AeroHorn

I see more whining about blind Elon defending than actual blind Elon defending. People have pointed out his achievements and have backed them up with numbers. I find his actual personality (makes Mack Brown thick-skinned in comparison) quite repugnant but his ventures and entrepreneurial drive are the top over the last 2 decades. So, this throwaway explains the reason for investing in Tesla? Do the startups Rivian and Lucid also have cult of Elon to explain their market caps? Look at the macro events. Every country big and small have said that they want 100% EV in the next 1-2 decades (top down push). There are no EVs on the lots despite being marked up (bottoms up demand). Mach-E, ID4, Ioniq 5, EV6, Bolt, Leaf, etc. are all from traditional big companies and are all facing battery challenges. Tesla is unquestionably the leader in trying to get battery eco system lined up for their auto and energy businesses by not just depending on deals with battery manufacturers but actually getting to make their own batteries, optimizing to their needs, and getting to the mining sources for raw materials. Over the next 5 years, there are going to be serious issues about raw materials. As Rivian CEO put it, this problem will make the chip shortage look like a "small appetizer". One may reasonably say that Tesla is overvalued, but it has lived up to its "overvalued" price from 3 years back and may make current price reasonable over the next 3 years, or it may not. Every car maker has seen the writing on the wall and committed to make themselves into "Teslas" (100% EV). This is akin to Dell/HP/Lenovo committing to making their laptops like Macbooks. They have succeeded in making their laptops better but Macbooks still lead, now with custom silicon. Can Tesla keep its edge with its own "custom battery" or "custom Autopilot" or "custom supercharger"? Time will tell.

You must be new to Indian attitude to objects of reverence. This is very typical; anything and everything, from people to mounds of clay, are all a fair game for their 15 minutes of divinity.

I could be wrong, but just as the "rich people are driving Priuses because they don't want to pollute" was an epiphany to justify/start Tesla, I think he sees the Facebook/Twitter rut in social sphere as an interesting stage to fundamentally alter it. His other ventures have all been primarily driven from identifying problems in existing markets (SpaceX, Boring Company, NuraLink) rather than a great solution looking for a market, which is the typical R&D thing. At the time and in retrospect, the reasons for his companies make sense, even the Boring Company with its promise of significantly faster drilling to flip what it means to add traffic lanes, but he hasn't been clear on Twitter except for vague notions of free speech. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt that he sees a compelling problem that needs to be addressed, with the solution being still unknown. His personality will drive the creation of the solution. To @Brisketexan 's point, he is not a traditional CEO that one has to worry about fitting into a new business; he is a problem identifier and resource driver to address it. If we he were a traditional business head, none of his businesses would have survived, let alone thrived.

KD is in a zone: shooting, assisting, blocking.

And also the barbequing of the opponent visitor's (was it Colorado?) pet dog story. It was like the horror version of the aggy fanfic "visitor in awe of aggy hospitality".

My usual start word was on the mark today Wordle 294 2/6* 🟨🟨🟩🟩⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

up 3 with less than 5 seconds. Just hold for the foul.

The People's Elbow and his poem about OU

nice word Wordle 281 3/6* ⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨 🟨⬛⬛🟨⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Well, there is lb (mass) and lbf (weight or force), and kg (mass) and kgf (weight or force). 20 kg mass has a weight of 20 kgf (196 N on Earth). Similarly 44 lb mass has a 44 lbf weight (I am not going to find the g value in these funny units).

It is an acronym that is being pronounced as a word. The person to decide how to do it is the one who came up with the acronym. How actual words are pronounced is not relevant.

True, being part of US/EU is lot better than with Russia, but Ukranians are paying a price for it, however we may rationalize it away. That's all the video was leading to, that Ukraine will unfortunately get wrecked. Same unfortunate stuff happened during Arab spring. The people rose up by peacefully protesting and paid the price. It's a choice, and from afar, we are probably not in the best position to say which one is right for them.

This is nice and all, but we are not in a community of nations; we have superpowers, fading powers, regional powers and the rest with each driven by national, not universal interests. Our forays in every corner of the globe should tell you that we don't see "sovereign nations have the right to control their own destiny", we see our interests above others. Didn't Kissinger say, "Oil is much too important a commodity to be left in the hands of the Arabs."? Our support to Ukraine is primarily driven by our interests and secondarily by Ukraine's. Many other invasions and ethnic cleansings have happened without us jumping in to help. Given this reality, Mearscheimer's comments are that Ukraine should have realized that they are being played and should have to played it more diplomatically.

What's that? One Charlie Strong?

What you are saying works for normal mode. I play on the "hard" mode (selectable in settings), where, once a letter is identified as green or yellow, you have to use that letter in all of your subsequent attempts.

my first fail. There are at least 6 possibilities for the first letter. Wordle 270 X/6* 🟨🟨🟨⬛⬛ 🟨🟩🟨🟩⬛ 🟨🟩🟩🟩⬛ ⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩

I am looking forward to an academically focused P5 conference (Pac12?) to go semi-Ivy League and deemphasize football by capping costs such as coaches' salaries and reducing ticket prices. Let SEC become the NIL/bag driven conference. The only way to compete is by paying players through alumni, and this basically makes it a professional league run by shadowy alumni groups. The coaches are like the willing cops/DAs in this alumni-led mafia world. Not a good place for the universities to be in.

I used to buy used cars but my current two cars were bought new because I keep my cars until they fall apart and found that used cars were not as cost-effective. I have a 2014 Sienna XLE that I paid 35k including tax that still runs like new, and a 2021 Honda Clarity PHEV less than a year back for 31K including tax and nets to 22.5K after 1K state and 7.5K federal tax rebates. It is such a good car with ~50 miles of pure EV and about 50mpg afterwards. I (my daughter mostly) drove ~2000 miles between the last two gas fillings since we charge every night and her commute is about 45 miles.

The main thread is moving too fast, so I'll post it here. This talk by a Professor at Univ of Chicago is about 6.5 years old and covers up to Crimea, but his points are quiet prescient. His point seems that we are thinking in 21st century ideas whereas Putin's understanding is based on 20th century rules, and China is a far bigger concern to focus on. He foresees the wrecking of Ukraine.

Wordle 257 2/6* ⬛🟨⬛⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

My ex-manager was an Armenian soldier and spent time in a Russian jail. He said that nobody messed with the Chechens in the jail, even the Russian guards. Tough people who fought to keep their independence for centuries and lost 60% of their population under WW2 Soviet purge.

Exactly, and this is the reason for support in the US. Trump is just a clown act to a real feeling among many, from Buchanan to Bannon, that the Christian/Western civilization is ending with the rise of progressives/atheism/globalism, and any option is fair game to maintain traditional Christian way of life. (Don't think too deeply as to what being a Christian actually means, but only in terms of traditional values.)

another one with multiple options Wordle 243 4/6* ⬛⬛🟩⬛⬛ ⬛⬛🟩⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

more common word Wordle 241 3/6* ⬛🟩🟨⬛⬛ ⬛🟩🟩🟨⬛ 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

this is a tough one Wordle 240 5/6* ⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩⬛⬛⬛⬛ 🟩⬛🟨⬛⬛ 🟩⬛⬛🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩