In anticipation of moving house (which hasn’t yet happened) we did a large purge of possessions. It was surprising how much “stuff” we had accumulated, and how much of it we never used. I am still surprised at how little we miss these things and how much nicer our uncluttered house is. From The Guardian (UK).

12,795 possessions! Meet the woman who photographed every single thing she owns

From CNBC. Spoiler: worst state is Texas. Surprise: Mississippi not on the list.

America’s 10 worst states to live and work

A repeat posting. Almost a year ago the Reformed Broker made this extraordinary posting about the post-pandemic fight against inflation. Worth the a re-read almost a year later. Are we back to “normal” yet?

You weren’t supposed to see that

I was approaching a stop light in our new (600 miles on the odometer) Tesla Model 3 when all sorts of alarms went off. Everything was disabled, including the regenerative braking. Lots of messages popped up on the screen and I had to hit the brake hard to stop. Messages popped up and the car beeped and I started to worry.

Got it home and found it was a relatively common problem. Except the solutions were all over the map. Some people said it went away on its own, others said a reboot or a camera recalibration. Some swore by a software update. One fellow claimed to smell smoke in this situation. One person reported a required MCU replacement. It has also been record hot here in Texas but the car is garage kept and I assume Teslas operate in even hotter places. But who knows?

Last week we had the windshield wipers coming on sporadically. Again lots of people with this problem, and lots of suggestions. One was that the front camera was dirty and sunlight hitting it at different angles made it think it was raining. I cleaned off a little spot when the front camera was (ok, the car does need a wash) and all was well.

What if all of these other problems were dirty camera lens issues too? All these functions are tied in to the cameras. So I went around with a napkin and cleaned the five other cameras. Seems like it fixed the issue. Not a very graceful failure, disabling everything for a dirty camera lens. I will also note Tesla has moved away from ultrasound (?) distance sensors to camera only. This vision approach does not seem as robust as the old sensors. Am I suppose to trust self driving mode when it can’t even accurately tell me how far the front of the car is from the curb when parking?

First time I have seen this said out loud. Storage replaces transmission lines. The post has good data but gets a bit technical. Add in that batteries arbitrage the current somewhat wild price fluctuations in energy costs (at least in Texas) and you have a wining formula. The post claims battery farms are profitable after the second year. Not bad. It needs to be pointed out that the lunch they are eating is mostly coming from gas peaker plants. From Casey Handmers Blog.

Grid Storage: Batteries Will Win

Been listening to the modern blues classic SUV by Men Shannon. Seems France is finally having a big debate about car size. I hope Mem Shannon is getting some calls from Paris these days.

Paris to charge SUV drivers higher parking fees to tackle ‘auto-besity’

A map of ERCOT power prices. Interesting to see where power is being produced and where it is being consumed.

Update: ERCOT actually has a nice Grid and Market Conditions dashboard.

Real Time Locational Prices Real Time Market SCED Pricing

Louisiana at #50, Mississippi at #49. Washington #1 and Minnesota #2. From World Population Review.

Worst States to Live In

What to do with that billion or so empty square feet of office space? Farming! From Smithsonian.

Empty Office Buildings Are Being Turned Into Vertical Farms

i was curious about the cost of mining and refining nuclear fuel. It seems like a very energy intensive process. Turns out fuel is a tiny part of the cost of nukes. The overwhelming cost is the multi-billion dollar price tag of the physical plant itself, which will only last about 30 years. All the same total cost of adding nuclear power is now about 5x the cost of renewables. This says nothing of risks and costs of storing spent fuel. I will let you do your own research. When you do Google you will get all sorts of “sponsored content” explaining the “facts” and “truth” about nuclear power. One caught me eye. I hope this is a prank. I can’t get Alexa to play the song I want to hear. I’m sure as heck ain’t gonna let AI drive my car. Let’s hope nobody lets this stuff anywhere near nuclear power.

NuclearN