I had no idea this was legal.  It’s mostly west campus student apartments.  From KUT.

Developers have built thousands of windowless bedrooms in Austin

I read (or mostly skim) The Communications of the ACM (CACM).   I almost always stop to read the question and answer page by George Neville-Neil a.k.a “Kode Vicious”.  It’s usually a deep topic on software or system development and the writing is usually a bit cynical and more than a bit humorous.  KV seems to be a guy who has Seen Things.  Today he gives his take on Artificial Intelligence (AI).  Summary: it’s another software tool / technique that will automate some things.  That is what software always does. A good read.

Is There Another System?

A bit of a milestone.  California is producing enough renewable electricity to power the state 100% for several hours a day, several days running.

California surges beyond 100 pct renewables

This subject (somehow) came up twice in as many days.  Decided to give it a quick look to see why these discredited ideas are still around, some 45 years later.  No, the Reaganomics idea that tax cuts create growth and pay for themselves is not true.  Not even half true.  Yet there is no call to go back to the saner, more effective policies from before this failed “experiment”. From the Wiki.

Karl Case and Ray Fair wrote in Principles of Economics, “The extreme promises of supply-side economics did not materialize. President Reagan argued that because of the effect depicted in the Laffer curve, the government could maintain expenditures, cut tax rates, and balance the budget. This was not the case. Government revenues fell sharply from levels that would have been realized without the tax cuts.”

Supply-side Economics

Really the big, and almost only noticable difference between an electric and a gas car is how you “fill up”.  When we bought our first Tesla almost 5 years ago, part of the calculation was based on the supercharger network.  If we ever wanted to go on road trips, or even just move the car some distance, it was nice to know it was possible, and even easy.

We aren’t heavy car users but we were a bit naive about charging.  At first we were using 110v which gave maybe 4 miles of range per hour of charge.  Ok for us, but probably not adequate for a commute.

With the tax breaks available we put a 220V charger in the garage and it is wonderful.  Full charge in a few hours.  So much easier than going to gas stations.

We did take some short road trips, then a longer one.  Using Tesla superchargers was fast and convenient.  We had to plan a bit more, and it was maybe a bit slower than filling up with gas, but we were never in a hurry.  Another big win for Tesla.

Today I see headlines that EVs are somehow going out of style for hybrids.  I personally don’t think so.  My guess is Mr Musks politics has gotten him in trouble with a big chunk of his potential sales base.  I personally know people who won’t buy a Tesla for this reason.  We actually had similar reservations when we bought our second Tesla.

While there are lots of good EVs out there, I don’t think any are better over all than Tesla.  And none have that fast charger network.  I think this is keeping Tesla afloat, and may be the source of enduring value for the company.  To their credit, Tesla understood their customers and invested significantly to provide this charger network, and others did not.

What will happen to Tesla, I can’t say.  Cheap Chinese imports could kill them in a very short time.  But I do know this for certain, their charging network will be around for a long time.

Tesla’s Supercharging Network Set To Rake In Piles Of Cash

I posted this back in 2018 (Louisiana Politics), with the linked story being from 2009.  While Stormy Daniels seems to prefer being referred to as a “porn star”, she actually started a senate campaign in Louisiana in 2009 which appears to have been deralied by a bombing.  I dont know if the bomber was ever identified.  Where are the conspiracy theorists when you really need them?  Again this is from 2009.

Stormy Daniels’ Political Advisor May Have Been Hit By Car Bomb: Reports

Everyone was worried about the crowds coming to central Texas, and elsewhere, for yesterday’s eclipse.  As far as I can tell, none of the problems, notably traffic jams, materialized.  I think the hype, including pre-emptively declaring a state of emergency, scared lots of people off.

This morning, however, I had to take friends and family to the airport.  Not a pleasant experience on a good day.  I braced myself for the worst.

To be fair, the airport in Austin was built for a much smaller city, but very little effort has gone into keeping up.  The pick up / drop off lanes are my vote the most dysfunctional driving experience anywhere, at least in the US.

The signs approaching the airport said you can drop off at the pick up spots and vice versa.  Completely useless and maybe even counter productive.  The airport is basically saying: we give up on even the illusion of some sort of order or control.  It’s a free for all.  Every man for himself.

I was headed for the drop off lanes when the car in front of me, a taxi, swerved into the pick up lane at the last minute.  I boldly followed.  What I saw was something I had never seen before.  The pick up zone was completely empty. I’ve been here many times at all hours and all times of the year and have never seen anything remotely like this.

I parked, unloaded and said goodbye, leisurely.  On the way out I rolled down the passenger side window and asked the crossing guard: where is everybody?  He just shrugged.

Every now and then I run across something that I’m certain must be fake.  But this is from the BBC and appears authentic. Once I saw the photo of this person I was less surprised.

Ringleader of global monkey torture network, ‘The Torture King’, is charged

From yesterday.

MILWAUKEE OPPENDRIVER NUCLEAR-POWERED DRILL