The GOP frontrunner veered off-script and talked about his well-documented fear of sharks during a rally in Nevada.

“It must be because of M.I.T., my relationship with M.I.T., very smart. I say, 'What would happen if the boat sank from its weight and you’re in the boat and you have this tremendously powerful battery, and the battery is now underwater, and there’s a shark that’s approximately 10 yards over there?” Trump said. “By the way, lot of shark attacks lately. Did you notice that?”

In land locked NEVADA.

  • @Wrench
    10•6 months ago

    I’m guessing he was told to mention that lithium batteries can explode if water gets in as a talking point against EVs, and his brain went to boats and sharks.

    On a related note, I suspect all of his rants against using teleprompters (and his own lashing out at venues because his teleprompter was broken) is because his eyes have degraded to the point he can’t read them anymore. So these rants are him trying to hit his talking points from memory because he physically can’t follow a script any more.

    • @CheeseNoodleEnglish
      3•6 months ago

      Uplifting tangentially related note. Both the US and China (and soon a lot of other places) are already starting to produce sodium batteries (in actual products not just in labs) that sacrifice a bit of capacity for being way less volatile, require no or little rare earth metals and are less prone to discharging over time.

      • @[email protected]English
        3•6 months ago

        I’m for EVs, but solid state batteries are more promising for mobile applications. Sodium is a pretty big risk in water too.

        Sails or onboard generation (wind and solar) are also an interesting solution on these huge ships. But the main problem is producing goods unnecessarily far from consumers so save a few dollars (subsidized by the environment).

      • Hemingways_ShotgunEnglish
        3•6 months ago

        borderline illiterateness

        I’m sorry. But I have to. I’m sure you’re a very smart person, and you speak well, and that this is likely just a tiny little oversight in an otherwise fine and literate mind.

        But the irony of not knowing that it’s actually “illiteracy” and not “illiterateness” is just a little too funny not to at least poke a bit of fun at.