thinkcontext

You brought up the working class as sensitive to price and now you say they aren't. That doesn't seem like a logically consistent position but maybe I'm not understanding what you are saying.

We're talking about new cars, which in the US the average price of is $50K. The working class tends to buy used cars, of which 3 times more than new cars are sold each year.

> Perhaps the money being used to fund a superfluous vaccine should be used to fund access to PrEP in the Third World

An astounding statement. Is it not possible that a vaccine giving decades of protection would give better health outcomes than doing PrEP every 6 months?

Not likely. There's a saturation point where excess just gets filtered out by your kidneys.

That's the point, the grid operator does not want more solar. They have an excess of solar available during those 3 hours that would otherwise go to waste and not enough later in the day.

"Free" electricity is an indication that the economics are out of balance. If the power provider isn't getting paid for those 3 hours, it means they'll need to be paid more at other times. It also means the grid needs to spend more on storage and less on new solar. Its cool if you have the ability to load shift but in general it means costs go up.

But they did resist locking it down, recall Musk making fun of concerns? They clearly don't take governance seriously, its whatever Musk is gravitating to in his filter bubble.

I believe that they made the "butter" out of the leftovers (paraffin) from making liquid fuel out of the coal. So, its not a straight 60:1 ratio, you'd need to add some more products to the equation.

Is it not possible that they build the first one and things don't go smoothly and they need to make some adjustments for subsequent builds?

This is a brand new type, there's no way that equivalent operation to a decades old design with centuries of operational experience can be assumed. Presumably its been designed for high uptime but it would not be unusual for new technology like this to require some refinement.

There already is a multi $B market for the amino acid methionine, made both through a synthetic process and a fermented process. It's used to supplement animal feed. So it's possible to synthesize nutrition economically. And it's a good idea to focus on animal feed since there's not the ick reaction to humans eating science project food.

I've read lately about another startup Savor that aims to make synthetic fats. They can make it in a variety of forms of it, from cooking oil to something like butter. They claim they can make it both much cheaper and with a much smaller carbon footprint than through conventional agriculture.

https://www.hertzfoundation.org/news/hertz-fellows-tech-comp...

I'm confused about this investment vehicle. China, their largest external trading partner, is notably absent from the list. I'm assuming they would be willing to extend Iran credit and Iran would probably prefer to deal with a Chinese company over a US company. Are US companies going to offer lower loan rates than Chinese companies? Or is the US going to use financial controls to only allow Iran to conduct international business through approved banks?

> And Biden ran a secret covert war using the banking system which is also questionably legal.

The industry is infested with scammers, what a great idea to tie the stability of the banking system to it.

> At least with the current you know what is happening and what is allowed.

So you would categorize bribes and North Korean style displays of fealty as a normal part of doing business?

The crypto "industry" had a series of multi-$B scams, seems like strong regulation would be called for. On the other hand, Trump executed a rug pulling token for himself and his wife days before his 2nd term and sells pardons to fraudsters and money launders. I know that inspires confidence.

I confused BlackCore with Black Cube, a different Israeli private oppo research and dirty tricks group of former intelligence agents. They gained attention for their dirty campaigns against Harvey Weinstein's accusers, NSOs critics and Hungarian opposition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cube

I'm extremely unlikely to click on a YT links without some decent context of what I can expect.

Another immigration policy that would have negatively effected Trump's own wife. Oh well, she got hers.

This could be a big deal for Big Tech. I wonder how personal experience of Musk and Huang will play into how they react.

Curious how the tech lobby will react. You would hope Musk and Huang might take their own personal experience into account.

I mean, I really dislike what Musk has become but SpaceX has brought about a huge leap in access to space. Last year they launched more than the rest of the world combined, including the rest of the US. They now own more operating satellites than the rest of the world combined. When the rest of the Western world's launchers have had problems over the last few years (Ariane, Vulcan, EU Soyuz, New Glenn, Antares) SpaceX has been able to absorb their payloads with relative ease rather than waiting many years for other arrangements. They've saved the US many $Bs in launch costs by undercutting the incumbent monopoly. Cheaply and easily reusing a rocket was thought impossible, now it's routine and every rocket maker on earth is attempting to copy them.

I read elsewhere that this strain is less deadly than previous strains. I'm no epidemiologist but being less deadly could allow it to spread further, which is obviously concerning.

Also, the article says surveillance picked up the spread late. I wonder if the US's pulling back from the WHO and other international functions had anything to do with this, it used to make up a big chunk of its resources and staff.

Not to take away from your point about psilocybin but the mushroom brought up, lions mane, is not hallucinogenic.

> It’s an interesting aside in the story but if you’re under investigation for a DUI you can just refuse the field sobriety tests and it appears they don’t follow up so you’ll be declared innocent even if you were arrested for felony DUI.

I assume it varies but for most places if you refuse roadside field sobriety tests and they feel you have given indicators of impairment they will take you into custody. Then they'll take you to the station and give you the option of taking a breathalyzer and if you refuse again your license is automatically suspended for a year.

It might be difficult to separate that out from the effect of US tariffs.

Do the places you are referring to not require heat? If so I don't see why having a separate heating and cooling system would be cheaper to maintain than a single system. Come to think of it I don't see why a heatpump would be more expensive to maintain than split AC. I guess there is some extra circuitry to make sure it doesn't ice up in the winter and maybe backup resistance heating builtin.

> Look at how much pushback, red tape, and cost there is to building a solar farm, road, datacenter or yes, nuclear plant compared to China

That's quite a comparison given China's governance and environmental record. China will take your land, poison you, imprison you if you protest and suppress any mention of it on social media or in the press. Of course a business can get a lot done in that environment, is that really something to aspire to?

Some level of permitting reform is warranted but I would think hard about whether you want to adopt China's policies.

Uh, from the UAE's perspective it is much worse. They sold many $Bs worth of oil and had become a global tourist hub, now they can't do those things. They are being patient for the time being but there's a limit. We don't know what that limit is but if 6 months go by and the Strait's not open can we really expect them to not pay Iran a toll and price their oil in yuan?

No. Current geothermal projects need very specific geology to work, its very rare which is why geothermal is such a small blip in the overall energy picture. Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), the technique Fervo is using, can create the conditions to be able to generate electricity. The hope is this will greatly expand the number of projects that can be developed.

Doesn't that sound useful to you?

> Its just drilling a hole and making electricity from the heat

District heating does not involve making electricity.

That's still a science project, they are piloting zapping a small hole to 100m. Very uncertain whether it will amount to anything.

You brought the conversation in a circle, since the point of this new technology is the geology you speak of is rare.