Tag: Death Before EV

More Cracks In The EV Delusion

Yep, same ole same ole. Sorry, but I am only human and have never pretended to be otherwise. I like to gloat from time to time.

Two “luxury” makes, Cadillac and Mercedes-Benz, are backtracking from prior “commitments” to electric vehicles. At an event in Detroit in late April, Cadillac’s global VP–John Roth–said, “EVs and ICE [internal combustion engine], we want to be clear, will coexist for a number of years. We want to make sure that we have that luxury of choice in the marketplace, and both will have an opportunity to meet the customer needs as we look forward.” That doesn’t sound like Cadillac will be “all-electric” by 2030 as they have previously stated.

Two days ago at the company’s annual shareholder meeting, Mercedes-Benz CEO Ola Källenius said that Mercedes plans to sell combustion-powered vehicles as long as its customers want them. “We see sales of ICE-powered and hybrid vehicles continuing well into the next decade.” Again, so much for “all-electric” by 2030. In October of last year, Mercedes warned that the “brutal” EV market would have a seriously negative effect on profit margins.

I will write for the nth time that those in power who are pushing for an all battery-electric fleet of passenger vehicles do not really have the “environment” in mind. I imagine that some of them are dreaming of the day when no one owns their own car and government can track where everyone goes in their autonomous EVs for hire. One political party wants to de-fang the oil companies because they donate to candidates of the other party. (Again, why aren’t companies like Exxon-Mobil developing the capacity to produce synthetic, non-petroleum based fuels for use in ICEs?!)

Sorry, but it is a delusion to think that all of us HAVE to drive battery-electric vehicles. We will waste BILLIONS of dollars building infrastructure for vehicles that are not as good for the environment as their proponents claim. Again, the movement is simply a quest for control and punishment by smug, self-righteous and arrogant ideologues.

#DeathBeforeEV

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Have to custom order a T-shirt or two…here is an interesting picture:

 

 

Yes, that is my F-Type (oh, the wheels and tires I ordered in mid-February have finally arrived, but are not on the car yet) parked next to a 2021 Toyota Supra with all of 3,000 miles that I test-drove yesterday. In one word, WOW!

Although access and egress are difficult because the upper door sills (is that the right word?) are so low, leading me to bang my head on the driver side sill on the way in (and I’m not tall), the rest of the drive was fantastic. How about being able to break the rear wheels loose on a turn at about 50% throttle input?

The Supra was comfortable and has all of the modern bells and whistles. Perhaps it’s the light weight, but the car definitely felt to me like the engine has more horsepower and torque than the official rating. On one very lightly traveled street the car accelerated from 25 MPH to 65 in the blink of an eye.

Sadly, at almost $60,000 all in I seriously doubt I can justify buying this car right now. However, I am now more certain than ever that the new Supra will be the car I buy as a companion to the F-Type.

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I have often written that I am convinced life is a Monte Carlo simulation and only one event has a 100% probability. That leads to my strong belief that if the same person could live their life 50 times, it would not turn out the same way every time.

Well, the late genius Stephen Jay Gould felt the same way. “When we realize that the actual outcome did not have to be, that any alteration in any step along the way would have unleashed a cascade down a different channel, we grasp the causal power of individual events. We can argue, lament, or exult over each detail–because each holds the power of transformation. Contingency is the affirmation of control by immediate events over destiny, the kingdom lost for want of a horseshoe nail.”

I am not comparing myself to Gould, but it is heartening that someone with his intellect also believed that choices matter and that the same life or course of events has many different potential outcomes.

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Here are some links to pieces on the Internet:

 

This is a link to a Newsweek story about a Pew Research Center poll on American views of China. Not surprisingly, most of us (thankfully) do not trust the Chinese government.

This is a link to another Newsweek piece “confirming” that mainstream media is biased against Israel written by someone who has worked for NPR and CNN. Again, large institutions–including government–can be infiltrated.

“Two articles on campus unrest and who’s behind it” is from Why Evolution Is True. The second article mentioned is titled, “The People Setting America On Fire.”

I think US public universities should be barred from receiving donations from foreign governments and foreign entities. I don’t know if private universities can be subject to the same ban, but since even private institutions receive government aid in the form of research grants I don’t think many schools are 100% private.

Back to Newsweek, they recently published a piece with this title, “Russia Unable To Sustain Scale of Losses: ISW.” The ISW is the Institute for the Study of War and they concluded, based largely on satellite imagery, that the depletion of Russian military vehicles is unsustainable. One can only hope their conclusion is correct. Slava Ukraini!

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OK, so today’s post was not different in form or substance from most other posts. I am still hoping to change both form and substance, at least in some posts, but this is a work in progress.

Again, I would like to read your thoughts about the blog. I also, once again, ask that you share the blog with friends, that you submit thoughtful comments and that you click on any ad in which you have genuine interest. Thanks.

 

#MoreCracksInTheEVDelusion

#DeathBeforeEV

#ToyotaSupra

#SlavaUkraini!

 

 

 

The New Order

During my admittedly brief hiatus from blogging I missed it enough to want to write today. However, I did not miss it enough to resume publishing 300+ posts a year.

I am fully aware that blogging less regularly will significantly reduce blog views, ad earnings, etc. Unlike too many Americans, though, I can accept anticipated negative consequences from my behavior.

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I guess you’re not really safe anywhere…

My wonderful wife and I live in an affluent neighborhood (every home has a seven-figure price) in an affluent zip code (median annual household income of $150,000). Dissatisfied with our previous choice in supermarkets–I also don’t think our zip code actually has any–and in an effort to save money on groceries, a few months ago we decided to shop at the Walmart two zip codes and about 11 miles away.

In the last three months, this Walmart–like many around the country–has had an incident with a man wielding a knife and someone shooting at the building after getting into an argument with an employee. Saving money is not worth the risk of injury or worse. (After beginning to write this post I learned that three different Walmarts reported shooting incidents on Sunday the 28th, the same day of the shooting at the “local” store.)

I will have to navigate through the maze of new rules by the new pharmacy benefits manager (CANNOT wait to go on Medicare in 13 months; Walmart’s cash price for my two prescription meds is the same or lower than the current insurance price so I don’t use my insurance), but that is also a small price to pay to feel safer. The new order is actually disorder.

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The car shown below is out of the running.

 

 

Don’t know how this fact escaped me until now, but the Cadillac Allante has/had a manually-operated top. All four convertibles I have owned have had a power top. Call me lazy, call me spoiled, but I am not farting around with a manual top, period. Oh, fill your library before you fill your garage.

 

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The rest of this post will just be a link dump with three links to automobile articles…

 

This Why Evolution Is True (WEIT) post is titled, “Civilian participation in ‘Hamas‘s October 7 massacre'”.

This piece via MSN is about the de-funding of UNRWA by many countries in light of the revelation that many of that agency’s “employees” participated in the October 7 terrorist attack.

A link to a podcast by Jake Novak, formerly of CNBC, titled “Holocaust Remembrance Day Fact: Hitler Created Hamas.”

Speaking of CNBC, I found both of these pieces to be interesting: this one is about having the courage to be disliked (comes naturally to me, I guess) and this one is about the unrealistic expectations for long-run investment returns and why it’s important to be realistic.

From Newsweek comes this article about the founder of an ocean exploratory company claiming he has found the remains of the plane Amelia Earhart flew on her last flight.

Now, to the automobile articles:

This Autocar (a UK website) article from a few years back ranked the 30 most beautiful American cars ever made. I vehemently disagree with only four selections. You’ll have to read the piece to see what cars are at the top of the list.

This story from Hemmings is about Ford, apparently, committing to keeping the V-8 powered Mustang in production for the foreseeable future. Company CEO Jim Farley (yes, he is/was related to the late comedian Chris Farley) is quoted as saying, “If we’re the only one on the planet making a V-8 affordable sports car for everyone in the world, so be it.”

Hagerty recently published this piece about the five cars that lost the most value at the end of 2023. The car that lost the most value (actually, it was tied with another car) is a surprise to me. I think I’ll “make” you read the piece to find out.

 

Oh, I could not resist showing this photo sent by friend and former neighbor MB.

 

 

I also could not resist showing this picture.

 

 

#TheNewOrder

#TheAllanteIsOut

#AbolishUNRWA

#DeathBeforeEV

 

 

 

 

They Won’t Leave Me Alone

After a couple of bad days I had yet another dream filled with anxiety. Are you tired of reading about these dreams? No matter the extent of your fatigue you cannot be a hundredth as tired as I am of having them.

I was attending some sort of professional convention held on the grounds of a university. As the proceedings wound down I attempted to gather my things, of which I seemed to have too many, and make my way back, either home or to the hotel in which I was staying; I don’t remember which.

Darkness had descended as quickly as the rain. I realized I had misplaced my iPhone. I frantically moved about the grounds trying to find my way back. At one point I reached a set of stairs that seemed too steep to climb and with tread too narrow to traverse. It was then I heard a disembodied voice, “Man, those steps are something else.” Another unseen voice replied, “What were they thinking?”

I thought that two (former) colleagues of mine were also in attendance and I hoped to find one of them so they could help me get back. Obviously, I was not successful.

Thankfully, I finally awakened. I cannot describe how real the dream felt including my senses of panic and of frustration.

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This Free Press article is about historian Peter Turchin and his views on social and political turbulence. In 2010, he predicted–using a complex mathematical model–that 2020 would be a year of upheaval.

Turchin says 2024 may very well be a “break point.” Here are some of his specific comments:

 

“I’m very worried about 2024, because you now have two parties that say that they will not accept the win of another party. That rhetoric is growing. What precedes actual violence is violent rhetoric. So 2024 is going to be a really high probability break point.”

 

As I hope regular readers understand, I do not WANT the US to dissolve, but think that is the most likely outcome. Personally, I do not want to live in a country where either the execrable “Squad” or MoronToGo from Georgia are serving in the federal legislature. If I thought it were practical and if my wonderful wife were amenable, moving to another country is something I would consider.

Do you think every other country is as polarized as the US? I offer this chart.

 

 

I wouldn’t want to live in any of the “Less Polarized” countries (uh, people in China are not really free to express their opinions), but Canada and Australia have some appeal. By the way, I believe that perception is reality even if it isn’t. The fact that the American middle class lives better than the vast majority of people in the rest of the world is of no consequence in how US citizens feel about their lives, their relationship to society and to government.

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Reader JS, author of the wonderful photography blog Journeys With Johnbo, has often written of his affinity for hybrids as opposed to battery-electric cars. (More of you should read the comments…) This CNBC article reports that Ford, with its losses on pure EVs in the billions, is catching “hybrid fever.” Ford CEO Jim Farley remarked,

 

“What the customer really likes is when we take a hybrid system that’s more efficient for certain duty cycles and then we add new capabilities because of the batteries…We have been surprised, frankly, at the popularity of hybrid systems for F-150.”

 

Ford’s EV losses are greater than projected and are getting larger, not smaller. FoMoCo explained the losses by saying, “EV adoption is slower than expected.” I don’t think any of the Big Three can come right out and say that they’re changing their EV plans; the zealot lemmings might try to blow up factories. Still, with General Motors’ quiet announcements of $2.3 billion in ICE investments, those companies obviously know that EV adoption is much slower than “the planners” want.

Remember what Brian Sullivan of CNBC tweeted recently. He relayed that a national automobile dealer told him that there is “basically zero demand” for EVs outside of the coasts and well-off university towns. This dealer also said that EV manufacturers are now trying to allocate nearly all inventory to those locations.

LET THE FREE MARKET DECIDE! #DEATHBEFOREEV

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I have dreams, but I live in the real world. This axiom, once prominent in this blog, is likely to manifest itself in a surprising way in the near future.

 

#TheyWon’tLeaveMeAlone

#TheDissolutionOfTheUS

#LetTheFreeMarketDecide!

#DeathBeforeEV

#IHaveDreamsButILiveInTheRealWorld

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Multi-Tasking, Etc.

“Multi-tasking is a myth of the 21st century.” I said this in response to a question during a job interview in 2011, the question being, “How well do you multi-task?” By the way, I was still offered the job and accepted, but resigned after nine miserable months.

Human brains are designed to process serially, not in parallel. The first sentence of this article that reports on just one of many studies that reach the same conclusion is, “Doing more than one task at a time, especially more than one complex task, takes a toll on productivity.” Later in the same article is this, “In the mid-1990s, Robert Rogers, PhD, and Stephen Monsell, D.Phil, found that even when people had to switch completely predictably between two tasks every two or four trials, they were still slower on task-switch than on task-repeat trials.”

Only tangentially related to multi-tasking…have I ever mentioned how much I loathe and despise Martha Stewart? Anyway, my wonderful wife and I watch Roku TV most days so that we can watch episodes of The Great British Baking Show, Antiques Roadshow from PBS and Dr. G: Medical Examiner, although not all of those every day or even most days. (Watching TV more than 2-3 hours a day is detrimental to one’s physical and mental health. That’s not an opinion, either, but a conclusion reached in all studies of TV watching and its effect on health, such as the one referenced here.)

The biggest drawback, by far, to watching Roku is their incessant playing of the exact same commercials–in the exact same order–to advertise their “original” programming. One of the commercials is for Martha Stewart’s channel. At the end of the spot, the execrable Stewart says, “I’m a bit of a multi-tasker.” Sometimes I scream at the screen, “You’re a bit of a convicted felon.”

Anyway, don’t be embarrassed to admit you don’t multi-task well. NO ONE does.

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I will present this link without comment or exposition. Let’s just say that it is someone with real credentials talking about something often in the news and often the subject of pontification; that is, people without credentials pompously commenting.

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Brian Sullivan of CNBC tweeted something very interesting yesterday. A national automobile dealer told him that there is “basically zero demand” for EVs outside of the coasts and well-off university towns. This dealer also said that EV manufacturers are now trying to allocate nearly all inventory to those locations. By the way, this is just another piece of evidence to support my belief that the US is already more than one country, de facto.

Like the title of this post reads, Americans DON’T want to buy EVs. My wonderful wife and I live in a large, affluent suburb of Phoenix. The city in which we live also has an actual Tesla store. Not surprisingly, EVs are a common sight here. HOWEVER, where we live is NOT representative of the United States at large. Oh, don’t get me started on what my “car concierge” has to say about Tesla Model Xs and Lucid cars. His comments based on real-world experience are far from flattering.

(In a related story, Ford has reduced the price of its supposedly popular electric F-150 pickup truck. As Jim Cramer wrote this morning, “The move appears to challenge the automaker’s claims that the F-150 Lightning is in high demand.”)

Electric vehicles still comprise a single-digit percentage of the US market for new vehicles. Even if their share doubles every five years, that means in ten years they will still comprise just a quarter of new vehicle sales. How on earth can new ICE-powered vehicles be banned from sale in 12 years?!

#DeathBeforeEV

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I don’t think it rained at our house yesterday, but we did see lightning and hear thunder between 8:30 and 9 PM. That hadn’t happened in quite some time. Even though we are, technically, a month into monsoon season we have had no rain at the Goose Bumps house since April. Still, rain was close by as the lightning and thunder indicated. Here are two photos from earlier yesterday afternoon.

 

 

At about this time, weather radar indicated heavy rain in the direction of these photos. Yes, there is new home construction not too far from our house. We are not complaining as we don’t really hear it and these will be upper-end homes, word is the least expensive house will be $2.5 million, which is always good for nearby home values.

The forecast precipitation probabilities have been slowly increasing over the last week or 10 days. The WeatherNation forecast currently indicates a decent chance of rain next Sunday and Monday. The National Weather Service forecasts a decent chance of rain on Saturday and Monday with an increasing chance near the end of the month, although analysis suggests that forecasts more than a week out are usually not very accurate.

I have written about my becoming an ardent rain watcher since moving to the desert. That includes monitoring the forecast probability of rain. OCD is a stern taskmaster even if it’s OCD-lite.

 

#Multi-TaskingEtc.

#DeathBeforeEV

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Americans DON’T Want To Buy EVs

Originally, I was going to put today’s entire post title in Caps and spell out Electric Vehicles. Ultimately, I thought that might look cluttered.

This Axios article is titled, “Unsold electric cars are piling up on dealer lots.” The nationwide supply of electric vehicles in stock has grown about 350% this year to 92,000, a 92-day supply. Contrast that to the 54-day supply of internal combustion powered (ICE) vehicles in stock.

Market share for EVs so far this year in the US is 6.5%, which is not much larger than the 6% share they had in 2022. Why do you think governments around the world have to subsidize the purchase of electric vehicles (and, in some places, heavily tax the purchase of ICE-powered ones) and make mandates decreeing that new ICE-powered vehicles cannot be sold after a certain year? THAT’S BECAUSE MOST PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO BUY ELECTRIC VEHICLES!

Yes, the article reports the results of a poll in which about half of those surveyed said they would consider buying an EV. Still, 6.5%. In Economics there is a concept of stated vs. revealed preferences. Government, mainstream media and big businesses have been attempting to brainwash us for so long about the alleged “need” for EVs that many people don’t want to seem out of touch. They actually vote with their dollars, though, and–so far–they’re not voting for EVs.

LET THE FREE MARKET DECIDE! #DEATHBEFOREEV

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Another thing Americans don’t want to seem to do is to watch the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. According to this article, this year’s game had its lowest audience ever with a 3.9 TV rating. Fifty years ago the game drew a 23.8 rating. That rating means that 23.8 percent of all TV sets were tuned to the game and that includes sets that weren’t on. The All-Star Game’s share that year was 45, meaning 45 percent of the sets that were on were watching the game.

The MLB All-Star Game has not had a double-digit TV rating since 2001, when it drew an 11.0. The first round of the 2023 NFL Draft had a 6.3 TV rating, 62 percent higher than the MLB All-Star Game. Remember that the NFL Draft is not a game, just an “event” where player names are called and some of them hug the NFL Commissioner.

Will the new rules (enforced pitch clock, no extreme defensive shifts, etc.) restore interest in major league baseball? Time will tell, I guess.

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This TV Line article is called, “TV Has A Serious Comedy Problem and This Year’s Emmy Nominations Prove It.” Some excerpts from the piece:

 

“Simply put, TV is facing a comedy crisis right now, with an appalling lack of shows that actually make us laugh…So we find ourselves asking (nay, pleading): What happened to good old-fashioned comedies? Even streaming services are finding that their most popular shows are classic sitcoms like Friends and The Office. Why aren’t they trying to replicate that success? There’s something undeniably comforting about tuning into a half-hour show and watching a bunch of people we like who do something new each week, with lots of jokes along the way. The Big Bang Theory, Cheers, Parks and Recreation, The Golden Girls…These are the shows we come back to when we need to feel good and unwind, and we’re always going to want something to fill that need. It doesn’t have to be three cameras and a live studio audience, but it needs to make us laugh, dammit.”

 

I would argue that three cameras and a live studio audience bring an irreplaceable dimension to TV situation comedies, but the point is still made. Some critics contend that woke and political correctness have made studios reluctant to produce content that could be interpreted as offensive or racist. In fact, this is written in the TV Line article, “Are they afraid of offending anyone by venturing into the modern-day minefield of social media?”

I have been saying (and writing) for years that the traditional TV sitcom is dead. I guess I’m not alone.

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I can’t really provide a good “Before And After” contrast because, frankly, I was embarrassed to show the Maserati interior before the refresh. Nevertheless, here are some “After” photos.

 

 

For probably less than a tenth of what a full re-upholster would have cost the interior now looks orders of magnitude better than before. I still have to buy rear tires and get a four-wheel alignment, but–hopefully–after that the upgrades/repairs can cease and I will just have to get regular maintenance. What is that I hear in my head about the best-laid plans of mice and men?

 

#AmericansDON’TWantToBuyEVs

#DeathBeforeEV

#MaseratiInteriorRefresh

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Wobbly Wednesday

“Schmuck, get some ibuprofen, Advil, and take three.”

In 1988 I had outpatient surgery to remove tumors from my abdomen. Thankfully, like all of the other tumors that have been removed from me these were benign.

After the lidocaine wore off I experienced serious pain in my abdomen. (Eventually, the incision would become infected and require draining and antibiotics.) I tried three aspirin, but they had no effect. My surgeon and I had known each other since I was very young as we used to be neighbors. I called him and said, “I am in horrible pain. What do I do?” He said, “Schmuck, get some ibuprofen, Advil, and take three.”

I did as he said and waited. Magically, 35 minutes after taking the ibuprofen the pain was completely gone. That was both a revelation and a curse.

As I have aged I have developed chronic pain. Ibuprofen is easily the best remedy for that pain, I now joke that it has become my best friend, but as an NSAID it is not something that can be taken every day. (NSAID = Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug)

Since we have moved into the Goose Bumps house I have had to execute chores that have caused me to use muscles not otherwise used in my daily life. In addition, my neck–which is damaged from previous traumas–has become much more painful, no doubt as a result of these chores. Ibuprofen reduces the pain, sometimes to the point where it’s barely noticeable, but its potential for renal, cardiovascular and gastrointestinal side effects limits its use.

Given my “status” as a diabetic with a family history of hyperlipidemia (high cholesterol/triglycerides) I have blood work done at least twice a year. So far, my kidney function remains normal. (My exercise regimen manifests itself in my resting pulse and blood pressure.)

After being notified that my blood work results are ready, the first thing I check is my HbA1C (a measure of the average blood sugar level for the previous 90 days), but the second thing I check are my BUN and Creatinine levels, which are related to kidney function. As mentioned in the previous paragraph, so far they have always been normal.

I fear that, someday, my kidney function will not test as normal and I will be told to stop using ibuprofen. I shudder to think what I will do then. Acetaminophen (Tylenol) has very little effect on me as most of my pain is the result of inflammation; Tylenol is not an anti-inflammatory. Remember what the AI stands for in NSAID; it’s not Artificial Intelligence.

OK, I suspect that some of you stopped reading a long time ago and others are wishing I would stop writing about my pain and ibuprofen. Well, about 20% of American adults suffer from chronic pain. Fortunately for me, my pain does not result in a substantial restriction of daily activities (high-impact chronic pain), but it does seriously affect my quality of life. My blog is largely about my life.

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Of course, I would not normally write about Volkswagen but after seeing articles like this I just had to comment. The company announced layoffs at a plant that produces electric vehicles. Why? Demand for their EVs is 30 percent lower than forecast due to “strong customer reluctance in the electric vehicle sector.” Oh, that same plant will continue to produce the Passat, which is powered by an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), without reduction. Please notice that car companies can build ICE-powered and EVs simultaneously and even in the same plant.

VW has placed much of the blame on inflation and reduced government subsidies. If people will only consider buying something if it is subsidized, like in Norway, then less of it should be produced, anyway.

Most of the car-buying public around the world does not want to buy EVs, at least not yet. As I have written, I think General Motors (quietly) announcing $2.3 billion of investment in new ICE-powered vehicles, including $800 million in new Internal Combustion engines, is a sign they know that EV demand is not what the “planners” want it to be.

LET THE FREE MARKET DECIDE! #DeathBeforeEV

 

The Lexus LC 500 Convertible Debut at Automobility LA | Napleton News

 

#WobblyWednesday

#ChronicPain

#DeathBeforeEV

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Muddleheaded Monday

Reflux is undefeated…

 

Here is a tweet I sent today to the current Secretary of Transportation:

 

You’ve stated that, “Government should not pick winners and losers.” By forcing a largely reluctant American public to buy electric vehicles, the government is doing exactly that. LET THE FREE MARKET DECIDE!

#DeathBeforeEV

 

I absolutely do not think that I can influence the “debate” in any way (it’s not a debate if one side will not listen), but I absolutely believe I have the right to my beliefs and to express them.

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Eugene Debs received 3.4 percent of the US Presidential popular vote in 1920…while in prison. Orange Drump and his attorneys may be able to stall legal action until after the 2024 election, maybe not, but here is a piece by one of his former Attorneys General (Bill Barr) in which he states, “Trump’s indictment is not the result of unfair government persecution. This is a situation entirely of his own making. The effort to present Trump as a victim in the Mar-a-Lago document affair is cynical political propaganda.”

I have no dog in the fight as I think both parties lost the plot a long time ago, but if I were a Republican I would be ashamed of my fellow party followers who blindly follow the petulant, hyper-narcissistic Drump. If he is, in actuality, only half as removed from reality as his public persona suggests, then he is not remotely qualified for any public office, let alone President.

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It was about this time of the year in 1976 (!) when my father bought me my first car.

 

 

By the way, the post (Pictures From The Past, linked above) where I first showed these photos is one of the most read in the history of Disaffected Musings. When I first received the car it did not look like it does in these pictures. That took time, money, effort and an accident a couple of weeks before I left for college for the first time.

While my interest in automobiles goes back to elementary school, it is likely it would not have continued to develop in the same way if my first car had been a 1973 Chevrolet Vega. It is also no crime that my interest in cars has waned, in large part due to misguided ideologues and the governments that enable them. That diminution in interest is sad, though, at least to me.

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On this day in 1846 baseball rules that still exist today, more or less, were used for the first time in a game between the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club (yes, the usage of the day was two words) and the New York Nine. The game was played in Hoboken, New Jersey, which is more famous today as the birthplace of Frank Sinatra.

Alexander Cartwright, who was inducted into the National Baseball Hall Of Fame in 1938, was one of the founders of the Knickerbocker club and the “chief codifier of the baseball rules from which the present rules were developed.” (I am quoting the Brittanica.com article about Cartwright.)

While I no longer have any interest in the sport/industry in which I worked for 20+ years–and frankly, which I helped set on the path to analytics, for better and for worse–baseball will always be a significant part of my life. One cannot just ignore such a large part of their life just like one cannot ignore their ancestry.

 

#MuddleheadedMonday

#DeathBeforeEV

#1967PontiacGTO

#AlexanderCartwright

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Happy Anniversary!

On this day in 1999, or 8,766 days ago if you’re counting, my wonderful wife and I married. Yes, two dozen years or one year short of a quarter century.

While, of course, we have our ups and downs (and not all of them related to the stock market), we are very happy and very grateful that we found each other. I LOVE YOU, V SQUARED!!!

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I want to thank my brilliant high school classmate TI for calling me yesterday (wait, that’s not my name) from Switzerland. The line in yesterday’s post, “Is acute boredom terminal?” gave him some cause for concern.

As always, we had a great conversation and it lasted about 50 minutes. He reads Disaffected Musings quite regularly and, not surprisingly, retains everything he reads. Once again, in deference to him I will not reveal any details, but our conversations are most enjoyable and I remarked to him yesterday how much I relish the interactions.

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So, what’s going on with my right pinky? Yesterday evening I wanted to soak the digit in a water/epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) solution, but as it turned out we didn’t have any epsom salt in the house.

Calling an audible I decided to soak the finger in a solution of very warm water, table salt and a little bit of Lysol. How many of you saw the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding? Michael Constantine played the father of the (eventual) bride and his character thought that Windex was a panacea. I have the same feelings about Lysol and did long before anyone had ever heard of the COVID-19 virus.

After the soak I covered the finger in Vaseline instead of antibiotic ointment and then placed a bandage over the wound. While the finger is not close to 100%, it does feel much better than it did yesterday. A little knowledge can, indeed, be a dangerous thing. I was imagining an infection in the joint between the distal and middle phalanges which would have been cause for amputation. Yes, that’s how my mind works, or doesn’t.

Of course, we ordered epsom salt on Amazon yesterday and if it arrives today as scheduled I will soak the pinky. Yep, a little Lysol will be included.

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General Motors, “led” by one of my least favorite CEOs in history, has publicly committed to an “all-electric” fleet by 2035. OK, then why did they just announce an investment of more than $1 billion in two Michigan plants to produce the next generation of heavy-duty pickup trucks that will be powered by gasoline or diesel engines?!

Their “rationale” is that the profits from the trucks will help fund the transition to EVs. I think that, deep down, GM management knows most US consumers do not want to buy an EV, at least not now. Remember that they are also investing more than $800 million to develop the next generation of gasoline-powered small block V8 engines.

Why can’t the consumer explicitly be allowed to choose? Why don’t any American companies invest in synthetic fuel production? Remember that car companies are currently building ICE-powered cars, hybrids and pure EVs simultaneously and making profits. Something is rotten in the state of America…#DeathBeforeEV

 

 

#HappyAnniversary

#GeneralMotorsLyingHypocrites

#DeathBeforeEV

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Monday Malaise

I almost titled today’s post No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.

We have a problem with birds trying to nest in our backyard under the observation deck. Doing a little Internet research unearthed a few “potions” that might discourage birds from getting too comfortable there. (You might think birds are cute, but bird poo is among the most disgusting items in the universe to me.)

We purchased a plastic spray bottle to be used to dispense one of those potions. Of course, as is the custom for many things that are made today, the bottle would not spray.

Another plastic spray bottle was found in the house and the concoction was transferred to it. It sprayed two or three times, but then the bottle became difficult to spray. Since I was able to get it to spray with extra pressure on the trigger I thought I would use even more pressure to get the bottle to work. The plastic trigger violently snapped, the spring and other pieces of the assembly flew out cutting the dickens out of the pinky on my right hand.

This morning I think the finger is infected as it is swollen and painful to bend. I have religiously applied antibiotic ointment to it since the incident, but apparently to no avail. Maybe I should keep Betadine in the house.

I cannot tell you how mad I am this morning. I am just sick and tired of death by a thousand paper cuts.

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Is acute boredom terminal?

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I am still pissed about scratching the Maserati. Without further ado:

 

 

The crapfest that seems to have taken over my life has made me very reluctant to try to fix this on my own. The likely cost has made me reluctant to take it to a “professional.”

The scratch is probably not noticeable unless you know where it is, but to me it’s like a giant boil on the car. A little Internet research unearthed a two-part paint kit that, supposedly, matches the color and includes clear coat. The cost is about $100. I have seen such work done dozens of times, but when life does nothing except kick you in the shins for nearly 13 years you lose your confidence.

I can imagine, though, that the cost of having the scratch repaired in a shop would be many multiples of that $100. Car paint is now $500-$1,000 a gallon and that’s for American cars. Add the triple-digit per hour cost of labor and you can do the math from there.

The main reason why this scratch bothers me is that I went against my better judgment and tried to park the car next to one of those concrete berms. The Maserati does not have a front camera (nor a backup camera) and not having had it very long I am not that familiar with the functional exterior dimensions. Again, when you are constantly dealt crappy hands you wonder if you’re playing the game correctly.

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I am sure his action was independent of mine (he does not follow my Twitter feed or my blog), but yesterday Brian Sullivan of CNBC tweeted the link to the “anti-EV” piece by Rowan Atkinson that my brilliant high school classmate TI sent me and that I included in this post. Sullivan also tweeted, “Good honest points here. Possible EVs themselves are soon rendered obsolete by zero-emission synthetic fuels or hydrogen?”

The zealot lemmings just don’t, and won’t, see the folly of their ways. Once again, #DeathBeforeEV.

 

#MondayMalaise

#DeathBeforeEV

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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Saturday Audible: Rowan Atkinson

Originally, I had intended to write about Ransom Eli Olds today. He was born on this day in 1864. However, since–in my opinion–most of Oldsmobile’s pioneering achievements happened long after Olds left the company, and since I think I have written about him on a previous June 3, I decided to do something else. Frankly, that something else was almost not writing at all today.

However, my brilliant high school classmate TI sent me this link to an opinion piece by Rowan Atkinson. Yes, the guy that played Mr. Bean. What many of you might not know is that Atkinson is a very intelligent person with a degree in electrical and electronic engineering and a Masters degree in control systems. He is also an avid automobile enthusiast and racer.

His “op-ed” is about electric cars. The piece has so many good passages that I encourage you to read it in its entirety. I will just pick out a few:

 

“But if you zoom out a bit and look at a bigger picture that includes the car’s manufacture, the situation is very different. In advance of the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow in 2021, Volvo released figures claiming that greenhouse gas emissions during production of an electric car are 70% higher than when manufacturing a petrol one. How so? The problem lies with the lithium-ion batteries fitted currently to nearly all electric vehicles: they’re absurdly heavy, many rare earth metals and huge amounts of energy are required to make them, and they only last about 10 years.”

“A sensible thing to do would be to speed up the development of synthetic fuel, which is already being used in motor racing; it’s a product based on two simple notions: one, the environmental problem with a petrol engine is the petrol, not the engine and, two, there’s nothing in a barrel of oil that can’t be replicated by other means. Formula One is going to use synthetic fuel from 2026. There are many interpretations of the idea but the German car company Porsche is developing a fuel in Chile using wind to power a process whose main ingredients are water and carbon dioxide. With more development, it should be usable in all petrol-engine cars, rendering their use virtually CO2-neutral.

Increasingly, I’m feeling that our honeymoon with electric cars is coming to an end, and that’s no bad thing: we’re realising that a wider range of options need to be explored if we’re going to properly address the very serious environmental problems that our use of the motor car has created. We should keep developing hydrogen, as well as synthetic fuels to save the scrapping of older cars which still have so much to give…”

 

Everything Atkinson writes is absolutely true, yet the zealot lemmings refuse to acknowledge those truths. Once again, their blind, beyond ill-advised push for EVs has little to do with the environment and almost everything to do with their quest for control and punishment. #DeathBeforeEV

Many thanks to TI for sending me the link to Atkinson’s piece.

 

#SaturdayAudible:RowanAtkinson

#DeathBeforeEV

#somanyCARSjustonelife

#disaffectedmusings

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