I'm actually a bit confused as to why this is blowing up the way it is. 20 percent of oil and LNG are frozen because of Hormuz. That's not good, but coal, nuclear and renewables are basically unaffected. Seems like a problem of this magnitude shouldn't be causing the entire world to have a collective aneurism.

Gas prices go up a tad. People drive slightly less. Industrial chemicals get slightly pricier. People telecommute a bit more. None of this is good (except the telecommuting) but it shouldn't be grinding the world to a halt. Seems like adaptation should kick in fairly quickly.

I'm not saying anything pro or con about the war, or this administration, or anything else. Just that the oil issue seems overblown and I'm not sure why.

he merely allowed Death to take him out for a drink.

Just cause they got a patent on something like this, doesn't mean that they'll use it. Companies are constantly patenting ideas that they don't plan to use but might have value to others. Or they just want to lock down a tech that would be advantageous to a competitor.

Walmarts entire business model is "our prices are great, all the time, for everyone" combined with "we're just around the corner". They've actually been really disciplined about their strategy, for many decades. It's the only reason they've survived into the Amazon age. A lot of tech-bro companies would try to squeeze every penny out, as fast as possible, and screw the long-term outlook. Walmart plays the long game, and it shows. Price gouging would destroy their business model in 3 seconds flat, and they know it.

TINA is to blame for a lot of things. TINA is an awful person who causes a lot of problems. You never want TINA in your friend group.

TINA = "there is no alternative"

Having family in Ohio that are against data centers is like having family in Ohio that are against killing cute puppies. Data centers are the current twirling-mustache villain. Everybody hates them. Ohio is actually a pretty good place to put them. The state is huge. Easy to find an out of the way spot that wont bother anyone. Plus, its centrally located and has a basically infinite amount of water because its close to the Great Lakes. Power is an issue but not as bad as out west where every resource is constrained.

You think those so-called prediction markets arent making money off the betting that goes on. Thats so cute. Its good to see that theres still a tiny bit of wide-eyed innocence in this world. Never change, little buddy.

Somebody, somewhere, will implement the newer approaches. Those communities will see lower costs. Other communities will observe and start wondering why they need to pay triple the cost of energy one state over. The best strategies will spread. But it will take more time than you would like. Sounds like Arizona declined to be the first. Somebody else will. Eventually.

Dodgy no-rules opaque gambling den descends into violence. I say, sir, I am shocked. Shocked I say.

This happened because the peaker plants were already planned and the profits had been accounted for in spreadsheets and in the dollar signs in politician's eyes.

All those dollars will be paid for by higher rates aka money out of consumer pockets. They had already voted for the politicians and the current regulatory structure, so they had already gotten their say in the matter. A better tech came along, halfway through the process, but these sorts of huge infrastructure projects build up a momentum of their own and changing halfway through is often impossible.

For a lot of this stuff, the move to new tech is gonna have to wait until the next generation of infrastructure needs to be built. At that point, voters will have the choice between $0.04 per kwh for renewables+battery+nuclear+extremely small numbers of LNG plants, or 5 times more using the traditional "MAGA drill baby drill coal is awesome own the libs" approach. At that point, people will vote their pocketbook. Same as always.

The move to mostly-renewables is inevitable, but it'll happen on a generational time frame. Not next year.

Especially if he left a piece of paper laying around that self-identified.

There used to be all sorts of social-contracts and polite agreements that governed a lot of stuff like this. Those are basically all broken. We live in a much coarser world now. Forget doxxing. If you’re even a tiny bit controversial, you gotta accept that there are at least 6 AI-driven internet bots out there trying to get you physically swatted, and they never sleep and never stop.

“Politely asking for your privacy to be respected”. That’s hilarious. Maybe 75 years ago.

This war is gonna be long. The US army is gearing up and that means plans for boots on the ground. It’s all open source news for anyone who actually looks beyond the social media. And the oil shock is basically impossible to avoid at this point. The US wont suffer as badly as other countries. But gas is not gonna be cheap anytime soon.

Oh, there definitely were. We wont hear about much of it until stuff gets declassified, which is probably in 50 years.

From the larger perspective, we’re clearly in another period of realpolitik. Can you imagine the numbers of Russian’s we’ve indirectly maimed and killed by supporting Ukraine? We’re also busy making sure the Russia exists in a state of poverty for the next two generations, and what we’re doing to Iran means that both Russia and China will have one less ally when they decide to play their next move.

It’s a nasty game, and we can give at least as good as we get.

There’s a very emotional aspect to it. There are large numbers of people who genuinely feel comforted when there’s a big, strong (usually paternal) leader to tell them what to do. Just do what I tell you, and everything will be ok, the world is complicated and scary and I’ll deal with all that hard and difficult stuff, just blame the designated scapegoat for all your troubles and you won’t need to think. It’ll all be ok. I’ll protect you. Just do what I say. I’m the only one who can.

It’s more obvious in politics than the corporate world.

Nowadays, when a dictator takes over a country, about a third of the country usually jumps ship. Lots of young people, smart people, educated professional types, and most of the people who actively want to make their lives better. Some of the people who stay are too sick or poor or apathetic to make the leap, but a lot of the ones who stay behind find that sort of life comforting. Like being in a cocoon. The result is a smaller, weaker, but more compliant country.

Be bossed around. In the corporate world, theyre the ones that worship the all-powerful visionary leader and blindly buy into the corporate gibberish. In politics, theyre the ones that feel more secure when being led around by a dictator or monarch, and hide behind whatever national slogan is in vogue. There are lots of people who genuinely find it comforting. Most of these people are also objectively dumber than the oneswho like to think for themselves, so its no surprise that theyre the less competent ones.

but not in the US, and certainly not from this company.

There are a ton of countries in the global south where entire cities are being taken over by cheap e-bikes, because cars are way too expensive and their infrastructure is poop.

The ebikes down there are not pretty. They're non-nonsense, cheap, easy-to-fix utilitarian gizmos that get no likes on social media but quietly make people's lives better. 3-wheeler EVs might be viable down there, but they certainly won't be anything like this $100,000 gullwing fashion-statement toy.