Chinese electric car maker BYD looks to build plant in Mexico

This will be amusing. BYD is a VERY large maker of electric and hybrid vehicles. In the final quarter of 2023 it sold more BEVs in China than Tesla sold in total! And now they want to build a plant in Mexico!

The attractive thing about BYD is they make affordable cars. It's hard to gauge how reliable they are, but as an example, their SUV hybrid can be had for around $30,000! It has an estimated combined range of 450 miles, which is quite respectable.

Naturally Elon is quite welcoming of the competition. No, that's not the word. NOT welcoming. He is quoted as saying "If there are no trade barriers established, they will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world." This is the man who wants as little government interference in his operations as possible, until he wants his operations defended BY the same government against potential foreign competition!

BYD has six vehicles in production to Tesla's five at a much broader range of price points, and theirs aren't known to develop rust splotches like someone's weird-looking alleged truck.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2024/02/byd-may-build-electric-vehicle-factory-in-mexico-for-us-market/

Alabama radio station's AM tower stolen!

The station HAD a two-hundred foot tower! Had is the operative word as it has been stolen! And now the station is completely off the air. The station has an FM side, but apparently it is a repeat of the AM side and the FCC says it cannot broadcast if the AM side is down, so the station is completely off the air.

The tower itself dates back to the 1950s and is worth over $200,000. There's additional equipment installed on it in service of the broadcasting worth another $60,000. And these towers aren't exactly stocked and ready to be delivered. This seriously cripples the station, and if there's an area emergency like a tornado or wild fire, the people in its broadcast footprint won't be able to tune in for information!

And since they are licensed for broadcast by the Federal Communications Commission, interfering with their broadcast, perhaps by doing something like stealing their tower is a Federal crime and will earn you up to ten years in the Fed pen!

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02/200-foot-am-radio-tower-disappears-halting-alabama-station-broadcast/

Oregon man struck with BUBONIC PLAGUE!

The man caught it from his cat who was very sick with terrible sores. Fortunately it was caught early before it became blood-born and he was successfully treated, they also traced people that he and the cat were in close contact with.

No word on whether the cat made it.

From the article, "According to the CDC, there were 496 plague cases in the US between 1970 and 2020. And between 2000 and 2020, the CDC counted 14 deaths."

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/rare-bubonic-plague-case-in-oregon-spread-from-very-sick-pet-cat/

ETA: the thing about bubonic is that it's easily treated, but only IF it's correctly diagnosed early!