Elon Musk brilliantly sums up sad state of 2017 https://www.cnet.com/news/elon-musk-sums-up-2017/ December 24, 2017 Chris Matyszczyk
[image https://cnet4.cbsistatic.com/img/XcZPSWTTOEOLh309kCfBeSmwMOM=/670x503/2017/12/24/0e6765fc-c29e-41f6-9141-b3d32b8cf2ee/gettyimages-855370074-2.jpg What has the world come to? / Mark Brake / Getty Images share https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/944787213430034432 Elon Musk @elonmusk So strange that people often believe things inversely proportionate to the evidence. Given a set of possible explanations, why pick the extremely unlikely one!? 10:29 PM - Dec 23, 2017 ] Commentary: The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX worries about the bizarre ways the modern world has begun to think. Does his critique apply to the tech world too? Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives. It's been a strange and troubling year. The tech world, supposedly the home of rational thought and inspiration, has suddenly become a target of criticism, rather than an object of drooling. Every week, there seems another scandal, another hack, another incident of sexual harassment that a tech company forgot to tell us about. Or didn't want us to know about. It's also been a year when the very foundations of scientific thought have been assaulted by, well, beliefs of the political kind. From government leaders who seem entirely skeptical of the scientific evidence for global warming to a nominee for head of NASA who has no scientific experience, facts has been labeled fake and partisanship has been declared the lone truth. Elon Musk, CEO of electric car maker Tesla and space transport company SpaceX, has had enough. Earlier this year, he walked away from advising President Trump after latter withdrew the US from the Paris climate accord. On Saturday, Musk offered a disturbingly succinct summary of the state of the world's mind. After his company's spectacular SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch, he sarcastically tweeted that the patterns it created in the sky suggested a "nuclear alien UFO from North Korea." That was the first thing that crossed my mind, to be honest. But then he worried that "most people actually do think it was aliens." Which brought him to a troubled thought: That surely sums up 2017 and expresses the big challenge for 2018 -- for the tech world, as much as for the rest of America. Just as many Americans have surrendered themselves to partisanship, so the tech world has ignored its own facts. For far too long, it's looked in the mirror, ignored its true features, and decided it's the fairest of them all. Tech companies have believed they were doing no evil and making the world a better place. Their sanctimony competed only with their sense of superiority. What 2017 finally revealed was a painful truth: Too many tech companies are havens for some of the worst human behavior. It also proved that when some of the facts were aired -- as they were by former Uber engineer Susan Fowler -- tech companies reacted with supposed horror, when one can only suspect they knew exactly what had been happening all along. Soon, the resignations flowed industrywide, as did the unconvincing explanations. Musk's own Tesla hasn't been immune from accusations of harassment. Let's hope, then, that Musk's accurate words are heard by the tech world, as well as by those who believe the only real news is whatever they want others to believe. Will we choose to embrace the evidence of our eyes, ears and experts? Or will we continue to see the world as Us Vs. Them? And on that cheery note, may I extend the hope that your Christmas celebrations will be truly joyous and will allow you to put aside differences for even just one day. [© cnet.com] + https://cleantechnica.com/2017/12/12/chautauqua-county-new-york-deploys-electric-orange-ev-class-8-terminal-truck/ Chautauqua County (New York) Deploys All-Electric Orange EV ... Dec 12, 2017 Very notably here, the deployment makes Chautauqua County the first county government in the US to deploy an all-electric Class 8 truck in its commercial fleet operations. Also notable is that the new Orange EV terminal truck (yard truck, yard jockey, spotter, etc.) was purchased in part with a rebate provided by New York ... https://c1cleantechnicacom-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/files/2016/08/Orange-EV.png https://ngtnews.com/n-y-county-deploys-orange-ev-terminal-truck NY County Deploys Orange EV Terminal Truck Dec 12, 2017 According to Orange EV, replacing an over-15-year-old diesel truck with an all-electric vehicle completely eliminates yard truck emissions and diesel fuel consumption while advancing efforts to meet the energy, environmental, and economic goals established in the Chautauqua County 20/20 Comprehensive Plan. With this ... https://ngtnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Orange-EV.jpg http://www.mailtribune.com/news/20171212/donation-drives-crater-high-toward-future Donation drives Crater High toward the future Dec 12, 2017 It's a $36,000, three-wheeled electric vehicle chassis. It only seats two, but it was designed and brought to Central Point to teach the next generation of technicians, ecologists, even graphic designers. The vehicle, awarded by the Rogue Valley Clean Cities Coalition, will serve as just that — a vehicle — to expand career and ... http://www.mailtribune.com/storyimage/MM/20171212/NEWS/171219875/AR/0/AR-171219875.jpg http://blogs.edf.org/energyexchange/2017/12/13/rooftop-solar-and-evs-save-water-and-cut-pollution-and-data-can-help-us-go-further/ Rooftop solar and EVs save water and cut pollution – and data can ... December 13, 2017 Our paper confirms that, in Texas, residential solar panels uses less water and pollutes the air less than using the central-grid power (based on its electricity sources during those years), and driving an EV instead of a gasoline vehicle generally reduces the household's water and emission footprint, even though EVs charge ... http://blogs.edf.org/energyexchange/files/2015/12/Pecan-Street-Neighborhood-Solar-royalty-free_700x400.jpg For EVLN EV-newswire posts use: http://evdl.org/archive/ {brucedp.neocities.org} -- Sent from: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/ _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
