thinkcontext

Intelligence, targeting info and selling (no longer giving) weapons are all important support but sanctions is the really big one. The most recent round in particular has really bit into Russia's oil revenue.

Of course it would be absolutely disgraceful for the US to drop sanctions on Russia and have normal relations with it while it continued its invasion. But that's what the US voted for.

Seems like a big part of Tesla's speculative value is undermined by other companies advancing rapidly in self driving vehicles.

The US Navy doesn't build them, private companies do. None of the SMR companies that I am aware of have attempted to use designs from naval reactors. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that they use highly enriched fuel which is a no-no for civilian reactors.

In any event, if your more general point is that naval reactors indicate its possible that SMRs can be built on time and budget, I don't disagree. It certainly is possible. NuScale was the furthest along of the SMR companies and had their project implode before it got off the ground. So, its also possible for them to crash and burn.

So, I'll stick with my classification of SMRs as "maybe it will work out, maybe not".

> New Glenn isn't bringing any new capabilities to the table

Their payload fairing volume is a new capability.

It could be but the US and EU have so far been unable to build commercial fission reactors without going 2x+ over budget in time and money. China is having success but even they are not projected to have nuclear account for more than single digit percentages of their generation.

Maybe SMR's, thorium, 4th gen, etc will work out, but maybe not.

There is a similar idea called "community solar" in the US. It allows electric customers to subscribe to the output of solar panels on someone else's roof. This allows a developer to build a solar array on a large commercial building's roof that they rent.

I'm impressed! It didn't take many books for it to start suggesting other books that I liked and it showed me several solid choices I'm adding to my queue.

“I’d just become leader and I’m excited and President Trump’s there. And I look over at the Democrats and they stand up. They look like America,” he told Sorkin. “We stand up. We look like the most restrictive country club in America.”

Kevin McCarthy, former GOP House leader and Speak of the House.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/30/mccarthy-...

> For African startups like EqualyzAI, DeepSeek is “orders of magnitude” cheaper than competitors, Adekanmbi said. DeepSeek Chat, for instance, charges 27 cents to process one million tokens of query sent and $1.10 for every million tokens it generates in response. OpenAI’s GPT-4o charges $5 to process the same amount of tokens of query sent and $15 to produce the same amount of tokens in response. If EqualyzAI used GPT-4o, the startup would pay about $12,500 a month to train a small-language model for an e-learning platform, as opposed to the roughly $2,700 per month it now pays DeepSeek for the same task.

I'm no expert but the difference in the real world is more than that (though am doubtful about 3x the price) . The delta-T between heating and cooling is significantly greater in most places so you need a bigger system. You also need things like the ability to de-ice.

You see this opinion a lot in the US, probably a result of Fox and its ilk. As the article mentions, somehow Nordic countries and Canada manage to use them. There's been good uptake in places like Maine which is good news.

Its true retrofits are a tough sell and natural gas is really cheap here. It would help if the US took insulation more seriously. But for someone with oil or electric resistance its definitely a big win.

> that if only they fed her peanut brittle within some specific time period would have avoided it is just pure fantasy, or wishful thinking at best

Oh I see, thanks for explaining, you are rejecting the underlying science. What about the study do you not find convincing?

Its possibly a leading indicator but not a domino like New Century was. But I suppose it really depends on how many opaque financial instruments are based on their underlying loans.

I think you are reading the parent comment wrong. They are highly recommending it because their child DID get a peanut allergy not because they MAY develop one later.

> Nobody is converting irrigated Ogallala aquifer farmland to solar fields

Given the rate at which the aquifer is being depleted, they should. There are some water districts in CA that have encouraged conversion to solar but it's controversial.

https://calmatters.org/commentary/2025/07/california-agricul...

I thought a notable omission was discussion of releasing iron or other minerals into the ocean to stimulate algal growth. It mimics natural processes such as wind blowing sand from desserts. Its been tried by a rogue effort that didn't seek permission but saw some success and had the effect of restoring fish numbers in the area.

I've gone back and forth on whether the potential for unintended consequences is too risky. Lately I've been in favor of slow, carefully controlled efforts. We've already geoengineered the oceans into a bad situation and are about to take things to a whole new level with ocean mining. Mineral release could be considered analogous to tree planting restoration work.

The only serious attempt I've seen to address US budget issues was the Simpson-Bowles Commission under Obama in 2010. It recommended a menu of tax increases and benefit reductions. It was promptly ignored by Congress which was not surprising. As an exercise it was useful just to demonstrate what a serious proposal would have to look like and the nature of compromise that would be needed.

Of course, in the 15 years since the fiscal situation has gotten worse, so any of the recommendations it made then would need to be more severe now.

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

> 3. Using the same sets of chipsets for testing is great, but you should use many different chipsets because that's what you see in reality.

Agreed, this issue really jumped out at me as well.

There are two approved sites for AP1000 reactors to be built, Turkey Point in FL and Summer in SC, all regulatory hurdles have been passed. Yet no one wants to take the risk to build them, not because of regulation but because industry can't control construction costs.

The deferred retirement scheme is an incredibly ill-conceived way of shrinking the government. The way the incentive is structured it encourages the workers who are most able to find another job to leave. These are your best workers. The ones that will disproportionately stay are the least competitive in the job market. The other group of workers that will take it are those that were going to leave or retire anyway. So, for them its a waste of money and the transfer of their knowledge is cut short.

The same goes for the other DOGE employment initiative of firing probationary employees. These are mostly either people you have just hired or those that have been promoted. Of course, these are the employees you would most want to keep.

> hydrogen for use in electricity generation

Hydrogen is way more valuable for chemical production, especially fertilizer. That would be a way to use the excess heat you mention.

We already need carbon black, graphite, etc. This process makes production have dramatically less carbon emissions with hydrogen as a bonus. Of course we use millions of tons of hydrogen for things like fertilizer. What's not to like?

Monolith was the first mover here, they are making carbon black for Goodyear. Last year they were running into problems meeting targets for a $1B DOE loan, haven't seen if they've managed to get on track.

https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/a-high-profile-clean...

The BJPs brand of ethnonationalism does have a kinship with MAGA as we've seen with the bromance Trump and Modi. But the recent tariffs have greatly changed many Indians' views on Trump, though I haven't seen anything about the views of Indian Americans specifically.

I can't help but be reminded of Steve Bannon's comments about their being too many Indian tech CEOs.

This has nothing to do with that application.

There are current applications for solid state cooling. Why wouldn't you welcome those applications being more efficient?

> With, apparently, a board member appointed by the Trump administration.

Trump has essentially selected all of the board members. Its not a coincidence that Larry Ellison and Andreessen are big Trump supporters. The amazing corruption continues.

The carbon border tax (CBAM) that is coming into effect is a good policy to help with that. Should have been done much earlier.

> A few nuclear plants could be a good solution. (I’m not an energy expert)

You should look at the track record of recent nuclear projects in Europe. Olkiluoto and Flamanville both 3x+ over budget in time and money. Sizewell C isn't doing too well either, its very far from cheap.