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Andrew Tobias

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Andrew Tobias
Andrew Tobias

Money and Other Subjects

Make Russia Great Again

March 27, 2025March 29, 2025

Take one minute to review the nice things we’ve been doing for Putin.

We are treating our traditional allies as adversaries and rapidly becoming the world’s “bad guy” — see, e.g., U.S. to End Vaccine Funds for Poor Countries* — while our leader has exchanged love letters with the murderous dictator of North Korea and favored Russia’s murderous dictator over the FBI.

This strikes me as a huge, horrible, existential sort of thing, worthy of a larger font. 



OPRT

I already had a lot, but after reading today’s press release, I bought more.



CLIMATE

Tomorrow, “Al Gore delivers his most urgent climate presentation yet. And you don’t have to be in Paris to be in the room.”  Sign up to experience this moment live from wherever you are and discover how we can build a sustainable future together.



“BANKSPARENCY”

A friend has launched this site to Compare High-Yield Bank Accounts.  “I only soft-launched it last month. I’m still in the process of adding more banks and more bank products.  I’d appreciate any feedback your readers may have.”

For money, I guess, you truly can’t afford to lose.



FLAMINGOS

An entrepreneur on a Zoom seeking funds this morning was asked:  “What if someone just uses AI to invent a superior product?”

“AI is amazing for lots of things,” he said, “but until you can get an AI to draw a picture with 5 flamingos, I’m not worried.  Try it on Grok or any of the others.”

What a weird answer, I thought — and immediately went to Microsoft’s Copilot and typed: “draw me a picture of 5 falmingos.”  Unfazed by my typo, it produced a gorgeous picture . . . of 7.

“Why does the picture you drew have 7 flamingos when I asked for 5?” I asked.

“It seems like there may have been a glitch that caused the image generation to include seven flamingos instead of five. I aim to follow requests precisely, but occasionally the tools I use might interpret the description differently. If you’d like, I can try creating an updated image to match your original request more closely! Let me know.”

“Yes, please re-draw it with 5 instead of 7.”

This time, there were 6.

“Now there are 6 flamingos. Please re-draw with just exactly 5.”

“All right, I’ll create a new image with exactly five flamingos for you. Let me know if there’s anything else you’d like adjusted.”

And here it is: 6 flamingos.

At the rate AI is improving, I have to think the flamingo challenge will soon be overcome.  But — huh?



MUSK FEEDBACK

Kris M: “You say, ‘We have a lot to be thankful to Musk for’???  I’d say HE has a lot to be thankful to US for.  Without a 2010 loan from U.S. taxpayers, he would not have been able to build his factory in California and roll out the Model S.  His companies exist because of billions ($38 of them over the last 20 years) of government contracts, loans, subsidies, etc.  As a long-time taxpayer, I’d like to see some of the billionaires I’ve helped create show some gratitude to the country that enabled their success and give something back to that country in the form of tax dollars.”

Daniel N.: “In What’s Musk Really Up To? yesterday you propagate what can only be described as a wild conspiracy theory.  I have similar mixed feelings about Musk to yours.  But spreading this sort of nonsense is going too far.  Please stop.”


*”By Gavi’s own estimate, the loss of U.S. support may mean 75 million children do not receive routine vaccinations in the next five years, with more than 1.2 million children dying as a result.”

 

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