Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share,

- NFL Career Passing TD Leaders Visualized

- Interesting tech - interesting potential application

- Morgan Housel on Psychological Paths of Least Resistance 

- It's that time of year again - Dr. Peter Attia on the epidemic of Martiomania

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Why India did not allow Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine. We could learn a lot from India.

- Great Lee Marvin story from the archives. 

- Don't think Biden will recover from the classified documents scandal. Mostly because the powers that be in the Democratic Party don't want to risk themselves to save Joe or Hunter. 

- If you're wondering what to get me for Christmas ($777,000 so you may want to start saving up now)

If You're Wondering What to Get Me for Chrstmas

 

Only $777,000!

If You Were Wondering What to Get Me for Christmas

 

The Jetson One only $92,000! Too bad there's only 20 minutes of flight time and that they're not in production until 2022. Next Christmas then!

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Very cool - BMW's new flying car. Two minutes to convert from car to plane is less than it took to take off the T-tops of an older Corvette. 

- NFL Clarifies the Entire League Isn't Gay, Just the Dallas Cowboys. Doug Stanhope had the best bit on the NFL but don't Google "60 inches of AIDS on Any Given Sunday" if you're easily offended (severely NSFW).

- Another worthy appreciation of Donald Rumsfeld

- The neuroscience of gratitude and how it effects anxiety and grief

We May Be Getting Very Close to Flying Cars

 

Thoughts on Musk World

Had two thoughts regarding Musk World that I wanted to share. First regarding Starlink; I had been skeptical about the logistics, business model, and efficacy of the Starlink satellites providing broadband services but I'm starting to come around.

The FCC granted Starlink 1 million licences for service in the US. One of the most recent proposals in Congress to close the digital divide in this country included funding for WiFi on school buses. There are roughly 480,000 school buses in the US. Let's say that School Districts accounting for 250,000 buses apply for and receive subsidies for the roughly $80 per month service. That's $20 million per month in revenue. What better way to get WiFi on buses?

Now let's assume for purposes of argument that's there's at least another 250,000 RV's and boats that are in remote areas or traveling cross country that would love to have reliable high speed Internet. With roughly 1 million living in RV's full time in the US this number is easily doable. Now that's 500,000 subs or $40 million per month in revenue.

There's about 2 million 18-wheeler trucks in the US - easily another 500,000 of them may opt for the pizza box sized receiver for WiFi wherever they roam. Boom - that's $80 million a month in revenue which should be enough to maintain the fleet of 12,000 satellites (when finished) meaning any subscribers outside the US becomes gravy. This is the thought process on why I'm starting to change my tune about Starlink. Haven't even mentioned the possibility of airplanes using the service as a reliable way to provide passengers with WiFi.

Now regarding Tesla. In a very short period of time Tesla has become THE car manufacturer in the world. May not be the biggest (yet) but they have become the bar against which all else have come to be measured. When you think of EV's (electric vehicles) a Tesla automatically comes to mind. How are the other car manufacturers or others new to the space to compete? A possible answer would be not to try and catch up with Tesla but instead to leapfrog them. How? Flying cars.

When Tesla first started they began with a high-end sports car - the Tesla Roadster which now sells for about $200,000. Porsche in a joint venture with Boeing is poised to come out with an autonomous flying vehicle. Other car companies like Hyundai, Rolls Royce, Aston Martin and others are also working on "flying cars." Other new entries to the field like Lilium are pretty close to offering product. And don't forget Google's Larry Paige is quietly amassing a "flying car" empire.

First the rich buy flying autonomous vehicles as status symbols (like they did with the Tesla Roadster) while taking a "flying taxi" becomes a hot new things to do - exposing many to the ease and safety (hopefully) of such travel. Suddenly there a whole new class of competition to Tesla that currently doesn't exist. Just saying but The Jetsons was set in 2062 and there were flying cars and robot maids - but no electric cars.

My two cents.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Trump moves ahead with plans to revive US nuclear program, domestic uranium production.

- Join the Resistance

- The Lilium Jet - a five person flying taxi. Perhaps the furthest along to making those flying cars we were promised a reality

- About that Joe Biden "Heart" ad

- I miss baseball

- Heh Heh

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Different ways to be rich in 2019. Via Steve Layman with whom I agree "An attitude of gratitude" should have somehow made the list.

- NEC and a Japanese start-up demonstrate a flying car that hovered 10-feet off the ground for about 30-seconds. Not too impressive until you recall the Wright brothers first flight was just 59-seconds and look where we are now.

- Only 4 of the 12 people who have walked on the surface of the moon are still alive. Nice article on the memories and oral histories we may soon be losing.

- Disney announces a $12.99 bundle of Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. I might sign up for that.

- Interesting history and question - was email a mistake? I'd say no it's been beneficial (an argument can be made against the reply all email). I'd also say most meetings are mostly time wasted though a 15-minute Scrum seems to help solve that..

- 80% of the books published between 1924-1963 are now eligible to be available in the public domain. It would be cool to find a database searchable by author.

- Good profile of Tom Brady in Men's Health. The tidbit that he wants to open TB12 gyms in New York and LA next year. If so that might explain why he's selling his $39 million Chestnut Hill home for one in Greenwich CT. About equidistant between Foxboro and the new gym in New York.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing or thought I'd share.

- Rare earths crisis in retrospect.

- Scientists are stuck on the mystery of tape. Next time someone says "the science is settled" remind them that science isn't even clear on how Scotch tape works.

-  Don't care what side of the political aisle you are on - this is pretty impressive. And it's the second year in a row I've seen the President do this.

- Living well vs doing well

- Apple is finally killing iTunes

- Flying drone car that runs on hydrogen has range of 400 miles, can carry 5 passengers and can operate for 4 hours.

- Funny because it's true

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Is this heaven? No it's Stockholm.

- Five reasons capitalist Chile is better than socialist Venezuela. There's a lot more than five reasons but the data here is pretty eye-opening.

- Heh Heh (related from VDH)

- I've gotten so confused about Brexit. Shouldn't England be out of the EU by now?

- Interesting - the Air Force wants a flying taxi to retrieve soldiers trapped behind enemy lines or in bad situation. That's the first step - the second step is to use flying taxi's to ferry robot super soldiers to and from battle.

- These actually fit pretty well

Lilium's Flying Taxi

Lilium, a German company, has an interesting design for a 5-person "flying taxi".

Unlike most of the other flying car designs which look like rotor-based drones on steroids (from the article):

The "Lilium Jet" uses 36 electric powered ducted fans. Inside each, a small rotor ingests air from the front and pushes it out of the rear at higher speeds. They're not technically jet engines (so the aircraft isn't a "jet").

The flying taxi's will start with a live pilot (just in case) but the plan is to be completely remotely operated. The vertical take-off and landing vehicles can fly 186 miles in an hour - roughly the distance from Providence, RI to New York City (normally a 3-5 hour drive depending on traffic).

The vehicle's "shape allows for gliding in the event of a complete power failure, and it will carry a ballistic parachute just in case."

We are on the cusp of a brave new world when it comes to travel - remote controlled air taxis and autonomous Tesla's. 

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Victor Davis Hanson on the new nihilism

- Charles Barkley on Jussie Smollett (Smollett is a joke and it is healthy to laugh at him)

- I would absolutely give up a flying car to have one of these instead

- How to walk 100.000 steps in one day. I think I might take up that challenge - it works out to 41+ miles which is a hike no matter how you slice it.

- Heh Heh

- Plutonium

- To the Moon in 2019!

- Sciline - we should all remember

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- This is awesome - good throw sir!

- The world's first commercially available flying car goes on sale in the US next month. Looks pretty cool but what's the price tag?

- The most important graph in the world. Brought to you by Capitalism.

- And God bless you too Buzz!

- Is Elon Musk's job in jeopardy? This week in Musk World.

- Saudi Arabia faces $6 billion lawsuit by 9/11 insurers. I know this story is a year and a half old but I can't seem to find any updates on the lawsuit.

- Bummer - handjobs are all sold out!

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Cool - real-life Iron Man suit

- Let's not forget flying cars - Larry Paige of Google is quietly amassing a flying car empire

- Heh Heh

- This is why Tom Brady is so great

- Indeed! Worst umpire call ever!

- Could there be any more conflicts of interest in this case?

- This photo of Ron Gant from 1993 is easily on of my favorite baseball photos.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Warren Buffett in his own words. 122 hours of recordings of Buffett from the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meetings.

- Here's a quote to ponder today.

- I for one welcome our robot overlords.

- Is there nothing Trump can't do?

- Interesting look at the strategy employed by Celtics coach Brad Stevens.

- More good advice

- So flying cars has morphed into "passenger drones" and Porche is developing one.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Interesting - Trump's war on the regulatory state

- Good for her! I hope someone at the State Department is making sure she's protected.

- Just love aurora photos. This one is from Norway. Stunning!

- Space related industry to triple in size by 2040

- Volvo just acquired a flying car company. And equally surprising (to me) Volvo is now owned by a Chinese company?!?!

- Heh heh

- Every year I say I'm going to spend a week during the summer at Acadia National Forrest. This is the summer I make that happen!

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- The elections in England give us - the worst high-five in history?

- Heh heh - it's funny because its true!

- Heh heh - it's funny because it's not true

- Habits vs Goals - much better to change your habits

- Scientists find 300,000 year old homo sapiens remains and tools. History of man older than thought.

- Will the first "flying car" actually be a helicopter you can also take on the highway?

- Fascinating - the government can track you via what you print out at home

- "Fuck you I'm Millwall" Battle cry of a hero.

- Cool read - the social psychology of flatulence. Science!

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Flying cars are coming closer to reality.

- Very cool - Saturn peeking out behind the moon

- Heh Heh

- Love Secretary Mattis

- Did not know this

- 10 podcasts that will make you smarter

- Damn - so sad to hear of the passing of J. Geils

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- It's been a year since the death of David Bowie. Here's a list of his favorite 100 books.

- This doesn't bode well for the Texans

- Interesting

- Flaming Muffins would be a great name for a lesbian punk band.

- Cool flying car

- Some interesting German compound words

- Heh heh