At least I might get slightly less people, when I tell them I'm a Rovers fan and mention the venkyscum, asking me in shock 'they still own you?!?' Ahhh, if only reality matched the perceived reality in their heads, where apparently Venkys fucked off years ago....

Technically even earlier than that, in 1881, though seems 1888 was when the first true electric car was made. I'd heard about these Victorian era EVs before, and that they were actually viable competitors to combustion cars for a while, but I couldn't remember how they ended up not making the grade, so I looked it up and found this article with a history of the EV: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_electric_vehicle Some interesting highlights include setting speed and distance records early doors, notably the first road vehicle to break the 62 mph barrier, in 1899. In the 1910s there was a vehicle with a 110 mile range, although it could only hit 20 mph. And exchangeable batteries (where you just swap your drained battery for a fully charged one) were proposed as long ago as 1896 and was provided between 1910 and 1924. That's a concept that still has some legs these days, as this is what a company called Nio do to get around charging times (I don't think this one will pan out in the long term though). Also, the first crewed vehicle to drive on the moon, the Lunar Rover, was an EV. Why did they fail? I'll just give the cliff notes to avoid boring people with another lengthy post. The decline started in the 1910s and 1920s. More petrol was found. Many more roads were built, so longer journeys were possible the EVs didn't have range for. Charging infrastructure wasn't really there on the scale needed for long trips. They were best suited to cities because they were slower and couldn't travel as far. Gasoline cars overcame some of their disadvantages - they no longer needed a time-consuming and dangerous hand-crank to start, and mufflers made them quieter. Henry Ford mass produced ICE cars rather than EVs, making them a lot cheaper. Some of these same problems exist in the EV landscape now, but not as extremely, and they're being constantly worked on. There were no climate change issues to further spur this on. I can't help but think though - if the lithium-ion battery had been invented way back then, instead of lead-acid, would we all have been driving EVs now our whole adult lives? Of course, this was in the days before effective renewables, so we'd still have had a lot of (but less) pollution.

That's actually something I'm interested in myself, as I've wanted instrumentals for a relatively underground artist for something I intend to do later in the year and I don't think I'll be able to find them ready-made. I've been assuming something like that must exist, but hadn't got to the point of looking it up, so appreciate you mentioning one you've worked with that can be relied on. I see it's free too! Can it be used to keep some vocal elements in place, like if you wanted to keep the chorus, or some kind of 'background' voices etc?

This is one of the things that worries me most personally...I'm an actor and I decided that this year I'm going to start doing a bit of voiceover work. Not as a main career unless it took off more than I expect, but still. I'm concerned that (as is typical for my luck) I've chosen pretty much the exact worst time to do this. I'm going to have to be careful reading contracts and making sure I can't be cloned (though it will probably happen anyway), but moreover this seems to be an existential threat to the voiceover industry. You already hear a lot of clearly AI-generated voices on youtube videos, and maybe some that are less obvious. Of course, for a time the work at the top end will still be mostly real people as there's a certain level of artistry that an AI can't match yet, but I think the bottom end I'm starting out at will be swamped with cheap AI voices fairly quickly. If your budget is small why would you use an actor when you can just get an AI to generate it? It won't be as good but it will probably be close enough to suit their purposes. Give it, I dunno how many but let's say 30 years or probably a lot less, and even screen actors will be replaceable with AI generated images and sound without anyone being able to tell the difference. The question then will become whether people are happy to watch that sort of content or will insist on seeing real people. Will they even know which they're watching? I guess with celebrities maybe, but how will you know that actor didn't just phone it in and give the company permission to use them as an AI instead and bank the money? And how will actors reach celebrity status in the first place if they are competing with much cheaper AI that do whatever they're told at all times? I imagine it will follow the usual pattern of technological change- at first lots of people, especially older generations, won't want any truck with watching films like that, then over time it will just become the norm. Most of my work is live, and that's not going anywhere any time soon (you'd need expensive hyper realistic androids or holograms that haven't even been made yet), so I'm not overly concerned, but it does make you wonder. Tech is wonderful and I generally embrace it, but art doesn't really feel like an area we should give over to machines. That's before we get into the whole Skynet kind of thing...

I don't really see it as a pessimistic outlook. A 1 in 5 ish chance of going down if we don't get any more points has me feeling fairly relaxed. Not out of the woods yet though, but I kinda fancy us to get a point against an after-the-lord-mayor's-show Coventry. If Leicester manage to wrap up their promotion before they play us, a point against them might become a lot easier too. I actually think we'll be fine, after knowing since January it was going to become a relegation fight. But I do think we'll be leaving it til the final day, as we never do things the easy, non-squeaky-bum way.

Funnily enough, without checking any of the odds of the required or doing any actual maths, I'm in the match thread after Sunday saying I think we have about a 20% chance of going down if we don't get any more points (told my mum the other day I reckoned it was 20-30%). My instinct and your method seem roughly aligned.

He didn't notice. Before the game he said it wasn't 'must win'.

I think that when Eustace said he was a 'no excuses' coach, what he meant is that you don't need excuses when you just pretend that everything is always absolutely fine and live in la la land instead.

Thought he was at fault for the first goal too. He needed to come out for it, but he should have tried to send it out of play, and should have immediately sprinted back to goal when that didn't happen. Before anyone says I have it in for Pears, I just call it as I see it game by game. For one thing I didn't blame him for a single one of Bristol's 5 goals, and thought he was very reliable against Leeds and a deserved MotM. Today was back to being Captain Ballsup.

I can see that. Musk is an absolute throbbing bellend, and the idea of putting money in his hands is a major turnoff from the idea of buying a new Tesla (I guess a used one wouldn't do that though). I believe they recently announced they'll be cutting 10% of their global workforce to cut costs, whilst they're also attempting to give Musk about 40 billion I think it is (after a court already said they couldn't). Prick. Can see why you'd compare them to Apple too (a brand that like you I'll never invest in, partly because of the irritating and misguided 'culture of cool' around them, and partly because they're incompatible with everything). Both brands have their fare share of fanboys and like you say, their prices get artifically inflated because of their brand name. In Tesla's case though, this extra cost is more or less offset by them having achieved economies of scale nobody outside of BYD has managed, meaning you genuinely get a better product, often at similar or better prices than similar models from rivals. But, mostly cos of Musk, I hope by the time I can afford an EV everyone else has caught up and I can seriously consider a different brand.

We already know his justification. 'I wanted more money'. The man is a master of false economy.

Nah not for me. Caught out by a slight bobble it seemed (nowhere near as pronounced as the one that took out Flowers though). I've seen similar happen to numerous keepers in the game over the years. But you hardly ever see something as ridiculous as what he did against Wigan. It says a lot that he is probably 2 of the top 3 Rovers keeper fuckups and we've only had him four seasons so far. And this at a club that had Fettis and Walton.

No. It's not even Pears' worst fuckup. Have you forgotten him chucking it in his goal against Wigan?

I'd take the opposite from that. He wants to play too badly, so he's insisting he feels fine when he really should be taking a rest, and keeps getting injured. Probably on the painkillers.

In fairness, I thought Ayari looked interested. Don't remember the other two doing anything.

I'm fairly confident it is. Too many teams between us and the drop still. To go down would likely require: Brum beating Hudds away or Norwich at home. Sheff W beating WBA at home or Sunderland away. Plymouth beating Millwall away or Hull at home (or getting two draws). (Or you could swap Birmingham's for Huddersfield beating them and also beating Ipswich away, but I don't see it) and us losing both games. Even then there's the potential for GD to save us if Brum got beaten convincingly in their other game. I rate our chances of going down at about 20%, if we don't get any more points.

Crazy how he can go from man of the match against Leeds to this shower he turned up today. Not the first time he has done that either, did the same what was it, a couple of months ago? Most keepers gain confidence and consistency from an excellent performance, Pears seems to switch off instead.

He's 17. Now. Last month.

Because we wouldn't have replaced him and would be lining up with 0 goals per game Telalovic instead.

He's 17 btw.

The same batteries are in your phone and your laptop if you have one and it isn't ancient, so are you happy about it?

I like a Ford too. When I learnt to drive about 7 years ago, I really wanted to get a Ford Fiesta for my first car. It would have had to be on finance so I very sensibly bought my mum's old Peugeot instead. I think you've got it wrong about practicality and reliability for EVs though, at least with Teslas. I can't speak to other brands as much, as many use different battery chemistry but moreover I haven't seen as many reviews from former owners as I have with Teslas. The only issue with practicality really is if you wouldn't be able to set up a home charger, in which case yeh I wouldn't consider an EV personally. But if your car is starting every day with in the region of 300 miles after a cheap night time recharge, it's not often you'd need a public charger unless you forgot to plug it in. I think in the 7 years I've been driving, I'd have only needed to use a public charger twice if I had one of those. As for reliability, less moving parts means less things to go wrong and less maintenance. I see you allude to cold weather, which was certainly an issue in older battery chemistries and designs, but the current batteries are far more resistant, and thermal management systems have improved it further. Not really an issue in newer Teslas from the last few years. If I was to consider a different brand I'd have to do my research on them first, some of them are playing catch up.

Depends what you look for in your car really. I agree, I'm not a fan of how Teslas look for the most part, although the Roadster is quite nice, and the Highland is a decent aesthetic improvement for the Model 3. When I drive behind Teslas, I hate how they look with that wide bottom and slimmer top section. That said, I'm probably the opposite to you in that they're potentially the only EV I'd consider. I'm more interested in a car that lasts well, drives well, gets me from A to B best, etc. The looks are less important for me, though nice to have. They also get cheaper access to the super chargers, although that's less of a concern when you're minted. Tesla batteries seem to have the best track record for low degradation though, and for safety, and I get the impression most legacy car makers haven't mastered this yet, or at least not been on the road long enough to be sure. If looks are more your thing, there are plenty of quite nice looking EVs. I thought the Xiaomi (yes the phone company) SU7 recently released in China is very slick, if a slightly derivative design, and with good specs. But apparently they keep crashing! I think the Lucid Air is a lovely, more mature car than the Teslas, with similar or even better specs, but again not out in the UK yet. I like how some of the BYD cars look. Reckon the new Renault 5 will be popular with those who like small hatchbacks. Like you say, money is a huge concern unless you're rich enough that it isn't, but there are some great deals to be had on the used market. In time, it will all improve - looks, affordability, the used market etc. Reckon I'm a good 3-5 years from being able to replace my banger with one!

'Of course, we wanted to keep Sammie, and we offered him a 1% pay rise to stay, but at the end of the day, Luton are a massive club. Sammie wanted to play in the Premiership, and that's just not on the agenda here, so we sold him for £2 million to keep the lights on.' (I'm exaggerating, I think he'll go for about 8 million same as you, and probably could go for around 10 mill if we held out a bit, which we won't)

Little update on this, since the post is over 4 years old. China is now the largest domestic producer of solar energy in the world. Hell, just in 2023 China added more solar capacity (216 GW) than the US had in total (175 GW). It brought them to 609 GW of solar generation. The US was in second place globally with their 175 GW, and after that it drops to 94 GW (India) and beyond. They're streets ahead for this. They also accounted for about 60% of global wind installations, and the belief is their emissions have peaked (ahead of government targets) and will decrease from now on. Furthermore, they build the majority of the world's renewables and are at the forefront of many technological improvements in renewables and battery technology. It shouldn't be forgotten either that a lot of their pollution historically and now is in service of producing goods for the rest of the world, ie us. Russia on the other hand would seem to be a problem, using oil and gas money to fund wars of aggression and conquest.