#and it’s been around for over 40 years elon

[telesilla]

Can you even imagine trusting all your money and securities to fucking X?

[mariacallous]

Less than two years after taking over Twitter, now X, Elon Musk has managed to lose the company access to its third largest market and reportedly more than 40 million users. And despite his bravado online, he seems to have backed himself into a corner.

Brazil’s decision to block X is the culmination of an ongoing conflict between Musk and the country’s Superior Electoral Court (TSE), a special court run by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes that issued takedown orders on content it considers to be a threat to the integrity of its elections. Musk and X refused to comply, allowing accounts that were accused of spreading hate speech and disinformation to remain on the platform, a move that eventually triggered the ban.

Starlink was caught in the crosshairs too: The court froze the assets of Musk’s other company, saying it was part of the same “economic group” as X given its ownership, for possible use to pay off fines owed by X. When the block came into effect Monday, Starlink allowed its customers—more than 250,000 people, according to the company— to circumvent the X ban by using its satellite internet connection. After initial resistance, Starlink backed down and said it would comply. Experts who spoke to WIRED say that increasingly, it seems that Musk has overplayed his hand.

“I think he is realizing Brazilians are not going to take to the streets because X is suspended,” says Nina Santos, a researcher at the Brazilian National Institute of Science & Technology for Digital Democracy. “Brazilian institutions are not going to back off just because Musk is cursing online.”

In response to a request for comment, an X spokesperson directed WIRED to a post from the platform's Global Affairs team. “To our users in Brazil and around the world, X remains committed to protecting your freedom of speech,” the post reads in part.

Meanwhile, Musk has continued to antagonize the court. Last week, he posted a seemingly AI-generated image of Moraes behind bars (which was later deleted), with the accompanying text alleging, “One day, Alexandre, this picture of you in prison will be real,” and another comparing him to the Harry Potter villain Voldemort.

“Ever since April, he has been toying with the image of Moraes, the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, and escalated in a problematic way,” alleges Bruna Santos, a researcher and activist with the civil society coalition Coalizão Direitos na Rede in Brazil. “He was fully aware and he knew what the consequences would be.”

WIRED reported how employees scrambled to avoid a legal crisis when Musk took over Twitter in 2022, just days before Brazil’s presidential runoffs. The company was served a consent decree from the judiciary, warning that if it didn’t keep its promises to keep safeguards around the elections in place, it risked being blocked. At the time, the country’s then president, Jair Bolsonaro, and his supporters allegedly spread disinformation about the security of the country’s elections to cast doubt on the results. Musk had promised a rollback of the company’s existing content moderation policies, and promised a sort of “free speech absolutism” that, in practice, has let hate speech and mis- and disinformation flow freely on the platform.

At the time, the trust and safety staff, the people who kept violative content off of Twitter, were able to persuade Musk to keep the platform’s safeguards on during the elections. But less than a week later, most of them were fired along with almost 50 percent of the company’s staff in the first wave of layoffs.

As part of his effort to make X a free-for-all of free speech, Musk reinstated the accounts of far-right influencers like Allan dos Santos, who fled Brazil in 2020 to avoid being investigated for spreading disinformation. After Bolsonaro lost the election, some of his supporters stormed the Brazilian legislature on January 8, 2023, and since then, the TSE has been investigating the events leading up to the insurrection. Accounts like dos Santos’ were targeted by a TSE investigation launched in April and were the subject of the court’s takedown orders.

Musk has likened Moraes to a dictator, alleging that the court is forcing censorship. (Musk has, however, complied without complaint with blocking orders in places like Turkey and India, where they have been used to censor journalists and opposition.)

And while Ivar Hartmann, an associate professor of law at the Insper Institute of Education and Research in São Paulo, alleges that Moraes has stretched the power of the court to new—and possibly concerning—levels, he claims it is also important to distinguish between a democracy with different rules and a dictatorship.

In 2019, Brazil’s TSE court launched a fake news inquiry, headed up by Moraes. Since then, he has become a controversial figure. Some see him as defending the country’s democracy; others, like Hartmann, worry he may have accrued too much power.

“This is not Venezuela [where international observers widely believe President Nicolás Maduro rigged the country’s July elections],” he says. “Even if you wanted to argue that the type of court orders we've seen regarding social media platforms in Brazil in the past two or three years are shocking, which I would agree with, you don't see [Meta CEO Mark] Zuckerberg going online and openly criticizing the courts and denying compliance with court orders in Brazil.”

Nina Santos says that even if there are valid criticisms of the approach Moraes has taken, Musk should comply with the court order and argue against them in court later. “We can discuss the decisions taken by the Brazilian court, but not whether Musk should comply with the Brazilian court or not.”

Musk’s response to the court order was to then break another Brazilian law. Like many countries, Brazil requires certain international companies appoint an in-country representative that can be contacted by the government and, in some cases, held responsible for a company’s failures to comply with the law. India, Vietnam, Turkey, and Russia all have similar laws.

On August 19, X announced it was closing its office after its in-country representative was threatened with prison time for the company’s noncompliance with the TSE’s orders. In closing the office, X was also suddenly in violation of Brazil’s localization laws. A suspension, at that point, says João Brant, digital policy secretary for Brazil’s Secretariat of Social Communication, was inevitable. “In a situation where a person like Musk was trying to pick and choose which orders he would abide by, it was necessary,” he says.

At this point, Musk has exhausted most avenues of escalation with the judiciary. And though he pulled SpaceX employees out of Brazil, he has already shown signs of wavering, at least when it comes to Starlink. Brant says that it is unlikely that Starlink will face any further consequences so long as it stays within the bounds of Brazilian law.

[mightyflamethrower]

Democrat Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), who is running for late Sen. Diane Feinstein’s U.S. Senate seat, is calling for a $50 minimum wage, defending her position during a debate Monday night.

The moderator asked Lee to defend her call for a $50-an-hour minimum wage during the event, noting that it is “seven times the current national minimum wage of $7.25 an hour.”

When asked how that would be economically sustainable for small businesses, Lee immediately said that she owned and ran a small business for over a decade, creating “hundreds of jobs, benefits, retirement benefits, [and] also health care benefits.”

“I know what worker productivity means, and that means that you have to make sure that your employees are taken care of and have a living wage in the Bay Area,” Lee said. “I believe it was the United Way [that] came out with a report that — very recently — [said] $127,000 for a family of four is just barely enough to get by,” she said, pointing to another survey that identified $104,000 as not being enough for one person, essentially classifying them as low income “because of the affordability crisis.”

She added:

And so, just do the math. Just do the math. Of course, we have national minimum wages that we need to raise to a living wage — you’re talking about $20, $25 — fine, but I have got to be focused on what California needs and what the affordability factor is when we calculate this wage.

Lee ultimately failed to answer the question.SUBSCRIBE

By subscribing, you agree to our terms of use & privacy policy. You will receive email marketing messages from Breitbart News Network to the email you provide. You may unsubscribe at any time.

Fox 40 notes that “a wage of $50 an hour would total $104,000 over the course of a year.”

WATCH:

Her call generated mockery from critics, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who asked, “Who not $500 per hour?”

“Okay, why not $100 then? $1,000? Why not just make the minimum wage a billion dollars an hour? Then we’d all be richer than Elon Musk!” Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk remarked.

“Economic illiteracy like Rep. Lee’s has been around for centuries. Every country that adopts it becomes a dystopian nightmare,” he added as others piled on:

Lee’s call comes as inflation comes roaring back with no immediate signs of relief, as detailed in Breitbart Business Digest.

RELATED — CNN’s Sidner: Hotter-Than-Expected Inflation Report “Another Sign” Economy “Getting Better”

[medfetabdl]

I bought a companion for my Intellivue MP5

This is an Intellivue MP2, this is just the pic from the eBay listing. It’s in pretty rough cosmetic shape but apparently works just fine.

What’s the difference between this and the MP5? Honestly not much, it uses an external power supply, the battery is much smaller, it doesn’t have the built in printer, and it can’t display as many waves, but that’s about it for differences. The thing that sets the Philips monitors apart from all other brands and makes them so desirable for hospitals is the same reason people buy the expensive Apple products: The ecosystem. The Philips monitors are the only monitors on the market that are based off of monitors made over 40 years ago and everything on those monitors from 40 years ago exists on these along with a bunch of other stuff that’s been added. The other thing is their network capabilities. They are the only system on the market where when paired with the proper servers you can upload vitals data to a server and save it for later, you can transfer a patient from one unit to another just a with a few button pushes and then their information moves to the monitor in the unit they are being transferred to without having to bring the monitor from one unit to another. They continue to receive software updates no matter how old they are (provided the hospital has Philips certified IT personnel) they can communicate with tons of accessories. They can track over 200 different vital signs (this does require special equipment) they can communicate with ventilators and infusion pumps. And there’s tons of other things they can do.

I do want to say that I bought these with some extra money I made during the holidays putting up and taking down Christmas lights. I don’t just have money for these things lying around.

I’d like to give anyone who wants to buy one of these monitors some buying advice

1. Stay away from the MP2 and X2 their external power supplies almost never come with them for a good price, if you want one with the battery and power supply it will cost $500 at the minimum

2. To save some money on cables it’s good to know that HP and Agilent Viridia line of patient monitors use the same pulse oximeter and ECG cables which can save you some significant money on cablee

3. Unfortunately they are significantly harder to get your hands on outside the US. Most of the EBay listing for them are in the US and the sellers will only sell to people within the US. That’s not their fault the US government prohibits the export of a lot of technology. High end medical equipment, high end computer components, IR (thermal) cameras that shoot at over 5 FPS, and lots of other things are all extremely locked down in terms of exporting outside the US because they don’t want it to fall into the hands of China. In fact the FDA supposedly controls the sale of medical equipment in the US but I don’t really think they care about used medical equipment because I have absolutely no medical connections. I do live in the technology capital of the world so that might have something to do with it. On a side note when I say Silicon Valley is the technology capital of the world I’m not joking. Google, Apple, Facebook, Nvidia, Intel, Tesla, Ebay, Zoom, Hewlett-Packard, and many more of the world’s largest tech companies are headquartered here. It does make it a bit easier for me to get my hands on bleeding edge tech or tech that’s harder for most people to get. I have friends who work for Tesla who’ve met Elon, I’ve seen Steve Wozniak in a restaurant, and I know tons of engineers who’ve worked for these companies.

Another thing worthy of note on who I am: At 19 I’m an extremely bright engineer and have an extremely vast amount of knowledge in tons of areas of technology and study. But I’m also mentally unstable I have autism, ADHD, severe anxiety, and Bipolar disorder. I get sprits of depression and can’t seem to stick with anything. I went to university for a year for electrical engineering and dropped out. I dropped out for 2 reasons. I hated all the extra classes that I have no interest in. And I noticed I was a freshman yet I had similar knowledge to that of seniors graduating that year.

[azuremallone]

I'll never watch a DeNiro movie again.

DeNiro doesn't get a cent from me. Zero. Nada. His insanity and political bent is unhinged. The rantings of yet another old man with dementia. This, coming from a man who just pumped out a baby with a 63 year old woman. Let's just consider that a moment.

Tiffany Chen was 62 at the time she got knocked up. But wait, how the fuck does that work? That's ten years after the average age that most women begin menopause (which is 51 in the US). She must have been on insane amounts of hormone therapy. Let alone the risks involved, which expand greatly after 40 for women.

I'll admit that their mixed Italian-Chinese baby is adorable. That kid is innocent and not part of this at all.

And so this is the guy who is equivocating Trump to Hitler, Mussolini, and making wild on television interviews where he rants about how dangerous and evil the former President is. He goes insofar on his latest rant to say that if Trump becomes President, everything will go to shit.

NEWSFLASH: Trump was already President, you senile old fart.

... all of that happened or will happen under a Trump Presidency. However, it didn't. It DID happen under BIDEN'S PRESIDENCY! Biden isn't even running the puppet show in his own head, let alone the Office of the President. It's everyone around him that's manipulating the country into violence, chaos, and extreme inflation with job losses, illegal immigration, infiltration by potential foreign military and terrorists through the southern borders, massively expensive groceries that have impoverished the needy and rampant homelessness across the country. No, I'm sorry Mr. DeNiro, you're a fucking fruitcake lunatic who has no sense of reality considering that your youngest child will be under 20 when you keel over from decrepitude.

Furthermore, the hard-left believes January 6th was some kind of coup. Furthest from, considering that the shadowy trials and way it was swept under the rug went off. No shots fired. No storming of the White House. In fact, the only shot fired was by a Federal employee to kill an unarmed woman after they had unlocked the doors and let people in. January 6th was a protest that got out of hand, sure, but to call it anything but is ignorant of the fact that across the nation there were no sympathetic uprisings or attempts to take seats of power, which is the fundamental definition of the lie thrown about it by the Leftists.

Meanwhile, the Biden Presidency has just witnessed all the years of hard-left ultra-liberal education go to shit because of the Terrorists that took over college campuses to espouse hatred and the genocide of all Jews, calling for their schools and the country to destroy Israel or be destroyed. All of the literature found in the encampments after they were broken up support the destruction of America and the promotion of Terrorist activities.

They were not peaceful protesters. They were breeding a ground to establish Terrorist cells on college campuses with the goal of causing mayhem, murder, and generally maligned behavior to say the least. This also in the light that there's been a 6,000% increase in the number of Chinese nationals coming across the Mexican border.

Anytime anyone anti-Trump speaks:

Anytime I speak with anyone anti-Trump:

[usearki]

I posted 36,568 times in 2022

That's 4,545 more posts than 2021!

63 posts created (0%)

36,505 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@user-300

@kawaii-pigeon

@anais-ninja-bitch

@booksandcatslover

@peppermintquartz

I tagged 14,827 of my posts in 2022

#ygo - 3,076 posts

#lol - 597 posts

#dracula daily - 549 posts

#taskmaster - 398 posts

#long post - 341 posts

#seto kaiba - 319 posts

#fuck elon musk - 244 posts

#violetshipping - 233 posts

#puppyshipping - 233 posts

#blaze - 209 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#i've been letting it fill slowly since they raised it and i'm currently hovering around 500 in the queue with the rate set to 40 posts a day

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

My son sent me this, after he almost had a brain aneurysm seeing it at 5.30am. (He woke me up going WHAT THE FUCK!)

I don’t know why tumblr won’t accept video timestamps, but it’s like the second item in (Which is just as well because this video is over 2 hours long) so...

UWU-GI-OH!

( @impet0n )

9 notes - Posted March 31, 2022

#4

13 notes - Posted October 11, 2022

#3

Yay for being stuck in Carlisle cos the trains are up the creek due to a signal failure. Joy.

14 notes - Posted August 16, 2022

#2

My username:

This is why I’m called Usearki. Just thought I’d make it my sticky post cos it still amuses me years later.

32 notes - Posted January 13, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

HE’S GOING!!!!

From the BBC:

Boris Johnson will resign as Conservative leader today - he will continue as Prime Minister until the autumn.

A Conservative leadership race will take place this summer and a new Prime Minister will be in place in time for the Tory party conference in October.

Not quick enough - he needs to fuck off now!

33 notes - Posted July 7, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[shao-hujiaqi]

SHAO Founder Hu Jiaqi Calls for Millions of Members to Support Musk

On the 29th of this month, an open letter signed by billionaire Elon Musk and over 1,000 scientists expressed concerns over the development of artificial intelligence. In the open letter, they called on all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4, to prevent AI from posing a threat to human safety.

They believe that AI labs are developing and deploying increasingly powerful digital minds, and this competition is gradually getting out of control. No one, including their creators, can understand, predict, or reliably control them. The uncontrolled development of artificial intelligence may pose a serious threat to humanity. Their appeal has received support from over 1,000 scientists worldwide.

The actions of Musk and the thousand scientists are in line with SHAO’s philosophy. Therefore, this open letter quickly received support from SHAO’s founder Hu Jiaqi. In a statement, he called on millions of SHAO members and Hu Jiaqi’s fans across 254 countries and regions around the world, to support the actions of Musk and scientists like Joshua Bengio, and express solidarity with this open letter.

As someone who has been paying close attention to technology and human fate for a long time, Hu Jiaqi has been calling for an end to the irrational development of science and technology since 1979, and has been doing so for more than 40 years. He believes that the irrational development of science and technology will bring extreme harm and inevitably lead to the extinction of humanity in the near future.

In order to prevent the extreme harm caused by such irrational development, Hu Jiaqi founded Save Human Action Organization (SHAO), which is dedicated to promoting a balance between technological development and human well-being. SHAO is a non-governmental international organization with millions of members and fans, dedicated to preventing the irrational development of science and technology in order to avoid the extreme harm and even threats to human survival it may bring. As the founder of SHAO, Hu Jiaqi has been calling on people to recognize the risks posed by irrational technological development and proposing reasonable preventive measures.

In this increasingly technology-dependent era, the development of AI technology is becoming faster and faster, but the risks that come with it are also becoming greater. If action is not taken in a timely manner, humanity will face catastrophic consequences.

Hu Jiaqi believes that in the face of rapid technological and scientific development, we must consider the potential risks that come with it, rather than just pursuing the convenience and progress it brings. In front of the crisis of human extinction, all considerations and concerns are not superfluous.

[yourreddancer]

from Darren Cook FB comment:

The google search “did Biden drop out?” surged on Election Day. The problem was NOT the message or the messenger, Harris & Walz were phenomenal and I’m still not entirely sure if it wasn’t fraudulent somehow with Musk and his billions. Trump had been saying for weeks “we don’t need your vote, we have enough votes” and he had a little secret with Mike Johnson who trump said is going to be there a long time. He knew he was going to win somehow. 

Then at the end of the race he just appealed to the raunchiest fans by performing a sex act on a microphone and talking about Arnold Palmers junk. He was making a mockery of the contrast between him and her flawless campaign? Anyway that’s just a theory. It is our reality now. 

He is a white supremacist. Russia is an all white society and america is about to become more white. There will be no limit on the cost to deport the 11m illegal immigrants, estimated at $88B per year. Wonder if that will cause inflation? This man cannot take the presidency with absolute immunity for official acts, which would be anything he chooses. He will do whatever he pleases. I don’t know why there isn’t a 5 o’clock alarm. But it doesn’t matter. Vance is 40 years old and completely controlled by Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, and David Sacks who are products of South African apartheid (white supremacists as well)

This isn't a coincidence. Now they’ve got the presidency with total immunity and a Supreme Court with 6 of his justices.

A large swathe of young people do not consume legacy media and have no idea what’s happening in the world. They listen to and watch misogynistic bro casts where they lame everything that is wrong in their lives on transgenders and illegals. Where they promote ”Trad wives” who stick to their gender roles and the women stay home barefoot and obey their husbands. I just hope when they make the lives of transgender people a living hell that if they decide they can’t take it anymore, I hope they make a spectacle of their suicides and do it in groups in front of the White House. Perhaps it will wake some people up. 

Society is disintegrating. We can’t let this happen in Canada. Read project 2025. It’s a horror show. Trumps got free rein. He’s immune. Male white supremacy is taking over. The handsmaid tale is coming true. Either that or I’m losing my mind. Society has become so fragmented and we each go into our own silos and we haven’t been paying attention to how these young men have been radicalized by the algorithms of Elon Musk and Peter Thiel. The border wall is getting built now. Even if congress doesn’t grant him the money, he’ll use an executive order. Unconstitutional? It’s an official act. He’s immune.

I’m starting to think Australian Rupert Murdoch, who has been radicalizing people for 30 years, Musk, Putin and Trump are all working together to recreate white supremacist authoritarian oligarchies like in Russia where a few dozen straight white men control every and all the wealth while the poor suffer. 

They will probably default on all US debt and obligations, and switch to cryptocurrency for the great “reset”. Everything will be worthless and the billionaires will buy up everything with their crypto. Russia has said since the 50’s that they would destroy America from within. They have succeeded in getting the presidency with immunity. After the insurrection he committed crimes he knew he would be charged for and challenged them and got rewarded with immunity, just in time for his second term. Was covid actually released by China to make this all happen cause China was promised Taiwan? Am I a conspiracy theorist or am I finally seeing clearly? We’re fucked. These billionaires around the world are collectively worth trillions and they are taking full control of society. I feel like it’s an episode of Black Mirror. He’s going to have Elon’s robots protecting him, AI will not be controlled legislatively, neither will social media or the algorithms.

[duhragonball]

UAWC Update: 20,070

All right, I'm 40% of the way to my goal for the month. I don't have a lot to add to that, so I'll take this time to mention that I left Twitter last week.

I didn't have a very big Twitter footprint, so I don't think it matter much, but if anyone cares, I got more active on the thing in 2019, after Tumblr instituted the porn ban and everyone thought the site would go out of business or something. For years, my profile just read "I sure hope Tumblr doesn't self-destruct", because I really never understood what to do with Twitter and I was only using it in case people couldn't find me through Tumblr.

And I did tweet stuff over that five year period. Nothing particularly interesting, I think, but I guess I got something out of it. Then Elon Musk bought the thing, and I decided to stick around and watch it decay. I had to turn off DM's because I kept getting messages from spambots, likes became private, except sometimes they weren't? I'm not sure? The Trending tags section seemed to malfunction a lot. Gradually, everything you'd go to the site to do got a little shittier.

Eventually I got fed up with using it on mobile, so I deleted the app from my phone. On Firefox, I can actually block all the shitty ads, and that made the experience much easier to deal with, and also I couldn't use Twitter unless I was at home, which probably helped my mental health a lot.

Then the Brazil fiasco happened, when Elon tried to play hardball with the Brazillian government. I forget all the details, but the short version is that for a while it became illegal for Brazillian citizens to access Twitter, because Elon wouldn't implement the content moderation required by their laws. Using a VPN to get around this would incur a steep fine. So a lot of Brazillians made the jump to Bluesky.

I was on a trip when the Terms of Service thing changed, so when I got home I logged in for the first time in a while and there was this stupid message telling me I couldn't use the site until I agreed to the TOS. And the TOS said that anything I wrote or any images I posted would be used for training AI, and that was the last straw for me. I got a Bluesky account late last year, but I hadn't used it much because there was so little activity. But when the Brazil thing happened, there was a big influx of users, and I'm not sure it ever stopped. So by the end of October I was checking both sites, and a lot of the people I followed were making the jump, and it seemed like I might as well cut the cord on Twitter. The AI thing just gave me a good reason to go through with it.

From what I hear, there's another mass exodus going on now. I know Elon implemented some change to the block feature where the people you block can still read your tweets, and that really pissed people off, and the U.S. Election seems to have been a catalyst. I heard Taylor Swift fans are leaving the site in droves, but that could be for all sorts of reasons, really.

I'm a little curious what the current state of Twitter is right now, but that's exactly why I deleted my account. Even when I could log in, I couldn't really tell what was going on, so this way I save myself the hassle.

If you're still using Twitter, my advice is to just quit cold turkey. Delete your account, or if you're worried about people using your handle after you're gone, I guess you can delete all your tweets and go private. I don't know. Me, I'd rather make a clean break. Bluesky is shaping up nicely, and if you want to find me there, the handle is the same. But there's nothing left for you on Twitter, trust me.

[noticiassincensura]

New milestone for Elon Musk: Starlink’s satellite internet reaches 4 million subscribers

A person with a Starlink antenna. SpaceX has celebrated this important milestone on social media, indicating that their service is now “in over 100 countries, territories, and many other markets.”

Elon Musk and his aerospace company, SpaceX, have achieved yet another milestone, though this time no rockets were involved. The star of this significant achievement is Starlink, the company’s satellite internet service, available in Spain and recently incorporated by United Airlines into its flights. This technology has now reached 4 million subscribers.

Gwynne Shotwell, Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX, mentioned on Tuesday, September 24, during a hearing before the Texas House of Representatives Appropriations Committee (USA), that she expected Starlink satellite internet to reach a new customer milestone this week, calling it “very exciting.” Just two days later, on Thursday, the aerospace company confirmed via Starlink’s profile on X (Twitter) that they had reached 4 million customers.

“Starlink is connecting more than 4 million people with high-speed internet in over 100 countries, territories, and many other markets. Thank you to all our customers around the world!” the company celebrated on the social network. This is a significant milestone, especially considering the company has gained 1 million new subscribers since the end of May alone.

Starlink has seen rapid growth since it began offering services in its beta phase in October 2020. By December 2022, the company reached 1 million subscribers. The second million was achieved in September 2023, and 3 million subscribers were reached in May 2024. Now, the fourth million has been achieved in just under four months.

It’s worth noting that the current Starlink constellation includes nearly 6,000 satellites orbiting the Earth at low altitudes, and the service is available in almost 100 countries, catering to both individual users and large companies, airlines, and cruise lines. Additionally, the service is on track to generate $6.6 billion in revenue this year, a significant increase compared to approximately $1.4 billion two years ago, according to consulting and research firm Quilty Space.

With Starlink, SpaceX has created a constellation of internet satellites capable of providing low-latency internet connections anywhere in the world. The network connects to users through antennas and exchanges high-frequency information with ground stations. In Spain, the service has a one-time cost of €249, which includes an installation package with an antenna and a WiFi router, while the subscription costs €40 per month

[nityarawal]

9/18/2024

Grok The Numbers

(Numbers Station)

Morning Songs

Eclipse Was Soft

Like A Dandelion Weed

Soft

Sparkly

It Came Over Me

The Eclipse

Camping In My Car

On A Mountain Top

Like A Treehouse

Warm By Candlelight

40's Cold Nights

The Eclipse

Of The Blood Red Moon

My Phone Was Charged

What Did It Reveal

The Inner Consciousness

Of My Physiology

Took Precedence

Transcendence

Heat Over Came Me

Dandelion Fluffs

Pushed The

Trumpleberry Toxins

Out Of My Tufts

Elon Won't Stop Shooting

Rockets

Is It The Dyke Clicques

He Lost His Rocket

Emoji

And Just Says "Yeah,"

On Podcasts

He Loves His Followers

On X

So He Comments

"Yeah,"

And "Whoa,"

"Wow,"

He Loves His Followers

On X

So He Comments

"Wow,"

44 Billion Communion

With The Masses

Or Do You Think

It's The Dyke Clicque

Moderating

At T.I.T.T.S Again

On Foul Play

For The Trumpers

They're Sold Out

To Airforce

They Threw A Knife

Down In My

Driveway

And Beckoned Me

With Violent

Invitations

Bullying

If You Want To Be

A Rockstar

Or President

You Need

A Defense Team

Taylor's Marched

Out In Leotards

With Old Swifty Mom

Arranged Superbowl

Dollies

What We're We Ever

Jealous Of

These Celebrities

Who Lost Their Right

To Tea

They're Just Juggling

Bean Counters

For The Old Man's

Team

We're So Bored

Of The Bimbos

Perverted Conservators

Physicists Want

Better

We're So Bored

Of Plastic T.I.T.T.S

And Now You Give

Us

Seventy Million

Transgenders

Military Made

Presents

A Colassal

Mistake

Military Lied

When They Stole

Your Kids

As An Alibi

Military Lied

When They Cut

His Junk

Castrated Your

Kid For Court

And Plied Your

Baby Mammas

With Addoral

Military Lied

With 40% Rapes

So Much More

It's Closer To 90%

With Wars

Check The Data Intake

Fakes

And We Witnessed

The Waste

Military Lied

Gaza Had Forty Thousand

Dead In April

Do We Just Triple

DA Numbers

Or Quadruple

Military Lied

Kamala Wants A Real

Mom

She Hemmorhaged

Our Money

And Our Kids

Willie's Too

Kamala Wants

A Deal

On Genocide

She Always Does

Amateur Law

Degree 101

Kamala Wants

A Deal

Mrs. Emhoff

Wants Your Junk

With The Dr. Biden Nanny

That Groomed Their

Son

You Gonna Stand

Up For America

Or Lay Down With

Israel

Kamala Wants Your

Junk

Trumpleberry Took

Your Homes

Hoping For Games

Celebrity Singers

To Trump His Campaign

While He Checks Out

By Force

He Been Raped

By Transvestites

Cyberbeast Looters

Loomering

The Magicians

Remember

We Been Raped

By Second Gentleman

And Friends

And We Won't Take

That Moldy

Grandpa Asunder

We Been Raped

Violated At Large

I Didn't Want

Mark Milton's

Dirty Hands On Me

Byron Katie

Mediators

Or Mark Ritchie

"Daughtery"

Or Any Of Your Mark's

Terrorists

And Certainly Not

12 Dykes Drooling

Shedding All Over Me

And My Blood Red

Moon

I Didn't Want

Christopher Stapleton

To Defend Me

From His Foul Colleagues

He Failed Time And

Time Again

Since Jay Curatolo And Olesya

Adam's

Russian PD Mail Order Brides

A Pathetic Doppleganger

Public Defender

Who Most Certainly

Mollested His Kids

With Boss Mathew Roberts

I Didn't Want

Eight Years

Of Grooming

For Muskies

While He Fluttered

With Talulalah

On A Castration

Damages

From English

Monarchy

Old Moldy Fettishes

Gone With The

Queen

I Didn't Want

Jaima

To Steal My Kids

At Space-X

I Didn't Want

Molly To Laugh

And Headhunt

My Colleagues

With Adam

I Didn't Want

Hollie To Do A

Cowgirl Dance

For Marijuana

For Her Marine

Chris DearHeart

Farm

While My Kids

We're Raped

On Political

Circumstance

I Don't Want To

Sponsor

Adam Steck's

Trannys

His Australian

Gigolos

For 'Thunder From

Down Under'

Nor His European

Hasbeens

Sexslaves

Matchmaking Scams

We Don't Want

Your Invitro Moms

Bought

We Wish You Hadn't

Violated Her

It's Not Cheap

To Give Gay Attys

Kids

And No One Wants

A Gay Man

In The Bathroom

No One Wants A Gay

Man In Puberty

Around Kids

No One Wants

Gay Man For

President

Kidnapping

Our Kids

In Transgender

Crimes

No One Wanted

To Be Drafted

For Kamala's

Slave

Or Alibi

Maya And Meena

Are Done

Ella Retired

And Went To Bat

For Gaza

Brat

Fundraising

From Seventy Million

Detransitioners

You'll Have To

Answer To That

#4BillionMothersStrong

#Nitya4Eternity

One Billion Dead

1/8th Of Global Population

You're At Our

Mercy

One Million Americans

Gone

Or Is It True

Alot Of People

Crying On YouTube

Brazil Suing

To Hide

What Did They Do

Grok The Numbers

Give Us The Casualties

Grok The Numbers

Data Knows

Missing Persons

Jane Does'

Grok The Numbers

John Does'

And Settle Today

Twelve Trillion

Annually

Pissed Away By Boys'

Club

Yes We're Tallying

Everything

Best Be

Flowing The

Children

Other Way

Back To Moms

Home

Mercy

Peace & Love Eternal,

Nitya Nella Davigo Azam Moezzi Huntley Rawal

Encinitasbeachhome.com

@elonmuskfanslounge @elonmuskdaily @elonmuskparody @teslamotorsblog @cybertruck @grokwrites-blog

#Grok #NumbersStation #Nitya4Eternity #4BillionMothersStrong

[uselessopinionsaroundfood]

L'Etabli - Lyon 9-12-24

I look around and see people in their 80s, and I remember I used to think they were almost a different species, but now I find myself thinking that time in my life is coming too quickly. Perhaps these meals I’m having are a way for me to escape and appreciate the time I have here, to do something that feels meaningful to me vs busy work. Age is scary, less so because there is an end to age, but because it makes you question where you are. Have you lived a life worth living? Age constantly knocks and knocks and knocks on that question’s door. What do you need to accomplish in order to say yes, you can stop knocking, I’m satisfied. It’s not money; I’ve never seen Elon Musk look settled and happy. So what is it? If you think I’m going to have the answer for you, I'm sorry to disappoint, but it’s not in this review. But if you do figure it out, please tell the world. 

But these meals I’ve been having are an escape from the question and perhaps also a small answer to it. Life is an experience, not a to-do list or something to get through. So, I like to think that every experience I can have makes my life a little more full and a little more satisfying in the hopes that I can ask for the knocking to be a little quieter. I don’t know if it ever goes away. I think it’s why grandparents move closer to grandkids; they realize that the real thing that matters to them is having a full heart, but I don’t have grandkids, so I’m settling for a full stomach. 

Tonight, I had an early night from work, so I had two choices: try and watch Mission Impossible 3 in French in my hotel room or venture into old town Lyon. I'm writing this, so obviously I chose Lyon.  I looked online and googled “Best places to eat in Lyon.” The more I try this, the less excited I am as I find reviews either don't share my tastes or they just promote the restaurants with marketing budgets. But it's either trusting the internet or hanging out with Le Tom Cruise on TV. I read a few brief reviews and found a restaurant called L'Etiable, known for using only ingredients found within 40 miles of the restaurant. Fresh local ingredients mean the first step for this restaurant is a great one. Maybe not first step on the moon exciting, but in a world of cold storage a place with fresh local produce and meat is worth visiting. 

Like many restaurants in Lyon, it's on a small cobblestone street, and without Google Maps, I'd still be looking for it. But isn't that the charm of old Europe? My reservation was at 7:45, so I finally wasn't the first one in the restaurant! I was the third. But baby steps. They immediately took my jacket (a leather jacket; they don't consider themselves formal dining), hung it in the closet, and directed me to my table. The menu was simple, order one of the four dishes a La carte or have them all plus the three desserts (including cheese).  I went for them all. I'm finding I really enjoy not making decisions. Every day of my life is “choose this or that.” My entire job is making decisions that range from the minute of what coffee should I have to decisions that determine if people have a job.” So sitting down at a restaurant where they say "We've got you" has felt really nice. I guess it's tapping into my inner princess and the pea. And for those who know me, inner is really outer. 

But first, before any food, I got to feel like Harry Potter. They brought over a large wooden box and opened it up, showcasing 15 or so knives, each with a different type of wood handle. They told me to choose my knife. No explanation. I looked them over and chose a beautiful dark wood, and the host said, “Nice choice, rosewood."  And just like that, I had my wand. Seemed magical, Rosenblatt... Rosewood. This was as close to being a wizard as I would ever be, and I'm sure if the restaurants knew I was thinking Harry Potter, they would stop having people pick knives. It turns out the chef had traveled the year before opening the restaurant and seen different knives all over the world and wanted to bring that back. Also, apparently, in the very olden days of France, before our country existed, people brought their own knives to dinner. I assume for the meal, but back then, it felt like a revolution could break out at any moment, so who knows. 

They started the meal with a small bite of an oyster with magic on top. I don't really know what it was, as the server’s accent was thick enough that all I caught was "oyster" and "don't eat what's under the oyster." But this little bite set a high bar for the rest of the meal. The oyster wasn't briny and had a perfect tenderness that went with its toppings of “Your guess is as good as mine.” I ate that, ready to start the tasting menu, but out came another small bite, a cube of pork belly on a skewer. This was a little bit of home, a hint of American BBQ, and I wish this had been a full skewer, not just a bite. But now I was ready for my tasting menu, but then came another small bite. A small bite-size fritter of a traditional French ingredient done in an Italian arancini style, and a fun fact: it’s scalding hot! But again, it was flavorful once the heat blisters went away. And now I was ready for my tasting menu... and it came after one more small bite.  The next bite was a sliver of duck breast with a light cream and corn sauce.  The flavor was outstanding, but the duck was on the rarer side, so by the time I had chewed it enough to be able to swallow it, all the sauce flavor had long vanished like a piece of juicy fruit gum.  Finished with this bite, was it finally time for the meal to start?  I hope so; I was already getting full.  

Tangent alert. When I go to weddings I learned something, always eat as many of the passed mini appetizers as you can.  They are ALWAYS better than the full sit-down dinner. At my wedding we did all small bites, and people raved about the food. We got a divorce, so small bites don't do much for a marriage, but at least the wedding was delicious. What I've learned is that this truism of "small bites are always better" may not just be for weddings. And I will say I may have tastebud adhd, I'm constantly trying everyone else's food when out to dinner, but variety is the spice of life, and my theory played out at this restaurant.  

The first course was lettuce wrapped around shiso and apparently pear. It looked more like a mushu pork dish from Dim Sum Inside the lettuce, and it was surprisingly bitter. I think this was a play on a salad but it was a warm bitter dish where one bite was enough. I ate more hoping I was missing something but I never found what was missing. This course was about three to four bites in total. 

But what saved this course was the bread. They brought me an entire loaf of country French bread and black sesame butter on a cutting board with a bread knife. Finally, the butter I wanted had arrived. I cut into it a crispy exterior and fluffy interior, just as you imagine French bread to be. And this restaurant is smart. They make you cut your own bread. Why is that smart? Because it's so awkward slicing through a loaf of bread at your small table that you only do it once or twice and therefore don't fill up on bread. Is that a backhanded insult to the restaurant? 

The next dish was “chicken, lobster and wasabi.”  This had a beautiful presentation and almost looked like the dish was wearing a hat you’d see at the Kentucky Derby or a British Royal wedding made of gelee.  The chicken was in small pieces, resembling more chicken of the sea tuna than chicken, and the lobster was apparently the sauce/base of the dish.  This had all the makings of a good dish but failed, thanks to the chicken tasting like it had just come out of a tuna can.  The wasabi was a nice touch as it added some much-needed flavor but didn’t have the heat I’m used to with wasabi, and I really liked that surprise. But overall, this felt like a presentation over flavor.  At this point, I was starting to worry a bit that we were at a French wedding, and I should have loaded up on the small bites, but more courses to come, so I was keeping an open mind.  

The fish course came next; it was a delicate piece of monkfish resembling a piece of a cut sushi roll stuffed with fennel and seaweed.  Next to it was what I believe was a cooked, yet still firm, cucumber with, I was told, two eggs on top.  Two eggs from what could only have been the smallest animal that lays eggs.  One bite of this dish… was all I needed. I was starting to sweat as I was going to have to explain to the server why I wasn’t eating the entirety of these small bites. My biggest issue was that the fish tasted briny and, for lack of a better description, you all know what I mean: fishy.  I hoped the sauce would overpower that flavor, but the sauce was so acidic, almost vinegary, that it felt harsh against the fish.  My problem became that the fish needed the sauce, but the sauce needed to be a different sauce.  The servers were very attentive and finally came over after seeing that I might be done with this dish and commented that I must not have liked it.  I quickly said I was just getting full and there were more courses coming, which I think they believed.  But they are French, so they either believed me, didn’t really care, or were spitting in my next dish.  I couldn’t tell.  

The next dish was pigeon.   I actually shooed one away just the other day.  However, I assume, and boy, do I hope they didn't grab this one from the park. But for those haters out there, the next time one shits on your arm, remember it could have been on your plate.  It tastes very similar to duck. I would assume that these pigeons aren't fed the usual American pigeon diet of leftover McDonald's fries that missed the trash can on Venice Beach, so that affects their flavor and makes them more like the poultry we are used to eating. There were three types of corn, including some kernels in a lightly fried pastry shell, a corn puree, and... some popcorn. Where's my Marvel movie and Coca-Cola? There is also a pigeon baked fritter that has a mousse flavor or minced meat pie feel.  Overall, the dish was very rich and heavy. These small bites are all you need.   When you dine alone, you take your time, and you often find your eyes wandering around the restaurant, taking in other diners, the art, the décor, and, in this case, the head chef staring right at you.  He was staring so hard at me I almost looked behind me, except I knew there was a wall behind me.  He raised an eyebrow, saying with his facial gestures, “Do you like my food?”  I pointed to the pigeon, which was fine but not great, and gave a big thumbs up.  He returned that with a big smile and nod and then went about his business.  But I realized I was going to need to finish this dish, so a few more bites of pigeon breast and minced pigeon pie, please.  

Next up… cheese!  Goat cheese with honey and fig, and the surprising part… was the sorbet. Cheese and sorbet? How dare they? How happy I am they did. It was a savory sorbet that cut through the heaviness of the goat cheese. You eat the cheese with the sweet fig and fig jam and then cleanse the palate with a cold, refreshing sorbet, and then you're ready for the next bite of cheese.  This dish brought back memories of my early diner bites, which were so tasty.  

After cheese, it was time for dessert.  They should have gone straight from the small bites to the desserts; their pastry chef is clearly their shining star.  Turns out this first dish was a surprise dessert.  A dessert before my two planned desserts. I don't actually know what this first one was because I was told it was the second one. Then came the second one, which apparently was the sweet potato feta and speculoos, also amazing and beautiful.  And a rich speculoos filling dipped in chocolate that could have been a dish unto itself.   The flavors, textures, and temperatures of each of these desserts were so varied that every bite felt new as if it were an entirely different dessert.  It was a big win.  But now I've had enough sugar to feel like I'm at Disneyland. But worth it! These desserts were the highlight of the meal. I never would have thought sweet potato and speculoos would be a beautiful partnership.  Both were sweet, but not overpoweringly sweet, where you feel your teeth rotting.  

This was followed by the peach, almond, and smoked vanilla.  The thing with these desserts was I can’t really tell you what is what.  Everything has been transformed into something else, so you just eat it and hopes it’s good.  These were fantastic. Another sweet dessert of cold, warm, crunchy and soft all blended together, with some purple peaches mixed in so I felt like it was heath…ier for me.  

Finally, the dinner is wrapped up. I don’t say finally because I didn’t enjoy myself; I say finally because I have no more space.  It’s 1:45 pm the next day, and I’m still not hungry.  I asked for the check, but before that, I had to have more dessert, of course.  Four small bites (yay!) are chocolate, raspberry, peach, and cream treats that are as beautiful as they are delicious.  But at this point, I don’t have to lie to the server; I really am so full I can’t take more than a bite of each.  

I quickly head to the restroom where the toilet is shaped like the letter P.  Or B.  I guess depending on if you’re standing or sitting.  And there is a dog station above the toilet that it looking off into the distance as if to say, no matter how well-endowed you are, he’s not impressed.  Anyway, back to my table with a little less self-confidence.  

I finish this dinner off with a 10 year old green chartreuse, because I’ve never seen that back home.  It was rich, smooth, almost caramelly, but with an aggressively strong alcohol smell, and it was a perfect digestif to this large meal. 

I paid and went on my way, having taken a break from the knocking at the door.  It’s waiting for me outside as if it had been checked alongside my coat when I arrived earlier that evening.  But I have a beautiful memory of a dining experience I will most likely never have again, and for that, my life is a little richer, and my stomach is a lot fuller. 

[mariacallous]

Following a mass shooting at a bowling alley and restaurant in Lewiston, Maine, yesterday evening that left at least 18 people dead, state police urgently warned residents to “stay inside your home with the doors locked” as they mounted a manhunt for the suspect.

Misinformation about the suspect flooded social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and TikTok moments after the shooting. On X, verified accounts pushed out bogus claims that the threat had been neutralized and a suspect had been arrested. Police have since identified 40-year-old Robert Card as a “person of interest” in the shooting. While Card remains at large as of 10 am ET this morning, posts featured videos of the supposed arrest that have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

A prolific verified X account with almost 300,000 followers was among the first to post the claim that the suspect had been arrested, and while the account subsequently posted an update stating that the suspect was still at large, the original post—which has been seen over 170,000 times—remains active.

The top result for the search term “Robert Card arrested” on X was a post featuring the same video that has been viewed over 1.9 million times, even though it had a Community Note attached making it clear the claims in the post were false.

The same video circulating on X was also being shared on TikTok, where one post had been viewed 80,000 times by this morning.

Another of the main false narratives circulating in the hours after Card was identified was that he had been arrested in 2016 for possessing and disseminating sexually explicit materials. This was also inaccurate: It refers to a different person named Robert Card, who is also 40 years old and from Maine.

Some accounts labeled Card “a far-left lunatic” based on the unverified claim that he voted for former US president Barack Obama. Others wildly tried to link the incident to the current crisis in the Middle East, claiming, without evidence, that Card “was a Hamas supporter.”

While misinformation about the mass shooting proliferated across social media, the problem was acute on X, where owner Elon Musk has incentivized people to post engaging and viral content even if it’s not accurate. As a result, users rushed to be the first to post updates about the shooting despite being blatantly false.

“It’s as if everyone thinks disinformation is a problem, but not for them personally—only for other people,” Caroline Orr, a behavioral scientist and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Maryland who tracks disinformation online, wrote on X, adding: “When 20+ people are murdered in a mass shooting, and the reaction of most people on this website is: ‘How can I use this to push a political agenda?’ or ‘How can I use this to attack XYZ person?’ … that reflects something far more disturbing.”

X, Meta, and TikTok did not immediately respond to WIRED’s request for comment.

At 3 am ET this morning, Lewiston Police Department confirmed on its Facebook page that Card, a certified firearms instructor and a member of the US Army from Bowdoin, Maine, was still on the run. The department said Card “should be considered armed and dangerous” and that members of the public should not approach him.

Law enforcement believes the shooter killed at least 16 people and 13 more at around 7 pm yesterday at the Sparetime Recreation bowling alley and the nearby Schemengees Bar and Grille. Officials said the death toll is expected to rise, with one local city councilor telling CNN that it could be as high as 22.

The incident was the nation’s worst mass shooting this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Card, whose own X profile was filled with conspiracy theories about trans mass shooters and pro-MAGA content, had been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks earlier this year after he reported “hearing voices and threats to shoot up the National Guard Base in Saco, Maine,” according to a police bulletin circulated by law enforcement and reported by AP.

Notably, Card also liked two posts, one from Donald Trump Jr. and another by far-right personality Dinesh D'Souza, about their opposition to gun control.

The rapid unchecked spread of misinformation last night and into this morning mirrored the response earlier this month when Hamas militants attacked Israel on October 7. In the hours and days following the attack and the bombing of Gaza by the Israeli government, X was overrun by disinformation shared by verified users, who rehashed old footage, video game content, and photoshopped images to push partisan narratives.

Updated at 10:55 am ET, October 26, 2023, to include the latest casualty and wounded figures provided by Maine governor Janet Mills during a press conference this morning.

[gate4043]

Content Warning: Death in childbirth, transphobia

Gone.

"I'm sorry I left you with such a burden. Your life is a miracle, and if you're reading this, it was one I never got to witness. I have so much I want to say to you. So much I want you to know. The thought alone for me is painful. I'm sorry." Olive sat on the bench on the front porch, and their uncle brought them out a cup of tea. A wagtail flew down, poked at the grass growing through the cracks in the bricks, and then flew off again as Olive sipped. "So... yeah," Olive said, "I want to know about my mother."

It was the 40's. I was in Sweden, I was on my way to see a doctor who said he could help me. The laws had only recently been changed, and I'd been on a waiting list for far too long. I had some trouble getting around; I always wanted to go, but I never learned the language. I mean, I tried learning Japanese once, and god damn was the Kanji difficult. But yeah, I went in and they told me they could do it, and I cried, I cried for days I was so happy. Sorry this isn't very informative. I'd hoped to tell you in person, but I was always a rambler anyway so I hope this catches some of that energy.

"We didn't hang out a lot. She was a bit of a shut-in, you know, she was basically teetotal, she never drank, she never smoked, she didn't even like coffee or tea that much. I don't know if there's much to tell." Olive nodded, "She wrote me about that. She said she didn't like the thought of things that altered her mental state. That she needed a bit of control." Olive's uncle laughed, "God, she was too much like mum. That's not a good thing, by the way... Don't talk to your grandma." "She said that too. Though she said it's because she'd be a jerk." "Yeah, that's mum for you."

It was all over the news, the entire planet was outraged. The religious crowd really had it out for me, we'd get protests every day. Calling me a sinner, calling me a crime against god. I wasn't religious. Don't be religious. I mean, you can be if you want, I'm not going to stop you, I support whatever decisions you make, but throughout my life I've seen no reason to believe in a higher power. Well, except maybe you, though, and I'm gonna be totally clear with you here, if you turn out to be some arsehole who goes around spreading hate all the time, I will disown you from the grave. Be better than that. Learn all the angles, don't rush in, figure people out. Then, when you're good and ready, don't make accusations, don't make assumptions, make deductions and keep them to yourself until they matter. Let them change with new information. Don't... I'm rambling again aren't I. The church wanted me dead. Mum wanted me... well, she wanted you dead, she stayed bitter. Don't talk to mum.

Olive put their tea down by their foot. "Do you think she'd like me?" Their uncle sighed. "I think she'd find you annoying. Every time I visit you, you do something that would make her cringe. You love dogs, you love the zoo, you hate cats. You put tomato sauce on everything, you hug people after you paint, you play shrill, loud instruments in the morning, and you like sophisticated dramas she'd never watch." Olive bowed their head, "Oh..." "She'd love you. She'd fucking adore you. She would make you her entire world and then some. I think she proved that when she had you. Trans women don't just give birth, you know. It still rarely happens today."

I think Elon Musk tweeted about me. He was some shithead, you don't have to worry about him -- don't look him up he's gross -- but he was like some famous billionaire transphobic piece of crap. I got so many phone calls from mum being like "you're going to die, I don't want my baby to die, I don't want you to do this"... She deadnamed me in all of them. I'd been on estrogen twenty odd years. I'd known who I was even longer. I don't even know how she got my number. But, yeah. I want you to be happy. I don't want that for you. I can't guarantee it, but I want you in a place where you can grow into yourself. It's gonna take a long time for the world to change. If you end up any flavour of trans, things are gonna be especially difficult. I don't want to put you in danger but I have just by existing. I'm really sorry for that.

Olive gathered the mugs and headed back inside with their uncle. "I feel like every time I read what she wrote, I don't really learn much about her," They said, "Thanks. This has been kind of helpful." Their uncle laughed, "I barely knew anything. We just bonded over cartoons and video games. She'd be proud of you though." "What, because I was non-binary?" "No, idiot, she'd be proud of you for living your life." Olive smiled.

[nickgerlich]

Just Charge It

One of the longest-running consumer behavior topics I have had through the years is the discussion centering on EVs. I’ve been tossing this one around for more than a decade, and I bet I’ll be tossing it around for many more years to come.

But to cut to the chase, some are now saying that we have passed critical mass and EVs are about to see a huge surge in adoption. It’s only a matter of time until ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles die a slow, painful death. [If the link to the WaPo article puts you up against a paywall because you have already reached your monthly limit, simply copy the URL and paste into a different browser. You’re welcome.]

Now if you are scratching your head wondering how this could be true, consider this: Last year EV sales accounted for 5% of all cars sold in 4Q, and earlier this year in 1Q, hit 7%. I’ll let that sink in for a moment.

Critics of EVs will still scoff, post laughing-face emojis in a fit of smartassery, and ask where the crowd is. And never mind the red herrings they love to serve, bringing up distractions such as child labor at lithium mines, how much energy or whatever it takes to make an EV, and the expected life of an EV battery. No one ever said they are perfect, just better. And that meme of someone having to pay $30,000 for a new battery is only partially true, because they were trying to do so for a model that is no longer made and replacements are scarce.

To hear the analysts is to assume there must be a mad rush, though. I just haven’t seen the teeming masses lining up to buy a Tesla, Rivian, Leaf, Bolt, or otherwise. Yet.

Ah, but that’s where I and the others may be wrong, because the analysts think we have just passed the tipping point, that magical moment popularized by author Malcolm Gladwell in 2000. Essentially, there is an inflection point in consumer activity that ushers in a period of rapid growth, and once that sets in, it’s Katy bar the door.

Those same analysts point to EV adoption in Norway. Now before you scream, “But that’s like comparing an apple to a zucchini,” I realize that the two nations are very different, from population to geographical size and population densities.

Alas, a decade ago, EVs accounted for 5% of sales in Norway, and today are at 80%. That’s a pretty steep adoption curve. In fact, it is this “S-“curve that analysts expect to see play out in the US.

To be fair, though, a recent study indicates that 46% of Americans still prefer an ICE vehicle. But here are the fragmented stats that, when seen in their entirety, suggest the shift is on. Nineteen-percent want an EV, while 22% want a traditional hybrid, and 13% prefer a plug-in hybrid. That means 54% want some or all-electric in their cars.

While the tide is changing, we must still deal with the biggest real and perceived problems of EVs: cost, range, and charging. But these are evolving as well, with Elon Musk initiating some steep discounts of late on Teslas. President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, perhaps one of the worst-named initiatives ever, actually has generous investment credits for wind and solar installations. The UAW strike also works to Musk’s favor, because if the demanded 40% wage increase over four years is accepted, Musk will have a huge advantage. Musk’s factories are non-union, and he recruits and retains employees with stock options, not high wages.

If you have noticed a surge in construction of wind and solar farms the last year or so, now you know why. And these help address the matter of infrastructure, another thing that critics like to point out. Otherwise, charging stations are popping up everywhere. Oh, and a general agreement to have one charging standard across EV makes and models sounds a lot like what Apple just signed onto with its latest phone.

As for me, I love the idea of driving an EV. It’s just that right now, I cannot get what I want, and that is to be able to drive 800 miles a day without significant layovers. I want 400-mile range, and charging in 15 minutes or less. My driving style often includes 12-hour days as it is, and I sure don’t want to waste a couple hours or more each day twiddling my thumbs at a charging station.

But once they remedy these issues, I’m good with this.

As for those buying EVs today as well as in recent years, perhaps their blood flows green, or they see them as stylish options. In some cases, they may actually lead to cost savings compared to $4 gas, but the up-front expense of the EV can still be daunting. I see that all changing in the years ahead, though, as production really ramps up, and charging becomes as little a concern as is finding gasoline today.

Remember—or learn for the first time now—that when autos started trickling into the public realm a little more than a century ago, gas stations were also few and far between. Folks had to lash gas-filled “Jerry” cans to their vehicles, effectively making a rolling bomb with all that fuel unprotected. But the market took care of that, and gas stations became commonplace. The same will happen for charging.

I am excited about this, although I do have some hesitations about how fast the steep part of the curve will come. I know it will come, though, but maybe not quite as fast as some would think. Still, it is fun to be living during yet another revolution. There’s never a dull moment anymore. It’s electrifying.

Dr “Waiting But Willing” Gerlich

Audio Blog

[themirthofanation]

You think? Man children are the only men we have it seems. That late night Scottish comic had a good explanation of how we got to an Idiocracy run by man children. He said in the 1960s marketers realized they could make more money by ignoring older folks and indoctrinating the young. The idea of customer lifetime value supports this. At this same time the TV networks had wised up to know that you don’t provide a quality show then sign the advertisers who suit that audience. It goes the other way. You create programs around the audience the advertisers want to attract. So quietly over time TV was more and more written to appeal to young people. With it came a new found acceptance if not outright celebration for ignorance, inexperience, stupidity, immediate gratification, self-centered folly, and immaturity. Since TV was the most powerful force shaping the collective US conscious, norms, and values it all got dumbed down. Youth was glorified and elders cast by the commercial wayside. Sixty years later I see a 38 year old woman shopping in Walmart in her pajamas with her husband trailing next to her in his baggy shorts and Lego t-shirt fixated on his phone screen as he tries to capture a Pokémon Go figure hiding out in the garden center. It’s like my Mom who has been listening to same AM radio channel for 50 years. It started out as real news and balanced commentary but overtime kept the same call sign but it’s programming started to drift to the right until today it is a bilge pump of vile misinformation and hate. But she still thinks it’s the balanced news station she began listening to as a young woman. Our national sensibility has done the same with commerce-driven youth worship. It’s certainly no country for old men. Just old man children.