You are making the assumption people are buying EVs primarily to be "clean/green". I didn't buy mine for that, don't give a damn. Ive owned smoke belching diesels, land yacht cars, pickup trucks, and everything in between. I wanted a Tesla specifically for A) PERFORMANCE and B) self driving capability fascinates me.

On the performance front, I have never even been in a car that accelerates this fast 0-60, much less owned one. 2.9 seconds is insanely fast, and its not even the fastest tesla (the coming Roadster is stated to have 0-60 times sub-1 second). Even the 'slowest' Teslas are still quick and responsive to the throttle, because you have instant 100% torque from 0 mph, where a gas engine has to get to its optimal RPM range for that.

Uhh... My refridgerator can do that with its built in screen. Netfix, Live TV (streaming live TV), news channels, etc. Web Browser built in for those sites (ahem, fun to set that to pornhub.com* on the display models they were stupid enough to connect to the internet). I only got that model due to an insane deal they had on it, and do not connect it to the network.

*Except in Louisiana, Utah, Arkansas, Mississippi, Virginia, Montana, and North Carolina

Ive owned both Andriod phones and iPhones. The reason I am currently staying on iPhone is:
1 - Apple is a company that publicly states they value privacy on the phone (i know, i know they could just be "saying" that)
1a - The ability to seamlessly create a forwarded email address for every signup is a GREAT feature. Firefox finally added a similar feature, but it costs extra.
1b - I can mark my icloud as encrypted (turn on 'advanced encryption'), and Apple will have no access to it even for recovery without my consent.
1c - Their active work in tracking disabling on the web is making advertisers pissed because they cant easily track i-device users anymore. See lawsuits.

2 - If I have a choice between an OS that states privacy is extremely important, or an OS that was literally written by the largest web advertiser that makes their money by selling "you", its a no brainer.

3 - Apple integration across their products is so seamless and it keeps getting better. I can go from my iMac to my iPhone to my iWatch and know they will all be synced. My iMac automatically unlocking when Im wearing an unlocked iWatch is awesome. My phone automatically unlocking my watch when I have the phone unlocked and first put the watch on is really nice too.

Anyway, you have to trust someone along the way - even the manufacturers that create an Android based phone built and sourced in the USA with a custom privacy based AndriodOS could just be blowing smoke up your ass and you have no "real" way of verifying it. See the FBI distributing encrypted phones for criminals to use that were pre-bugged.

That woosh you just heard is the sarcasm flying overhead :)

I was satisfied with the iphone 10, and only upgraded because a deal offered by my cell company gave me 3/4 the cost of a brand new iphone 13 for my old iphone 10. My wife and I had just replaced our batteries in the iphone 10's.

BS.

Last year of the 90% tax rate was 1963 (which, BTW, Regan did his last film in 1965 - the vast majority of his work was his earlier years, so he spent most of his career with that 90% looming..) The tax rate was 90.0% > $200,000 and 91.0% >$300,000. In todays money, thats greater than 2.88 million dollars income was taxed at 91% - however that was INCOME. The rich, just like today, knew how to play the system and would put the money into investments, effectively showing very little income per year. There have always been ways to dodge taxes.

The last 40 years have shown trickle-down economics does not work.

Lets compare Denmark McDonalds to the USA McDonalds, shall we?

Denmark
$21.40/hr (minimum as negotiated by the union), 6 weeks of paid vacation time, pension, overtime (about $41,000 a year, assuming 40 hour work weeks)
Applies to all employees, part or full time. A Big Mac costs 13% less in Denmark (US$4.90) than in the United States (US$5.66).

USA
(federal) $7.25/hr. No paid time off. No pension. Benefits only for full time. ($13,920 /year assuming working full time, which most employees are NOT full time).

So if Denmark McDonalds can be profitable with that wage and benefits, while offering a big mac CHEAPER than the USA.....

Anyway, the minimum wage needs a full reset. When adjusted for inflation, the 2023 federal minimum wage in the United States is around 40 percent LOWER than the minimum wage in 1970. Although the minimum wage in 1970 was only $1.60, when inflation is factored in, 2023 minimum wage would be $12.04/hr to match that 1.60 in 1970. Then we can get into increases in productivity, but this post is already long enough.

Maybe time to change to a car that actually has modern battery tech? /s

Home power might hurt for a moment before the breaker trips, maybe interrupt your heart rhythm a day later. IE it can be fatal, but isn't guaranteed fatal.

The power in these charging stations is fatal. Not only will it kill you, it will hurt the entire time it does. You NEED that sort of practice and knowledge to even attempt to work on the bigger power levels. Its a LONG way apart from a sparky wiring up a house being built to a sparky who works with High Voltage AC or DC or Multi-phase power.

Same in my area on the east coast. We had two post offices in the small towns that touch each other (one in each), which was reduced to one for both. All of the sorting now happens at the capital city of the state. If you can get a letter that manages to NOT go through that sorting center, it can be fairly fast. However, MOST mail goes through there and will either take weeks, or never - we have lost a few christmas cards that way.

No, it doesnt mean anything different here, but in the USPS you plan sick time for things like doctors appointments, surgeries, etc. Most US companies do a PTO system where you just take "paid time off" and use it for whatever - sick, vacation, planned absences etc. Unfortunately this means the companies eliminated sick time and went to just PTO, typically leaving you with less hours off while saying it was a good thing. There are still a few good companies out there that give proper or "unlimited" sick time, but they are few and far between. Im lucky enough to work for such a company, who also gives 6 month paternity/maternity leave which is also unheard of in the USA that doesn't guarantee any time off for a baby. My wife gets a single week in her company for giving birth. Many dont even offer a week, just use your PTO.

EFT is fine for those that have a bank account. There is a surprisingly high number of people in the US alone that dont have a real bank account so direct deposit wont work for them. Same with refund checks, or grandma sending her grandkids some christmas money in the form of a check.

The banking system in general needs a complete top to bottom overhaul. So much of the backend structure is creaky at this point its only a matter of time before something happens to drastically interrupt it. Also, the tendency of banks to charge all sorts of fees that are specifically directed at those that are barely scraping by (no direct deposit? That will be $15 a month please.... Oh you overdrafted? No problem we went ahead and paid it anyway, and for our generosity now you have to repay that amount and a $40 overdraft fee. Oh a $1.50 came in after that? another $40 please. etc etc etc.. ) The fees are rarely hit by someone with more than $1000 in the bank, but are consistently hit by someone that is barely scraping by.

Why is google pushing so hard for iMessage to support THEIR interpretation or RCS.

While I love tinkering and ran andriod phones for a while (rooted phones), I eventually went back to Apple - I dont need to be tinkering with my only PHONE. I have the choice of a company who's primary business is collecting and selling as much personal info as they can get, or a company that (at least publicly) states Privacy is extremely important and has been adding features over the last few years to reinforce that (E2E encryption for imessage, advanced encryption on icloud backups, hide-my-email, a VPN built in but you have to opt-in, etc).

I would rather google and apple create a OPEN standards body with other concerned parties to create an open messaging standard that can apply to both, that is governed by a board like USB. While most of my friends and family have iPhone, there are a few that have andriod and when I want to send large images or videos to them, I have to remember to share the item on icloud and give them a link.

They updated how they detect as of today. ublock is now detected again.

Remember when 56k modem was the best there was? When a T1 line was jaw dropping speed (1.544 mbps BTW)? You could not browse the modern internet on either of those speeds without some serious waiting on load times. That was only about 25-30 years ago. Give it another 30 years and 20gbps will be considered 'slow' internet, and you will wonder how you EVER got by with 'only' 300mbps or 1gbps...