Try eff. Follow their advice, test your browser, see if there are priorities to act on https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/

there’s been little progress toward creating the unfathomably long carbon fiber tether

When space elevators were first discussed, there were no materials that could possibly be used. Now we have carbon nanotubes that may be strong enough. That’s huge progress.

But yeah, the political issues will prevail. If we can’t even agree enough to build California high speed rail, think of the impossibility of a major infrastructure project several orders of magnitude bigger and more complex, several orders of magnitude more costly, and where a failure is essentially a weapon of mass destruction affecting hundreds of millions of people.

Just like every other manufacturing industry where China has come to dominate, a big part of their strength is also developing the supply chain, suppliers and to foster competition. There’s an entire web of industry to support car building and scaling demand to make it work.

Or you know, the government could just match Chinese industry subsidies

The problem is we did. The last 2-3 decades had billions in subsidies toward battery technology and battery electric vehicles. Then they got canceled. Then reinstated. Then canceled. At this point Chinas biggest advantage is being able to stay the course

“How long until you’ll be able to compete?”

The problem with that logic is this is a residential area. Getting people out of cars and into cycling is great and reduces how often cars are needed. All good things, but probably not enough to eliminate the need for cars.

When I lived downtown, I was able to walk or take the train almost everywhere. But there were always a few remaining things where I needed a car. It was great having the option to rarely use a car but I wasn’t able to get away from the need to have one. It greatly reduced how often I used a car but did not at all rescue that I needed a parking spot

Assuming this is residential and the spots were needed, we’d be better off finding a long term storage solution for cars, an alternate location for vehicles that are needed but rarely used

But I’ll agree with your logic if this is mostly retail

Seems like the approach we’re trying is to prevent people from not having kids they can’t care for, and prevent underage people from having the knowledge or medical support to not have kids when they are still kids

I’m more concerned about people wanting to use that to raise the retirement age.

1. They don’t understand averages. Reducing childhood deaths significantly raises average life expectancy by increasing the number of people who reach retirement ages, not by making them more able to work
2. Nothing forces people to retire at a specific age. I’m more concerned about being able to work long enough to afford retiring. “Retirement age” is 67 and I don’t expect to be able to work that long
3. Ageism is a thing. As I’m approaching 60, I understand I may never be able to get hired again in my field. This may be my last job, whether I want that or not, and regardless of what retirement age is
4. There is no such thing as retirement age in the us. There is only the age range at which social security will start paying out. That has nothing to do with how old you need to keep working, how old you can keep working, or how old you’re allowed to keep working

Until recently in the US the fertility rate was almost 2 and we made it up with immigration. Now we’re trying to be isolationist and the fertility rate is no longer almost 2

• https://theworlddata.com/female-fertility-rate-statistics-in-us/

On the surface, this could be entirely legit, not worth the outrage.

I can easily believe

• regulations are not ready for self-driving vehicles
• a manufacturer decided some required equipment is not suited for a car meant to be self-driving only
• the manufacturer self-certified, with exemptions where there is no regulatory framework yet.
• government agency sees that and starts an investigation to see if they agree

Even before you get into what you think of this specific manufacturer and whether they’re really ready for self-driving, this is a “normal” process

I’m more worried about regulations defining what self driving needs to be capable of and tests to qualify it

Whether a cyberCab is capable of safely self-driving is a different question from whether a self-driving vehicle is required to have a steering wheel

I have to admit liking those ai slop sci fi videos where they get persistence hunting right as a reason humans are an unexpected apex predator

Plus being upright. Most of our weight is supported by skeleton, rather than muscles that get tired, and walking is mostly a matter of falling forward in a controlled manner

Brave of them to assume Trump has any agenda besides himself

I was hoping there was established law

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Treaty

But unfortunately no one signed it.

It would be fun to troll and distract mango Mussolini into wasting his time trying to workaround a treaty where he can’t hurt anyone else

Was it a sofa pillow? Anyone we would have the misfortune to know? That people actually voted for?

Maybe hail. At least one of the times I saw hail. It was a clear and sunny day without a cloud in the sky

Or a wall of rain. Once when I was a kid it was a race to get home: a wall of rain was coming through and I tried to make it back in time to stay dry

Dust devil maybe? I’ve seen those several times, never strong enough to damage anything.

I don’t know if this counts but I found a courtyard between buildings on Manhattan where there was always a swirl of wind at a specific spot from prevailing winds being funneled between buildings. A bunch of time I went back there I’d see a swirl of leaves and trash like a mini-tornado, always in the same spot

While I generally like the argument there was also generally sidewalk room. If you watch the video, I was struck there were cycle/scooter people walking their vehicle on the sidewalk, past the obstructions in the bike lane. No reason those obstructions couldn’t have been on the sidewalk.

But the OP is also wrong. You do have to deal with the reality you face and there were too many pedestrians in the way. Like it or not he should have been walking his bike past those assholes

Start with better reading comprehension

Yeah I think the timing was critical. She started campaigning way too late.

I do think Biden did a good job and got a lot of things moving in the right direction. I also think too many of the things he started were too long term: “continue the same policies” was the best answer. However we as a country no longer have the patience, we need instanteous gratuity that was just not there. It’s somewhat like the Jimmy Carter problem: it doesn’t matter how smart you are or whether you’re doing the right thing if you can’t get everyone excited.

Harris started off strong but really didn’t get anyone excited and “more of the same” was not the way to do it (even if she were right).

She needed time and distance to better establish her as a distinct candidate.

I even see Biden’s logic of “can’t let Trump win and no other candidates stand out” but it was the wrong approach. In hindsight, yes, dropping out much earlier was clearly the better choice