Model 3 now

The final piece of the overall plan at Tesla is the mass market Model 3 (its design was unveiled about 16 months ago). Last Friday was the first day that Model 3's started rolling out of the factory. About 30 of them went to employees who will try to discover any bugs.

Elon Musk says that they will produce 100 in August, then 1500 in September, somehow ramping up to 20,000 Model 3's in December. That's a huge ramp-up, but there's more to come in the way of a hard-to-believe production goal. By 2018 - that's next year - their goal is to manufacture 500,000 cars (all three current models). Compare that to the approximately 25,000 cars they put out every quarter right now.

"We're going to go through at least six months of manufacturing hell," Musk told journalists."

photo of Model 3 glass roof: usatoday.com

Wired.com released this video last Thursday for an good overview of the goals of Tesla Motors Inc.

For more background, check posts under "Tesla" or "Elon Musk" under Labels to the right.

(cont'd tomorrow)

NatGas vs Coal

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

When burned to produce energy, natural gas produces much less carbon - roughly half of what the burning of the dirtiest coal produces. The fracking of natural gas has brought down America's CO2 emissions.

"How much carbon dioxide is produced when different fuels are burned?

"Different fuels emit different amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) in relation to the energy they produce when burned. To analyze emissions across fuels, compare the amount of CO2 emitted per unit of energy output or heat content.

"Pounds of CO2 emitted per million British thermal units (Btu) of energy for various fuels:

Coal (anthracite)	228.6
Coal (bituminous)	205.7
Coal (lignite)	215.4
Coal (subbituminous)	214.3
Diesel fuel and heating oil	161.3
Gasoline (without ethanol)	157.2
Propane	139.0
Natural gas	117.0 (taken from U.S. Energy Information Administration)

CO2 emissions

We've been trying to bring down CO2 emissions in the US for years, so how is it going? 

U.S. population has nearly doubled since 1959 (177m then, 323m in 2016). But carbon emissions have declined. They peaked in 1970, came down some from 1980 to 2010, and in 2016 CO2 emissions per capita in America were the lowest they have been since 1959.

It's thought to be mostly the result of using more natural gas and less coal for energy.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Easy to lie

"Habit-forming" is a good thing . . if it's a good habit.

Seems like our bodies are pre-programmed to adapt to what we choose. You can get used to lots of things, like exercise, like eating salads. Or, you can get used to unhealthy or unethical behavior. The forming of habits makes it easier.

It's that way with lying. Uncomfortable symptoms show up when someone is lying, and that's what lie detectors sense. But lying gets easier if it is practiced, according to a University College London study which confirms that, and according to ordinary common sense.

image: pbs.org

Prudence

Prudence is a virtue, a good and desirable character quality to have.  Today it is connected with "faintheartedness, caution and a general bias against action," but that's inaccurate. 

Arthur Brooks thought he disliked prudence, but what he really disliked was that modern slant on it.  It does not mean "habitual reluctance," or "risk-averse behavior." 

Prudence actually refers to making wise choices, "the willingness to do the right thing, even if that involves fear and risk."

image: Mary Engelbreit

Ever the economist/professor, Dr. Brooks cites a study from the University of Chicago which indicates that people who tend to make Yes choices tend to be happier than those who typically say No.

Hyperloopy

Last Wednesday Elon Musk tweeted that he had "verbal govt approval" for a hyperloop to run from NYC to D.C. What govt? There may be a hundred govts that have jurisdiction along that route.

The New York mayor's office says, "“This is news to City Hall."

Many would love to see the hyperloop come to life, like this author, but the obstacles are huge. Just getting the approval of every government level from NYC to D.C.  seems overwhelming.

We'd like to believe it could be done, but we fear that it's not going to happen, or that the idea is just (in the words of a comment) --

"Hyperloopy. . extreme mental loopiness."

Safer cars

Car manufacturers have made their product safer over the years in response to what consumers want. See this demonstration:



They paint the dummy's head to record contact between it and vehicle components. You can see in the video that the roof in the old car comes in contact with the driver's head and some paint stays on the roof. 

This is in contrast to the new vehicle in which the passenger zone sees almost zero structural change. It's quite a difference.

Savage

Government programs can have unexpected consequences. Think, "I didn't see that coming."

India's government will pay the family if its family member is killed by a tiger outside the nature reserve. So . . prepare yourself for a bizarre story.

"Elderly relatives are being sent into tiger reserves to be killed so that families can claim compensation in a horrifying new trend in India. 

"Younger family members appear to be targeting Pilibhit Tiger Reserve in Uttar Pradesh by sending their elders into the forest to be mauled to death before dumping their bodies in nearby fields."

photo: dailymail.co.uk

Wonderful loaf

You go to the bakery to buy whole wheat bread, or ciabatta, or croissants. Other people go there and get just what they want.

How did this get organized? Did an all-knowing bureaucrat tell farmers last year how much wheat to grow, or tell bakery shop owners what kind of bread to bake?

No. The shelves are full of what you and your neighbors like, at a price you can afford, but no genius is running food supply for your city. Independent business people and farmers make their own business decisions, and consumers are free to make their own buying choices.

Higher income

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

What a difference a century makes. In the average worker's home of 1915 . . "family members may have all shared the same bedroom," "it probably wasn’t yet wired for electricity [think about that!], and the indoor toilet [if there was one] "likely was in a closet or a storage area."

Today's Americans have much more comfortable and convenient homes. Why? Are we much smarter and finer people?

No way. The reason why we have so much more comfort and convenience compared to 1915 standards is that America's economy has grown enormously in the last century. Millions of innovations enable our society to produce much more in the way of goods and services with our labor than we could in 1915. (That is growing GDP, gross domestic product.)

Look at the growth of median family incomes (in 2015 dollars) - just for the years since 1947 . . 

1915 vs 2015

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has a report on the amazingly more prosperous life of an average American worker in 2015 compared to that of an American worker one hundred years earlier, 1915.

How can a comparison be made between different eras? Not by money so much, but by a comparison of what that worker could afford to have in his home.

An article in the 1913 Journal of Home Economics describes an average apartment home in New York City:

". .  a four room flat, rent nineteen dollars, nine in family. . This family of nine has a boarder to help pay the rent. . . There is a bath tub, but the clothes wringer and last winter’s sleds are always kept in it. This is not the home of a very poor family: the father earns twelve dollars a week, two girls are in a factory . ."

(from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)

workers paint the Brooklyn Bridge 1915: pinterest.com

(cont'd tomorrow)

Human chain

"Who's going to sit on the beach and watch someone drown?" That's why a woman and her husband organized the attempt to save lives at a Florida beach.

A total of about 30 people formed a human chain reaching out to a family who were floundering in deep water. They were able to pull the exhausted victims back to shore.

One of the people in trouble said this about the experience:

“I am so grateful . . . These people were God’s angels that were in the right place at the right time. I owe my life and my family’s life to them. Without them, we wouldn’t be here.”

Bad-guy sugar

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

The new experts tell us to eat good whole foods with their natural fat, but to avoid refined carbs and sugar:

"We now know from the research that sugars and refined carbs are the true causes of obesity and heart disease—not fats, as we’ve been told. "— Dr. Mark Hyman, author of 'Eat Fat, Get Thin

Yup, that sounds right to me, and I avoid sugar. Something like a steak salad with no potato or dessert would probably fit the profile.

But wait, who knows what advice we'll get next time.

Fat surprise

"Big, fat surprise: fat isn't bad for you."

MORE information about fat in your food (see "Dairy fat") - this author confirms what many of us have noticed for years, that food advice changes continually and is often not reliable. The fact that the government put it out there does not inspire more confidence.

"In fact, the dietary advice we’ve been given for the past half century, they say, has created the perfect storm and near-ideal conditions for an obesity epidemic." Fat in the diet was blamed and demonized, and refined carbs or sugar often replaced it.

But the demonizing of fat, sadly, led to increasingly fat people. "Since the 1970s, obesity has increased by 200 percent, and diseases related to obesity and diabetes are currently responsible for the deaths of two out of every three Americans."

image: ninateicholz.com

(cont'd tomorrow)

SpaceX & NASA

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

SpaceX is going to join a very exclusive club next year if they reach their goal--the club of those who are able to send humans into space. So far only a few governments have that ability.

Crew Dragon (Dragon Version 2) is the spacecraft which will take crew to the International Space Station in  Q2 (second quarter) of 2018 for NASA. It will be powered by the Falcon Heavy rocket (to be tested this summer), the second most powerful vehicle ever to reach orbit, surpassed in history only by Saturn V.

photo: spacex.com

Russia was first to send humans into space and has been transporting US astronauts to the ISS with its Soyuz rocket, but that contractual partnership is ending. SpaceX will now be doing that for NASA (yesterday's post). 

A spokesman for the Kremlin says, "“We have every reason to believe that we can compete” in space travel." But an American source says, "Their budget is not adequate to maintain a world-class space effort across the board.”

When SpaceX takes over this job, it will not only save US taxpayers a lot of money, but all the price of sending astronauts to the ISS will stay in the US  :)

$50 million

For a sale price, "30% off" is a fairly good bargain, depending on the merchandise. You can save a few dollars on clothing or furniture by comparison shopping. But if you want to send something or someone into space, comparison shopping may save you millions upon millions of dollars.

Right now NASA pays Russia $70 million to send one of our astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS). SpaceX has so far sent only cargo to the ISS for NASA, but plans to be able to send an astronaut by 2018. Elon Musk thinks they will be able do it for about $20 million.

If you follow SpaceX or this blog, you know why they will be able to do it for so much less:
re-usable rockets and capsules. The rockets Russia sends into space are only good for one trip, unusable after that.

SpaceX's investment and innovation in space travel is going to save American taxpayers about $50 million per astronaut. That's a good thing.

(cont'd tomorrow)

Not secular

It's clear from the writings of the American founders that they considered religion an important part American society.



"As the esteemed British historian, Paul Johnson, notes: "The Americans were overwhelmingly churchgoing, much more so than the English, whose rule they rejected. There is no question that the Declaration of Independence was, to those who signed it, a religious as well as a secular act."

Tyranny

At the end of his life Thomas Jefferson, one of the 1776 revolutionary founders of America, still hated tyranny with a passion.

In his last letter he said, "[T]he mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor [were] a favored few [born] booted and spurred, ready to ride them."

A different revolution occurred in 1917, the communist revolution led by Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky.

Trotsky was a spokesman for his communist principles. He said, "the old principle, "[he] who does not work shall not eat," has been replaced by a new one: [he] who does not OBEY shall not eat."

"Obey" who? Leon Trotsky considered himself one of the favored few born booted and spurred, ready to ride the rest of us. 

All in

Army Master Sergeant Roy Benevidez received the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Reagan in 1991 for "service above and beyond the call of duty:"

He shared a saying among veterans: "For those who have fought for it, life has a special flavor that the protected will never know." Benevidez, like others before him, knew what it's like to give everything you have.

He and the American founders had that in common. "We in the USA are so accustomed to the benefits of freedom that we often play fast and loose with it." We in the USA pay little or nothing for our freedom, but the first Americans paid heavily.

Founder John Adams left a message for you and me: "“Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it."

Declaration

In the summer of 1776, the war between the American colonies and Britain had already started. General Washington didn't sign the Declaration of Independence because he was leading the troops in Boston.

Thomas Jefferson, delegate from the state of Virginia, was chosen by the Continental Congress to write up a formal declaration of the intention of the colonies to actually start a new nation, to separate themselves from Britain.

Notice what Jefferson considered obvious and beyond dispute:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

The Creator endowed people with certain rights. Only the people can grant authority to a government to defend their God-given rights. This is the foundation of America's liberty, as the founders saw it, and this is what they signed their names to.

Patriotism

Erik Metaxas has immigrant parents, his dad from Greece and his mom from Germany. They raised him to love America. "When my parents passed the Statue of Liberty in the ships that carried them to our shores, they didn’t roll their eyes — they were deeply moved."

But his education taught contempt for America, and he "drank this anti-American Kool-Aid." As a young husband and dad, things changed for Erik, and--with his own mom and dad--he loves his country today. He says his parents "understood that this was the real thing, a noble experiment in liberty that was worthy of celebrating and, if at all possible, joining."

"If we do not begin to understand and appreciate what made us great — including the noble and flawed heroes of our history, who risked life and limb so that we could have liberties unlike any before in the history of the world —  we can never again be great. We can never again be the “shining city on a hill” that caused millions to want to be like us."