Jak Koke

Author & editor of SFF novels, keynotes, & scripts. Science advocate & hope peddler. Not here much. Elsewhere I'm @jakkoke.bsky.social & @J A Koke on FB.

[Jak Koke @jakkoke]

In which I discuss why word count might not be the best metric for writers:

Size Matters – Word Count
https://t.co/564S3EKGbx

#writing #WritingCommunity

[Democratic Wins Media @DemocraticWins]

BREAKING: Mike Pence has announced that he cannot in good conscience vote for Donald Trump. Retweet to make sure every American sees this clip

[Mark Hamill @MarkHamill]

@JoeRobinEnjoyer #VoteForBiden

[Hank Green @hankgreen]

Everyone thought that the US and Europe would electrify our vehicles first and then the developing world would keep buying gas vehicles for a while before electrifying but it looks like it might be the opposite.

The cost advantage and overnight charging convenience of small, cheap EVs is starting to make them appealing in places like Brazil, China, India, and Indonesia. The people there are at a very different economic moment and might be upgrading from bikes or scooters into electric bikes and scooters and small EVs. Their gasoline infrastructure isn’t as built-out as ours is and the average length of a journey is shorter. Also, lots of middle-income countries (unlike the US) don’t have much of their own oil.

Meanwhile consumers in the US (especially) have a ridiculously high standard of what a new car needs to be able to do (fit eight children and drive 800 miles without stopping and have a motorized lift gate and 25 freaking cameras and keep everyone alive in a head-on collision with a semi) which is just a lot harder to get a cheap EV to do. Also, culture is harder than technology and people will have a culture battle about freaking ANYTHING THEY CAN.

Meanwhile American auto makers also make all of their profit in SUVs and trucks, so they don’t want to make cheap little EVs that go 250 miles (even if Americans would buy them). But if you do that, you can make EVs pretty inexpensively so that’s exactly what Chinese companies are doing.

As a result, middle-income countries look like they’ll be the ones that drive EV technology and global market share forward. That’s just…not really what folks expected! Very different from how mobile phones happened, for example where middle and low income countries leapfrogged over telephone wires, but not until after rich countries developed the tech for wealthier consumers.

EVs will still happen in the US, but new car buyers here are so well-off and picky and we have so many regulations and so much long-distance infrastructure and such high expectations for the fill-up experience that we are going to be the old stodgy dinosaur as the world runs laps around us in this way (and possibly a number of others.)

The tech might end up getting pushed forward mostly to serve people in middle-income countries, and then once it’s top-notch and obviously better than any gas car, only then will EVs will take over the last bits of the American market.

Not the end of the world (probably), but not great!

P.S. I learned about this and had these thoughts listening to this week’s episode of “Shift Key” which is about why China is kicking our ass at EVs. Search for it wherever you get podcasts!

[Scientific American @sciam]

The notion that men evolved to hunt and women to tend to children and domestic duties is one of anthropology’s most influential ideas. But the available data do not support it. Evidence from studies of physiology, archaeology and fossils point to women having a long history of hunting animals for food.

Read our November issue to learn more: https://t.co/6PoDnuzY1G

[Jak Koke @jakkoke]

i'm mostly not here, fyi

(you can find me here https://t.co/lqtnZm2414 or here: https://t.co/5QBfDcbXej )

[Karawynn ♿🏳️‍🌈🦊😷 @karawynn]

I'm checking in on Twitter for the moment because I've had a few pieces published this month (one fiction, several nonfiction), and some of you crazy kids are still hanging out here, but in general I am active https://t.co/172VI8Hf58 instead. Please consider following me there!

[Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @AOC]

Fun fact: Every government shutdown in the last 30 years occurred when Republicans had control of the House of Representatives.

Last time it happened, it drove people to food pantries and forced an $8b hit to the economy. They treat people missing paychecks like it’s no big deal

[Jak Koke @jakkoke]

Whew!

[Wesley Chu @wes_chu]

Guys, we’re in the clear!

[Jak Koke @jakkoke]

This!

[Jak Koke @jakkoke]

New Dear Future post about how beef farming is killing the planet
https://t.co/kDy1BPZw6w

[Jak Koke @jakkoke]

The latest Dear Future post is about running the traditional publishing gauntlet - https://t.co/pbduFjztYi

[Jak Koke @jakkoke]

This! Ethical atheists with a commitment to humanism have a better reason for being good.

[Jak Koke @jakkoke]

My latest Dear Future post is about ENM, polyamory, and social acceptance -
https://t.co/2PxxT4DN4b

[Public Citizen @Public_Citizen]

The Senate just passed a bill to block Biden’s student loan forgiveness AND force retroactive payments and interest on your paused payments.

.…WTF!

[Hank Green @hankgreen]

Me to my brain: So, we have cancer.

My brain: we might have cancer?

Me: No, we definitely do.

Brain: we should do something about that, just in case it’s cancer.

Me: No! Dude! It is definitely cancer!

Brain: So, what, we do chemo?

Me: Yup.

Brain: …just in case.