John

@croyle@wandering.shop @archaeology@mstdn.social I was thinking it was amusing if there was accuracy in that claim. That would have been quite early in history to measure "one ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the Equator along the meridian passing through Paris"

@croyle@wandering.shop @archaeology@mstdn.social I was curious, so

https://archaeologymag.com/2025/06/11th-century-ritual-sword-discovered-in-dutch-river/

I thought the humorous part was that it said the sword was 1 meter long.

Amazing if true.

@theneverfox I just commuted across Los Angeles. I saw every sort of car, but far more gas guzzlers than hybrids or EVs. These are free choices, by people who might say "they care" or "someone should do something."

The person who buys a Mercedes Maybach SUV, 16 MPG, certainly has other options.

They would probably tell you they care.

@Delta_V going back many years I've heard the description of the automobile industry problem as "overcapacity."

Too many companies in too many countries are fighting for too few buyers, compared to that production capacity. Like, if you ran all plants atlnd all shifts it would be way too many cars.

Now that's happening in EVs right?

To make money, on specifically the Mustang, Ford it has to sell a lot of Mustangs. Unfortunately everyone else is trying the same thing at the same time.

@fpslem @jeffw

Indeed,

"Ford just reported a massive loss on every electric vehicle it sold"

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/24/business/ford-earnings-ev-losses/index.html

@fpslem @jeffw

Ford Motor companies net profit margin for 2023 was only 3.83%

They are in a tougher spot than many people understand. If they don't have very fat margins on premium vehicles, they are close to losses.