RocketOne

Still live here. For the last 40 years. And haven't ever seen a rat. Now mice is a different story. Dont often see them running around but dang it, by the amount of mouse shite in my parked RV over winter, there are a ton of them. They poop EVERYWHERE.

That, plus interest rates jumping and run away inflation have cooled all auto sales.

100% agree. As a former airline employee at a major airline, I've given up flying altogether. I've heard the 'but driving to the airport is more dangerous than flying' argument a zillion times. That's not the point. The point is that flying has become incredibly intrusive and uncomfortable and the fact that in addition to being treated like cattle, having to endure the security theatre, the indignity of being rushed around only to sit and wait, cancels/delays, rude people and or belligerent or mentally disturbed flyers, ug... it's just not fun anymore.

THEN add on the fact that there's a one in a million chance your plane may open up and accidentally cast you into the abyss and I say, just give me a car, my snacks, my music, my full seat, and the ability to stop and use the washroom when I want and Im good to drive across the country. Flying bites.

Am 62 and have a large Meccano set in storage. All metal pieces, no plastic, and no "kits", just booklets of projects you could build from a simple cart to a huge gantry crane. Looks like the 'new' Meccano is basically an assembly kit for a pre-designed model. Pish posh lol.

Fascinated by that toy growing up, I credit it to a large part with having a very good grasp of basic engineering. Levers, pulleys, wheels, axles, gear ratios, bracing, structural integrity, load dynamics... all learned by doing while still in elementary school. There aren't many toys that can teach those skills on a screen, not like building and testing actual equipment.

I will pass it on down to one of my grandkids some day and hope they grow up loving engineering and creating mechanical dreams like I did.

Judging by the number of silly youtubes of bozos driving their Teslas while pretending to sleep, there's definitely a slight extra danger factor for a car that advertises as 'full self driving' but doesn't.

Well, to be fair, the 'high demand' was at a much lower price, and it was also four years ago, when money was flowing much faster and interest rates were rock bottom. Things have tightened up economically a great deal since then. Not that it will matter to most CT buyers as its a halo vehicle - bought far more by "look at me" wealthy car buyers than practical replacement for a Ford F350 diesel tow vehicle.

On the flip side, Im quite impressed that Musk has actually delivered any at all. I fully expected him to say the truck was not buildable, but he has defied the odds and actually built them. Well, 10 of them that we know of anyway. He gets full credit for tenacity and giving his detractors the middle finger, which seems to be his superpower.

I do think the CT will remain controversial - and quite rare. Which will be just fine for most of its tech bro owners. They didnt just want an electric truck or they would have already gone out and bought a Rivian, the Lightning or even a Hummer. They want a shiny stainless steel gadgety CyberTruck. Because that's what tech bros like. To each his own.

Btw, the only feature that actually surprised me was the 240v outlet in the truck bed. Didnt think it would have that. Other features like 4 wheel steering were already available from Mazda and Honda's in the 1980's although they never considered a desirable feature due to the added complexity and cost. And I will say the rear view camera being on the center screen seems like a significant BACKWARD step for safety compared to an actual rear view mirror - taking something that works perfectly well and changing it to something thats actually viewed down and inside the cabin instead of in your line of forward sight seems highly questionable. But thats the CT for ya - make it techy because its cooler even if its less safe.

I like the design. Not quite sure how they figure its going to reduce THAT much space as the video seems to show a single motor WITH controller and inverter being removed and four new motors replacing it, but nothing else. Isn't the ultimate version of this just in-wheel motors, as per Aptera's design? No CV joints, no transmission needed.

I guess it does distribute placement of components but in essence it seems to be a fancier version of a CV joint. Very cool, but I dont see the ground breaking revolution in drive systems.

My personal result was quitting 10 years on reddit and giving up my worthless but substantial karma.

The next result is that I noticed I became less argumentative in real life and tend to keep my opinions to myself more, all in all much appreciated by those I love. And my mental health is better.

The next result is that in going back occasionally to scroll through reddit it seems MUCH more obvious to me that almost every post is designed to incite anger, controversy or judgment. It didnt feel nearly that obvious before.

And there are some clear indications that bots are running rampant. Especially r/AITA (Am I The Asshole) where EVERY post is now almost exactly the same length, written about some situation that is quite stupid or rage inducing that its hard to believe that anyone would bother to respond. But they do. Im guessing they have an intern pounding away at ChatGPT for 10 minutes to create the next 100 AITA's

Lastly, Ive migrated to tildes.com, and much smaller community where I was/am startled to see that people can communicate politely even when they disagree and rage baiting does not exist. Its not nearly as busy as reddit was and the topics are far more limited but the quality is miles above the poor posts that now permeate reddit.

Ah. Its nice to know my worst nightmare has already been in a video game from 25 years ago. I guess I'll just go outside and stare at squirrels for awhile.

I'd go all in on the most nefarious - hacked data could be used to design a virus that only kills people with one particular genetic trait.

I'm pretty sure there's an uber dystopian horror movie in there somewhere.

Even worse though, is that it doesnt even have to be you submitting your data. Several killers have been caught because their family members have submitted DNA and the killers have been tracked down using DNA ancestry. It really sucks, because it only takes one gullible person to really expose your family to data mining.

Was a principal about 15 years ago when the "whole language" approach to learning reading and writing was a fad. Had a Grade 1 teacher who emphatically refused to even try it, she was sticking with teaching phonics come hell or high water.

Most of the younger teachers fell for the fad with limited results. The 'old school' teacher consistently produced a class of kids who were reading proficiently by the end of the year, while other classes struggled with that success rate.

Its overdue. As a principal I used to ban phones in our school. Back before every kid had one.

If they were caught playing on them or if it rang during class, the phone went to the teacher's desk til the end of class. If it happened a second time, it came to my office til the end of the day. And a 3rd violation meant it stayed in my office til the end of the week.

That last one rarely happened as any child who lost access for a whole day nearly went into panic mode without their pacifier for an entire day.

The UK has been watching Canada. Our Prime Minister had people's bank accounts frozen and their vehicles impounded and hundreds charged with mischief for attending a peaceful, albeit 3 week long protest in our capital. There was NO violence, no vandalism, no injuries and certainly no deaths and yet our PM chose to use the strongest law in the land, the one reserved for emergency situations like invasion or nuclear attack, to lock down protesters. Their primary crime was being too loud and too long.

Democracy is dying by a thousand cuts.

Utterly unacceptable!