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Daily Archives: December 18, 2022

Cars New Total Cost of Ownership Tool for Electric Cars

Clean Technica: “We’ve written about the total cost of ownership of automobiles for a decade, comparing the total cost of ownership of electric cars to the total cost of ownership of fossil-powered cars. The short and sweet of it is that due to lower operational and maintenance costs, as well as higher value retention, electric cars are more cost competitive as time goes on and as the owner drives more. Various assumptions go into any cost of ownership analysis — gas price over the timeframe analyzed, electricity price over the same period, efficiencies of the cars being compared, resale value at the end of the comparison period, maintenance and operational costs, amount of cash put down at purchase, interest rate, and more! Due to the complexity of it, I have long offered access to the Google Sheet I use for these comparisons — you can copy & paste the template into your own Google Sheet to modify the assumptions. The International Energy Agency (IEA) is now launching a tool of its own. “As part of the IEA’s work under the Thematic Working Group 1 of the Global Programme to Support Countries with the Shift to Electric Mobility, funded by the Global Environment Facility, the IEA is launching a new tool for calculating the total cost of ownership (TCO) of various types of light-duty vehicles,” the IEA writes. “The tool aims to support road transport electrification and decarbonisation by serving as a guide for users in better understanding the potential cost benefits of electric vehicles in comparison with other type of vehicles.” It appears that the total cost of ownership (TCO) tool won’t be available until 2023, if I’m reading the PowerPoint correctly. What’s particularly exciting about this tool is that it is going to be for use in 52 different countries! Modifying such tools for different countries and markets can be difficult, but the IEA has the resources and connections for that, so it’s good to see that the organization is getting this done…”

All-knowing machines are a fantasy Beware the human-sounding ChatGPT

iai news: “The idea of an all-knowing computer program comes from science fiction and should stay there. Despite the seductive fluency of ChatGPT and other language models, they remain unsuitable as sources of knowledge. We must fight against the instinct to trust a human-sounding machine, argue Emily M. Bender & Chirag Shah. Decades of science… Continue Reading

Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 17, 2022

Via LLRX – Pete Recommends – Weekly highlights on cyber security issues, December 17, 2022 – Privacy and cybersecurity issues impact every aspect of our lives – home, work, travel, education, health and medical records – to name but a few. On a weekly basis Pete Weiss highlights articles and information that focus on the increasingly… Continue Reading

ResearchDataGov

Via Kris Kasianovitz – “Interview in Science Magazine with ICPSR’s Margaret Levenstein about the launch of ResearchDataGov. This is a portal for discovering and requesting access to *restricted microdata *from federal statistical agencies. Excerpt from the article – Accessing U.S. data for research just got easier New online portal streamlines requests for massive data sets… Continue Reading

We’re drowning in old books. But getting rid of them is heartbreaking

Washington Post: “…America is saturated with old books, congesting Ikea Billy cases, Jengaing atop floors, Babeling bedside tables. During months of quarantine, book lovers faced all those spines and opportunities for multiple seasons of spring cleaning. They adore these books, irrationally, unconditionally, but know that, ultimately, if they don’t decide which to keep, it will… Continue Reading

Elon Musk, Fox News, and Free Speech Absolutism

Teri Kanefield – “Free Speech Absolutism” – Elon Musk abolished Twitter’s moderation policies and allowed “America’s most prominent Nazi,” Andrew Anglin back onto Twitter along with Donald Trump. He declared himself a “free speech absolutist” and said all voices should be heard. Then, on Thursday, he went on a binge and suspended the Twitter accounts of a number… Continue Reading

Repeat Spreaders and Election Delegitimization

Kennedy, I., Wack, M., Beers, A., Schafer, J. S., Garcia-Camargo, I., Spiro, E. S., & Starbird, K. (2022). Repeat Spreaders and Election Delegitimization: A Comprehensive Dataset of Misinformation Tweets from the 2020 U.S. Election. Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media, 2. https://doi.org/10.51685/jqd.2022.013 (Original work published June 13, 2022) “This paper introduces and presents a first… Continue Reading