I've watched YouTube videos about them and they have an excellent industrial design that fits their purpose. Just the way the driver sits, the visibility, the way packages are stored, the overall capacity. Everything is so well thought out. I wonder if Rivian has rights to sell the same basic vehicle to other courier firms because I could see it being a very profitable side business for them.

Still doesn't make sense to do this. If the IRS is some lumbering behemoth (as I'm sure it is), then the way to shrink it is to automate and normalize tax collection so less staff are required for submissions, auditing, late filings, prosecution etc.

I read only this morning that some tax preparer in New York nicknamed the "The Magician" filed 90,000 fraudulent claims potentially losing $100 million in revenue. Imagine the effort of prosecuting that one guy and telling 90,000 people to re-file. That guy got caught but for every one of him, there are others flying under the radar. If tax collection was streamlined (automated software is a good start, but deduction at source is better) the scope for fraud and need for such a large IRS would diminish.

You didn't look very far then.

Wealthy people can afford accountants to find loopholes. Makes no sense to make tax filing complicated by default. It just encourages people to not file at all or to misfile / defraud, with the knock on impact it has on taxes, revenues and spending.

And America doesn't have much excuse in this regard. Satellite views of any city in the US will show acres of potential solar sites - warehouses, dwellings, car parks. Obviously makes more sense in states that have good weather, but it seems like a no-brainer to utilise it.

I doubt it will be gravity with the exception of hydro. More likely if it's not conventional batteries then energy will be stored as heat.

You could just google it you know, or look up vids on YouTube of battery recycling plants in operation.

I think fire risk is a major consideration but energy density isn't as big a consideration for static installations as it is for vehicles. I expect static installations will use lower density batteries if they are cheaper, and/or safer, and/or have more charge cycles.

They will be crushed up and the recycled. Next stupid question.

... specifically Ubisoft ones.

What purpose does it serve to make it hard and expensive for people to file taxes? Regardless of politics, governments should make it straightforward and convenient for people to pay taxes because otherwise they take a hit on revenues and spend inordinate amounts of money chasing people who fail to file correctly.

Having decent software is one part of this, but quite honestly the US should do what other countries do and collect the tax at source wherever possible, including payslips.

Well that's a profoundly stupid comment and feeble attempt to derail the point. Hmm, which is more likely to reduce crime and squalor - spend billions on a golden fucking cube, or on societal reforms - housing, amenities, jobs, etc. That's a TOUGH ONE. "leftist paradise" ffs

Saudi Arabia has slums, and crime, and drugs just like everywhere else. They don't like to mention it but it's all there in the underclasses of their society and easy to read about. And the point here is that there are real problems that they could solve with public spending instead of boondoggles. The Line is one example but there are others, like Mukaab (an enormous building in the shape of a giant golden cube), or Qiddya turning an entire valley into a theme park / sports complex. Half of Saudi Arabia's 2030 "vision" projects are just stupid things costing billions with no chance of completion or recouping their investment even if they did

Also concerning MBS and his "reforms". Yeah I guess dragging Saudia Arabia slightly into the 20th century is progress. Unfortunately it's the 21st century.

The indictments we know about so far are to satisfy the extradition process - crimes demonstrating US jurisdiction. I bet the US has a bunch more racked up for all the shit he got up to while he was hiding in the embassy. He'll get those when he is in US custody.

Or just basic sanitation, housing, education etc. but MBS would prefer to waste billions on vanity projects and boondoggles.