March 3, 2026

ASKING THE IMPORTANT QUESTIONS: How long do electric vehicle batteries actually last?

As the fleet of EVs on the road ages, new data pooled from tens of thousands of vehicles is showing those batteries are lasting longer than expected.

Lithium-ion batteries undergo two kinds of aging. First, there’s calendar aging: They degrade as time goes on, holding less juice, even if they just sit in storage.

Then there’s cyclical aging, which is how much a battery degrades based on its use — being charged and discharged, over and over again.

That means there’s no way to dodge degradation. Whether you use a vehicle a lot or a little, eventually, the battery will hold less energy.

But the trajectory of aging isn’t a straight line. Recurrent, a research firm that pulls in data from over 30,000 EV drivers, describes it as an “S curve.” There’s a rapid decline at the beginning, a long leveling off, and then a more rapid decline at the end.

It’s nice that they last longer than initially thought. But that’s still a very expensive replacement with no repairability.

Posted at 3:49 pm by Stephen Green

RE-OPENING THE STRAITS:

Posted at 3:33 pm by Stephen Green

I DON’T KNOW WHO SAID IT FIRST, BUT THE SOCIAL CONTAGION THEORY HAS BEEN AROUND FOR ALMOST AS LONG AS THE “IDENTITY” EXPLOSION:

Posted at 3:02 pm by Stephen Green

THE CORBYNIZATION OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTINUES APACE:

Flashback:

As Steve wrote on Saturday, “‘It wasn’t as Al Jazeera reported’ is basically evergreen.”

Posted at 2:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

DEMOCRAT SAYS WHAT ABOUT TRUMP?

Flashback: Fuentes is mullah-approved!

Posted at 2:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

WHAT’S THE OPPOSITE OF A CUSTODY FIGHT?

Related: Trump Hits Back at Megyn and Tucker “Part-time Hitler apologist Tucker Carlson and gal pal Megyn Kelly used their shrinking-to-nonexistent MAGA credentials to question Operation Epic Fury, but President Donald Trump is having none of it from either of them.”

Posted at 1:59 pm by Stephen Green

ANDREW STILES: Exclusive: Graham Platner’s Crisis PR Handbook Hints at Trouble Still To Come.

Graham Platner is once again struggling to explain why he’s not a Nazi despite getting a Nazi tattoo and repeatedly associating with Nazis on the internet. Days after Platner accidentally promoted a post by an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist, Jewish Insider reported that the U.S. Senate candidate from Maine accidentally appeared on a YouTube program hosted by a different anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist and said he was a “longtime fan.”

On Monday, Semafor reporter Burgess Everett found a “defense guidance” packet at a campaign event, instructing volunteers on how to respond if asked about Platner’s demonstrated fondness for Nazi symbology and other anti-Semitic content. “He did not know the meaning at the time and covered it once he learned about it,” the packet provides as a sample answer to questions about his Totenkopf tattoo, the “death’s head” symbol adopted by Holocaust perpetrators. Promoting the anti-Semitic influencer was a whoopsie that the campaign corrected “once the issue was realized.” It could happen—and keep happening—to anyone.

The Washington Free Beacon pounced upon learning that Platner’s campaign had assembled a crisis communications playbook for downplaying the candidate’s recurring Nazi-adjacent scandals.

What follows from Stiles is satire – or is it? Speaking of which, perhaps Platner should deploy the Mel Brooks crisis PR handbook. The 1963 comedy album, Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks at the Canne Film Festival kicked off thusly (audio available at the Wayback Machine):

CARL REINER: Ladies and gentlemen, we are at the Cannes [pronouncing it “Can”] Film Festival here in Lower Italy. And we are going to meet some of the producers, directors, and stars of the films that are being exhibited here for the annual competition.

First, I’d like you to meet the German representative from Nartsi? Narsi? Narzi? From the Narzi Film Company! Herr Adolf Hartler. Good afternoon, Herr Hartler.

MEL BROOKS: Heil Hartler! How are you?

REINER: Now, this is a strange name. It’s Narzi Films.

BROOKS: Yes, we… well, we… well…

REINER: That doesn’t have anything to do with Nazi, does it?

BROOKS: No, are you kidding? They are our worst enemies. We are against them. We always were! Are you kidding?

* * * * * * * *

REINER: Sir, sir, you’re wearing your bathing suit, I noticed.

BROOKS: Yes, yes.

REINER: And as you scratched your head, I noticed a little “SS” tattooed under your arm. What does that mean?

BROOKS: Oh, oh, oh, well, wait! That’s the Simon Says!  Umm, umm, Simon Says, We played that on the beach. I’m the captain of the Simon Says team! And that’s where we get SS from! I’m serious about the game, I love it, and so I had myself tattooed, “Simon Says!”

REINER: How did you feel about the motion picture, Stanley Kramer’s motion picture, Judgment at Nuremberg?

BROOKS Unfair!

REINER: Why did you consider it unfair?

BROOKS: Well, because he didn’t tell the whole truth. What was the picture about? Really about a misunderstanding, really, wasn’t it? I mean, look, you have, you send people to camp, don’t you, in the summer? We sent a few people to camp. I don’t know what the whole fuss is about! Sent some nice people to camp…mostly in the summer!

I’m pretty sure Brooks and Reiner thought they were recording a comedy album, not a how-to guide for campaigning for the Senate.

Posted at 1:35 pm by Ed Driscoll

IF YOU HAD ANY DOUBTS ABOUT MOSSAD, THE IAF, OR WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY GET TOGETHER…:

Posted at 1:29 pm by Stephen Green

T. BECKET ADAMS: Death to the ‘fact check’ — Kill it with fire.

If we’re eliminating whole categories of journalism — which certainly seems to be the case for sports reporting — can we also do away with the “fact check” genre?

It has always been a silly gimmick, the idea that there should be a separate vertical dedicated solely to fact-checking (checking the facts is already the main goal of journalism). But even as ill-conceived as the concept is, nothing could have prepared us for how farcical the genre would eventually become.

Take, for instance, the fact-checks following President Trump’s State of the Union address last week. Naturally, the speech was full of inconsistencies and outright falsehoods. Every such address is. What’s funny, from a media perspective, is the suffocating pettiness of the media fact-checkers and their weird fetish for playing the pedant.

“The revolution that began in 1776 has not ended,” Trump said. “It still continues because the flame of liberty and independence still burns in the heart of every American patriot, and our future will be bigger, better, brighter, bolder, and more glorious than ever before.”

Associated Press fact-checkers were on it.

“To be clear,” the AP fact-check reads, “the American Revolution started the previous year, on April 19, 1775. The colonies declared independence in 1776. It ended Sept. 3, 1783.”

It’s as if we in the press are trying to make the public hate us.

Fact check: Hate the media even more than they do now

Posted at 1:22 pm by Ed Driscoll

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, MOVE ALONG:

Posted at 12:58 pm by Stephen Green

DEMAGOGUES AND SIMPLETONS DON’T CARE ABOUT EVIDENCE: Yes, the Trump administration is very friendly to Israel, and treats Israel as an important ally rather than a burden or quarrelsome recipient of US charity, as under Obama or Biden. But no, Israel (and the so-called Israel lobby) doesn’t control US policy, and indeed Trump has defied Israeli preferences on many occasions, as Max Abrahams notes:

Posted at 12:54 pm by David Bernstein

BUT THE MONEY SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN SPENT: NYC never opened 25 planned preschools despite demand surge — and may not have even known one existed.

Roughly 20 planned early childhood education centers in the Big Apple mysteriously sit idle as demand surges for universal pre-K and 3K seats close to home, The Post has learned.

More than 25 of 47 3K “initiative projects” at sites first earmarked under former Mayor Bill de Blasio are still unlisted on the official NYC MySchools directory — despite costly construction contracts, rent payments to private owners and official Department of Education signage posted outside some “phantom” schools.

The list of leased shell sites includes a converted Brooklyn warehouse on the Columbia Street waterfront — where nearby young families face waitlists of more than 100 students for a nearby seat, parents told The Post.

Exit quote: “If we’re paying for the school to be built and it already exists, it’d be great to be using that school.”

Posted at 12:43 pm by Stephen Green