Friday, January 13, 2012

Friday the 13th



A partly good and partly bad day. The bad part first. The drain to my bathroom sink clogged and the instant hot water heater for my tea leaked. It took a couple of pretty expensive visits to the old homestead by two plumbers who turned my body into a torso by taking an arm and a leg. The good part of the day is my best friend Sam turned 60 today. Sam and I became best friends in second grade back in Joburg when we were 6. We have a friendship that spans from six to six oh. As much as I love Sam and his becoming a sexagenarian had me thinking is life better or worse after sixty? If the first part of age group holds then of course life is better after sixty. Sam, I wish you a happy birthday and wishing you many more years of health and happiness.

If my friend Sam had it good who had it bad this Friday the 13th? Well I have to say my old enemy Teslacle had it real bad. They trade on the NASDAQ as TSLA and for most of Friday the 13th their stock was a flat line. Then with thirty minutes to the close of trading the news hit that their VP and chief engineer and the head of their vehicle and chassis engineering have left the company and the stock dropped. See the chart above. This is just months prior to the launch of the government funded pile of junk that transfers wealth and the pursuit of happiness from the 99% to the 1%. It is kind of like the ball has dropped at Teslacle. Prior to this happening today the want to be auto company had suffered from cryptorchidism. No doubt that Secretary Chu Chu is not happy that his wonder child no longer suffers from cryptorchidism and had wished that the two high level engineers could have stayed till after the November election.

Tesla continues to prevaricate on their website as to the range of the Model S. They fib about the pile of junk attaining a range of 160 miles when traveling at 55 miles per hour. Yeah this may be the case on a perfectly level and straight road at night when the prevailing temperature is 68 degrees Fahrenheit. With no heater or air conditioning and no braking or acceleration the pile of junk will yield a range of 160 miles using its 40 kilowatt hours of stored energy. I opined a while back that a motorist in upstate New York dealing with an outside temperature of only 14 degrees Farenheit and driving an electric car, they had better be wearing some Northface clothing to not die of exposure when their cab does not warm up over freezing point. But don’t fret for this person from the 1% in a Teslacle, they can fork over $80,000 and get an upgraded battery pack with 85 kilowatt hours of stored electricity. Now the pile of junk weighs in at over 5,000 pounds and many more of the 99% will be deprived of their share of the lithium. The 85 kilowatt hour battery will support a larger heater that brings the cab temperature up to the perfect 68 degrees Fahrenheit. But wait the added 900 pounds for the larger battery and the added draw for the heater now make the $80,000 behemoth only go 200 miles on a single charge. The driver will be not be able to go from Buffalo to Albany he will however be able to reach Utica where he can have a urologist check on the condition of his urethra. He had better hope the urologist has two things. Skinny fingers and a spare 40 amp 220 volt circuit. Of course the motorist will have to recharge in Utica for 10 hours before making the trip to Time Square in order to really see the ball drop. I have no idea how to spend 10 hours in Utica.

2 comments: