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Below is the compilation of all the reviews that have been posted so far. I will be updating this continuously throughout the day with the conclusion of each publications and any new review links. This will be sorted alphabetically.
NVIDIA says that the RTX 3080 is the gaming card and the RTX 3090 is the hybrid creative card – but we respectfully disagree. The RTX 3090 is the flagship gaming card that can also run intensive creative apps very well, especially by virtue of its huge 24GB framebuffer. But it is still not an RTX TITAN nor a Quadro. These cards cost a lot more and are optimized specifically for workstations and also for professional and creative apps. However, for RTX 2080 Ti gamers who paid $1199 and who have disposable cash for their hobby – although it has been eclipsed by the RTX 3080 – the RTX 3090 Founders Edition which costs $1500 is the card to maximize their upgrade. And for high-end gamers who also use creative apps, this card may become a very good value. Hobbies are very expensive to maintain, and the expense of PC gaming pales in comparison to what golfers, skiers, audiophiles, and many other hobbyists pay for their entertainment. But for high-end gamers on a budget, the $699 RTX 3080 will provide the most value of the two cards. We cannot call the $1500 RTX 3090 a “good value” generally for gamers as it is a halo card and it absolutely does not provide anywhere close to double the performance of a $700 RTX 3080. However, for some professionals, two RTX 3090s may give them exactly what they need as it is the only Ampere gaming card to support NVLink providing up to 112.5 GB/s of total bandwidth between two GPUs which when SLI’d together will allow them to access a massive 48GB of vRAM. SLI is no longer supported by NVIDIA for gaming, and emphasis will be placed on mGPU only as implemented by game developers.
So there we have it. The RTX 3090 delivers - at best - 15 to 16 per cent more gaming performance than the RTX 3080. In terms of price vs performance, there is only one winner here. And suffice to say, we would expect to see factory overclocked RTX 3080 cards bite into the already fairly slender advantage delivered by Nvidia's new GPU king. Certainly in gaming terms then, the smart money would be spend on an RTX 3080, and if you're on a 1440p high refresh rate monitor and you're looking to maximise price vs performance, I'd urge you to look at the RTX 2080 Ti numbers in this review: if Nvidia's claims pan out, you'll be getting that and potentially more from the cheaper still RTX 3070. All of which raises the question - why make an RTX 3090 at all? The answers are numerous. First of all, PC gaming has never adhered to offering performance increases in line with the actual amount of money spent. Whether it's Titans, Intel Extreme processors, high-end motherboards or performance RAM, if you want the best, you'll end up paying a huge amount of money to attain it. This is only a problem where there are no alternatives and in the case of the RTX 3090, there is one - the RTX 3080 at almost half of the price. But more compelling is the fact that Nvidia is now blurring the lines between the gaming GeForce line and the prosumer-orientated Quadro offerings. High-end Quadro cards are similar to RTX 3090 and Titan RTX in several respects - usually in that they deliver the fully unlocked Nvidia silicon paired with huge amounts of VRAM. Where they differ is in support and drivers, something that creatives, streamers or video editors may not wish to pay even more of a premium for. In short, RTX 3090 looks massively expensive as a gamer card, but compared to the professional Quadro line, there are clear savings. In the meantime, RTX 3090 delivers the Titan experience for the new generation of graphics hardware. Its appeal is niche, the halo product factor is huge and the performance boost - while not exactly huge - is likely enough to convince the cash rich to invest and for the creator audience to seriously consider it. For my use cases, the extra money is obviously worth it. I also think that the way Nvidia packages and markets the product is appealing: the RTX 3090 looks and feels special, its gigantic form factor and swish aesthetic will score points with those that take pride in their PC looking good and its thermal and especially acoustic performance are excellent. It's really, really quiet. All told then, RTX 3090 is the traditional hard sell for the mainstream gamer but the high-end crowd will likely lap it up. But it leaves me with a simple question: where next for the Titan and Ti brands? You don't retire powerhouse product tiers for no good reason and I can only wonder: is something even more powerful cooking?
When we had our first experience with the GeForce RTX 3080, we were nothing short of impressed. Testing the GeForce RTX 3090 is yet another step up. But we're not sure if the 3090 is the better option though, as you'll need very stringent requirements in order for it to see a good performance benefit. Granted, and I have written this many times in the past with the Titans and the like, a graphics card like this is bound to run into bottlenecks much faster than your normal graphics cards. Three factors come into play here, CPU bottlenecks, low-resolution bottlenecks, and the actual game (API). The GeForce RTX 3090 is the kind of product that needs to be free from all three aforementioned factors. Thus, you need to have a spicy processor that can keep up with the card, you need lovely GPU bound games preferably with DX12 ASYNC compute and, of course, if you are not gaming at the very least in Ultra HD, then why even bother, right? The flipside of the coin is that when you have these three musketeers applied and in effect, well, then there is no card faster than the 3090, trust me; it's a freakfest of performance, but granted, also bitter-sweet when weighing all factors in. NVIDIA's Ampere product line up has been impressive all the way, there's nothing other to conclude than that. Is it all perfect? Well, performance-wise in the year 2020 we cannot complain. Of course, there is an energy consumption factor to weigh in as a negative factor and, yes, there's pricing to consider. Both are far too high for the product to make any real sense. For gaming, we do not feel the 3090 makes a substantial enough difference over the RTX 3080 with 10 to 15% differentials, and that's mainly due to system bottlenecks really. You need to game at Ultra HD and beyond for this card to make a bit of sense. We also recognize that the two factors do not need to make sense for quite a bunch of you as the product sits in a very extreme niche. But I stated enough about that. I like this chunk of hardware sitting inside a PC though as, no matter how you look at it, it is a majestic product. Please make sure you have plenty of ventilation though as the RTX 3090 will dump lots of heat. It is big but still looks terrific. And the performance, oh man... that performance, it is all good all the way as long as you uphold my three musketeers remark. Where I could nag a little about the 10 GB VRAM on the GeForce RTX 3080, we cannot complain even the slightest bit about the whopping big mac feature of the 3090, 24 GB of the fastest GDDR6X your money can get you, take that Flight Sim 2020! This is an Ultra HD card, in that domain, it shines whether that is using shading (regular rendered games) or when using hybrid ray-tracing + DLSS. It's a purebred but unfortunately very power-hungry product that will reach only a select group of people. But it is formidable if you deliver it to the right circumstances. Would we recommend this product? Ehm no, you are better off with GeForce RTX 3070 or 3080 as, money-wise, this doesn't make much sense. But it is genuinely a startling product worthy of a top pick award, an award we hand out so rarely for a reference or Founder product but we also have to acknowledge that NVIDIA really is stepping up on their 'reference' designs and is now setting a new and better standard.
This commentary puts the RTX 3090 into a difficult spot. It's 10 percent faster for gaming yet costs over twice as much as the RTX 3080. Value for money is poor when examined from a gaming point of view. Part of that huge cost rests with the 24GB of GDDR6X memory that has limited real-world benefit in games. Rather, it's more useful in professional rendering as the larger pool can speed-up time to completion massively. And here's the rub. Given its characteristics, this card ought to be called the RTX Titan or GeForce RTX Studio and positioned more diligently for the creatoprofessional community where computational power and large VRAM go hand in hand. The real RTX 3090, meanwhile, gaming focussed first and foremost, ought to arrive with 12GB of memory and a $999 price point, thereby offering a compelling upgrade without resorting to Titan-esque pricing. Yet all that said, the insatiable appetite and apparent deep pockets of enthusiasts will mean Nvidia sells out of these $1,500 boards today: demand far outstrips supply. And does it matter what it's called, how much memory it has, or even what price it is? Not in the big scheme of things because there is a market for it. Being part of the GeForce RTX firmament has opened up the way for add-in card partners to produce their own boards. The Gigabyte Gaming OC does most things right. It's built well and looks good, and duly tops all the important gaming charts at 4K. We'd encourage a lower noise profile through a relaxation of temps, but if you have the means by which to buy graphics performance hegemony, the Gaming OC isn't a bad shout... if you can find it in stock.
Summarizing the GeForce RTX 3090's performance is simple -- it's the single fastest GPU on the market currently, bar none. There's nuance to consider here, though. Versus the GeForce RTX 3080, disregarding CPU limited situations or corner cases, the more powerful RTX 3090's advantages over the 3080 only range from about 4% to 20%. Versus the Titan RTX, the GeForce RTX 3090's advantages increase to approximately 6% to 40%. Consider complex creator workloads which can leverage the GeForce RTX 3090's additional resources and memory, however, and it is simply in another class altogether and can be many times faster than either the RTX 3080 or Titan RTX. Obviously, the $1,499 GeForce RTX 3090 Founder's Edition isn't an overall value play for the vast majority of users. If you're a gamer shopping for a new high-end GPU, the GeForce RTX 3080 at less than 1/2 the price is the much better buy. Compared to the $2,500 Titan RTX or $1,300 - $1,500-ish GeForce RTX 2080 Ti though, the GeForce RTX 3090 is the significantly better choice. Your perspective on the GeForce RTX 3090's value proposition is ultimately going to depend on your particular use case. Unless they've got unlimited budgets and want the best-of-the-best, regardless of cost, hardcore gamers may scoff at the RTX 3090. Anyone utilizing the horsepower of the previous generation Titan RTX though, may be chomping at the bit. The GeForce RTX 3090's ultimate appeal is going to depend on the use-case, but whether or not you'll actually be able to get one is another story. The GeForce RTX 3090 is going to be available in limited quantities today -- NVIDIA said as much in yesterday's performance tease. NVIDIA pledges to make more available direct and through partners ASAP, however. We'll see how things shake out in the weeks ahead, and all bets are off when AMD's makes its RDNA2 announcements next month. NVIDIA's got a lot of wiggle room with Ampere and will likely react swiftly to anything AMD has in store. And let's not forget we still have the GeForce RTX 3070 inbound, which is going to have extremely broad appeal if NVIDIA's performance claims hold up.
In Summary: this card is a real giant, especially at higher resolutions, because even if the lead over the GeForce RTX 3080 isn’t always as high as dreamed, it’s always enough to reach the top position in playability. Right stop of many quality controllers included. Especially when the games of the GeForce RTX 3090 and the new architecture are on the line, the mail really goes off, which one must admit without envy, whereby the actual gain is not visible in pure FPS numbers. If you have looked at the page with the variances, you will quickly understand that the image is much better because it is softer. The FPS or percentiles are still much too coarse intervals to be able to reproduce this very subjective impression well. A blind test with 3 perons has completely confirmed my impression, because there is nothing better than a lot of memory, at most even more memory. Seen in this light, the RTX 3080 with 10 GB is more like Cinderella, who later has to make herself look more like Cinderella with 10 GB if she wants to get on the prince’s roller. But the customer always has something to complain about anyway (which is good by the way and keeps the suppliers on their toes) and NVIDIA keeps all options open in return to be able to top a possible Navi2x card with 16 GB memory expansion with 20 GB later. And does anyone still remember the mysterious SKU20 between the GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090? If AMD doesn’t screw it up again this time, this SKU20 is sure to become a tie-break in pixel tennis. We’ll see. For a long time I have been wrestling with myself, which is probably the most important thing in this test. I have also tested 8K resolutions, but due to the lack of current practical relevance, I put this part on the back burner. If anyone can find someone who has a spare 8K TV, I’ll be happy to do so, if only because I’m also very interested in 8K-DLSS. But that’s like sucking on an ice cream that you’ve only printed out on a laser printer before. The increase in value of the RTX 3090 in relation to the RTX 3080 for the only gamer is, up to the memory extension, to be rather neglected and one understands also, why many critics will never pay the double price for 10 to 15% more gaming performance. Because I wouldn’t either. Only this is then exactly the target group for the circulated RTX 3080 (Ti) with double memory expansion. Their price should increase visibly in comparison to the 10 GB variant, but still be significantly below that of a GeForce RTX 3090. This is not defamatory or fraudulent, but simply follows the laws of the market. A top dog always costs a little more than pure scaling, logic and reason would allow. And the non-gamer or the not-only-gamer? The added value can be seen above all in the productive area, whether workstation or creation. Studio is the new GeForce RTX wonderland away from the Triple A games, and the Quadros can slowly return to the professional corner of certified specialty programs. What AMD started back then with the Vega Frontier Edition and unfortunately didn’t continue (why not?), NVIDIA has long since taken up and consistently perfected. The market has changed and studio is no longer an exotic phrase. Then even those from about 1500 Euro can survive without a headache tablet again.
RTX 3080 was heralded by many as an excellent value graphics card, delivering performance gains of around 30% compared to the RTX 2080 Ti, despite being several hundred pounds cheaper. With the RTX 3090, Nvidia isn’t chasing value for money, but the overall performance crown. And that is exactly what it has achieved. MSI’s RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio, for instance, is 14% faster than the RTX 3080 and 50% faster than the RTX 2080 Ti, when tested at 4K. No other GPU even comes close to matching its performance. At this point, many of you reading this may be thinking something along the line of ‘well, yes, it is 14% faster than an RTX 3080 – but it is also over double the price, so surely it is terrible value?’ And you would be 100% correct in thinking that. The thing is, Nvidia knows that too – RTX 3090 is simply not about value for money, and if that is something you prioritise when buying a new graphics card, don’tbuy a 3090. Rather, RTX 3090 is purely aimed at those who don’t give a toss about value. It’s for the gamers who want the fastest card going, and they will pay whatever price to claim those bragging rights. In this case of the MSI Gaming X Trio, the cost of this GPU’s unrivalled performance comes to £1530 here in the UK. Alongside gamers, I can also see professionals or creators looking past its steep asking price. If the increased render performance of this GPU could end up saving you an hour, two hours per week, for many that initial cost will pay for itself with increased productivity, especially if you need as much VRAM as you can get.
As with any launch, the primary details are in the GPU itself, and so the first half of this conclusion is the same for both of the AIB RTX 3090 graphics cards that we are reviewing today. If you want to know specifics of this particular card, skip down the page. Last week we saw the release of the RTX 3080. A card that combined next-gen performance with a remarkably attractive price point, and was one of the easiest products to recommend we've ever seen. 4K gaming for around the £700 mark might be expensive if you're just used to consoles, but if you're a diehard member of the "PC Gaming Master Race", then you know how much you had to spend to achieve the magical 4K60 mark. It's an absolute no brainer purchase. The RTX 3090 though, that comes with more asterisks and caveats than a Lance Armstrong win on the Tour de France. Make no mistake; the RTX 3090 is brutally fast. If performance is your thing, or performance without consideration of cost, or you want to flex on forums across the internet, then yeah, go for it. For everyone else, and that's most of us, there is a lot it does well, but it's a seriously niche product. We can go to Nvidia themselves for their key phraseology. With a tiny bit of paraphrasing, they say "The RTX 3090 is for 8K gaming, or heavy workload content creators. For 4K Gaming the RTX 3080 is, with current and immediate future titles, more than enough". If you want the best gaming experience, then as we saw last week, the clear choice is the RTX 3080. If you've been following the results today then clearly the RTX 3090 isn't enough of a leap forwards to justify being twice the price of the RTX 3080. It's often around 5% faster, sometimes 10%, sometimes not much faster at all. Turns out that Gears 5 in particular looked unhappy but it was an 'auto' setting on animation increasing its own settings so we will go back with it fixed to ultra and retest. The RTX 3090 is still though, whisper it, a bit of a comedown after the heights of our first Ampere experience. To justify the staggering cost of the RTX 3090 you need to fit into one of the following groups; Someone who games at 8K, either natively or via Nvidia's DSR technology. Someone who renders enormous amounts of 3D work. We're not just talking a 3D texture or model for a game; we're talking animated short films. Although even here the reality is that you need a professional solution far beyond the price or scope of the RTX 3090. Lastly, it would be best if you were someone who renders massive, RAW, 8K video footage regularly and has the memory and storage capacity to feed such a voracious data throughput. If you fall into one of those categories, then you'll already have the hardware necessary - 8K screen or 8K video camera - that the cost of the RTX 3090 is small potatoes. In which case you'll love the extra freedom and performance it can bring to your workload, smoothing out the waiting that is such a time-consuming element of the creative process. This logic holds true for both the Gigabyte and MSI cards we're looking at on launch.
There’s no doubt that the $1,500 GeForce RTX 3090 is indeed a “big ferocious GPU,” and the most powerful consumer graphics card ever created. The Nvidia Founders Edition delivers unprecedented performance for 4K gaming, frequently maxes out games at 1440p, and can even play at ludicrous 8K resolution in some games. It’s a beast for 3440x1440 ultrawide gaming too, as our separate ultrawide benchmarks piece shows. Support for HDMI 2.1 and AV1 decoding are delicious cherries on top. If you’re a pure gamer, though, you shouldn’t buy it, unless you’ve got deep pockets and want the best possible gaming performance, value be damned. The $700 GeForce RTX 3080 offers between 85 and 90 percent of the RTX 3090’s 4K gaming performance (depending on the game) for well under half the cost. It’s even closer at 1440p. If you’re only worried about raw gaming frame rates, the GeForce RTX 3080 is by far the better buy, because it also kicks all kinds of ass at 4K and high refresh rate 1440p and even offers the same HDMI 2.1 and AV1 decode support as its bigger brother. Nvidia likes to boast that the RTX 3090 is the first 8K gaming card, and while that’s true in some games, it falls far short of the 60 frames per second mark in many triple-A titles. Consider 8K gaming a nice occasional bonus more than a core feature. If you mix work and play, though, the GeForce RTX 3090 is a stunning value—especially if your workloads tap into CUDA. It’s significantly faster than the previous-gen RTX 2080 Ti, which fell within spitting distance of the RTX Titan, and offers the same 24GB VRAM capacity of that Titan. But it does so for $1,000 less than the RTX Titan’s cost. The GeForce RTX 3090 stomps all over most of our content creation benchmarks. Performance there is highly workload-dependent, of course, but we saw speed increases of anywhere from 30 to over 100 percent over the RTX 2080 Ti in several tasks, with many falling in the 50 to 80 percent range. That’s an uplift that will make your projects render tangibly faster—putting more money in your pocket. The lofty 24GB of GDDR6X memory makes the RTX 3090 a must-have in some scenarios where the 10GB to 12GB found in standard gaming cards flat-out can’t cut it, such as 8K media editing or AI training with large data sets. That alone will make it worth buying for some people, along with the NVLink connector that no other RTX 30-series GPU includes. If you don’t need those, the RTX 3080 comes close to the RTX 3090 in raw GPU power in many tests.
NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3090 is an interesting card for many reasons, and it’s harder to summarize than the RTX 3080 was, simply due to its top-end price and goals. The RTX 3080, priced at $699, was really easy to recommend to anyone wanting a new top-end gaming solution, because compared to the last-gen 2080S, 2080 Ti, or even TITAN RTX, the new card simply trounced them all. The GeForce RTX 3090, with its $1,499 price tag, caters to a different crowd. First, there are going to be those folks who simply want the best gaming or creator GPU possible, regardless of its premium price. We saw throughout our performance results that the RTX 3090 does manage to take a healthy lead in many cases, but the gains over RTX 3080 are not likely as pronounced as many were hoping. The biggest selling-point of the RTX 3090 is undoubtedly its massive frame buffer. For creators, having 24GB on tap likely means you will never run out during this generation, and if you manage to, we’re going to be mighty impressed. We do see more than 24GB being useful for deep-learning and AI research, but even there, it’s plenty for the vast majority of users. Interestingly, this GeForce is capable of taking advantage of NVLink, so those wanting to plug two of them into a machine could likewise combine their VRAM, activating a single 48GB frame buffer. Two of these cards would cost $500 more than the TITAN RTX, and obliterate it in rendering and deep-learning workloads (but of course draw a lot more power at the same time). For those wanting to push things even harder with single GPU, we suspect NVIDIA will likely release a new TITAN at some point with even more memory. Or, that’s at least our hope, because we don’t want to see the TITAN series just up and disappear. For gamers, a 24GB frame buffer can only be justified if you’re using top-end resolutions. Not even 4K is going to be problematic for most people with a 10GB frame buffer, but as we move up the scale, to 5K and 8K, that memory is going to become a lot more useful. By now, you likely know whether or not the monstrous GeForce RTX 3090 is for you. Fortunately, if it isn’t, the RTX 3080 hasn’t gone anywhere, and it still proves to be of great value (you know – if you can find it in stock) for its $699 price. NVIDIA also has a $499 RTX 3070 en route next month, so all told, the company is going to be taking good care of its enthusiast fans with this trio of GPUs. Saying that, we still look forward to the even lower-end parts, as those could ooze value even more than the bigger cards.
Still, the performance offered by the RTX 3090 is impressive; the Gaming X is 53% faster than RTX 2080 Ti, 81% faster than RTX 2080 Super. AMD's Radeon RX 5700 XT is less than half as fast, the performance uplift vs the 3090 is 227%! AMD Big Navi better be a success. With those performance numbers RTX 3090 is definitely suited for 4K resolution gaming. Many games will run over 90 FPS, at highest details, in 4K, nearly all over 60, only Control is slightly below that, but DLSS will easily boost FPS beyond that. With RTX 3090 NVIDIA is introducing "playable 8K", which rests on several pillars. In order to connect an 8K display you previously had to use multiple cables, now you can use just a single HDMI 2.1 cable. At higher resolution, the VRAM usage goes up, RTX 3090 has you covered, offering 24 GB of memory, which is more than twice that of the 10 GB RTX 3080. Last but not least, on the software side, they added the capability to capture 8K gameplay with Shadow Play. In order to improve framerates (remember, 8K processes 16x the pixels as Full HD), NVIDIA created DLSS 8K, which renders the game at 1440p native, and scales the output by x3, in each direction, using machine learning. All of these technologies are still in its infancy, game support is limited and displays are expensive, we'll look into this in more detail in the future. 24 GB VRAM is definitely future-proof, but I'm having doubts whether you really need that much memory. Sure, more is always better, but unless you are using professional applications, you'll have a hard time finding a noteworthy difference between performance with 10 GB vs 24 GB. Games won't be an issue, because you'll run out of shading power long before you run out of VRAM, just like with older cards today, which can't handle 4K, no matter how much VRAM they have. Next-gen consoles also don't have as much VRAM, so it's hard to image that you'll miss out on any meaningful gaming experience if you have less than 24 GB VRAM. NVIDIA demonstrated several use cases in their reviewer's guide: OctaneRender, DaVinci Resolve and Blender can certainly benefit from more memory, GPU compute applications, too, but these are very niche use cases. I'm not aware of any creators who were stuck and couldn't create, because they ran out of VRAM. On the other hand the RTX 3090 could definitely turn out to be a good alternative to Quadro, or Tesla, unless you need double-precision math (you don't). Pricing of the RTX 3090 is just way too high, and a tough pill to swallow. At a starting price of $1500, it is more than twice as expensive as the RTX 3080, but not nearly twice as fast. MSI asking another $100 on top for their fantastic Gaming X Trio cooler, plus the overclock out of the box doesn't seem that unreasonable to me. We're talking about 6.6% here. The 6% performance increase due to factory OC / higher power limit can almost justify that, with the better cooler it's almost a no-brainer. While an additional 14 GB of GDDR6X memory aren't free, the $1500 base price still doesn't feel right. On the other hand, the card is significantly better than RTX 2080 Ti in every regard, and that sold for well over $1000, too. NVIDIA emphasizes that RTX 3090 is a Titan replacement—Titan RTX launched at $2500, so $1500 must be a steal for the new 3090. Part of the disappointment about the price is that RTX 3080 is so impressive, at such disruptive pricing. If RTX 3080 was $1000, then $1500 wouldn't feel as crazy—I would say $1000 is a fair price for the RTX 3090. Either way, Turing showed us that people are willing to pay up to have the best, and I have no doubt that all RTX 3090 cards will sell out today, just like RTX 3080. Obviously the "Recommended" award in this context is not for the average gamer. Rather it means, if you have that much money to spend, and are looking for a RTX 3090, then you should consider this card.
Let's be clear: the GeForce RTX 3090 is now the fastest GPU around for gaming purposes. It's also mostly overkill for gaming purposes, and at more than twice the price of the RTX 3080, it's very much in the category of GPUs formerly occupied by the Titan brand. If you're the type of gamer who has to have the absolute best, and price isn't an object, this is the new 'best.' For the rest of us, the RTX 3090 might be drool-worthy, but it's arguably of more interest to content creators who can benefit from the added performance and memory. We didn't specifically test any workloads where a 10GB card simply failed, but it's possible to find them — not so much in games, but in professional apps. We also weren't able to test 8K (or simulated 8K) yet, though some early results show that it's definitely possible to get the 3080 into a state where performance plummets. If you want to play on an 8K TV, the 3090 with its 24GB VRAM will be a better experience than the 3080. How many people fall into that bracket of gamers? Not many, but then again, $300 more than the previous generation RTX 2080 Ti likely isn't going to dissuade those with deep pockets. Back to the content creation bit, while gaming performance at 4K ultra was typically 10-15% faster with the 3090 than the 3080, and up to 20% faster in a few cases, performance in several professional applications was consistently 20-30% faster — Blender, Octane, and Vray all fall into this group. Considering such applications usually fall into the category of "time is money," the RTX 3090 could very well pay for itself in short order compared to the 3080 for such use cases. And compared to an RTX 2080 Ti or Titan RTX? It's not even close. The RTX 3090 often delivered more than double the rendering performance of the previous generation in Blender, and 50-90% better performance in Octane and Vray. The bottom line is that the RTX 3090 is the new high-end gaming champion, delivering truly next-gen performance without a massive price increase. If you've been sitting on a GTX 1080 Ti or lower, waiting for a good time to upgrade, that time has arrived. The only remaining question is just how competitive AMD's RX 6000, aka Big Navi, will be. Even with 80 CUs, on paper, it looks like Nvidia's RTX 3090 may trump the top Navi 2x cards, thanks to GDDR6X and the doubling down on FP32 capability. AMD might offer 16GB of memory, but it's going to be paired with a 256-bit bus and clocked quite a bit lower than 19 Gbps, which may limit performance.
Hey everyone, I am a former Wall Street trader and quant researcher. When I was preparing for my own interviews, I have noticed the lack of accurate information and so I will be providing my own perspectives. One common pattern I see is people building their own algorithm by blindly fitting statistical methods such as moving averages onto data. I have published this elsewhere, but have copy pasted it entirely below for you to read to keep it in the spirit of the sub rules. Edit: Removed link.
What it was like trading on Wall Street
Right out of college, I began my trading career at an electronic hedge fund on Wall Street. Several friends pitched trading to me as being a more disciplined version of wallstreetbets that actually made money. After flopping several initial interviews, I was fortunate to land a job at a top-tier firm of the likes of Jane Street, SIG, Optiver and IMC. On my first day, I was instantly hooked. My primary role there was to be a market maker. To explain this, imagine that you are a merchant. Suppose you wanted to purchase a commodity such as an apple. You would need to locate an apple seller and agree on a fair price. Market makers are the middle-men that cuts out this interaction by being always willing to buy or sell at a given price. In finance lingo, this is called providing liquidity to financial exchanges. At any given moment, you should be confident to liquidate your position for cash. To give a sense of scale, tens of trillions in dollars are processed through these firms every year. My time trading has been one of the most transformative periods of my life. It not only taught me a lot of technical knowledge, but it also moulded me to be a self-starter, independent thinker, and hard worker. I strongly recommend anyone that loves problem solving to give trading a shot. You do not need a mathematics or finance background to get in. The trading culture is analogous to professional sports. It is a zero sum game where there is a clear defined winner and loser — you either make or lose money. This means that both your compensation and job security is highly dependent on your performance. For those that are curious, the rough distribution of a trader’s compensation based on performance is a tenth of the annual NBA salary. There is a mystique about trading in popular media due to the abstraction of complicated quantitative models. I will shed light on some of the fundamental principles rooted in all trading strategies, and how they might apply to you.
Arbitrage
One way traders make money is through an arbitrage or a risk free trade. Suppose you could buy an apple from Sam for $1, and then sell an apple to Megan at $3. A rational person would orchestrate both legs of these trades to gain $2 risk free. Arbitrages are not only found in financial markets. The popular e-commerce strategy of drop-shipping is a form of arbitrage. Suppose you find a tripod selling on AliExpress at $10. You could list the same tripod on Amazon for $20. If someone buys from you, then you could simply purchase the tripod off AliExpress and take home a neat $10 profit. The same could be applied to garage sales. If you find a baseball card for $2 that has a last sold price on EBay for $100, you have the potential to make $98. Of course this is not a perfect arbitrage as you face the risk of finding a buyer, but the upside makes this worthwhile.
Positive expected value bets
Another way traders make money is similar to the way a casino stacks the odds in their favour. Imagine you flip a fair coin. If it lands on heads you win $3, and if it lands on tails you lose $1. If you flip the coin only once, you may be unlucky and lose the dollar. However in the long run, you are expected to make a positive profit of $1 per coin flip. This is referred to as a positive expected value bet. Over the span of millions of transactions, you are almost guaranteed to make a profit. This exact principle is why you should never gamble in casino games such as roulette. These games are all negative expected value bets, which guarantees you to lose money over the long run. Of course there are exceptions to this, such as poker or card counting in black jack. The next time you walk into a casino, make a mental note to observe the ways it is designed to keep you there for as long as possible. Note the lack of windows and the maze like configurations. Even the free drinks and the cheap accommodation are all a farce to keep you there.
Relative Pricing
Relative pricing is a great strategy to use when there are two products that have clear causal relationships. Let us consider an apple and a carton of apple juice. Suppose there have a causal relationship where the carton is always $9 more expensive than the apple. The apple and the carton is currently trading at $1 and $10 respectively. If the price of the apple goes up to $2, the price is not immediately reflected on the carton. There will always be a time lag. It is also important to note that there is no way we can determine if the apple is trading at fair value or if its overpriced. So how do we take advantage of this situation? If we buy the carton for $10 and sell the apple for $2, we have essentially bought the ‘spread’ for $8. The spread is fairly valued at $9 due to the causal relationship, meaning we have made $1. The reason high frequency trading firms focus so much on latency in the nanoseconds is to be the first to scoop up these relative mispricing. This is the backbone for delta one strategies. Common pairs that are traded against each other includes ETFs and their inverse counterpart, a particular stock against an ETF that contains the stock, or synthetic option structures.
Correlations
Correlations are mutual connections between two things. When they trend in the same direction they are said to have a positive correlation, and the vice versa is true for negative correlations. A popular example of positive correlation is the number of shark attacks with the number of ice-cream sales. It is important to note that shark attacks do not cause ice-cream sales. Often times there are no intuitive reason for certain correlations, but they still work. The legendary Renaissance Technologies sifted through petabytes of historical data to find profitable signals. For instance, good morning weather in a city tended to predict an upward movement in its stock exchange. One could theoretically buy stock on the opening and sell at noon to make a profit. One important piece of advice is to disregard any retail trader selling a course to you, claiming that they have a system. These are all scams. At best, these are bottom of the mill signals that are hardly profitable after transaction costs. It is also unlikely that you have the system latency, trading experience or research capabilities to do this on your own. It is possible, but very difficult.
Mean reversions
Another common strategy traders rely on is mean reversion trends. In the options world the primary focus is purchasing volatility when it is cheap compared to historical values, and vice versa. Buying options is essentially synonymous with buying volatility. Of course, it is not as simple as this so don’t go punting your savings on Robinhood using this strategy. For most people, the most applicable mean reversion trend is interest rates. These tend to fluctuate up and down depending on if the central banks want to stimulate saving or spending. As global interest rates are next to zero or negative, it may be a good idea to lock in this low rate for your mortgages. Again, consult with a financial advisor before you do anything.
Aug/11/2020 news: / Inspectors find some ammonium in Armenia. Beirut aid / How Kocharyan & Serj sold Armenia's infrastructure to Russia / Kocharyan trial / ex-BHK official demands refund. Voter buying / $446M corruption / COVID news & Economy / The story of Dragon Stones / Soccer league renamed /...
How and why Kocharyan & Serj sold Armenia's infrastructure to Russia
FIP writes: After independence, several strategic infrastructure objects were privatized, sold, and handed over to foreign management. The transparency and benefits of these deals were disputed. Some of these deals are "Property in exchange for debt", "Electric Networks of Armenia", "HayGas".
Deal 1: Property in exchange for debt President Robert Kocharyan, Defense Minister Serj Sargsyan, and Russia signed this controversial agreement in 2002. In exchange for the $95M debt that Armenia accumulated between 1994-1998, Armenia agreed to give Russia full ownership and control of:
Hrazdan thermal plant worth $32M. It became part of Inter-RAO-ES. The latter sold it to the Russian-Armenian Tashir group in 2017. Yerevan's Automated Systems worth $3.37M. Yerevan's Mathematical Machines Research Center worth $2.75M. Currently owned by a Russian Citronix firm. Mars factory worth $56M. It was also sold to Citronix in 2008. Material Research and Production Enterprise worth $350K. Later, Mars and that institute would merge and form a free trade zone built by Citronix.
What is Citronix? It's part of the Russian giant SISTEMA firm, one of whose board members was/is none other than Robert Kocharyan. Besides those objects, Russia also received the surrounding lands and a tax waiver.
Deal 2: HayGas HayGas was delivering gas after independence. A month before president Levon's departure, the second player HayRusGazard was created. On April 30, 1998, the new president Kocharyan decided to give Armenia's gas network to HayRusGazard.
HayRusGazard's 45% was then given to Russian Gazprom, 10% to Russian Itera, while 45% remained under Armenian control. As part of the sale, Armenia was supposed to receive $148M worth gas throughout 2.5 years. President Levon later criticized Kocharyan, saying that the fate of the money that was supposed to go into state coffers is still unknown.
Gazprom got another sweet deal. Hrazdan thermal's remaining energy bloc was sold to them for $248M. The latter was supposed to finish its construction. From that $248M, Gazprom didn't have to pay the $188M portion, in exchange for not raising gas prices for Armenian consumers. (eh?)
By 2013, Gazprom had 80% of HayRusGazard shares, with Armenia owning 20%. Armenia then sold the rest to Gasprom and the latter owned 100%. This also guaranteed that Armenia must buy gas from Gasprom until 2043. Gazprom also owns the gas pipeline coming from Iran. It purchased it between 2006-2015.
Deal 3: Electric Networks of Armenia. Privatized in 1998-2000 through an international auction. Despite several popular bidders, the winner was an offshore firm "Midland Resources Holding" owned by a Russian businessman Alexander Shneider. In 2002, the offshore firm and Kocharyan signed the agreement to sell the Network. It was worth $25M, but since it had accumulated debt, it was sold for $12M.
The ownership changed multiple times. The offshore firm sold it to Russian Inter-RAO-ES for $73M (3x original price) in 2006. Inter-RAO is the company that decided to raise electricity prices in 2015, which triggered the iconic Electric Yerevan protests.
Later in 2015, Inter-RAO sold the Network to "Liormand Holding" and "Cascade Energy", both of which are offshore firms owned by Russian-Armenian businessman Samvel Karapetyan (Tashir Group). The latter agreed to co-subsidize the electricity cost to prevent a rise for 1 year, due to protests.
To be continued... Source: https://fip.am/12361 Tags: #Privatizations #Infrastructure #ArmenianFactories
Treaty of Sevres / AM MFA responds to TR MFA
After the Armenian govt members reminded about Sevres treaty and how Armenia was supposed to get its lands back, Turkish govt pushed back with counter-rhetoric, saying that Severs was canceled by Lozan treaty (which was dismissed as false by president Sarkissian yesterday).
Armenian MFA responds: Turkish MFA has once again proven that they're incapable of facing the reality. Turkish govt brags about their Ottoman heritage yet wants to ignore Ottoman agreement [Sevres] with Armenia. The Treaty of Sevres was, is, and will be a historic fact. [She then spoke about the Genocide and current conflicts.] https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1024692.html , https://factor.am/275712.html
Beirut explosion
CivilNet reporter said: The humanitarian jet that earlier transported aid to Beirut has brought with it 37 Lebanese-Armenians who wanted to settle in Armenia. Armenian community sustained the largest damages. [~$150M]. Now is not the right time to call for mass migration from Lebanon to Armenia. Not only it's insensitive, but you have to ask whether Armenia is capable of housing thousands of people with economic needs. https://youtu.be/gtVmfRJNVBA
More humanitarian aid was sent from Yerevan to Beirut today. This is the third - and for now, the last - 12-ton aid. https://hetq.am/hy/article/120414
Armenian charity union ՀԲԸՄ collected $2M in donations from around the world. Vache and Tamar Manukyan donated a million and will match future donations by doubling it. Donor list: https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1024712.html
Beirut explosion: Does Armenia have similar explosive ammonium?
After the Beirut explosion, the inspectors decided to audit two chemical facilities (Vanadzor and Nairit) to find if they store similar explosive materials.
Inspectors: // we couldn't find 90 tons of ammonium and ammonium liquid as reported by media outlets. The reserves were earlier sold. Only 1 out of 4 containers is 1/6th full with 9 tons of ammonium. The storage contains very little materials to be dangerous. It's not enough to blow up in case of fire. This material quickly evaporates.
Since the factory was bankrupted earlier, the new owner will decide the fate of those 9 tons. It could be sold. (For comparison, 2,700 tons exploded in Beirut). The factory also has very little mercury. It's properly sealed and safe.
However, we found fire safety code violations in the facility and asked the owner to fix it. The facility is in poor shape after being abandoned 4 years ago. More specifically, it doesn't have running water and "Stop" signs. We'll audit Nairit factory and fireworks warehouses next. \\ https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1024624.html
Prosecutors reveal the total sum from corruption investigations
Across Armenia, there were 1,283 felony corruption cases and 873 suspects as of June 30th. Prosecutors seek to recover $446M in damages done to the state. $52M of it has been recovered. $54M assets are frozen. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1024629.html
March 1st: Kocharyan & Co trial is delayed again
Co-defendant Yuri Khachaturov's lawyer couldn't be present. "Something came up. BBL". Another co-defendant's lawyer is on a vacation. The defendants asked the trial to be delayed.
Prosecutor and March 1st victim lawyer asked the judge to punish the defense for "intentionally delaying the trial." The defense accused the prosecutor of themselves delaying the trial last time.
The report says: Shirak prosecutors found that 5 employees of the Social Services department were taking $100 bribes from families who visited for aid-qualification evaluation. The ringleader is arrested. The 5 are facing charges. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1024685.html
ex-BHK member wants a refund
Ashot Sargsyan was managing BHK's office in Yerevan's Norq-Marash district between 2007-2010. Ashot said: // I trusted BHK chief Tsarukyan's promise about appointing me as Goom Market's director if I helped BHK, and used my own $28K to cover office expenses. I gave $20 aid to voters. On rare occasions, I'd pay $200 towards someone's education. (nowadays it's called "bribe")
It is because of our payments that BHK received the most votes in Norq-Marash. (go on...) I'm trying to get that $28K compensated by Tsarukyan. I regret spending it. He only refunded $5K. \\
3Q20: -21% (Correction: not 3Q20 but April-June) 1H20: -11% (-14% small scale trade, -8% large scale) April was the worst because of mandatory restrictions. Trade was growing double-digit before COVID. Overall, the economic activity shrank -4.7% in 1H20. More: https://hetq.am/hy/article/120402
Handle all your paperwork in one building or online
A few weeks ago the govt launched the first universal facility that houses departments from dozens of government agencies, so the citizen won't have to run around to get something done. The one in Yerevan has served 1,500 people so far.
"It took me 6 minutes to submit an application," said an official. "Online queue registration, friendly staff, bank terminals, parking lot," she promised. "I needed to get a document from the Property Registration Agency. They sent me an SMS when it was ready, along with a code. I logged into the website and got it. A physical visit wasn't necessary."
More about archaeological dragon-stones / Ancient cult?
As we learned yesterday, Armenia has hundreds of ancient Vishapaqar stones with dragon paintings. Education Ministry began reinstalling some of them in previous locations where they were found, and decided to flip the stone located in Yerevan Circular Park because it was installed sideways.
Expert explains what Vishapaqar is: // These 3,000 B.C. stones are unique to Armenian Highland's mountainous areas and are at least 1,300m above the ocean level. People used to climb mountains to hold various religious rituals lasting 1-2 weeks. Vishapaqars were used during rituals.
They also served a purpose to unite various tribes. You can find them near Van and Urmiah lakes, too. They resemble khachqars. Each one had to be crafted by a whole group of architects because they are big and made of tough stones.
They were first studied 100 years ago with a renewed interest 10 years ago. You could say that vishapaqars are the ancestors of khachqars. \\ Full: https://youtu.be/qqcQOo4RMYA
Recently, after purchasing quality-verification equipment, the govt has been forcing some construction firms to re-do the asphalt that was of poor quality. The tests are done by the govt-funded "Road Department" agency (smart name).
Their lab uses lasers to check if the asphalt is smooth. It takes asphalt samples to study the composition and density, water levels, thickness. They can test sand, concrete, and several other materials. https://armenpress.am/arm/news/1024687.html
Road repairs
10km section of Vardablur-Tashir and nearby bridges are being renovated for the first time in 40 years. Costs $2.1M. https://youtu.be/hI68r9o6FDs
Armenian soccer league has a new name and a sponsor
Armenian soccer doesn't get much love... and money. The admins decided to attract more private funding through a partnership with VBET betting company. VBET will give soccer federation $0.8M this year, then add 10% each year subsequently.
In return, the "Higher League" (where the main teams play) will officially rename into "VBET Armenian Premier League". The "Armenian Cup" will rename to "VBET Armenian Cup". The new logo says "Armenian Premier League" with VBET's icon below.
1) The accused are innocent until proven guilty in the court of law, even if they sound guilty. 2) Currency in Armenian ֏ unless specified otherwise. 3) NSS/SIS/SOC = law enforcement agencies. QP = Civil Contract Party. LHK = Bright Armenia Party. BHK = Prosperous Armenia Party. HHK = Republican Party. ARF = Armenian Revolutionary Federation Party 4) ARCHIVE of older posts by Idontknowmuch: PART 1 ; PART 2 ; PART 3 ; PART 4 ; PART 5. 5) ARCHIVE of older posts by Armeniapedia.
1: Gold Star Families Monument: Yesterday we celebrated the lives of those Kentuckians, we lifted up their families, and now we have something on these Capitol grounds that show a little bit about our values, and that we value each and every one of these individuals. I invite Kentuckians to come, and to see this memorial.
2: Voting: Early voting, in-person hasn't started yet, but absentee voting is underway. This is my absentee ballot. [holds up ballot] It means that they are being mailed out, it means you have the opportunity to fill them out, and you need to make sure you do it appropriately. There are instructions that come inside of each absentee ballot about not only filling out the ballot, but what you have to do with the internal envelope, signing it, sealing it; what you have to do with the external envelope, signing it, sealing it. Make sure you follow those instructions! You then have two different things that you can do with this absentee ballot: You can mail it, and if you're going to do that, mail it soon. I’m mailing this today. I will have voted. Or you can drop it into a dropbox which the first lady is going to do and we're going to show people what that looks like.
3: Jobs: Summit Biosciences is investing more than $19M new dollars and will create 78 full time jobs with this project. The expansion is near completion and will support clinical and commercial production of several new nasal spray medicines including one for COVID-19. In May, Summit was awarded a contract from Seattle-based pharmaceutical company Atossa Therapeutics to accelerate the development of a nasal spray medicine to prevent and/or to mitigate the COVID-19 infection.
Sec. Friedlander: As of today, more than 1.6M people have enrolled in Medicaid. This is about a little more than one in three Kentuckians and we have added over 250,000 people to receive Medicaid. Next, we have provided over 100,000 households, access to food, through the SNAP benefits. Lastly, we know within the next week or so- 2 million additional meals to seniors across this Commonwealth, and we would not be able to do this without our partners.
Sec. Friedlander: So the next piece that I want to talk about is the pandemic EBT piece: Today, we had a first phase, and we provided those benefits to over 500,000 children across Kentucky. Our partners in the Department of Education helped us do that, we took applications, and we have now just entered the second phase of that pandemic EBT service provision. For August and September, that is over 625,000 children who are going to receive these services, and receive meals, and receive food. This time you don't require an application, we will be sending these benefits to you. There'll be new cards that arrive sometime in the month of October is what we're aiming for. The mail has slowed us down a little bit, but we expect that individuals will receive those cards in October. If you have questions, we have provided our staff with the information they would need to respond to your questions. And you can call 855-306-8959, and select the “food benefits option”, and you will get information about the cards that will come to you and your mail. You'll need your birthday, and some other information to activate the cards; but when you receive them know that those services will be provided, that's related to the number of days that you're in school, or a school is in session. And so that is different for each school, but we have the information to provide the right amount of benefits on those cards.
: So today I'm here to talk about the new school reporting link that has gone live today is September 28th, so it is the first day that the governor recommended in-person classes resume. And so today we knew that the report reporting link for schools would go live. And so our schools are asked to self report Monday through Friday, for each day that their school is in session. And the reason this information is so critical is because it's about our communities. First and foremost, our parents and caregivers. They deserve to know this information. They deserve to know how the COVID pandemic is impacting, not just the greater community but specifically the school building that they send their children to every day. It also is very imperative for our teachers and our school staff to know how this COVID pandemic is affecting the children, and other adults, that they interact with every day. And so I'm going to show you an example of a dashboard and what it looks like today. It is populated by the school's self reporting as you can see on the screen, and the dashboard is updated daily. Anything that is reported over the weekend will be included in the Monday reports. The data will be 1 reporting day behind.
September is close to being a month with the most cases, already the deadliest month of COVID-19 with 229, and you're calling for Kentuckians to be more urgent. But do you think that Kentuckians might look at you and say, Why aren’t you a little bit more urgent by issuing new recommendations for schools, sporting events, bars, restaurants? You know? -- I've said this before, is a pretty simple equation. It is the level and effectiveness of the rules, times how many people follow them. And you can have great sets of rules and regulations and if nobody follows them, it's not effective. Likewise, if you don't have good enough rules, even if a bunch of people are following what you have out there, it's not effective. Right now we're not seeing enough people follow what's already there and so that takes shifting a little bit. Our goal, and our belief, is that if we can get people wearing masks, if we can get them social distancing, if we can get them following the very basics, we can start decreasing our number of cases.
In terms of Masks, also people look at September and they see a month with the most cases, or likely going to be the most cases, and the most deaths. Are you surprised that some people do question the mask mandate? You obviously, you believe it's working. -- On the mask mandate, it's every single public health official, every single scientist that says that masks are effective, sometimes even very highly effective, in preventing you from getting the virus, and from getting you to spread the virus. We have seen when there is urgency- look at when other states that were- Texas was skyrocketing and put in their mask mandate, and you can bet people put them on with what was happening, you saw a significant decrease. We know they work but we got to wear them.
I got a couple of written questions: two schools in one area that are in the red on the metrics map and both are currently conducting in-person learning. -- Listen, when you hit red, you need to move to virtual because it means your community has so much spread that it is going through your schools, you're putting teachers at risk, you're putting administrators at risk. It is not a state law that makes you do the right thing but you should be willing to do the right thing, because all the data out there shows that it's not responsible, when you are in the red, to be having those in-person, classes.
Alright. It is Monday at four o'clock. That time we come together to do our update on COVID-19 here in the Commonwealth, the challenge of our times.
You know what, I'll start the way that we used to always start because we all need to hear it, especially as it looks like we're going to go into a very difficult fall with this virus, but we're gonna get through this, and we're gonna get through this together. We're going to talk later about how that's going to need us to react and respond with urgency to make sure we're doing our part and mainly to make sure we are wearing our masks. We are not seeing enough of it at the moment. I can plead, I can beg but I can also tell you that for a fact, the amount of our economy that's open, the ability to get our kids back in school, and the number of lives we lose or do not lose depend on a number of things but primarily a number of people willing to wear these masks. So today, I'm wearing the Barbourville Tigers, that's Barbourville Independent. Thank you to their fiscal director Samantha Daniels, for sending it, and appreciate them trying to keep their kids safe.
All right, our fast 4 today. Those things we start with to make sure you see a number of different things going on in the state.
Alright, next. We are now in the midst of this election coming up in November. Early voting, in-person hasn't started yet, but absentee voting is underway. This is my absentee ballot. [holds up ballot] It means that they are being mailed out, it means you have the opportunity to fill them out, and you need to make sure you do it appropriately. There are instructions that come inside of each absentee ballot about not only filling out the ballot, but what you have to do with the internal envelope, signing it, sealing it; what you have to do with the external envelope, signing it, sealing it. Make sure you follow those instructions! You then have two different things that you can do with this absentee ballot: You can mail it, and if you're going to do that, mail it soon. I’m mailing this today. I will have voted. Or you can drop it into a dropbox which the first lady is going to do and we're going to show people what that looks like. So remember, you can register to vote until October 5. You have until October 9 to request, one of these, an absentee ballot. After that early in person voting begins on October 13 and we want everyone that's going to vote early in person really to do so before election day because you can spread out and stay safe. But there is no excuse, folks. Voting is a part of who we are as Americans. It is your duty, if you have the ability to vote, to do so, and now you have more opportunities and less excuses than ever before. I want to see a record turnout, regardless of how the elections go I want a record turnout here in Kentucky. And I think that we can and we should do that.
And finally, Mask Up KY will be announcing the details, I believe tomorrow, but we are going to be starting up a MaskUpKY contest here in Kentucky. The idea is that we need more positive examples out there of people wearing their masks. So starting next week, it will move from simply us wanting you to fill up social media to us presenting three winners, each day, that will receive a free Team Kentucky mask that they can wear for being such good members of Team Kentucky. So we're asking everybody to make sure whether it's Facebook or Twitter or other parts of social media, Instagram, get out those positive messages. Here are a couple of folks that did so for this week.
Alright, next up we have Secretary Eric Friedlander, he's going to talk about pandemic EBT, which is our commitment to making sure that our children, and all Kentuckians, are fed, have their basic needs met during this covid crisis.
Couple of quick updates: First I want to begin with the hard work of the folks who have worked at the Cabinet for Health and Family Services to get people eligible and through our systems to be eligible for services. As of today, more than 1.6M people have enrolled in Medicaid. This is about a little more than one in three Kentuckians and we have added over 250,000 people to receive Medicaid. This is important. If we're in, and we are in, a pandemic, it is vitally important for individuals to have health care coverage, so that we can pay doctors and nurses and hospitals, and make sure that the folks who are providing health care can get paid for the services they're providing.
Next, we have provided over 100,000 households, access to food, through the SNAP benefits. This is an important piece to keep people fed during a pandemic. Many people have lost their jobs and this is a way that we can provide those services. Folks who have lost their jobs, we have outreach to many of those folks to see if they need SNAP benefits to see if they need Medicaid benefits. We are actually the only state in the country that I know of that have proactively reached out to those folks who have had to get unemployment benefits.
Lastly, we know within the next week or so- Since the beginning of the pandemic, we have provided, or we'll be on the verge of providing, over 2 million meals. 2 million additional meals to seniors across this Commonwealth, and we would not be able to do this without our partners.
So the next piece that I want to talk about is the pandemic EBT piece. We talked earlier about a pandemic EBT- it goes to individuals, and children, and families who otherwise would be receiving meals and schools, but because schools have not been in session, they haven't been able to access those meals. Today, we had a first phase, and we provided those benefits to over 500,000 children across Kentucky. Our partners in the department of education helped us do that, we took applications, and we have now just entered the second phase of that pandemic EBT service provision. What we've done is we've again, worked with our partners in the Department of Education, they have provided us with information about folks who are eligible for free and reduced meals throughout the educational system. As of this weekend, we sent the files in order for individuals to receive these benefits as well. For August and September, that is over 625,000 children who are going to receive these services, and receive meals, and receive food. This time you don't require an application, we will be sending these benefits to you. There'll be new cards that arrive sometime between- in the month of October is what we're aiming for. The mail has slowed us down a little bit, but we expect that individuals will receive those cards in October.
If you have questions, we have provided our staff with the information they would need to respond to your questions. And you can call 855-306-8959, and select the “food benefits option”, and you will get information about the cards that will come to you and your mail. You'll need your birthday, and some other information to activate the cards; but when you receive them know that those services will be provided, that's related to the number of days that you're in school, or a school is in session. And so that is different for each school, but we have the information to provide the right amount of benefits on those cards. So today, over 500,000 in the first round, over 600,000 in the second, we've signed up well over- we've delivered benefits to about another 1.4-1.5 benefits to individuals in Kentucky during a pandemic. Having food, having health care is very important for the individuals, it is also very important for our communities. So thank you to the Department of Education. Thank you for the workers and cabinet for Health and Family Services, if you're calling those lines and you're calling those numbers, thank you for reaching out to us. Avoid Mondays. And, again, thank you Governor for this opportunity.
Thank you so much, Secretary Friedlander and I can attest to the hard work that the folks at the CHFS have done and in the Education cabinet as well to make sure that our kids are fed and in the worst of times. So without your leadership that wouldn’t be possible, so thank you. So today I'm here to talk about the new school reporting link that has gone live today is September 28th, so it is the first day that the governor recommended in-person classes resume. And so today we knew that the report reporting link for schools would go live. And so our schools are asked to self report Monday through Friday, for each day that their school is in session. And the reason this information is so critical is because it's about our communities. First and foremost, our parents and caregivers. They deserve to know this information. They deserve to know how the COVID pandemic is impacting, not just the greater community but specifically the school building that they send their children to every day. It also is very imperative for our teachers and our school staff to know how this COVID pandemic is affecting the children, and other adults, that they interact with every day. And so I'm going to show you an example of a dashboard and what it looks like today. It is populated by the school's self reporting as you can see on the screen, and the dashboard is updated daily. Anything that is reported over the weekend will be included in the Monday reports. The data will be 1 reporting day behind. Dr Stack explained that earlier- that reports are due by a certain time in the day, and it will be updated by the following day, so it will reflect the data from the previous day. And you can always find the date of that specific report at the top of the table. So for example, if you look today, Monday September 28th, the last reporting day was Friday September 25th, and so at the top of that table you will see, as of September 25th 2020, and that will be the indicator for what those numbers are. And if a school has not reported, that will also be noted on the dashboard. If you look at the left side of the screen you can see in that chart that you can filter at the state level, at the county level, at the school district level, and down to the actual school building level, so you can look at any kind of filter for your community or greater region in your area. If you have questions about your school's self reported numbers, then you need to contact your local school, or the school district itself. And if you do not see your school listed,we ask that you reach out to alert that school but also to let us know by emailing [email protected], and I will close today by saying that this is the first day that this is live; our schools are getting used to this new reporting system. As we will get used to reading this data, making sense of this data every day, and so I'm going to say what I always say, please extend grace to our school leaders, to our teachers, to parents, that are trying to navigate these waters that are very unfamiliar for all of us. Thank you so much.
Alright, I want to thank Secretary Friedlander. I think the steps that we have been able to take during this pandemic to help people have been so necessary and, in most instances, I think that the state has done a very good job. Does that mean and others that we couldn't have done better, and that we can do better in the future? It doesn't, and we should. These are the times where we have to be there for each other and I know our mission, as a part of the state, is to try to be there for each and every Kentucky and that needs us.
Alright, today's, if I call it a “word for the day”, but I hope really sinks in to everybody watching is the word “urgency”. I believe that since, maybe, the traditional start of school. We have become more casual and our approach to COVID, our concerns about COVID, and how well we follow those rules and guidelines that are out there. It can be natural, it's been seven months, and most of us have never had to deal with something like this for seven months. It's probably also psychological in that we have seen specific days and times that maybe our rhythms run on each year: the traditional start of summer, the traditional start of school, where we see kind of changes in behavior. Maybe wanting so badly to go back to pre-COVID norms that maybe we at least try to pretend like it doesn't exist. But the virus is here, and it waits for us to get casual. I believe it's a lack of urgency and some poor decision making that led to what we saw in Florida, which I think just passed 700,000 cases. It's what we saw in Texas, where there wasn't room in some morgues for what they were dealing with. In Arizona, in South Carolina, and in many other places. And when we get casual, when we don't show urgency, what we see is alarming trends in the virus, more cases, and ultimately more people passing away. So we are going to make it through this but when we get to the other side, do you want to look back and think “we could have done better” when doing better is about saving people's lives? Do we want to get to the end of this virus and say, “I'm just not really happy with the fact that I got a little exhausted in it and I guess maybe I didn't wear my mask as much”. You know I lost my friend Alice Sparks at the end of last week. They lived in Northern Kentucky, had a wonderful life, lived life to its fullest, but Alice should still be with us. I can name a half dozen other people that I knew that well that aren't with us anymore. Remember when we are casual, we do not show urgency, the results are somebody that you might not know passing away, but other people know. And what we're seeing right now requires, I think, even more urgency. Can you show the graph of the United States, and what we're seeing in cases. So as you all know, in the beginning of this, in March what we saw was a rapid increase in cases. New York had its hospitals overrun. We saw how that can almost exponentially increase the number of people that we lose. We did something that has been done very few times in history; we took some really, even severe, steps in being Healthy at Home here in Kentucky and we were able to blunt that curve, both as a Commonwealth, and as a nation, though some suffered more. But then we saw what happened when we got into the summer. Again, I think some folks were still wanting to get back to that normal summer you would hear “how could you steal summer from kids?” and “what do you mean the pools can't be open?”. And what we saw was a rapid escalation in this country where certainly the cases overall increased even more than what we saw in March. We saw mask mandates pop up at this point, all around the country, steps that needed to be taken. People, rightfully, being very worried, starting around July 5th. And we saw another decrease. But when you look at that graph we never even we never got down to the levels pre-July, before we saw it coming. And now, what we believe that we are seeing, I believe we're seeing it nationally, is the start of a new escalation; of that line not going down, but going up. And these are total cases that we are seeing in the country. And as we come towards a fall season, and winter- are more people are going to be inside, where we know the virus spreads faster, we’ve got to do better than this. We can't be casual right now and what we do right now may impact us two weeks or a month from now.
Let's look at the Kentucky cases, because what we're seeing nationally, we're seeing here too. Last week we had almost 5,000 cases, the most that we have ever had. Folks, we've been at this long enough to know what we can do to reduce the number of cases. We've done it several times. Yet, we're having the largest number of cases, right now. We've got to have urgency. We've all got to believe that 4,949 cases are far, far too many. And I now believe that we are not sitting at a plateau, but we are seeing what would be the third escalation that we've dealt with here in the Commonwealth. We have to do better. We have to act with urgency. We look at the WH report which came out today. We had been pleased in the weeks before to not be in any of their red categories, we're back in one; we're in the red category for increasing overall number of cases. Thankfully, we're in the yellow category in our positivity rates, because we're doing a lot of testing. But being in a red zone in a time of COVID means our people will suffer. And I had somebody talk, I think that it was an individual who told this to our Inspector General, he said “Well I hear you all, but I just go to the mall and I don't see people with COVID.” COVID is one of these invisible killers, that when you have it, you're quarantined at home, or you're in the hospital, that you’re not seeing out in your community, but everybody knows at least one person now, and sees one person they know whose family is suffering and says “if you all will do one thing please believe this is real”. Let’s listen to them. Let's make sure that we are treating it like it's real. The White House report this week. Lists now red, orange, and yellow zone counties. That's what we do in our incident report.
Here's the red zone: Warren, Laurel, Union Calloway, Knott, Grayson, Marshall, Estill, Clay, Jackson, Meade, Montgomery, Wayne, and Leslie. A lot of these overlap with our incident maps. Now we've had, you know, some groups that, I'm not suggesting it's those up here, try to argue their way out of our red status saying “Oh, that's just individuals in a nursing home”- when it's there, it's out in the community. Certainly if you're reading ours and you're reading the White House’s, let's admit there's a challenge in the community, and that it's time to do more, not to do less.
The orange counties: of course Jefferson now in this orange zone, when it had been in red for a while, Franklin County too. Frankfort Independent operating under the zones we put out is doing small pods starting today, because they're in the orange zone. It’s the right thing to do for the health of the students and of the faculty. But you can see the number and the breadth of the state of these orange zone counties. COVID doesn't care if you're urban or rural; it doesn't care if you are in Northern, Eastern, Western, South, Central Kentucky. It can very quickly explode in your community.
And here's yellow, we want to be green, but very few counties are green right now. And the yellow counties that they see- again many of these are kind of riding that wave that we saw Florida ride: that you have a whole lot of cases and because you've had some, you start to taper off, but then what we have seen a numerous occasions, including Louisiana, which was hit early, and then was hit just as hard again, cause if we let our guard down for one minute what can happen.
News Heading into Wednesday August 19th 2020 NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT YOLO THE VARIOUS TICKERS WITHOUT DOING RESEARCH. THE TIME STAMPS ON THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES MAY BE LATER THAN OTHERS ON THE WEB. THE CREATOR OF THIS THREAD COMPILED THE FOLLOWING IN A QUICK MANNER AND DOES NOT ATTEST TO THE VERACITY OF THE INFORMATION BELOW. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR VETTING YOUR OWN SOURCES AND DOING YOUR OWN DD.
GNCA Genocea -1.8% as holders file to offer 21.39M shares
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FUTU Futu Announces Pricing of Offering of 9,500,000 American Depositary Shares (Overnight News).
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ORCL Trump Expresses Support for Oracle to Buy TikTok (Overnight News).
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AAPL Apple Revamps Music Radio Service With A Rebranded Beats 1, And Two New Stations (Overnight News).
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MIDD The Middleby Prices Upsized Offering of $650 Million Convertible Senior Notes Due 2025
U.S., China to expand airline flights between them to eight per week. (UAL, DAL, CEA, ZNH)
JUUL MO Juul E-Cigarette Getting FDA Review to Stay on the U.S. Market
HRMY Form S-1MEF (registration adding securities to prior form s-1 registration [rule 462(b)]) filed with the SEC
CDNS Cadence's John Wall to Present at KeyBanc Future of Technology Series
EHTH EHealth chief bullish on future, increases stake to 703K shares
ZNGA Zynga Becomes Largest Mobile Game Maker by Market Share
CNDT Conduent +3.2% as it names Icahn's Gary to board for settlement
RMAX RE/MAX 2020 Broker Owner Conference Features Memorable Speakers, Valuable Lessons and the Launch of New Tools, Training and Technology for its Global Network of Entrepreneurs
CNNE Cannae Holdings Announces Investment in Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp. II’s Recently Priced $1.3 Billion Initial Public Offering
BFT Foley Trasimene Acquisition Corp. II Announces Pricing of Upsized $1.3 Billion Initial Public Offering
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QHRC Quest Resource Holding to Present Virtually and Host 1x1 Investor Meetings at the 11th Annual Midwest Ideas Investor Conference on August 26th & 27th
REV C Citi Resigns Role on Brigade CLO Deal Amid Escalating Loan Feud
REV C Citigroup wins freeze on funds mistakenly sent to Revlon creditors
RDFN Late-Summer Housing Market is Unseasonably Hot, Prices Up 10% and Pending Sales Up 13%
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SRNE Sorrento Therapeutics -10.4% after CFO's ouster
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Hey folks — chatting with a number of the regulars here, it became apparent that we all had Big Races and Big Plans that all got blown away by Big Problems in the world over the last few months. I decided to start a little series here on the sub, where folks can tell us about the race that they were hoping to do — what makes it so special? — how they were training for it before they got the news, how their training was modified, and what they decided to do instead. If you’re interested in contributing, please let me know! I’m trying to schedule these out a bit — they’ll all be posted by the person who actually does the writeup, I’m not gonna karma-farm this whole thing, the point is to just to have more conversations here — but I’m not the boss of you and if you want to write yours up and post it right away it’s not like I’m going to stop you! That said, I’ll keep working with anyone who wants to contribute to keep the series going as long as possible. Look for them on Mondays, because who couldn’t use a distraction at the start of the work week? This week, I’m going to talk about my favorite race: The Dipsea.
The Dipsea Race
People who have been around this sub in its various incarnations for a while are probably aware of my love for The Dipsea. Run every June, it is a truly unique race: Overly simplified, it’s an approximately seven-mile trail run from downtown Mill Valley, California to the Pacific Ocean at Stinson Beach. But that leaves out the history of the race, and the handicapping, and the shortcuts, and all of the crazy stories that have grown up over the years around the race and its runners. Let’s start with the basics: If you look at a map and elevation profile of the trail, you’ll see that it starts and ends near sea level and crosses over two major ridges along the way. It turns out that in 1904, a couple of runners from San Francisco were vacationing in Stinson Beach and took a day-trip to Mill Valley — which had only recently become possible thanks to a new rail line — and made a bet as to who could get back to their inn on the beach, on foot, the fastest. They raced (the winner is still in dispute to this day), and a tradition was born. The next year in 1905, the “Dipsea Indians” (as they named their group, an offshoot of the San Francisco Olympic Club) organized the first official Dipsea Race and the rest has been history.
The Handicaps
Early on, race organizers decided that they wanted to give anyone a shot at winning the race. Every runner was given an individual “handicap time”, and those times were even published in the local newspaper before the race. As the field grew, it became impractical to know the abilities of each individual entrant and the race moved to a handicapping system based off of age and gender. Only men aged 19-30 (the “fastest” demographic, or “scratch” runners) start at the official start time. Everyone else gets a head start, with the slowest groups starting 25 minutes before the scratch runners. Under this system, an 8-year-old girl won in 2010 and a 72-year-old man won in 2012. In any given year, you’ll find 60-somethings and 20-somethings duking it out over the last mile of the course. Your official time for the race is based off the start time for the scratch runners — so if you run the course in an hour, but you start ten minutes early, you have an official time of 50 minutes.
The Stairs
The race starts in downtown Mill Valley but less than a mile up the road you reach the base of the first of three sets of stairs, about 685 total steps, that have you climbing out of Mill Valley. On any given day you’ll find all sorts of folks hiking or running up or down (or up and down) these stairs, but on race day this is the first bottleneck you’re likely to hit. Bottlenecks and choke points on the route are a recurring problem that needs to be avoided, outrun, or simply accepted -- hey, sub-threshold rest! -- but they're also where the speedsters will get vocal with cries of "Stay to the right!" and "Passing on the left!" Later on in the race, runners have to contend with the Steep Ravine steps, this time barreling down steep, twisty, unevenly-placed railroad-tie steps as they simultaneously try to avoid twisting an ankle and diving into the ravine. Plenty of injuries occur on these steps each year, but faster (and more confident) runners are able to make up tons of time by taking these steps two-, three-, or even four-at-a-time in spots.
The Shortcuts
For years after its inception, Dipsea was an “open course” race — it was up to racers to determine their best route to Stinson Beach, with the consensus route along the Dipsea Trail serving as a suggestion rather than a mandate. In the 1970s, restrictions started to be begrudgingly added, and now there are essentially three main shortcuts:
“Suicide”: A short scramble down a steep, slippery, dirt-and-gravel hillside that only cuts off about 90 yards of the consensus route
“The Swoop”: A longer descent down a rutted, vegetation-choked hillside that eliminates about a quarter-mile and one of the most beautiful parts of the trail; but who has time for beauty on race day?
“The Panoramic Shortcuts”, a series of narrow singletracks that have runners jumping on and off of Highway 1 as it switches back up away from the beach towards the end of the race
This isn’t to say that this is the extent of the short-cutting going on, it’s just that most of the rest of the shortcuts are closely-guarded secrets. If a shortcut has a significant impact on the race results — like one did in 1983, when Ron Rahmer had a strong finish after pioneering a novel route between Mill Valley and Steep Ravine — the new routes are typically quickly regulated out of existence.
Registration
I saved this for last, because it’s a pain. Intentionally. The race itself is limited to 1500 athletes, and the organizers are not shy about wanting to preserve the “local” feel of this historic race. There are a few ways to get in:
If you ran the race the previous year and did well enough, you are invited to run the next year
If you have a convincing enough sob story and/or make a large enough donation to the Dipsea Foundation (an organization that both maintains the trail and also provides scholarships for local students), you can buy your way in. On the website, they say “YES, we do take bribes!”
Or you can apply by mail for one of the remaining spots after the invited runners and bribers
If you’re in the last group, the race is on once Dipsea posts the year’s application to their website. They take applicants into the race on a first-come, first-served basis, as determined by when the applications arrive in their post office box at the Mill Valley post office. For a long time local runners have hand-delivered applications to mailing centers to try to earn their spot – first at the Mill Valley Post Office, later to the local USPS sorting center, where I found myself on a lunch break on Application Day in 2017 handing in my first Dipsea registration.
My 2020 plan
The Dipsea always comes at something of an odd time in my race calendar, but it remains one of my A-races every year. I’m a triathlete by nature, but trail running has always been one of my endurance-sport loves; in February I was getting out on dirt and hills at least once a week to prepare. The plan was to stick to trails at least twice a month, and try to get at least 600 feet in each of those runs. As I got closer to the race, I was going to spend more time on hill sprints and mixing in some stair climbs. I also wanted to get out to Stinson Beach and spend some time working the Steep Ravine descent - knowing exactly how to place my foot each step of the way down that section of trail is one of my long-term goals. It’s a hefty drive for me, though (90-120 minutes each way, depending on traffic), so I hadn’t actually planned it out completely up to that point. I had vague plans for a number of specific workouts for Dipsea:
Two-minute hill sprints at >10% grade, repeated 5-8x
Tempo runs at 5-8% gradient
(New for me this year!) Downhill sprints at a -10% grade; I get the impression this is somewhat dangerous, but becoming better at downhilling seems to be the key that will unlock significant improvements in my time — I don’t think I’m particularly slow descending, but I know there’s still a lot of room for improvement there.
This was the general shape of the plan that I came up with during my offseason; these workouts would have to find their way into a schedule that was also trying to prep me for a number of important multisport races along the way. I work with a coach, and we spent more than a little time discussing these goals and how to try to prioritize and achieve all of them. I'd be curious to hear if anyone has good recs for steep trail workouts. On March 13th, the race organization announced that they’d be canceling the race (for the first time since 1945.) It was the first of my major races for the summer to be canceled, but it wasn’t the last. Right now, I’m pinning my hopes on the rescheduled Duathlon National Championships to still take place in October, but otherwise I’m just looking forward to next year.
What’s next
I’m waiting to see what happens with Du Nats in October, and once the results there are definitive (either the race gets canceled, or I actually participate in it) I’m going to look again at what I want to do in February through June of next year for this race. My entry for this year is supposed to carry over to next year, so I hope to toe the line at the Mill Valley Depot on June 13, 2021.
Credits
A couple of notes as I wrap this all up:
Big thanks to u/Krazyfranco for cutting a thousand words out of my original version of this, and making it infinitely more readable!
Local legend Barry Spitz has written the definitive guide to the history of the race in a book cleverly titled "Dipsea". It's an awesome book. Most of what I wrote here was double-checked either on the race website or in Barry's book.
Some context: When I sample scents, I do it over several weeks (or longer as life dictates). I keep a running Word document for writing (in addition to my master scent list in Excel, where my finished reviews go to live with more rating details for ordering and tracking). I do bottle sniffs shortly after receipt, then skin tests over the next few days. I will typically go back and do second impressions and re-work my reviews in Word as I get to know the scents more and see how my impression / skin chem / mood / etc. changed from initial writing. There is a time lapse that isn’t always captured in the words of each review. I’m not a big “rester” of fragrance, but they tend to get it anyway just by proxy of my methodology. I’ve also not run into a lot of changes in smell from receipt through multiple samplings (until recently with Death & Floral!). I realized in reading some general complaints about reviews that I haven’t made my techniques explicit, so I hope this is helpful! My Likes: Categories: Dark, dirty, incense-y, witchy, smoky, musky… gourmand, foodie… specific outdoorsy, atmospherics, unusual… occasionally fruity, fresh Notes: Patchouli, nag champa, incense, Egyptian musk, red musk, tobacco, pipe smoke, palo santo, sage, chocolate, vanilla, marshmallow, ink, chai, myrrh, clove, cardamom, bourbon, sandalwood, golden amber, pumpkin, blackberry, blueberry, pineapple, orchid, sweetgrass Favorite scents (right now): Hexennacht’s Black Mass, Dark Shadows, Le Chat Noir, Prehnite, Wuthering Heights, Blackberry Lavender Lemonade, Middle Earth, and Spirit Temple, Death & Floral’s Jo March, Witch Baby Soap’s Temple, Whisper Sisters Trinactka, La Llorona, and Sweets for the Sweet, Cocoa Pink’s Pumpkin Kiss
On to the reviews!
Ajevie Round Seven: 14 Scents Amanita – Black loamy soil, mushroom caps, and dirty dark patchouli In the bottle, I get a healthy dose of dank patchouli and I’m pleasantly surprised. Full disclosure: I’ve avoided this one because of the mushroom caps. I was sure it would weirdly dominate and ruin the blend since there aren’t many notes. I was wrong. I quite like this opening. I’m just sitting here sniffing myself in utter disbelief. It’s reinventing my idea of what a “dirty” patchouli can be. Taken quite literally, this is patchouli rolled in clean dirt. There’s no muskiness. There’s no resin. It’s fresh-dirty patchouli, and it’s wonderful. Man, I’m questioning my own judgement on fragrance notes and descriptions. I should have tried this one ages ago. I could see this being used for fabulous layering adventures with something like Baltic Amber or The Wicker Man. I would probably even wear it alone if I were doing something outdoorsy like going on a hike. Remarkable… the dry down reminds me of what I didn’t like with Mephistopheles: the mushroom comes on strong (so I was sorta right after all). I still like this better than M though. The patchouli is putting up a valiant fight against the shroom bully, which I appreciate. I get whiffs of patch-shroom for hours off my wrist and I didn’t even use that much, so that’s impressing me. The patchouli wins the battle in the end too, backed by the lovely dirt again poking its head up. I’m classifying this one as a maybe. I fully expected it to be a nope and maybe even a scrubber. I like that this has nudged the door open a little more to outdoorsy blends for me. It’s always hard for me to find ones in that category that I genuinely like. So that’s cool. Barbe à Papa – Candy floss Mmmm, much refined sugary goodness fills my nostrils as soon as I pop the top. A bit of carnival/ fair nostalgia comes with it. I get the rich “pink” sweetness that I expected, but there’s an unforeseen cuddly warmth to it that I dig. I get a blast of tropical/ citrus fruit too, which has been a running theme with cotton candy from Hex. Idk if my nose is just broken on this or if there’s a complexity to the fruit aspect that just reads EXTRA. It never smells like strawberry, which is supposedly what classic cotton candy is? On my skin, it stays true. The warm presence melds it well to my skin; it’s soft and lovely. That melding gives it just a little bump up from childish. It’s still recognizable cotton candy, but I’m not mad at it. It’s all about the warm, airy sugar and it never goes cloying for me. That’s likely going to be personal preference. I love gourmand. I can go for a good straight foodie sometimes too. This 100% works for those categories. I would personally buy Cloven over this for the addition of spice depth. They’re similar enough. The dry down here is less fruity and more sugar but always staying true to the cotton candy vibe in the bottle. I get good wear out of it, lasting for several hours. I like it, but don’t love it. Ambivalence prevails. If you’re looking for a straight-up cotton candy that sits well on skin and maintains its character all the way through, this is worth a test. Otherwise, I’m recommending Cloven. That one won my heart. Candied Violets – Sugared violet In the bottle, it smells like sugar and baby powder. Not thrilling me. On my skin, I get more of a fresh/ light floral feel, which is better than the dry sniff. It’s still that straightforward white sugar sweetness, which isn’t too bad here all things considered. I don’t get the “chemical” smell I weirdly get from Sucre. The other component is becoming too… something though. Wispy? Powdery? I hear that in describing violets from others, so that could be it. It reminds me a little bit of an overly scented bathroom the longer it sits, like it’s gaining power from my skin. We’re starting to veer into nope territory after about a half hour. I’m just not that into violets, I guess. They’re on the low end of my acceptable floral spectrum. Objectively, it’s not awful though. This strikes me as something I could gift to a relative who’s never worn anything but mainstream. It’s not my cup of tea, but it’s also appreciably approachable and overall pleasant for the type. That sugar component as the “sweet” makes it more interesting than what might otherwise be expected in the pairing. I get more of it towards middle to the end of wear too, which is very welcome. It’s delightful, smooth sugar with a tiny bit of puffy floral background now. I like this part quite a bit. Shame I gotta wait for it. It very much reminds me of the extreme turnaround I had with Sucre. I guess if I must pick one between the two, it’s CV simply because I never got a chemical smell here. So, pass… but I don’t quite hate it? Cetalox – A post-modern synthetic ambergris perfumery component redolent of warm skin/papecedarwood/ozone/pepper with an ambroxan-like background -- and to \some* -- smells like nothing at all* It’s a funny thing going into a perfume with the real possibility that it will smell like nothing. Lucky me, it smells like something! What is that something? That’s hard to say. It’s closest to the “warm skin” suggestion to my nose. There’s a definite heat to it. It vaguely makes me think of a light, dry resin like myrrh or a hollowed-out golden amber. There’s also maybe a suggestion of deep, dark citrus oil (?)… like a concentrated neroli, but fractured into pieces… and only one of those pieces added. How do I put that better… it’s like the smell of the oil from a fresh-cut orange or lemon but without the fruit scent? Viscous and rich. I know it isn’t either of those things, but that’s the closest my brain can find to describe this. It’s not woody or peppery for me. I guess I could accept some ozone aspect, though that’s not what I would call it without the prompt. It’s more… conceptual maybe. It gives me feelings of expansiveness, with heat but not quite the crackle of electricity I associate with ozone. This is a wild ride. It’s far superior to pale ambers for my nose, which is something I often see called “my-skin-but-better” and never is for me. This one works for that purpose beautifully. After it sits for some time, I suddenly get the paper, like old school, high quality parchment. It’s rich and exotic. It’s still got palpable heat and I can’t stop sniffing it. I love this part. There’s a slight sweetness, but not in a foodie way. It’s like sweet skin, teetering on the edge of musky. I get a little twinge of leftover classic perfume near the end, like a smudge on a collar from the night before. It also has tremendous staying power, at least 8 hours later I could still detect it. I could absolutely wear this. It’s subtly sexy, wearable anywhere. I suspect it would be something people would never be able to identify, and I like that mystery. Though I guess there will be people who smell nothing… which is fine too. It’ll be like wearing a fun game no one can see. I’m about that life. I’m also just stoked that I can smell it! Twist my arm and add another to the want pile. I’m leaning hard towards a body oil. It would go with EVERYTHING. Cuir – Leather, suede, chamois accord I feel like I need to give a little backstory to adequately write this review: Leather and I have had a rocky relationship. I unequivocally love leather boots and jackets, both in smell and vibe. I grew up in Colorado and often reveled in the heady scent of tack and saddles. I went into indie perfumes assuming leather would be an obvious yes. I was so wrong. I’ve had many a heartbreak over leather notes over the years and I’m now cautious whenever it’s listed. Hex’s Whip (leather and sweet cream) was one of those, an absolute disaster on me. So, I’m a little gun shy to put this on. I ordered it because I’m nearing the end of the house’s catalog and I decided trying everything from one that agrees with me so much is essential to my scent journey. In the bottle, it’s straightforward leather. It reads distinctly brown to me, which I like. There’s no artificiality that can come with patent varieties and it has a softness to it, like it’s been broken in and loved. As it hits my skin, I am filled with relief and joy. It doesn’t amp or morph. It’s supple and warm, delightfully realistic. I’m embraced by those fond memories of my past. I wonder if the suede note here is the same as in Vice, which also works beautifully on me. The dry down only gets better and better, cuddling into my skin and becoming my very own leather scent. Spectacular. This is a fabulous option as a soli-note. I could get some real mileage out of it discovering what combinations work since it’s an isolated leather that I know for certain does. It shocked the hell out of me. I fully expected this to be a flop. Instead, it’s given me some hope. Awesome. Dropped Lolly – Blood orange, clover, and freshly mown grass First impression is sweet clover with a breath of orange candy. It’s better than I thought it would be. The greenness of the clover is cool and deep and dark, something I could totally hang with. Grass and I don’t usually get along though, so I’m just waiting for it to pounce out of the shadows and ruin my day. It’s the same on my skin, but with a healthy dose of hard candy backing at the opening (I wouldn’t peg it as orange now). Interesting. Then on comes the grass. I knew this was a bad idea! I’m almost itchy just sniffing this. Mown grass is an awful real-life experience for me, so the smell doesn’t bring on any good associations. I guess if you like that smell, you’ll also like this. I’d rather it just be orange and clover personally. Maybe I should seek out some other perfumes with clover specifically to see if it’s a potential solution to my distaste for “green”. I will admit that it’s tempering the grass as the fragrance sits on my skin. It’s much more bearable without that aggressive punch at the start. Still very green-centric, backed by hard candy. Pretty spot-on for the description, I suppose. I’m indifferent now. It’s not terrible. Unfortunately, the grass note starts to give me a headache while I’m trying to get a good impression of the dry down journey. I think the orange/ candy note is holding ground throughout (in its lesser role), but I find myself desperately wishing for the grass to just go away. Nope. Pass. On a side note, I didn’t scrub it. Hours later, I smell something that reminds me of Irish Spring soap on me. That’s it. Graveyard – Freshly overturned dirt, pine boxes, cedarwood I grabbed a sample of this as I near the end of the Hex catalog, but it’s got both cedar and pine, which are not my friends. At first, I’m okay with this. I get some lovely dirt backed with light wood notes. It starts veering into extra pine-y territory as it sits though and I’m out. Sticky pine sap is just gross to my nose and that’s coming in full force. I don’t know why it’s hitting me like that either because this is supposed to be “pine boxes”, which I would think would be lighter and softer. I guess maybe the combination with the cedar is just amping it to hell. I suspected this would be a miss for me and I was correct this time. It’s very pine and cedar forward for the heart of wear. I feel like a beaver. It’s just not my taste. Pine rarely treats me well and the cedar is somehow making it worse. I’m trying to reframe and find something I like, trying to pull that cool dirt I was digging at the beginning back out. Now I feel like I’m walking through the garden center section in a home improvement store being assaulted by wood chips of every variety. It’s just the wrong kind of outdoorsy! Mega nope. It’s a lot more tolerable as it fades, moving more towards soft cedar and whispery, amorphous wood. I’m thankful for the reprieve. Still a no, but the ending is much improved. Heaven Above, Earth Below – White amber, fresh ozonic air, new mown hay, sunwarmed skin, cyclamen, petrichor, moss, damp earth This is the last of the petrichor scents in the catalog for me (Fallen Angel and Elemental being the other two). I immediately like this one most. I feel like I saw more positive reviews of the other two as I was deciding the order to sample them, so that’s amusing. I get a healthy dose of hazy, atmospheric rainwater and fresh warm air both in the bottle and on skin. I can tell there’s a lot of complexity beneath that surface waiting to be revealed. It retains the initial impressions on my skin, slowly revealing the other notes as it sits. I don’t get any “green” here. It’s all warm, golden hay and trickles of dark brown turned soil, like I’m trailing my fingers through it. This reminds me of… Moonstone and Le Chat Noir (!?). Similarly, the gossamer white amber that can go awry/ disappear on my skin is elevated by other notes to something I happily enjoy. Moonstone led it down a shockingly clean jasmine path and LCN added glorious smoky kitten flair. This one is taking it to a pristine farmhouse, gazing out from a screened-in porch just after it’s rained. The ozone and petrichor are reminding me of what I perceived as “snow” in LCN but on the other end of the temperature spectrum. It’s wonderful! I was not prepared for this journey as it’s completely different from the other two I thought were in the same category. It’s also my hands down winner for Hex petrichor. I’m thankful for the lack of overt greenery. I get some mossy vibes occasionally later in the wear, but it’s just a whiff on the breeze sort of situation and I’m not offended by it. This would make a great body oil, though I’m already set on repurchasing LCN and I don’t need both. Still, I’ll count it as a high maybe for the future. It would serve well as a base layer to my tiny-but-growing outdoorsy perfume collection, so it gets a heavy check mark there. The dry down keeps giving me LCN vibes, but warm, so like the summer counterpart: a lazy barn cat wandering in for cuddles. I’m drawn to it. Solid. Noix de Coco – Coconut Yeah, I don’t like coconut. Can confirm. Mega oof. In the bottle, it’s everything I fear. Screaming cheap sunscreen and obnoxious, over-priced frozen drinks. I feel brave putting this on for testing. It’s the same on application. Way too much for me. The times I enjoy coconut are when it’s a small component or has something aggressive to stamp it down… so basically anywhere it could be missing and have the same scent (lol). Examples from Hex that I legitimately like: Nanaimo Bar (luscious, rich foodie notes paired with a gloriously mild, dried version) and Oogie Boogie (super complex, deep base notes, never once smell it). After about 30 minutes of settling, this is much more bearable. It’s starting to smell more like fresh coconut meat, as if I’ve just cracked one open, dumped the milk, and started huffing the inside. It’s not cloying and nauseating any more. With some more time, it develops a soft, almost buttery quality. I might call it a coconut crème now, which is sort of cool as it leans into gourmand. This is a moment of total relief. It’s still not something I would ever seek out, but this is, dare I say, pleasant? It’s a more grown-up coconut. I still don’t want it, but now I can appreciate it. Throughout the rest of the wear, I’m getting random whiffs of the coconut I don’t like from the beginning. It’s still there! I would recommend this to anyone who likes the note though. It’s probably a great version and just difficult for me to give appropriate feedback on. Easy pass. Orange Blossom & Marshmallow – Fluffy white marshmallow, premium orange blossom accord I love good marshmallow notes, both in general and from Hex specifically, so I have high hopes for this. Spoiler: I am not disappointed. For the record, a “good” marshmallow goes in a personal category that I like to call “surprise! It’s not vanilla!”. It’s sweet but not cloying, straightforward but with its own unique complexity, and could therefore fill the role vanillas often take in layering. Hex’s Zozimus originally earned a place in my collection for fitting that bill and with the orange blossom here, it’s a truly banging combo! Orange blossom is a delicate, almost-not-quite floral to my nose usually. I was worried it would get consumed by sugar, but it holds up beautifully, lending a wonderful nuance and freshness to the whole thing. It’s giving me almost a clear liquid vibe at the start, light and crystalline like the essence of homemade simple syrup. As it sits, it develops the puffed marshmallow waft I’m familiar with in Zozimus. I can still smell the orange blossom supporting it though. It’s very “Marshmallow+”. I would probably order this over Z now. They’re quite similar, tame enough to layer with anything, but this one has a welcome added complexity. It trends towards straight marshmallow more and more as it wears. I could practically be wearing Z alone now. It has the same epic longevity on my skin too. Keeps going for hours and hours. So yeah, might as well get this and have the extra oomph at the start. I’ll order this when I run out of Z. Solid blend. Tiger Tail – Vanilla ice cream, orange sherbet, and black licorice swirl This is the most perfect creamsicle smell in the bottle. Like OMG I’m caught off guard by how good it is. I wasn’t even that pumped for this one, but after one whiff I’m suddenly excited. It’s not overly creamy or milky, not blaring fake orange. It’s cool and confident, the perfect balance. The orange sherbet wants to be the star of the show though. Once I get it on my skin, it blooms, and I lose the creamsicle impression I had in the bottle. It reminds me strongly of the smell of rainbow sherbet from Baskin-Robbins, but without the “cold” to go with it. I don’t quite feel the ice cream profile anymore. More like the smell of sherbet flavoring. Still good, but more one-dimensional on skin. After a few minutes of settling, I get a trail of licorice, which is a great counterpoint. Licorice has become something newly appreciated for me after my stellar experiences with Pennywise and Vaniglia Liquirizia. It’s got the same magic going on for me here. I could see this in my summer collection very easily, a slightly darkened addition to the fruity/ candy/ bright I gravitate towards for the heat. I’m getting more of the vanilla ice cream component later in and I am again thrilled by the change. It’s basically what I smelled in the bottle now, with the addition of the licorice depth. This is just wonderful, making me sigh with delight with each sniff. It’s not something I would have picked for a blind buy either. That’s a running theme lately… I’m learning a lot with this batch of samples. I’m repeating myself an awful lot too, but this is another winner in my book. The extreme dry down leans into the vanilla ice cream (as I suspected it would), softly sweet and skin musky. Still great in this stage. Excellent longevity. I’m gonna have a terrible time narrowing down my next foodie craving order! Tomate – Leafy, vine-ripe, garden-fresh tomatoes I legitimately thought this scent was a joke Caroline was playing on us when she teased it on social media (and now I feel slightly bad for my judgement). I just can’t for the life of me comprehend why I would want to smell like a tomato. But here we are. I’m trying it out in the name of catalog completion, so I’ll open my mind to the possibilities. The reviews I’ve seen of this have been nothing but gushy and my skeptical side is suspicious. My first impression is that it’s… weird. I guess if I focus and sniff, I can see how it might smell like a tomato. It’s striking me as dry though, not fresh and juicy. So, like a tomato after it’s been sitting in a grocery store for a couple days maybe. Does that even make sense? There is a faint green, almost peppery streak to it too, which I could attribute to the attached vine. So, I’m in the produce section hanging out. Again, the strangeness of trying to smell like this is making me giggle. Okay, focus. The longer it sits, the more realistic tomato I can read. It’s interesting to me, but in a coldly scientific way. I don’t know what else to say on this one. I feel so far out of my depth. It’s not offensive; It’s not great. I’m unaroused. Next! Torture Chamber – Leather straps, metal chains, wooden paddles, earthen floor Huh. I get a weird blast of something clinical in the bottle on first sniff. It just reminds me of a hospital, all sterile and… slightly bitter? I’m guessing the metal. On application though, something instantly intriguing is revealed. Now I get leather. I get earth. I get wood. The metal isn’t obvious; now it’s playing a mineral counterpoint to the other equal parts. I can’t quite separate these notes, despite my assertion that they’re all present. It’s like brushing against each of them at once when I sniff it, painting a unique picture but from the same palette. It’s flat out exquisite blending. There’s an overarching familiarity here too, a kaleidoscope of wispy memories I can’t pinpoint to any one place or time. It’s an oddly pleasant experience though, not disorienting. Nothing is sharp or aggressive (I’m eternally grateful for this with the leather!). I get the sense that everything in this “room” is aged, worn, smoothed from repeated use, and necessarily of the highest quality for endurance and longevity. It’s a most peculiar atmospheric, evoking feelings and story assumptions without giving much context or direction, and I like it. This is a personal adventure waiting for you. I could also see it being a daily wear because it doesn’t smell like perfume. It smells like a whole feeling. A persona in a bottle. I place it in the same category as Bois. It makes me feel powerful, decisive, confident, alluring… and it gently calls to my gender bending side. I dig it. The dry down becomes slightly more recognizable leather and whispery smooth wood. It’s still super soft, and warmth has been added, melding seamlessly with my skin. I’m charmed. Another surprising triumph! I keep going back to my sample and huffing it. It just brings me joy. I can’t think of a better accolade. All I’m struggling with now is what form it would best be experienced in! Total oddball and I can’t help but love it anyway. YKW? IDEK – Sparkling aldehydes, raspberry essence, apricot, pink peppercorn, meadow grass, papaya, vanilla, spun sugar I find this one immediately confusing. I often find complexity to be a good thing, but here it’s discordant, chaotic, off-putting. There’s pale pink fruits and a clear pepper presence… a bunch of bright green grass… and then there’s a wallop of thick, sweet cotton candy and vanilla on the tail end that is completely out of place. It’s not a positive first impression. On my skin, I get a tiny bit of the “bubbly”, but a lot more of the grass. I don’t think this will work out… Yeah, the longer it sits, the more I feel like I’m wearing some unholy grass confection experiment. Yuck. I kinda hate it. It smells like I licked a stick of champagne rock candy, rolled it in grass clippings, and then stuck it to my arm for some ghastly reason. No, thank you. I feel much the same way I did when I sampled Rose Quartz here. The other reviewers are having a completely different experience of it. I keep waiting for a change/ improvement. It’s so damn grassy and it refuses to let up. Maybe I amp grass. Idk. I know I don’t like grass notes and I also know for a fact this blend isn’t for me! I stuck it out and the end is basically cotton candy, with some lingering depth from the fruit + vanilla. It’s totally acceptable now. Pointless for me because of the beginning still, but it’s worth noting. Glad this ride is over! Oil Roll-on blind buy: Tabac – Fresh tobacco leaves, unlit pipe tobacco, blonde tobacco absolute Zero regrets on going straight for full-size here. It’s everything I could want from a one note tobacco: rich, mature, assertive, cascading nuance while remaining true to the point. I’m impressed. There’s a certain chewy, almost-floral aspect to the smell of loose tobacco that this captures well. It makes me feel sophisticated and quietly commanding. It’s interesting doing a side by side comparison of this with Nicotine, which I’ve always associated largely with tobacco in my head. The vanilla and smoke in that is extra apparent with this one isolated next to it, even the cigar wrap variation staking its claim. For the record, I still adore Nicotine. These two just aren’t as similar as I was fearing when I was considering my Tabac purchase. Not even close. It’s refreshing and intoxicating to have so much depth without any sweetness (and this is coming from a gourmand/ foodie lover through and through!). I would say this isn’t for the faint of heart though because I can smell it noticeably as I sit here writing. You must love a good, strong tobacco. The longevity is good too, lasting a few hours at the same strength and then fading out for a few more. I could still detect it after a full workday (so 9ish hours from application). One of my coworkers said I smelled like Christmas when I came in, which is interesting in two respects – the fact that she could smell me so distinctly from 10 feet away and that tobacco apparently = Christmas in her house. This is a 100% keeper in my book. I’d happily buy more. I’m extra curious about layering possibilities, especially if it stays so potent. Regardless, it’s a viable standalone, if a little simple. I’m all in! Samples: Bomb Pop Lemonade – Cherry, lime, blue raspberry, lemonade I was so pumped when this showed up! It wasn’t in the catalog yet, but I assumed that it was the Bomb Pop fragrance (Cherry, lime, blue raspberry) mixed with the almighty lemonade (confirmed and edited to add description from website). It’s like a summer vacation explosion in the bottle. Sweet and fruity and tart and mouthwatering. It most closely reminds me of my beloved Whizzpopper (lemonade + grape bubblegum) in character, all happy and effervescent. It’s less candy-like with the multiple-fruit profile though. It also manages to feel liquid somehow, fluidly swirling through the notes. This could be a non-alcoholic take on sangria for a kid’s birthday party or some fancy occasion. The bright, cascading layers are super cool. On my skin, I get a healthy pop of the lemonade at first. Hex just does this so well, perfect portions of lemon and sugar. I can almost hear ice cubes clinking. The lime makes its appearance next, giving it a sort of clear soda mixer vibe. I suddenly crave a carbonation aspect! After some more settling, it starts to smell like sour cherry bubblegum... and I kinda love it? I wouldn’t necessarily have signed up for this on purpose, but I am super into it. There’s a bit of nostalgia factor but it doesn’t make me feel childish. I appreciate that! I like this blend way more than I liked Bomb Pop alone. The pairing with that lemonade base is brilliant and I would enthusiastically support it becoming part of the summer seasonal catalog. It’s also different enough from Whizzpopper that I could own both. The dry down trends back towards pure lemonade with little whispers of other fruits, like leftover droplets of snow cone flavoring. I heartily approve. Ipanema 1962 – Pistachio, salted caramel, almond, heliotrope, jasmine, vanilla, salt, caramel, ambergris, sandalwood Warning: This review is about to be LONG. Unfortunately, it’s not a happy ending. This was another stroke of luck in receiving a sample of one of the few Hex scents I haven’t yet tried. I nearly pulled the trigger on a blind buy of this during the ready to ship sale, so I have high hopes going in. My bottle sniff is not what I expected. It’s super intense, nutty, and woody, with an overarching sharpness that I can’t place. Maybe the florals? I give it a couple seconds of deep inhales and it honestly smells like something organic that’s gone just past ripe. It’s bordering on fetid; Not quite rotten but getting questionable. It’s tickling my nose in an annoying way and giving me just the slightest suggestion of an incoming headache. I’m confused because I expected this to be light and carefree, a refined gourmand with flirty, sexy undertones. It’s serious, heavy, and aggressive instead. Now I’m re-reading the notes intensely… I guess my brain picked up on what it wanted to. 1) I thought pistachio would be light and refreshing. I always think of it as a delicate-tasting nut and associate it with the cool creaminess of the ice cream. 2) Salted caramel makes me think of the boardwalk in the heat of summer, again a breezy, relaxed image. 3) I had great luck with Cetalox, which is supposed to mimic ambergris, and wore beautifully on my skin, almost magically melding in, so I assumed that would happen here too. 4) The jasmine in Moonstone blew my mind. 5) Sandalwood is a known good for me. I’m just plain wrong about all of it, at least in this composition. I’m going to reset and reframe before I put it to skin, give it a week or two to relax… Oof. It’s somehow worse on me! Nooooo. If I’m being brutally honest, I don’t know if I’ve ever hated a Hex scent so much. It reminds me of pure acetone right now, harsh and overtly chemical, stinging the back of my throat. After a few minutes of settling, it smells markedly like rubber, like one of those classic pink erasers from grade school. How? Why? I’m trying hard to pick it apart, trying to find what’s gone so horribly wrong. I’ve had problems with salt as a component, so I’m happy to blame that for some of this horror. Maybe it’s heliotrope? The only other scent I know of from the house with that in it is Doll Head and I didn’t really care for that one. It wasn’t horrible though, so idk… oh I bet that’s where the rubber impression is coming from though. That would add up. If I sniff super hard, I get that acetone feel again, like I’m intentionally inhaling nail polish remover. I’m so mad at this! I don’t think I’ve ever had something go so opposite of expectations before. I’m gonna endure so I can get a complete picture through dry down, but it’s hard to find a single point of redemption. After an hour, I’m getting a light sweetness and some almond. Could be caramel, but it’s more skin sweet. It’s warm and “dry”. I’m pegging that as the ambergris finally staking a claim because it very vaguely reminds me of Cetalox. I’m just eternally grateful that the scary part of the ride is over. What remains is inoffensive, but not at all worth the beginning to get to. I get more distinctive caramel/ vanilla at the very end. Finally, some of that sweetness I expected! There’s a nuttiness hanging about that gives it some depth too. It’s not bad. Ultimately though, this blend is a spectacular failure for me. I’m going to go huff all my Hex loves now and try to banish this from memory. Devastating pass. Favorites: Cetalox, Cuir, Heaven Above, Earth Below, Orange Blossom & Marshmallow, Tiger Tail, Torture Chamber, Tabac, Bomb Pop Lemonade
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