mbassoc2003 wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Wtf is 12 oz. Mouse?
I guess I’m just old now.

Lol. Sounds like my kind of show...

6.5/10 · IMDb
Part of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block, "12 oz. Mouse" follows the animated adventures of Mouse Fitzgerald, an unapologetic drunken mouse with a background in espionage and a complete lack of memory. Fitz, as he is called, performs odd jobs,...


Edit: scratch that...I just watched 3 clips and if I were forced to watch another, I would be compelled to poke my eyes out.  It would be less painful.

-SKA

Sir Kill Alot wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Edit: scratch that...I just watched 3 clips and if I were forced to watch another, I would be compelled to poke my eyes out.  It would be less painful.

I was like, what the F is this?!
Why do the younger generations find this stuff funny?
So I watched MASH instead.

Watched "The Goodies" as a kid. Bought a boxed set some years back to show my boys and they laughed as much as we did when kids. Of all those UK comedy shows though, the duo that almost killed me family from laughter was Smith and Jones. I remember one episode, parents and siblings all convulsing on the floor and couch unable to breathe because we were laughing so much.

sauromatian wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:"Wizards of the Coast is a niche division of the toy company, Hasbro. They publish popular fantasy games like Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, which make up a large share of Hasbro's revenues. They're now at the center of an ongoing proxy battle. Today, we explain why one investor with a different vision for Hasbro wants to shake up the company's board of directors."
https://www.npr.org/2022/05/31/11022948 ... -to-hasbro

I don't listen to audio news, so can someone hear spend 9 minutes to do that & tell me what it's about?

9 minute of anal gazing horsesh!t.....

SYLVIE DOUGLIS, BYLINE: NPR.
(SOUNDBITE OF DROP ELECTRIC'S "WAKING UP TO THE FIRE")
ADRIAN MA, HOST:
This is THE INDICATOR FROM PLANET MONEY. I'm Adrian Ma.
WAILIN WANG, HOST:
And I'm Wailin Wong. Adrian, I wanted to propose a new season for us to celebrate here on THE INDICATOR - proxy season.
MA: Yeah, proxy season.
WANG: Proxy season - the time of year when publicly traded companies hold their annual stockholder meetings.
MA: Yeah, just imagine corporate executives running on stage with, like, hordes of shareholders screaming at them.
WANG: Well, they don't usually get that rowdy, but stockholders do get to make some noise during proxy season because, typically, at these annual meetings, there's different proposals that investors get to vote on. And some of the proposals come from the company, like please approve our nominees for the board of directors. But investors can also submit proposals. For example, they can nominate their own candidates for the board. And when companies and shareholders don't see eye to eye, that's when you get a proxy battle.
MA: Today on the show, we go inside one of those proxy battles unfolding at a company you've probably heard of - Hasbro. We learn about the players and their strategies and what's on the line as they face off over the future of the company.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
WANG: Hasbro is almost 100 years old. It's the maker of Mr. Potato Head, My Little Pony and Monopoly. It also has a division called Wizards of the Coast, which publishes Magic: The Gathering, a competitive trading card game, and Dungeons & Dragons, a fantasy roleplaying game.
MA: And Wailin, I understand you sort of dabble in D&D yourself?
WANG: Dabble? You're talking to a Level 5 Druid here.
MA: Oh, shoot.
WANG: I am a powerful spellcaster with the ability to change into wild animals, and I play the bassoon.
MA: (Laughter) That is amazing.
WANG: What I love about it is that there are basic rules for character building and magic spells and monsters, but then players, by rolling dice and using their imaginations, get to act out an adventure together. You can go exploring. You can fight monsters. You can hunt for treasure or go on a quest.
MA: And with that, Wailin Wong, why don't we set up this Hasbro proxy battle, D&D style?
(SOUNDBITE OF LAURENT COUSON'S "CASTLE SECRETS")
WANG: OK, so imagine a kingdom with our publicly traded company, Castle Hasbro, at its center.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAURENT COUSON'S "CASTLE SECRETS")
WANG: The castle holds a closely guarded secret, something Hasbro has never revealed publicly. And that is how much money their Wizards of the Coast division actually makes.
MA: See, Hasbro acquired Wizards of the Coast in the late '90s. But for a couple decades, it didn't release financial details about that part of the company. Then last year, the company revealed Wizards of the Coast was the most profitable part of the company. Magic: The Gathering and D&D - they had record sales in 2020, bringing in over $800 million.
SCOTT THORNE: It was just, oh, my God, this is how much money they're making compared to everything else?
MA: Scott Thorne owns a store in Carbondale, Ill., called Castle Perilous Games & Books. He sells Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons products, and he's also a Hasbro stockholder. He has 43 shares, in fact, that he bought several years ago.
THORNE: I was always under the impression that you're making all your money on action figures and board games and Wizards of the Coast is this tiny little division over there, and it's not. And that just kind of blew my mind.
WONG: Wizards of the Coast's profitability wasn't just mind-blowing for invested retailers like Scott. It also made waves among professional investors like Connor Haley. He's been playing Magic: The Gathering since he was a kid, and now he's the managing partner of an investment firm called Alta Fox Capital.
CONNOR HALEY: It was this pivotal moment that I think was underappreciated by the market because, you know, if you don't play Magic: The Gathering or Dungeons & Dragons, it can be easy to fail to appreciate just how special these assets are.
WANG: And in Connor's view, with the success of Wizards of the Coast, Hasbro stock should be doing a lot better. In the last few years, Hasbro's stock has fallen, whereas the broader stock market has gone up. Connor felt like if Hasbro put more money into Wizards of the Coast instead of its other divisions, the share price could really take off.
MA: And so Connor set off on a kind of quest. His investment firm, Alta Fox, started buying shares in Hasbro, eventually amassing a 2.5% stake in the company.
HALEY: When you buy a stock, you're not buying a piece of paper, you're buying ownership in a business, right? You are a true owner of that business.
MA: And as one of those true owners, Connor had some ideas he wanted to share with Hasbro - like maybe Hasbro should spin off Wizards of the Coast into an independent company. And maybe some of the people running the company - you know, the board of directors - some of them should be replaced.
WANG: So in fall of 2021, Alta Fox contacted Hasbro's investor relations department. Eventually, Connor got further into Castle Hasbro. He got to talk to the CFO and the CEO.
MA: But in early 2022, things started to stall. There were emails exchanged and slideshows and virtual meetings and requests for information, but no agreement.
WANG: Hasbro declined to comment for this story, but pointed to a website where it's posted information about the proxy battle. The company calls Connor's campaign a distraction and says the Alta Fox board nominees don't have the right expertise. Connor disagrees.
HALEY: They were trying to check a box to say, hey, we spoke with this investor and we listened to his concerns, when in reality, they have not addressed most of our concerns in any substantive way. And, you know, that's why we're headed to a proxy vote in June.
WANG: On June 8, when Hasbro holds its annual meeting, it will be putting up 13 nominees for the board of directors. Alta Fox has been shifting its strategy. Earlier, it had been campaigning for three board candidates of its own. As of this taping Tuesday afternoon, it's down to one.
MA: And here's how the proxy vote goes down. First of all, it's called proxy vote because the shareholders don't actually have to be physically present at a meeting to vote. They can actually do it online or by mail. And then another thing to note here is that a lot of folks who own stocks through a retirement plan or a mutual fund company - in those cases, it's the managers of those funds who typically vote on behalf of their clients.
WANG: But Scott Thorne - the gaming store owner who owns Hasbro stock - he cast his own vote as an individual shareholder. And he went with Hasbro's nominees for the board. He was not convinced that Alta Fox would do a better job than the current leadership.
THORNE: Hasbro, from my point of view - I can't argue with how much I have sold of Magic and D&D over the past decade or the past 20 years.
MA: Scott's been running his store for three decades, and the games that Wizards of the Coast makes keep attracting new devotees. They're people like Connie Chang, who got into D&D as a high school student.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CONNIE CHANG: I think Dream Hunter flies out of the emperor's sheath. It was strapped to your mother-father's waist.
WANG: That is Connie leading a round of D&D. They are a professional Game Master, which means they actually get paid to be the sort of storyteller, narrator, master of ceremonies all in one.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
CHANG: ...Flies through the air, this, like, beautiful silver blade, and we see each of the runes on the blade - bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, bing - like, light up eight and (imitating poof sound) fly.
WONG: People like Connie have big stakes in Hasbro, even if they're not literal stockholders.
CHANG: It's the creators, the players, us that make this game, make this hobby worth investing in, right? We write ourselves into the narrative with the work we do in the hobby.
MA: Connie's part of a group of all transgender players who stream their games on Twitch. They're part of a super passionate community that loves the game, but also, they want to see it evolve - you know, make it more inclusive and more supportive of creators from marginalized backgrounds.
CHANG: We are always pushing for change that we later see maybe one or two years later being implemented officially.
WANG: So in a few weeks, we'll know the outcome of this proxy fight between Hasbro and Connor Haley, between management and investors. And far outside the boardroom, in the spaces where Connie plays, their communities will keep pushing the boundaries of what the game can be and defining Hasbro's future in their own way.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MA: This episode was produced by Jess Kung with engineering from James Willetts. It was fact-checked by Corey Bridges. Our senior producer is Viet Le. Kate Concannon edits the show. And THE INDICATOR is a production of NPR.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

Thunderdave wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Thank you for posting the transcript,

800 million in sales in 2020 between d&d and Magic… could that be right?

they say there were ~18m players a couple years ago for D&D, similar numbers for MTG.

Say the average D&D player buys 1.5 rulebooks per year (more for DM's and fewer for casual players) and 20-30 odd booster packs for the average MTG player.

That works out at around 18m * (50 USD/book * 1.5) + 15m *($5/booster * 20/30) = would be a low end of ~2.85bln

So we can guess that player base guesses are wildly inflated - but even then 800m feels like a 'low' number.

I suppose i am using retail prices and you can halve the above number to cut out distributors+retailers to get the WoTC take.

Still feels like a fair bit of upside to WoTC vs market comparables that HASBRO trades on.

shadeun wrote in New Candidate: Silliest Auction Price of the Year:Given whats going on in markets & crypto. I'm guessing the "Silliest" candidates will soon be ultra-low prices vs the normal ridiculously high very soon....

Lets see...

Given the current bid price on oil and natural gas, it seems silly to cut oil production and close natural gas installations, but heck, I'm not an economist and I don't pretend to understand the fuel or energy markets. Seems like they're doing a wonderful job of pushing prices higher. But why not? It's not like the buyers are going to go anywhere else. All they're doing is moving funds from one commodity (eBay purchases, recreation, crypto, junk food) over to the energy sector. Take another 20% of the natural gas supply away from the market and cut fuel production further and people will walk more, work more, eat less, and not have money to spend on 2nd Amendment hobbies.

Sir Kill Alot wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Just dumping some random thoughts this morning as i'm watching the ponzi scheme called crypto steal everyone's money who thought it was a good idea...  I personally don't really understand it and some people have made a killing with it, so take my comment with a grain of salt.  :lol:

I have already scaled back my purchases to zero in the last 6 weeks.  Being on the sidelines hasn't bothered me too much and I expect prices to crater as monies are moved to essentials. I believe we are at an inflection point because once the FED starts jacking rates, the people living off their credit cards/variable rate HELOCs and making minimum payments are in for some real rough times.  Every asset class is taking it on the chin right now (except energy) and the masses will only take so much from incompetent 'leaders' and the ugly starts setting in.  As far as energy and food prices go, come winter if nothing has changed and the layoffs are biting hard, the 70 acres my folks bought for a prepper's paradise 5 years ago in upstate PA will not be looking so outrageous anymore.  Ugh.

-SKA

I don't think this is incompetence leadership. I see plenty of incompetent leadership in all countries. But this is basic mathematics, and any 10yo understands basic math.
$3 out of every $4 in the world did not exist 24 months ago. Those $3 out of every $4 was printed in exchange for zero value created. But the number of things to buy in the world has not changed. 4 times the money chasing the exact same things. Therefor, on average, every single thing we buy has to increase in price by 300% just to be be worth the same value in money terms as it did 24 moths ago.

It takes time (longer than you think) for the inflation of the money supply to filter through into the economy, and it takes a lot longer for the full effect of the monetary inflation to stabilize. Maybe 5 years or more, and the distribution of the burden will be uneven. Food may level off at 380% higher than before, whereas building materials may level off at 240% higher. But on aggregate we're looking at 300% to correctly reflect currency in circulation.

Bottom line is everything is dirt cheap right now because prices have not begun to move in earnest yet. People are whining about $8 gas, when only $2 of that $8 is value created by economic growth, and the other $6 is 'stimulus money' in one way or another. When you allow the general populous to beg for stimulus, you have to suffer the consequences eventually. We just happen to be the people who have to suffer the consequences.

In my country the government are handing out free money to all and sundry instead of letting them slide into poverty, and 95% are too stupid to see what the consequences of free money are. At least our kids will learn to understand the difference between value and money in the future. The avocado generation are in for a whole world of pain because the have spend their lives being lied to about how the world works.

I wish I had a piece of land to call my own. Or even a house for that matter. Sure would make the future less stressful.

Numbers I hear/read could be wrong, but I understand over 90% of mortgages are fixed and under 5%. Material prices are high, and labor is hard to find, so I would expect home prices to stay high for now. Demand is rolling over as rates rise, but demand will still exceed supply through 2022. Likely longer.

Sir Kill Alot wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:Gosh I hope you are wrong Ian. A phenomenon called demand destruction usually corrects prices.  People start refusing to purchase or significantly cut back on their purchases no matter how much they need it.

That doesn't work for food and fuel though. We can all cut out chocolate and soda, but we cannot cut out rice and beans. We can all stop driving to the mall, but we cannot stop paying for the fuel to get food into our local shops. As you say, the closest you can get is growing your own food resources on 70 acres, but 99% of people cannot do that (age, health, knowledge, financial resources, land availability, etc.) Demand destruction only applies to discretionary spending.

We (The West) have given Russia over $70B in the past three months in exchange for various goods. In that same timeframe we have pledges to provide (but not provided) some $52B in aid to Ukraine. Who are we really supporting by actually funding one side, and saying we are supporting the other?

And look at the mechanics of this. We do not send $52B to Ukraine. We send goods that have already been manufactured and stockpiled that are sitting in storage to Ukraine, and we pay $52B of tax payers money to the owners of those companies. The money never leaves the country. The only money that leaves the country is the $70B we send to Russia. The only country receiving actual finds to support its war efforts is Russia.

So who is actually supporting who in this proxy war?  

Sir Kill Alot wrote in Random Thoughts or OT Chit-Chat Thread:At our ages (well at least mine anyways  :) ) one would think that we are not carrying a mortgage however Life throws lots of curveballs and a bunch of us are still stuck with them.  People with variable rate ones are about to get slapped silly with the FED just raising rates by 75 basis points.

I would hope so. Sadly a bankruptcy put paid to my home ownership in my 40's. In my 50's I now rent. That vulnerability aside, I am debt free though, so maybe better that most in an inflationary upswing.

In the UK most people who are on fixed interest rate mortgages are only fixed for a certain period of time (5 years). We are already getting whiny stories in the media about need to help out idiots who were on interest only mortgages and are reaching the time when they have to pay back the principle. Like they have known for 25 years or more that they have to pay back the principle, and have lived for 25 years paying a cheaper mortgage than most, and now they are holding out their bagging bowls asking for the rest of the country to pay for their greed and ignorance. There is a simple solution in a country with a shortage of housing stock. Sell the house. Pay off the principle. Spend the rest on a home in a trailer park or buy a caravan.

With the threat of a 1% interest rate hike, the papers here are complaining that home owners face a GBP 200 increase in their mortgage. That's 1%. What are you gonna do when its rises 2% a year three or four years in a row? Did they not even learn basic math when they went to school? Did they honestly think interest free money was going to exist forever?

Bottom line is, you can introduce price controls, destroy demand, ration goods and fuel, and play any number of games with people's lives in your country. Every single time any or all of these measures have been tried in the past, they have failed. Every time without exception. The only way to stop inflation is to increase the interest rate to above the level of inflation (less % economic growth) and keep it there. The UK did it in the 70's. Paul Volker did it in the 80's.

But they'll destroy the country before they decide to fix the problem. They'll point out that it'll be different this time. That the very best economists in the country are so much more intelligent that everyone else in history, and that it's only going to be temporary, transitionary, short term, pick your cuddly euphemism.

Then they'll increase the rates to where they need to be. Those on the correct side of the wealth transfer will win. Those on the wrong side of the wealth transfer will lose (and they'll cry and pretend they didn't know a decades ago that this was going to happen, that they had never heard of the 1980's, that they were promised this and they were promised that, and what could they ever have done to protect themselves? After all, how can you possibly have lived through the last decade without an iPhone, Starbucks, a gym membership, a second car, of regular holidays?), and a lot of people will move back into their parents' houses, or buy tents and move into a park near you.

So maybe this will be the rebuilding of family units and communities in the West. Meanwhile the developing nations face mass famine and death. Compared to that, homelessness and a lack of sweet treats is heavenly.

Does anyone in California ask themselves how much home will be worth if there is no running water? Have they actually looked at what is happening to their water supply over the long term? At least they'll have plenty of sand to bury their heads in, eh.

Cognitive dissonance. It all comes down to that.