SideburnsOfDoom

> The argument that decentralization (diesel or renewable) helps makes sense to me.

Sure, but also in the real world, fossil fuel infrastructure is always centralised. "decentralised diesel" might exist in the sense that you can run lots of generators all over, but that's energy consumption not energy supply.

Those generators have to be supplied with fuel or they're useless. That supply is always centralised. Fossil fuels cannot be decentralised in the same way as solar.

> And is a diesel truck supposed to be fuelling just one house? It's likely a single point of failure for a network of people

Completely correct, but then go one step further: Where does that truck fill up? At a depot where many other trucks do the same. That's an even more tempting target - centralised, stationary, flammable.

I do not think that there is an equivalent node in the solar alternative.

And where does that fuel depot get resupply from. etc. "decentralised" fossil fuel infrastructure isn't really a thing that exists.

> Panels are stationary, easier to target than vehicles.

Panels are small, numerous and widely dispersed, easy to install quickly and incrementally, and non-flammable.

Basically the opposite of (also stationary) centralised fossil fuel infrastructure.

It's clear which one is the more tempting target if you have a finite stockpile of drones.

> If that was their plan

If you are still in doubt about this, I urge you to read the article linked above. Or google the term. I assumed that it was something that "everybody knows" but apparently not.

> Merkel tried to reign in Putin with Gas.

The key word there is tried. "wandel durch handel" means "Change through trade" (1). That's what Germany tried, it was a part of their foreign policy.

Now we all know that it did not work with Putin's Russia, but that was not the claim made by Germanioum. It is not nonsense that they tried. Even if they tried and failed.

Sentences often make more sense when you read all of the words in them.

1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wandel_durch_Handel

> So has the US (spent 40 years planning for conflict with Iran).

True, but also worthless - the USA fired or retired people who knew the plan (1), and didn't listen to the warnings. It's more "Everyone knows the plan until they punch themselves in the face"

1) https://fortune.com/2026/04/05/doge-fired-state-department-e...

Yes, I knew all along that I agreed with what you said, I was not trying to dispute what you said. Apologies if that wasn't clear to you, I should have started it with "yes, and" so that you would not take mistaken offence.

I don't agree that the consequential points are just "more language". I said things that you did not.

> I would wager Iran is barely hanging on. The question is which side can hang on longer.

I think this applies to both sides, and the issue is that the people in power are not affected by the crises that cause hardship to ordinary people. " Iran is..." does not distinguish between the two, they are different. Fanatical leadership can live by "Some of you may die, but it's a sacrifice I am willing to make" .

The problem though is that people in the USA do have one lever to pull on their government, in the form of approaching midterm elections, that the people of Iran do not. And the leadership of Iran knows it. They may be fanatical and awful but they're not stupid - causing fuel shortages causes economic pain to ordinary people causes political pain to the USA. They have this weapon and are using it heavily.

Notwithstanding that, this assessment of blame is correct ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49907371 ), the missteps that put us in this mess with no clear way out all come from stupid leadership in the USA.

"Copied" or "borrowed" might work.

many other too, including:

MG is a British car badge, now owned by SAIC China

Volvo and Polestar are owned by Geely

LEVC makes the new EV London black cabs, is also owned by Geely

XPeng and Omoda are present too.

Since this is a article about UK car costs, lets look at the UK

> Dacia Spring is now the UK’s cheapest car at less than £12k

> The all-electric Dacia Spring now costs less than any other car on the market

https://www.whatcar.com/news/dacia-spring-is-now-the-uks-che...

The article has an honourable mention for the Leapmotor T03, another EV that is only slightly more expensive than the Dacia Spring.

Yes, this is an "Extended-range electric vehicle" or EREV

> an electric vehicle fitted with a fuel-powered internal combustion engine, acting as a range extender that drives a generator

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended-range_electric_vehicl...

Indeed. Use the "flag" button for this stuff.

> A 0.25% rate hike is going to cause a recession?

Firstly a rate hike is as much a reaction to circumstances as it is a cause. It follows changes to the financial environment. As much as the current US Administration wanted a rate drop, circumstances dictated the opposite.

Secondly, it might not be isolated. These rates move by small increments, but there are usually several moves in succession, up to 8 times a year. Compare two or three small hikes to two or three small drops and the difference starts to add up. "A 0.25% rate hike" is small, but it indicates a change in direction. The article notes that it is "for the first time since 2023".

I'm not sure what you mean exactly?

Here is the "Runtime async" section: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/performance-improvemen...

I'm not sure if this will surface as an "enabled by default" feature in .NET 11 - indeed there may not be a final decision on that yet. But it is an active area of work that will arrive sooner or later.

They could just unplug the network cable? No internet connection, problem over. IDK, this whole hype seems painfully obtuse.

> Can't we accelerate past 1G constantly?

It's hard to accelerate at or beyond 1G for very long with current technology. Roughly speaking, the rocket runs out of fuel soon. Packing more fuel makes the rocket heavier, meaning diminishing returns when using the fuel. The mass required grows exponentially. See "The tyranny of the rocket equation"

3) article is paywalled. Yeah, I know they can be bypassed, but it's yet more friction, not worth it for a really dubious headline.

Cstross certainly did say that in 2017.

> I'm talking about the very old, very slow AIs we call corporations, of course.

https://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2018/01/dude-yo...

> running generator to charge battery to drive the wheels is somehow better than just driving wheels directly

In some ways it is, yes. The engine design is not the same, it doesn't need gearbox, variable power output etc to charge battery. In some ways it can be more efficient.

2 things can be true: the 2011 Volt would be classified as an EREV, and "your average hybrid" would not.

No, this design is not totally new. Despite the article implying this.

> Wait, how does one of these new extended range EV’s have the complexity of both systems

because it obviously has both a battery+electric motor system and a gasoline storage+ICE motor system? It has both systems. It can only be much more complex than a pure EV.

I take the point that EREV could be simpler than other designs that have both motor systems - the PHEV option, in the "it could always be worse" sense. But pure EVs are actually much simpler than ICE vehicles or hybrids.

This is EREV (Extended-Range Electric Vehicle) where the fossil fuel engine is used solely to charge the battery, as opposed to a PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) where it can also drive the wheels.

Either way, the cost is that the vehicle has the complexity of both systems. The benefit is variable, YMMV (Your milage may vary). There must be cases where it's a good idea. Especially at present, while the energy supply systems are in transition.

gambling in the UK "as destructive and predatory as it is in the US" is not something that I have a measure for, and anyway it is the wrong measure.

Even if that is true, UK gambling really is not a force for good, quite the opposite. And becoming worse as it moves from a betting shop on the high street into a betting app in a persons pocket.

> redundancy comes from multiple independent fuel tanks.

And in larger aircraft, multiple independent engines. See for instance ETOPS

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ETOPS

From the pictures, I see that this new aircraft has 4 engines. So it should be adequately resilient to single engine failure.

It is the British English use of the word "knobhead" ?

And also being a person of colour, which is tough in the "hard-line social conservative" lane, where that is often a negative with those voters. Against another person of colour, who could pick up the other voters for whom it is a positive.

And the crazy.

Sure, but wait for 2028.

> don't think that's true it all.

It's not true of them all, but it definitely is true of at least some of them.

I know this because I heard it said in those words in a vox pops interview shortly before the Brexit vote.

> almost unheard of in the US for an elected politician to poll lower than 30%, it seems to be a floor

Alan Keyes apparently set the floor at 27%, which is not far below 30%

> Obama vs. Alan Keyes. ... Keyes was plainly, obviously, completely crazy. But 27% of the population of Illinois voted for him. They put party identification, personal prejudice, whatever ahead of rational judgement.

https://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/10/lunch-discussions-145-...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_United_States_Senate_elec...

And lizardman's Constant is 4% https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Lizardman%27s_Constant