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Loge

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Posts posted by Loge

  1. 7 hours ago, Werthead said:

    They were Su-27s, which I suspect would last about 0.3 seconds in a dogfight against an F-35, so yeah, a mistake or a particularly elaborate form of suicide.

    I wouldn't be so sure. Actually, the Su-27 would probably win. The F-35 isn't supposed to get into dogfights and isn't very good at it. The F-22 is a different story. Ars Technica had a story on it a while ago.

    https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/04/sitrep-is-the-f-35-now-officially-a-failure/

  2. 19 hours ago, A Horse Named Stranger said:

    So, the re-run of the Berlin state election didn't go well for neither the SPD, nor the FDP.

    Greens are roughly level with their annulled result form last year, which may or may not be enough to finish 2nd ahead of the SPD.

    CDU managed to win that election. 

    Libertarians (FDP) possibly/probably below the 5% threshold.

    Linke relatively comfotably above it. I assume, they kept Wagenknecht away from the campaign trail. Lederer is distinctively not Wagenknecht.

    SPD with their worst result ever in Berlin. Not sure who was hurting the SPD more on a polling level, Scholz or Giffey. Giffey even managed to lose her own district, which she won quite comfortably last time.

    Berlin is is pretty much split between the center ("S-Bahn-Ring"), which votes Green, and the rest of the city, which has voted CDU this time. SPD, Linke, and FDP are losing relevance. AFD is halfway holding up but not doing particularly great either. Technically, the old senate could continue, but that may cost them at the next election. 

    As for why, I won't pretend to fully understand it, but the performance of the incumbent senate hasn't been particularly great. And that didn't start with Giffey. The same parties were already in government during Müller's second term, and that went so well that he didn't even run again.

    The really big change from 2021 is the result of the CDU, which is probably thanks to Merkel not being around anymore. It certainly isn't because Wegner is so brilliant, because he isn't.

     

     

    ETA: Here's the map

    https://interaktiv.tagesspiegel.de/lab/wahl-wiederholung-abgeordnetenhaus-2023-karte-auszaehlungsstaende-historische-ergebnisse-wahlkreisergebnisse-stimmbezirke-ergebnisse/

  3. 5 hours ago, kiko said:

    Years ago we lost a young engineer to Tesla. A couple of weeks ago I managed to recruit him back. If my uncool company is the better alternative, then there must be something wrong with Tesla. 

    From what I have heard it has always been like that with Musk's companies. They prey on the idealism of young people and exploit them mercilessly. After a few years they are burnt out and leave. Of course, this doesn't work for Twitter, as there is no "good cause" young people want to work for.

  4. On 2/3/2023 at 10:32 PM, Iskaral Pust said:

    I wonder if this is a case of Ford paying a big sponsorship fee to watch over the shoulder of the RB engineers as they continue to develop their existing engine platform (originally from Honda), or if this is a re-entry of the Cosworth engine.  The latter seems a big risk for RB to take (even with fuel changes ahead) while they are champions and have the best racing package, but that’s what makes F1 fun.

    The current engine is still developed by Honda. It's just rebadged. The engine for 2026 is Red Bull's own development. Honda isn't evolved. Honda is developing a new engine, too. They will be competitors from 2026.

  5. There is also the issue of "full self driving." Tesla has been charging for this feature for years, and never delivered.

    https://jalopnik.com/elon-musk-promises-full-self-driving-next-year-for-th-1848432496?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=dlvrit&utm_content=jalopnik

    So far they have got away with it, but not much longer, apparently. California has made a law that forbids to advertise cars as fully autonomous unless they really are (Teslas aren't).

    https://gizmodo.com/tesla-elon-musk-full-self-driving-autopilot-1849930860

    There are also criminal investigations:

    https://www.reuters.com/legal/exclusive-tesla-faces-us-criminal-probe-over-self-driving-claims-sources-2022-10-26/

    There are also lawsuits from customers. Tesla's defence is ... interesting.

    https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2022-12-08/tesla-lawsuit-full-self-driving-technology-failure-not-fraud

  6. On 12/23/2022 at 5:24 PM, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

    What does it say that social media is generally operating at a loss?

    It isn't. At least Facebook isn't. Market cap is down but the company is still doing well. It's more about expectations than actual business figures. Not sure what exactly those expectations were. More growth, obviously, but where that was supposed to come from is anybody's guess. It isn't specific to Meta (Facebook), though. Many tech companies have seen their market cap evaporate over the last year. 

  7. 16 hours ago, JGP said:

     

    Nobody knows the trouble I've seen
    Nobody knows my sorrow

     

    The best thing about that whole "stalking incident" is that the kid that Musk claimed had been stalked is named 

    X AE A-XII Musk. 

    Seriously.

  8. 10 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

    Difference is he's got a lot more money, power and influence to protect him. It's kind of amazing though how far he's fallen from a social perspective. Getting booed like that at the Chappelle show was stunning.

    Problem is, the people losing out if he runs Tesla into the ground have a lot of money too. A Twitter bankruptcy will probably be quite bad already. Larry Ellison, Saudi Arabia, and some big banks stand to lose  money there. Musk probably could reimburse them with money from selling more Tesla stock. Actually,  wonder if that isn't already happening. But if Tesla tanks he is in real trouble. And let's not forget that the company's relative success so far was all based on faith in Musk, which he has just destroyed.

  9. So we have a deal between FIA and Red Bull on the cost cap. Red Bull have accepted a penalty of $7 million (which doesn't count against the cap) and a 10% reduction of their wind tunnel time for 2023. And of course, the overspending was on stuff like catering and benefits for employees on sick leave, not car development.

  10. Still no final verdict or deal over the (alleged) overspending. Meanwhile, Dietrich Mateschitz has died. There had been talk about his deteriorating health before, when the deal with Porsche was called off. One has to wonder what this means for the future of the F1 team. Marko is quite old, too, and one has to wonder how much clout he has left with Mateschitz gone.

  11. $3 million definitely isn't Ferrari's development budget. I think the figure is from Mercedes, and it's what they spend on upgrade parts. (My understanding is it's the manufacturing cost of these parts.) And of course they could spend $5 million if they cut cost elsewhere. The budget cap doesn't cover anywhere near all of the team's expenses to begin with. 

    https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-cost-cap-what-is-it-how-it-works/10379799/

    Red Bull's "overspending" is probably the result of a dispute over what expenses fall under the cap and what don't. 

     

    ETA: Mercedes spent about £300 million in 2021 according to their financial report.

  12. What are they going to do, take away last year's championship a year after the fact? This year's? That would massively damage the sport. It would have to be a budget reduction for next year, or something like that (e.g. less testing). That always leaves the teams with the choice to sacrifice next next year for an advantage in the current season.

  13. So FIA found that Aston Martin and Red Bull have violated the cost cap rules for 2021. Aston Martin hasn't exceeded the cost cap itself. Red Bull has, according to FIA, but denies it. Seems the amount is rather minor, though. Nothing about the consequences yet.

    I have always wondered how they are going to enforce the cost cap. Surely there a lot of accounting tricks the teams can play. 

  14. 5 minutes ago, Luzifer's right hand said:

    I remember there was this Kyoto thing back in the 90s informing us that we need to get shit done. We could have transitioned away from fossil fuels by now.

    But the gas industry has done a great job at undermining the stability of our countries that is definitely true.

    I don't know about Austria, but you definitely  don't get Germany over the Winter on wind and photovoltaic. Both fail completely for prolonged periods (a day or longer) several times a year ("Dunkelflaute"). The Powers That Be, led by Merkel, decided that gas was to be the backup. Alternatives would have been coal and nuclear, both of which the Greens (whose votes in the Bundesrat have been necessary for any serious piece of legislation for decades now) heavily opposed.

  15. 3 hours ago, polishgenius said:

    :angry: what is this bullshit

    That's one of the downsides of the safety car. It's supposed to slow down the pack. But drivers will pit, then push to catch up again. Not ideal for safety.

     

    Max Verstappen has cinched his second title as the drivers were awarded full points despite the short race distance.

  16. Cars lose a lot of value over the first three years, so getting a new one that often would cost you a lot. Which raises the question if the tax of 12 % per year isn't a bit low. There's also the issue of social security. The employer saves a lot on that by not paying a higher salary. The whole thing is of course a big marketing machine for the carmakers. The German premium brands make more than half of their domestic sales this way.

  17. 7 hours ago, williamjm said:

    Sauber's only win (and 1-2) came during the BMW ownership when Kubica won in Canada with Heidfeld second, Kubica would briefly lead the world championship after that. I think that was definitely the peak of Sauber's long F1 history.

    I listened to an interview with Beat Zehnder recently, and he is convinced that BMW Sauber was on track to win a championship when BMW pulled the plug. He blames it on change of leadership. The new CEO didn't like motor racing. I heard a similar story about Toyota. Apparently the car they built for 2010 was a huge improvement over their 2009 car. I guess we'll never know how good it really was, but we do know that Honda pulled the plug just when they finally had a good car, as Brawn's success shows. (Of course it's possible that they had a good car before and the engine sucked.)

  18. 26 minutes ago, TheLastWolf said:

    Ignorant me surprised to learn BMW Sauber was once a thing, now Alfa Romeo Sauber too breaking up with Audi's (Volkswagen) announced entry.

    BMW actually owned Sauber, and when they pulled the plug the team would have been shut down had Peter Sauber not bought it back. Big car makers and Formula 1 generally hasn't been a good fit so far, despite the recent Mercedes success. Renault keeps entering Formula 1 only to pull out a few years later, dito Honda. Peugeot, Toyota, Ford (Jaguar), BMW - there's quite a list of unsuccessful Formula 1 entries.

    As for Sauber, they also have some history with Mercedes and Red Bull.

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