Another Rolls-Royce I Can't Afford.

"Asking Boris Johnson to sack Dominic Cummings is like asking Emu to sack Rod Hull."

 

That is one of my favourite quotes to come out of the recent debacle.

 

Here is emu trying to get in to a toy car:

OK, I put the eye on there - here is the real picture:

Still looks weird doesn't it? Until you realise that is a model car.  Car+Driver have this story.  It's a very realistic model car because it is made by Rolls-Royce using Rolls-Royce materials.  It is a 1:18 scale Cullinan.

 

If the price was 1:18 scale, it would cost £15000.

 

Double it to get the actual price.

 

To quote C+D,

 

"That's around the price of the average new car in the U.S., but if you're worried about being average, Rolls-Royce is probably not your thing anyway."

Dogging

"Animals loose in cars are never a good idea. Goats are generally the worst, but until you've had a tortoise stuck under your brake pedal, you've never known the meaning of fear."

That is my favourite Terry Pratchett quote.

Meanwhile, Caradvice.com.au are telling us that "People drive more carefully when their dog is in the car".  They really do like their surveys.

Although that may just be an excuse for them to show some cute doggie pictures:

According to a study here in the UK, 54% of respondents of the 2000 "dog-owning licence holders" who were asked, claimed to drive more carefully when they had their pet in the car.  Since we don't have dog-licences any more, I'll assume they mean driving licences.  Could be TV licences though.

Also, they don't say how many did actually respond.

If everyone responded, then that is 1080 pooch owners.

But if only 24 responded then that is just 13 pooch owners.

Now, I don't know about you, but I tend to try and be equally careful whenever I drive irrespective of who or what is in my car - this 54% are saying they are more slapdash about their driving habits when Fido is not watching them.  Or should that be "Rover?"

Not that this really affects me.

I'm a cat person.

Dagnabit, Muskie!

Is Elon Musk a tit?   He is undoubtedly a very brilliant man - his achievements show that.

But he also seems to be a flawed human being.

 

It is the Donald Trump-esque toddlerish petulance that is the problem.

Trump was born into privilege.  His father was a very successful businessman so Donnie was brought up surrounded by sycophants, afraid of losing their jobs, who gave him whatever he desired.  They let him get away with whatever he did including serial lies which have served him so well throughout his career.

 

Donnie inherited his wealth and is a simple-minded individual who throws tantrums when he doesn't get his own way.

 

Elon made his own wealth and is an intelligent individual who throws tantrums when he doesn't get his own way.

That makes him better than Donald Trump.

 

But, unfortunately, that is not a ringing endorsement.

 

Boris Johnson is better than Donald Trump and he is a lying buffoon.

 

So, what has Elon done now?  He has promised to move his Tesla headquarters from California to Texas because he was ordered to keep the plant closed for the protection of his workforce.  He is also threatening to shut down the California site altogether.

 

He is basically telling the workers there to risk their lives and those of their families or lose their jobs.

 

Nice.

 

And he has called his child X Æ A-12.

 

So the answer to my initial question is "Yes".

The Good Old Days

The other week, I compared the traffic levels on my commute to those of the late 1970s.

Turns out I should have compared them with the early 1970s.  The BBC did today.

I enjoyed one of their photos in particular:

I could identify all of the cars there - I do like a Vauxhall Victor.  This other picture they chose seems more relevant to a Covid story though:

Meanwhile, today, they also tell us that car sales fell in April to 1946 levels.

 

I wouldn't have been able to identify a line of cars from that year - the year the Wolseley Eight was launched: 

Car sales were 97% lower in April than the previous April with the top selling car last month being...

…The Tesla Model 3.

That's an Autocar story.  Autocar also tell us what the top 10 selling new cars for 2020 so far are.  I don't know if it is good news or bad news that there are two SUVs in there.  I'd have thought there would be more but it is still two too many.  I also think that they chose the wrong sub-heading for that article - "We run through the latest new car registration data to see which models are flying off forecourts"

Meanwhile Car+Driver point out a different consequence of cars sitting idle for long periods:
Rats nesting in your engine!