Skynet-1A having some alternative purpose designed in by Americans, with the explicit plan of it “failing” early and then secretly co-opting it is a great foundation for some sort of conspiracy thriller.

I predict by Q2 we’ll have an expose on how “lost bag” sometimes means “your bag was destroyed so we’re going to pretend we can’t find it”. A friend of mine who works at an airport I will not name in a distant state I will not name told me about a situation years ago where a plumbing issue resulted in a sewage backup…

Agreed. I figure if the number means anything it is most likely the total length of duct tape in feet. 25,000 feet would be around 150 rolls, which is much much more feasible.

If I resigned myself to just buying ICE for my next car, I think it would be this or the Land Cruiser. Glad to see a return-to-form for Honda, their latest round of refreshes have killed it.

Came here to say basically this. One of the first vehicles in this style was the Acura ZDX, which flopped hard, but I absolutely love mine. It’s the perfect way to have a higher seating position while retaining some hot-hatch vibes.

If you judge a fish on it’s ability to climb a tree, it will go its whole life thinking…

True, ESPECIALLY if I can still put the range extender on the base-trim model. Then they’ve got a formula that’ll be hard to beat by anyone, EV or ICE.

I mean, it’s only half if you don’t compare apples to apples. With incentives you might be able to get a base trim Scout in base color with the smallest battery for <$60k. An equivalent base-trim-everything Rivian is $70k, and we don’t have any idea what the specs of a base trim Scout are. 350mi range is certainly the…

Yeah I’m a pretty big Rivian fanboy and was probably going to pull the trigger on the Gen 2 R1T next year, but... dang. This is good enough to have me wondering if I should wait even though that would mean limping my current car to 15 years and >200k miles.

Legally, an “award” is not necessarily winnings and is typically something earned or owed. It’s not a prize. At the end of the year I sign a release for my corporate stock “award”- I didn’t win anything, I earned a bonus in stock for my contributions.

My point is that he’s not afoul of sweepstakes or lottery…

Exactly. They also never use the terms “win” “lottery” “sweepstakes” “give-away”, etc... it’s always that one person will “earn” $1M. The fine print even requires the “selected” (not “winner”) to submit a W-9, as if they’re an independent contractor.

Actually pretty much- the fine print requires them to submit a W-9 like an independent contractor would. I’m not a lawyer, but I know Elmo has fucking fleets of them on retainer. Everything about this drips “careful, precise wording”. They want the public to assume it’s a giveaway, but they’re selecting the most…

Never says “randomly selected” anywhere- Amber assumed (as many people would at first blush) that this is a give-away or lottery, and used that verbiage in the article. That assumption is exactly what Elmo is going for, but it’s never stated anywhere on the promotion. In the fine print they even mention that people…

Doesn’t appear to be a lottery- they never use the term “win”, only “earn”. You get $1M as salary for being “hired” as a “spokesperson” for the America PAC.

Doesn’t appear to be a lottery- they never use the term “win”, only “earn”. You get $1M as salary for being “hired” as a “spokesperson” for the America PAC.

The other clever dodge happening here is that its not actually a sweepstakes or a lottery. They never use the verbiage “win” - it’s always “earn”. They even clarify that you’ll need to submit a W-9 if you’re selected.

So basically, one person per day is selected and offered a job as a temporary spokesperson for the…

To be fair, $30k in 1997 is about $60k now. This was a pretty nice ride in ‘97.

Yeah if I can convince my wife to wait, I’d love to put her in an R2... god knows I’d need the extra time to save up if I’m getting an R1T!

The other major consensus happening in these comments is, regardless of hybrids, the obvious solution is EV for the day-to-day and ICE for road trips, towing, etc.

This is so fundamentally obvious that it’s a huge thorn in my side... My wife and I are driving 16 and 13 year old cars respectively and are very much in…

The obvious consensus throughout that I agree with is that a PHEV that can actually do ~50mi at highway speeds on battery power on would be the perfect vehicle for pretty much every American, especially because that scheme is platform independent. You can get it in a city car (BMW i3) or a truck (upcoming RAM) and…

Yeah if you want to pick up some plywood or drywall in your Gladiator you’ll need to poke it against the back of the cab and lay the stack on the closed tailgate, or it’ll teeter on the wheel arches. And that limits the number of sheets you can pick up.

Honestly, IMHO, the Gladiator is probably the all-around worst…