⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Is Elon Musk Prepping for State Failure?
I love good clickbait - I mean, look at that title - and I especially love good clickbait if the premise can even sorta live up. Here’s Alex Tabarrok:
Solar panels, for example, are a necessity when the state can’t deliver power reliably, as is now the case in California.
Solar panels plus the Tesla give you mobility, even if Saudi Arabia goes up in smoke and world shipping lines are shut down.
Starlink, Musk’s plan for 12,000 or more cheap, high-speed internet satellites, will free the internet from reliance on any terrestrial government.
The original thread:
My first thought watching the Cybertruck reveal was someone is going to drive their firstborn home from the hospital in that thing.
My second thought was can that someone be me (hi SW)
My third thought was 39K? a reasonable deal imho!
My fourth thought was interrupted by a buddy who told me he pre-ordered one 😵😵😵
Which - look - you get that text and how do you not check out tesla dot com to see how it all works. Please come with me on this three part journey:
Hahahahahahahaha which is worse THE FONT or that I still want one. Next click.
I don’t know where your eyes go but mine immediately jump to APPLE PAY. Are you kidding me??? The absurdity. Let’s sell Mad Max Vol. 5 and only make it available through a Face ID scan. I love hate (love!) it.
Also, when I realized that my guy “pre-ordered” his by using ApplePay to deposit a completely refundable $100…
…is that a pre-order? Are we sure?
Just for context then - we’re celebrating 250,000 folks who put down a franklin to decide in two years if they still want a brutalist truck branded in dystopian d’nealian. 🙋♂️
My favorite thing about this screenshot was the left hand corner “Double Click to Pay” heart-attack prompt while nervously single-clicking to capture. 😅
TBH it would be weird to buy a car now after not owning one this entire decade. My two non-purchase goals for the twenties (finally, a decade we can universally name again):
Don’t buy another computer in my life TABLETS BABY (likelihood: high)
Don’t buy another car since that one weird purple Plymouth Voyager you went three-ways in with your roommates back in 09, never put car insurance on it, racked up three street cleaning parking tickets, and promptly resold it on Craigslist (likelihood: less high than TABLETS but maybe a corporate someone will figure out their self-driving-cars-as-a-service model in time).
🐝👨🎤 Zoology Professor Has Released Rock Album Dedicated to BEES to Help Save Them From Extinction
Okay truthfully I didn’t know how to move on from Cybertruck but here we are with a bee rock album (thanks GA!)
STRANGE FLOWERS: TRACK LIST
1. California Gold
Explores the California almond bloom, the world’s biggest pollination event.
2. The Beekeeper’s Dream
A beekeeper has a nightmare about how bees remember human faces.
3. Night Shards
This tracks looks at how bees, like humans, process memories at night.
4. Strange Flowers
The meeting of bees and flowers invokes an impossible relationship.
5. Drone Wars
Tells the fateful tale of male bee drones, who die after mating.
6. Space Girls
NASA sent bees into space in 1982 and 1984 — but what did they think?
7. I Stung Gwyneth Paltrow
A bee sacrificed at the altar of the actress’ beauty plots revenge.
8. Dying Killer Bee Queen
A killer bee queen contemplates how she murdered her competition.
9. The Listening Flower
Inspired by how some flowers can sense bees buzzing nearby.
🌎 The World According to Phoebe Waller-Bridge
Alright, you all have been very patient with me so far this newsletter so here is the definitive PWB write-up.
🏠🤭 I Accidentally Uncovered a Nationwide Scam on Airbnb
Over a month old but look - if there’s any part of you that’s fraud-obsessed or if you’re the type of person to True Crime Podcast your transit-life away…
…I guarantee that this article is for you.
Likewise - if all you saw in the news was some hand-wavy (wave-y?) article in some form of Airbnb CEO pledges to verify all 7 million listings in sweeping review of site, this is where the whole thing came from.