I got a good yearly deal on Nord from some special they ran a few years ago but that's about to expire. Should I bother renewing or will the built in one that Firefox keeps showing me be enough to cover me for piracy?

According to google that's the global average and yeah that tracks. I never learned how to type "proper", I have a method where I use my thumb, pointer, and middle finger, rather than all 5 on each hand, with my pointer fingers doing most of the work.

Freeform/Hybrid: Using a mix of touch typing and visual searching. People usually develop this naturally for maximum comfort.

According to google.

I've always been jelly of people who can do perfect touch typing with all 10 fingers.

In this episode: I'm breaking down California's historic grid scale battery storage milestone (12,000 megawatts discharged, 40% peak demand coverage) and what it means for renewable energy storage, clean energy transition, and battery storage vs nuclear debate. From California energy grid proof (fourth-largest economy on planet running nearly half peak demand on batteries) to electrify everything economics (deployment measured in months not decades), we'll expose why the future isn't waiting—it's already being built.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8579354

In the 1980s, while much of the global auto industry viewed China as a poor and unpredictable country with no real car market, Volkswagen made one of the boldest decisions in its history.

This is the story of how Volkswagen entered China long before most Western automakers took the country seriously, why the company risked sharing its technology with the Chinese government, how Santana and Jetta became symbols of modern China, and how Volkswagen eventually turned China into its largest and most profitable market.

But it is also the story of irony.

Because while Volkswagen was helping build China’s modern automotive industry, China was slowly building the competitors that would later challenge Volkswagen itself.

From bicycles and state owned factories to megacities, EVs, and millions of cars, this is the story of the gamble that changed both Volkswagen and China forever.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8578521

US carmakers are pivoting back to combustion engines as the Trump Administration rolls back Biden-era subsidies and EV-friendly policies. But China and the EU are ramping up. Is the US at risk of being left behind? Transforming Business looks at the consequences of the big EV rollback.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8578464

How did Chinese electric vehicles leave Detroit, Germany, and Japan in the dust? It isn’t just about cheap labor or massive factories. In this episode of Modern MBA, we break down the brutal economics and decade-long geopolitical playbook behind China’s unstoppable EV expansion that's left Western automakers are begging for protectionism.

The global automotive market is experiencing an unprecedented structural shift. While Western legacy automakers take 2 to 4 years to design a single vehicle, Chinese EV startups and tech giants are cycling new, hyper-advanced software-defined vehicles into production in half the time. From BYD's un-puncturable Blade Battery and internal lithium supply chains to Xiaomi doing in 3 years what Apple’s Project Titan failed to achieve in 10, the global auto industry is facing an existential crisis.

But as the U.S. and Europe raise walls of tariffs and invoke national security to shut out foreign competition, they are simply repeating a century-old economic playbook. Every automotive superpower—from post-war Germany nurturing Volkswagen and Mercedes, to 1980s Japan scaling Toyota, Honda, and Nissan against American import quotas, to Detroit's own government-protected pickup truck oligopoly—has relied on state favoritism and protectionism to survive.

We analyze how the transition from Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) to modern, vertically integrated electric powertrains shattered the traditional automotive supply chain model. We investigate the structural trade-offs between the U.S. venture-capital approach and China's 20-year centralized master plan that built a $230 billion ecosystem spanning raw mineral refining to state-funded public charging infrastructure.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8578997

Tucked away in Baoying, China, is a behemoth manufacturing plant quietly reshaping the classic car market by producing high-end replica bodies and components for some of the world’s most iconic cars. Jiangsu Juncheng Vehicle Industry Co., Ltd. sits about three hours north of Shanghai by train, where body shells for Broncos, Defenders, 240Zs, and the coveted AE86 are brought to life. Larry Chen takes you inside the factory to show the entire process from start to finish and explores the impact this may have on car culture in the future.

Ford Motor Company stunned investors after adding billions in market value in a single day, transforming what once looked like a risky dependence on Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Limited into a major battery business opportunity. By leveraging CATL’s technology while building local battery production in the U.S., Ford is positioning itself to cut EV costs, scale production faster, and compete more aggressively in the global electric vehicle race.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8571691

China’s biotech and healthcare sectors are evolving at extraordinary speed — from AI-powered “doctor avatars” and digital health super apps to a wave of Chinese drug innovation reshaping the global pharmaceutical industry.

In this episode, I speak with physician and healthcare strategist Dr. Ruby Wang about the latest trends in China's AI + healthcare innovation.

I just visited a company in Finland that can turn any transparent surface — windows, glasses, plastic, anything — into a 3D display that perfectly augments what you see behind it.

Welcome to Distance. One of the most exciting companies in Europe right now. And they're only two years old.

We're not talking about a tiny rectangle in the corner of your windshield. The entire glass becomes your screen.

They showed this to Kia's design team. It led to a concept car with a full edge-to-edge 3D windshield that paints navigation onto the actual road, shows you what the car sees, highlights threats, and yes, could theoretically replace every Pepsi billboard with a Coke one.

But the defense side is where it gets serious.

As a neighbor to Russia, Finland feels the pain of Ukraine very directly. The Distance team wanted to be part of the solution.

Their field operator headset gives soldiers jet fighter-grade situational awareness.

Any sensor (thermal, infrared, multispectral) overlaid onto what you actually see. Tested in over a dozen field trials with the Finnish army. Driving armored vehicles in arctic conditions in the middle of the night with full 3D perception.

The field operator headset effectively allows soldiers to see through smoke, and with extra cameras even behind walls.

Some of what they showed us had never been shown publicly before. And there's more cooking under the hood they couldn't share yet.