Do Mercedes aluminum wheels have visible lug nuts or bolts?

by philg

Question for Europeans and Mercedes nerds: Can a new Mercedes have aluminum wheels without visible lug bolts (I’ve been told that Mercedes uses bolts rather than the conventional nuts)?

Sixt rented me a 2024 E 300de at the Lisbon airport with the exterior covered in dirt/grime. This was at the end of a 1.5-hour rental process (line at the office in the terminal then a second line at the office in the parking garage). They cleaned the windows so that it was safe to drive, but didn’t clean up the wheels or body. Maybe because it was so dirty, they didn’t notice a scratch on one of the wheel covers that Sixt Porto complained about on return (the car was clean due to having been driven through rain so any scratches were 10X more prominent). Sixt later emailed saying they were going to charge me for an “aluminum rim” (they never sent me a photo of the purported damage). I happened to take a photo of the car and the detail below shows a wheel with no visible lug bolts/nuts and what I think is shiny black plastic. Does a 2024 Mercedes have some kind of magic system for attaching aluminum wheels where lug bolts/nuts aren’t visible? (The car actually failed after two days of our rental and was replaced with a similar-looking one that definitely had plastic wheel covers. During the final return in Porto, I found some Mercedes cars in the Sixt parking lot that had aluminum wheels and the expected visible lug bolts.)

Detail from Car #1:

The original photo from which the above was taken:

A random Mercedes in the Sixt Porto lot with conventional aluminum wheels and standard visible lug nuts:

Is there some magic alternative Mercedes system for wheel attachment in which the first photo above can be of an aluminum rim and not a plastic wheel cover?

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Ideas for billionaire memorials

by philg

As noted in Where are the gardens and museums created by the Silicon Valley rich? we seem to be undersupplied with public physical infrastructure relative to the number of super rich Americans. Jeff Bezos was happy to spend about 400 million dollars recently on a sea-level house in Florida (bought three houses recently for a total of $234 million, but there will surely be some renovations), but there is no “Bezos Museum of Contemporary Art” nor a “Bezos Contemplation of Two-Day Delivery Garden”.

Maybe some of our multi-billionaire brothers, sisters, and binary-resisters will be more interested in a lasting physical legacy after their deaths. If so, here’s some inspiration from Lisbon…

The Marquis of Pombal was an important administrator tasked with cleaning up after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake (make sure to stop in the quake museum early in any touristic visit to Lisbon!). He was the Herbert Hoover of 1755, in other words (Hoover ably directed the clean-up after the Climate Change-caused Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, giving Americans for the first time the idea that a bigger government could be more powerful than Nature). Here’s how the Portuguese remember their hero:

(photographed from a 7th floor terrace in the Bankinter building.)

You might reasonably ask how a private citizen can get a town or city to devote a public square to his/her/zir/their memory. Answer: money! Chicago, for example, has $52 billion in unfunded public employee pension obligations (source). America’s richest could plug that hole and enable politicians to keep promising more lavish compensation for government workers. In exchange, a prime downtown location for a monument like the above. (They’d better set this up before the last billionaire departs for Florida!)

Let’s take a closer look at the Lisbon monument:

What would the monument depict for an American multi-billionaire? Why not the acts that led to the riches? For a Warren Buffett monument there could a scene where he closes the door on an IRS official hoping to collect some taxes (combination of business acquisition deferrals and insurance reserve). For Larry Ellison there could be a scene where the cover page of the IBM System R SQL manual is ripped off and replaced with an Oracle cover page. For Judith Faulkner it could be a doctor entranced and baffled by a computer screen while a patient languishes and dies. For those whose billions are derived from family court litigation, e.g., MacKenzie Scott (Bezos) or Melinda Gates, there could be a tally of every time that the billionaire engaged in a sex act with the defendant prior to initiating the divorce lawsuit, e.g.,

For private equity heroes, the monument would depict half of the workers being given pink slips while the other half are loaded down with 80 lbs. of debt per worker. Where I’m stuck is in figuring out what to put on the memorial for a Wall Street billionaire. What are the heroic acts that can be depicted for someone whose billions come from high-risk trades that proved lucky or smart daily trades?

New York State will need to collect about $16 billion per year in fees from billionaires in order to plug its structural budget deficit (source regarding the gap between what politicians promise and what they hope to collect). There are plenty of spots in Central Park in which a deceased billionaire could be glorified. California has more like a $50 billion gap between what politicians want to spend and what can be extracted from the peasants (source). How about a series of memorial parks along Sand Hill Road and another one down near LACMA?

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Why isn’t everyone celebrating Marine Le Pen’s victory in France?

by philg

The United Nations assures us that “We need more women leaders to sustain peace and development”:

The evidence is clear: wherever women take part in a peace process, peace lasts longer. In fact, a peace agreement, which includes women, is 35 per cent more likely to last at least 15 years. And without the solid foundation of peace, development is doomed to be unstable and unsustainable.

A recent Secretary-General’s report to the Security Council called women leadership and participation in peacebuilding a “prerequisite for the fulfillment of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.” In other words, without women’s participation, we will not achieve lasting peace; and without the stability of peace, we will not achieve sustainable development.

Put forward by the Resolution 1325, the idea that women should be given greater access to leadership roles in peace and security is closely aligned with the aim of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, on gender equality and women empowerment.

The Science confirms this theory across all domains. “Women leaders make work better. Here’s the science behind how to promote them” (American Psychological Association):

When more women are empowered to lead, everyone benefits. Decades of studies show women leaders help increase productivity, enhance collaboration, inspire organizational dedication, and improve fairness.

Why would any company or country ever select a non-woman as a leader? McKinsey says that diversity leads to huge profits (NVIDIA’s GPU development lab is a rich tapestry of Black and Latinx engineers in a wide array of gender IDs?). Note that, predictably, two white males say that McKinsey’s work in this area is just as beneficial to society as McKinsey’s work with Enron and the opioid pill vendors. “McKinsey’s Diversity Matters/Delivers/Wins Results Revisited”:

Combined with the erroneous reverse-causality nature of McKinsey’s tests, our inability to quasi-replicate their results suggests that despite the imprimatur given to McKinsey’s studies, they should not be relied on to support the view that US publicly traded firms can expect to deliver improved financial performance if they increase the racial/ethnic diversity of their executives.

More from the United Nations, this time a complaint that only 26 of the world’s countries have implemented McKinsey’s recommendations and selected female heads of state:

Given all of the above, shouldn’t we expect celebratory and congratulatory tweets from the United Nations, UN Women, McKinsey, et al. following Marine Le Pen’s recent electoral victory in France, the world’s 7th largest country by GDP (while working 32 hours/week and taking 8 weeks of vacation per year!)? Instead, the Guardian describes female leadership in France as “unthinkable”. The Washington Post says “Marine Le Pen is now part of France’s mainstream. That should scare us all.”

Separately, no discussion of France is complete without this poster:

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A pleasant mansion and garden in Sintra: Biester

by philg

Elon Musk frets about our planet being underpopulated, a point of view likely to be confusing to anyone who has visited Sintra, Portugal. A garden built for quiet reflection, such as Quinta da Regaleira, will be packed with more than 1,000 tourists at a time in the shoulder seasons. It looks good from some angles, e.g.,

but to get into the most famous part, the “Initiation Well” (an underground tower), it was a 1.5-hour wait on June 12, 2024, less than two hours after the attraction opened:

How typical is this degree of crowding? Google said that we visited on an unusually quiet day:

Unless the city starts charging a $200 per person daily decongestion fee, there is no way to recreate the experience for which these palaces and gardens were built. You’ll be sitting in traffic and/or walking long distances up and down hills and waiting in line to get into even the smallest garden feature.

We found an exception to the above rules.. Biester Palace, the mansion that tourists haven’t learned about yet. Built with a banking fortune at the end of the 19th century, the palace appears to be in shabby condition in The Ninth Gate, a 1999 Roman Polanski (pregnant wife killed by Manson family) film starring Johnny Depp (future cash cow for Amber Heard until she made the mistake of partnering with the ACLU). There’s an entrance right next to Quinta da Regaleira and if you do decide to brave the Pena Palace you can exit via the top entrance to catch the bus there.

Here’s the view from the top of the park (mansion on the right side of the frame):

The interior hasn’t been redecorated to its former glory, but the rooms aren’t bare:

There are some great views of the Moorish castle above Sintra (Muslims controlled and colonized Sintra from about 722 AD until 1147):

Stop at the tea house for a friendly service, almost-free prices (about 1 euro for a coffee; 3.5 euros for a massive fresh-squeezed orange juice), and delicious pastry.

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A Constitutional amendment to impose an age limit of 67 on the President?

by philg

An immigrant physician friend, simply based on videos that she watched in 2020, diagnosed Joe Biden with dementia four years ago and referred to him as “the senile puppet” long before the New York Times editorial board noticed that anything was wrong. Democrats now believe that Joe Biden’s cognitive abilities are insufficient to handle the job of U.S. President. Democrats also hate Donald Trump and there are at least some Republicans who prefer Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley to Mr. Trump.

I wonder if these groups could get together and do a quickie amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would impose a mandatory retirement age of 67 (the current Social Security full retirement age for those born after 1960) on the job. We need three-fourths of the states to ratify such an amendment and then both the Republicans and Democrats would have to nominate younger politicians for the November election.

We’ve already got a minimum of 35:

Why not a maximum?

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Maintainability of cork seats on subway trains?

by philg

Here’s something that I wouldn’t have expected to work: cork seats on subway trains. The Lisbon Metro, June 2024:

Apparently, the seats used to be covered in cloth and they started a mass conversion about four years ago (“Lisbon Metro already running 100% coated with cork” (2022)).

By Palm Beach County standards, at least, Lisbon is plagued with graffiti. The Metro, however, seems to be an exception. I didn’t see any evidence of vandalism.

How long would cork seats last in the NYC subway system? Would every seat be defaced with carved initials within a few days of installation?

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Closing out Pride Month in Massachusetts

by philg

From the big animal hospital in Boston:

Let’s have a closer look at the 2SLGBTQQIA+ pit bull, which we’d be unlikely to see in Palm Beach County partly due to the cruel repression of Dictator Ron DeSantis and partly due to the fact that pit bulls are banned by most apartment complexes and HOAs.

Maybe the pit bull will reappear in his/her/zir/their rainbow garb for Nonbinary Awareness Week, which starts July 8.

And down in New York City’s Greenwich Village….

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We’re suffering a “climate crisis”, but it isn’t so critical that we’d want to discourage driving and spewing CO2 while stuck in traffic

by philg

Today was the day that New York City was supposed to be decongested (with about $700 million in tax dollars spent in prep, according to the Wall Street Journal).

From New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s web site:

As Governor, Kathy is committed to ensuring that New York leads the transition to a clean energy future and advances climate justice. Since taking office, she has led efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions … She has also invested millions in climate justice fellowships for historically disadvantaged communities. Governor Hochul is working tirelessly to ensure that New York is a global leader in the fight against climate change, and she will continue enacting policies to protect our communities and the next generation of New Yorkers from the growing threats of the climate crisis.

From her official governor’s site:

“We have a moral obligation to leave this extraordinary planet better than we found it,” Governor Hochul said. … These issues, if not addressed collectively with great urgency, pose existential threats to humans and other living beings, as well as the ecosystems they depend upon.

CNN, June 5… “NY Gov Hochul delays controversial NYC congestion pricing plan ‘indefinitely’”:

New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday she is indefinitely delaying the implementation of congestion pricing in New York City’s borough of Manhattan just weeks before the plan was set to take effect, … New York’s congestion pricing would have been the first of its kind in the United States. Similar programs have been implemented in London and Stockholm. The New York City version has been years in the making and was scheduled to begin June 30th. As part of the plan, drivers would have paid $15 to enter Manhattan south of 60th street, with commercial vehicles and trucks paying steeper tolls.

So humanity is doomed if we don’t stop spewing out CO2 while sitting in massive traffic jams and also we shouldn’t do anything to discourage people from spewing out CO2 while sitting in massive traffic jams. We’re in a “climate crisis” that isn’t one of those critical crises in which we might want to take action.

Related:

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Jamaal Bowman, art, and Hitler

by philg

International Jewry is responsible for Dr. Jamaal Bowman, Ed. D.’s recent defeat in New York. The Hill:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) slammed American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) for pouring tens of millions into fellow Democratic New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman’s divisive primary race Wednesday after Bowman lost the primary to a more moderate Democrat.

Bowman, a second-term progressive, faced tough opposition from the pro-Israel political advocacy group AIPAC because of his criticism of the Israeli government.

Who else had superior ideals and blamed International Jewry for obstructions to their implementation? From The Women Who Flew for Hitler:

Over tea that afternoon, Hitler once again ‘leapt up in a fit of frenzy, with foam on his lips, and shouted that he would have revenge on all traitors’. Interrupted by a call from Berlin, he screamed orders ‘to shoot anyone and everyone’ before announcing, ‘I’m beginning to doubt whether the German people are worthy of my great ideals.’ [this was following the aristocratic assassination and military coup attempt against Germany’s democratically elected leader]

Blaming the war on Jewish incitement, and defeat on the betrayal of his officers, Hitler ended his last statement with the injunction that his successors should ‘above all else, uphold the racial laws in all their severity, and mercilessly resist the universal poisoner of all nations: international Jewry’. [from the bunker]

In one of the few parts of Porto that isn’t mobbed with tourists, maybe due to the outrageous-by-Portuguese-standards 24 euro entry price for the Serralves Foundation (mercifully free for the kids), I found the following artistic collaboration between Yayoi Kusama and Dr. Jamaal Bowman, Ed. D.:

Kusama is 95. It’s a shame that she wasn’t born in the U.S. or she could run for President.

Circling back to Dr. Jamaal Bowman, Ed. D., could the reason that progressive Democrats haven’t managed to take control of the entire U.S. be that Americans aren’t worthy of great ideals, e.g., stopping climate change, providing asylum to 8+ billion humans if they want it, ending homelessness, liberating Al-Quds and establishing a river-to-the-sea Palestinian state, a living wage for everyone who attempts to work, eliminating the acquisition of unnecessary wealth, etc.?

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Queers for Palestine merchandise at Amazon

by philg

Pride is almost over and there won’t be any 2SLGBTQQIA+ holidays for an entire week (Nonbinary Awareness Week begins on July 8; International Nonbinary People’s Day is July 14; International Drag Day is July 16 (GLAAD)).

Perhaps is it time for us to purchase our Queers for Palestine merchandise before everything is sold out. The selection was good on June 5:

If you’re spending a month or two walking the Camino de Santiago you could wear this so that your fellow Christian pilgrims didn’t have to wait until the end of the hike to see a Queers for Palestine display (the one below is close to the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela and directly on a pilgrimage route; photo from June 23, 2024):

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