Elon Musk now owns 9.2% of twitter...update.. will soon be the sole owner as Board of Directors accepts his purchase offer

[pmv]

Do you think Communism or Socialism is better?

Those words have always seem pretty ill-defined to me, certainly as regards their relation to each other. I think actual communists regard "socialism" as the intermediate stage to communism, after the end of capitalism and the advent of state control of the economy, but before the state "withers away".

On the other hand, historically calling yourself a "communist" in practice implied affiliation to the actual-existing Communist Party and in particular to the USSR as it was, so anyone favouring communism who wasn't pro-USSR would call themselves a revolutionary socialist. Or if they favoured the peaceful route to socialism they'd be a "democratic socialist", which in turn seemed to blur into social democracy.

Maybe it was also just that there was a limited number of permutations of "socialist" "communist" "worker" "revolutionary" "party" "Group" "league" "front" etc available from which to create a unique name for an organisation, so they had to mix it up a bit?

In any case, I don't think whether you think "anyone rich is evil" is the factor that distinguishes between socialists and communists. Maybe the Musk progeny (the Muskette?) just thought Elon was evil?

 

[Vic]

I can't stand musk and turned down SpaceX. But none pf the traditional players would have pulled off what SpaceX has. For all of his faults, Musk has the balls to let engineers be engineers and push the status quo.

Meanwhile the traditional players are packed full of mismanagement who know nothing and are insanely afraid of any risk. I'm willing to bet they the management at SpaceX actually understands the engineering and arent just glorified business people with "cheif engineer" titles.

I'm not going to argue in favor of any of the traditional players, as you called them, but at the same time I don't believe we should reward business leaders who make fraudulent promises to investors just because the investor money attracted by those promises allowed them to make good on a few of those promises.

 

[igor_kavinski]

You don't have to be ruthless to be an effective CEO. The CEO's job isn't to worry about whether employees are being lax in their work ethic, the people under them should be the ones handling that.

When a company's problems are bigger than usual, the CEO may be forced to meddle in HR's affairs.

Case in point: Pat Gelsinger hiring back tons of engineers who were let go during BK's reign of incompetence.

 

[nakedfrog]

When a company's problems are bigger than usual, the CEO may be forced to meddle in HR's affairs.

Case in point: Pat Gelsinger hiring back tons of engineers who were let go during BK's reign of incompetence.

Hm, and which of these CEOs was more ruthless?

 

[igor_kavinski]

Hm, and which of these CEOs was more ruthless?

It can be argued that BK was both ruthless and stupid. A better example of a ruthless CEO is Jensen Huang of nGreedia and Geforce fame or Larry Ellison of Oracle.

 

[Zorba]

I'm not going to argue in favor of any of the traditional players, as you called them, but at the same time I don't believe we should reward business leaders who make fraudulent promises to investors just because the investor money attracted by those promises allowed them to make good on a few of those promises.

I think he got the investors by promising cheap lift, which he's fully delivered on. I don't think SpaceX took any investors until after the first two launches failed.

I completely agree with you on Telsa, but SpaceX has pretty much delivered on all their business promises, although late. They also have never been publicly traded.

 

[Brovane]

I'm not going to argue in favor of any of the traditional players, as you called them, but at the same time I don't believe we should reward business leaders who make fraudulent promises to investors just because the investor money attracted by those promises allowed them to make good on a few of those promises.

We really don't know what promises where made to SpaceX investors since it is a private company and the prospectus is not publicly available.

 

[cytg111]

Well color me surprised

Driverless Cars Have More Trouble Detecting Kids, Dark-Skinned Pedestrians

Researchers at King’s College in London find that self-driving car systems are 20% better at detecting adults than children and 7.5% more accurate for light-skinned pedestrians.

www.pcmag.com

 

[MrSquished]

Man there are some pissed off Tesla owners after these latest huge price cuts. Some thought they were buying an appreciating asset, and some thought Elon would do right by them.

Fackin' marons!

 

[igor_kavinski]

Fackin' marons!

And I saw a youtube clip about people being restricted to charge their cars at home only during certain time periods at night to avoid overloading the power grid. And then there was this discussion going on about what will happen to these EV owners during a hurricane when electricity isn't exactly flowing at peak capacity and they have to evacuate with their lowly charged EVs. Gasoline cars owners will feel blessed then.

 

[Brainonska511]

And I saw a youtube clip about people being restricted to charge their cars at home only during certain time periods at night to avoid overloading the power grid. And then there was this discussion going on about what will happen to these EV owners during a hurricane when electricity isn't exactly flowing at peak capacity and they have to evacuate with their lowly charged EVs. Gasoline cars owners will feel blessed then.

Gas stations also rely on electricity for pumping gas, and fuel shortages are well known during times of emergencies and evacuations.

 

[Brainonska511]

Man there are some pissed off Tesla owners after these latest huge price cuts. Some thought they were buying an appreciating asset, and some thought Elon would do right by them.

Fackin' marons!

Anyone that bought a vehicle thinking it would appreciate in value is a buffoon.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Gas stations also rely on electricity for pumping gas, and fuel shortages are well known during times of emergencies and evacuations.

It might be possible to buy containers of gasoline in such a situation, even multiple of them for later use. Can't do that with electricity.

 

[Brainonska511]

It might be possible to buy containers of gasoline in such a situation, even multiple of them for later use. Can't do that with electricity.

How do you buy containers of gasoline when gas stations are out of gas or can't pump because of power outages? Are you just planning on storing containers of gas for such eventualities? Seems like a pain in the ass to constantly be cycling through those containers since gas can go bad, and just generally storing hazardous materials in or around your home, especially when you're talking about an amount that would be necessary to drive a standard American guzzler if you had to evacuate any appreciable distance.

 

[igor_kavinski]

How do you buy containers of gasoline when gas stations are out of gas or can't pump because of power outages?

I'm sure something can be arranged in an emergency. But EV owners are SOL no matter what.

 

[fskimospy]

How do you buy containers of gasoline when gas stations are out of gas or can't pump because of power outages? Are you just planning on storing containers of gas for such eventualities? Seems like a pain in the ass to constantly be cycling through those containers since gas can go bad, and just generally storing hazardous materials in or around your home, especially when you're talking about an amount that would be necessary to drive a standard American guzzler if you had to evacuate any appreciable distance.

Yeah - while I agree gas vehicles are modestly better off in a no-power situation they are not nearly as much better off as people might think.

 

[Brainonska511]

I'm sure something can be arranged in an emergency. But EV owners are SOL no matter what.

EV owners could have a generator at their home, or solar power with something like a home battery. So not sure how they would be completely SOL. Anyway, maybe we should plan vehicle purchasing for extremely rare use cases?

 

[igor_kavinski]

double post

 

[igor_kavinski]

EV owners could have a generator at their home, or solar power with something like a home battery. So not sure how they would be completely SOL. Anyway, maybe we should plan vehicle purchasing for extremely rare use cases?

So really rich people then coz the average Joe isn't gonna invest in all that.

The point of the Youtube clip was that EVs aren't the future of transportation that they are made out to be. It would be prudent to keep a gas powered vehicle as backup.

 

[fskimospy]

So really rich people then coz the average Joe isn't gonna invest in all that.

The point of the Youtube clip was that EVs aren't the future of transportation that they are made out to be. It would be prudent to keep a gas powered vehicle as backup.

I can count the number of times in my life I would have been SOL with an electric vehicle but ok with a gas one on zero fingers.

I’m sure there are some areas, especially rural ones, where electric infrastructure is insufficient for them to be a good choice but at least for me they are a waste of money.

 

[pmv]

So really rich people then coz the average Joe isn't gonna invest in all that.

And those who aren't wealthy enough to own a car at all...?

Maybe if an area is liable to face hurricanes severe enough to require evacuation some sort of collective transport could be provided?

Or maybe stop building settlements in areas susceptible to hurricanes (and flooding, and deadly heat waves)? Not the fault of the rest of us if so much of the US was built in bad locations.

 

[Leeea]

I can count the number of times in my life I would have been SOL with an electric vehicle but ok with a gas one on zero fingers.

Not the same here.

Been plenty of places with no electric car charging infrastructure. Yea, a person could start knocking on doors, but I don't count that.

 

[ivwshane]

It might be possible to buy containers of gasoline in such a situation, even multiple of them for later use. Can't do that with electricity.

Of course you can! It’s just really expensive to buy a battery back with the equivalent capacity as a gas generator. Then again you could do solar or wind and have endless energy.

 

[Pens1566]

It's vastly easier to prep for evac using an ICE engine. You can get 5gal gas cans at walmart for a few bucks and then fill them up. Can't exactly do similar with a tesla. Can't run it off of your anker usb portable charger.

 

[Brovane]

And I saw a youtube clip about people being restricted to charge their cars at home only during certain time periods at night to avoid overloading the power grid. And then there was this discussion going on about what will happen to these EV owners during a hurricane when electricity isn't exactly flowing at peak capacity and they have to evacuate with their lowly charged EVs. Gasoline cars owners will feel blessed then.

Where was that? I doubt it was actually people being restricted but the Utility company asking people to limit the usage of devices at home that use high loads during peak hours. For my local utility (SDGE) my rate plan helps incentivize this they charge me $.81 per kwh for power used from 1600-2100. I don't charge my EV during that time, I could if I wanted to but I don't because I don't want to pay the extra cost. I charge at Super-Off-Peak when the rate is $.15 per kwh.

You don't evacuate during a hurricane. You either choose to shelter in place or evacuate before the hurricane hits.

Anymore EV FUD you want to share?