You can't buy BYD cars here: the Biden administration slapped a 100% tariff on them to protect the Ketamine Kid's brand as they would literally destroy Tesla. They're available in Mexico, Europe, and selling like hotcakes in China where they're made.

BYD, Build Your Dream, started as an EV battery maker and became a car company. And they make amazing stuff. You can buy their entry level vehicle, the Seagull (they like aquatic names), for under $10,000 (converted currency, sans tariff).

Now here's where stuff gets interesting.

They have achieved L4 self-drive, and self-parking. Tesla doesn't have L4. And it's provided in the Seagull. And they have such confidence in it, that if your car dings itself or another car while self-parking, BYD will PAY FOR THE REPAIR!

The system is called God's Eye, it comes in three tiers. The basic level has - get this - 12 cameras, 5 millimeter-wave radars, and 12 ultrasonic sensors with 1-centimeter accuracy. The two higher tiers add one or three Lidar sensors.

The Tesla used to have Lidar, but Lidar sensors are expensive to buy and maintain, so they literally took them out of vehicles that it had been installed in and went camera-only. And they were cheap cameras.

My Subaru, a 2015 Crosstrek, has a system called Eyesight. It gives lane deviation warnings and has really cool adaptive cruise control. I can set the follow distance for three different lengths, speed-dependent, and it will maintain that distance quite well. If the vehicle in front of me slows down, my car slows down. If it speeds up, mine will speed up to the limit that the cruise control is set for. If another vehicle pulls in front of me, mine will slow down and re-establish that set distance that I configured.

It's REALLY cool.

But it doesn't self-park.

Tesla had self-park, once upon a time, and also had a recall feature where you could park your car in a lot, then go to dinner, walk back to the lot entrance, hit a button on your phone, and 'recall' your car and it would supposedly navigate the lot and come to you. I don't think they do that anymore after a lot of fender benders. Maybe they do, I'm not sure.

But these BYD cars? I expect they could do it.

https://www.fastcompany.com/91366273/byd-bests-tesla-again-cars-are-the-first-to-truly-park-themselves

https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/07/11/1930239/byd-pledges-to-cover-damages-from-self-parking-car-crashes


BYD, like pretty much every car maker, has a high-end line called Yangwang. They make a hypercar called the U9.

It can jump over potholes.

I kid you not. It has a computer-controlled suspension that can read the road ahead and tell the car to leap over obstacles! This video has all sorts of awesome, including eluding a ninja ambush. Sorta.



If we move to Europe, I would seriously consider one of their cars.

In an effort to boost reading, Denmark is proposing to abolished their 25% VAT on books, the highest tax rate on books in the world. This would hit their government revenue stream for about 330 million kroner ($51 million) a year. The culture minister hopes that this will reduce the cost of books and encourage more people to read.

Denmark's VAT rate on books is a bit out of line. From the article: "Other Nordic countries also charge a standard rate of 25% VAT, but it does not apply to books. VAT on books in Finland is 14%, in Sweden 6% and in Norway zero.

Sweden reduced its VAT on books in 2001, resulting in a rise in book sales, but analysis found they were bought by existing readers.

“It is also about getting literature out there,” said Engel-Schmidt. “That is why we have already allocated money for strengthened cooperation between the country’s public libraries and schools, so that more children can be introduced to good literature.”

A total of 8.3m books were sold in shops and online in Denmark in 2023, according to the national statistics office. The country’s population is just over 6 million.

I don't know that people are reading as much as they used to. I can pull up the numbers of how many books my library has lent over time, but if I don't have the corresponding number of how many students and teachers we've had for the same years, that raw number sadly doesn't mean much.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/aug/20/denmark-to-abolish-vat-on-books-in-effort-to-get-more-people-reading

https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/08/22/0031247/denmark-to-abolish-vat-on-books-to-get-more-people-reading

The Atlantic has a (currently) free puzzle called Bracket City that's quite interesting. A single daily puzzle related to 'this day in history' where you complete phrases to collapse bracketed clues. The tricky bit is that you can only guess the currently highlighted portion, which the below example does not illustrate:

a [one one [who shalt not in [lift one [[" the club" (said with resignation)]t involved in a proposal] while sliding the opposite foot back, then alternate legs in quick, repeated motions — you are doing "The [⏳ "in the long" ➡️ ⬅️ "for your life!" ‼️]ning " 🕺]y command[👨‍💼👨‍💼👨‍💼]ts]sand 💵, for short]u[men[like many red[the biome you might be trying to get out of 🌲🌲🌲] or b["don't me" 🤷‍♀️]etball players]y ➡️ ⬅️ gotten gains]o[the point of [metal for the [life era for a [the US went to DEF[one on a list next to the pros] 2 during the Cuban Missile one]]dle medal]ware?] is installed in front of the Tuileries Palace

(and I'm a little too lazy to bold to show what's going on)

Anyway, you may get the idea. Check it out, it's kinda fun!

Russet and I do the NY Times crossword every day, and took a look at the Atlantic's Saturday puzzle, which was their second hardest. And we 'noped' right out of it. We're really used to the NYT's editors styles. I think if we worked at it we could do it, but we really don't need a second crossword right now. Doing Strands, Connections, the crossword, and now this Bracket City together is enough. And Russet does several other daily puzzles beyond this that I do not join her in normally.

https://www.theatlantic.com/games/bracket-city/