Notes from the edge of civilization: August 18, 2024
From a volcanic explosion in Russia to explosive data from the UK showing how few civil servants actually go to the office, here's your weekly report from the brink of collapse.
A five-mile column of ash is rising over Russia’s east coast after the Shiveluch volcano erupted this weekend, following a 7.0-magnitude earthquake Saturday on the Kamchatka peninsula.
The earthquake initially caused the U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center to issue a tsunami threat, but the organization later said the threat had passed. Russian authorities never issued a tsunami alert.
In 1952, a 9.0 earthquake in Kamchatka created a tsunami that generated waves as high as 50 feet, causing extensive damage and taking the lives of between 10,000 and 15,000 people.
Ten days ago, Japan issued its first-ever warning about the possibility of a long-feared "mega quake" after a powerful 7.1-magnitude quake struck off that country’s southern coast, sparking a tsunami advisory.
Earthquakes have also been felt this week in Taiwan (5.7), Peru (5.2), Indonesia (5.0), and Argentina (4.7), along with smaller tremors in California, Hawaii, and Fiji. Not to mention the eruptions at Etna this past week, after many years of dormancy.
While quakes are a normal occurrence in many of these places, some people suggest they may be increasing in frequency and intensity. Biblical scholars ask whether it might be the wrath of God?
Isaiah 13:13 “So I shall make the heavens tremble, and the earth shall shake from her place, in the wrath of יהוה of hosts and in the day of the heat of His displeasure.”
Speaking of eruptions and tremors, electric vehicle (EV) owners are seething with anger over their increasingly aggravating and worthless purchases.
It’s a well known fact that new cars depreciate quickly, often losing up to 20% of their value in the first year. But according to a new analysis from Wired magazine, some EVs lose up to half their value in their first year.
Now, this cannot be said of every EV, but Cap HPI data provided to WIRED by Parkers, a respected UK online car resource, revealed how six different EVs are all projected to halve in value after 12 months and 10,000 miles. These include the Audi e-Tron GT, which plummeted by 49 percent from £107,675 ($138,000) to £54,700 ($70,100), and the Ford Mustang Mach-E, which fell by 52 percent from £59,325 to £28,575. According to the data, a Polestar 2 would also lose 52 percent of its £52,895 sticker price in just 12 months.
The Wired story referenced Lee, a YouTuber who goes by the handle The MacMaster. Lee’s video about the negative equity on his two-year-old Porsche Taycan now has one million views. In the video, Lee explains that he wanted to trade the car in at the dealership for a used 911 but couldn’t, because the dealer said they are already overstocked on used Taycans and won’t buy anymore.
“We're being sold these electric cars,” Lee said. “The government's trying to shove them down our throats. Motor manufacturers are trying to shove them down our throats because the government's telling them that they can't sell any cars after 2035 that aren't electric cars.
So, they're having to do that, and they're having to sell these cars that are not really fit for purpose because they literally are disposable cars. And people are going to end up in massive negative equity and they're not going to be able to get rid of the cars.”
Lee might want to have a chat with the bozos at Porsche HQ, who were planning on an 80% EV lineup by 2030. Good luck with that, Porsche.
In fairness to Porsche, Lee was at least able to get someone from the dealership on the phone. That may not have been the case had he tried to reach someone in the UK government, where he could have been kept on hold for hours.
According to The Daily Mail:
A report by the National Audit Office last month found [the Department for Work and Pensions] had 'fallen short of the expected standards over recent years', with people telephoning the Work and Pensions helpline forced to spend a combined 750 years on hold in the last tax year.
That fact was contained in a new investigation from the Mail, which reveals just how few British civil servants show up to work in the office each day.
Based on data turned over via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, the Mail calculated the attendance rate for 17 government departments that responded to the request. The FOIA asked each department how many members of staff were based at their various HQs and how many desks or workspaces those buildings in fact contained.
The Department for Business and Trade, housed in London’s landmark Old Admiralty Building, was found to be “the single worst department” with only 813 of the 4,695 civil servants, just 17.3 per cent, turning up on an average day.
For the government overall, the Mail’s calculations show that only about 33.6% of the 36,613 Whitehall staffers for whom data is available can be found at the office where they are based on a normal weekday.
Maybe it’s a clever survival tactic. It’s harder to drain the swamp if you can’t locate the swamp creatures. Plus, as government continues to balloon in size and scope, expect the bureaucratic fat cats to get fatter, greedier, and more likely to conduct business from their armchairs and sofas.
Let’s end on a bit of levity.
My former New York Times colleague, Joyce Wadler, wrote a recent Substack about how the Harris-Walz campaign aims to Make Camouflage Great Again.
She says, with tongue firmly in cheek:
That’s right — the once-reviled pattern of pickup-truck-driving, Capitol-storming, shotgun-toting Trumpsters who never in their lives picked up a New York Review of Books, is now cool. The $40 camouflage hat was sold out within thirty minutes of its debut on the official Harris fund raising page last week, according to The New York Times. An additional $1 million in orders were received by the end of the day.
Camo, thanks to Vice Presidential Candidate Tim Walz, is cool. So is being born in Nebraska (that’s a place in the middle of the country with no skiing), going to a state college, teaching high school and – this is directly related to the camo trend -- HUNTING!!!!
True, there was a time, two weeks ago, when some tradition-bound small-minded liberals considered hunting to be a MAGA sport. But as Walz, when he was a high school teacher, created a gay-straight student alliance, libs have been forced to rethink that quaint notion.
Bleeding heart Dems who would not have a gun in the house are now considering murdering Bambi and his friend Thumper and the no-name gopher that’s been tearing up the lawn.
Sure, the fawns are cute, but we all know deer are just AirBnB for ticks. They ate my tomatoes down to the roots and the gardener went to a lot of work for those tomatoes. And what about last summer, driving back to Montauk, when a deer darted out in front of me and destroyed the Porsche? I’d welcome the opportunity to take out a few deer. And a Camo sports jacket at Spielberg’s fundraiser? That would be slick.
Got a good laugh reading Joyce’s Bambi-killing tongue in cheek essay. But really, most of this post was pretty hilarious….from the idiocy of mandating electric cars to U.K. government departments work ethics! Heck, if we could get 2/3 of OUR government workers to stay home, things might actually improve in the US!
Shocking stats on EV’s and government going to work here in the UK, maybe its because their cars can’t charge or were incinerated 😂