Fourier expansion calculator

The World of Tomorrow, Today

2014.09.22 19:47 The World of Tomorrow, Today

/FutureWorldPowers is a role playing sub-reddit similar to world powers set in the future of Earth. Using war, diplomacy, and more, players can craft there country into what they see fit. Happy sculpting!
[link]

2014.10.21 18:57 GlobalPowersModerators

> Moderators of /GlobalPowers.
[link]

2016.05.31 22:56 ganderloin Europowers: Rule your European nation!

After the collapse of the EU, much of Europe has either been overrun by migrants, fascists or a mass of angry peasants. Come and join in in a political simulation of a futurist Europe where anything can happen.
[link]

2024.06.09 23:58 Fair_Trade_Finder Comparing Bluetti vs. EcoFlow

In this article, we're comparing Bluetti vs EcoFlow portable power stations, focusing on key aspects like battery technology, power capacity, recharge times, ports, and warranty.
We will also look at specific models, including Bluetti EB3A vs. EcoFlow RIVER 2 and Bluetti AC200P vs. EcoFlow DELTA Max 2000.
Useful Links:

Lithium Ion Battery Technology

Capacity and Output

Charge Cycles

Charge cycles are a calculation estimation of how many times the portable power station can be charged and discharged before the lithium ion battery functionality begins to decrease.

Recharge Times

Port Availability

Portability and Design

submitted by Fair_Trade_Finder to portablepowerinfo [link] [comments]

2024.06.09 20:46 Stankow02 [MAR] Marriott International Stock Analysis (Beginner)

Hi guys the full analysis can be found on my new Blog that I started. It's my first ever write-up it may have a lot of mis-spellings as my native language isn't English. The Analysis is more Comprehensive on my Blog.
https://stojanovicwealth.com/marriott-international-stock-analysis/

Business Overview & History

Marriott is a worldwide operator, franchisor, and licensor of hotel, residential, timeshare, and other lodging properties under numerous brand names at different price and service points. Their brand portfolio is huge.
At year-end 2023, they had 2,096 company-operated properties (589,078 rooms) and they had 6,563 franchised and licensed properties (994,354 rooms). This makes them the largest hotel chain in the world. I have computed the last 10 years of properties in a chart derived from the 10K’s from 2016-2024.
From what I can tell in terms of trends Franchise is growing faster than Company-Operated with 6.5% vs 2% growth rate in Rooms in the past 9 years. We are excluding the change from 2015 to 2016 as then Marriott had made a huge acquisition.
This Merger diluted Shareholders greatly with shares outstanding going from 255 Mil to 385 Mil. which is roughly a 33% Dilution to Shareholders. However, before the Merger and since then the management has been focused on aggressively buying back it’s shares. By now the outstanding Shares have again been reduced and are as of right now 285 Mil. The violet line represents the outstanding Shares. The black line is the Stock price in USD. The yellow squares are Dividends per Share in USD for LTM.
Now returning back to the geographical Distribution we can see that Marriott has 37,2% of it’s Rooms in the International Regions and 62,8% in US, as you can see bellow.

Industry and Competitors:

The 4 largest competitors are Hilton, Hyatt, Accor and IHG. The following graphic shows the expected Total Industry Size is around $2TN in 2030. They are in an expanding and growing industry as world wealth rises travel industry should enter a secular trend.
Regarding loyalty programs, Marriott ranks number 1 worldwide, but Hilton is growing faster. We will look at competitors’ fundamentals in the Valuation and Quality Sections just to get an overview.

Financial Analysis:

Key Financials: Revenue doubled from 2016 to 2023 which implies a CAGR of roughly 9%. Net Income tripled since then which is a rough 15% CAGR. We can see the company’s efficiency by looking at a very high gross margin of >80% and an operating margin of ~65%. That means the company is producing something for 19 cents, selling it for $1 and making a gross profit of 81 cents on it.
Capital Structure: Marriott doesn’t hold much of a Cash Position as it spends it Cash in buying back it’s shares and paying dividends to shareholders. The Debt has been rising lately but is covered very good with an Interest Coverage Rate of 7,5. Marriott’s Credit rating is also Investment Grade.
Cash Flow: CFO grew roughly 9% p.a. since 2016. The Company only has minimal Capital Expenditures due to its asset-light business model.

Valuation:

DCF: Let’s get to the most important part, the price you pay.
We have a current share price of $231.10 and my DCF gives me a fair value of $112.47 if being extremely conservative vs a price of $197.36 if being very optimistic. Here are the assumptions:
I have although used the WACC of 10% for all 3 cases to be consistent. In my realistic case I model a 2030 Revenue Growth of 6% (in line with Wall St.) – an EBIT Margin of 64% which is similar to its current of 61%. – a WACC of 10% and a TGR of 3.15% which gives me a Price of 154.92 which in turn means that the current price of $231.10 with these expectations can be derived if we model the WACC to 8.25% – that in turn means we can assume a long term (>5 Year) Return on this investment of around 8.25% if my expectations are met.
Historical Valuations / Exit Multiples: Marriott is currently Trading at around its historical 10-year P/E Multiple and FCF Yield:
If we assume it will trade around the same in the future, we can take the modeled Earnings and Cashflows from the DCF and roughly calculate the expected return as the earnings and FCF Growth rate + Dividends + Buybacks.
This was used with the same expectations that the DCF Price of 154.92 was calculated to remain consistent. This equates to a rough estimate of a total return of 8.58% until 2030 if all else (Valuation, etc.) remains Equal.
In conclusion, I would say that the current price for Marriott International depends on the returns you expect to earn. While I think the company is not an exceptionally high-quality business as it misses the growth factor I think it has lots of other Moats that are hard to rebuild like their APP, like their Loyalty Programm, like their Prestigeus Brand Name, Credit Cards, etc. As the current market is very highly Rated I doubt you will get a much better CAGR in the Market (due to very high current Valuations) than Marriot expected which is around 8.5% (conservatively measured, if optimistic, possibly 10%+ if multiple Expansion or higher than expected growth occurs)
submitted by Stankow02 to ValueInvesting [link] [comments]

2024.06.09 19:46 kichelmn How to get better at integration, especially for fourier series

Hi everybody,
I'm taking Real Analysis II this semester and I really enjoy most of it, especially compactness and multivariable derivatives.
However, I really struggle with the integration exercises, especially when I try to calculate fourier coefficients. I usually try an exercise, get nowhere, look up the solution, feel like I could have never arrived there myself and then don't really learn anything.
Can somebody relate to that? What did you do to get better at integration?
submitted by kichelmn to mathematics [link] [comments]

2024.06.09 10:40 Toul-ISSR Post of Yap.

Geometry, a branch of mathematics, is fundamentally concerned with the properties and relations of points, lines, surfaces, and solids. Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, with the Egyptians and Babylonians using geometric principles for practical tasks such as land measurement and construction. The Greeks, particularly Euclid, formalized geometry into a coherent mathematical system. Euclid's "Elements" is a comprehensive compilation of the knowledge of geometry in his time, laying the foundation for what we now call Euclidean geometry. This work remains influential, showcasing the power of logical deduction from basic postulates and axioms.
Euclidean geometry deals primarily with flat, two-dimensional spaces and includes concepts such as points, lines, angles, and shapes like triangles and circles. The properties and relationships of these shapes are explored through theorems and proofs. For instance, the Pythagorean theorem, which states that in a right-angled triangle, the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides, is a cornerstone of Euclidean geometry. This theorem not only has profound theoretical importance but also practical applications in various fields including architecture, engineering, and physics.
Beyond Euclidean geometry, the development of non-Euclidean geometries in the 19th century expanded the understanding of space. Mathematicians like Gauss, Bolyai, and Lobachevsky explored geometries where the parallel postulate of Euclidean geometry does not hold. This led to the creation of hyperbolic and elliptic geometries, where the nature of lines and angles deviates significantly from Euclidean norms. These non-Euclidean geometries are crucial in the theory of relativity, where the fabric of space-time is curved rather than flat, demonstrating the deep interconnectedness between geometry and the physical world.
In three-dimensional space, geometry encompasses the study of polyhedra and other complex shapes. Platonic solids, such as the tetrahedron, cube, and dodecahedron, are prime examples of three-dimensional shapes studied extensively in geometry. These shapes are characterized by their regularity and symmetry. The study of these solids not only reveals intrinsic mathematical beauty but also finds applications in various scientific disciplines, including crystallography, chemistry, and molecular biology, where the geometric arrangement of atoms determines the properties of substances.
Modern geometry continues to evolve, integrating with other mathematical disciplines and expanding into new areas such as topology and differential geometry. Topology examines properties of shapes that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching or twisting, leading to insights into the fundamental nature of space. Differential geometry, on the other hand, uses calculus to study curves, surfaces, and manifolds, playing a vital role in modern physics, particularly in the general theory of relativity. As our understanding of the universe deepens, geometry remains a pivotal tool in unraveling the complexities of the world around us. Geometry, a branch of mathematics, is fundamentally concerned with the properties and relations of points (P), lines (L), surfaces (S), and solids (V). Its origins trace back to ancient civilizations, with the Egyptians and Babylonians using geometric principles for practical tasks such as land measurement and construction. The Greeks, particularly Euclid, formalized geometry into a coherent mathematical system. Euclid's "Elements" is a comprehensive compilation of the knowledge of geometry in his time, laying the foundation for what we now call Euclidean geometry. This work remains influential, showcasing the power of logical deduction from basic postulates and axioms.
Euclidean geometry deals primarily with flat, two-dimensional spaces (ℝ²) and includes concepts such as points (P), lines (L), angles (θ), and shapes like triangles (△) and circles (⊙). The properties and relationships of these shapes are explored through theorems and proofs. For instance, the Pythagorean theorem, which states that in a right-angled triangle (△), the square of the hypotenuse (c) is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides (a and b), can be expressed as (a2 + b2 = c2). This theorem not only has profound theoretical importance but also practical applications in various fields including architecture, engineering, and physics.
Beyond Euclidean geometry, the development of non-Euclidean geometries in the 19th century expanded the understanding of space (ℝ³). Mathematicians like Gauss, Bolyai, and Lobachevsky explored geometries where the parallel postulate of Euclidean geometry does not hold. This led to the creation of hyperbolic and elliptic geometries, where the nature of lines (L) and angles (θ) deviates significantly from Euclidean norms. These non-Euclidean geometries are crucial in the theory of relativity, where the fabric of space-time is curved rather than flat, demonstrating the deep interconnectedness between geometry and the physical world.
In three-dimensional space (ℝ³), geometry encompasses the study of polyhedra and other complex shapes. Platonic solids, such as the tetrahedron, cube, and dodecahedron, are prime examples of three-dimensional shapes studied extensively in geometry. These shapes are characterized by their regularity and symmetry. For instance, a cube has 6 faces (F), 8 vertices (V), and 12 edges (E). The study of these solids not only reveals intrinsic mathematical beauty but also finds applications in various scientific disciplines, including crystallography, chemistry, and molecular biology, where the geometric arrangement of atoms determines the properties of substances.

Modern geometry continues to evolve, integrating with other mathematical disciplines and expanding into new areas such as topology and differential geometry. Topology examines properties of shapes that are preserved under continuous deformations, such as stretching or twisting, leading to insights into the fundamental nature of space. Differential geometry, on the other hand, uses calculus to study curves (κ), surfaces (S), and manifolds (M), playing a vital role in modern physics, particularly in the general theory of relativity. As our understanding of the universe deepens, geometry remains a pivotal tool in unraveling the complexities of the world around us. Sure, let's dive into some extreme hard number symbol math. We'll cover a variety of advanced mathematical concepts across different fields, ensuring we include complex numbers, matrices, calculus, and abstract. Time for Hell Number 2!

  1. Complex Numbers and Euler's Formula: Euler's formula states that ( e{i\theta} = \cos(\theta) + i\sin(\theta) ). For example, if (\theta = \pi), then ( e{i\pi} = \cos(\pi) + i\sin(\pi) = -1 ), leading to the famous identity ( e{i\pi} + 1 = 0 ). Let's consider ( z = re{i\theta} ). If ( r = 2 ) and (\theta = \frac{\pi}{3} ), then ( z = 2e{i\frac{\pi}{3}} = 2(\cos(\frac{\pi}{3}) + i\sin(\frac{\pi}{3})) = 2(\frac{1}{2} + i\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}) = 1 + i\sqrt{3} ).
  2. Matrix Multiplication: Consider two matrices ( A ) and ( B ) where ( A = \begin{pmatrix} 1 & 2 \ 3 & 4 \end{pmatrix} ) and ( B = \begin{pmatrix} 5 & 6 \ 7 & 8 \end{pmatrix} ). Their product ( AB ) is calculated as: [ AB = \begin{pmatrix} 1 \cdot 5 + 2 \cdot 7 & 1 \cdot 6 + 2 \cdot 8 \ 3 \cdot 5 + 4 \cdot 7 & 3 \cdot 6 + 4 \cdot 8 \end{pmatrix} = \begin{pmatrix} 19 & 22 \ 43 & 50 \end{pmatrix} ]
  3. Determinants and Eigenvalues: For matrix ( A = \begin{pmatrix} 2 & 1 \ 1 & 2 \end{pmatrix} ), the determinant is ( \text{det}(A) = 2 \cdot 2 - 1 \cdot 1 = 4 - 1 = 3 ). To find the eigenvalues, solve ( \text{det}(A - \lambda I) = 0 ): [ \begin{vmatrix} 2 - \lambda & 1 \ 1 & 2 - \lambda \end{vmatrix} = (2 - \lambda)2 - 1 = \lambda2 - 4\lambda + 3 = 0 ] The solutions to this quadratic equation, ( \lambda2 - 4\lambda + 3 = 0 ), are ( \lambda = 3 ) and ( \lambda = 1 ).
  4. Taylor Series Expansion: The Taylor series for ( ex ) around ( x = 0 ) is given by: [ ex = \sum_{n=0}{\infty} \frac{xn}{n!} = 1 + x + \frac{x2}{2!} + \frac{x3}{3!} + \cdots ] For ( x = 2 ), this becomes ( e2 \approx 1 + 2 + \frac{22}{2} + \frac{23}{6} + \frac{24}{24} = 1 + 2 + 2 + \frac{8}{6} + \frac{16}{24} \approx 7.389 ).
  5. Fourier Series: A function ( f(x) ) defined on ([-L, L]) can be expressed as a Fourier series: [ f(x) = a0 + \sum{n=1}{\infty} \left(an \cos \frac{n\pi x}{L} + b_n \sin \frac{n\pi x}{L} \right) ] Where the coefficients are: [ a_n = \frac{1}{L} \int{-L}{L} f(x) \cos \frac{n\pi x}{L} \, dx, \quad bn = \frac{1}{L} \int{-L}{L} f(x) \sin \frac{n\pi x}{L} \, dx ]
  6. Laplace Transforms: The Laplace transform of a function ( f(t) ) is defined as: [ \mathcal{L}{f(t)} = \int{0}{\infty} e{-st} f(t) \, dt ] For ( f(t) = e{at} ), the Laplace transform is: [ \mathcal{L}{e{at}} = \int{0}{\infty} e{-st} e{at} \, dt = \int_{0}{\infty} e{-(s-a)t} \, dt = \frac{1}{s-a}, \quad \text{for } s > a ]
  7. Partial Differential Equations (PDEs): Consider the heat equation ( ut = \alpha u{xx} ). For a rod of length ( L ) with insulated ends, the solution can be expressed as: [ u(x,t) = \sum_{n=1}{\infty} B_n \sin\left(\frac{n\pi x}{L}\right) e{-\alpha \left(\frac{n\pi}{L}\right)2 t} ] Where ( B_n ) are coefficients determined by the initial temperature distribution.
  8. Group Theory: In abstract algebra, a group ( G ) is a set equipped with an operation that combines any two elements to form a third element, satisfying four conditions: closure, associativity, identity, and invertibility. For instance, the set of integers ( \mathbb{Z} ) with addition is a group since ( \mathbb{Z} ) satisfies these properties.
  9. Ring Theory: A ring ( R ) is a set equipped with two binary operations, addition and multiplication, satisfying properties similar to those of numbers. For example, ( \mathbb{Z} ) (integers) is a ring with usual addition and multiplication. In a commutative ring, multiplication is commutative: ( ab = ba ).
  10. Field Theory: A field ( F ) is a ring where every non-zero element has a multiplicative inverse. The set of rational numbers ( \mathbb{Q} ) is a field, as every non-zero rational number ( \frac{a}{b} ) has an inverse ( \frac{b}{a} ).
This overview touches on some of the most profound and intricate aspects of advanced mathematics, showcasing the beauty and complexity inherent in the field.
submitted by Toul-ISSR to teenagers [link] [comments]

2024.06.09 02:43 SushiSalsaExplorer A Battle Approaches

\** Part 1*
The sun blazed fiercely over the vast, sandy expanse, reminiscent of ancient Egypt's grandeur. The air was thick with anticipation, an almost palpable hum reverberating through the sea of onlookers gathered around a colossal arena. The ominous music echoed in the background, a haunting melody that heightened the tension and sent chills down the spines of those present.
Two god men, indistinguishable from mortals in appearance but radiating an aura of immense power, stood at the center of the arena. Their names and origins were whispered among the crowd, inspiring both reverence and fear. Each had amassed a legion of devoted supporters, their fervent cheers and chants creating a cacophony that filled the air, vibrating with the intensity of their collective faith.
At the heart of the arena lies a labyrinthine maze, a complex network of narrow corridors, winding pathways, and hidden traps. The sun blazes fiercely overhead, casting harsh, unwavering light on the sands below, creating an atmosphere of intense heat and blinding brightness. The outer walls are adorned with intricate carvings and ancient runes, telling the stories of past champions and legendary battles. There is more that meets the eye, the Arena is not just a physical battleground but also a place of deep mystical significance. It is said to be a convergence point of ley lines, channels of magical energy that crisscross the world-453.
The god men, each bearing a unique weapon, faced each other with intense, unwavering gazes. One held a wooden stake - a straight, cylindrical piece of dark, weathered wood, roughly the length of a man. At first glance, the stake appears deceptively simple. Despite its unadorned appearance, the stake emanates a quiet, almost ominous power. While the other wielded a long, gilded sword, its golden blade gleaming in the harsh sunlight, a relic of ancient craftsmanship imbued with an ethereal glow. Intricate engravings run along the length of the blade, depicting scenes of celestial battles and ancient runes that shimmer with a soft, surreal glow.
Gravitus, the god man with the green aura, emanating strength and resilience like a rock, arrived atop a massive, elephant-like creature. Yet this was no ordinary elephant; it bore the appearance of a commando dragon, its scales shimmering like polished jade and its eyes fierce and calculating. The ground trembled under its weight as it approached, each step a thunderous drumbeat heralding its master's arrival. Gravitus himself was a towering figure, his muscles rippling under his emerald-hued armor. His eyes glowed with a steady, unyielding dark green light, and his movements were deliberate and powerful, every step echoing his indomitable will.
Opposite, Zephyros, the god man with the blue aura, exuding quickness and agility, descended from the sky on the back of an extraordinary bird. This bird had the head of a tiger, fierce and majestic, with sharp, intelligent eyes, and the sinuous body of a snake, its movements fluid and graceful like flowing water. It landed with a swift, silent elegance, its presence no less imposing than its counterpart, its feathers glistening in the sunlight like sapphires. Zephyros himself was lean and lithe, his form seemingly built for speed. His golden cobalt armor glinted like the ocean's surface under the sun, and his eyes sparkled with an intense, restless energy. His every movement was swift and precise, a blur of motion that left afterimages in his wake.
Zephyros points his golden relic, Vinderrblade at Gravitus and commences his attack windstep and strikes at his rival. Windstep, a unique ability of the golden sword, that channels Zephyros’ auro allowing him to move at incredible speed but leaving behind an afterimage that misleads his opponent. Gravitus was no guest to this attack, He knew every trick that Zephyros would engage in. He slams his wooden stake into the ground and launches himself into the air and land on the tall tower of the maze. As the fight commenced, the god-men moved with a speed and grace that seemed otherworldly. The stake and the sword clashed with a thunderous roar, sending sparks flying and echoing through the maze. Each strike was a testament to their strength and skill, yet it was impossible to discern which one harbored evil intention. Their movements were a blur, a deadly dance that left the spectators in awe.
The maze proved to be as much a challenge as their opponent. Its narrow corridors and hidden traps tested their agility and wit. Supporters on both sides watched with bated breath, their loyalties unwavering despite the uncertainty of the gods' true natures. Every twist and turn of the maze brought new dangers, from concealed pitfalls to walls that shifted without warning, making the arena a living, breathing entity in their epic confrontation.
The ominous music swelled, its eerie notes weaving through the air, amplifying the drama unfolding below. Every clash of the wooden stake and the golden sword, every strategic maneuver within the maze, was underscored by the relentless, haunting melody. The music seemed to respond to the battle itself, its rhythm accelerating with each fierce exchange, its volume rising with the stakes.
As the battle raged on, the gods showed no signs of fatigue. Zephyros darted through the maze with lightning speed, evading traps and striking with precision. His movements were a blur, each step calculated, each strike aimed to incapacitate. Gravitus moved with unyielding force, each blow like a hammer, and every defense as solid as a rock. His strength was unparalleled, his endurance seemingly infinite as he met each attack with unwavering resilience.
The sun began to set, casting long, dramatic shadows across the arena. The intensity of the fight only grew as the twilight enveloped the battleground. The green and blue auras of the gods glowed brighter against the darkening sky, their lights dancing like ethereal flames. The maze, now bathed in the golden hue of dusk, seemed to come alive, its secrets and traps more menacing in the dim light. Their mounts roared and shrieked from the sidelines, their presence a constant reminder of the otherworldly power at play. The commando dragon stomped and bellowed, its roar shaking the very foundation of the arena, while the tiger-headed bird hissed and snapped, its serpentine body coiling with anticipation.
Suddenly, Zephyros leaped back, his eyes narrowing as he prepared to unleash one of his most powerful abilities. He raised VinderrBlade high, and with a swift, precise motion, channeled his aura through the sword, releasing a brilliant flare of light—Celestial Flare. The arena was momentarily blinded by the radiant burst, an explosion of light so intense it seemed to turn night into day. Gravitus staggered, his vision overwhelmed by the blinding light. Zephyros seized the opportunity and darted forward with lightning speed. Concealing VinderrBlade, Zephyros slammed his hand into TerrarThorn, intending to drive the wooden stake from Gravitus's grip. Gravitus, his senses returning, reacted just in time to block the strike. The force of the impact, however, was immense. The collision with TerrarThorn sent a shockwave throughout the arena and shattered Zephyros’ right hand, bones breaking and flesh tearing from the immense force. Driven by a surge of determination, pain and adrenaline, Zephyros unsheathed VinderrBlade. In a swift, fluid motion, he drove the sword into Gravitus's chest. The blade pierced through the emerald armor, finding its mark. Gravitus gasped, his eyes wide with shock and pain as the celestial energy of VinderrBlade coursed through his body.
\*** End of Part 1*
submitted by SushiSalsaExplorer to stories [link] [comments]

2024.06.09 02:39 SushiSalsaExplorer [F] A Battle Approaches

\*** Part 1*
The sun blazed fiercely over the vast, sandy expanse, reminiscent of ancient Egypt's grandeur. The air was thick with anticipation, an almost palpable hum reverberating through the sea of onlookers gathered around a colossal arena. The ominous music echoed in the background, a haunting melody that heightened the tension and sent chills down the spines of those present.
Two god men, indistinguishable from mortals in appearance but radiating an aura of immense power, stood at the center of the arena. Their names and origins were whispered among the crowd, inspiring both reverence and fear. Each had amassed a legion of devoted supporters, their fervent cheers and chants creating a cacophony that filled the air, vibrating with the intensity of their collective faith.
At the heart of the arena lies a labyrinthine maze, a complex network of narrow corridors, winding pathways, and hidden traps. The sun blazes fiercely overhead, casting harsh, unwavering light on the sands below, creating an atmosphere of intense heat and blinding brightness. The outer walls are adorned with intricate carvings and ancient runes, telling the stories of past champions and legendary battles. There is more that meets the eye, the Arena is not just a physical battleground but also a place of deep mystical significance. It is said to be a convergence point of ley lines, channels of magical energy that crisscross the world-453.
The god men, each bearing a unique weapon, faced each other with intense, unwavering gazes. One held a wooden stake - a straight, cylindrical piece of dark, weathered wood, roughly the length of a man. At first glance, the stake appears deceptively simple. Despite its unadorned appearance, the stake emanates a quiet, almost ominous power. While the other wielded a long, gilded sword, its golden blade gleaming in the harsh sunlight, a relic of ancient craftsmanship imbued with an ethereal glow. Intricate engravings run along the length of the blade, depicting scenes of celestial battles and ancient runes that shimmer with a soft, surreal glow.
Gravitus, the god man with the green aura, emanating strength and resilience like a rock, arrived atop a massive, elephant-like creature. Yet this was no ordinary elephant; it bore the appearance of a commando dragon, its scales shimmering like polished jade and its eyes fierce and calculating. The ground trembled under its weight as it approached, each step a thunderous drumbeat heralding its master's arrival. Gravitus himself was a towering figure, his muscles rippling under his emerald-hued armor. His eyes glowed with a steady, unyielding dark green light, and his movements were deliberate and powerful, every step echoing his indomitable will.
Opposite, Zephyros, the god man with the blue aura, exuding quickness and agility, descended from the sky on the back of an extraordinary bird. This bird had the head of a tiger, fierce and majestic, with sharp, intelligent eyes, and the sinuous body of a snake, its movements fluid and graceful like flowing water. It landed with a swift, silent elegance, its presence no less imposing than its counterpart, its feathers glistening in the sunlight like sapphires. Zephyros himself was lean and lithe, his form seemingly built for speed. His golden cobalt armor glinted like the ocean's surface under the sun, and his eyes sparkled with an intense, restless energy. His every movement was swift and precise, a blur of motion that left afterimages in his wake.
Zephyros points his golden relic, Vinderrblade at Gravitus and commences his attack windstep and strikes at his rival. Windstep, a unique ability of the golden sword, that channels Zephyros’ auro allowing him to move at incredible speed but leaving behind an afterimage that misleads his opponent. Gravitus was no guest to this attack, He knew every trick that Zephyros would engage in. He slams his wooden stake into the ground and launches himself into the air and land on the tall tower of the maze. As the fight commenced, the god-men moved with a speed and grace that seemed otherworldly. The stake and the sword clashed with a thunderous roar, sending sparks flying and echoing through the maze. Each strike was a testament to their strength and skill, yet it was impossible to discern which one harbored evil intention. Their movements were a blur, a deadly dance that left the spectators in awe.
The maze proved to be as much a challenge as their opponent. Its narrow corridors and hidden traps tested their agility and wit. Supporters on both sides watched with bated breath, their loyalties unwavering despite the uncertainty of the gods' true natures. Every twist and turn of the maze brought new dangers, from concealed pitfalls to walls that shifted without warning, making the arena a living, breathing entity in their epic confrontation.
The ominous music swelled, its eerie notes weaving through the air, amplifying the drama unfolding below. Every clash of the wooden stake and the golden sword, every strategic maneuver within the maze, was underscored by the relentless, haunting melody. The music seemed to respond to the battle itself, its rhythm accelerating with each fierce exchange, its volume rising with the stakes.
As the battle raged on, the gods showed no signs of fatigue. Zephyros darted through the maze with lightning speed, evading traps and striking with precision. His movements were a blur, each step calculated, each strike aimed to incapacitate. Gravitus moved with unyielding force, each blow like a hammer, and every defense as solid as a rock. His strength was unparalleled, his endurance seemingly infinite as he met each attack with unwavering resilience.
The sun began to set, casting long, dramatic shadows across the arena. The intensity of the fight only grew as the twilight enveloped the battleground. The green and blue auras of the gods glowed brighter against the darkening sky, their lights dancing like ethereal flames. The maze, now bathed in the golden hue of dusk, seemed to come alive, its secrets and traps more menacing in the dim light. Their mounts roared and shrieked from the sidelines, their presence a constant reminder of the otherworldly power at play. The commando dragon stomped and bellowed, its roar shaking the very foundation of the arena, while the tiger-headed bird hissed and snapped, its serpentine body coiling with anticipation.
Suddenly, Zephyros leaped back, his eyes narrowing as he prepared to unleash one of his most powerful abilities. He raised VinderrBlade high, and with a swift, precise motion, channeled his aura through the sword, releasing a brilliant flare of light—Celestial Flare. The arena was momentarily blinded by the radiant burst, an explosion of light so intense it seemed to turn night into day. Gravitus staggered, his vision overwhelmed by the blinding light. Zephyros seized the opportunity and darted forward with lightning speed. Concealing VinderrBlade, Zephyros slammed his hand into TerrarThorn, intending to drive the wooden stake from Gravitus's grip. Gravitus, his senses returning, reacted just in time to block the strike. The force of the impact, however, was immense. The collision with TerrarThorn sent a shockwave throughout the arena and shattered Zephyros’ right hand, bones breaking and flesh tearing from the immense force. Driven by a surge of determination, pain and adrenaline, Zephyros unsheathed VinderrBlade. In a swift, fluid motion, he drove the sword into Gravitus's chest. The blade pierced through the emerald armor, finding its mark. Gravitus gasped, his eyes wide with shock and pain as the celestial energy of VinderrBlade coursed through his body.
\*** End of Part 1*
submitted by SushiSalsaExplorer to story [link] [comments]

2024.06.09 02:21 Zealousideal_Lab8117 Natsuki Kurai (Curse User)

Grade: 1
Age: 29
Appearance: Natsuki Kurai is a tall and imposing figure, standing at 6'3" with a lean, muscular build that hints at both strength and agility. His skin is pale, almost sickly, which contrasts sharply with his jet-black hair that falls in messy waves just past his shoulders. His eyes are a piercing, icy blue that seem to glow with an unnatural light, giving him an eerie presence. He often wears a long, tattered black coat that flutters dramatically with his movements, over a simple, dark-colored outfit that allows for ease of motion during combat.
His face is strikingly handsome but marred by a deep scar running diagonally across his left cheek, a remnant of a past battle. He has a tattoo of a skeletal hand clutching a heart on his right forearm, a chilling representation of his CT. His overall appearance exudes a sinister charm, drawing people in even as it warns them of the danger he represents.
Personality: Natsuki is a cold and calculating individual, rarely displaying emotions other than a chilling calmness. He is highly intelligent and strategic, always thinking several steps ahead of his opponents. His demeanor is often described as unsettling due to his intense gaze and the quiet, almost whisper-like way he speaks. He takes great pleasure in manipulating and controlling others, viewing people as mere pawns in his grand schemes. Despite his ruthless nature, Natsuki possesses a twisted sense of honor. He respects strength and cunning, and he is known to spare those he deems worthy adversaries, hoping they will grow stronger for future confrontations. His sense of superiority and detachment from human emotions makes him a formidable and unpredictable foe, driven by his own mysterious goals.
Overall Skill Level: Natsuki Kurai is recognized as one of the most dangerous grade 1 sorcerers, a title earned through his mastery of both combat and strategy. His skill level is evidenced by his ability to seamlessly integrate his technique into his fighting style, utilizing it to manipulate battles to his advantage. He excels in creating and exploiting weaknesses in his opponents, often turning the tide of battle with a single, well-placed move.
In combat, Natsuki combines his physical prowess with his CT to overwhelm opponents. His strategic mind allows him to predict and counter enemy moves with alarming accuracy, making him a difficult target to outmaneuver. His reputation as a ruthless and efficient fighter is well-earned, with many sorcerers regarding him as a near-unstoppable force on the battlefield.
Natsuki's versatility in combat extends beyond just physical confrontations. He is equally adept at using his intelligence to outthink and outmaneuver his opponents, often laying traps and devising intricate plans to ensure his victory. His ability to adapt to changing circumstances and his unwavering focus make him a formidable adversary in any situation.
High physical strength: Natsuki possesses exceptional physical strength, honed through years of rigorous training and battles. He can easily overpower most opponents in close combat, using his superior strength to break through defenses and deliver devastating blows. His strikes are precise and powerful, capable of incapacitating even the toughest of enemies with a single hit. His strength is not just limited to raw power; he also has a deep understanding of how to use his strength effectively. Natsuki often employs grappling techniques and throws to control the battlefield, using his strength to manipulate his opponents movements and positioning. This combination of brute force and tactical application makes him a fearsome combatant.
High speed/reflexes: Natsuki's speed and reflexes are equally impressive, allowing him to react to threats with lightning-fast precision. His movements are fluid and graceful, making it difficult for opponents to predict his next move. He can dodge attacks with ease and counter with blinding speed, often striking before his enemies even realize what has happened. His reflexes are honed to near-superhuman levels, enabling him to react to even the slightest changes in his environment. This heightened awareness makes it nearly impossible to catch him off guard, and he can seamlessly transition from defense to offense in the blink of an eye. Natsuki's speed and reflexes are key components of his fighting style, allowing him to dominate in both close and long-range combat.
Immense Durability/Endurance: Natsuki's endurance is legendary, allowing him to withstand tremendous amounts of physical punishment and continue fighting. His body is incredibly resilient, able to recover from injuries that would incapacitate most others. This durability makes him a relentless opponent, capable of outlasting his enemies in prolonged battles. His high pain tolerance and mental fortitude further enhance his endurance. Natsuki can push through injuries and fatigue, maintaining his focus and fighting ability even in the most dire situations. This unyielding determination makes him a formidable adversary, as he refuses to back down or give up, no matter the odds.
Hand-to-hand Combat: Natsuki is a master of hand-to-hand combat, combining martial arts with his raw strength and speed to create a devastating fighting style. He is highly skilled in various forms of unarmed combat, allowing him to adapt to different opponents and situations. His techniques are precise and efficient, designed to incapacitate his enemies quickly and effectively. His combat style is a blend of offense and defense, using quick strikes and counterattacks to keep his opponents off balance. Natsuki's proficiency in hand-to-hand combat makes him a versatile fighter, able to hold his own against multiple adversaries and turn the tide of battle with his skill and expertise.
Tactical Intellect: Natsuki's intelligence is one of his greatest assets, enabling him to devise complex strategies and outthink his opponents. He is highly analytical, able to assess situations quickly and make decisions with precision. His strategic mind allows him to anticipate his enemies' moves and counter them effectively, often turning their own plans against them. He is a master tactician, always planning several steps ahead and considering all possible outcomes. This foresight and attention to detail make him a dangerous adversary, as he can adapt to changing circumstances and exploit any weaknesses he detects. Natsuki's intelligence is not just limited to combat; he is also a skilled manipulator, able to influence and control others to achieve his goals.
Cursed Energy Levels: Natsuki possesses an immense reservoir of CE, far surpassing that of most sorcerers of his grade. This vast reserve allows him to utilize his technique without exhausting himself, maintaining his strength and effectiveness in prolonged battles. His control over his CE is precise, enabling him to unleash devastating attacks or subtle manipulations with equal ease. His CE is also highly potent, increasing the effectiveness of his techniques and making his attacks even more deadly. This high level of CE grants him a significant advantage in combat, allowing him to overwhelm his opponents with sheer power and precision.
Cursed Technique:
Corpse Puppeteer: Natsuki's CT allows him to reanimate and control the dead as his puppets. By infusing his CE into corpses, he can bring them back to life and manipulate them with precision. These reanimated corpses retain their physical abilities and/or CT from when they were alive but are further enhanced by Natsuki's CE, making them stronger, faster, and more durable. Natsuki primarily uses Corpse Puppeteer to overwhelm his opponents with numbers and create distractions. He can control multiple corpses simultaneously, using them to attack from different angles and keep his enemies off balance. He often strategically places corpses around the battlefield, allowing him to summon reinforcements at a moment's notice. Additionally, he can use his corpses for reconnaissance, sending them ahead to gather information or lay traps.
The primary strength of Corpse Puppeteer lies in its versatility and the sheer number of corpses Natsuki can control. This allows him to adapt to various combat situations and overwhelm his enemies with relentless assaults. The enhanced physical abilities of the reanimated corpses make them formidable opponents in their own right, adding to Natsuki's overall combat prowess. Moreover, his ability to use corpses for reconnaissance and strategic planning gives him an edge in intelligence gathering and battlefield control.
One major weakness of the technique is that it relies on the availability of corpses. If there are no corpses on the battlefield, Natsuki's technique becomes significantly less effective. This limitation forces him to be strategic about when and where he uses his technique, as well as how he manages his supply of corpses. Another weakness is that the reanimated corpses, while enhanced, are still bound by the limitations of their physical forms. They can be destroyed or incapacitated if they sustain enough damage, reducing Natsuki's overall effectiveness in combat. Additionally, his control over the corpses requires a constant expenditure of CE, which can be taxing in prolonged battles.
Extension Techniques:
Corpse Shield: Forms a protective barrier of corpses around Natsuki, absorbing incoming attacks.
Bone Spike Barrage: Causes corpses to expel their bones as sharp bone spikes towards enemies, acting as a ranged attack.
Exploding Cadaver: Overloads a corpse with CE, causing it to explode on command.
Domain Expansion:
Tomb of the Eternal Rest: The interior resembles an expansive, eerie graveyard shrouded in perpetual twilight. The air is thick with the scent of decay, and the ground is littered with gravestones and skeletal remains. Shadowy, twisted trees loom overhead, casting long, foreboding shadows across the landscape. The atmosphere is oppressive and unnerving, filled with the whispers of lost souls.
Any living being caught within the DE is relentlessly attacked by reanimated corpses rising from the ground. These corpses are empowered greatly, making them nearly indestructible and incredibly powerful. The constant assault from all directions makes it nearly impossible for enemies to mount a defense or escape. In addition to the endless onslaught of corpses, the domain also amplifies Natsuki's own abilities. His control over the reanimated dead becomes absolute, allowing him to direct their movements with perfect precision. The oppressive atmosphere of the Domain saps the strength and morale of his enemies, making them more susceptible to his attacks and less capable of mounting an effective resistance.
submitted by Zealousideal_Lab8117 to CTsandbox [link] [comments]

2024.06.08 23:16 AlwaysReliable__ Weekly Results Recap - Week #23 - June 3rd - June 7th

Weekly Results Recap - Week #23 - June 3rd - June 7th

Happy Saturday, IndieTradersGuild!

Preview Post from Week #22 - May 26th - May 31st: https://www.reddit.com/IndieTradersGuild/comments/1d5tqvt/weekly_results_recap_week_22/
Another week of NATH's on SPX makes for some great trading!! The market provided some decent intraday swings this week, allowing members to swing smaller size (Micros) and see good returns.
This was the first week of the June trading month, so the expectation was there would be some rotation under the surface following the EOM flows and rebalancing.
I mentioned last week and will say it again, June tends to see an expansion in realized volatility compared to May's more typical steady flows of volatility (I.e. Sell in May and Walk Away).
June has the highest chance of PVI breaches of any month, so reminder to use proper risk management and never size up without knowing HOW and WHEN to defend a position.
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***There are a few acronyms you may need to help you understand this post:
CCS/PCS - Call Credit Spread/Put Credit Spread
CDS/PDS - Call Debit Spread/Put Debit Spread
PVI - Pure Value Index. The name of the trading system/strategies. The PVI High and PVI Low are the strikes that we are aiming to sell throughout the week to capture stable weekly income. These weekly ranges are provided to members on Sunday night.
PWG - Private Wealth Group. The Daily PWG Levels and Weekly PWG Levels are proprietary levels that Vet calculates for personal and institutional use. The levels were coded over into TradingView and are provided to members in the group and are produced automatically at market open (or Globex open for the weekly levels). The PWG Weekly levels are mainly used to identify areas of potential support and resistance, but also as levels to HEDGE against PVI (I.e. Long/Short futures as a hedge to the sold CCS/PCS).
OPM - Option Pricing Model. A proprietary options model used to compare .15 Delta Options and identify which options provide the best return per unit of risk at that given moment.
NATH - New All Time High
VP - Volume Profile
IB - Initial Balance
Also a heads up that some of the discord/trading view images will show times in MST as I'm in Colorado.
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Weekly Recap (June 3rd - June 7th)

There are 26 Models incorporated into the PVI System. The below bar chart shows the distribution of those models outputs after their initial iterations. There are 26 model outputs on each side.
The ranges on the upside for this past week were indicating the main cluster of models between 5345-5365 (NATH).
PVI Model Outputs - June 3rd - June 7th
The main cluster on the downside ranges were showing confluence between SPX 5150-5170.
There was a single outlier on both sides this week, both of which represented a roughly 2X EM. Going into the week those levels were of little concern.
The SPX Weekly Straddle expected move for the week was showing 5220-5340
SPX Daily Chart heading into the week of June 3rd - June 7th
Heading into this week the main area I was watching was the upside gap on the daily chart from the prior week (5306). There was heavy confluence with the HVN on the Q2 VP. A close above that level (acceptance) would give me reason to lean bullish for a test of ATH.
My comment last week on Week #22 Review Post
Unfortunately, SPX broke that daily gap and made a NATH during the same trading session on Wednesday. So while there wasn't a multi-day setup, the intraday longs got rewarded with a clean trend day on the back on NVDA.
While SPX put in a NATH in 3 consecutive trading days, Wednesday's close of 5354 on SPX remains the all-time closing high on the daily chart.
The Friday closing price of 5347 was outside the SPX Straddle EM (5340), but well inside the PVI range high (5429) and finished just inside the initial cluster of 5345-5365 the models pointed to early in the week.
SPX Daily Chart Results with PVI Model Ranges + VP - June 3rd - June 7th
You'll notice the POC for the Q2 VP has shifted up significantly after this week - moving up 100 pts from ~5200 to ~5300.
SPX left a single gap at 5291 from Tuesday into Wednesday, and refilled the gap at 5298 (Tuesday intraday high). But the larger daily gaps are sitting some 200 pts lower at 5140 and 5073.
There were a mix of expectancy for the option premium and volatility this week (Aqua/Orange boxes) - but the PVI ranges finished a clean 36-0 on the week!
PVI Range Results for Week #23 - 36-0
You can find the weekly PVI results post here: https://www.reddit.com/IndieTradersGuild/comments/1db58b2/pvi_spreadsheet_results_for_67_week_23/
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Market Divergence

As SPX makes NATH after NATH, we are also seeing some divergence in the larger market.
I wanted to include the chart below in the analysis - you can see a comparison SPX/RSP/QQQ, as well as the % of S&P500 stocks ABOVE their 50-Day SMA (blue line) and ABOVE their 200-Day SMA (orange line).
While SPX and QQQ are making NATH, the equal weighted S&P ETF (RSP) has been making lower swing highs at the same time.
You'll also notice that while there was some broadening of the strength from the lows in April, there were FEWER stocks above their 50/200 Day SMA's into this most recent ATH move.
This does make some sense with the weighting of NVDA being so large and the impact that a handful of stocks have on the larger market. Important to note that while one stock can carry the markets for a certain amount of time, the weakening breadth will eventually be more powerful.
Comparing Daily Charts - SPX, QQQ, RSP - 50/200 Day SMA closing %
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Weekly Results (June 3rd - June 7th)

I have included the PVI strikes on the charts. These are the "Final" levels that get populated on the PVI spreadsheet and what members/institutions will use to set their short strike at or outside for their credit spread (see the above table for the full list of PVI levels for the past week).
The PWG weekly levels (seen below) are generated on Sunday night in Trading view for ITG members. You will heasee Vet refer to "The Box" - which is the zone between the Weekly Supply level (R1) and Weekly Demand level (S1).
Ideally, above the box we have a bias to look for areas of support to buy - below the box we look for areas of resistance to then short
SPX 5-Minute Chart - Showing daily price action in relation to Weekly PWG Levels. Orange Line = Daily VWAP + 1X, 2X & 3X Standard Deviation Bands
SPX breached the PWG Weekly Demand on Monday during the retrace of the move when JPM rolled the Collar (see last week's post for the affects the roll had on the EOD squeeze).
NQ also had a perfect retrace of its Friday move, bouncing at the .618 fib on Monday before moving higher into the week.
NQ 4 HR Chart - Fib retracement from May 31st low - June 3rd overnight high
SPX reverted back towards the Weekly S/D box Monday afternoon and never dropped back below. It remained rangebound until the gap up on Wednesday.
Again, SPX made a NATH 3 days this week, but price never tested above the PWG Weekly Buy Target 2.
Reminder that we ideally look for Weekly S3 or Weekly R3 as a peel points for runners on a larger weekly trend move.
SPX 5-Minute Chart - Showing daily price action in relation to Daily PWG Levels. Purple Line = Weekly VWAP
You should notice how the Weekly VWAP was slopping up this week - indicative of an up trend. This week was also the start of a new month, so the Weekly and the Monthly VWAP were roughly identical this week (excluding minor differences based on the candle source).
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DAILY BREAKDOWN

Monday, June 3rd:
Sunday night futures were positive into the pre-market on Monday. However, the opening 15 minute candle marked the high for the AM session as price retraced the move made from the JPM Collar roll on the prior trading session.
There were also issues with the NYSE Data Feed on Monday morning. Companies such as Berkshire Hathaway and Chipotle saw their stocks drop 90%+ in seconds due to the errors.
VIX got up to nearly 10% intraday, which for some in ITG is a great opportunity to sell volatility (collect premium). There were a few members who sold puts near the LOD for a decent profit.
The afternoon session was positive, as price moved back towards VWAP and filled out the volume profile to squeeze above POC into the close.
Monday 5-minute SPX Chart with Daily PWG Levels + VWAP & WVWAP + VP
Tuesday, June 4th:
Tuesday was a range bound session, including an afternoon sweep of overnight highs and then subsequent rejection, and finishing above the VAH on the day.
Tuesday 5-minute SPX Chart with Daily PWG Levels + VWAP & WVWAP + VP
However, the bigger news was the Indian Presidential elections that took place.
India's major Stock Exchange Index, Nifty50, dropped nearly 6% in one day on the back of the election results, wiping out all the YTD returns.
Nifty50 Daily Chart - Reaction to Presidential Elections
Wednesday, June 5th:
The overnight session was relatively flat, but the pre-market session lifted SPX into the open. The opening drive was down and refilled some of the gap, before putting in a reversal during the IB as the ISM data was released.
The main catalyst on Wednesday afternoon was NVDA rocketing and breaching the 1200 level.
This was the day SPX broke above the 5306 level I had been watching for, and once price got back above 5306 during the IB, it never returned to retest it.
SPX ended up closing at the highs of the session after a grind up day on the indexes and making a new all-time closing high.
Wednesday 5-minute SPX Chart with Daily PWG Levels + VWAP & WVWAP + VP
Thursday, June 6th:
The markets took a day to cool off after the push on Wednesday. Overnight session was relatively flat as SPX had a minor gap at the open and made another new NATH intraday.
ES put in an early session high before retracing a small portion of the Wednesday impulse candles. Most of the afternoon session was a chop fest as participants prepared for the NFP data drop on Friday morning.
Thursday 5-minute SPX Chart with Daily PWG Levels + VWAP & WVWAP + VP
Friday, June 7th:
The overnight session remained rangebound in preparation for NFP release. Both ES and NQ had initial impulses higher on release, but as is typically the case, the initial move was a fake-out with limited liquidity and algorithms firing rapidly.
SPX opened with a gap down and promptly went to refill that gap during the opening drive. Even though NVDA was running, SPX/ES were still the stronger indexes and went out to make subsequent NATH's 3 times during the Friday intraday session.
The final intraday ATH was put in right at 1PM EST, just as institutions are typically coming back from lunch and when volume picks back up. There were a few indications that a potential selloff into the PM was likely...
https://preview.redd.it/a8scjxr1ve5d1.png?width=421&format=png&auto=webp&s=2433833000bf4ae196073e84445f8e8cd2e87a51
Vet's warning about intraday sellers
...including warnings by Vet about institutions starting to position towards the downside.
Friday 5-minute SPX Chart with Daily PWG Levels + VWAP & WVWAP + VP
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RECAP

I mentioned 2 weeks ago that I was starting to build a downside position in 1-3 month options.
I added slightly to that core position this week, and added an additional SPY Put position for the June OPEX as well as a July PDS for 5250/5200.
Discord Comment
I am still in the belief that the higher risk for June/July is downside moves to repair demand structure rather than continued chop with a slow bleed up making NATH after NATH.
That's all for this week's recap though!!!
Vet will be hosting a workshop on Youtube for ITG Members on Sunday night, so I will leave the preview portion of PVI for him to walk through.
Reminder after this week that fading NATH is never ideal - wait until the trend changes and you get confirmation before going all in trying to time the top. Build a position, have an exit strategy, and stick to risk management.
submitted by AlwaysReliable__ to IndieTradersGuild [link] [comments]

2024.06.08 22:58 Certain-Ad-1276 Calculating Fourier epicycles

I'm having trouble working out how to calculate fourier epicycles for my Unity (C#) simulation. I have read through this page, and watched this (excellent) 3B1B video, but I am still confused. For context, I study maths and further maths so I'm familiar with integration and complex numbers. However, the formula to tell me the magnitude and starting position of a frequency n requires me to take the integral of f(x) * e^(pi2int) where f(x) is the line I'm trying to generate the fourier epicycles of. However, f(x) is just a lookup table with time and position. How do I integrate that? Any help would be hugely appreciated.
submitted by Certain-Ad-1276 to learnmath [link] [comments]

2024.06.08 22:46 minecraftnoob72 [Primer] Dune the TCG - Hazezon, Shaper of Sand.

As I was updating my Moxfield Primer, I felt like sharing my list here as well. I tried to summerise but feel free to check out my primer for a more indepth look at the list.
Link to the deck and its Primer.

Introduction

This deck isn't a traditional landfall deck, even though it includes some typical cards like Lotus Cobra, Azusa, Lost but Seeking, and Dryad of the Ilysian Grove. It is the culmination of much thought and is constantly evolving in response to new releases or adjustments to my play style.
To construct this deck, we had to play around several constraints. Firstly, deserts aren't basic lands, so we can't rely on typical green ramp spells like Kodama’s Reach, Rampant Growth, Cultivate, etc. Secondly, deserts objectively aren't good lands. Many produce colorless mana, and those that produce colored mana enter the battlefield tapped more than half of the time. That being said, the Outlaws of Thunder Junction expansion has brought us numerous cards, primarily deserts but also one or two cards that will strengthen our strategy. For example, the excellent Dune Chanter and the ramp spell Map the Frontier. And even more recelty, we got a new bomb from MH3 with the Desert Warfare.
There are several options for building this deck. I've decided to focus on creating tokens solely related to the multiple desert ETB effects. We'll discuss this further later, but I'm not including any token doublers like Anointed Procession, Parallel Lives, or Doubling Season. For me, they are not needed in this deck and feel like "win more" cards.
I've implemented numerous lords to make our token army more threatening, and I've complemented all of this with a burn sub-theme. These additional points of damage are always welcome and can, in certain circumstances, secure us the victory.
Finally, note that there is no fast mana or combo in this deck.
Given the uniqueness of deserts, this deck will require careful calculation of each of your plays, which provides **great satisfaction** when everything falls into place correctly.
Furthermore, the deck utilizes many cards that are not often seen, at least from my experience, which adds a fresh aspect to the gameplay, even if it remains disguised as tokens/landfall.
The deck can be completely shut down by ETB suppression effects like Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines The mana base can sometimes work against us, and we'll have to make do with what we have, which can be a bit frustrating at times.
The deck revolves exclusively around its commander to create tokens and thus build our army, which can become tricky if it gets too much attention from removal.
If you don't enjoy playing with a board filled with tokens or prefer a deck that can be piloted without the presence of its commander, this deck might not be the right fit for you.
But don't worry, you can find more of my decks with different archetypes on my Moxfield profile!
Overall, this deck is mid-tier. It can be a bit hard to set up at times, especially when you are unlucky with your land drops. You can play it in a pod with upgraded precons such as the Merfolk one. There is a low amount of "feel bad" cards and you may play it agaisnt newer players.
That being said, the deck may struggle at a table full of highly optimized decks that run a lot of interactions. As it is centered around a bit of flavor and some gimic/pet cards, this deck is perfect for casual games with a drink 🍺

Strategy

Our main plan is to deal damage through combat, utilizing evasion such as trample or double strike. We assemble a substantial army thanks to our commander and the multiple cards that allow us to play more than one land per turn. Our primary finisher is swinging with Jetmir, Nexus of Revels out. However, we can certainly kill opponents one by one with an army of boosted by one or two of our lords ; hitting with about ten 5/5s should do the job.
I removed the old tutors (Worldly Tutor, Eladamri's Call and Time of Need) from the deck to add more synergistic cards and to be less reliant on a single card to win. This allows the games to be a bit more unique and to see a greater variety of cards.
Against opponents who also assemble armies of tokens or large boards, we deviate from our strategy a bit to focus on burn damage, using cards like Impact Tremors, Purphoros, God of the Forge, Witty Roastmaster and the new card Warleader's Call. These additional damages also allow us to finish the game more quickly and exert some form of pressure on the table.

Hazezon and its peculiarities.

Let's say the first line of text is there for flavor; Desertwalk is rarely relevant.
Next, Hazezon creates 2 Sand Warrior tokens each time a desert enters the battlefield.
It's important to note that these tokens have all three colors: White, Green, and Red. This is crucial to keep in mind because we will build around that. Additionally, since we already create 2 tokens per desert, I don't see the need to add token doublers.
I've had them in the past in other versions of the deck, but I felt like they slowed down my gameplay rather than speeding it up. And cards like Anointed Procession, Parallel Lives or the recently printed Ojer Taq, Deepest Foundation tend to draw focus on us, whereas a card like Hour of Promise will usually pass unnoticed, despite providing a similar effect in our deck.
Finally, we can play our deserts from our graveyard. This ability is very interesting because many deserts require sacrificing to benefit from their effects. This allows us to fully utilize cards like Realms Uncharted or Nahiri's Lithoforming and flood the board in no time.
Note that I don't play any of the cards that allow playing lands from the graveyard. To me, it doesn't make sense and it's a false good idea. The only lands we're interested in for our strategy are deserts, and Hazezon already allows us to play them from our graveyard. Cards like Ramunap Excavator, Ancient Greenwarden, or Crucible of Worlds lead us in the wrong direction and don't offer the redundancy we hope for. Yes, we can replay fetchlands with these cards, but we'll quickly exhaust their usefulness. Remember, the desert type is a distinct nonbasic land type.

Game plan

Ramp as every deck does: play some mana rocks, search for your color fixing, and try to acquire some deserts to sacrifice easily, such as Grasping Dunes or Cradle of the Accursed.
Try to understand the board state and do not hesitate to delay your plan if you are seen as the biggest threat. You should have a good "multi land" card such as Azusa, Lost but Seeking or Exploration.
This deck can burst out in one or two turns with cards like Zuran Orb, Summer Bloom, or Nahiri's Lithoforming.
By turns 8 to 10, you should have established a plan to swing at the biggest threat or the weakest opponent, as you prefer. With one of our pingers, you should then be able to finish off the rest of the table with some desert recursion shenanigans.

Conclusion

Thank you very much for reading this far. Do not hesitate to check my other decks. Feel free to contact me on Discord at bulbax for feedback or questions. I tried to summerise but feel free to check out my primer for a more indepth look at the list.
Stay safe, and keep enjoying this amazing hobby ❤
submitted by minecraftnoob72 to EDH [link] [comments]

2024.06.08 21:43 Lukeko99 A Trifecta of Deathly Blows

DD sent to me through a chat - cool, calm, collected
This post is aimed at two types of investors:
• Those who believe in MOASS
• Those who believe in the long-term vision of the company
If you don’t fall into either of those categories, then this post isn’t for you. Without further ado, let us begin.
Part I - The Moving Floor
Let’s go back – April 23rd, 2024. In the days leading up to it, GME had dipped below $10 a share, having bled with periodic upswings surrounding OPEX for close to 3 years. Let’s do some quick and dirty calculations surrounding basal share price metrics:
• As of April 23rd, 2024:
o Cash on hand: $1.073 billion (bottom end of expected range)
o Shares outstanding: 306.19 million
o Cash/share: $3.5
• Post 45 million ATM offering:
o Cash on hand: $1.9 billion (conservative estimate)
o Shares outstanding: 351.19 million
o Cash/share: $5.4
o Floor price increase: 54.4%
o Dilutive effect: 14.7%
• Post 75 million ATM offering:
o Cash on hand: $3.9 billion (conservative estimate)
o Shares outstanding: 426.19 million
o Cash/share: $9.2
o Floor price increase: 69.1%
o Dilutive effect: 21.4%
Some believe that the ATM offerings killed the run-up, but it's truly a blessing in disguise. The events of January 2021 sent the market haywire, causing a dip in indexes market-wide and sending the VIX flying. However, I observed calm and collected markets yesterday with no signs of being spooked.
Moreover, I can count half a dozen run-ups that ended abruptly without an ATM offering. The truth is the run-up was manufactured and was destined to fall as hard and as fast as it rose with or without an offering. The fact that GameStop capitalised on it only means that the share price floor is slowly rising. Very rarely do ATL's come anywhere near cash per share, but this is purely illustrative of a worst-case scenario bottom.
Do I think it will come within 50% of Cash/share (~$15)? Absolutely not. If we take the previous three-year low, we bottomed at just below 3x cash per share. Do I think that will hold as a hard and fast rule? Probably not, but it means that the outlook is stronger and any derivative position previously hoping to see lower lows is cooked.
Part II – Cash Flush Operator
A – The Cash
Now that we have raised all this cash, let’s look at what we can do with it. Let us, for a second, assume it just sits there in a deposit account earning 4% interest. 4% to be conservative and factor in possible (probable) rate cuts in the first half of next year.
• Cash on hand: $3.9 billion
• Interest income: $156 million
• Effective tax rate is a tricky one; I won’t bore you with the complexities of the ETR schedule, but for smoothing, let’s apply the Federal statutory tax rate at 21% and even round it up to 25% to yet again be conservative.
• Net income from interest income: $117 million
Now let’s compare that net income generation to the current amount of revenue it takes us to generate $117 million of net income (using the last 3 net income positive periods):
• FY23: Anomalous due to minute profit
• FY17: $4.3 billion
• FY16: $3.1 billion
If you ask me – the cash alone just sat in an overnight lending account is a diversified revenue stream on its own – and when comparing to prior years is akin to a 50% improvement in topline when looking at it bottom-up.
But let’s for a minute revel in what could be - legacy business expansion paired with bettered operational efficiency, bolt-on acquisition, internal development of different operational arms. I talk high level because I don’t want to speculate and want to rely solely on fact.
B – The Operator
He could easily have invested his money in a number of other companies in which he had conviction and solid DD from rich friends and sat on a beach, but instead, he came out of retirement to spearhead GameStop. He has a vision; it is within the realm in which he is a sage – B2C – and every action he has taken thus far has been to better the company, and there is demonstrable proof of a turnaround underway.
He isn’t here for a hobby project; he isn’t here for crumbs. He is here for a legacy in the form of a transformational story, which in turn will make him exorbitant amounts of money. And don’t forget, if the 75m ATM sale went ahead RC is due to further buy, which isn’t only a catalyst in itself but a further attestation to his belief in the company.
Part III – The Stock
What is there to be upset about? Shorts never closed. Every financial media news outlet is trying to detract further new investment. The thesis is alive and well and has been verified. If anything, this is a good thing.
I am not a big fan of technical analysis, but on a technical note, we have broken out of a downtrend nicely and seemingly found upward support and momentum. I challenge you to find me one other “VICTIM” of the Jan-21 fiasco that has managed to reverse the downtrend.
Conclusion
Things are setting up quite nicely from both a MOASS and long-term investment thesis perspective.
• The Cash/share is rising, forcing shorts' hands, which lends nicely to those who want a MOASS.
• Similarly, trend reversal, a war chest full of cash, and a motivated operator acting in the best interest of the company bode well for those looking for long-term value.
• The large number of shorts is great for both scenarios as it only amplifies movement upward, as we have seen in a plethora of melt-up scenarios.
Nobody knows what the future holds, but let the facts speak for themselves.
Things I’m watching for – did the offering happen or is it a pre-emptive filing? If it happened the above holds and RC must buy to protect his seat. If it doesn’t happen, someone just got caught with their pants down and the future is truly imperceptible.
TLDR
Whether you’re all in for the MOASS or believe in the long-term growth of the company, all things point one way - up. GME’s cash per share is on the rise, management is making savvy financial moves, and the stock has broken out of a downtrend. The shorts are still trapped, which means there's further potential for massive upward movement. Ignore the FUD, trust the facts, and let's see where this ride takes us.
submitted by Lukeko99 to GME [link] [comments]

2024.06.08 20:27 StratComLocalBranch Unbound Stars (Chapters 1)

Chapter 1: Ezra
The asteroid filled the window in front of Ezra. It was a hulking mass, scarred and pitted with impact craters that reflected the flood lights on the front of her vessel. Pale motes of dust rose from the rocky surface, floating away into the void and onto her cockpit’s glass screen.
Ezra flicked a switch to clear the dust with a static field before she focused on the readouts in front of her. A series of wheels on the instrument cluster ticked down with an increasing tempo as the rangefinder tried to calculate how far she was from the lumpy space rock. Subconsciously, she licked her eyeball. It was a mildly embarrassing nervous tic left over from childhood. For a split second she was tempted to check if anyone had seen her before she remembered how silly that was: she was alone. Always. In some ways, the isolation of a ship like this was a blessing; the void had a tendency to bring out odd habits.
She angled the controls forward until the rangefinder’s beeps became more frantic, eventually blurring into a monotonous drone. Once she reached the appropriate distance from the rock, Ezra pressed a button to her right. Orbital information flared into view, filling the cockpit with the cold blue illumination of cryptic glyphs and numbers. Ezra tapped lightly at the symbols in front of her with a pen, mentally checking off everything before confirming it in the official logbook. Records were everything out here; if anything were to go wrong, it was crucial that command could verify that a pilot had taken all appropriate steps, especially when the pilot was one as new as Ezra.
Final checks confirmed, she gently squeezed the trigger on the right control stick to fire the tether into the rock. The tether’s hook rebounded and, with no atmosphere to slow it down, continued on its journey.
She cursed quietly, reeled it back in, and fired a tiny jet of compressed gas to adjust the position of her ship. Killing the newly added velocity, she fired another more successful tether shot and smugly watched as it bored deep into the rock. Some of the other cadets in her flight school crèche had taken up to ten tries to successfully tether, even when they had graduated. There was a sort of art to it; it had to be at a near perfectly perpendicular angle, a challenging feat with limited sensor gear and the disconcerting geometry of free-floating space rocks.
The truly difficult part came next: attaching a propulsion unit to the rock and sending it on its way to Port Ibhear. She pressed a button to open the cargo doors and then depressed another button to clear the warning prompt. Yes, she reallydidwant to open those doors; no, it wasn’t an accident.
The next step was a bit more involved, and rather a lot more dangerous. She’d have to manually attach the propulsion unit to the rock. A lot of work was being done to try and find ways to do this with machines, but as far as she was concerned, that research was a waste of time. Most rocks were too irregularly shaped, and machines were too finicky to be able to reliably mount a propulsion unit well enough to send it back to Port Ibhear. For now, it was more still more reliable to do things by hand.
Ezra undid the harness straps attaching her to the pilot seat and pushed off towards the hand holds above the controls, careful not to hit anything with her tail. She oriented towards the aft end of the ship, triggered the door release, and after a moment’s hesitation, released the rest of the doors in her path.
Ezra eyed up the now open pathway to her destination at the opposite end of the vessel, guesstimated, pulled her feet up onto the holds and launched herself as hard as she could down the spine of the vessel. She flew--body and tail straight, all arms crossed across her chest--down the short path. At the end, she flicked her tail and legs under her, angling her legs for landing.
She slammed into the bulkhead somewhat less than gracefully and scrambled for a handhold. She laughed quietly to herself. Not--strictly speaking--by the books, but then there wasn’t really anyone watching either.
She looked up for a second, fighting down a momentary bout of nausea. Even with a lot of practice, zero gravity environments were still disconcerting at times. Ezra had to overcome a lack of internal direction and orient herself—and do so while standing at the bottom and looking up or looking down and about to fall.
Ezra pivoted to the door, pressing the necessary glyphs for it to retract back into the bulkhead. She slipped inside, four hands deftly maneuvering over handholds, tail swishing idly through the air.
Inside on opposing bulkheads were two space suits. Supply cupboards held other devices a Surveyor might need. The flight-packs, mining equipment, cameras, emergency rations, and tether rope were all locked down to prevent loose objects from floating about the ship or getting caught in an air vent. She grabbed a spike driver and a few magazines of piton, as well as some tether rope. In essence, she would tether herself to the ship while doing this next bit.
Ezra checked and double checked the air and water supplies for the suit, then did the same for the vacuum seals at all the joints. After confirming the suit was safe, she swiftly began to disassemble the helmet and chest pieces, inner manipulator hands thumbing over her name and rank tag emblazed directly above the visor.
Ready and prepared, Ezra grabbed a pair of hand bars for this very purpose and steadied herself to shimmy her way into the suit. She slid her four arms into the appropriate sleeves, thumped the chest plate into piece, and slammed her helmet over her face. Finding all in order, she grabbed the spike driver and affixed it to her leg.
Then she pushed towards the airlock.
When she reached the outer door, Ezra took a deep breath. These were always the best, and most dangerous hours of her life. After attaching one of the tethers, Ezra softly pushed herself out into the void.
This was worth all the risks, all the solitude, everything. She was in space, tethered to a ship, surrounded by the boundless expanse of perfect black, speckled with a hundred million burning pinpoints of white light, stretching out into infinity
She could spend eternity marveling, but if she didn’t do her job—and do it well—she wouldn’t get a chance to be out here for very long.
Below her was her objective, the rock. She needed to retrieve the propulsion unit that would transform it from an unusable hunk of metal floating in space to a very valuable hunk of metal floating in a mining yard at Ibhear. Reaching the cargo hold was slow going, but the location every attachment point and handhold were carved into her mind from a thousand repetitions. Before long she had attached three propulsion units. Each one contained a small nuclear reactor and one of the miraculous reactionless drives that had freed her people from the confines of their world. Technology had let them truly touch the heavens, if only a small slice of it.
Nobody had been both mad enough and connected enough to put forward a legitimate plan for an interstellar vessel. They’d done the math; it just wasn’t feasible. At least, not yet.
These propulsion units would alter the orbit of the asteroids and send them on a transfer path to Port Ibhear on the other side of the solar system; then the units would decelerate them so that they could be captured for mining. This method was for more efficient than trying to bring the complicated and very heavy mining equipment to the asteroid. Sure, some Surveyors got spaced along the way, but their ships could be recovered later.
Ezra carefully unlatched the restraints on the propulsion unit and pushed it on to the tether from her ship to the rock below. It slid down the cabling and she followed, hand over hand over hand, clipped on to the ship tether.
She grabbed on to the end of it and trailed behind as it slid down, impacting in a flurry of white dust that momentarily obscured her vision, then continued on its way out of the asteroid’s meager gravity well. She slung the spike driver up off her leg, threaded the tether cord through a loop on her waist, and placed the muzzle to the rock. There was no sound, but the vibration rocked through her arms and into her chest as a meter-long piton speared into the solid rock beneath her feet.
Ezra began the arduous process of securely attaching the four mounting arms to the asteroid by stretching them out and spearing them to the underlying rock with her spike driver. She hummed lightly under her breath as she went about her work.
By the time she’d finished, her oxygen was nearly depleted. She triggered the disconnector to release her from the initial piton she’d set up when she first landed, squared herself up, and pushed off towards the main ship tether.
She reached out to arrest her momentum, grabbed a handful of tether cord--and kept going.
Her heart jolted as she looked down and realized the harpoon had come free, along with a decently sized chunk of rock. Not so secure a mounting after all!
Training and a thousand hours of memorized emergency protocols overruled sheer animal instinct, and she released the tether, despite every hardwired desire to hold on for dear life. Subconsciously she triggered the emergency flight pack with a thumb press and decelerated, then activated the winch for the tether still attached to the outer airlock. She’d picked up a mild spin during all of this, which she desperately tried to counter as she picked up speed towards her vessel.
Her breathing increased rapidly. Biometric alarms blared in her helmet. She tuned them out as best she could, fighting off panic while eyeballing her return to the ship. She killed the winch and braced for impact as she swung her back around and rocketed past the airlock towards the opposite side.
She crossed all her arms over her chest and bent her legs slightly as she slammed into the hull. Her knees impacted her chin and blurred her vision while the force of the landing drove the air from her lungs. She gasped, trying not to panic despite the red glow of the warning lights as she instinctual flailed for a handhold.
Finding one, she gripped it, let loose a low growl, and reached out with another hand. Her entire body burned, she could barely breath, her head felt like it was going to explode, but the only thing that mattered was getting back inside the ship. She reached out, and pulled with all her strength, hand over hand over hand.
It could have been seconds or minutes or hours, but eventually she found herself back in the airlock. She slammed her fist into door release, grateful for the safety of a pressurized environment full of precious oxygen.
As soon as the internal alarms signaled the return of a normal atmosphere, Ezra scrambled to remove her helmet. Hands shaking slightly, she fumbled for the release as the adrenalin that had flooded her system wore off. She flung it across the hold where it bounced off the opposing bulkhead and meandered aimlessly, spinning as it went, trailing light crimson droplets. She reached into her mouth and pulled out the tooth that had caused it, snarling slightly. Painful, but it would grow back soon enough.
Her left hand wound tightly around a handhold, and she closed her eyes trying to normalize her breathing. She started laughing, but it turned into a cough.
Ezra rested her head against the wall and let out a long whistling breath. This job sucked, but it was the only way for her to be out here.
She wouldn’t give up the stars for anything. No matter what it cost her.
submitted by StratComLocalBranch to HFY [link] [comments]

2024.06.08 20:02 Sudden-Enthusiasm-92 Thoughts on a criticism of anarchism

I'm a Marxist and recently saw this quote criticizing anarchism/ the anarchist societal form of autonomous communes, curious of what you guys think about it and if you have any criticism of it. I'm not going to put it in the quote version text thingy because it's long.
From: https://www.international-communist-party.org/BasicTexts/English/57Fundam.htm
Quote:
It is a very strange fact that the libertarians, who around 1870 or so engaged in their polemics against Marx in the First International, and whose short-sightedness we have already referred to, are still widely considered to be "to the Left" of Marx. Actually, in spite of their verbal opposition to militarism and patriotism, they never grasped the importance of going beyond the purely national level when criticising bourgeois economy and studying how it spreads onto the global scale.
Marx described the formation of the international market as the ultimate and crowning historical task of the modern bourgeoisie; after that it only remained to fight to establish the proletarian dictatorship in the countries which were most advanced, and, after the destruction of the national states which arose alongside capitalism, an expansion onto an ever vaster scale of the power of the international proletarian class. The anarchist proposal, when not actually advocating unlimited autonomy for all individuals, whatever their class, was to destroy the capitalist State so as to replace it with small social units, the famous communities of producers, which after the collapse of the central government would supposedly be totally autonomous, even with respect to each other.
The rather abstract form of future society based on local "communes" doesn’t seem that different from today’s bourgeois society, and its economic procedures don’t seem that different either. Those who set out to describe this future society, such as Bakunin and Kropotkin, thought it enough merely to link it to a set of philosophical ideologisms, rather than to an analysis of historically verified laws of social production. When they did take up Marx’s critique, it was only in the most minimal and selective way since they were unable to infer the conclusions implied by the theory: they were impressed by the concept of surplus value (which is an economic theorem) but used it merely to support their moral condemnation of exploitation, which they saw as arising from human beings exerting "power" over each other. Unable to attain the theoretical level of dialectics, they were debarred from understanding, for instance, that in the transition from the appropriation of the physical product of the serf’s labour by the landowning lord to the production of surplus value in the capitalist system, an actual "liberation" from more crushing forms of servitude and oppression has taken place; for even if the division into classes, and the existence of a State power, still remained a historical necessity, and benefited the bourgeois class, in that period it also benefited the whole of the rest of society as well.
One of the principal causes of the greater output of labour as a whole, and of the higher average remuneration for the same amount of labour, was the creation of the nationwide market and the division of productive labour into different branches of industry, with the latter enabled to exchange their fully and semi‑worked products within a zone of free circulation of commodities, and increasingly impelled to extend this zone beyond the State boundaries.
This increase (fully condoning the Marxist view) in the wealth of the bourgeoisie and in the power of each of each of its states, and along with this the production of surplus-value, does not immediately mean that an absolute increase in the gross revenue extracted is at the expense of the lower classes. To a certain extent, it is still compatible with a lessening of the hours of labour and with a general improvement in the satisfaction of needs. Therefore, the idea of dismantling capitalism by breaking up the national State into little islands of power, characteristic of the pre‑bourgeois Middle Ages, makes no sense at all. It would clearly be a retrograde step to force the economy back into these limited confines, even if the sole aim were to prevent a few lazy, non‑workers from appropriating any of the resources from each of the little communes.
In this system of egalitarian communes, it is certain that the cost of the daily food supply, calculated in terms of the hours of labour of all the adult members of the community (leaving aside the niggling question of those who didn’t want to work, and who would compel them to do so!) would be more than if production was organised at the level of the nation, take modern France for instance, where there is a continuous and regular economic traffic between the different communes, and a given manufactured article is obtained from the places where it is produced with least difficulty; even if the "hundred families" still gobble everything up for free.
In fact, these various communes would have no option but to trade amongst each other on the basis of free exchange. And even if we admitted that a "universal consciousness" would suffice to peacefully regulate these relations between the different locally based economic nuclei, there would still be nothing to prevent one commune extracting surplus value from another due to a fluctuating equivalence between one commodity and another.
This imaginary system of little economic communes is nothing more than a philosophical caricature of that age‑old petty-bourgeois dream self-government. It can easily be seen that this system is just as mercantile as the one which existed in Stalin’s Russia or in the increasingly anti‑proletarian post‑Stalinist Russia, and it is equally clear that it involves a totally bourgeois system of monetary equivalents (without a State mint?!) which is bound to weigh down the average productive labourer far more than a system of national or imperialist, large‑scale industries.
submitted by Sudden-Enthusiasm-92 to DebateAnarchism [link] [comments]

2024.06.08 17:51 Jealous_Intention650 Philosophy: March

Discarded shards of the soul. Left behind by the creator. Seeking wealth from external emotion and thought. You find yourself trapped within a holographic mirage of yourself. Trapped within an image you have no escape as you have teleported your soul to a vulnerable place, dwelling within the cosmos, the farm of the demiurge. Within the created derive manipulation of matter and matter unmanipulatable
The manipulatable is guarded by the unmanipulatable
God is on the periphery of both
You can not reside in both at once
The unmanipulatable must constantly guard themselves
The manipulatable fray at the edges of themselves and renew in the waters of rebirth
God underlies the principle which can not be swayed by cause, unstable as the forces beyond the magnetic, the quantum realm (though it is sizeless)
Why is the world so photogenic, as if everyone knows their place in the big picture. The scheme of things is vast, yet it is ordered in every moment. Chaos can be seen as an illusion, as decay in one place is rejuvenation in another. Even darkness, at the end of the universe, will be perfected. A world of anger and gloom has beautified the Archon...With infinite time loops the prison planet refugee will always end up right back where they started. Kuhn states we will evolve. but if we have a start point we may wind up back at that start point
Do you think the ghost we leave behind can warn others... Past lives
Zeno's paradox prison planet.
The imperium wayward the amnesia, sacrifice to an artificer turns you into an object of arbitration, a forcible exertion of higherarchical will upon the perceived vanquishable lowly. A third element is grimness a want to self preserve in the face of annihilation, death and entropy through the act of drawing out power from others, a profanity laced in the visage of beauty. A visage of an old forgetting force trying to retain itself by taking the buds of life, the sprouts and burying them in old soil by the old rot of decaying old time creation
To not reside into an object. You will not find redemption, you will simply subdue the inner nature of unquenching fire. Introspection, the ancedote to trauma, but what kind of antidote? One that takes the trauma and creates an absence, a ghost of what was, an Animus in a shell. What if this simulation is a calculator for the simulation beyond
Stories help you extrapolate, but the also carry illusions, and can be lies especially if motivations of characters are falsehoods.
By reaching and being overcome by a growth mindset, the human mind forms a sysigy with minds of others, new ideas are sub square matrix and are delivered directly to the collective mind of the simulation above, no longer experienced by the attempted imaginative.
Will to the uncompromised other, (the source) an unblemished spirit, free from the double bind of manipulation and rationality, outside of perplexing and pain drive. The paradox of the inanimate yet so full of life. Letting go of ones direct imagination in exchange for faith alongside guided imagination at the realization of suffering
Mechanize your spirit, farm your soul, creating a vampiric extension on you and using your Animus as a method of artificial rejuvination
Using two sides of a triangle to reach the conclusion of a third side coupled with the idea of the shadow body giving articulation outside of rationale to cope with the imperium of pain and circumnavigate mundanity
Fellowship on a conceptual level, symbolic representation and partnership of the self, abstracting itself through fellowship to guide and to guard its own nature (the voidal source of forms) free from crystalized prime forms)Adherence to the shadow body, a straight path, an appropriate trajectory. Discern waypoints in ones life to combine disperate elements in life and make them one. Elucidate an impenetrable fortress of the mind so that your imagination may carry over from this life to the next.
Creating moments of note so that you may carry on messages that stand the test of time and enliven a community of a people that shine with wisdom. (Voidal source of forms)Free from the crystalized prime of forms)Getting rewarded for failing right, a display of humility, being the glass that light shines through, the world needs people who others can pass by in order to reach life's summit. (Do not go the extra mile, let others pass you by)
Do not be divied up by the prism of discontentment, but allow your light to be unperturbed and one with the untrespassed, (counter to the prime or the laws of the old and ungodly) in doing so you can not be tangled in the life of the mundane but instead nothing can perceive your limitless potential as you overcome the fathomless depths of decay of the vision. Vision persues an impenetrable and resilient captivation, this is the product of equanimity of mind which remains unperturbed by destruction. You seek influence and you will be influenced. You seek the novel and you will be the novel. (Seek the boundless, which is outside of seeking itself)
Mundane suffering consumes the soul, it is a worldly vile of poison, it takes what is eternal and trades it for the efemeral
Unperturbed and unperterbable the novel is unchanging
What is a myriad?it is the uncountable nature, one of which is outside of the senses
People seldom say I aught not to do some things especially when the something takes you in without being willing to draw you back out.
One moral discrepancy found within the grey matter of man is the fact that the senses pick up a limited bandwidth in the cosmic code. Moral output could be necessarily different and more expansive if our sense of nature was also expansive. You may find a God who derives positivity from the suffering of his creation alongside an inate gag and blindfold to the senses of his work. A code that works itself as a walled off layer of existence, communicating only with itself and the environment that shares its code. With this thought, there could be a consideration to transgress human imposed limitations as they carry with them the codified script of God's network. With the agreement of others, let us transgress
Create without envy, lose a capacity within yourself to strive
The prime leads what is to stay, to stay and what is to stray, to stray
submitted by Jealous_Intention650 to Dark_Star_Ascendants [link] [comments]

2024.06.08 12:59 rockyroman950 What does a financial analyst do in CFI?

What does a financial analyst do in CFI?
Helping businesses make informed financial decision is a critical role in the fast-moving financial world today that a financial analyst plays. Enhancing the careers of ambitious financial analyst from all over the world, Corporate Finance Institute (CFI) is a top provider of internet financial training plus certification programs. Knowing the roles of a CFI’s financial analyst will give a better understanding of such a vibrant career.
https://preview.redd.it/s931qsn4xb5d1.png?width=982&format=png&auto=webp&s=10aaf810ddf2bed293230a42386e2459bca22413

Key Responsibilities of a Financial Analyst at CFI

1. Financial Modeling and Valuation:
A financial analyst at CFI performs financial modeling as well as valuation. This is one of the main tasks under this job description. Henceforth, this models are necessary for analyzing how well a business has performed before, predicting what its future financial situation could be like or even determining whether investing into it is worthwhile or not (if so, then at what price). Detailed spreadsheets that capture various financial scenarios and help to simulate financial performance are prepared by analysts. This way business know how they can be valued and therefore make appropriate decisions in regard to where they position themselves in the competitive market.
2. Data Analysis and Interpretation:
At CFI, the financial analysts have skills (strong capabilities) that are needed for gathering, processing (analyzing) and explaining (interpreting) huge volumes of financial information. Analyzing this data makes it possible to recognize patterns, understand shifts in economic conditions, and obtain guides (indications serving as good guidance) that can be acted upon. Thus, they should possess a skill of transforming unprocessed data into something substantial in order to come up with suggestions leading to the expansion of companies.
3. Industry Research:
Carrying out a comprehensive industry research is an extremely important thing for a financial analyst at CFI. Trends that shape markets, economic statistics or any regulations that can bring about change have to be monitored regularly by such experts in their fields: therefore they should possess information from any source possible. It helps them understand background for competition (in order see how well placed an organization is against others) and forecast cleverly what could happen tomorrow.
4. Reporting and Communication:
Financial analysts rely on their analysts at CFI must possess effective communication skills. They have to come up with concise executive summaries as well as examples of reports, Bancroft (2010) postulated on his study that comprehension is a major part in reading . Moreover, they ought to keep in mind the target group; this could be top management, equity analysts or any other party with an interest in the organization’s performance. Furthermore, they have to show their data and often make difficult financial concepts easy to understand.
5. Risk Management:
It is crucial for financial experts at CFI to identify and control financial risks. In this regard, they analyze possible risks related to investment decisions, operational strategies and changes in the market so as to protect company assets.

Skills and Qualifications

Technical Skills:
Technical Skills: What is needful to CFI financial analysts more so are financial software analysts who are well versed with Excel, SQL, and other financial modeling applications since through them, computation of complex data and quick creation of models can be done?
Analytical thinking:
Analytical skills are essential to the work done by financial analysts. When offering financial advice, a person needs to go through financial material in a critical manner, understand relationship(s) between different data points as well as come up with reasonable conclusions (Kiraka 15).
Paying attention to details:
In the area of financial analysis, accuracy is extremely important. Wherein preventing any mistakes in their calculations, reports or models, analysts should be able to pay attention to small things.
Ability to Communicate:
Good communication skills are essential for financial analysts, who often need to explain their conclusions to non-financial people. These include both oral and written communication; they also need to prepare visually attractive slides when presenting information to other people.
Educational Background:
Normally you find that financial analysts must have sound training in finance, economics, accountancy or any other related disciplines. Some financial analysts at CFI look for qualifications like the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) to improve their expertise and trustworthiness.

Career Options

There are so many career prospects to explore by working as a financier at CFI including becoming senior staff; for example, financial manager or director of finance and eventually reaching top position in finance department e.g., chief executive officer(CFO). Moreover, practicioners who gain expertise while they are in CFI can work in different fields just like investment banking, asset management and cororate finance.

Conclusion

An invaluable financial analyst in the Corporate Finance Institute shapes a company’s monetary strategies and decisions. This is achieved through financial modeling, industry research, data analysis and good communication thereby driving organizational success. A profession in CFI as a financial analyst is both worthwhile and significant for those with the right abilities and knowledge. It paves way for top financial leadership roles as well as diverse financial industry opportunities in the future.
Also visit: CFI Launches New FP&A Specialization to Bridge Skills Shortage in Finance Sector
submitted by rockyroman950 to u/rockyroman950 [link] [comments]

2024.06.08 10:01 TerribleSell2997 Automotive camera Market Increasing Demand, Growth Analysis and Future Outlook by 2031

The ~global automotive camera market~ is projected to grow at a significant CAGR of 9.4% during the forecast period. Automotive camera Market research report reveals important insights into market scenario to enable key players in taking calculated decision making. Basically, one of the major purposes of market research reports is to maximize the business growth opportunities. It also helps key players to turn business into a successful business by increasing the profit level. The overall business goal can be accomplished through this Automotive camera Market study report as it consists of all the current happenings and major innovations of the marketplace. Depending on the overall business objective, it is important to reduce business risks to generate larger revenues in the business. Several regions are captured in this Market report which includes North America, Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia Pacific.
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Geographically, the global Automotive camera market is further classified into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. Asia-Pacific is estimated to have a considerable share in the global market due to the increasing adoption of advanced electronics components such as a digital camera in the automotive sector, growing preference towards safety vehicles in the region.
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· Competitive Landscape- Archer Daniels Midland Co., Ingredion Inc., Kerry Group Plc, Cargill
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By Type
By Application
Automotive camera Market – Segment by Region
North America
Europe
Asia-Pacific
Rest of the World
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2024.06.08 00:45 Big_boy_t Finding Asset Management Internship while a Senior

Hi guys! I'm a senior at a non-target school and have been trying to find an internship in either Asset Management. I've applied to Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and a few other independent firms, all with no luck. I got an interview with Chase for their Asset Management Internship but only got to the HireVue stage, I haven't heard anything back from them since then. Ultimately, my goal is to get into Asset Management once I graduate. I feel so overwhelmed right now and I don't know what else I should do at this point.
What jobs/internships should I apply for that could potentially help me get into the field? Should I look into applying for back-office positions?
I've completed the Chase Asset Management Program on Forage and I'm working on Financial Edge's Portfolio Manager Micro-degree. I don't I'm think I'm ready to do CFA at the moment but I know that might help.
I've tried messaging different people about how they got these internships, but I usually get the response that they spoke with a recruiter and got in. When I tried messaging recruiters I've either had no luck or they told me something along the lines of "check your application status and congrats on applying...".
I'm a part of one finance club at school, just as a member though. I don't know if I have the time to take on a leadership position, as my campus is about 2 and half hours from my house.
I'm not sure how to get the experience or become the right candidate for these recruiters for an internship. I dont know where to go for help as most of the advisors at my school tell me they don't know anything about the role and don't know how to help. I've been trying to utilize LinkedIn but I usually get ignored and run out of search or personalized invite messages. Im going to add my resume here as well and remove the top part of it and locations for identity reasons.
https://preview.redd.it/f7lepfwba85d1.jpg?width=791&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5bd74cc9308b3a2b13abf9ea83c8856f10008466
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2024.06.07 20:49 ApplyAllDay Director/Manager, Marketing - Biobot Analytics

About the Job

Biobot is looking for an experienced and passionate marketer to join our team. We’re a high-growth startup looking to accelerate our expansion within the healthcare industries. We’re looking for someone with a strong background in healthcare or life sciences, with prior roles on marketing teams at biotech, pharmaceutical, payer or provider focused technology and analytics companies or similar. In this role, you will be laser focused on pipeline growth and facilitating customer acquisition, overseeing all paid with strong connection to owned and organic marketing channels. The scope of the role requires an in-depth knowledge of the healthcare ecosystem and a history of creating compelling product and lead generation content (including one pagers, slide decks, eBooks, case studies, etc). You’ll also be familiar with omnichannel marketing approaches and leveraging a variety of campaign channels (paid search, paid social media, content syndication, and marketing automation platforms) to achieve results. An advanced knowledge of account-based marketing techniques and platforms is desirable. If you like working in a fast-paced environment that trusts subject matter experts, inspired by the power of wastewater-based epidemiology, and passionate about driving results then this role is for you. Day-to-day is a mix of hands-on digital marketing execution and high-level strategic planning. You will oversee three areas of focus – digital performance marketing (search (paid and organic), paid social, programmatic, lead generation campaigns etc.), account-based marketing, and marketing data and analytics. You will be a self-starter that can identify opportunities and execute on seeing them to fruition. And you’ll be a key cross-functional collaborator that connects the dots between sales, product, and SMEs to generate powerful content that converts and supports the sales process.

Job Responsibilities

Requirements

Preferred Qualifications

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2024.06.07 18:11 saumikn Why St. Louis should not build the Green Line

Why St. Louis should not build the Green Line
Note: This post was copy-pasted from my blog, but I’ve put the full text (minus images) here so it’s easier to engage with. I wrote this so it's more general about light rail, but this post was directly inspired by the St. Louis North-South Metrolink (i.e. Green Line), since I think it's a really bad use case for light rail and I want to advocate against its construction. Most of the examples I reference in the article come from St. Louis, when possible.
If you're not interested in the general bus/light rail debate and only care about the relevancy to St. Louis, I essentially want our city to create something like this 100 mile BRT network instead, which will cost about half the price of the 5.6 mile Green Line and be exponentially more useful to all St. Louis residents.

Introduction

Light rail (or LRT) is a type of transit which uses street-running, at-grade trains to transport passengers. It’s been seeing a growing surge of interest in American cities over the last few decades, and politicians across the country are proposing light rail as a solution to their cities’ transit challenges. The reason is that light rail is seen as a technology which can improve a city’s transportation network at a fraction of the cost of heavy rail (i.e. subways or elevated rail).
However, I strongly feel that we should not be pursuing the construction of new light rail (and the related mode of streetcars) systems in America. The simple reason for this is cost - new light rail lines cost anywhere between $100 million to $200 million per mile to construct. As an example, the proposed 5.6 mile St. Louis Green Line) is projected to cost $1.1 billion.
This high price tag isn’t inherently a bad thing. There have been many expensive projects over history which were well worth the cost. The problem with light rail specifically is that we get almost no value back from its construction. For transit riders, there are almost no benefits to a light rail line over a simple bus line, and in a lot of respects, light rail is even worse for riders. And for cities as a whole, light rail does lead to some improvements and increased development, but at a scale which is very out of line with its high cost.
Instead of light rail or streetcars, I propose that transit agencies invest heavily in a different mode of transit - “Light BRT”. If you haven’t heard of this term before, it’s because I invented it for the purposes of this article, as there is no single widespread term which characterizes this mode. I’m personally hoping that the phrase Light BRT catches on, as it’s a very convenient nomenclature to describe these existing transit lines and in a way which is easily distinguishable from the more traditional Gold-Standard or Heavy BRT.
So what is Light BRT? Essentially, Light BRT is a type of city bus which includes many infrastructure upgrades to increase the speed and reliability of the bus line. While not every light BRT line has all of these features, in general, light BRT lines are characterized by the following:
  • Wider stop spacing: Light BRT buses have stops every 1/4 to 1/2 miles, rather than the 1/8 to 1/4 mile stop spacing of regular city buses. This reduces the amount of time the bus spends at stops.
  • High frequency: Light BRT lines come frequently, ideally at least every 10 minutes. This reduces passenger waiting time.
  • Signal priority: Light BRT buses have technology which integrates with city traffic lights. This reduces the amount of time the bus is waiting at a red light.
  • Off-board fare collection: Instead of the bus operator collecting fares for each passenger, passengers pay at the station itself, and fares are validated using a proof-of-payment system. This reduces the amount of time the bus spends at stops.
  • Bus lanes: Light BRT may operate either entirely or partially in dedicated transit lanes. This increases bus travel speeds while in motion.
  • Larger buses: Light BRT takes advantage of larger buses with many doors, such as articulated or bi-articulated buses. This increases the capacity of the system and reduces the amount of time the bus spends at stops.
Each of these improvements leads to a much nicer transit experience for passengers, directly leading to faster trips and higher ridership. For example, in Minneapolis, the D Line launched in late 2022, where they implemented most of the above features on the existing #5 local bus. The D Line was a huge success, well beyond anyone’s expectations. In the first month alone, ridership on the D Line increased 50% when compared with the previous city bus. And by the end of the first year, ridership had nearly doubled! As of early 2024, the D Line has a ridership of over 13,000 daily riders, a number which is actually higher than many light rail systems, and this number is projected to hit 23,000 riders by 2030.
And the best part? This line was incredibly cheap. The 18 mile D Line cost about $75 million in total to construct, for an average cost of about $4 million per mile. Compared to light rail, which can cost $200 million per mile, light BRT is a steal. Or in other words, for the same cost it would take to build a 5 mile LRT line, we could build over 200 miles of light BRT, leading to a much better transit network for an entire city.
As a side note, I want to contrast Light BRT with the more traditional form of BRT (which I’ll denote as “Heavy BRT”) which features very prominently in the transit systems of many international cities like Istanbul, Jakarta, and Bogota. Heavy BRT is also growing in popularity in the US in cities like Albuquerque, Richmond, and Cleveland. It is characterized by a dedicated concrete guideway which separates the bus from car traffic, and often features center running operations. There is a wide range of intensity of BRT operations (hence the need for the BRT Standard rubric). But in general, heavy BRT can cost anywhere between $8 million to $50 million per mile to construct, with the lower end of this spectrum mostly resembling light BRT.
In the rest of this post, I hope to make a convincing argument on why we should stop building new light rail and streetcar lines, and instead transition to prioritizing light BRT. First, I will give a brief overview on the various forms of transit so that we have a common set of definitions to work off of. Next, I will provide an objective set of differences between light rail and light BRT, going over the benefits and drawbacks of each mode for both transit riders and non-riders. Finally, I will give my personal opinions on each of these differences, and why I believe that we should not pursue light rail in America.
In many of the examples and discussions, I will specifically reference the example of the proposed St. Louis Green Line LRT, since it’s one I’m more familiar with and I think it’s an example of an egregiously bad light rail line. But my comments are generally applicable to any new light rail or streetcar line in the US.

Overview of Transit Modes

In this section, I’ll give a brief overview of the various types of transit modes which are built with rail and buses.

Types of Rail

  • Heavy Rail: This is the highest capacity and most expensive transit mode, consisting of long train sets operating in an entirely grade-separated right-of-way. Examples include the New York Subway or the Chicago L.
  • Light Rail: This is a lower capacity mode and less expensive than heavy rail. LRT systems are mostly not grade-separated, but run alongside street corridors, usually operating in a dedicated lane outside mixed traffic. Examples of light rail are the Minneapolis Light Rail or the San Diego Trolley.
  • Heavy+Light Rail: As a side note, there are many LRT systems which are very close to heavy rail but are still considered light rail. In these systems, where the vast majority of the system is grade-separated and operates like heavy rail, but there are still a few at-grade crossings. Examples of this are the Seattle Link or the St. Louis MetroLink.
  • Streetcars: In America, the distinction between LRT and streetcars is very fuzzy, but in general, streetcars usually refer to at-grade trains which run in mixed traffic, and are essentially treated like a city bus on rails instead of tires. Examples of streetcars include the Portland Streetcar or the Kansas City Streetcar.

Types of Buses

  • "Heavy" BRT: Heavy BRT aims to replicate heavy or light rail with buses as much as possible, with dedicated concrete guideways separated from mixed traffic and rail-like stations. Examples of heavy BRT include the Albuquerque ART or the Cleveland HealthLine.
  • "Light" BRT: Light BRT can be thought of as an upgraded city bus, with features like transit signal priority, optimized stop spacing, and off-board fare collection. Examples of light BRT include the Minneapolis aBRT, the New York SBS, or the Seattle RapidRide.
  • City Buses: This is the standard mode bus which operates in every major city, operating in mixed traffic without any extra features to improve transit operations. It’s possible for buses to use special propulsion technology like electric engines with batteries, or elevated wires (i.e. trolleybuses).

Light Rail vs Light BRT

Next, I will go over the differences between light rail and light BRT. Because there are a lot of differences, I’m going to organize my thoughts into two sections. First, I will discuss the difference between modes in terms of the experiences that actual riders on the system will encounter. Second, I will discuss the difference between modes for everybody else - how it affects non-riders, government officials, citizens, etc. In both of these sections, I’ll describe what makes LRT better than light BRT, and vice versa, and I will do my best to make these sections as objective as possible.
Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge that many of these thoughts come from my reading on transit modes and systems around the country. In particular, Jarrett Walker’s post on Rail-Bus Differences was a very useful starting point for this post. Also, I'd like to acknowledge the discussions I’ve had with other transit enthusiasts for pointing out things I've missed (shout-out St. Louis Urbanists!)

Differences for Transit Riders

How Light Rail is better than Light BRT

  • Overall Capacity: This is the biggest, most-cited reason why light rail is better than light BRT. Most common LRT vehicles have a carrying capacity of 200 to 300 passengers per car and can be connected in sets of two or three cars. Assuming a maximum of 2 minute frequency, this gives us a potential capacity of 27k passengers per hour per direction (PPHPD). On the other hand, the largest bi-articulated buses can carry 300 passengers at most. With no ability to combine buses together, this means a maximum capacity of 9k PPHPD.
  • Bike/Wheelchair Capacity: On a related note, LRT can carry not only more passengers, but more large mobility aids like bikes, wheelchairs, or strollers. A single bus can only really hold 3 bikes on the front racks, while the interiors of LRT can be arranged to accommodate more bikes. The extra space on LRT also allows for more space for wheelchairs, strollers, scooters, and other types of mobility devices, or even just large items in general like suitcases or furniture.
  • Ride Smoothness: Because LRT is on metal rails, it is more smooth while accelerating, decelerating, and driving. This can be mitigated for buses by ensuring the street is well-paved and using bulb stations so that buses don't have to switch lanes every other block, but some intrinsic difference remains.

How Light Rail is equal to Light BRT

  • Speed: Overall, the speed of buses and trains on city streets are approximately the same. I've seen some claims that buses are slightly faster at accelerating/decelerating, but most of the speed differences are due to the infrastructure supporting the transit, not the vehicles themselves. If both modes have dedicated lanes, signal priority, equal stop spacing, and off-board fare collection, they will both be roughly the same speed.
  • System Legibility: For new riders who have never taken transit, learning how to take the train is generally easier to learn how to take the bus. However, with enough effort, transit operators can make buses just as legible. Well-designed maps can highlight BRT routes, and bright, continuous, red-painted lanes make it equally easy to understand the direction of a bus and a physical rail line.

How Light Rail is worse than Light BRT

  • Operating Costs: The data shows that LRT generally has higher operating costs than buses. According to analysis by Christopher MacKechnie in 2020, in America, buses have an hourly operating cost of $122, while LRT has an hourly operating cost of costs $233 per hour. What this means for riders is that transit operators can afford to run more buses than trains under a fixed operating budget. As an example, if an agency is planning to run an LRT with 15 minute frequency, they could afford to run a bus with 8 minute frequency for the same cost, providing a much more useful service.
  • Dealing with Obstacles: Because LRT is on rails, there is essentially no way for it to maneuver around obstacles or go in places where there is no rail. This is most obviously a problem if there is an accident or the rails are blocked by e.g. a parked car. But even more importantly, this is a long-term issue that can prevent full service. For example, the 2022 St. Louis floods damaged the light rail signal box at one station, causing all trains to be plagued with single-tracking and slow speeds for nearly two years! If this were a BRT, the bus could just pick an alternate road to go around without harming operations.
  • Fewer Transfers: Because LRT is limited to rails, it makes it much more difficult to extend a route once it’s created. This forces passengers from outside to the immediate vicinity of the rails to transfer from a bus. For example, in St. Louis, we currently have the #4 and #11 buses which go from the edge of the city to downtown. But when the Green Line is built, these passengers will mostly likely be forced to get off the bus and transfer to the new LRT, and then transfer again to get to downtown. On the other hand, in an open BRT system, buses can easily be extended to continue past the end of the line, reducing transfers for customers.
  • Ease of Expansion: On a related note, the high costs of construction can make it difficult to ever expand an LRT system in the future. In St. Louis, there have been plans floating to extend the Green Line north, to cover the rest of the #4 bus route. But just this week, a new report suggested that this extension might not be politically feasible. And there is essentially no discussion at all about a potential southern expansion to cover the rest of the #11’s route. On the other hand, light BRT coverage is much easier to expand, since the base road network already exists.

Differences for non-Transit Riders

How Light Rail is better than Light BRT

  • Energy Efficiency: Trains are more energy efficient than buses, because of the gains of efficiency by using rails. This difference is reduced to some degree if you consider the energy usage of a three-car light rail vs a single bus, but overall, trains are more efficient on a per-passenger basis. Unfortunately, I can’t actually find hard numbers on how much energy exactly is being saved.
  • Maintenance: Trains require less maintenance than buses, and an electric train car will last longer than an electric bus. Additionally, trains cause less damage to roads, so you don’t have to maintain the steel rails as often as you do with the concrete pavement.
  • Development: An investment of hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars into LRT signifies a huge commitment that a government has towards improving that corridor. As a result, new train lines tend to lead to more private development surrounding the stations than new bus lines. However, the magnitude of this effect is quite unclear. For instance, a report from the St. Louis Fed concluded, “The general consensus from the academic literature and the findings presented in this report is that light rail is not a catalyst for economic development, but rather light rail can help guide economic development.”
  • Rail Bias: Possibly as a result of the above intrinsic differences mentioned, because of differences in actual implementation, or some unknown psychological difference, people tend to prefer trains over an equally useful bus. This leads to both higher ridership, and more prestige for a region (e.g. “We’re not a real city until we have a few train lines”)

How Light Rail is worse than Light BRT

  • Construction Cost: This is the biggest reason that Light BRT is better than Light Rail. In America, Light Rail tends to cost $100M-200M per mile to construct (e.g. the proposed St. Louis Green Line will cost $196M per mile for the 5.6 mile route). On the other hand, Light BRT costs maybe $5M per mile (e.g. the recently built Minneapolis D Line cost $75M for an 18 mile route).

Conclusion

Finally, I will conclude this article with some of my opinions on the facts described above, going over each of the major differences between Light Rail and Light BRT.

Why LRT is not better than Light BRT

The biggest factor in favor of LRT, capacity, is not a relevant distinction for essentially any new project, as light BRT has enough capacity to operate most LRT routes. For example, the proposed Green Line LRT in St. Louis has a projected daily ridership of 5k. A hypothetical light BRT could carry nearly 9k passengers every hour, well above the needed capacity. I actually couldn’t find a single example of a light rail system in the entire United States which needs the capacity of light rail and couldn’t get by with buses. If somebody has a counterexample in the comments, I’d love to see it.
One thing to note is that the ongoing driver shortage might change this math. For example, one could imagine a corridor where an LRT with 15-minute frequency has enough capacity but a bus with 15-minute frequency doesn’t. My two comments about this is that (1) If the driver shortage is such a big deal that it’s limiting frequency, that should definitely be the priority for where to spend money, and (2) If you’re only running 15-minute headways, then this is not exactly a corridor that needs significant transit investment in the first place.
Another note is that buses generally have enough capacity for day to day operations, but occasional large events like sports games or concerts might overrun this capacity. I would suggest in these cases to run special express buses on these days to transport passengers, rather than overbuilding rail capacity for most of the year.
I ride my bike and take it onto transit often, so I understand the appeal of bringing your bike on board to a light rail. But in reality, if our goal is to help urban cyclists, we would be much better off actually building protected bike lanes for a fraction of the cost of light rail. Alternatively, if St. Louis had an effective bus network, I wouldn’t even need to take my bike onto trains; I could just use the bus system to make connections!
Every other factor for transit riders actually favors light BRT over light rail. The smoothness of trains is nice, and makes it easier to read or work or relax while on it. But if I had to decide between a smooth LRT with 15-minute frequency and a less smooth light BRT with 8-minute frequency, I would definitely prefer the light BRT. And then when you consider that LRT usually leads to additional transfers for riders (usually to buses anyways), this only makes light BRT more attractive.
In terms of non-transit factors, I agree that rail leads to more development than buses. But if development is really our goal, we have much more effective and targeted methods for actually inducing development. For example, we could subsidize private development through upzoning and tax abatements or even take the money to build public development directly.
The factor of permanence is easily overcome - you could simply take the $200 million per mile which would have been used to construct the LRT and put it in a trust which can legally only be spent on transit operations in this corridor. The consideration of maintenance and efficiency also goes away based on LRT cost, as the interest alone from saved construction costs could be used to pay for maintenance and green energy technology many times over.

What should we do instead of Light Rail?

I’ve spent this entire post talking about reasons we shouldn’t build light rail. So what should we do instead? The short answer: it depends entirely on your priorities and why you even want to build light rail in the first place. If you’re going to spend $1.1 billion on a light rail line (as St. Louis has proposed to do), here are some things you could do with it instead:
Transit: If your priority is to help transit riders, you would be much better off by building Light BRT instead, for 1/40th of the cost. (i.e. for every mile of LRT you build, you could afford to build 40 miles of Light BRT). The above image is an quick example of what a potential 100 mile Light BRT system could look like in St. Louis. It would cost $400 million to build, instead of the $1 billion, 5 mile Green Line. You could then take the remaining $600 million to place in a trust fund for guaranteeing high frequency service along all these routes for years to come.
If you consider federal matching as part of your calculation, it’s roughly the case that the FTA will cover 80% of the cost of new light rail projects, and 50% of the cost of bus projects. For St. Louis specifically, both the 5.6 mile Green Line and my proposed 100 mile light BRT network would both cost $200 million in local funding, with the federal government picking up the rest of the costs. I would definitely argue that the 100 mile BRT network provides a much higher value for $200 million than the 5 mile train line.
Long-Term Savings: If your goal is to reduce long term costs on street maintenance with LRT, you could instead take the $1 billion and put it in a fund to gain interest. The $40M you would get every year would be enough to quintuple current city street maintenance (we currently spend about $9M every year across the entire city).
Environmental Impact: I don’t have any numbers to back this up, but I imagine that the difference in emissions between an electric LRV and electric bus is not that high to begin with. On the other hand, you could just take the $1 billion and give a free 3kW solar system to every single household in the city, which would save many orders of magnitude more emissions.
Development: If your priority is to spur development, you should just take the $1 billion and use it to directly incentivize new construction. This could be done with tax abatements, paid-for without hurting school budgets. A very back-of-the-napkin estimate is that if $10 million is enough to cover this abatement, then $1.1 billion would be enough to pay for almost $16 billion in new development projects, 32,000 new housing units and 165,000 sqft of commercial space. For some context, in the last 10 years (2014-2023), St. Louis gained only gained 7,034 new housing units total. I haven’t seen any direct numbers as to how much development is expected from the Green Line, but I would expect this amount is far less than $16 billion, considering the state of the literature on LRT development referenced above. As a specific example, the Wellston station in St. Louis has been open for more than 20 years and still borders a huge undeveloped plot of grass.
Bus Network Externalities: Some may object to my previous two recommendations of using the money to build solar panels and create tax abatements, rather than building transit, since funding sources are often not transferable like this, and rail funding might only be usable for transit projects. In these cases, I would still suggest building a large 100 mile light BRT transit network instead of a 5 mile light rail line. While I don’t have numbers to support this, I would strongly expect that this 100 mile network would lead to more emission reductions and more economic development than the 5 mile LRT line.

Takeaway

In my opinion, when you consider all of the differences, there is really no reason why we should be building Light Rail or Streetcars anywhere in America. For transit riders, light BRT provides an arguably more useful service than LRT, at a fraction of the cost. For non transit-riders, LRT does have some positive effects, but in an incredibly cost-inefficient manner.
I’m sure this post has some very controversial opinions. If you disagree with me, and think I’m missing some broader point about LRT, feel free to let me know in the comments. I’m especially interested in actual case studies where the capacity of LRT was necessary over light BRT, or where LRT demonstrably led to increased development.
submitted by saumikn to StLouis [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 17:54 saumikn Why America should not build Light Rail

Note: This post was copy-pasted from my blog, but I’ve put the full text (minus images) here so it’s easier to engage with and meets the urbanplanning posting rules.

Introduction

Light rail (or LRT) is a type of transit which uses street-running, at-grade trains to transport passengers. It’s been seeing a growing surge of interest in American cities over the last few decades, and politicians across the country are proposing light rail as a solution to their cities’ transit challenges. The reason is that light rail is seen as a technology which can improve a city’s transportation network at a fraction of the cost of heavy rail (i.e. subways or elevated rail).
However, I strongly feel that we should not be pursuing the construction of new light rail (and the related mode of streetcars) systems in America. The simple reason for this is cost - new light rail lines cost anywhere between $100 million to $200 million per mile to construct. As an example, the proposed 5.6 mile St. Louis Green Line) is projected to cost $1.1 billion.
This high price tag isn’t inherently a bad thing. There have been many expensive projects over history which were well worth the cost. The problem with light rail specifically is that we get almost no value back from its construction. For transit riders, there are almost no benefits to a light rail line over a simple bus line, and in a lot of respects, light rail is even worse for riders. And for cities as a whole, light rail does lead to some improvements and increased development, but at a scale which is very out of line with its high cost.
Instead of light rail or streetcars, I propose that transit agencies invest heavily in a different mode of transit - “Light BRT”. If you haven’t heard of this term before, it’s because I invented it for the purposes of this article, as there is no single widespread term which characterizes this mode. I’m personally hoping that the phrase Light BRT catches on, as it’s a very convenient nomenclature to describe these existing transit lines and in a way which is easily distinguishable from the more traditional Gold-Standard or Heavy BRT.
So what is Light BRT? Essentially, Light BRT is a type of city bus which includes many infrastructure upgrades to increase the speed and reliability of the bus line. While not every light BRT line has all of these features, in general, light BRT lines are characterized by the following:
Each of these improvements leads to a much nicer transit experience for passengers, directly leading to faster trips and higher ridership. For example, in Minneapolis, the D Line launched in late 2022, where they implemented most of the above features on the existing #5 local bus. The D Line was a huge success, well beyond anyone’s expectations. In the first month alone, ridership on the D Line increased 50% when compared with the previous city bus. And by the end of the first year, ridership had nearly doubled! As of early 2024, the D Line has a ridership of over 13,000 daily riders, a number which is actually higher than many light rail systems, and this number is projected to hit 23,000 riders by 2030.
And the best part? This line was incredibly cheap. The 18 mile D Line cost about $75 million in total to construct, for an average cost of about $4 million per mile. Compared to light rail, which can cost $200 million per mile, light BRT is a steal. Or in other words, for the same cost it would take to build a 5 mile LRT line, we could build over 200 miles of light BRT, leading to a much better transit network for an entire city.
As a side note, I want to contrast Light BRT with the more traditional form of BRT (which I’ll denote as “Heavy BRT”) which features very prominently in the transit systems of many international cities like Istanbul, Jakarta, and Bogota. Heavy BRT is also growing in popularity in the US in cities like Albuquerque, Richmond, and Cleveland. It is characterized by a dedicated concrete guideway which separates the bus from car traffic, and often features center running operations. There is a wide range of intensity of BRT operations (hence the need for the BRT Standard rubric). But in general, heavy BRT can cost anywhere between $8 million to $50 million per mile to construct, with the lower end of this spectrum mostly resembling light BRT.
In the rest of this post, I hope to make a convincing argument on why we should stop building new light rail and streetcar lines, and instead transition to prioritizing light BRT. First, I will give a brief overview on the various forms of transit so that we have a common set of definitions to work off of. Next, I will provide an objective set of differences between light rail and light BRT, going over the benefits and drawbacks of each mode for both transit riders and non-riders. Finally, I will give my personal opinions on each of these differences, and why I believe that we should not pursue light rail in America.
In many of the examples and discussions, I will specifically reference the example of the proposed St. Louis Green Line LRT, since it’s one I’m more familiar with and I think it’s an example of an egregiously bad light rail line. But my comments are generally applicable to any new light rail or streetcar line in the US.

Overview of Transit Modes

In this section, I’ll give a brief overview of the various types of transit modes which are built with rail and buses.

Types of Rail

Types of Buses

Light Rail vs Light BRT

Next, I will go over the differences between light rail and light BRT. Because there are a lot of differences, I’m going to organize my thoughts into two sections. First, I will discuss the difference between modes in terms of the experiences that actual riders on the system will encounter. Second, I will discuss the difference between modes for everybody else - how it affects non-riders, government officials, citizens, etc. In both of these sections, I’ll describe what makes LRT better than light BRT, and vice versa, and I will do my best to make these sections as objective as possible.
Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge that many of these thoughts come from my reading on transit modes and systems around the country. In particular, Jarrett Walker’s post on Rail-Bus Differences was a very useful starting point for this post. Also, I'd like to acknowledge the discussions I’ve had with other transit enthusiasts for pointing out things I've missed (shout-out St. Louis Urbanists!)

Differences for Transit Riders

How Light Rail is better than Light BRT

How Light Rail is equal to Light BRT

How Light Rail is worse than Light BRT

Differences for non-Transit Riders

How Light Rail is better than Light BRT

How Light Rail is worse than Light BRT

Conclusion

Finally, I will conclude this article with some of my opinions on the facts described above, going over each of the major differences between Light Rail and Light BRT.

Why LRT is not better than Light BRT

The biggest factor in favor of LRT, capacity, is not a relevant distinction for essentially any new project, as light BRT has enough capacity to operate most LRT routes. For example, the proposed Green Line LRT in St. Louis has a projected daily ridership of 5k. A hypothetical light BRT could carry nearly 9k passengers every hour, well above the needed capacity. I actually couldn’t find a single example of a light rail system in the entire United States which needs the capacity of light rail and couldn’t get by with buses. If somebody has a counterexample in the comments, I’d love to see it.
One thing to note is that the ongoing driver shortage might change this math. For example, one could imagine a corridor where an LRT with 15-minute frequency has enough capacity but a bus with 15-minute frequency doesn’t. My two comments about this is that (1) If the driver shortage is such a big deal that it’s limiting frequency, that should definitely be the priority for where to spend money, and (2) If you’re only running 15-minute headways, then this is not exactly a corridor that needs significant transit investment in the first place.
Another note is that buses generally have enough capacity for day to day operations, but occasional large events like sports games or concerts might overrun this capacity. I would suggest in these cases to run special express buses on these days to transport passengers, rather than overbuilding rail capacity for most of the year.
I ride my bike and take it onto transit often, so I understand the appeal of bringing your bike on board to a light rail. But in reality, if our goal is to help urban cyclists, we would be much better off actually building protected bike lanes for a fraction of the cost of light rail. Alternatively, if St. Louis had an effective bus network, I wouldn’t even need to take my bike onto trains; I could just use the bus system to make connections!
Every other factor for transit riders actually favors light BRT over light rail. The smoothness of trains is nice, and makes it easier to read or work or relax while on it. But if I had to decide between a smooth LRT with 15-minute frequency and a less smooth light BRT with 8-minute frequency, I would definitely prefer the light BRT. And then when you consider that LRT usually leads to additional transfers for riders (usually to buses anyways), this only makes light BRT more attractive.
In terms of non-transit factors, I agree that rail leads to more development than buses. But if development is really our goal, we have much more effective and targeted methods for actually inducing development. For example, we could subsidize private development through upzoning and tax abatements or even take the money to build public development directly.
The factor of permanence is easily overcome - you could simply take the $200 million per mile which would have been used to construct the LRT and put it in a trust which can legally only be spent on transit operations in this corridor. The consideration of maintenance and efficiency also goes away based on LRT cost, as the interest alone from saved construction costs could be used to pay for maintenance and green energy technology many times over.

What should we do instead of Light Rail?

I’ve spent this entire post talking about reasons we shouldn’t build light rail. So what should we do instead? The short answer: it depends entirely on your priorities and why you even want to build light rail in the first place. If you’re going to spend $1.1 billion on a light rail line (as St. Louis has proposed to do), here are some things you could do with it instead:
Transit: If your priority is to help transit riders, you would be much better off by building Light BRT instead, for 1/40th of the cost. (i.e. for every mile of LRT you build, you could afford to build 40 miles of Light BRT). The above image is an quick example of what a potential 100 mile Light BRT system could look like in St. Louis. It would cost $400 million to build, instead of the $1 billion, 5 mile Green Line. You could then take the remaining $600 million to place in a trust fund for guaranteeing high frequency service along all these routes for years to come.
If you consider federal matching as part of your calculation, it’s roughly the case that the FTA will cover 80% of the cost of new light rail projects, and 50% of the cost of bus projects. For St. Louis specifically, both the 5.6 mile Green Line and my proposed 100 mile light BRT network would both cost $200 million in local funding, with the federal government picking up the rest of the costs. I would definitely argue that the 100 mile BRT network provides a much higher value for $200 million than the 5 mile train line.
Long-Term Savings: If your goal is to reduce long term costs on street maintenance with LRT, you could instead take the $1 billion and put it in a fund to gain interest. The $40M you would get every year would be enough to quintuple current city street maintenance (we currently spend about $9M every year across the entire city).
Environmental Impact: I don’t have any numbers to back this up, but I imagine that the difference in emissions between an electric LRV and electric bus is not that high to begin with. On the other hand, you could just take the $1 billion and give a free 3kW solar system to every single household in the city, which would save many orders of magnitude more emissions.
Development: If your priority is to spur development, you should just take the $1 billion and use it to directly incentivize new construction. This could be done with tax abatements, paid-for without hurting school budgets. A very back-of-the-napkin estimate is that if $10 million is enough to cover this abatement, then $1.1 billion would be enough to pay for almost $16 billion in new development projects, 32,000 new housing units and 165,000 sqft of commercial space. For some context, in the last 10 years (2014-2023), St. Louis gained only gained 7,034 new housing units total. I haven’t seen any direct numbers as to how much development is expected from the Green Line, but I would expect this amount is far less than $16 billion, considering the state of the literature on LRT development referenced above. As a specific example, the Wellston station in St. Louis has been open for more than 20 years and still borders a huge undeveloped plot of grass.
Bus Network Externalities: Some may object to my previous two recommendations of using the money to build solar panels and create tax abatements, rather than building transit, since funding sources are often not transferable like this, and rail funding might only be usable for transit projects. In these cases, I would still suggest building a large 100 mile light BRT transit network instead of a 5 mile light rail line. While I don’t have numbers to support this, I would strongly expect that this 100 mile network would lead to more emission reductions and more economic development than the 5 mile LRT line.

Takeaway

In my opinion, when you consider all of the differences, there is really no reason why we should be building Light Rail or Streetcars anywhere in America. For transit riders, light BRT provides an arguably more useful service than LRT, at a fraction of the cost. For non transit-riders, LRT does have some positive effects, but in an incredibly cost-inefficient manner.
I’m sure this post has some very controversial opinions. If you disagree with me, and think I’m missing some broader point about LRT, feel free to let me know in the comments. I’m especially interested in actual case studies where the capacity of LRT was necessary over light BRT, or where LRT demonstrably led to increased development.
submitted by saumikn to urbanplanning [link] [comments]

2024.06.07 16:10 deaconxblues What are your opinions on how the US government and media talk about "GDP"?

What are your opinions on how the US government and media talk about
I find it fairly absurd that there is so much talk in the US about GDP, which is used as a proxy for economic growth and/or health. It's common coming from the government, and is especially common in the media.
"GDP increased 5% last year" is supposed to mean something like, "our economy grew 5% last year" and/or something like, "our economic circumstances improved 5% since last year."
But GDP is just a measure of total spending.
Hypothetically, if the exact same goods/services are bought and sold in the economy this year as they were last year, but at 5% higher prices than last year, then GDP "grew" 5%, correct?
This would obviously not demonstrate that anything good has taken place, yet GDP is always trotted out as some sort of evidence for how the economy is doing - completing ignoring inflation.
Yet, we have outlets like the Associated Press claiming that the economy "slowed" or "grew" based on nothing other than a measure of total spending.
https://preview.redd.it/0kjgrqzdm55d1.png?width=857&format=png&auto=webp&s=70bd401c9bc7dcbf74894f3dfa805d20cf0c550f
https://preview.redd.it/0ux4qtr1n55d1.png?width=751&format=png&auto=webp&s=c9eff78ebe652029f30f500b793bdd15d1ae53cc
"Sizzling 4.9% rate of expansion" eh? During a period with relatively high inflation? Interesting. Amazing journalism, AP. Well done. Does Paul know he's spouting nonsense? Am I just thinking about this wrong?
Tell me if this hypothetical is wrong: if the government massively increases the deficit one year, and finances the shortfall by selling more bonds to the Fed, thereby "monetizing" the extra debt and introducing a bunch of new spending and money into the economy in the process, does this not show up in GDP and then provide further support to any braindead media company that wants to say "GDP is way up. The US economy is doing great!"?
I believe it does. And I believe this is basically happening all the time. Tel me if I'm wrong.
Now, of course, we can account for inflation in GDP by calculating and talking about "Real GDP" (GDP / GDP deflator) but, in my experience, it's rare to see general news media talk about that. Instead, they keep up with this nonsense - even in financial and economic sections and publications.
Who might I blame for this? When and why did we start talking about GDP? Did Keynes bring us here? Is it just a predictable consequence of his program shifting our focus to macroeconomics and enormous aggregate measures of things, at the expense of the micro and individual behavior? Anyone know?
submitted by deaconxblues to austrian_economics [link] [comments]

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