sunstone

Without humans sending great gobs of CO2 into the atmosphere the climate at this point would be starting to tip into another ice age. So, yes, all scientifically aware humans agree that the current cause of climate change is human induced. It can be argued though that warming is better than freezing. Personally, I expect say 100 years from now when warming is on the wane we'll start burning fossil fuels just to avoid an ice age. But in the mean time CO2 is a bad thing. The golden mean is what we are seeking.

Cybertruck was not love at first sight for me. But after 24 hrs I signed up because of the value. 4x4, adjustable suspension, locking bed, 240v, pneumatic air and much more for $50k. Plus the usual no gas bill and very low maintenance. It's a deal.

In 2020 the Netherlands bought more ebikes than pedal bikes for the first time. They also paid on average $2000 for their ebikes compared with $1000 for their pedal bikes. So in terms of dollars (or Euros) the market in the Netherlands is now 66% ebikes.

What people in the Netherlands found was that an ebike would allow them to do errands up to a distance of about 15km whereas with a pedal bike the distance was more like 5km before they would take their car.

My experience is similar. Ebikes in practice are more like a smaller car than they are like a bigger bike, when the roads or bike paths are suitable.

On the other hand productivity in the developing world has been spiking markedly.

I would trade my dishwasher for Google.

Between the steam engine and the telegraph it's fair to say it was the biggest step change over a hundred years in the history of humans so far.

If it's a tiny tiny football field.

Pretty sure it has nothing to do with Starlink.

If it's safe to ship tons of LNG on big ships there's almost certainly a way to ship batteries safely. It might take a few 'incidents' though before best practise becomes clear.

The Smart.

One data point. I have had difficult to control plaque for at least two decades. According to my dentist others have continuing problems with cavities. I don't.

For the past three years I've used an Oral B electric toothbrush without any improvement.

And then last January I made two changes that have made a huge change in my plaque situation (verified by my hygenist of three years).

First I upgraded my electric toothbrush to the Oral B 4000, which has noticeably more power, at Christmas. And second I changed my brushing technique. Instead of brushing flat against my teeth I now brush the gum line at my teeth and rotate the brush head to a 45 degree angle down at the gums. I then move the tooth brush back and forth over sections of teeth. Typically side or front though the backs if the front teeth require a slightly different approach.

After these changes my hygenist noticed a big improvement in my gums. I also reduced my flossing but when I do floss now theres very little pain, bleeding or swelling unlike before.

Your mileage may very but if you have plaque problems you might save on hygenists.

With the steam engine.

The quote is,"Wilson said in reference to ants "Karl Marx was right, socialism works, it is just that he had the wrong species". Which seems a bit odd as Karl Marx was a communist and not a socialist, as far as I know. It's unlikely that Wilson was confused about this two terms so I expect it's just and honest mistake that's been continually repeated with out any one going back to the origininal sources.

Not surprisingly Wilson's comment of "Great idea, wrong species." was about communism for which it was very apt (communism doesn't scale for humans), not socialism. Socialism works well in more than a few very successful countries around the world.

One of the giants. "Consilience" is one of his books that's well worth reading. Small book, small words, short sentences and huge ideas.

Lots of problems with this idea. I doubt it will ever see the light of day.

So masculine women on TV is ok then I suppose.

In theory this is correct. In practice, when all your assets leave the building via the elevator every afternoon, it's not like running a gold mine.

In theory, practice and theory are the same. In practice, they're not.

Put an MBA in charge of a hugely technical enterprise where lives are at stake by the plane load. What could possibly go wrong?

You learn something new everyday, whether you want to or not. :P

I've had a few living at 49degrees north and it happens in spring with temperatures around 20. You feel comfortable, light cloud cover makes the sun unnoticeable and you're playing tennis for four hours around noon. Right around dinner time you notice that you've got a pretty solid burn that just crept up on you.

What's a little decapitation between friends?

If it's not clear the reason Tesla is so keen on FSD is because they need that for their future robotaxi service which would be big dollars.

To get there they need the data from their current customers. But once they get an approved version of FSD it will be self sustaining for data and Tesla's interest in their customer's FSD will quickly fade away.

Antibodies for which variant?

Is there any country that hasn't been wrong footed by covid at some point? And with Delta at R value of 7 (?) and lots of populations with no effective cold chain for vaccines things could be dicey for the next few years.

Just like clothes, sell them to Africa.

And furthermore, "God does not play dice with the universe."

When the KMT left the mainland and set up shop in Taiwan as the communists took over China, they brought with them loads and loads of Chinese cultural treasures. Now might be a good time to trade those treasures back to China in return for future independence. That sounds like a fair deal for both sides.

China may think they can just invade Tawain and take the treasures back but by now they are all probably buried deep under Cheyenne Mountain.

One benefit is the time zone of Pitcairn is very close to North American Pacific time. Right now it's one hour earlier. Get your Starlink account and you're set.

This may depend strongly on how your electricity is generated. Probably best to assume the electricity is solar generated since, over the life of a new EV, that's likely to be the closest to the mark.