Almost no one seems to understand anti-semitism and how so many of the people who are pro-israel at the moment are wildly anti-semitic.
The conventional use of them is not primarily about storing energy as such and arbitrage. Itâs about having a big chunk of fast start energy for grid stability and frequency response, especially if a big thermal unit trips. The ones that have been around for a while are crazy expensive in terms of kwh stored.
The shift now is about arbitrage and support for renewables, and the economics need to be completely different.
2 Likes
Elon is aware bro
3 Likes
If only Stalin knew!
ââŚand yes, Elon Musk.â The attacks on this over on X must have been amazing.
Ars Technica: One doesnât usually think of this community as being anti-science. Yet in your book you argue that these futuristic visions arenât based on sound science at all, which seems paradoxical.
Adam Becker: They actually have a great contempt for expertise. They donât see it as necessary because they think that theyâre the smartest people whoâve ever lived, because theyâre the wealthiest people whoâve ever lived. If they were wrong about anything, then why would they have been so financially successful? This is also where you get the obsession with things like prediction markets. They believe that there are super predictors, that expertise is not necessary to understand or predict whatâs going to happen in the world, and that they themselves must be experts because they have enormous amounts of money.
Interview by Jennifer Ouellette, who is married to Sean Carroll, who has a podcast; Becker was a guest.
5 Likes
1 Like
shocked pikachu
Our town had its car show today. We had the historical society Conestoga Wagon out, on the order of 100 kids climbed in For pics. Saw no cyber trucks thankfully.
1 Like
MAGA types have to hate Europe. Like, sincerely, why are they going?
1 Like
They know the rich cool people that wonât let them in their club go there so they try to copy them (sans taking in absolutely anything culturally).
Being a horrible person politically does negatively correlate with education and appreciation for art and culture, but itâs not a 100% thing
I reckon there are plenty of horrible trumpets who you could have a great conversation about the Romans or the Sistine chapel with.
1 Like
Obsession with a very specifically constructed idea of âWestern civilizationâ is a big white supremacist trope. Your average NASCAR MAGAt isnât going to want to go to Europe, but thereâs definitely a type that gets off on marble statues and classical architecture.
4 Likes
Just saw my first cybertruck in the wild in ⌠Old San Juan, PR. Wtf? Streets are crazy narrow.
Hideous vehicle. Oddly beautiful as an object, in its difference from everything else. Total statememt. Iâm kind of in awe. I can understand why a person would want one, if theyâre the kind of person who wants to make the kind of statement that it makes.
1 Like
I kinda agree with this. I know and care less about cars than any other adult male in the US, but it still distresses me that car styles are so featureless and dull and havenât seem to have changed in decades. A few days ago I happened for some random reason to notice a few cars on the street parked next to each other - a BMW, an Audi, a Honda and a Toyota in succession. They all looked the same to me. If you took the little logo emblems off of them I doubt I could tell you which were the âluxuryâ cars. Seems to me if you spend at least twice as much as everybody else there should be a very obvious indicator of your efforts - like a big golden crown on the roof or emerald-encrusted hubcaps or something. I guess if you need that kind of attention it makes sense that you might drive around in a truck that looks like it came from the set on an 80s sci-fi movie.
Iâm the opposite. I see those things and I question WTF was going through peopleâs minds as they designed and approved it every step of the way. Give me an Audi or Mercedes any day of the week.
1 Like
The crossover isnât completely new as it has a basic similarity to an older era where SUVs first tried being small (think GMC s15 Jimmy 1983) and what it basically is is a mashup of a sedan, minivan, and a SUV. But ⌠In the last several years itâs basically taken over car design. Look at how the mustang mach e is basically a crossover and how that bulbous Tesla model Y is a sedan yearning to be a minivan. Or the Porsche Cayenne.
What happened is that at some point everyone got into a Honda CRV and realized itâs the most comfortable and practical shape for a car and most cars started heading that direction.
Anyway, itâs something that has sorta changed somewhat recently imo.
DA TOULOUSE-LAUTREC PLACEMATS!!!
1 Like