Too Late

"In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it" -George Orwell

This row over five funded places at the Royal Academy of Music - reserved for state school pupils to “widen access”- definitely resonated with me. Because I had a place to study music at 18 - with practical tuition at the Academy. And I bottled it. Mainly because, as a working-class, state-educated kid- largely self-taught, only starting lessons in my teens - I felt completely out of my depth. At an audition at the Birmingham Conservatoire, I met two students from Chetham's School of Music who said they were using it as “practice” for Oxbridge. That level of confidence - and entitlement - felt worlds apart from my state school. Where I’d been lucky enough to get free lessons and instrument hire, after the director of the local music service heard me play at a primary school recorder festival and spotted something in me. He arranged for me to have free lessons and instrumental hire on an orchestral instrument. So I'd be able to play in the district and country orchestras. I had to learn the clarinet rather than the flute (which I wanted) because it was the only instrument available. That was in the 90s. From what I can see, those kinds of opportunities barely exist now. When my daughter was at school, music education had largely become the odd term of “creative arts.” So yes - I understand the intention behind the scheme. But focusing on five places at the end of the pipeline misses the point. Even with the support I had, by 18 I already knew I couldn’t compete. One moment sums it up. A wealthy friend lent me a clarinet when my music service one was on its last legs - an incredibly kind gesture, I thought. But when I returned it, he demanded to know why I hadn’t had it “serviced.” I didn’t even know that was a thing. And there’s no way I could have asked my parents for that kind of money - especially without warning. Then there was the moment that finished me off. I was chosen to play a solo at a prestigious county concert. Afterwards a young musician came up and said: “I’m better than you. I should have been chosen.” And she was. People often remarked on my musicality - but I knew I lacked the technical polish. I knew then that being surrounded by musicians like that at degree level would crush what little musical confidence I had. So I walked away - and studied English instead. That’s the real gap. Not just money - but knowledge, expectations, ease. If we’re serious about access to music, it’s not about who gets the final five places. It’s about who gets the years of tuition, support - and quiet confidence - needed to believe they belong there in the first place.

@piersmorgan @PiersUncensored One to miss

‼️TOMORROW ‼️ An extraordinary 2-hour interview with Russell Brand. ⁦@PiersUncensored

Last night was the biggest disaster in the history of Tesla. Let me walk you through what actually happened on that earnings call, because the headlines are doing you a disservice: Elon Musk got on the call and admitted (his words) that Hardware 3 "simply does not have the capability to achieve unsupervised FSD." He said he wished it were otherwise. He said the memory bandwidth is one-eighth of what Hardware 4 has. And that's the end of the conversation. Approximately 4 million Tesla vehicles on the road right now have Hardware 3. Many of those owners paid $8,000 to $15,000 for Full Self-Driving capability based on Musk's repeated promises (going back to 2016) that the hardware was sufficient for full autonomy. As recently as 2022, Musk was publicly assuring owners that HW3 had the processing power to get it done. BUT IT DIDN'T Those promises are now officially broken. The solution is a "discounted trade-in" toward a new car with Hardware 4. Not a refund or a free upgrade... A discount on buying ANOTHER Tesla. Investor Ross Gerber said it too - all HW3 owners got screwed, and with roughly 285,000 FSD purchasers affected, the potential liability runs into the BILLIONS. But that's not even the worst part. Musk was asked if the current FSD v14.3 was ready for unsupervised deployment. He said yes. Then immediately walked it back and admitted Tesla has "major architectural improvements" in the pipeline that would significantly improve safety. What he really means: the software isn't SAFE ENOUGH to deploy without a human watching. Full unsupervised FSD for consumer cars is pushed to Q4 2026. At the earliest... Maybe. How many times has this deadline been pushed? I've lost count. And trust me, I've seen a lot of broken promises. But this one takes the cake. Now let's talk about the numbers everyone is celebrating: Tesla reported $22.4 billion in revenue and $0.41 in non-GAAP earnings. A "double beat." The stock popped 4% after hours. Victory, right? WRONG Dig into the actual filing: The number one driver of operating income improvement wasn't cost reductions, wasn't volume growth, wasn't FSD revenue. It was - and Tesla listed this FIRST in their own shareholder letter - "one-time benefits related to warranty and tariffs." They released warranty reserves. They booked tariff refund windfalls. They stretched supplier payments by 10 days. They took on billions in new debt. Then they presented everything through non-GAAP metrics that strip out over $1 billion in stock-based compensation. GAAP net income was $477 million on $22.4 billion in revenue. That's a 2.1% net margin. On a $1.4 trillion market cap. Let me put that in perspective: 3.75 billion shares outstanding. Annualize the Q1 GAAP profit and you get roughly $1.9 billion. That's a trailing P/E ratio north of 700. Use the adjusted number - strip out stock comp, which is a REAL cost to shareholders through dilution - and you're still at around 250x earnings. All of this is extremely bad, but I didn't even talk about the CAPEX BOMB yet... 3 months ago, Tesla guided to "over $20 billion" in 2026 capital expenditure. Last night they raised it to over $25 billion. A $5 billion increase in a single quarter. That's 3x their historical annual capex run rate - $8.5 billion in 2025, $11.3 billion in 2024. The CFO confirmed on the call that Tesla expects NEGATIVE free cash flow for the rest of the year. So you have a company generating roughly $6 billion in annual free cash flow on a good year, and they're about to spend $25 billion. The math doesn't work. They will almost certainly need to issue equity. Which means dilution. Which means the $1.9 billion in annual earnings gets spread across even MORE shares. The core auto business is literally deteriorating in real time: Tesla delivered 358,000 vehicles in Q1 (missed estimates again). They produced 408,000. That's 50,000 cars sitting on lots that nobody bought. Inventory days jumped from 10 to 27 in just a few quarters. California (their most important US market) saw registrations crash 24% year over year. Their market share in the state fell from 9.2% to 7.7%. That's on top of a Q1 2025 that was ALREADY weak from Model Y retooling. They're declining off a decline. And here's what really kills the bull case... The entire valuation rests on robotaxis, Optimus robots, and autonomy. So let's put numbers on it: Waymo - the actual leader in autonomous driving with 15 million completed rides in 2025 alone, over 127 million autonomous miles driven, operating commercially across 6 US cities with plans to expand to 20 more - just raised $16 billion at a $126 billion valuation. That's the market's verdict on what the LEADING robotaxi company is worth. $126 billion. And Waymo is YEARS ahead of Tesla in actual deployment. Tesla has 3.75 billion shares outstanding. So even if you assign $126 billion in robotaxi value (giving Tesla full credit for matching Waymo despite being nowhere close) that's $33 a share. Add the auto business at generous auto-industry multiples, maybe $20 a share. Throw in energy storage and services, $10-15. Sum of the parts gets you to roughly $65-70 a share if you're feeling generous. Maybe $50 if you're not. The stock is $387. So what exactly are you paying for? You're paying for a STORY. You're paying for PROMISES that keep getting pushed back, technology that keeps falling short, and a business plan that requires spending $25 billion a year while the core product sells fewer units at declining margins in a market where California sales just fell 24% and the federal EV tax credit is gone. I managed the number one mutual fund in America. I founded two billion-dollar hedge funds. I've been doing this since 1981. And I am telling you: Tesla at $387 is one of the most egregious mispricings I have seen in my entire career. THE CRASH WILL BE EPIC

Jour 068, orbite 1054 – Ouverture des volets le matin: un moment ressourçant pour commencer la journée ! 🌍 🎥 NASA/ESA #εpsilon • @esa • @esaspaceflight • @Space_Station • @NASA • @NASA_Johnson • @ESA_fr • @CNES

@ginamilan_ This is what the survivor had to say x.com/I_amMukhtar/st…

Russell Brand casually admitting he’s a pedophile on Megyn Kelly’s podcast while she just sat there unbothered is one of the most disturbing things I’ve seen.

The video version’s even worse

@mbs_ctt @benjamincowen One day when you are grown up, you’re going to remember this post.

They aren't playing math olympics in the oval, they are just conveying a concept to retards that stumbled on the concept previously. They are directionally right and they understand what's going on. To imagine they don't is insane, Trump Derangement Syndrome kind of insane. I get it people that don't like him like to nitpick stupid shit like this because he's crushing them otherwise and we are fully enjoying the pendulum swinging back at the motherfuckers that abused govt against all of us during the autopen years.

The crazy thing is that going from $100 to $600 is a 500% increase, not even 600%. So even the part of the math they think is right is still wrong.

@SaffronKim We can’t be arsed much when there’s no bank holiday. Churches probably mention it most so I expect all the Reform lot will be in there.

I grew up in the 1960s/1970s. No one we knew celebrated St George’s Day. Why now?

Reminder of this

Lutnick relationship with Epstein up to 2018

January 2023. Do you remember Chris Parry, the British volunteer who was killed whilst carrying out humanitarian work in Sorodol, Ukraine?🇬🇧 He is known for having helped evacuate more than 400 Ukrainians. This January, a documentary about him was broadcast in Japan. His life was cut short by a bullet at the age of just 28💔 Many of his fellow volunteers and friends from his home town of Cornwall spoke of his character, revealing him to be a dynamic individual with a strong sense of justice. There are still volunteers carrying on his legacy through humanitarian aid work. He wanted to help the people of Ukraine. That passion of his lives on today. 🇺🇦🫂🥀🕊

Love it!

I’m seeing a lot of people posting the NY Times story. Please consider sharing the words of the Afghans who may get sent to DRC.

JFC

This is an extraordinary story. Social media and right-wing journalists came close to causing riots in Epsom by broadcasting a claim that migrants had raped a white woman that turned out to be wholly false

@0liver @NickCohen4 x.com/louiserawautho…

@NickCohen4 Not really extraordinary given that rapes committed by illegal migrants (illegal being the distinction) is common in this society

We are now at *ONE HUNDRED & SIX FAR RIGHT SEX OFFENDERS*. New to the list is Nazi-tattooed child sex offender PAUL PAGE. Police investigating his sexual offending found *600 WEAPONS*, Nazi flags & terrorist material. Page pled guilty to terrorist offences in MARCH 2026. 1/

@WhiteHouse x.com/Victorshi2020/…

If you've never been a panican... this pin's for you. 🇺🇸

🧵 Record-breaking day for Great Britain's electricity system! ⚡ 1/ On 22 April, we hit a new zero-carbon record, with zero-carbon sources providing 98.8% of our electricity.