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Comment Re:They have no choice (Score 1) 110

Interestingly developing nations seem to be some of the most keen on EVs. China, for example, has a growing middle class and they are buying a lot of electric vehicles. The convenience of being able to charge at home and from solar is attractive, as well as the lower maintenance costs and lower pollution.

In China's case they also have good public transport, so a 150km range isn't such a big deal. Batteries that size have reached price parity with ICE drivetrains.

It's fairly essential that we encourage and help other developing nations to go that way, especially India.

Comment Re:"Hate Speech" you say. (Score 1) 103

I'm not sure I see your point about the nature of Jewishness. Especially today where we are seeing baseless claims of anti-Semitism when people, including people of Jewish ancestry and of the Jewish faith, are protesting against the actions of Zionists. It seems to me that clarity is very much required.

As for rights, they do trade off against other people's, but they shouldn't when it comes to religion. The CofE's various exemptions are a good example of that, they beliefs shouldn't have any special rights.

Comment Re:"Hate Speech" you say. (Score 1) 103

Well, there is that I suppose, but to me it just seems like it is making it harder for people who are ethnically/culturally Jewish to separate that identity from the Jewish religion.

The other issue is that we end up protecting religious beliefs that should not be protected, sometimes at the expense of other people's rights.

Comment Re:They have no choice (Score 3, Informative) 110

Most Japanese brands were late to the EV game, with the exception of Nissan. I think some of them are still hoping that hybrids remain available for decades to come.

Honda's first EV, the Honda e, was really good. Okay, small battery, but everything else was great. Top notch tech, the best HMI of any car on the market, and the vehicle itself really took advantage of the EV drivetrain with a tiny turning circle and well tuned suspension.

Their second one, the confusingly named e:Ny1, is pretty pedestrian, if you will excuse the pun. It has barely any EV features. Bizarrely the regen is both weak and resets to off after a few minutes of driving. It's a nice enough car in other ways, but priced ridiculously high and already massively discounted. Why they ditched all the good work they did with the Honda e remains a mystery.

There is the up-coming Honda and Sony collaboration, but I expect it will be over-priced and not particularly great.

Toyota's BZ4X or whatever it's called is apparently decent. Some initial software issues that limited charging speed were quickly fixed. Mazda has one EV but it's not very good. Mitsubishi had one but never developed it, and now has none. Suzuki, Daihatsu, and several others don't seem to have any EVs at all. Apparently a lot of the issue is down to their suppliers in Japan not developing suitable EV drivetrain components and not wanting to rely on China like the rest of the world does. Hard times for Japan's auto industry.

Comment Re:Time to get off the pot? (Score 1) 88

You need offshore wind. Capacity factor in Europe is already over 50%, and increasing. Prototypes of very large deep sea windmills are up in the 70% range.

The US has massive amounts of offshore wind just waiting to be tapped. That can replace coal because it is consistent - the output varies within a range, but never stops. Combine with long distance transmission lines to areas where those coal plants are.

It's purely a political issue that it doesn't get done. Europe isn't immune to that either, we could do far more. Even in China, where they have more wind power than the rest of the world combined and are installing it at a fantastic rate, there is push-back from the coal industry and corrupt politicians.

Comment Re:Cool. Next step... (Score 1) 88

We already have a lot of that stuff in Europe, but need more. Some of the things you list emit soot and other non-greenhouse but still damaging pollution. Wood burning is a good example, it degrades air quality in an entire village or neighbourhood.

We do regulate emissions from home appliances, like we regulate them from cars.

Comment Re:Losing money anyway (Score 1) 202

Twitter has been losing money for years... Did they ever turn a profit? Certainly not under Musk.

Facebook lost money for many years too. As does TRUTH Social, although that might actually fit the description of propaganda.

That's just how tech start-ups work. Lose money but gain users, and eventually enshittify.

Comment Re: Obligatory... (Score 1) 202

More than that. TikTok is where a lot of younger people share political philosophy. It's one of the few mainstream places where socialism is the dominant movement, which is why they want to destroy it.

Without TikTok fewer young people would be members of unions, fewer would be taking climate change so seriously, and more would be vulnerable to bad landlords who rely on ignorance of legal rights. While there is of course a lot of crap on there, it's not true to say that there is nothing of value.

Comment Re: Wonder if he can make it funny again. (Score 2) 29

Lately The Onion has called a lot of the reporting around the situation in Gaza days or weeks before it happened.

It's funny, but it's also really biting satire that we need to help us keep perspective here. Their stuff about all the ways the media will find to avoid saying Israel killed anyone is a good example. Some of the headlines, about bullets "finding" their way into children's heads, are truly beyond parody, but we will need satire to remind us just how insane they actually are.

Comment Re:What? (Score 2) 76

I had an Amstrad PC1512 that came with DOS 3.3, but also with DOSPLUS that offered CP/M compatibility. And the Gem windowing system version 2, which was the one that was hobbled by a patent dispute with Apple, which resulted in the desktop being only able to show two windows side-by-side (apps could do what they liked).

I think I spent 90% of my time in DOS, although Locomotive BASIC II in Gem was interesting.

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