DL Open Thread: Sunday, November 6, 2022
Musk Blatantly Violated Cali Law With Mass Firings. He’s not escaping this unscathed. Hopefully, all of the fired employees will be made somewhat whole. Anyone who’s lost a job knows how traumatic it can be.
‘OPEC Of Rainforests’? Can this alliance help halt deforestation?:
The big three tropical rainforest nations – Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – are in talks to form a strategic alliance to coordinate on their conservation, nicknamed an “Opec for rainforests”, the Guardian understands.
Brazil, Indonesia and DRC are home to 52% of the world’s remaining primary tropical forests, which are crucial to avoiding climate catastrophe, and the conservation talks are fulfilling a campaign promise by Lula.
Lamenting The Demise Of The Stick Shift. Not me, mind you. Never drove one, never had the desire to learn how to drive one. But, if you want to overthink it:
I drive a stick shift. It’s a pain, sometimes. Clutching and shifting in bumper-to-bumper traffic wears you out. My wife can’t drive my car, which limits our transit options. And when I’m at the wheel, I can’t hold a cold, delicious slushie in one hand, at least not safely. But despite the inconvenience, I love a manual transmission. I love the feeling that I am operating my car, not just driving it. That’s why I’ve driven stick shifts for the past 20 years.
That streak may soon be over. When it comes time to replace my current car, I probably won’t be able to get another like it. In 2000, more than 15 percent of new and used cars sold by the auto retailer CarMax came with stick shifts; by 2020, that figure had dropped to 2.4 percent. Among the hundreds of new car models for sale in the United States this year, only about 30 can be purchased with a manual transmission. Electric cars, which now account for more than 5 percent of car sales, don’t even have gearboxes. There are rumors that Mercedes-Benz plans to retire manuals entirely by the end of next year, all around the world, in a decision driven partly by electrification; Volkswagen is said to be dropping its own by 2030, and other brands are sure to follow. Stick shifts have long been a niche market in the U.S. Soon they’ll be extinct.
We can’t say we weren’t warned. For years, the stick’s decline has been publicly lamented. Car and Driver ran a “Save the Manuals” campaign in 2010, insisting that drivers who “learned to operate the entire car” would enjoy driving more and do it better. A #SaveTheManual hashtag followed. Shifting gears yourself isn’t just a source of pleasure, its advocates have said, or a way to hone your driving. A manual car is also less likely to be stolen if fewer people know how to drive it. It’s cheaper to buy (or at least it used to be), and it once had lower operation and maintenance costs. You can push-start a manual if the battery dies, so you’re less likely to get stuck somewhere; and you can use the stick more easily for engine braking, which can reduce wear and make descending hills easier and safer.
Any stick-shift nostalgists care to wallow in self-pity here? Have at it.
Some days, there just isn’t much to inspire me. Today is one of those days.
What do you want to talk about?
Manual shift seems to be popular among the many Fast and Furious wannabees who infest our roadways at felony speeds.
Bull Excrement! Driving a 1991 Corvette with a six speed manual trans, in my opinion you don’t get the full on sports car effect without a manual transmission. The act of shifting connects you with the car, and as such to the road.
“full-on sports car effect” = “Fast and Furious wannabee.”
Nobody feels they are getting the “full on sports car effect” unless they are swerving from lane to lane to pass law-abiding cars like they are standing still.
I don’t care how a car shifts, as long as it has a working muffler and stays in its lane at around the speed limit.
But that’s not what this new crowd wants. Manual shift allows them to overrev and blast earsplitting and alarming volumes through their nonworking mufflers to draw attention to themselves.
Struth!
A muscle car should be a manual drive – muscle car = pre 1972. I.e my 1969 Camaro rs or 1971 corvette. Plus growing up my parents insisted we learn to drive a stick incase we needed to. Kinda like now a days knowing how to use an epipen or an aed or cpr
Wrong Puck! I’m out in the country, just me and the car. And while it has a custom exhaust for that throaty deep tone it is not loud unless I floor it, and then it barks. And tends to fly forward at great speed. This ain’t Wilmington, and it is glorious in my sight!
throaty deep tone = disabled muffler
Our (non Tesla) BEV’s will quietly leave any throaty, manual shifting ICE vehicle in the dust up to license revoking speeds. Just saying.
Also just saying, you can avoid the throngs and candidate swarms by voting early! I was in and out at the Claymont community center in less than five minutes.
So was our whole family. More like ten minutes, but still…
Musk is such a fucking clown. He really is committed to burning his reputation all the way down.
I currently have a 5 speed, stick as one of my 2 cars. I have owned at least 8 including 2 Miata’s and an MGB , Loved em all!
Can’t say I feel anything for the pink slip Twitter folks. They are professional Tech bros and they will land on their feet. They knew the dumpster was on fire years ago and chose to stay in the fray. They are eating their just desserts.
As for the stick shifts? They definitely are lighter and more efficient. I can’t say they promote reckless behavior; it’s a failure of the system where reckless behavior gets you a slap on the wrist until you kill someone.
The ultimate uncool: my first manual was a brown ’65 Studebaker station wagon. Learned how to drive it on my own in two days, right after the engine blew on the automatic I had been using. A little stressful worrying about rolling backward when headed uphill and stuck at a red light.
That section of 4th street at the foot of Quaker hill was always my Achilles heel
I have always preferred manual shift for winter weather, but I drive less than 2,000 miles per year in the US. Don’t have or need a car in Paris, where snow is rare.