I am a little in love with boxes that light up.

And I don't care if it's stupid.

Clever OLED display.

I thought this was a clever application of curved TV's.

Because..... unicorn.

When you are too lazy to walk to the refrigerator?

This is so tardly is makes me laugh. It has to mean we are at peak everything. Right?

Oh STFU.

"Meanwhile, in a lengthy piece purporting to explain why Beijing decided to start playing 'hardball' so late into the talks (though, to be sure, other reports suggest that Beijing had taken a hard line almost from the start), WSJ claimed that President Xi and the senior leadership interpreted Trump's attacks on Fed Chairman Jay Powell as a sign that Trump would be ready to compromise.

The reason? It was interpreted as evidence that Trump secretly believed the US economy was more fragile than the official data reflected. Meanwhile, the Chinese economy has stabilized, in part thanks to a massive stimulus program." Source.

Just last night it was being reported that car sales in China fell 18% YOY. That is NOT an economy that is stabilizing.

China is miscalculating the support Trump has for these tariffs. Just a couple of days ago I asked one of the guys I know who was a tried and true Obamaite how he felt about them.

He was not bothered at all. In fact he said - even Canada was screwing us. How does that happen?

I was completely shocked by his response honestly.

So many companies willing to sell things at a loss.

Beyond Meat Plunges As Shorts Assault The Stock... But It Will Cost Them.

And so many willing to buy hope.

Last night Mr S. and I were talking about this one because they have literally gotten into almost every restaurant.  So, it's sort of easy to forget they have never made a profit.

Which must mean, they aren't selling at a profit.

I guess all the bums are becoming bitcoin thousandares.

Bitcoin is currently trading at over 6 grand. I wonder how long it would take to buy one bitcoin in coins.

The only people who I see using these things are people living on the edge. Mostly bums.

It's a bit curious.

I almost hate to utter these words, but when are the pension funds going to come after Tesla?

Their stock is down more than 25%, and we have reached the stage in the cycle when a lot of class action lawsuits start happening. For instance I know the Ironworkers are coming after a big chip company.

Analysts are such tools.

Stocks are getting slammed on US-China trade-war fears, with one analyst wondering if Trump 'is playing us'.

"One cannot but sense that Mr. Trump is playing us a little," said Neil Wilson, the chief market analyst for Markets.com. "He may well be making a deal seem further away in order to make the achievement seem all the more impressive when it comes."

If our own stock market didn't take this that seriously - why would China take it seriously? I mean, I know the PPT is mostly in control, but China is not going to cave until there is a lot more pain. Why would they? The market is still pretty close to an all time high.

I'm not even sure how I feel about this whole tariff thing. A tax is a tax. But if I'm looking at our stock market, 500 points isn't going to cut it.

Magic Leap quietly dies. (unofficially)

Usually companies that vaporize money have a more spectacular ending. Especially ones that raise billions with absolutely nothing to show for it.

So....earlier in the year Magic Leap put up a last gasp effort and said - we aren't dying. Come see our product. And they set up a bunch of events to show the public. This was around Christmas. Which was a hectic time because of the Holidays and CES following right behind. I got a slot right after CES. Mid January.

Then they started pushing back the date, and now they have completely cancelled. So I went over to Google to see if there was any news on them and ran across this demo from GDC this year (Game Developers Conference) and just look at this bullshit.  What a useless piece of crap.

It's embarrassing really. I mean, they had Google Glass level hype.

Fisker in the wild.

It had really chunky glitter paint. But that never shows up. Got three shots off, but this was the best one.

At least we don't pay attention to the rest of the world.

I guess psychology IS everything.

Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), manufacturing by country: the latest data.

Large countries in actual manufacturing contraction.

Canada - reading 49.70
Germany - reading 44.40
Hong Kong - reading 48.00
Japan - reading 49.50


Large countries kissing manufacturing contraction.

Australia -reading 50.90
China - reading 50.20
France - reading 50.00
Singapore - reading 50.80

Most of the world is either at, or near contraction. And we aren't far behind at 52.60.

I literally will never get this.

It's really no bigger than a van. But I bet is costs just as much. The van however retains its value way more than a garden shed.

So stupid.

"Musk confidently told investors on the call that autonomous driving will transform Tesla into a company with a $500 billion market cap, these people said. Its current market cap stands around $42 billion. He also said that existing Teslas will increase in value as self-driving capabilities are added via software, and will be worth up to $250,000 within three years." Link.

If he thinks that -  why doesn't HE go into that business? It is just quite insane what the market is putting up with right now.

Finally got a shot of my puddle lights.

I am at a conference right now, and it's the most depressing thing how Silicon Valley has just turned into a bunch of meddlers.

They don't want to create new products - they just want to meddle in your life.

Musical Lots.

I noticed this lot over the weekend and I had to go back and investigate. It had been storing other cars there for the longest time. I will have to look back because I forget which manufacturer. I want to say Nissan, but I honestly don't remember. Perhaps they got a grip on their overflow.

I wouldn't get too excited about this new Tesla lot though. They did vacate the campus they were in right in front of Warm Springs Bart. So I'd come close to calling it a wash. The last few weeks it seems like 80% of the cars coming out are black. And I did zoom in to try and get some of the stickers in the windows. (below) All the cars look super dirty right now. Some had plates, most did not.

It would be cool if it disconnected and became a drone.

Pony.ai is still plugging along with this getup, I guess. I don't really get it honestly. And I didn't get close enough to check out the gear. Looks like a spinning Lidar on top. Obviously some kind of camera at the front corner panels. Looks sort of like a spaceship.

Here go hell come.

Near-record inventories pinch dealers.

I have to admit, it has been quite the curiosity how this isn't affecting the market yet. Pretty much all of my ghost lots are still there. Even one in Redwood City.

I can't snarf their whole article, so you have to go read the whole thing.

"Automakers and their dealers have millions of reasons to be concerned about weakening U.S. new-vehicle sales — nearly 4.2 million reasons, to be more precise.

That's how many unsold cars and trucks the industry had on hand going into this month, an unwieldy pool of vehicles that has spilled into vast overflow lots popping up wherever enough wide-open space is available: shuttered factories, vacant shopping centers, barren fields.

The estimated 4,188,200 unsold vehicles on April 1 was the highest inventory number for any month since that reported for July 1, 2017, and just 114,300 vehicles less than the modern-day record set in May 2004, according to the Automotive News Data Center. It's over half a million vehicles more than automakers and dealers were grappling with in the spring of 2007, when the Great Recession was just around the corner. The figures do not include the estimated 18,000 electric vehicles that Tesla had in inventory this month."

Alphabet Shares on Track for Worst Day Since 2008.

Well.... that escalated quickly.

Source. 1 and 5 year chart.

And just like that - we are dancing uncomfortably close to technical recession.

You know, when you go out on a limb and call bullshit on the GDP numbers, you sort of hold your breath. But there are just too many comparisons to the early recession days for the economy to be as great as they are saying. Not to mention we are an export driven economy, and the rest of the world looks like crap.

If you like re-runs....

Pretty much all of this stuff has made it to the blog more than once. And it IS cool stuff. It was just cooler a few years ago. Before I'd seen it a bunch of times.







I can't believe steam punk is still a thing.



I liked how the tank was all beat up in a purposeful looking way.





MOAR.







This one is rope powered.



I still love me some big wheels. Especially when they put big wheels on it then lower it.









You know you have baller money when you are willing to park your Ferrari in an ankle twisting field.



I have a special place in my heart for these Rossions. I still call them Nobles even though Rossion bought the naming rights. They are kit cars.

I think I love them so much because when I was growing up kit cars were just becoming the rage. But they all looked stupid and cheap and they were usually built on someone else frame. This one was it's own breed and looked like it could have been made by Lotus. And they were reasonably priced. 

When they first came out I thought we might replace the Solstice with one of these. But then the world went to shit. I guess there are only about 100 of these in existence. I think I've seen about 5 or 6. I don't really remember them coming in any other color. But I always love when I see one.

Lighting was less than ideal today. It's pretty overcast and these purple flowers just look like the hills are bruised.

Sometimes I plug my name into Google and look at the stuff from other people with my name just to see if they are anything like me. And sometimes they are.

Friday of DOOM.

I know everyone is reporting that things are absolutely fantastic. Which I am pretty much calling bullshit on. It will be interesting to see how long Trump can keep this up. Because I remember when importing deflation was a "thing".

Australia has hit 0.0 inflation and their housing market is effed.  They can't even lower rates because they are at rock bottom.

Canada is apparently only growing at .01%.

South Korea contracted at -.03%.

The UK is only growing at .02%.  Which they think is effing amazing because they were expecting to contract.

The only reason China is not in a technical recession is because they did a bunch of stimulus.

Okay... I think I've got it all out now. It feels horrible to say exactly the opposite of what everyone else is saying......but math is math.

The internet is just full of good news.

Southern California home prices fall for 1st time in 7 years.

"In all, 17,960 houses, condos and townhomes changed hands in March, down 14% from nearly 21,000 in March 2018. Last month’s sales tally was the second-weakest for a March since the economic recovery began in 2009. 

The trend has been going on for more than a year, with Southern California home sales down in 12 of the past 13 months."

Yes, housing has been on a tear and is due for a correction. But there is a certain phycology to the market. If prices start falling too much, this will start cutting into retail sales and home improvement.

I guess there is trouble in paradise.

SF home sales drop, suggesting slowdown in market.

"A drop in property sales in San Francisco suggests a housing slowdown despite a booming economy, according to city Assessor-Recorder Carmen Chu.

The number of residential and commercial properties sold in San Francisco fell by 10.5% in the nine months from July through March compared with the same time frame last year. There were 5,948 transactions in that time, a drop of 722 deals during that period, Chu said. The reason for the slowdown is unclear, she said."

I guess everyone is waiting for all those money losing IPO's. Said in the most sarcastic way.

Oddly, last month Curbed had this headline. So I'm not sure if we are still in 2008 or some other weird hybrid year. I mean at only -10.5% things are "technically" getting better.

SF home sales continue to drop - February figure is lowest since 2008.

"Orange County-based data firm Core Logic reports in its latest suite of housing numbers that, for the ninth month in a row, the number of homes sold in the Bay Area has fallen year over year, with February’s 4,993 homes sold marking the lowest figure since 2008.

According to Core Logic economist Andrew LePage, this is the third month in a row that represents an 11-year low.

However, LePage also notes in the report that “the year-over-year decline in sales has ratcheted down the past two months,” from a gasp-inducing 21.6 percent in December to a less drastic 13 percent in February.

'Holiday Tree"

I know someone who decided to not take their Christmas tree down. They just decided to decorate it every month with a new theme.

So..... I'm a little late on the Easter thing, but I still think its funny.

Maybe nothing.

Jobless claims jump 37,000 to 230,000 in late April to hit 2 1/2-month high.

Obviously this number is still really low. But literally 3 months ago, no one was talking about this.    

Then today Intel and 3M announced layoffs. And there are a lot of weird layoffs. Like schools and stuff.  Also, it just a weird time of year for this. Normally layoffs happen around Christmas because they have pushed their products through and people become redundant.

There is no real trend at the moment. Just lots of small layoffs all over.