Humans have had civilization for a lot longer than they have had electricity. By “civilization” I mean all those organizing structures and practices that keep social groups together. A common language or religion, for example. A transportation network with roads, canals, bridges, and ports. A water supply and a scheme for dealing with waste. A communication network with news, information, and mail. Arable land and agricultural surpluses. Markets. Import and export of commodities. Contracts. The rule of law. Educational institutions. Libraries. Town squares. Musical, artistic, and cultural events. Civilized places have these things. They had these things when oxen pulled plows, not diesel tractors, and when fire lit the night, not electricity.

Today, however, our civilization depends on electricity. Just look at the map. The lit-up regions are where most people live (click on the photo to embiggen).

If you want to destabilize human society just pull the plug. Imagine your life without electricity. Hint: you can’t. Electricity is as essential to you as the air you breathe and the water you drink. Think of electrical energy as the blood that flows through the world we’ve built.

We get electricity by burning coal and other fossil fuels. The heat makes steam, the steam turns turbines. If we are lucky, in some places, we can use falling water to turn those turbines. Or perhaps the wind or tides. We can collect sunlight and dump it to the grid or store it in batteries. With the threat of climate change even much-maligned nuclear fission is looking better and better. Atomic heat is a lot more efficient at making steam than burning hydrocarbons.

The cost of making electricity plummeted in the latter half of the 20th century. It has become so cheap and so abundant that we use it more and more and more. And there are more of us. And we are hotter in the summer than before so we need more electricity to stay cool. Air conditioning demand has been rising steadily for decades—expect that to continue.

Regardless of your political or cultural affiliation in these perverse, anti-social times, we are all better off with civilization and its institutions than without it. Chaos and anarchy make for great sci-fi plots but lousy living.

That means we should all care about our electricity supply. We need a robust and resilient electrical grid with redundancy in case of disasters. This collection of wires and poles and generators and whatnot is as important to our democracy as the founding documents. Thomas Jefferson would probably be aghast at mega-cities and a massive energy infrastructure, but those things are our world, not his. The pieces of the electrical puzzle mean nothing of course without the extraordinary human knowledge base that invented, built, and continues to run the system. Civilizations preserve and transmit important knowledge—that may the single most important thing any civilization can do, to make sure the next generation gets the benefits created by the previous one.

Technology gets so complex and mysterious at a certain point in its evolution that the people who understand it become increasingly like a priestly class. Their knowledge becomes inaccessible to the vast majority of the users of the technology and they become like shamans or sorcerers.

This is a bad thing. You don’t have to know how a polyphase synchronous motor works in order to expect that your electrical grid will deliver the goods. Not everyone is an electrical engineer. But the knowledge that these people have is not sorcery. It is not magic. And the technology has no value by itself but only as part of social structures that serve the needs of people. And we can all work on those.

I need to stay plugged in. You need to stay plugged in. Let’s all stay plugged in.

My favorite website is Astronomy Picture of the Day. APOD to those in the know. APOD goes all the way back to 1995 and there’s a complete archive of all the images. Here’s today’s. You’ve seen it before. It never gets old. We are all just passengers on this third rock from the sun and it’s good to be reminded of that.

But I don’t want to talk about the blue marble. I want to talk about Africa, which is mostly what we see as far as the land area goes. Africa has by some estimates 30% of the world’s mineral resources. That’s reasonable considering its 30 million square kilometers of land, just a few million less than Asia, the largest of the continents. Africa produces over half of the world’s diamonds, about a fourth of the world’s gold, and is rich in cobalt, platinum, manganese, bauxite, uranium, and copper. It’s major producer of phosphate rocks used in fertilizers. It even has lots of fossil fuels!

Why should we care about Africa? Because we use all of those natural resources. If it isn’t farmed, it’s mined. (I should note that Africa has 65% of the world’s arable land.) The Congo (DRC) has most of the world’s cobalt and most of Africa’s copper. Chinese companies not only dominate Congo’s mining industry they built the toll roads to haul the materials from the mines to the export sites. And paid off the president and his family, too. China has the fastest-growing EV market in the world and they want to secure their supplies of critical minerals.

We here in North America need those same things. We want cleaner power sources like solar panels and wind turbines, and we want EVs, and we will likely have to invest in nuclear power again. All of that takes mining. Lots of mining. Mining is messy and the industry has a lousy track record. People and communities are suspicious of mining companies. In too many places in the world the miners have come, gotten rich, devastated the land, and left. The pollution and economic fallout weren’t part of the business plan.

Here at home we aren’t very enthusiastic about new mining projects. We tend to look elsewhere for our supplies. We are willing to trust much of our future to imports from other places. That’s certainly a viable strategy: develop solid trade relationships with stable jurisdictions. But it’s only one piece. A supply chain has to be more robust—if we’ve learned anything in this pandemic we’ve learned that our supply chains are vulnerable.

For starters, there aren’t enough stable jurisdictions in the world. Mining companies would rather work in countries with law and order. Political instability is not good for things like contracts. Secondly, mineral deposits are not scattered equally over the globe. They tend to be clustered in certain places.

So you have to have a domestic mining industry if you have those precious mineral deposits. The United States of America is a good place to mine because mining companies trust the legal system. Their assets will not be seized by outlaws. Their workers will not be attacked by paramilitaries. That’s an issue in some countries.

Wealthy countries have the luxury of exporting their environmental problems. We can let poorer nations assemble our electronics and make our clothes and not worry about the chemicals polluting their air and water. If those industries were here we’d have stricter regulations and things would cost more.

The challenge is to have domestic industries but to do them better. There’s no reason why we can’t pull stuff out of the ground intelligently. There’s no reason we can’t figure in the cost of protecting ourselves from pollution. We can reduce waste. In fact, we can eliminate the whole notion of waste and build a circular economy.

We have to view the minerals in the ground as precious resources to husband and develop for the good of humanity. In a capitalist economy, that’s hard. It’s more about dollars than citizenship. And it takes a lot of dollars to make a mine and keep it going so miners like to get some return on their investment. That makes for a difficult dynamic.

But it’s one we have to solve since, like I said earlier, we are all just passengers on this third rock from the sun.

Do you suffer from FOMO?

If you don’t know the acronym it stands for “fear of missing out.”

Note this is not the same as actually “missing out” on something! This is the FEAR of missing out on something.

It’s a kind of anxiety that seems particularly suited to the modern world. Social media is a great breeding ground for FOMO. Just look at those pictures of your friends snorkeling in the Seychelles!! YOU ARE MISSING OUT! You’re a loser!

Our phones are another source of FOMO. We carry them with us all the time and constantly check for updates because OH MY GOD WE MIGHT MISS SOMETHING IMPORTANT!

TV is great for FOMO. We get bombarded by all the latest and coolest things and it makes you wonder if life has passed you by. All those other folks out there are richer, prettier, healthier, and hipper than you are.

I remember having FOMO when I was an adolescent. In high school the cool kids would be in a group laughing and carrying on and I knew they were having way more fun than I was, both in and out of school. FOMO is fundamental to teen angst.

Then I grew up. I learned that some people were smarter than me. Better looking. Wealthier. More privileged. I also learned that some people worked harder than me. Or were luckier. Or both. In short, I came to understand and accept a lesson that Mom taught me when I was a boy, namely “life’s not fair.”

It’s easy to get cured of FOMO. Just think about all the poor people in the world who don’t have a roof over their heads. Or who don’t know where their next meal is coming from. Or who live in some shit-hole like Yemen and have to run from Saudi-led bombing attacks. If you are reading this then you mostly have it made. You are one of the lucky ones.

FOMO is fuel for the financial industry. I’m invested in the stock market. I’ve got some retirement savings that I’d like to (1) grow and (2) keep safe. I do my research and try not to get greedy. I take the long view whenever possible. I try not to let volatility and market fluctuations disrupt my plans.

But it’s hard. There is an endless stream of new investment opportunities. And they all sound so compelling! I don’t want to miss out on a good thing. I don’t want to be that schmuck who failed to put his money into the next big wealth-generating possibility.

Then I remember that I’ve already been that guy! I missed out on Apple stock. Microsoft. Amazon. Google. Man, it would have been cool to be one of the early investors in those outfits. I did buy some gold coins at $300/oz. and sold them later for $1200/oz.! But my portfolio is mostly pretty boring stuff: ETFs, blue-chips, CDs, that sort of thing. Plus I’m a homeowner and like most middle-class homeowners the bulk of my wealth is tied up in my real estate!

These days there is an entirely new class of “investments.” I use quotes because I’m suspicious. I’m talking of course about cryptocurrency. And its underlying technology, the blockchain. And the stuff it has spawned, like DAOs and NFTs. Don’t know what a DAO is? You are missing out. It’s a “decentralized autonomous organization.” And NFTs are “non-fungible tokens.” (I love the word “fungible.”) Are you feeling the FOMO yet?

All the cool kids are into crypto, it seems. And lots of people are jumping into that “investment space” because they have a severe case of FOMO. I suspect a lot of the people dumping their money into this stuff could not give you a simple definition of “blockchain.” And even if they could, they don’t really understand the technology. And it’s not because they are dumb, it’s because it is hard stuff. (Go to this link and read this paper and then tell me if you understand the technology.)

I say this because I’ve spent the last several weeks researching all this. I had an attack of FOMO and needed to know if I should dump some money into crypto, blockchains, DAOs, and NFTs. I sure didn’t want to miss out on this fantastic wealth-making opportunity.

You needn’t worry. I’m over it. I don’t generally suffer from FOMO anyway, so my attack was mild and didn’t last.

Here’s what I learned. Blockchains are an intriguing technology. They are being tried out in lots of places. Right now the only real application is cryptocurrency, but I could see some other interesting uses. Unfortunately the hype about blockchains far exceeds their utility. Right now almost everything blockchain enthusiasts are excited about is being done by the same old boring technologies (like distributed databases) we’ve had for decades. All computer applications suffer from the simple rule of GIGO, or “garbage in, garbage out.” A blockchain filled with accurate and truthful information is useful. A blockchain filled with inaccurate and untruthful information is a waste of storage and computing power. It’s like putting banana peels in a safety deposit box. They’re secure, but they’re still just banana peels.

Cryptocurrency is great for criminals. That’s a fact. Even the most ardent crypto-bro will admit this. These things may, someday, have use as an actual currency for regular people. That is, you could substitute a crypto-coin for actual dollars or pounds or euros. But that’s still undetermined. Raley’s doesn’t take bitcoin. The credit union I make my car payments to doesn’t take bitcoin. Pacific Power doesn’t take bitcoin. The City of Yreka wants my dollars, not bitcoin. They’ll shut off my water if I don’t pay with legal tender.

Right now cryptocurrency is not really currency. It’s a highly speculative investment. A bunch of people have made a hell of a lot of money buying and selling bitcoin. Bully for them, I suppose. I don’t see a real investment here, I just see a giant bubble ready to burst. Right now, if I buy a cryto-asset, I have to hope that someone down the road will give me more money for it than I paid. That sounds like a pyramid scheme to me. Everyone who gets in on the ground floor of the pyramid makes a killing. The rest of the folks, not so much. If I buy stock in Chevron or Lockheed then I own actual shares in the company. They could drop in value of course, but I would still own something. And Chevron and Lockheed will keep making gasoline and airplanes, things that people actually use. That kind of investment works better for me.

I willing to accept that I could be dead wrong. I could be missing out on the next generation of wealth creation. I don’t think so, but I’m not certain, of course. Life is about managing uncertainty, and I can manage this one.

Regardless of your level of risk tolerance, FOMO is bad way to make decisions. Any decisions, not just ones about where to put your hard-earned greenbacks.

I suppose it is appropriate that our big winter storm happens on the first day of winter. In case you missed it today is the Winter Solstice. The sun takes its lowest path through the sky for residents of the northern hemisphere. It is summer south of the equator, and they are experiencing their longest day while we look forward to our longest night.

Because I like to ski I get excited by snowstorm forecasts. But you can have too much snow. If the roads get shut down or power lines get knocked out then there’s not much chance for ski parks to open. I’ve been turned away from a ski area because there was so much snow the employees could not get to work. There weren’t enough people to open the place!

And I like to do other things, too. Like have Christmas dinner with my friends. But Mother Nature might dump too much snow on the highway on Christmas Day and thus keep us from getting together.

Like everything in life, this run of storms is a mixed bag. We certainly need the water and the snowpack. But we certainly don’t need power outages and road closures. It snowed here in town last week, about six inches total, and much of that snow is still lingering. There aren’t many things in the world more wonderful than freshly-fallen snow. But no one likes “old” snow that won’t melt away. It’s just a big, dirty pile of ice that is hazardous to walk on or drive on and you have to scrape it off things, a tedious task at best.

But I loves me some winter. Chapped lips and frozen fingers are a small price to pay.

Northern Californians might be better off staying home during this run of storms. If you have to drive, be careful. (There’s still COVID of course, but no one wants to talk about that anymore.) Make sure you’ve got chains for your vehicle. And it never hurts to have a blanket, foul weather gear, and some emergency food and water in case you get stuck somewhere.

Happy Holidays!

Had enough of the universe? That’s OK because we’ve got an alternative. These days we can head for the meta-verse if “real” life gets us down.

Virtual reality is now, uh, a real reality. Seriously. Head over to Somnium and become part of their “community.” Or maybe you’d prefer Sandbox or Upland.

Believe it or not you can actually buy real estate in these virtual worlds. The metaverse is now fully commercialized! Thank goodness. I was worried that the metaverse would be filled with hippies and anarchists preaching communal love and group sharing and all that other utopian socialist crap. I’m relieved that the long arm of capitalism has punched through the electronic walls and given these places real value!

Decentraland is “owned” by its users. Cool, huh? It’s a space where you can build things, make art, explore, recreate, and engage in various transactions. What sort of transactions? Oh, you know, buying and selling stuff!

Except it isn’t stuff, not in the usual sense of the word. It’s all digital. All virtual. All bought and paid for with crypto-currency. It’s real, just not made out of molecules. Well, the servers that hold the blockchain that stores all the information are real, and made out of molecules, so there’s that. But the land and the art and the swag you buy and sell in this metaverse are just photons.

NFTs are a big thing these days. Non-fungible tokens. These are unique digital assets. You can purchase or otherwise acquire NFTs and that will make you a real hipster. Unlike crypto-currency tokens, these are individual things (non-fungible). One bitcoin is the same as any other—they are interchangeable, like real dollar bills. NFTs are “valuable” because they are unique. My NFT is not the same as yours.

Artists have found a home in the metaverse. Digital art sales (as NFTs) are burgeoning. The NBA likes it too. You can get NFTs of basketball players, kind of like collecting cards. Except there is no card, just an image. That image is safely stored on the blockchain but it is still yours.

I try not to be a grumpy old man. I try not to be too cynical about new stuff. And I think virtual experiences like music festivals are pretty cool. I mean, no one dies at a metaverse music festival. One of the big names in the virtual music world is rapper Travis Scott. He’s done concerts via the game platform Fortnite. At his last real-world show in Las Vegas dozens were hurt and some killed in a crowd frenzy . Maybe he should get out of the real-life music scene and stick to his computer! Then we could avoid real tragedies like people dying at a goddamn concert.

But I must say this new definition of “real estate” has me a bit baffled. There’s nothing “real” about it. You can’t park your mobile home on your metaverse plot. I suppose you could park a virtual one there and live in it and save on rent. I suspect rents will get really high in these meta-locales. After all, there will always be someone who can spend more money (crypto- or otherwise) than you can.

I suppose it is inevitable that if I put on my VR headset I’ll want more than just shooting bad guys or going on an adventure quest. That is, the games won’t hold my interest long enough. I’m going to want to make friends, shop, go to parties, etc. You know, live a real life. Maybe even buy a place of my own and fulfill that ultimate American Dream of really “making it.”

It’s hard not to think that this is just another gigantic bubble. Speculators and con artists and their ilk are all over this stuff. It’s almost entirely unregulated, which appeals to the libertarian types, but that says CAVEAT EMPTOR to me. I know some folks are going to make money in the metaverse. Real money, not just tokens. That means even more folks are going to lose their shirts. Their real shirts.

I think digital transactions and digital currencies have a place in our future. The blockchain is here to stay, as are crypto-coins and crypto-platforms. But it’s the Wild West out there. If you want to jump in and play you better be well-armed and have someone watching your back. It ain’t all love and kisses. There’s too much (real) wealth at stake to be anything but another cut-throat dog-eat-dog enterprise.

So, have fun. And stay on your own cloud.

Etna’s Denny Bar Co. is both a restaurant and a distillery. On Saturday, November 13th, they released their first bourbon. Since it was my 62nd birthday I considered the event auspicious, and we scooted over to the Scott Valley to get some of the local spirit.

Denny Bar has previously produced small batches of whiskey, gin, and vodka. But bourbon is not just whiskey. It is a particular kind of whiskey. What kind, you ask? The answer is as simple as A-B-C.

A:

Bourbon must be made in America. It does NOT have to be from Kentucky. That’s a common myth. Anywhere in the US of A will do, and that includes Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico.

B:

Bourbon must be barrel-aged. Specifically, it must be matured in charred oak barrels. And they must be new oak. The old casks get sent to Scotland—they like their whisky to have a less woody character.

C:

Bourbon must be made from corn. Specifically, the grain mixture has to be at least 51% maize. Barley, wheat, and rye are common ingredients in the grist.

Denny Bar calls their bourbon Heart’s Creed and it is listed as four years old and 94 proof (47% abv). The tasting notes tell of “saddle leather” in the nose, “caramel and burnt honey” on the palate, and “smokey butterscotch” in the finish.

Your mileage may vary, but I will say that Heart’s Creed is a smooth, rich, and full-flavored spirit. They did a superb job and crafted an excellent drink. They seem to encourage drinking it on the rocks, but we preferred it neat. A little splash of water perhaps, but no more.

I understand there were only 300 bottles produced and that means 298 for the rest of you. We were very impressed by the quality, complexity, and quaff-ability of Heart’s Creed bourbon whiskey. If you can get your hands on some we highly recommend it.

That’s “no” in Greenlandic in case you were wondering.

Greenland is part of Denmark but mostly autonomous. They have their own Parliament, for example. There are 57,000 people in Greenland which is just a little less than the population of Gilroy or Petaluma.

Greenland is really big. It’s the world’s largest island. At over 800,000 square miles it is bigger than Mexico but smaller than Argentina. Most of the people (primarily Inuit) live near the southwest coast.

Kvanefjeld is a region rich in rare earths and the worlds’ miners want to get their hands on the stuff. The rare earths, that is the lanthanides, aren’t all that rare. They are just hard to work with. The ores contain multiple elements with similar properties and so are difficult to separate.

There is an increasing international demand for these materials for both civilian and military uses. The US has designated them as critical minerals and is on the lookout for stable future supplies. Kvanefjeld appears to be a dream mining site—a rich deposit in a socially stable jurisdiction. Mining companies like to work in places that have law and order!

But the Greenlanders have other concerns. Kvanefjeld has uranium, too. Uranium is another critical international commodity. You can’t run nuclear power plants without the stuff. World demand is about 60,000 tonnes of uranium oxide (U₃0₈) annually. The Greenland Parliament just passed a bill that bans uranium mining, which will or course halt any further development of the Kvanefjeld resource.

Greenlanders don’t want to despoil their natural environment. They also want to grow economically and achieve more independence from their mother country, Denmark. It’s tough to do both.

People are naturally suspicious of mining companies. These outfits have a long track record of abusing the earth and ignoring the social fallout from their projects. The problem remains, however, that we need the materials they produce. We have to find a way to dig stuff out of the ground and process it into the stuff we need without destroying ourselves in the process.

I don’t know if Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat) is making the right choices. I do know that all of us will be making the same choices, if we aren’t already, going forward. We are going to need (literally) mountains of minerals to make our world! That’s a fact, an unavoidable fact. And we need clean air and pure water and good soil and healthy fisheries and all that other stuff, too.

Can we pull it off?

I’m a big fan of Hard Case Crime. Their latest is a novel by James Kestrel called Five Decembers. I think you should put it on your Christmas list.

The story is set in Hawaii just days before the attack on Pearl Harbor. A policeman—our hero—stumbles into a gunfight at a ghastly crime scene. He barely makes it out alive. The victims, naturally, have a powerful benefactor. The criminals, it turns out, are spies. Off our man goes to the Far East to track down a killer. The war interrupts his search for justice and he spends the bulk of it as a prisoner of the Japanese. His adventure resumes when the war ends and a gripping finish ensues.

We meet Joe McGrady at a bar over a glass of bourbon and we find out straight away that’s he’s cool and tough. He’s the classic American hard-boiled detective but his experience in the novel is unusual in its scope and suffering. It’s a unique plot and a different kind of war story. The writing made me think of John Toland, especially his novel Gods of War.

Five Decembers gets five stars. I know you need a new book to read so buy this one!

One tonne is one thousand kilograms. It is also called a metric ton. It is about 2200 pounds or 10% larger than the standard US ton of 2000 pounds.

In 2020 the world produced about 20 million tonnes of copper. Here’s a chart of copper use:

“Transportation” includes automobiles. Right now about 3% of all vehicles sold in the world are fully electric. That’s about 2+ million EVs out of 75 million total vehicles sold globally each year.

Here’s another chart:

Can you see the problem?

A battery-powered, all-electric vehicle (BEV) needs much more copper than a conventional vehicle. 183 is ten times bigger than 18 and nearly four times bigger than 49. No matter how much copper your car needs now your future electric vehicle will need a lot more.

Where’s the copper going to come from? The rest of the copper consumers aren’t going to use less copper so that we can all have EVs. No, the copper will have to come from copper mines. And we will have to get really good at copper recycling!

The world’s biggest copper mine is in Chile. Minera Escondida produces about 1 million tonnes of copper annually or about 5% of the world’s supply. It supposedly has at least another ten years of life, and there is supposedly another 30 million tonnes of copper worth getting from that spot. I say “supposedly” because no one is really sure. There may be plenty of copper, but it may be too hard and too expensive to get. Or there may not be as much quality ore down there than they think.

Mining is a tough business. It’s hard to open a mine. They cost a lot of money up front. And until there is a steady stream of ore processing and thus a steady sale of the mineral product most mines lose money early in their lifespan. Once the cash flow comes then you have a decent business. But commodity prices are volatile and subject to a lot of odd market shocks and even a money-making mine can suddenly become an expensive burden.

Mining is hard on the environment. And the water and power requirements are usually enormous. Mines are typically far from civilization and thus transport and infrastructure impacts are large. Mining companies have a lousy track record on environmental issues, and are often even worse when it comes to labor and community relations.

The Green New Deal is going to require one hell of a lot of copper. Obviously EVs will drive much of that demand. All of the push toward renewable energy and increased electrification will depend on an abundant supply of copper.

Copper demand is expected to increase by 50% in the next twenty years. That means ten million more tonnes of copper per year! In fact, a five million tonne deficit is expected by 2030. The mining industry will have to invest perhaps $100 billion dollars in the next ten years to meet rising demand.

It is hard to locate copper deposits. The easy-to-find ones are already being exploited. There is a massive copper region in Arizona but there is a lot of opposition to developing that resource. We need the stuff, but it’s a mess to get and leaves a big mess behind so people are (rightly) suspicious of mining companies.

So, what to do? We need to “go green” but it’s going to cost us. Are we ready to pay?

I want my car to drive itself. I really do. I’d love to say “take me to the ski park, robot-driver!” and arrive there safely after a smooth and quiet drive.

But it’s not going to happen. Autonomous vehicles are here, and here to stay, but they won’t make it on America’s roads any time soon. Mining companies use self-driving trucks, for example, but they drive around where there aren’t a lot of people or other hazards. That’s not the case in American cities or on American roads. The self-driving car in the typical American driving setting is a futuristic fantasy. Oh, it will happen. Just not fast enough for any of us to really care.

This is a blow to America’s Biggest Blow-hard Elon Musk and his army of Twitter-Bros who lap up all his idiotic utterances. Tesla just announced they won’t be upgrading their latest Autopilot software. Why? Because it is a piece of shit. Tesla’s cars don’t self-drive and their “driver-assist” features are no better than ones from any other car manufacturer.

Speaking of car manufacturing, Tesla makes 500,000 vehicles per year. They just agreed to sell 100,000 Model 3s to Hertz and that caused their stock price to jump and the company valuation to briefly top one trillion dollars.

VW sells over nine million vehicles per year, Toyota sells about seven million, GM about the same, and Ford about four million. Yet Tesla is more valuable! Why? Because people love the bullshit Musk and minions are spewing. Elon says he will grow the business by 50% every year and will soon be selling twenty million cars per annum.

Bullshit. There’s not enough copper in the world to make that many EVs. There’s probably not enough nickel or cobalt or lithium either, but I’ll stick with what I know. And there isn’t enough copper for that many cars. And 50% growth is unsustainable. It may in fact be un-achievable in that industry.

But people are still “betting on the come” with Musk and Tesla. Hey, it’s their money. If they think that fatuous jerk can make them rich they’ve missed the point. Musk is really good at getting people to give him money. In fact, he’s the best in the world at that skill. But the money goes to HIM. He doesn’t distribute that wealth. His companies don’t pay dividends, for example. You’d think a trillion-dollar company would reward its shareholders with nice payouts, but you’d be wrong. Elon cares about Elon, and his worshipful followers can go fuck themselves.

A Tesla looks like a pretty nice car. I’m sure it is a decent value for the money. But it is not going to transform the world. I’m reminded of Apple Computer and their early Macintosh ads. They were going to change the world, too. We were all going to “think different.” But then we found out that a Mac is still just a computer, nothing more.

And a Tesla is just a car.

I’ve been told Elon Musk is a “visionary” and I figured out what that means. It means someone who ignores basic physics. And engineering. And accounting. It means someone who says fantastic things and has followers who accept them unconditionally. Sounds like a great job!

If you want your car to run on auto-pilot, hire a chauffeur.