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Snow Cone Capone
Jul 31, 2003



I unironically agree with this, I'm not even trying to make a joke like "lol you sound like an old man," everything homeboy has said makes it seem like he'd be in the running for Oldest Goon.

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BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.

Professor Shark posted:

See also: Shinola watches



The have/had a 10 minute long video on their site for a while showing all of the American staff they have hired. From what I remember, they are trained to just do the assembly of the watch, everything else is done in China or Europe.

Not for nothing and it's not a scam, but has anyone noticed that in every watch ad the hands are set to 10 and 2? I wonder why that is? I discovered it 20 years ago when I used to do a lot of collage art and wound up making a whole piece on it titled "10 After 10".

Apparently, this hand placement is the most esthetically pleasing position and generates more sales of watches. poo poo, Shinola or otherwise.

AlbieQuirky
Oct 9, 2012

Just me and my 🌊dragon🐉 hanging out

kaschei posted:

Last I heard mercury treatment actually worked and side effects were usually less severe than neurosyphilis, but less effective or safe than modern treatments.

This article is the most pro-mercury one I have found, and it's not a ringing endorsement (tl;dr: it may have helped resolve lesions in some patients and could have curtailed further infection if administered early enough).

I suppose a better example of completely counterproductive treatments of the era would have been using calomel (mercury plus opiates) to cure colitis.

Josef K. Sourdust
Jul 16, 2014

"To be quite frank, Platinum sucks at making games. Vanquish was terrible and Metal Gear Rising: Revengance was so boring it put me to sleep."

I heard about the Shinola brand revival on NPR a while back. Recognisable brand but hell, who chooses a brand name that in a word association test that produces the response "poo poo" 100% of time?

grack
Jan 10, 2012

COACH TOTORO SAY REFEREE CAN BANISH WHISTLE TO LAND OF WIND AND GHOSTS!

BiggerBoat posted:

Not for nothing and it's not a scam, but has anyone noticed that in every watch ad the hands are set to 10 and 2? I wonder why that is? I discovered it 20 years ago when I used to do a lot of collage art and wound up making a whole piece on it titled "10 After 10".

Apparently, this hand placement is the most esthetically pleasing position and generates more sales of watches. poo poo, Shinola or otherwise.

It makes the watch face look "happy". It's not a secret.



Also, Shinola just got slapped big time by the FTC over their Made in the USA branding because just about all of their components are foreign made and simple assembly doesn't meet the legal distinction required for that term.

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.

grack posted:

It makes the watch face look "happy". It's not a secret.



Also, Shinola just got slapped big time by the FTC over their Made in the USA branding because just about all of their components are foreign made and simple assembly doesn't meet the legal distinction required for that term.

Well, apparently I don't know poo poo from shinola after all. What a happy looking watch that is. I believe I shall buy one.

Cast_No_Shadow
Jun 8, 2010

The Republic of Luna Equestria is a huge, socially progressive nation, notable for its punitive income tax rates. Its compassionate, cynical population of 714m are ruled with an iron fist by the dictatorship government, which ensures that no-one outside the party gets too rich.

British comedian Dave Gorman did a whole bit on the happy watch face thing in his "Modern life is goodish" show, its pretty good if you can find it somewhere.

Of special interest is how its become such a thing in watch advertising sometimes they do it for digital clock faces.

Professor Shark
May 22, 2012

BiggerBoat posted:

Not for nothing and it's not a scam, but has anyone noticed that in every watch ad the hands are set to 10 and 2? I wonder why that is? I discovered it 20 years ago when I used to do a lot of collage art and wound up making a whole piece on it titled "10 After 10".

Apparently, this hand placement is the most esthetically pleasing position and generates more sales of watches. poo poo, Shinola or otherwise.

grack posted:

It makes the watch face look "happy". It's not a secret.

Also, Shinola just got slapped big time by the FTC over their Made in the USA branding because just about all of their components are foreign made and simple assembly doesn't meet the legal distinction required for that term.

I read on a watch forum once it's because that's where most brands put their logo and it's a framing thing :shrug::









Also lol that Shinola got hit for their main marketing strategy. They have some decent designs, but their prices are outrageous

grack
Jan 10, 2012

COACH TOTORO SAY REFEREE CAN BANISH WHISTLE TO LAND OF WIND AND GHOSTS!

Professor Shark posted:

I read on a watch forum once it's because that's where most brands put their logo and it's a framing thing :shrug::









Also lol that Shinola got hit for their main marketing strategy. They have some decent designs, but their prices are outrageous

I photographed jewelry professionally for a number of years. It's happy face. If you look at watch photographs sometimes when a watch is presented at an angle instead of straight on the hands will be moved so they still have the same spacing and location.

PT6A
Jan 5, 2006

Public school teachers are callous dictators who won't lift a finger to stop children from peeing in my plane

grack posted:

I photographed jewelry professionally for a number of years. It's happy face. If you look at watch photographs sometimes when a watch is presented at an angle instead of straight on the hands will be moved so they still have the same spacing and location.

Do you know offhand why they choose 10:10 instead of 1:50? (i.e. reversing the position of the hour and minute hand)?

grack
Jan 10, 2012

COACH TOTORO SAY REFEREE CAN BANISH WHISTLE TO LAND OF WIND AND GHOSTS!

PT6A posted:

Do you know offhand why they choose 10:10 instead of 1:50? (i.e. reversing the position of the hour and minute hand)?

When you examine the face of another person your gaze invariably travels from your left to your right (the right side of their face to the left side). This is species wide and not due to culture or upbringing - people display emotions on their face from right to left. Putting the shorter hand on the left side of the face makes it initially look more like a smile since your mouth doesn't reach to the edge of your face.

BrownieMinusEye
Apr 22, 2008

Oven Wrangler
Speaking of an interesting counter-example to useless quack or traditional medicine, arsenic (via arsenic trioxide) has been an FDA approved treatment for certain cancers since the 90's. Only reason I know this is I'm currently doing a project with the lab that only a couple years ago helped discover the molecular basis for why it works (the arsenic inhibits a specific protein that normally stabilizes other important proteins in cancer cells, without that stabilization the important proteins get degraded faster and the cancer cell can't grow).

Kazak_Hstan
Apr 28, 2014

Grimey Drawer

grack posted:

When you examine the face of another person your gaze invariably travels from your left to your right (the right side of their face to the left side). This is species wide and not due to culture or upbringing - people display emotions on their face from right to left. Putting the shorter hand on the left side of the face makes it initially look more like a smile since your mouth doesn't reach to the edge of your face.

Coolest thing I have read in a week. I hope it's true because i will repeat it as if it is.

Redrum and Coke
Feb 25, 2006

wAstIng 10 bUcks ON an aVaTar iS StUpid

Kazak_Hstan posted:

Coolest thing I have read in a week. I hope it's true because i will repeat it as if it is.

Even if it's true that it's a smile, it would be interesting to know if it actually has an effect on people. It might be simply a guess that has just become quackery over time

grack
Jan 10, 2012

COACH TOTORO SAY REFEREE CAN BANISH WHISTLE TO LAND OF WIND AND GHOSTS!

Non Serviam posted:

Even if it's true that it's a smile, it would be interesting to know if it actually has an effect on people. It might be simply a guess that has just become quackery over time

10:10 is used specifically because it looks like a smile, for the reason I stated and the left-right gaze bias is well established. Of course you're right, it could be a complete coincidence that that specific hand position has been proven the most aesthetically pleasing but I think it's funner to think that there's a connection.

grack fucked around with this message at 03:53 on Jul 3, 2016

kaschei
Oct 25, 2005

It certainly has a strong attraction to watch advertisers

goatsestretchgoals
Jun 4, 2011

Pook Good Mook posted:

The worst part is you can find he testimonial online and she loving blames herself. She says she must have not been using it correctly.

The burning sensation means it's working!

E: Dammit AlbieQuirky

E2: Regarding advertising in general, that poo poo is literally a science with lots of really smart people who spend hours studying reactions and applying those findings to their newest ad which they then focus group and analyze for hours, the results of which go into their next ad, etc. Also the funding is effectively limitless at companies with the resources because good marketing is a money printing machine. (Good) marketers are scary as hell because they really can reach inside your brain and pluck the strings of your subconscious even while your conscious is saying 'this ad is dumb.'

goatsestretchgoals fucked around with this message at 05:22 on Jul 3, 2016

kaschei
Oct 25, 2005

Actually advertisers have no idea what will or won't work and rely on focus groups for exactly that reason.

You don't need a focus group to tell you how a chemical reaction will play out because we understand chemical reactions pretty well.

goatsestretchgoals
Jun 4, 2011

kaschei posted:

Actually advertisers have no idea what will or won't work and rely on focus groups for exactly that reason.

You don't need a focus group to tell you how a chemical reaction will play out because we understand chemical reactions pretty well.

True but there's enough past experience with what does and doesn't work to make it as much of a science as psychology, because advertising is just applied psychology.

Captain Bravo
Feb 16, 2011

An Emergency Shitpost
has been deployed...

...but experts warn it is
just a drop in the ocean.
Running a focus group to determine the effect of an advertisment is the same as running an experiment to confirm a hypothesis. In both cases you have a pretty good idea what's going to happen before you do it, but science demands confirmation, and there's always a chance of something unexpected.

You can smugly say "We don't need a focus group for a chemical reaction :smuggo:" but if you ask a real life chemist whether he'd publish a paper on a reaction without actually testing the reaction, he'd probably call you a loving idiot.

Goatse James Bond
Mar 28, 2010


I've made a huge mistake.

drunk asian neighbor posted:

On the other side of the coin, FDA fuckery also means that a lot of things that may be legitimately beneficial go ignored for various reasons. The classic example is :420:, which despite being scientifically proven a billion times as having multiple significant lines of research re: medicinal properties, is still categorized as a Schedule I drug, meaning the government's official stance on it is "no medical uses at all and no allowances for medical study," which results in poo poo like Marinol and Sativex (used to treat motion sickness, seizures and many symptoms of degenerative neuronal diseases) being readily available in almost every country in the world except the US.

Another example is 5-HTP. It's a chemical precursor to serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter that the most common antidepressants indirectly act on. You can get it on Amazon or at GNC or Walgreens or wherever, and in my personal experience it's a godsend. Several years of expensive, zombifying SSRIs, and 5-HTP treats my depression significantly better, without turning me into an emotional cripple. I know several people with similar experiences, but you better believe it's got that wonderful THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION. THESE PRODUCTS ARE NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE OR PREVENT DISEASE. labels on the bottle.

Or theanine, the calming active ingredient in green tea. Rather like 5-HTP, its effects are fairly well known (GABA production goes up, mostly), and for a small subset of anxiety sufferers (like me) it's a miracle treatment. (Or St John's Wort, Baby's First SSRI. :v: )

Strangely enough, all three of these have undergone some fairly rigorous studies, they just haven't gone through the full OTC med process, partly because they don't need to to sell.

Thrifting Day!
Nov 25, 2006

Tell me more about watches

Professor Shark
May 22, 2012

reformed bad troll posted:

Tell me more about watches

Most use one of a handful of very affordable movements and companies only make the "face" and "body".

Seiko watches can be had for ~$50 that are fantastic watches, better than most $500 watches, and their Grand Seiko line (while ugly, imo) is functional art based on the movement alone.

Watches are all about brand name. I used to collect automatics, but I got tired of automatic watches that didn't keep as good time as my Timex (quartz watches are cheaper and more accurate, but use a battery).

Now I just have two quartz watches, the Timex and a Marathon.

Yngwie Mangosteen
Aug 23, 2007

drunk asian neighbor posted:

On the other side of the coin, FDA fuckery also means that a lot of things that may be legitimately beneficial go ignored for various reasons. The classic example is :420:, which despite being scientifically proven a billion times as having multiple significant lines of research re: medicinal properties, is still categorized as a Schedule I drug, meaning the government's official stance on it is "no medical uses at all and no allowances for medical study," which results in poo poo like Marinol and Sativex (used to treat motion sickness, seizures and many symptoms of degenerative neuronal diseases) being readily available in almost every country in the world except the US.

Another example is 5-HTP. It's a chemical precursor to serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter that the most common antidepressants indirectly act on. You can get it on Amazon or at GNC or Walgreens or wherever, and in my personal experience it's a godsend. Several years of expensive, zombifying SSRIs, and 5-HTP treats my depression significantly better, without turning me into an emotional cripple. I know several people with similar experiences, but you better believe it's got that wonderful THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION. THESE PRODUCTS ARE NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE OR PREVENT DISEASE. labels on the bottle.

I worked at a pharmacy that sold marinol in the mid to late 2000's in Texas. I think it's been a part of the pharmaceutical regimen in the US for years. The problem is that nobody wants to prescribe it, and it's really annoying because you tend to have to refrigerate it, if I'm remembering which pot-based-drug marinol is accurately.

That said, it is dumb af that pot is illegal.

Original_Z
Jun 14, 2005
Z so good

Professor Shark posted:

Most use one of a handful of very affordable movements and companies only make the "face" and "body".

Seiko watches can be had for ~$50 that are fantastic watches, better than most $500 watches, and their Grand Seiko line (while ugly, imo) is functional art based on the movement alone.

Watches are all about brand name. I used to collect automatics, but I got tired of automatic watches that didn't keep as good time as my Timex (quartz watches are cheaper and more accurate, but use a battery).

Now I just have two quartz watches, the Timex and a Marathon.

I'm not sure if I'd say the price is only about the brand name. Especially with Quartz watches, the more you pay the more features you get. Sure, a $50 watch will be keep good time, but as you go up in price you start getting things like sapphire crystal, better water and magnetic resistance, titanium or diamond like coating, radio or GPS time sync, solar charging, automatic hand adjustment, etc. Automatic watches are a bit more tricky to quantify, but for sure they're more of a jewelry piece and nicer looking watches simply cost more money while adding complications, and there's usually a history of the manufacturer and a prestige involved as well.

Sure, a $20 Timex will keep time just as well as a Rolex, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the watch industry is a scam! The only scam watches, outside of fakes, are those produced by fashion brands like Gucci where you are literally overpaying for the brand name, most of the brands just outsource to Fossil anyway.

grack
Jan 10, 2012

COACH TOTORO SAY REFEREE CAN BANISH WHISTLE TO LAND OF WIND AND GHOSTS!

Original_Z posted:

I'm not sure if I'd say the price is only about the brand name. Especially with Quartz watches, the more you pay the more features you get. Sure, a $50 watch will be keep good time, but as you go up in price you start getting things like sapphire crystal, better water and magnetic resistance, titanium or diamond like coating, radio or GPS time sync, solar charging, automatic hand adjustment, etc. Automatic watches are a bit more tricky to quantify, but for sure they're more of a jewelry piece and nicer looking watches simply cost more money while adding complications, and there's usually a history of the manufacturer and a prestige involved as well.

Sure, a $20 Timex will keep time just as well as a Rolex, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the watch industry is a scam! The only scam watches, outside of fakes, are those produced by fashion brands like Gucci where you are literally overpaying for the brand name, most of the brands just outsource to Fossil anyway.

Bull. There are a lot of "legitimate" Swiss brands that buy parts wholesale from China, switch enough components to call the movement "Swiss Made" and jack up the price. The Claro-Semag CL-888 (used in lower end swiss autos) is a Chinese made Seagull ST-16 (retail price about $12) with the balance replaced and called a Swiss movement. Cases, crystals, hands, dials, and bands are often all Chinese. Why? The standard for sticking "Swiss Made" on a watch is pathetically low.

Lutha Mahtin
Oct 10, 2010

Your brokebrain sin is absolved...go and shitpost no more!

globalization has been pretty good for the shady business owner imo

Original_Z
Jun 14, 2005
Z so good
Yeah, I mean that's not unique to watches at all. It's why Walmart keeps getting in trouble with advertising stuff "made in the USA" despite being manufactured overseas.

https://consumerist.com/2016/06/28/walmart-still-reportedly-misusing-made-in-u-s-a-labels/

Chuu
Sep 11, 2004

Grimey Drawer
Missed the electronics derail, but I've wondered how some CPUs that were explicitly not supposed to end up in retail channels end up on newegg in large numbers.

I'm talking about things like some specific low power Xeon skus made primarily for NAS', and the FX-9590 on release which was so power hungry (200W) that AMD said it specifically was not going to offer it on retail channels because people were dumb and wern't going to properly spec a build for CPU that could draw 200W under load.

About scams, there is a Chinese restaurant in a very ghetto strip mall I sometimes frequent, and every once in a while someone comes up to me and asks them if I could just hold their wallet for a bit while they ran to their car for something. This is such a :wtc: request I can't imaging anyone saying yes, but what exactly is the scam here?

KingRaizen
Mar 9, 2015
I have a story... You're going to laugh.

My father gets a call from a spammer from India claiming he's from Microsoft. Guy says "We have detected a virus on your PC and we need to remove it as soon as possible." My father hangs up because it was an obvious scam...

Later on, they called again while my father was out of the house. My mother answered the phone... Now, she's a hardcore alcoholic, and a naturally anxious person, so she actually listened to the guy. He walked her through all of the steps to download a piece of remote hosting software and give him remote access to the computer, and when he got it he installed malware and demanded a ransom. When my mother told him that she doesn't have a credit card to pay the 500 dollar fee, they decided to have fun and start installing more malware while mocking her and laughing. Porn EVERYWHERE.

Well, she did the smart thing and gave me a call on her other phone, bawling her eyes out telling me to get over there ASAP. Traced his IP and threatened him with sending some of my friends on the dark web (to sound edgy and badass to a complete noob). He relinquished control of the PC and hung up the phone.

Then came weeks of fixing the damage caused... It was really bad, seeing as my parents tax return statements were sitting on the desktop. Had to call literally everything that could possibly be affected.

Moral of the story: even something as obviously a scam as that can work on the right person...

Lutha Mahtin
Oct 10, 2010

Your brokebrain sin is absolved...go and shitpost no more!

Chuu posted:

About scams, there is a Chinese restaurant in a very ghetto strip mall I sometimes frequent, and every once in a while someone comes up to me and asks them if I could just hold their wallet for a bit while they ran to their car for something. This is such a :wtc: request I can't imaging anyone saying yes, but what exactly is the scam here?

This is weird and you need to give us all the details. Is it the same person who asks you this? Are you the only person who gets asked this? What happens when you say no? Does the person ever find someone to do it? Do they actually go out to their car like they say?


...Are you Jules from Pulp Fiction?

Pook Good Mook
Aug 6, 2013


ENFORCE THE UNITED STATES DRESS CODE AT ALL COSTS!

This message paid for by the Men's Wearhouse& Jos A Bank Lobbying Group

Lutha Mahtin posted:

This is weird and you need to give us all the details. Is it the same person who asks you this? Are you the only person who gets asked this? What happens when you say no? Does the person ever find someone to do it? Do they actually go out to their car like they say?


...Are you Jules from Pulp Fiction?

Very unlikely that's legit.

The scam works where the guy gives you the wallet with nothing in it but $10 and then the restaurant owners come out demanding payment, "That last guy ran out!" You give them the last guy's wallet right away but there isn't enough money. At this point they might guilt you into paying the different, will make enough of a scene by saying you were his friend that they pressure you, or will intimidate you into "paying" the balance.

Could be legit but think about it, if you've ever needed to leave "collateral" while you run out to your car you leave it with your waiter or the host, not some random customer.

BiggerBoat
Sep 26, 2007

Don't you tell me my business again.

KingRaizen posted:

I have a story... You're going to laugh.

My father gets a call from a spammer from India claiming he's from Microsoft. Guy says "We have detected a virus on your PC and we need to remove it as soon as possible." My father hangs up because it was an obvious scam...

I've had this one. I can't believe it works. Last time it happened to me I held the guy on the phone as long as possible pretending not to know how to work my computer and just really wasting his time. I was bored.

Stanos
Sep 22, 2009

The best 57 in hockey.
My parents got one of those scary "It's the IRS, you're in trouble!" calls where they stated that if we didn't return their call by the next day they would have the magistrate issue a bench warrant for their arrest. I realize that they exist in the US but combined with an extremely thick accent, broken English and sound quality like they were speaking in a wind tunnel (seriously, I had to listen to the drat thing 3 times to get everything and the number to see how many people said it was a scam) couldn't they at least say something more official like judge?

Captain Bravo
Feb 16, 2011

An Emergency Shitpost
has been deployed...

...but experts warn it is
just a drop in the ocean.
"Magistrate" makes me think Louisiana, did his accent sound similar to this?

Lutha Mahtin
Oct 10, 2010

Your brokebrain sin is absolved...go and shitpost no more!

i see "magistrate" used sometimes in the news. i think they are referring to a specific kind of judge or specific function or something? but yeah not a thing that any normal person says on the daily

The Lone Badger
Sep 24, 2007

Magistrate is a perfectly normal and common word.

The Ferret King
Nov 23, 2003

cluck cluck

The Lone Badger posted:

Magistrate is a perfectly normal and common word.

Probably hasn't been used by me or spoken to me in the last 10 years at least. Your mileage may vary.

Bro Enlai
Nov 9, 2008

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_magistrate_judge

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Kazak_Hstan
Apr 28, 2014

Grimey Drawer
For what it's worth, in many U.S. jurisdictions it would be a magistrate that issues an arrest warrant for failure to appear or w/e. Their function is usually to handle non-dispositive matters on the docket in order to free the judge up for other things.

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