There’s the Pipistrel Velis Electro. It costs about $200 000. It’s a regular plane. Been around for some years.

What I’d like to see is more of is stuff like the Ehang 216 eVTOL drones. I don’t know if they’re actually commercially available yet or what kind of places they’re allowed.

No, but there are fees for late payments and other special situations.

Their main income is from the transaction fees that they charge the merchants.

The idea is that people who don’t have money can spend money and create a transaction fee on a sale that wouldn’t otherwise have happened if they didn’t lend the money. That way it’s the same as a credit card that you only pay monthly.

The difference is that the payments can be split, so that the customers can … uh … utilize their entire credit maximum every month…

Needless to say, this kind of credit maximum optimization can end really badly for people who have unstable incomes. The same kind of people who might be tempted to use it.

But seriously though, in hindsight, the invention of asphalt roads was a mistake. The oil industry doesn’t just own the production of fuels. They also own the production of materials for roads and tires.

If we were to reinvent the car using contemporary knowledge, materials and technology, we would have to use something else for both cars, tires and roads.

Or we can wait 50 years and let our grandchildren deal with it when the oil has been depleted.

Going into fiction, if we were to settle on another planet covered with plants and natural resources, I seriously doubt we would be able to justify what we did to the Earth when we paved the roads. We only use roads because we upgraded the existing dirt and rock trails used by horse carriages. If those hadn’t existed already, it would have made much more sense to redesign the vehicles to actually work without a paved surface. Like the horse carriages and early cars, which had really large hard wheels and softer suspension. It really is the invention of asphalt roads that caused modern cars to be such whiny rubber glove bitches.

Perhaps the whole flying car science fiction isn’t that stupid after all, because it eliminates the need for roads and tires and all the shit that comes from it. Small electric personal planes already exist. Roll out the solid state batteries and autopilot and we’re almost good to go.

This is what billionaires ought to spend their money on instead of drilling holes in the desert.

Yes, the kids will be alright.

Mine are that age, so I see a lot of them through their school and activities. They’re not that different from what we were at that age.

Depends on the cause.

If you’re protesting against anchovies on pizzas, sure, it might be a bad idea to block the roads.

If you’re protesting against unidentified terrorists abducting and killing your neighbors, then you should obstruct the roads to stop them from proceeding with their genocide.

You won’t be rewarded for being obedient. They’ll come for you next whether or not you followed their law.

But whatever…now we know why the Germans didn’t stop the concentration camps in WW2 even if they knew about them: They had to go to work and didn’t want to obstruct traffic.

It would be nice if the banks stopped to trying to kill the local payment providers for a start.

In Denmark we’ve had Dankort since 1983, which is free for the consumers to have and use, and it’s very cheap volume based pricing for merchants.

However in the past 10 years or so, the banks have been pushing businesses and customers to use VISA/Mastercard. These are not free. The consumers pay an annual fee, and the merchants pay very high transaction fees. Yet the payment providers and banks sell the lie that they are somehow cheaper, even if they’re not. A lot of small businesses trust their banks or the payment providers to give them a good deal.

By now, it’s basically necessary for consumers to have some kind of foreign card, because so many businesses have stopped accepting Dankort. Most banks don’t even offer a “clean” Dankort anymore. They only have dual cards, where the Dankort and VISA are on the same card, which removes the choice from the consumer, since the businesses will charge the VISA. Many businesses don’t even understand what cards they accept. I always ask if they accept Dankort if the sign isn’t visible, and they think they do, but they don’t.

The story is almost the same for the instant payment systems. The banks are the ones who fucked it up, while fighting for and clinging to control of the domestic market, by confusing the customers and businesses and pushing their own limited product.

It’s long overdue for the EU to decide on a union wide solution. They’re already on it, but it’s way too slow or hindered by the political desire for this to be a private market. It really shouldn’t be.

Yeah, that’s what I mean. 90% of people would be wrong.

This is what it looks like on the back:

Don’t be a gramour Nazi.

Absolutely, but it isn’t up to their employers to punish them.

Resignation is often used in these kinds of cases, because there’s really no framework to fire them, since they didn’t actually violate any of the terms on which they’re hired. They should be tried for the crimes they’ve committed under the jurisdiction of the place where the crime was committed. Not in some random board meeting in a different country.

What happens is that the board says “even if you didn’t violate our terms or any local laws, we don’t see our organization being able to work with someone like you, so we urge you to do what is best for both parts, which is that you resign voluntarily.”

If they don’t, then the board can say “the existence of potential criminal cases against you can harm the reputation of our organization, so now you’re fired.” The outcome is almost the same, but this could create a lot more negative attention to what the company knew about.

Three wise men decided to stop by for no reason.

If someone posted how it actually works, it would probably get upvoted, because the real explanation is more exotic than what most people think.

The fan is connected to a small electric engine, powered by an electronic device in between the top and bottom parts. This device runs on fediverse upvotes.

Put a cloth iron on top and leave it running.

I think the point could be stated more clearly by only using the bottom picture.

The snow that is scraped from the road is dirty, while the snow from the pavement is … less dirty. It might be dirt or exhaust or whatever. Roads and pavements are just filthy.

More interestingly, if you live in a place where the piles don’t thaw quickly, you can watch the road side of the snow getting progressively more dirty from the ongoing exhaust even if the road is not scraped afterwards. At the end of the season, the roadside snow piles will look charcoal black. It’s most noticable at crossings where cars run the engines at red light. Had it all been just dirt, it would look the same everywhere along the road, but it doesn’t.

And then use the solar panels to power a water boiler.

Remember to say toodle-oo like an old lady while waving.

I’ll have you know that I put my entire OS installation on a broken USB stick that I found on a parking lot.

The plastic case keeps falling off, but it works fine.

Would you believe anyone who told you?

Because that would be the actual problem.

An almighty God doesn’t need humans or churches to spread the story.

It’s not like Denmark is a stranger to poor choices for ice cream.

The same company also offers this one:

The people ought to follow ICE and start circling around their homes.