenon than any feminist has managed to come up with. Sophie Thatcher as Iris is perfect, too. Without her, the film would’ve been not nearly as good. The scene where she realizes she’s artificial is particularly affecting.

Recommended.

Chill Links

This Is the Land of Wolves Now.

‘I Thought It Was a Joke’: North Carolina Woman Loses $850,000 Home After Missed $400 Payment to Homeowners Association Leads to Foreclosure.

Earth’s storage of water in soil, lakes and rivers is dwindling. And it’s especially bad for farming.

Magnolias are so ancient they’re pollinated by beetles — because bees didn’t exist yet.

DOGE ends America’s golden age of biomedical research. So fucking moronic. Like everything those idiot clowns are doing.

I now see how people become homeless.

Putin’s endorsement of Trump’s Greenland takeover reflects their vision of a new world order.

Trump’s Trade War on Canada Could Devastate Northern Border States.

Trump Could Hand China a ‘Strategic Victory’ by Silencing Voice of America.

The Drone Dilemma: How Unchecked Warfare From Above Threatens the Indo-Pacific.

Steppin’

Chill Regular-ass Post

Something I always try to impress on junior team members is to not skip steps in troubleshooting. Even when you “know” it couldn’t be something, check it any-damn-way. Especially since if you’re troubleshooting correctly the first few things you try should be the simplest, most obvious and the quickest. To wit:

1) Is it plugged in?

2) Is it powered on/started?

3) Is there a DNS entry?

About half the time when my juniors can’t solve something, I come behind them and try the easy initial things it definitely “couldn’t” be and fix the issue.

Most people just do not have minds suited for troubleshooting I guess.

WWT

Chill Killin' It

Have you ever truly thought you were living the wrong life.

I felt that way when I was growing up in rural North Florida with everyone — including much of my own family — telling me how worthless, weak and terrible I was.

I thought, there must have been some mistake. And there was. I was born in the wrong place, among ignorant losers who hated anything intellectual and anyone with more than half a brain. Luckily, I had a big ego and am more stubborn than a herd of rhinoceroses.

So I escaped, made my own life, and prospered. But those were rough years. I’m frankly glad nearly all of those people are dead now.

Attent

Chill Annoying, Clowns

The primary unfairness in dating — and one thing incels are completely right about — is that mediocre women get 100x as much attention and interest as even above average men. To receive the attention that a totally average woman gets, you need to be a top 0.1% man.

And that’s actually a pretty huge and psychologically-damaging inequity. It doesn’t make how incels deal with it likely to work or morally correct, but they are not wrong at all with their diagnosis.

Enemies

Chill Evil

Huge self-own that made China and Russia stronger while weakening both Canada and the US. Fucking moronic.

Our enemies are now in control of the country. And I don’t mean conservatives. I mean (obviously) China and Russia.