The swappable-battery model is so much better in theory. It incentivizes better standardization of battery formats and connectors, it makes upgrades and recycling easier.

Of course, by that logic it would be even better to make the whole scooter swappable, i.e. leased or just outright shared. But I guess humans just need to have their own toys sometimes.

Great story. I believe this is also an example of the difference between “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” worth. If one is content to value things for what they are to oneself, rather that what they may be to others, life becomes very much simpler.

Personally what irritates me more is people whining about imperfect journalism which they haven’t paid a cent for. I mean, if someone handed me, say, an apple, and I eat it, I don’t then tell them “Yeah, a bit tangy I’ve had better, maybe get another supplier”. This magazine owes us nothing at all for its product.

As for the “clicks” trope, people need to know that display ads (when they don’t get blocked) earn these publications millicents on the dollar, they pay for basically nothing. What they really want (need) is subscriptions. And I’m guessing that none of us here has one of those.

In this vein I inadvertently discovered the best theft protection for my saddle: just wait for it to get a bit of wear and tear (specifically: tear). Now I no longer worry about finding it gone.

I’m seriously considering inflicting a bit of cosmetic damage to front wheel. At that point I can ditch the cable lock.

To be fair, nobody’s stealing that first bike

Definitely the Achilles heel of the concept. Also: luggage weight restrictions (but if that’s an incentive to go by train, I’m calling it a win).

Hilarious!

Wait. This is actually a genuinely good idea.

Great - as long as it’s a web app.

That means there’s only one word for it.

PlantNet or Seek can’t?

3, 2, 1 till someone jumps on this to complain about container tabs or the CEO’s pay or whatever.

The EU-regs-respecting variant of that Engwe fat-tire job. Very popular among pizza-delivery riders. (Unlike them, I actually pedal.)

Interesting numbers. And good for you for getting out there. I agree: just knowing that the motor is there is a superpower in itself.

That’s interesting. On my 250W heavy-as-a-rock (38kg) bike I have done rides of >70km involving >1000m of climbs (mountains), with baggage on the rack, and arrived with a couple of bars of battery to spare.

This is why I’m wary of the word “need”. It’s true that I was a cyclist before an e-cyclist.

Article paints a pretty balanced picture. I have been to all these places, and there’s no easy conclusion. Yes, Laos has effectively become a Chinese vassal in the same way that it was once a French vassal. But that railway alone is an absolute wonder of engineering that will serve the country’s needs for generations, and realistically there was no other way it was going to get built.

Personally I don’t understand why anyone would need even 750W for an electric bike, let alone multiple kilowatts.

Mine is an EU-regulation 250W and I never even use the top power level. In fact sometimes I forget to turn on the battery and (on the flat) don’t even notice.

This really looks like the same story of macho horsepower inflation that’s been at work with combustion motorbikes for a century. Look at those giant BMWs with 1.4-litre engines that are enough to power a sedan. Completely unnecessary and irrational (and non-existent just a few decades ago) but the biker-dude owners will always find a reason that they “need” it. And let’s face it, this really is a story about dudes.

There are lots of flightless birds and a few flightful mammals (i.e. bats). Not any truly flying fish as yet. But presumably a few million more years might produce a properly flying member of the Exocotidae family.

a very popular meme

Interesting. All is provisionally forgiven.

On the lab-leak boredom-fest, yes I agree that the intent-vs-accident distinction is crucial and that the intent variant absolutely qualifies as conspirationism given that there’s zero evidence for it either empirical or rational. You’re right that the two were conflated problematically.

BTW it would be hard to be less conspirationist than me. I am about as skeptical as they come. I’m not even down for JFK, i.e. the starter-level conspiracy. Imagine that!

On Gaza, that’s an interesting counterfactual about the Rohingya, I admit that it’s somewhat persuasive. Personally I just hate emotion-charged words which are impossible to falsify because they require insight into other people’s minds. I share Orwell’s take: words should have clear meanings, agreed upon by all, or they should just be avoided (except in poetry). But of course the emotional valency is exactly why most people love the word genocide. Who cares about accuracy, it feels so good! Similar situation for “racist”, “fascist”, “woke” and bunch of others.

BTW I read recently that the framers of the genocide crime did not predict the power it would take on. They thought the other universal crimes (i.e. war crime, crime against humanity, and - especially - aggression) were all at least as bad as genocide. Maybe the fact that it’s a neologism gave it extra power.

“the source is that I made it the fuck up”

Why the need to make your point aggressively like this?

To (try to) wrap this up, my objection in that case is to the characterization as “conspiracy”. The proximate cause of the pandemic are still not fully understood. It is not black and white, just as Gaza is not black and white. The lab-leak hypothesis was never a “conspiracy” in that negligence (among lab technicians) is by definition not conspiratorial. Still less was it “racist” (by that standard the “wet market” explanation is surely more “racist” still - how absurd!). And yet I believe both of those slurs were pushed into the Wikipedia article at some point by activist editors, even into the title. Now that seems to be corrected. Hallelujah. The lab leak theory is a theory, not a conspiracy. Contrary to your belief, a bunch of reputable sources (now) accept that it is at least possible if not the most likely cause. Again, it hardly matters who’s right, what matters is that Wikipedia should be in the business of laying out the facts, not pushing readers towards pre-judged conclusions.

So, “co-founder”