#something etf

[sadboimusic69]

Something - Escape The Fate

Song 130

[lovelyrockstar]

dib where's your jacket

[stump-salsa]

Everybody wants to rule the world

[miniimoose]

(this is about her clothes, not the artstyle) Would love to read your reasoning in the tags!

Dib Version (poll finished)

[buwheal]

damn sorry about the lack of asks (<- lying /j) Im working on number 26 right now but i spent a lot my time earlier messing around with my dvd player instead. Oops. I will probably regret wasting my time like that.. BUT i have two key frames done and the third one sketched out... if im counting right theres three more (Same pose with minor tweaks, but still a unique frame nonetheless) before i get around to the minor animations and gluing it all together. I could probably do these faster if i didnt like doing gifs so much. Somebody stop me!!! anyways goodnight.

[xxacid-milkixx]

[katlanacross]

via tj bell on instagram february 14th 2033

[shinylights]

i only have 5 bracelets made & i feel like a failure lol!!!!

[reasonsforhope]

"Scientists have developed a way to dramatically reduce the cost of recycling certain electronic waste by using whey protein.

Their method allows for the easy recovery of gold from circuit boards at a cost of energy and materials amounting to 50 times less than the price of the gold they recover—these are the numbers that big business likes to see.

Indeed, the potential for scalability depends on this sort of cost savings, something traditional e-waste recycling methods just can’t achieve.

Professor Raffaele Mezzenga from ETH Zurich has found that whey protein, a byproduct of dairy manufacturing, can be used to make sponges that attract trace amounts of ionized gold.

Electronic waste contains a variety of valuable metals, including copper, cobalt, and gold. Despite gold’s public persona as being either money or jewelry, thousands of ounces of gold are used in electronics every year for its exceptional conductive properties.

Mezzenga’s colleague Mohammad Peydayesh first “denatured whey proteins under acidic conditions and high temperatures, so that they aggregated into protein nanofibrils in a gel,” writes the ETH Zurich press. “The scientists then dried the gel, creating a sponge out of these protein fibrils.”

The next step was extracting the gold: done by tossing 20 salvaged motherboards into an acid bath until the metals had dissolved into ionized compounds that the sponge began attracting.

Removing the sponge, a heat treatment caused the gold ions to aggregate into 22-carat gold flakes which could be easily removed.

“The fact I love the most is that we’re using a food industry byproduct to obtain gold from electronic waste,” Mezzenga says. In a very real sense, he observes, the method transforms two waste products into gold. “You can’t get much more sustainable than that!” ...

However the real dollar value comes from the bottom line—which was 50 times more than the cost of energy and source materials. Because of this, the scientists have every intention of bringing the technology to the market as quickly as possible while also desiring to see if the protein fibril sponge can be made of other food waste byproducts.

E-waste is a quickly growing burden in global landfills, and recycling it requires extremely energy-intensive machinery that many recycling facilities do not possess.

The environmental value of the minerals contained within most e-waste comes not only from preventing the hundreds of years it takes for them to break down in the soil, but also from the reduction in demand from new mining operations which can, though not always, significantly degrade the environments they are located in.

[Note: Absolutely massive understatement, mining is incredibly destructive to ecosystems. Mining is also incredibly toxic to human health and a major cause of conflict, displacement, and slavery globally.]

Other countries are trying to incentivize the recycling of e-waste, and are using gold to do so. In 2022, GNN reported that the British Royal Mint launched an electronically traded fund (ETF) with each share representing the value of gold recovered from e-waste as a way for investors to diversify into gold in a way that doesn’t support environmentally damaging mining.

The breakthrough is reminiscent of that old fairy tale of Rumpelstiltskin who can spin straw into gold. All that these modern-day, real-life alchemists are doing differently is using dairy and circuit boards rather than straw."

-via Good News Network, July 19, 2024

[emeraldspiral]

I know "dudes who are supposed to be just friends/actively hate each other hugging when something is scary" is a comedy trope as old as the hills, but it goes back to the idea that on an primal level, these two instinctively find each other a source of comfort and safety.

And it's not like this is unprecedented either. Who does Zim turn to when the Planet Jackers show up? Dib. Who does Dib turn to when he fears being trapped in his own nightmare world forever? Zim. Who does Zim go to for help defeating Tak? Dib. Who does Dib go to for help alleviating Gaz's pig sense curse? Zim. When the chips are down it's always, "You're the only person who can help me." Usually they say it's because the other person is the only one with technology advanced enough to help, but there's more left unspoken. "You're the only person I can talk to about this without blowing my cover". "You're the only person who doesn't think I'm crazy". "You're the only person smart enough for me to work with".

There's even moments like in the Xmas special where Zim feels strangely like he can confide in the one elf robot that's really Dib in disguise, or in the comic where he takes Dib disguised as an intern to his special secret getaway spot out in space, or when Dib initiates a game of "I Spy" to pass the time in prison, or when he confides in Zim and plots with him to upstage his dad in ETF, or their interactions throughout Hamstergeddon or Dib's interactions with all the variant Zims in the previous issue that show us how easy it is for them to lower their guard and slip into casual familiarity and even vulnerability.

[gaylienz]

*bangs pots and pans together* wake up iz fandom wake up! we are DONE harassing each other for ridiculous things! we are DONE being assholes to one another! we are now going to return to our regularly scheduled program. we are going to do what fandoms are meant to do--have fun and chew on canon until its nigh unrecognizable!

anyone who wants to keep policing how adults with critical thinking skills interact with fictional cartoon characters can go hang out in the 'No Fun' Zone. literally if you're genuinely ACTUALLY upset and think there are some kind of inherent morals to shipping--I don't really know what to say at this point. This isn't even pro/anti shipping. This is just using the power of the human mind to know the difference between reality and fiction, between genuine harm to others and playing dolls, between physically harming someone and writing stories...

If you want to control how other people act and what they do then you'll always be left wanting.

if invader zim has some kind of moral, its that the universe is chaotic and impossible to predict or control. if IZ has any moral, its that resiliency is vital in the face of that uncaring universe. if IZ has any moral, its that people are NOT EVIL or monstrous or good or bad or simple at all--but people are often very stupid (and very intelligent), and just PEOPLE, doing their best despite it all.

this fandom is only a hostile place if we make it one. and i dont want the kind of place imagined by so many of the newcomers to this fandom--this like sterile, ultra-sanitized, morally acceptable version of IZ and the fandom. if you came in during the ETF wave....take a moment and examine your biases. and rethink before you decide to essentially outright hate anyone who likes something different from you.

anyway----all of this to say that i miss you IZ fandom. I came back and so many really awesome people are gone bc of the carnage. and the history im finding is really disappointing. so much cool stuff, cool ideas, cool people and so much of all gone now.

but hey if you're still here and just want to chew on these characters and play in this buck-wild space with me....i love you <3

[inbarfink]

The thing that I’ve been thinking of is… so one of Dib’s most defining traits and flaws is supposed to be his desire for fame and emotional validation. You know he is fighting to protect the earth, but he’s also fighting for the sake of his own ego

It’s got a lot of fun potential because it’s both extremely understandable - he’s been bullied and emotionally neglected for his entire life, it’s no wonder his biggest fantasy is just to be loved - but it can also motivate some really selfish acts. Not to mention how much it acts as a mirror to Zim’s own desire for respect and prestige among his own people.

And because of that, I guess it actually kinda surprises me that they never tried to have Dib pull a… reverse Planet Jackers moment? Like, just as Zim will protect the Earth from outside threats because he wants the credit for destroying it - will Dib help Zim if his ability to get credit for defeating him is threatened?

Like, I imagine a story where maybe Dib meets a rival paranormal investigator, and the guy’s like a Super Mega Asshole to Dib and also thinks he’s crazy. And then this guy manages to capture Zim and it seems like he’s going to be the one to expose him to the world and get all the credit for foiling his infiltration scheme. The credit that Dib feels he rightly deserves. Or he simply get a chance to defeat Zim, but there are no witnesses and no evidence and no chance anyone will ever believe him. 

For Dib, stopping Zim and proving to the world that he’s been right all along have always been interwoven goals. He has always taken it for granted that doing the former will naturally lead to the latter… So how will he deal with a situation where Zim can be stopped for good, but his situation will not change. No one will know or believe what he just did, he would just be the same ridiculed social pariah - the only thing he actually accomplished is that he has gotten rid of his best chance to change that permanently.

And you know, he doesn’t necessarily have to take that chance to help Zim or let him go - even just having Dib struggle with the idea momentarily could be a very strong character moment for him. I think it’s a shamefully underutilized aspect of his canon characterization and I do hope we’d get to see it played with more one of these days. 

But you know which piece of canon really came closest to tackling this aspect?

Dib’s little plan for Zim in ETF is not quite exactly what I was talking about above - but there are some similarities.

I’ve seen some people talk about Dib’s ETF plan like it was meant to be a favor to Zim or some sort of attempt at redemption for him or like… a thing that Zim benefit from in any sort of way? Like, I've seen some people describe the plot of ETF like Zim's manipulation of Dib’s plan was him using Dib’s kindness and empathy against him? And that’s not exactly what’s happening here.

To recap, Dib tries to stage yet another confrontation between himself and Zim (to let off steam from his Daddy Issues) only to find Zim a total emotional wreck, depressed to the point of total apathy. His first instinct is to drag him away to ‘lock him up’ but... he’s not really feeling it.

Something’s not quite right about winning like this. And then, he shifts to empathy 

But then, he shifts again, when he realizes the ‘real’ thing he’s been missing - a crowd.

The real reason this victory was feeling hollow is because he hasn’t made it public enough! If he's going to use Zim's emotional rock-bottom as a way to finally defeat him and condemn him into a life of painful experiments.... he wants to do it in front of a cheering crowd!

And while Zim’s scheme seems to have started once he first laid eyes on the Membracelet 

That plan couldn’t have worked without Dib’s own scheme to exploit Zim’s suicidal depression to get him in front as many people as possible so that Dib can get worldwide fame and Daddy’s approval and Zim can get... experimented on for the rest of his life. 

There was no kindness here to exploit, only a desperate desire for emotional validation.

The big mistake Dib did that allowed Zim the window of opportunity he needed to take over Membrane Labs was not doing the Kind Thing when he should’ve done the Practical Thing - and it was not doing the Cruel Thing when he should’ve done the Kind Thing. Dib had his chance to do the Practical Thing right there and then - kill or capture Zim while he’s not fighting back. He considered doing the Kind Thing (empathizing with Zim) and he decided to abandon both of them in favor of… the thing that will get him the most fame and attention.

And that’s the weakness of Dib that Zim exploited in his scheme. And that’s the thing that almost doomed planet Earth. Quite ironically, it’s literally a flaw Zim himself possesses quite strongly.

If Dib was willing to think purely in terms of what’s safest for Earth he would’ve taken out Zim right there and then and Earth would be safe forever - but for the sake of his own ego he took a risk that the planet almost paid very dearly for. 

(And if he was willing to resist the temptation of fame and continue with the thread of empathy he showed Zim? Well, we can only speculate of what would've happened then...)

It’s not quite what I was talking about above; Dib would’ve probably gotten some of the fame and validation he wanted if he just stomped Zim’s head right there and dragged his corpse out - he just wanted as much attention as possible. And he didn’t knowingly help Zim or even seriously considered it as much as he was just tricked into a situation of Mutually Assured Bastardness. But I think it is the closest we’ve come so far, and I think it’s interesting.

[manifesting-principessa]

the beginner's guide to making money by investing in stocks (hot girl version)

since one of my goals here is to make money i wanted to teach you about what i know about investing in stocks. i use the website etoro to invest, below you can see a picture of my portfolio at the moment. i am by no means an expert but i've found the whole process of investing to be unnecessarily mystified so i thought i'd share what i have learned so far.

what does buying stocks mean?

in simple terms, buying stocks means buying a (tiny) fraction of a company. if the value of the company increases the value of your share goes up, if the company loses money the value goes down.

when should i buy and sell?

ideally, you should buy when you think that the value of a stock will increase in the future and you should sell when you have made a profit. in practice, this means you try to invest when a stock has reached its lowest value and you sell when you think it has reached its peak (but this is, of course, impossible to predict perfectly).

where can i buy stocks?

i would personally recommend going through an online stock trading platform, like etoro. you can look up what the best stock trading platforms are for your country. you should pick one with minimal fees that offers some tutorial or introduction to trading.

you can also go through a stock broker (a person that makes the investments for you) or more broadly your bank - be aware though, that they might take a cut of your profit for their services which is something you need to subtract from your expected profit.

how do i know what to invest in?

There are a few recommendations that I have seen time and time again:

ETFs - exchange-traded funds are bundles of stocks that are traded together. the advantage of ETFs is that they don't rely on a single company making a profit, the companies just need to make a profit overall. they are much less volatile than individual stocks and since economies usually always grow in the long-term, you are very likely to make a profit.

large companies - you can also invest in large, well-established companies that are very likely to make a profit and very unlikely to go bankrupt (e.g., apple, amazon, etc.)

diversify - this means you should invest in a wide variety of companies and industries. even when one of them does really poorly you are likely to make a profit overall.

copy-trading - this means 'copying' the investments of a more experienced trader. so you specify an amount of money and invest it the same way someone who knows what they're doing is.

how much should i invest?

most websites have a minimum amount you need to invest so you could start with that to get a feel for how it works.

as a rule of thumb, they say you should not invest money that you will need within the next 5-10 years. that rule prevents you from having to sell your stock at an unfortunate moment - even if you initially write losses, you can wait for a moment when your stocks have increased in value again.

if you have a fixed income you can commit to investing a part of your income every month. i've seen this referred to as dollar-cost averaging and i have not tried it yet but it is said to be a good way to build wealth in the long term.

how do i actually make money using this knowledge?

simple answer: by selling your stock at the right time and withdrawing the money. investing is a marathon, not a sprint - you should generally give your money some time to make a profit instead of checking every day and panic selling when you see a slight change. for some stocks, the company may also pay dividends. disclaimer: at least where i am from you need to declare what you made from stocks as income and pay taxes on it.

thank you so much for reading!

if you have questions or know more about this and want to add something please leave a comment 💕

[ace-malarky]

So I then spent most of yesterday in a "there are so many things I want to do that I'm never going to have time to write them all" self-induced haze which was uh. real fun!

I also had a nursery storytime sprung on me like five minutes before it happened but at least I was the third and didn't have to be useful the rest of the day lmao (and then spent an hour on two separate buses to change libraries in the middle of the shift because there wasn't anyone closer??)

anyway. I have, in fact, shifted the fics out of the in progress folder and back to their respective places in the rest of my docs. They were of an earlier time!! I haven't. really. thought of them in at least a year if not longer lmao so like

yeah they're not getting finished and I'll only feel a little bad about it occasionally I guess??

I'm gonna continue doing what I do best which is uhhhh jump between several different projects and just fuck about scene by scene. If things get finished then hell yeah that is very fun but like. not the point currently, y'know?

so I like really dislike leaving things unfinished, y'know? sometimes a first draft is just enough to let it rest and sometimes things never get written and that's all fine 'n' that but like

idk i was just looking through my folders and found all the fanfic I used to write and had to stop/pull away from for my own sake and like. some of this is p dang good, y'know? ok one of the docs is dated as fckn 2017 but like I was onto something there

and I would still like to finish it I think and I still have the plans for most of this but also jesus christ there are not enough hours in the day and focusing is harddd

anyway I've dumped some of it into ellipsus so it may hit the "i work on this at work" style of things lmao

[b0ylik3r]

ok im starting the iz comics now, here is my predictions (most likely incorrect)

zib is really fucked up and insane and is also used as a plot device to show just how similar zim and dib are as people, as well as how them both being in control of something does NOT work out

lore that you would only know if you read the comics

most of it is random stuff like in the show

dookie loop horror is pretty zadr/zadfey eventually

zimvoid arc is gonna be my favorite

very unorganized plot

an issue that is just a long ad for etf

ok now its time to see how much of it i get completely wrong

[tallest-bathwater]

tell us more about mewr red thoughts stranger

Assuming you don't expect me to talk for FOREVER, because trust me, I WILL, I'll just go over some basics for me)) * I think Red was 100% thinking he was going to be this super duper cool Tallest like Miyuki, who goes into battle, starts wars, makes treaties and all this. But come time to actually become the Tallest, we get what we see more in canon which is basically; they do nothing and they have no power. Red would take this SO very hard, especially considering he'll never walk again or have his thumb again. And what he imagined to be an honorable title was just, soul-crushingly not. * I think he was absolutely devastated when Miyuki died, RIP * Pur and him are dating, obvi, unless I'm shipping other OCs with Red lmao * I think Red never really overcame the ghost pains. I think he has a lot of phantom touches, especially when he's overwhelmed. * He is absolutely a wallflower and awkward, I think he kinda, became better at speaking and doing social things when he became a Tallest, but as an Elite, ya boi was an awkward bby. * You wouldn't think he's very affectionate, but he is. He would be veryyy very physically affection, very accommodating. The works.

ETF is NOT canon for me and that is NOT MY RED. I REFUSE TO THINK HE'D JUST FLY INTO A FLORPUS HOLE, MY MANS WOULD LITERALLY NEVER ABSOLUTELY NEVER AND THEY MADE HIM SO DUMB - okok ...So no. I take NOTHING of ETF seriously jkhsh Thank you for asking me something equally nice stranger! I'm always open to just, rambling. Stars know I do that in my head enough lmao