Robert Merkel

Cycling and politics tragic. Used to teach, now does software. you can also find me at [email protected]

[Robert Merkel @rgmerk]

@disco___cat @CameronRenilson Nah. Got a lot more to do with the tech industry than oil.

[Heritage: Why? @heritage_why]

Self driving vehicles don’t solve traffic but they do make walking and cycling significantly less dangerous

[Robert Merkel @rgmerk]

@EVCircles Yeah. I have to wonder why anyone would buy the performance version. What’s the point of a car that can accelerate like a 1980s supercar if it can’t go round a corner?

[Robert Merkel @rgmerk]

@EVCircles I dunno, it was always excessive body roll that made me sick, was it that.

FWIW the performance version is getting active damping soon which should be better still.

The IM5 Performance has adaptive damping *and* air suspension so might be worth a try too.

[Robert Merkel @rgmerk]

@taipan168 Backpackers showed up to a glacier walk in sandals when I was there…

[Robert Merkel @rgmerk]

@penguinsoup3 @disco___cat If you think you’re not dependent on complex and potentially vulnerable global supply chains to fuel your ICE car…I have some bad news for you.

EVs are a preppers dream - an off grid solar system can keep the car running indefinitely.

[Robert Merkel @rgmerk]

@disco___cat Because ultimately V8s are being forced out of the new car market by government policy and They Don’t Like It (please note: the overlap between EV whingers and One Nation supporters is not insubstantial).

[Robert Merkel @rgmerk]

@disco___cat And many car enthusiasts do not accept the concept that sometimes we have to give up some things we might like for the greater good (you might use the words “selfish and immature”; I couldn’t possibly comment).

[Robert Merkel @rgmerk]

@disco___cat If you don’t have a positive emotional reaction to the sound of, say, a rumbling American V8, I don’t know how I can explain it to you, but some people genuinely do.

Ultimately, replacing combustion cars with EVs means those V8s become museum pieces.

[Robert Merkel @rgmerk]

@mattyglesias The reason the electric tech works is because activism created incentives to work on it.

[Robert Merkel @rgmerk]

@UnbeknownstDude @TheInsiderPaper Teaser and the Firecat.

[Robert Merkel @rgmerk]

@disco___cat The problem is that democratically elected governments keep on trying to find evasions from the plain meaning of commitments they signed up to decades ago.

Either be honest and rescind those commitments or live with the consequences IMO (and the same applies to Oz).

[Robert Merkel @rgmerk]

@cosmicjester Ley is far less performatively racist than Dutton, and has just demoted a prominent performative racist within her party.

Ergo, the racists who cycle between the Coalition and One Nation have gone to One Nation.

[Robert Merkel @rgmerk]

@taipan168 Remember it well. Have fun, hope the weather holds…

[Robert Merkel @rgmerk]

@mattyglesias You could also replace it with “nobody has any f*****g clue” and it’d be about as useful as a prediction.

[Robert Merkel @rgmerk]

@BoydSteere @RichardHanania I’m very suspicious of those numbers given superannuation, though the superannuation system hasn’t fully flowed through to the current generation of retirees, also very high ownership rates among Australian boomers understates their living standards.

[Robert Merkel @rgmerk]

@glengyron I’m not familiar with his output (I had better things to do than follow what US right-wingers are saying) but some of the quotes the Guardian provided are pretty incendiary. I dunno what Ezra Klein was smoking but Kirk seems about as far from bridge-building as you could get.

[Robert Merkel @rgmerk]

@Dr_M_Davis You know why.

[Robert Merkel @rgmerk]

@kchoudhu But make your CSV a little idiosyncratic, just for fun; I recommend double-quoting text fields with double quotes in the body of a few rows.