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Posts posted by Nice Guy Eddie
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I've never believed in the wisdom of rent control. I get it that it helps renters but it also creates an artificial marketplace that harms others as well. People can't afford a new place because a landlord needs higher rents to cover the fact that another tenant has been paying $200/mo for the last 40 years. Of course, my understanding is that new NYC rent control apartments stopped in the 70s, and those tenants at the time were grandfathered in. Very few of them remain. Their stories are crazy so they often get repeated and believed to be widespread.Â
Rent stabilization is the current system that makes more sense. However it still creates an artificial marketplace that eventually gets out of line when its controlled by politicians who answer to said tenants. Who wants to vote for a politicians who indirectly raised your rent.
Stabilization can also lead to subpar living conditions as the apt owner has less incentive to improve the building. Since they have limited availability to sign new tenants, they will do the bare minimum required perhaps even waiting to be forced to do so by the authorities.
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19 hours ago, washparkhorn said:
Yesterday I stumbled onto the new Peter Thiel interview on the NY Times. watch/listen
Not that I didn't think this before, but he's even weirder than I thought. He has this core belief that the world became stagnant after Los Alamos '45 or perhaps the Moon landing in '69. Even to a point that the internet and now AI wasn't as big of a deal.
He's also comes across as very fixated that we haven't discovered more (any?) cures or treatment for dementia. Either he had just finished reading an article about that so it was top of mind, or I have to wonder if he has a personal fear that is his near-term future. I will psychoanalyze him further in that some in his position of wealth, power and arrogance can get very upset when they recognize their mortality. I'm ~2 years younger than Thiel, and it's a sobering fact in your mid-50s that your highly productive years are behind you and/or quickly ending. You have to accept that the world now belongs to younger people. Life isn't over but you won't be around to experience 50 years from now.
I hadn't realized that he hasn't made any political donations since the '22 cycle due to disillusionment of MAGA.
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Usually not worth using cards on transactions that effectively force you to cover the vendors credit card fees. Sign up bonuses strategies excluded, in my experience these types of transactions usually reward you 1-2% max.  I have a BoA card that I can get 1.75% on random categories but that doesn’t cover the credit card fee on my prop tax bill.  Spending 2.2% to earn 1.75% is bad math.
credit card companies got wise to some of the creative strategies used 20+ years ago. I remember when they allowed cash advances with a capped fee and an extended 0% interest. In the early 2000s, I withdrew $40k for something like a $500 fee. No interest for ~2 years. I stuck it in a 18 month CD earning about 4%. I just had to muscle up the monthly payments. The good old days of using my credit score to earn passive income.
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1 hour ago, HenryJames said:
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The Trump administration is holding up the paramount sale until they settle with Trump. Perfectly normal behavior.
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Trump now has personal control over many business decisions by US Steel as part of the agreement to let Nippon Steel purchase them. Perfectly normal for a president to take over a private company. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/26/trump-golden-share-us-steel-nippon-merger.html
ÂThe new business charter does state that power is retained by the federal govt after Trump leave office but presumably there’s nothing stopping Trump from transferring that power to himself or his family. Or he can decide to reward himself whatever distribution he wants.
It reminds me when Obama gave himself power over many businesses in his 8 years. Oh wait, that never happened.Â
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16 hours ago, David Dennison said:
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Since most of these “agents” are corrections officers, they’re following their training. If you’re extracting a disruptive prisoner from a cell, you overwhelm them with force.
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I’ve read that most of these new ICE workers are current corrections officers who have been deputized. ICE likes to present them as long time ICE agents, police, ATF, etc. but in reality most of those individuals would want nothing to do with this work. Instead they recruiting men who work in jails and prison and annually earn less than $50K.
they have no real training in law enforcement and frankly couldn’t get a job in law enforcement so they’re basically mercenary bounty hunters at this point.
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22 hours ago, thunderlounge said:
, the city could not prove whatsoever that the breathalyzer was checked and properly calibrated.
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Side comment. In these situations I’ve always wondered if the city employee/cop/judge finds an envelope of cash on their desk then identifies a calibration problem.
but they lecture the soon-to-be exonerated defendant that there better not be a next time.
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23 hours ago, CooterBrown said:
Dividend income isn't free money. I'd rather just invest in solid index funds and withdraw my 5% a year. Funds that just chase ever increasing dividend payouts generally underperform index funds. Â
Makes sense but I don’t see a problem with some funds in high(er) yield dividend funds. I don’t mean chasing 10% yields but a solid ~4% on some of your bankroll isn’t bad. IMO.
i have about 10% of my investable assets in dividend stocks/funds. Not only do I like to reinvest the dividends, I find that when the dividend increases annually, the price somewhat rises by the same percent in a trend towards the previous yield. Dividends increase by 4%, you get that 4% price increase as well. I generally avoid dividends that don’t increase annually.
finally dividend investing has a game like feel. Say I want the avg monthly dividend to go up $5, I transfer over $1500 to buy a 4% yield. Perhaps I would spend that otherwise. $5 doesn’t buy you anything but repeat that buy regularly over a few years and it’s a decent amount. And you can still sell the funds if you want.
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Sorry if I'm slow with my thoughts, but I'm going to assume that a law allowing wastewater to be reused is not really about finding a reuse of the water or frankly even disposing of it. If O&G can "safely" reuse wastewater for agriculture, then why not allow them more access to more groundwater. They'll return x% of it back to the river or agriculture canals at a later date. Let's face it, O&G wants 100% of Texas water so they need to identify how to sell that argument.Â
In a way, it reminds me how the chemical industry came up with the idea of plastic recycling. Not because they wanted to reduce landfill waste or that they wanted to buy recycled plastic. They wanted to shift the blame of plastic waste in our environment away from them. Chemical companies aren't the bad guy, it's your neighbor who refuses to separate their trash. This gives the chemical companies more of a market because the consumer doesn't feel bad about choosing plastic.
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1 hour ago, Brew said:
On the whole drinking thing, if you’re looking for pills to make you feel better it might be time to just quit. I was having a conversation with my teenagers a couple years ago about drinking and how pervasive it was in their classes. The parents didn’t seem to care and enabled it because they were doing the same thing. I packed up 100+ bottles of bourbon, gave them away, and haven’t thought about it again. The health benefits were pretty quick even though I only had a drink or two a few nights a week while cooking or eating with friends. Even a minor amount on a regular basis makes a difference.
The culture of alcohol consumption is odd when you really think about it. From being around my kids friends, it’s becoming a more significant problem in their age ranges than what I remember growing up.
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26 minutes ago, tigol said:
I quit a couple of years ago as well and it has been the best decision for me. I was a very heavy drinker, but I was medicating underlying mental health issues.
I understand that many social drinkers do not have the same problems so to each their own. But from a physical and mental health standpoint quitting was the only way for me.
This book helped: https://a.co/d/dJ3PUgJTo me, one of the problems of quitting is that there's a good chance that many in your life are drinkers and they're the ones who have a problem with your quitting. And not that they're bad people that want you to be an alcoholic or heavy drinker but rather that they want a drinking friend at times. Anyone can say those aren't your friends but that's not necessarily true.Â
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On 6/20/2023 at 7:22 AM, CooterBrown said:
I remember distinctly being taught in 7th grade Texas history that it took so long for Texas slaves to be freed was because it took 2.5 years for the message to arrive to Texas. In hindsight, such a Texan thing to teach kids.
I recall being taught something similar but in reality Union troops weren't in Galveston or Texas in 1862 when the Proclamation was enacted. I don't believe for a second that Texas leaders weren't aware of it in 1862. I imagine they did their best to not have local papers write about it, and didn't speak about it too loudly. Then again maybe they used it as a rallying cry to create support by scaring the whites.
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1 hour ago, HenryJames said:
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I don't know how to interpret "never been closer" to a nuclear weapon but if we truly thought they were close, we should strike them today. why give them time to complete it, or worse use it.
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11 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:
You find it weird? Do you really? A holiday celebrating the day we stopped treating black people like subhuman property is not looked upon kindly by state leadership…and you don’t find that totally on-brand?Of course Texas Republicans are slow to embrace Juneteenth. It’s hard to celebrate the end of slavery when you’re still nostalgic for the good ol’ days of states' rights and dress-up secessionist cosplay.
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On 6/16/2025 at 10:00 PM, wild_turkey said:
https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/abbott-signs-law-permitting-use-of-fracking-wastewater/287-89df9861-29c7-4faa-b658-d651f94013ae
So basically the TCEQ will be responsible for monitoring that the fracking water meets certain safety standards, and we just have to trust that this process is sound and that no one will cut corners or turn a blind eye, because oil companies and our state government have a long history of caring about public health and putting the public’s best interests ahead of profits.
And HB 49 apparently protects the oil companies, landowners, and water treatment companies in the event the water causes harm.I also bet that the Texas Lege will eventually pass a law to prevent any restaurant/grocery store in providing information whether any food product is tied to fracking wastewater. This could be Dan Goeb's senate bill 1 in the next go-round.
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https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/18/politics/social-security-trust-fund-annual-report
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Social Security will not be able to fully pay monthly benefits to tens of millions of retirees and people with disabilities in 2034 if lawmakers don’t act to address the program’s pending shortfall, according to an annual report released Wednesday by Social Security’s trustees.
Let me add 65 to my birth year to see when I might decide to collect SS. That gives me.... 2034.
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15 hours ago, speed817 said:
Israel talking to the United States......
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Slim Charles knows more about war than most secretaries of state.
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1 hour ago, Ted Lange said:
Modi isn't even wearing a suit to the oval office so clearly he's lying and should be kicked out. Probably failed to thank President Trump for forcing the UK to accept Indian independence. Edit: independence under Trump's regime.
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On 6/9/2025 at 9:41 AM, Nice Guy Eddie said:
As I wrote about earlier in this thread, I have slightly elevated BP and cholesterol #s which are controlled via meds. I would describe my PCP as not into uncommon tests or numbers for which he says that there is little to be done. I like him but that aspect bothers me a bit. I have a family history of heart problems so I interested in learning more even if its just understanding the genetic component. This week I signed up, on my own, for more health tests at Labcorp: LP(a), and their Heart Health Test including ApoB.Â
Is there anyone else into testing on their own?
My PCP has rightfully indicated that if I'm that concerned about my heart health, then I should follow as healthy of a diet and exercise regime as possible and then not worry about anything. I don't disagree with that advice but I'm also a numbers guy. I also wouldn't describe myself as worrying about my health as I can be fairly unemotional about it.
Not that I expect anyone to be on the edge of their seats waiting on my health #s but to wrap up my story, the Lp(a) and ApoB results were low (good.) Statins keep my cholesterol to normal (low) level. unfortunately I've pulled myself the wrong direction in a diabetes risk index (DRI), which is supposed to give better insight than just a1c to identify the risk of developing type 2. I need to get off the path of turning into wilford brimley.
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22 hours ago, South Austin said:
Not sure if this is the best thread, but it's related to health and longevity. Has anyone tried Restore from a company called Cheers?  https://cheershealth.com/products/restore
Yes, I know that the best way to combat alcohol's effects on your body is to not drink at all. But, for those times when you might consume more than a couple drinks in one setting (e.g., football games, dinner parties, drinking alone in your garage), the science behind this product is interesting. Many of you may already know this, but when the body is trying to metabolize alcohol, it converts alcohol to acetaldehyde, which is way more toxic than alcohol. This, along with dehydration, is why we can feel like shit the next morning after significant alcohol consumption. And, acetaldehyde is a carcinogen, which is why alcohol has been linked to a higher rate of cancer.Â
This product includes cysteine, which converts acetaldehyde into a non-toxic compound and supposedly neutralizes its negative effects on the body, allowing you to metabolize alcohol more efficiently, and reducing the hangover effects.Â
A couple of my friends recently purchased these capsules and claim they work. Anyone here ever tried this?
Can't speak to this product but I saw an ad for an anti-hangover pill once. It was basically some combo of vitamins and salts. The directions were to take their pill after each alcoholic drink along with a full glass of water. lol.
Seriously if someone is worried about the health outcomes from drinking, cut back or quit.
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2 minutes ago, C-Man said:
Then they've been using it wrong. "Salt of the earth" is far from an insult.
Not exactly. People can use a term in any way they want.
Man, that Michael Jordan is so phony.
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29 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:
I have known a lot of Mormons. Most of them are the salt of the earth, the best, most kindly neighbors and per capita probably the happiest people there are.Â
Funny. I've heard many people using salt of the earth as an insult but I'm aware that people use it in the opposite as well.
ChatGPT AI Tool— We all work for robots now
in Daily Texan
Posted
I'm more and more impressed with AI every week. However, it's still be unable to perform some data analytic tasks that I've thrown at it. Perhaps I'm using the wrong models, or need to enhance the prompts. For example, I struggle to get AI to recognize that one data set has Eddie Smith and another is Eddie M. Smith, and to consider them the same. And that the first name field may have the middle initial in it as well. (Note in my limited data, I don't have currently have anyone with duplicate first and last names.)
I also find that data hallucinations are less likely now. I've run through some training that demonstrates that you can apply steps to validate an answer perhaps even using a different model to validate. If Gemini tells you that Napoleon ruled New Zealand, you can ask OpenAI to validate the answer. If found to false or questionable, either model can be re-asked the question and validated again. The downside of answer validation is time/cost.