Regular Albert

Been looking for this.

Back in the day I scored a ticket to an Amanda Palmer show, was absolutely floored when he showed up mid-act, completely unannounced. He was one of my favourite writers, a friend to Sir Terry Pratchett (RIP) , and on top of that, someone who seemed like a genuine force for good in the world. I remember that show made my year, I felt so incredibly lucky, like finding a bike under the tree when you’re 4.

Then Good Omens happened, then Sandman, and I was just genuinely happy to see him getting the accolades and recognition.

Not mincing words here, once the allegations started floating up, I felt so angry and personally betrayed. For every book or show recommendation, for every conversation where I brought him up as one of my personal heroes. I was almost in mourning, I realise that now, and I’m pretty sure my cynicism levelled up as a direct consequence of that experience.

Fast forward to last week or so, where my RSS feed pings with an article from his blog, the first since the scandal began. He’s pointing to a journalist investigation that seems to say the whole thing was a hatchet job. He tries to explain, and this being Neil, the words line up and do his bidding. And I want to fucking believe him, I do. But I can’t.

The absolute worst thing? In spite of everything, I hope he’s really telling the truth. How does that make any fucking sense?

Here’s a virtual hug from a stranger. May the road ahead be smoother and more fulfilling, mate.

Maybe there should be quality criteria for what constitutes an idea worth discussing. Not every social media post is an idea.

https://radioparadise.com/home is pretty good.

They must really hate ReVanced.

Tesla does a lot of business overseas. A lot less these days, but there’s still water in that well, which would dry up pretty fast though following such a scenario. I don’t know the numbers, but if they sell more than half their cars on US soil I’d be very surprised.

Now picture this news leaking out in Europe, like Norway for instance. That would be reason enough for government mandated firmware hacking, and Tesla as a commercial entity would be done.

Let me ask you this instead. Do you see ICE capable of such a technically sophisticated, precision operation at scale? ICE is a blunt instrument currently being used to punish Democrat states - the fact they’re looking for illegals in Illlinois and Minneapolis when Texas and Florida have at least 10x more is what’s hilarious for me. And honestly, if I drove a Tesla in the US today, I’d be more worried about being shot in the head by ICE through the side window than being kidnapped by my car.

Like I said previously, plenty of reason to dislike both Tesla and ICE, no need to add hypothetical Black Mirror scenarios to the mix.

I don’t know enough about Tesla models to reply, that’s just a fact I filed away at some point under strange design decisions - you must agree that having a door latch that damages your car window on use is strange.

But I feel like you’re looking at this from a purely US-centric view (I’m not US based myself, just to be clear). Tesla can’t afford not to sell overseas, so it can’t afford the loss of reputation. Besides, there’s potential for abuse in all cars with a central computer and a connection to the Internet these days: lock doors & broadcast location is a trivial feature to implement. It just doesn’t make sense practically for ICE to pursue this,at least in my opinion.

A version of your scenario ran on Black Mirror, if I’m not mistaken.

As for why this won’t happen, or at least not yet:

• there’s an emergency mechanical release for Tesla doors, may damage the windows, but hey
• speaking of damaging windows, there’s this little hammer that everyone should have in their cars, but especially in Teslas
• last, but not least, if they’re not actually illegals, just imagine the lawsuit, and the brand damage to follow

Actually, if a Tesla could be proven do that, it would be done as a car company. Who in their right mind would buy something like that? And I guarantee it would be public knowledge, as I find it hard to believe that all regulatory bodies in the world (eg Norway) would collude to hide such a feature.

Plenty of actual reasons why elon and his swasticar sucks. No need for hypotheticals on top.

Yes it is, but we’re going for max speed here :)

A skydiver’s terminal velocity is about 90m/s (320km/h). Going beyond that requires propulsion.

Otherwise a visit to Japan or China might serve, Maglev trains can reach speeds in excess of 600km/h.