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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 4h

[sigh] Apparently, an auto-generated anodyne response that could have been written by an AI itself ... on the dubious prospects of #AI technology + the risk of a damaging bubble.

#meta

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 6h

"ChatGPT-3 cost $50 million; ChatGPT-4 $500 million; and ChatGPT-5 $5 billion. Improvement [among] generations has been so slim it is almost unnoticeable."

A recent analysis suggests the #AI bubble may be 17 times the size of the dot-com bubble + 4x larger than the 2008 housing bubble.

Concerning.

The AI Bubble Is Far Worse Than We Thought

2008 who?

www.planetearthandbeyond.co

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Reposted by John Voelcker

WIRED @wired.com · 1d

The country’s grid operator says shifting from coal to clean power is not only possible but inevitable. The work there could provide a road map for other countries.

Australia’s March Toward 100 Percent Clean Energy

The country’s grid operator says shifting from coal to clean power is not only possible but inevitable. The work there could provide a road map for other countries.

wrd.cm

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 1d

As good an explanation of U.S. politics c. 2025 as anything else I've seen.

Normal people lose to aura farmers. But aura farmers (e.g. Kirsti Noem cosplaying) lose to sh!tposters (people in chicken suits or inflatable frogs mocking them), always.

Read the article.

sarah jeong @sarahjeong.bsky.social · 1d

I have a theory www.theverge.com/policy/79849...

American politics has devolved into shitposting and aura farming

The Frog is owning the president.

www.theverge.com

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 1d

Lindsey Halligan, the interim replacement for an SDNY prosecutor who resigned rather than file charges against New York State Attorney General Letitia James, is a former personal attorney for Donald Trump.

She has never prosecuted a case. Also, she apparently thinks Brooklyn is in New Jersey.

Oh.

Trump prosecutors make error in Letitia James indictment

The filing accusing James of bank fraud and making false statements listed “Brooklyn, New Jersey” instead of New York

www.newsweek.com

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 1d

"Math class can be HARD!"

— Barbie Millicent Rogers, c. 1992

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Reposted by John Voelcker

Tempting Fate Tours @temptingfatetours.bsky.social · 1d

OK, gang: Our next video is imminent—but we're just 51 subscribers short of the magic 1,000.

Amongst you all, are there 51 more people to subscribe to a YouTube channel on occasional road trips in odd, unexpected cars of dubious reliability, usually decades old, often British?

Tell your friends !!

Tempting Fate Tours

Road trips. In odd, unexpected cars of dubious reliability, usually decades old, often British. They run at the start of the trip. After that, anything can happen—and frequently does. What could possi...

www.youtube.com

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 1d

A young planet 620 light-years away from us is eating 6 billion tons of surrounding material per second.

Ambitious though it might be, it has no chance of becoming a real star.

Sad to see the hopes + dreams of the young ones dashed.

www.reuters.com

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 1d

I suspect hydrogen may have a role to play in the clean-energy transition. But not in the personal-vehicle space within my lifetime.

Its efficiency of energy use is far worse than any #EV + the real problem is a retail refueling network. We think DCFC is hard; H2 fueling is waaaaay harder. Physics.

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 1d

Billionaire Peter Thiel urged #Tesla CEO + billionaire Elon Musk to quit the Giving Pledge, under which signatories would leave most of their wealth to charity.

The gay billionaire venture capitalist has warned of the coming of the Antichrist + much more. (Both men digress, a lot.)

That'll help.

www.reuters.com

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 1d

ONLY if they remove *all* exhaust emissions aftertreatment gear so they smell like the oldest garbage trucks.

Since, at the current moment, all U.S. penalties for violating exhaust emissions rules have been zeroed out.

THAT'LL trigger the libs !!

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 1d

Commies.

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 1d

The outgoing Adams administration has very quietly renamed the #NYC Lower Manhattan jail complex (aka The Tombs, now demolished) after disgraced former #NYPD chief + convicted criminal Bernard Kerik.

Oh.

Adams Administration Quietly Renames the Tombs for Disgraced Criminal Bernard Kerik

The Lower Manhattan jail facility briefly bore Kerik's name once before, until he was convicted of corruption.

hellgatenyc.com

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 1d

Well, tell people they can't have something + then they instantly want TDIs.

Memory Lane quote from VW exec c. 2007: "If US buyers vere SCHMARTER, zey vould buy our Clean Diesels + not zese silly hybrids viss 2 powertrains zat are not fun to drive at ALL!"

Yeah, so ... how'd that work out for you?

Ten Years After Dieselgate, TDI-Powered VWs Carry a Premium - Hagerty Media

Ten years on from Volkswagen's "Dieselgate" emissions scandal, how are TDI models valued in the current market? Eddy Eckart went looking for answers.

www.hagerty.com

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 1d

OK, kids ... top THIS.

Ralph Brandi @thereisnocat.com · 2d

I love this article in The Guardian about a punk scene in the UK made up of menopausal women. I wish they had links to their music. I’ll have to look them up in the morning.

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/oct/10/we-were-the-original-punks-the-rebel-women-revitalising-local-music-scenes

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 1d

GM has shut down its Hydrotec division + ended all efforts to develop #hydrogen fuel cells for light-duty vehicles. It laid off an unspecified number of white-collar workers + scrapped plans for a Detroit factory, days after DoE said it may cancel grants.

H2: The fuel of the future. Always will be.

GM ends work on hydrogen fuel cells for everyday driving, scraps planned Detroit plant

Salaried workers, primarily in Pontiac, were laid off Friday morning as part of the closure of GM's Hydrotec brand.

www.detroitnews.com

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Reposted by John Voelcker

Gabe Ortíz @tusk81.bsky.social · 2d

“Any San Francisco kid under the age of 5 can get a free book mailed to them every month under a new partnership announced Friday by city officials and Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library” 📚 www.kqed.org/news/1205569...

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 2d

Most unexpected incoming: "FREE Signbrella Workshop!"

"A signbrella reimagines an umbrella into a versatile protest tool; providing respite from the sun + shelter from the rain, while also broadcasting a powerful message with big, bold text. Bring an umbrella, a few ideas + your resistor spirit."

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 2d

The BLM killed a massive solar project in Nevada. The Esmeralda 7 project website now says the environmental review is 'canceled.' The agency provided no reason.

Seven solar plants with battery energy storage, on 118,000 acres of federal land near Tonopah, NV, would have generated 6.2 GW of power.

Esmeralda 7 Solar Project Has Been Canceled, BLM Says

It would have delivered a gargantuan 6.2 gigawatts of power.

heatmap.news

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 2d

Haven't heard Reuss say anything lately about the "family of Bolts" or the "FunBolt" in a while now.

John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 2d

Or EV4, no?

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 2d

And apparently a not-insignificant number of GM execs too, who had Bolts in their family fleets before any of the Ultium stuff was available.

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 2d

In part because with Chinese battery cells for a couple of years in their *cheapest* #EV, they're likely eating a shit-ton of losses on each one.

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 2d

The Comms people are working manfully to do their best, but ... the company is not doing itself any favors.

And if ONE more #EV advocate tells me that OF COURSE this is how GM plans to re-kill the Bolt, I'm gonna throw something through a window.

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John Voelcker @johnvoelcker.bsky.social · 2d

Meanwhile, however ... I wonder if GM is limiting the number of Bolts it will build since it's absorbing the high cost of importing cells from China for at least a couple of years.

GM lays off 900 workers at Fairfax Assembly plant

GM lays off 900 workers at Kansas plant after delaying second shift due to weaker EV demand and changes in federal incentives.

www.cbtnews.com

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