Off topic galore

[CLK350]

Re posting this from the main investment thread as it may be deleted by mods

I didn't want a Twitter account before Elon bought it and I don't want one now. I avoid the toxic social media rabbit hole and that isn't going to change. I already support Elon plenty by holding almost all my net worth in TSLA. If anything, Elon owes me support for selling down the value of my TSLA shares to fund this ill-advised Twitter acquisition.

You would be right for 90% of social networks like Facebook, Instagram etc. Then what is your best source of unbiased, more objective news? Knowing that most media companies (news, sports, movies, entertainment, games .. .) are owned by 6 corporations, how do you keep up with "the news"? is it a coincidence that 90% of people have no idea a completely wrong idea of what Elon really did and from what he started when he came to the US via a stint in Canada, from SA?
What is really toxic is relying on a select few news channels in our "comfort zone". And then being subtly manipulated by whoever controls the media (and the politicians).
Even relying on Google for its excellent search lets "them" manipulate you. In case you weren't aware (I wasn't till recently, so I use a different browser and VPN to make their job a bit harder) - and I use DuckDuckGo and a couple other less censored search engines to get less censored news/ information.

I mention all this in the context of Elon's latest Twitter move.

We may want to believe all's best if Elon stays limited to Tesla, SpaceX, the Boring Co etc. But I do believe Elon is way smarter than uh most of us (me certainly) and he didn't make this latest move if he didn't think it would be beneficial to Tesla's mission or humanity more generally. Recall he did start the Open AI foundation, later to separate from it as it wasn't fullfilling its original mission.

We are lucky (as investors) in that Elon is *also* an excellent businessman: he will make his enterprisees pay for themselves and more (euphemism). Look at Tesla, SpaceX, the Boring Company if you have any doubts.

Remember, Tesla forever enemies are the SEC, the main mass media and Wall Street - so he's really taking them on now. Because now he can, with Tesla, SpaceX all in good hands as we have seen. We have gotten so used to a corrupt SEC, Wall Street and all politicians we have sort of accepted it as normal. But it isn't normal. It may only take one push for people to finally wake up. This is my hope, and I'm really so happy Elon is taking on the challenge.

Edit: video mentioned above by Epstein, from the Harvard trained PhD now at the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies

Robert Epstein: Inside Big Tech’s Manipulation Machine and How to Stop It

“They hold in their hands the power to change thinking and behavior on a massive scale, the power—in close elections anyway—to pick the winner, in country ...

www.theepochtimes.com

 

[mongo]

I was quoting the exact phrase, that @StealthP3D used in the post I was replying to -- no misquote there *see Spoiler below.
I said Elon used those exact words, which is true, although he did not use the exact same phrase he had the extra word "price" in it, but I did not claim he used the same phrase, just that he used those words.

Spoiler

See exact quote's from @StealthP3D and my posts highlighted to verify:

@StealthP3D was creating dialog for a hypothetical investor though, and you were quoting them, not Elon?

Those who were the least skeptical about Elon Musk's claims, would in fact have believed him when he said those exact words: "the stock is too high".

Doesn't read that way, Elon never said those exact words. Yes, he used those words, but he also used an additional word. If exact doesn't also mean complete, then one can say Elon used those exact words in regards to any sentence composed of a subset of words he has ever used in a sentence.

Valid variations:
If he said "the stock is too high"
When he said "the stock price is too high"

Exact word definition and meaning | Collins English Dictionary
Exact means correct in every detail. For example, an exact copy is the same in every detail as the thing it is copied from

Writing about others work: using direct quotations
How to Use Indirect Quotations in Writing

Is it Monday yet?

 

[mongo]

Being one of those old people, I resent this remark. There are a lot of us on this thread. We all own Tesla and Teslas.

@Snerruc , it wasn't directed at you...

If I may be simplistic: Old people that own a lot of stuff and no TSLA would prefer that Tesla died.

 

[mongo]

Transportation is so closely tied to energy costs, a strong argument could be made that including Transportation in the Core CPI is a sub-optimal approach and it should be either tied to Energy, split into Energy and Non-Energy portions, or have it's own category.

Not an economist, however.

Yeah, I hear yah. I almost mentioned that, but energy was actually down in April so then it gets into pricing lags and all that minutia. Last month's gasoline was up 18.3%, so that might be the driver.

 

[JRP3]

I hope that some of the people living in small town with 200 people also think about riding a bike or walking every once in a while. Unless they are working in the next town, riding a bike is probably even faster than requesting, waiting, and riding in a robotaxi.

Biking is great, as long as you don't mind your commute time tripling or more, each way, getting caught in the rain, dealing with high winds, heat, snow, dust, etc. For a while I lived 3 miles away from work, going to work was down hill so almost the same amount of time as driving. Coming home after a hard day of work was not pleasant even with good weather and took 4 times as long so I did it rarely.

 

[daniel]

Biking is great, as long as you don't mind your commute time tripling or more, each way, getting caught in the rain, dealing with high winds, heat, snow, dust, etc. For a while I lived 3 miles away from work, going to work was down hill so almost the same amount of time as driving. Coming home after a hard day of work was not pleasant even with good weather and took 4 times as long so I did it rarely.

I considered getting a velomobile: a tricycle with a fairing to protect the rider from the elements. But then I bought my old Zap Xebra (long gone now) and with my electricity back then coming from hydro, I was no longer concerned with saving gas. I'd get exercise, which is good, but I was concerned about safety. There were no bike lanes in my neighborhood.

Of course, as a commuter vehicle it would keep the rain off, but wouldn't save time compared to a bicycle.

 

[mongo]

That is what i do not get....sell factory...(do not own factory now that 'produces' vehicles), stock up....well, i guess nothing's changed because they were not producing anything anyways.

Gains cash from sale
Reduces expense from property debt
Decreases CoGS since only used space is now applied instead of full fixed cost.

(I think cash on hand was the big issue)

 

[mongo]

While ($TSLA << 50 * EPS forecast for ‘23

Ack! undefined oversized left shift of a BASIC string with a float!

 

[JRP3]

This seems insane. Is the Chinese economy a house of cards? Ghost cities of China.

 

[betstarship]

This seems insane. Is the Chinese economy a house of cards? Ghost cities of China.

Speaking of ghost cities, Shanghai is one right now:

Why China won't relent on its 'zero COVID' strategy

In Shanghai, the long near total lockdown has meant empty streets, food insecurity, and rising anger and dissent. So why is China still pursing its iron clad COVID-zero strategy?

www.northcountrypublicradio.org

 

[Skipdd]

We spent the weekend in New York City. First time visiting in 2 years (since COVID). Discovered a Tesla based rideshare company Revel. Unfortunately they have a wait list to be able to even request a vehicle (I am now on the waitlist lol). Taxis are not as plentiful as they used to be. Ubers are still good. Took them mostly - never got a Tesla. Can’t wait for Robo taxis. NYC will be one of the top markets in the world for them.
View attachment 804713

 

[JRP3]

Imagine this concept. EVERY CAR ON THE ROAD IS A TESLA and they are all in a tunnel.

with proper spacing, no signs overhead, no change in lighting you won't be seeing phantom breaking and even if you did the Tesla behind will slow down no problem.

I'm not saying it's impossible to solve just that it hasn't yet. Phantom braking can happen on a clear day with clear roads and no other vehicles around.

 

[mongo]

I'm not saying it's impossible to solve just that it hasn't yet. Phantom braking can happen on a clear day with clear roads and no other vehicles around.

And weird patterns in the road surface.

 

[JRP3]

Or perfectly clear roads...

 

[mongo]

Or perfectly clear roads...

So clear means uniform, not empty?

 

[JRP3]

It means there is no reason for a braking event to be happening, clear, clean, even pavement, no other vehicles, I don't know how to explain it any more clearly. Maybe a spec of dirt triggered it

 

[mongo]

It means there is no reason for a braking event to be happening, clear, clean, even pavement, no other vehicles, I don't know how to explain it any more clearly. Maybe a spec of dirt triggered it

People often refer to empty roads as clear.
"Turn out of the parking lot when the road is clear"
In this usage, it does not address potholes, patches, tar lines, skid marks, shadows, or any of the other things a vision system could be confused by.
So I asked.

 

[jerry33]

People often refer to empty roads as clear.
"Turn out of the parking lot when the road is clear"
In this usage, it does not address potholes, patches, tar lines, skid marks, shadows, or any of the other things a vision system could be confused by.
So I asked.

In addition, there’s the definition of phantom braking. Does it mean sudden momentary slowing when approaching a situation that might need full braking, which is something that a human mighr do but seems strange because the human isn’t doing it. This is compounded because FSD brakes and accelerates far too aggressively—even in chill mode (I typically disengage before five minutes of FSD driving because it stops so aggressively). Or does it mean that it comes to a full stop suddenly if the driver doesn’t override? If the latter, it’s happened once in 28,000 miles and it was shortly after receiving the car, so many upgrades ago. I really want to like FSD,and it’s great for trips, but for me it’s unusable around town, even though I start to use it on almost every drive.

 

[daniel]

I believe "phantom braking" means slowing down when there's no apparent reason for it, or when the thing that triggered it should not have, such as a shadow or an overpass. If there's a good reason, it's not "phantom."

 

[betstarship]

Axios|SurveyMonkey Poll: January 6th revisited

A year after the storming of the U.S. Capitol, more than half (57%) of Americans say similar events are likely to reoccur in the next few years, according to a new Axios|SurveyMonkey poll.

www.surveymonkey.com

"Only a slim majority (55%) accepts Joe Biden as having legitimately won the 2020 election, down slightly from 58% a year ago. Another 26% say they do not accept Biden as the legitimate winner (was 27% last year) and 16% are not sure (was 11% last year)."

and

"More than half (57%) say events similar to those of Jan. 6th are likely to occur again in the next few years"

Lots of other tidbits in the article.