In Smallville, I think mama and papa Kent had help from papa Luthor in the paperwork department so officially they adopted an orphan. I don’t remember what, if anything, happened to the original orphan whose info they used.

Never ask Mr. Kühne where his family’s fortune came from, or what their most popular cargo was in the 40s.

I reckon Rare must have given him a lot of creative freedom that he felt he might not get elsewhere. There’s ways to keep your employees for decades even in the modern software and games industries and it’s not pizza parties and calling your company a family. It’s letting long-time employees be decision-makers and rewarding them for the company’s successes.

Fair enough. Though in such a case (zero aftermarket parts availability), you’re better off getting a used part IMO, unless it’s a wear item. But that’s just my opinion of course.

Tl;dr: you’re technically right, but BEVs aren’t sustainable if you need to pay up front for the battery.

A 10-20k battery replacement on a car worth 30-40k used, for an example, is not “regular maintenance” though. And presumably it would come with a new 8 year warranty like the original battery does in every BEV, if you’re paying (financing) an OEM battery at the main dealer. Once the vehicle is older and worth less, there will hopefully be cheaper solutions

If BEVs and HEVs can’t easily do 20 years of service, we should just stop building them and go back to internal combustion full time. Fuck planned obsolescence.

To be clear I meant there should be government-backed low-interest credit programs for replacing expensive EV parts that would render the car scrap metal when they fail after 8 years and one month. Similar to how you can get student loans with a next-to-nothing interest rate because it’s government backed and they mandate a maximum interest rate and payment term. Because otherwise I’m going to trust a 25 year old pollution machine over an 8 year old BEV and that’s why there depreciating at a record rate.

You can have an Audi E-Tron for no money at all just a few years after it launched because nobody wants to be left holding the bag. I’ve owned ICE Audis, Mercs and BMWs with between 300k and 600k on the clock and had no issues that would leave me stranded, except for serpentine belts a couple of times because most of those were bought as poorly maintained vehicles in the first place. I have an easier time trusting a 20 year old car with 500k on it than a 5 year old BEV with 100k or even only 50k on it because I know if I can’t sell the 5 year old car before the battery warranty expires, I’m cooked. I’ve looked at BMW i5, MB EQE, Audi E-Tron, even the Porsche Taycan because they’ve all nicely depreciated now and I could justify them as a company car (saves me damn near 70% in pretax income compared to buying as a private person), but instead I’m keeping my privately owned 18 year old Diesel A6 because even on a company car I don’t want to be hit by a massive battery replacement cost and even if it’s a company car, I don’t want to buy new because fuck being hit by all that depreciation the first owner gets. But if I could get it at 4% APR for a year or 2, I’d be happy to replace an EV battery to keep it going if the rest of the car is solid and I get a good warranty.

Depends on the model. When my first car was having alternator trouble, I replaced the regulator which required me to remove a whopping two bolts. Of course it’s not possible on all alternators, but it was the first example I could think of. Similarly, if you’ve got a bad valve body in your auto transmission, most main dealers would tell you that you need to replace the entire transmission. Etc.

Tesla still makes the best EVs out of the American manufacturers I believe. They make really horrible cars though.

The big 3 are no better, but if Tesla had merged with a Japanese or European manufacturer that actually knows how to build great cars, it could’ve been something spectacular. A ridiculous market advantage.

Glad you no longer have it, but next time, regardless of manufacturer, if you have a minor issue that isn’t covered by warranty, don’t bother taking it to the dealer. They all scam you based on the hourly pricing (not competitive to independent shops, even specialists of the marque) and replacement policy (replace as big a part as possible because more money + less chance of customer coming back. Example for ICE based cars: Friend did his apprenticeship at a Toyota dealer. Car came in with a bad alternator voltage regulator (probably 20-30 euros for an aftermarket part, Toyota would obviously ask more for a genuine Toyota branded part), his boss told him it’s going to have to be a full alternator replacement, they won’t replace the regulator itself. This policy is great under warranty (you get more parts renewed, yay), but not so much when it’s an out of pocket repair.

I could see battery packs and motors being financable at a sensible interest rate being a good thing for people who can’t afford such expenses out of pocket - it would make it possible for slightly less well off people to buy used EVs instead of used ICE cars.

This though? Fuck everything about this.

Is it? Comment above mine says that if the Brits showed up, they definitely genocided you. Mine says that it was only guaranteed to be genocide if you’re not white. The “might still be genocided if you’re white” part was left for the reader to infer, that was an error on my part, as it was a bit too subtle for no reason.

Jesus the GSMArena comment section is exhausting to read. What does MAGA have to do with any of this?

If Apple doesn’t stop this “EU is making us remove features” nonsense soon, my next phone is going to be whatever Android has a healthy update life guarantee and easily unlockable bootloader.

Here in Estonia (very white folks, we’re pretty far north), the Brits lent us a few ships the first time we broke free from Russian rule. So what I meant is if you’re white, they’ll occasionally help you (probably to get back at another empire), but if you’re colored, they’ll genocide you and take your land for sure.

Hoping it’s both but we all know the big colonies were given away because of revolutions, not out of their free will.

The British literally helped my extremely white people gain independence. They don’t always genocide white people is what I meant. They only sometimes genocide white people. They always genocide non-white people.

That’s a pretty small list tbh. Should be 0, but at least it’s not half of Africa and Asia anymore.

If the British showed up, they tried to genocide, that’s just what they do

I mean only if it’s non-white people. They’ve helped white people out sometimes - of course only when it’s aligned with their interests.

Yeah, hoping we can avoid that, but it’s not looking too great. It’s a mitigation for today’s world, but not for the future unless we also manage to solve the water issue. And just global warming in general.

And both make me go with a different company next time so idk what they think they’re gaining.

I installed triple glazing and started shutting windows during the day, but since there’s little ventilation, that means the air gets really bad here eventually. There’s trees on the south side of the house and no windows on that wall. I’m further north than the majority of the UK (think between Inverness and Shetland for my latitude - except I’m at the Baltic sea).

The AC is just necessary in the last few years. A decade ago it got hot, but not unbearably. Now it’s worse. I think the increased insulation is actually making AC-less, windows-closed situation heat worse since there are no shutters. I do wonder if polarizing film would be an effective alternative, as I don’t want it to be dark 24/7 and I’d forget to re-open the shutters when the summer is over lol

Does that work for ground source heat pumps too? Like could I literally cool my floor with one? For summer and light winter, my air to air unit is fine and air to water is great too, but when it’s like -25 or -30 out, the air source units start getting pretty inefficient.