Lil' guy, big dick

+ AI accelerationists are stoked

July 19, 2024

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OVERWORLD:
-The Supreme acquisition, explained-

ONE BETWEEN:
-AI accelerationists celebrate J.D. Vance as Vice President-

THE DEPTHS:
-Lil’ guy with a big dick-

“Don't be attracted to easy paths because the paths that make your feet bleed are the only way to get ahead in life.”
— Saddam Hussein

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✦DISCOVERY PICKS✦

Corporate fucktoy

The Supreme acquisition, explained.

Corporations are, once again,running a train on Supreme. This time it’s EssilorLuxottica turn — it just bought Supreme for $1.5 billies.

Yes, the French-Italian eyewear giant EssilorLuxottica announced on Wednesday morning that it is indeed acquiring the New York streetwear legend from VF Corp. for $1.5 billion in cash.

Not pocket change, but it’s cheap. A bargain, actually:

Fat ticket: VF Corp paid $2.1 billion for Supreme in 2020.

New price: The cheaper $1.5 billion price is supposedly representative of the shifts in consumers interest the streetwear market. These shifts are present in Supreme’s case, because it has been experiencing sales declines post-acquisition.

The real winner: VF Corp. has had its own demons since 2020. For example, a fat $5 billion in debt and struggling core brands like Vans, The North Face, and Timberland. Now, VF can breathe. Dropping off Supreme allows it to focus on reviving its simpler, key brands.

The market agrees: VF Corp.’s shares popped +14% after the news.

✦Risk✦

That’s nice and all… but the rationale behind EssilorLuxottica’s buy is vague. The company does not have any clothing brands in its portfolio. Rather, it does shades — it owns brands like Ray-Ban and Oakley. So, Supreme will be its first fashion brand.

They even have a giant pair of shades outside their HQ.

Haha: EssilorLuxottica’s stock dropped by 5 percent post-announcement. Still, business wins are often made via contrarian bets. Owning a prominent brand like Supreme could offer new growth avenues, particularly in Superme eyewear.

Supreme has done sunglasses, many, many, many times before.

THE KING NEEDS YOU

Human, you are a mere. Do you not seek grander ventures? A greater title? Honor? Take up arms, and help me expand my kingdom!

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✦Business & Tech✦

Nothing new, but: Big tech is reportedly scraping YouTube subtitles without creators' consent. Major companies, including Apple and Nvidia, have utilized this data. If you didn’t know, this is unauthorized use of content creators’ property. Bad bad.

Socialist machines: Chinese AI companies are getting reviewed by the government to ensure models have "core socialist values." The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) tests models on politically sensitive topics and their thoughts on Xi Jinping.

Elon Musk announced Tuesday he’ll move SpaceX and X HQs from California to Texas. He says the new California law on transgender student notification was the “final straw” for him.

Busted? Craig Wright, who claims to be Bitcoin's inventor, was sent to British prosecutors for making a false statement. A judge ruled he forged documents to support his claim of being Satoshi Nakamoto.

✦Fashion & Culture✦

Record-breaker:Every summer, Spanish Twitch streamer Ibai Llanos hosts "La Velada del Año," a huge boxing event with influencers and musical acts. This year, he brought 5.9 million viewers, breaking the Twitch record he held himself at 3.8 million. Also, it was headlined by Will Smith.

Literal fashion police: Sue Mi Terry, a former CIA and White House official, was indicted for giving info to South Korean intelligence in exchange for luxury goods and funding. She is now facing up to 5 years in prison.

Fashion feud: Adidas and Thom Browne's legal battle over striped trademarks keeps on keeping on in London. Adidas claims Browne's four-bar motif confuses consumers, thinking it’s Adidas. This is despite a decade of coexistence. Thom Browne argues Adidas' actions are an overreach, which it is.

Year of the ladies: The WNBA secured $2.2 billion in new media rights deals with ESPN, Amazon, and NBC, tripling its previous earnings. This deal, negotiated alongside the NBA, boosts annual revenue to $200 million, and it’ll probably keep going.

✦Hmm… Interesting✦

Cozy 1-minute read: my issue with online interactions

Interesting 1-minute read:Will banning phones at school become the norm?

Real, real interesting: Jailbreaking Rabbit R1’s OS

Whoa: The Unexpected Poetry of PhD Acknowledgements

For developers: Cool PDF from 1986, “Little Languages”

ONE

BETWEEN

Republican AI politics

AI accelerationists celebrate J.D. Vance as Vice President.

This is not Vance, which is the joke.

AI accelerationists are stoked. Donald Trump recently announced Ohio Senator J.D. Vance as his choice for Vice President — and he’s got an e/acc flavor of AI-optimism:

Opinions: Vance holds an anti-regulation stance on AI. He’s also against the Republican Party’s goal of repealing President Joe Biden’s Executive Order on AI.

VC swag: Vance also has a pretty impressive resumé as a Silicon Valley venture capitalist. He graduated from Yale, worked at Mithril Capital with Peter Thieland raised significant funds for his firm, Narya Capital from baws investors like Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Eric Schmidt.

Ex-Trump hater: Before his political career, Vance was known for his memoir "Hillbilly Elegy" and his initial criticism of Trump, whom he once called “reprehensible” and “cultural heroin.”

✦e/acc don-dada✦

Supporters of rapid AI development, are known as e/acc, effective accelerationists, or techno-optimists. The two general ideas they share with Vance are:

Idea A: Big tech only pushes for AI regulations that favor big tech, a rich, leftist subset of people. They also believe that big tech and the US government want to infuse AI with leftist ideologies.

Idea B: Vance is pro-open source AI. This is tightly connected with Vance’s idea that big tech is making AI leftist. Making AI open source would allow for proper scrutiny of AI models.

THE DEPTHS

Haha

Lil’ guy with a big dick

In the military, big machines win wars; fat jets take the skies, tanks rumble across battlefields.

Sure, size isn’t everything. But if you’re small, you better have a big, fire-spraying dick — like the 1950s Vespa 150 TAP, a scooter with a built-in cannon.

After World War II, France needed something light and easy to transport for its Paratroopers, something that could be dropped from a plane. Like a Vespa, that can kill tanks — so they made a Vespa, that can kill tanks.

About 600 of these fuckers were built by the French company ACMA between 1956 and 1959.

The Vespa 150 TAP was different from its civilian cousin, the Vespa 150 — not just in penis size, but in bone strength.

It had a stronger frame and lower gear ratios, it could carry more equipment, and it came in badass dull colors like olive drab and sand.

Inside, it held a 145.5-cubic-centimeter, single-cylinder, two-stroke engine. It could reach about 40 miles per hour, eventually.

✦About the schlong✦

Time to address the elephant cock in the room. Whoever had the pleasure to ride this thing, was seated on a M20 75-millimeter recoilless rifle.

The M20 fired a 22-pound projectile at 1,000 feet per second. The M20 could fire different types of rounds, including anti-tank ones, with the capability to pierce almost 4 inches of armor from 7,000 yards away.

So, yeah. Big dick.