The Off Topic Topic

[Zanza]

So I learned that the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem is ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierbattista_Pizzaballa

How is anyone supposed to take someone with the name "Pizzaballa" serious? That's like a joke name you give an Italian character on an 80s sitcom.

He was among the candidates for the Papacy last year.

[Jacob]

2028 eh? That's pretty soon.

[grumbler]

So I learned that the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem is ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierbattista_Pizzaballa

How is anyone supposed to take someone with the name "Pizzaballa" serious? That's like a joke name you give an Italian character on an 80s sitcom.

He was among the candidates for the Papacy last year.

But he wanted the job only because it would allow him to change his name.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

2028 eh? That's pretty soon.

This mission is the rough equivalent of Apollo 8, which flew only seven months before Apollo 11.  A couple years is reasonable for getting humans back down to the surface.  The permanent moon base planned to start construction in late 2028 might be a bit ambitious, though.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

So I learned that the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem is ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierbattista_Pizzaballa

How is anyone supposed to take someone with the name "Pizzaballa" serious? That's like a joke name you give an Italian character on an 80s sitcom.

He was among the candidates for the Papacy last year.

But he wanted the job only because it would allow him to change his name.

You don't mess with perfection.  Had he been elected, he clearly would have been Pizzaballa I.

[HVC]

Or he could mix it up. Pope Fettuccine Capocollo

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Pope Gabagool I.  Move the papal seat to Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark.

[HVC]

No self respecting eye-talian would say gabagool. That's new world bastardy. Capocollo  or death. All they have left is food and the take it VERY seriously

[DGuller]

2028 eh? That's pretty soon.

Feels like it's an eternity away.

[Sheilbh]

Via Matt Sitman, fantastic W.H. Auden commonplace on Good Friday:

Just as we are all, potentially, in Adam when he fell, so we were all, potentially, in Jerusalem on that first Good Friday before there was an Easter, a Pentecost, a Christian, or a Church. It seems to me worthwhile asking ourselves who we should have been and what we should have been doing. None of us, I'm certain, will imagine himself as one of the Disciples, cowering in agony of spiritual despair and physical terror. Very few of us are big wheels enough to see ourselves as Pilate, or good churchmen enough to see ourselves as a member of the Sanhedrin. In my most optimistic mood I see myself as a Hellenized Jew from Alexandria visiting an intellectual friend. We are walking along, engaged in philosophical argument. Our path takes us past the base of Golgotha. Looking up, we see an all too familiar sight — three crosses surrounded by a jeering crowd. Frowning with prim distaste, I say, 'It's disgusting the way the mob enjoy such things. Why can't the authorities execute people humanely and in private by giving them hemlock to drink, as they did with Socrates?' Then, averting my eyes from the disagreeable spectacle, I resume our fascinating discussion about the True, the Good and the Beautiful.

(I really struggle with Auden - and Isherwood actually - never really get on with them when I read them but some fantastic passages and individual poems. Always slightly feel they're less than the sum of their parts.)

[viper37]

The text is in French, but the video is in English.
A woman tried to play smartass with a judge.  Didn't end well.  

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/insolite/2026-03-27/michigan/un-juge-reprimande-une-femme-qui-conduisait-pendant-une-audience.php

[crazy canuck]

She is lucky she was also not fined for contempt of court

[viper37]

[Zanza]

I have an electric car that can charge at more the 300 KW when the SOC is low enough and the battery has the right temperature. On a long distance trip over Easter, the limiting factor wasn't the charging, but the time it took to get a coffee at the McCafé next to the charger.

I am not convinced yet that the necessary investments in vehicles and infrastructure to have these 1 MW chargers that BYD is now rolling out are creating enough additional value over the current 800V 300-400 KW chargers that are widely available now. But I know other companies are working in similar directions, especially for sports cars with electric drivetrain.

PS: I think the system they are rolling out in Europe has two CCS2, not whatever this plug they are using in the video is. Which makes sense as CCS2 is as widely available here as NACS is in the US..

[viper37]

I have an electric car that can charge at more the 300 KW when the SOC is low enough and the battery has the right temperature. On a long distance trip over Easter, the limiting factor wasn't the charging, but the time it took to get a coffee at the McCafé next to the charger.

I am not convinced yet that the necessary investments in vehicles and infrastructure to have these 1 MW chargers that BYD is now rolling out are creating enough additional value over the current 800V 300-400 KW chargers that are widely available now. But I know other companies are working in similar directions, especially for sports cars with electric drivetrain.

PS: I think the system they are rolling out in Europe has two CCS2, not whatever this plug they are using in the video is. Which makes sense as CCS2 is as widely available here as NACS is in the US..

I don't know enough about the type of chargers in use here to really comment.  I was under the impression that it took around 15-20 minutes to charge the car from 20% to 100% for most common models, so I thought it looked cool that it was charging so fast.

It's probably not enough of an improvement to replace existing chargers, but maybe for new ones to be deployed in the future as the network increase its presence everywhere?