starbase

Browser extension that allows you to add notes/comments to any webpage. All users of the extension can read each other's notes.

For example, you read an article in your area of expertise and add some info that the author left out or got wrong.

Rooting for Blue Origin to succeed here, even if New Glenn doesn't pan out.

If I were in Bezos' shoes, I'd focus the company on deep space craft and use SpaceX to escape the gravity well. Specialize in delivering cargo to rocky planets and asteroids, proving out mining, landing rovers for space agencies, etc.

This may not be as grave as it seems. They'd been selling EVs at a -100% profit margin (i.e., a $50k Ford EV costs them ~$100k to build) and their current vehicles are built with obsolete charge ports.

Seems wise to circle the wagons, get costs under control, and ramp up in a year or so when their NACS vehicles are ready.

Significantly, these will support plug-and-charge with no need to scan QR codes, swipe payment cards, or tell the machine which cable you're using.

Raising her children

Is verifying interactions and allergies the pharmacist's job or the physician's?

Seems like it ought to fall on the physician, which allows us to replace the retail pharmacist with a vending machine.

As a bonus, this drives costs down.

Tax incentives out the wazoo

I believe the newest Teslas (those with HW4) have a 70GHz radar in the front bumper

The takeaway, at least for me, is that both men were not that far apart on the topic of slavery, even though that's the primary lens through which Americans now view the conflict. Seems fair to assume the Confederacy would have abolished slavery on its own before long, as most of the world (excluding Africa and Mideast) did.

Which leaves us with this question: Is membership in the Union voluntary, or compulsory? I'm not sure the answer provided by the civil war is morally correct. No state (no matter how virtuous or contemptible) lasts forever, and it sure would be nice if people could walk away without being shot.

Great topic to think about. I suspect the colonies that eventually win the galaxy will be the ones that both maximize engineering prowess and minimize generation time.

Among the choices in this paper, my money's on kibbutzim.

History is quite a subject. Lincoln and Lee on slavery and the war:

Lincoln: My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it.

Lee: I am rejoiced that slavery is abolished. I would cheerfully have lost all I have lost by the war, and suffered all I have suffered, to have this objective obtained. Slavery is a moral and political evil.

Question doesn't stipulate that you're the mayor.

Crowdsource crimefighting. $10k bounty per thief or drug dealer brought to police. $100k per violent criminal, dead or alive. Bounty is doubled for repeat offenders.

Advertise the bounty program in rural America. Trucks full of armed rednecks will arrive within a week and the criminal underclass will scurry like rats.

Funding comes from the city's billion-dollar-plus homeless benefits programs.

My takeaway was that 97% of US farmland would be unaffected by aquifer collapse. The 3% that would be affected (and that's assuming every aquifer in the country goes dry, which is not at risk of happening) those farms might become completely nonviable, or they might be able to shift to less water intensive crops and methods. In either case, aquifer collapse is not a significant threat to our food supply.

Nonetheless, it is prudent to preserve those water sources.

re: farms near cities, I think it varies a lot by region. Growing thirsty crops near LA is going to be a lot harder than near Houston.

Too late to edit so I'll add here. Soyuz first stage is 5 engines, and 5 is less than 8.

Each engine has 4 main combustion chambers and four nozzles so it looks like 20

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasahqphoto/19853973575/in/pho...

ETF approval soon, maybe

(or not)

Are you aware that less than 6% of US farmland is irrigated, and only half of irrigated farmland (3% of total) uses groundwater?

97% of our farmland uses no groundwater. None.

If US lost 3% of its agricultural output tomorrow, we'd still be growing more food than we can possibly eat; still be filling our cars with a mix of gasoline and corn liquor as we do today.

Perhaps I should have asked this question instead: Is there any evidence that would cause you to change your belief that society is on the brink of collapse, or is that belief unfalsifiable like religious faith?

Whoa. You believe that soil and aquifer issues will lead to society's destruction in a matter of decades? What evidence supports that belief?

> maintain a steady-state ecosystem in perpetuity

Impossible. It's not how the universe works.

The full width red bar is not a stoplamp. The three (brighter) lights that activate on braking are stoplamps. No violation of code.

> All successful designs so far have one or two main engines

What a ridiculous falsehood. Every manned rocket to reach orbit since 1966 has used 5 or more engines. Of those that are currently operational, none have fewer than 8.

letting engineers aim high pays dividends

> your compensation package will include two major components: salary and equity.

> Meals provided.

Equity and good meals at a startup with deep pockets, vs no equity and cafeteria food at the hospital down the road. Pay's the same.

Not a myth. Not a myth at all.

Struggling to understand the shame the author says she feels.

I've fallen a fair number of times in my life--often in full view of other people--and never thought much of it. Even fell a ways down a mountain this summer while trail running at night. Climbed back up to camp, flushed the cuts and scrapes with water and that was it. Shame never entered the equation.

If inflation keeps up we'll be billionaires soon

Society needs a better mechanism to eliminate unnecessary laws and regulations, and legislation needs version control.

I like that threshold--the best driver in 20.

If we can achieve that, the best in 100 or best in 1000 may not be far off.

What does it mean for a government to dictate the numbers of hours in a workweek? I truly don't understand. Certainly there are many jobs and lifestyles that don't fit that mold:

The tax accountant who works 60-hour weeks during tax season, then takes the next two months off

The travelling engineer who works long hours when away from home, so he can sooner return to his family

The tradesman who wants to work as much as possible, so he can pay off his mortgage in 5 years

The semi-retired expert for whom 10 or 20 hours a week is plenty

Is there evidence that Cruise is more dangerous than a human driver?