It has nothing to do with Musk. But fighting the assault of ideologues and hypocrites who benefit greatly from government subsidies while advocating against them for others. Government subsidies built America. They will build future America or the future America will falter. Deal with it.

I'm inclined to not like them because my cable internet service (Time Warner -> Comcast) is more expensive and slower than when deployed here 16 years ago. Of course I have the option to spend more than $40/mo on packaged garbage or higher tiered internet, but the idea that the internet has scaled up 1000x during this time and I have the same janky service is hilarious.

To be fair, I discount inflation and it would be the same price if I was also a cable TV subscriber. Comcast brought that requirement when they did the monopoly swap with Time Warner that gave them my service area.

spend all the money you would spend on a gshp well on thicker insulation, better windows, and intelligent shading. Its more cost effective and won't break. gshps are a lazy and expensive approach to heating and cooling. Use your capital to eliminate the loads in the first place. Then use a significantly cheaper and smaller ashp if necessary. Even in climates with 8000 to 9000 HDD, properly air sealed R30 walls (inc glazing) will drop your design heat load to 1 ton or less of heat pump. ground sinks are ridiculous at that low size.

But capital markets love vaporware and this kind of ludicrous access to the capital markets is propelling Tesla at a rate equivalent or in excess of the r&d pace that the stodgy old auto mfgs can pursue. It has a kind of perverted logic too it in a highly speculative sense.

I think most German appliances have fully digital controls, especially EU-style convection ovens. I've already articulated the benefits to society of connected, intelligent energy intensive appliances. You've just ignored those benefits due to some kind of personal grudge.

Our energy grid is growing increasingly complex and unpredictable, "stupid" devices have obvious drawbacks for grid management, demand response, electricity markets, etc. Paired with distributed storage and generation, coordinating electrical usage can dramatically reduce the generation, transmission, and distribution costs during times of peak demand and minimum demand. We'll eventually have market-based pricing that will take all this into account ... and you'll pay money and others will save. I support your choice, why don't you support mine?

your opinion saddens and frightens me for two reasons. 1) he deserved to serve 4 years in prison for being an angry idiot that might be dangerous? and 2) your presumption that spending 4 years in prison at a massive tax payer expense would somehow improve the situation? because angry, pointlessly imprisoned, unemployable ex-cons somehow benefit society?

I don't really understand the problem here? Isn't this to be expected? Part of the cost of having a complicated entitlement system?

A few major issues here: 1) Contribution to society based on what rules? Increasing GDP? Where did anyone sign up for that or agree it was a social goal? Is it written somewhere? How are we really going to define this? We can identify lots of economic activity that is directly harmful to society, would these people be penalized and subject to even lower standard of living than loafers who do nothing?

Secondly hard work is great and will tip the balance, but we do not have a society that rewards based on merit (hard work). So long as power is structured with dynasty and wealth we will never have it. So in practice, this really turns into an argument that is proportionate to someone's level of disadvantage. Hey poor people: work hard, but neglect the nepotism, cronyism, corruption, and loafing of everyone above* you. *Where "above" often means experience, age, aggression, unethical, etc, in addition to power and wealth. Basically it seems you want to only hold disadvantaged people accountable for their work ethic.

this thinking is comical. I'd really like to see the the contents of your root cellar to validate your choice of a vapor compression cycle machine to store your perishables. And I could take this in a thousand other directions to demonstrate your absurdity. Oh what's that you're just making some obscene argument based off inconsistent personal values? yeah. right. While you dig holes to refrigerate your eggs and vegetables (or more likely just proceed in a state of self delusion), options will be made available to the rest of us that leverage technology to save money, reduce operating costs, and shockingly, improve reliability.

You can maintain your crude systems with high operating costs. I certainly won't infringe on your freedom to make bad choices as long as I don't have to subsidize them anyway.

I had a similar experience. Only it didn't stop when I quit working retail at 15. I've encountered it over the next 17 years; high school, college, design engineering, process engineering, volunteerism, volunteerism x2, graduate school, graduate school x2, consulting, relationships, chores, other social and community responsibilities, etc. Let's say even in high-performance environments half the people are lazier than me. And I'm also lazy relative to my potential. And probably so are you. I also know a disturbing large number of lazy, stupid, intelligent, poor, rich, disabled, deserving, and undeserving people who leverage entitlements to the maximum. All of these anecdotes, as yours, are irrelevant. It's just reasoning from an arbitrary value system, one that doesn't even accurately reflect reality.

The same thing that entitles you to a better life through hard work: Nothing.

This isn't true at all. We are very quickly destroying our ability to produce agricultural excess and that existing excess isn't really valuable. We can grow grains for everyone on earth. Not meat, seafood, and vegetables. Of course we're also depleting aquifers, losing top soil, and destroying ocean ecosystems at a rate that will manifest in serious issues within a couple generations. Not to mention that any real perturbation in fossil fuel costs or availability will severely hamper our ability to farm and distribute food.

yep that's definitely the root cause of all poor people. They complain to much and don't work hard enough. Great discovery there.

He studied,completed a degree, and wrote a dissertation presumably in the field of astrophysics, which should be enough. But he has apparently published too. http://www.haydenplanetarium.o...

Very true. I have not yet mastered multi-stage sealed vapor compression technology yet.

It's ok to be ignorant. It's not ok to get angry and lash out.