Things that were not immediately obvious to me

So, I see that Tesla’s stock is off to a strong start. Well, not to violate Quentin Tarantino’s sage advice (“The less a man makes declarative statements, the less apt he is to look foolish in retrospect.”) but Tesla is a turkey, and a terrible, terrible investment over the long haul.

Batteries suck, and seem likely to continue to suck for the foreseeable future. Lithium-ion batteries have a specific energy of around 250 W*h/kg. That’s 250 J/s * 3600s / kg, or 0.9 MJ/kg. Gasoline has a specific energy of 46.4 MJ/kg. That’s not the whole story by any means, but it’s an important thing to consider. Electric cars, as a general proposition, are silly. Hybrids, done right, are more interesting.

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I saw this last week: it’s an interesting comparison of what 152 hours worth of labor (at the average hourly wage) would have bought you in 1964 vs. what it would buy you today. (Via, once again, Jonah at The Corner.)

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Watching “Mulholland Dr.” recently, I was reminded that Diane Selwyn/Betty Elms repeatedly says that she’s from “Deep River, Ontario”. This is usually chalked up as an allusion to the dream-nature of the film, or to Lynch’s fondness for the phrase. (In “Blue Velvet”, Dorothy Vallens lives at the “Deep River Apartments”.)

It seems worth noting, however, that Deep River, Ontario is not only a real place, it’s a pretty unusual one. It was originally a secret city built, as part of the Manhattan Project, to house the scientists and technicians working at the Chalk River Laboratories. If nothing else, this casts a different light on Diane/Betty’s probable family background.

Charles Murray writes:

I got my check from the New York Times for an op-ed that was published a few weeks ago. It was for $75.

I’d say that the age of the professional pundit is basically over.

(Via Jonah at The Corner)