Was ventilator usage tested in double blind studies for COVID-19? How about lockdowns? Or cloth masks? Or those Chinese street fire-trucks that atomize bleach or something. HCQ is a lightening rod in a field of unknowns because Orange Man said something about it. The reality is very little is truly understood about COVID-19.

Are you kidding? This is the SJW's "final solution". Minitruth.

It is said so often it is cliche. On Facebook, you, the people, are the product. Whatever privacy and other protections put into place will be the minimal palatable to keep the product engaged.
Farmers maintain a minimum Quality of Life for animals so that they can be managed. This is generally kept at the commercially minimal level so the animals don't die, and produce the optimal quantity and quality of product.
Facebook is no different.

I actually think it's pretty simple. Consciencesness = software. During the teleportation, the body and mind exist in both places. Ergo, continuity (statefulness) is maintained, and the single consciencesness exists in both places simultaneously. Think VM on a live migration. As long as the two copies are forced into exactly the same state (entangled?) It is really just one linked mind. My opinion is that the thing we call a soul, or self awareness, is something that lives entirely in the software of the mind; it's not a tethered spark of ether in an intangible universe. Understanding that our souls are really just the software of an electrochemical network doesn't deaden the experience of self awareness; accepting an understanding of how the mind works shouldn't make your self awareness any less poignant. I do think, however, that the software is less continuous than we may want to admit. Sleeping may be analagous to a computer low power states, but accepting that the soul is effectively a form of software running on a form of a network also accepts that it is likely there are instances where it can be wiped, altered, rebooted, or replaced. There is a lot of interesting reading that dances around this premise, such as, "The Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat." I think it is likely that if we withstand significant trauma or injury the person that wakes up is potentially an altered iteration. However, studies of injuries and neurological issues suggests that there are many levels of how we are encoded in the brain, some of which persist on a durable, low level. Stretching the computer analogy to it's breaking point, short term memory is kind of "Cache", while mid term memory is "RAM". Long term memory is some kind of storage, while behavior, personality and manner are probably closer to System Code. One wonders if the analogy fits well because we build computers to match the ways we think. If the mind works like this, there is a big upside: it makes the path to uploading of the mind straight forward. All we need is the capability to completely simulate a human brain, and to synchronize the two versions completely. One would experience both sets of inputs simultaneously, and the self would be in both places simultaneously. Gracefully shutdown the meat version (cryopreserve?) and you will have moved the mind/soul. Details of the technical implementation are left as an exercise for the reader.

18 cents sounds high, to me. I bought a decent automatic espresso machine for about $300 5 years ago. I drink, on average, 2 cups of coffee per day from it. I expect it to last another 5 years. That's about 4 cents per cup. I buy organic kona blend beans (not pure kona, but pretty tasty never the less) from Costco, at $14 per 2.5 pounds. At . 3 ounces per cup, that is about 10.7 cents per cup. Add in 1.3 cents for electricity and my RO filtered well water, and you get about 15 cents per cup. It takes about 90 seconds to turn on the machine and generate the first cup. 120 seconds if I have to refill the beans, dump the grounds, and refill the water. Subsequent cups take less time. Id consider my home coffee superior to most everything I might buy out, with the exception of any artisnal coffee place selling a high grade (pure kona or similar) coffee generates by a semi automatic espresso machine, operated by someone who knows how to use it.

Wow, what a bastard. That sort of thing is exactly the opportunity for the VP to say he was doing intrusion testing and the workforce was well trained. You would think you would have been disciplined or fired for letting him in, not keeping him out!

Strongly disagree. The EcoBoost turbocharged 6 banger in the expedition and f150 is a beautiful engine. Better torque and HP than the V8 it replaced, and very similar in performance to the much touted (and now maligned) 6 cylinder diesels pushed by VW/Mercedes/BMW, but without the expensive maintenance, crappy emissions, and ultra slow acceleration. It is a refined, high output powerplant that is significantly better than the flashy "new technologies" going into other manufactures large vehicles. You would never believe that it is a 2.7 liter engine that can tow 8000+ pounds, while delivering decent MPG. (And that is tested against the ASTM standard!) I rented one once, and thought I was driving a big block V8 until I looked under the hood. It doesn't grab the headlines like a self driving hybrid diesel plug in engine, but is certainly an engineering marvel in its own right.

"now seek new markets abroad as subsidies dry up at home" Yes, that sounds like solar products are now well on the way to being the cheapest form of power generation. Oh wait, we are talking about exclusive solar contracts in the petrostates? Yeah, I'm sure the market has spoken. Much of the world has demonstrated that nuclear power can be safe, cheap, and effective. Nuclear power should be regulated like the airlines; constant oversight, well regarded industry organs, and responsible, established manufactures serving well capitalized operators. We know it can be done, and for less $$ than some of the social moonshots we try (war on drugs, Obamacare, war on poverty (at least the worst elements), heck, climate change subsidies). Establishing a long term framework for national and global power generation, emissions free, with prices "too cheap to meter", would change the future of humanity drastically.

. . .
Article: There is only one earth.
Bulk of comments: There is no way to travel among the stars! It takes WAY too long! It might take hundred of years to get anywhere! Even if you get to relativistic speeds, that could be . . . .decades, subjectively! Why would you bother leaving Earth anyway?

Article: What happens if we perfect anti-aging technologies:
Bulk of comments: There will be too many people! There are no places for them to go! It's already too crowded! Besides, if you had hundreds, or thousands, of years of life, what would you DO with all that time, anyway?
. . .
The only thing is missing, currently, is an article on fusion energy, whereby the bulk of commenters wonder why you would need fusion-levels of energy, and what on earth could possibly use that level of energy output. . .

Is not complicated. Nor is it difficult bringing several orders magnitude greater "stuff" than the article contemplates.

But this will not happen without nuclear propulsion. With Project Orion powered space craft, we could send 100,000 ton vessels to Mars, single stage, capable of landing, with a trip time of weeks, not months.

This is the difference between trying to explore the new world, from Europe, with 5 people, paddles and a canoe; or a fleet of diesel powered amphibious vessels holding thousands of tons of cargo, and hundreds/thousands of expeditionary personnel.

Exploring Mars (or pretending to settle it) with chemical rockets is really just playing with toys, the science equivalent of masturbation, and we really shouldn't bother with the cost. If mankind wants to expand beyond the earth, it will take nuclear propulsion.

876.581277 kilowatt hours for your debian router.
Minus
150 kilowatt hours for your consumer router

726 kilowatt hours times $0.11 dollars per kwh = $80 per year as your cost delta.

If you go with a standard intel atom platform, you can get that unit down to 50 watts, or $48 per year as your total operating cost.

At slightly hardware cost, you can buy a fanless nano-itx Atom pc that runs at about 13 watts. That's about $12 per YEAR. Make sure you use a USB flash drive as your storage media, for optimal energy usage.

The poverty in the third world is manufactured, not in the sense that it wasn't there before and someone created it, but in the sense that it would have naturally faded away by now if powerful rich nations weren't working their asses of to perpetuate it. Cuba is a nice example, they got the sanctions for having strong welfare, education and medical policies designed to bring them up to first world status.

Bullshit.

Poverty in the third world is manufactured by the corrupt, miserable leadership of the third world.

To name some examples of countries that *rapidly* transitioned (or are on an incredible upswing) from the third world to the first world in the 20th century: Japan, China, Singapore, Spain, South Korea, South Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Chile, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, and Brazil.

That's just off the top of my head.

IMHO?

The only "realistic" interstellar space vessels that make sense would be captured asteroids utilizing Orion-like propulsion. I haven't looked at the maximum possible mass of an Orion-type spacecraft, but I believe it is substantially above billions of tons if you only have to consider the pusher plate system. Advances in material sciences, and the possibility of "super" systems strengthened utilizing magnetic/electrical charges could dramatically increase this number further, to the point where even the largest of asteroids could potentially be utilized as space craft.

These asteroids would be wired and covered with a variety of useful mounts, including lasers on turrets, a variety of sensors and cameras, railgun-style mass drivers, and a variety of openings protected by plasma windows. On sufficiently large asteroids, these openings could include hangars for auxiliary craft, such as surface to space launchers, and versatile, high-speed drones. Drones could be utilized as scouts, remote sensors, maintenance devices, or perhaps, weapons platforms (suicide or otherwise).

If you needed to militarize such a craft, you wouldn't have to do much. Many of the "tools" on this craft would be versatile enough to be utilized as weapons. A railgun, or sufficiently strong utility laser would be obvious. By virtue of utilizing an asteroid as your "hull", a significant amount of armor is "built in". Turrets/Windows etc. . . could be protected by a variety of means. The above-linked Plasma Window, as well as a variety of Plasma Bubble research suggests to me that the possibilities of creating mixed-phase materials that can be oriented into coherent structures using charges and magnetic fields-- by this I am suggesting a "metal" that retains it shape based on charge passing through, and whose tensile strength is determined by a combination of material properties and energy usage. One can envision clouds of plasma, or even clouds of metals/solids/liquids which could be strengthened utilizing such tools. I would think that these "shield" would not be utilized to protect the entire asteroid, and rather be deployed to protect sensitive portions of the asteroid.

Active countermeasures would be important, as well; railguns/lasers could be utilized to divert the course of incoming projectiles, while electronic countermeasures and radios would be utilized to disrupt/confuse enemy sensors. Boarding "combat" drones could be utilized to attack the propulsion, weapon, and control systems of enemy asteroid-ships; these would probably be launched in swarms, and by railgun.

The "vast" nature of space suggests that there could be two different form of battlegrounds. Interstellar distances are too large to be considered battlegrounds; it only really makes sense to consider solar distances. Inside solar systems, combat between, say, Mars and Earth would be a slow affair; I picture rail guns hurtling projectiles at a significant fraction of light, while defense systems utilizing lasers and smaller projectiles fire back to alter the course of incoming projectiles. At closer scales, combat becomes a more conventional affair, and probably looks like a cross between modern carrier combat and drone warfare.

In a twisted way I see how they could have an argument.

I disagree. I've seen some ridiculous communist/fascist loving stuff at University. I've seen people who "admire" Kim Jong-Il, and who "admire" Hitler, and who "admired" Mao.

These "leaders" killed millions of people in the name of truly evil ideologies, and they are typically tolerated at academic institutions.

For example, UW Madison had its local paper run an ad by a Holocaust denier, because, "“no opinions or assertions can be so offensive that we cannot bring ourselves to hear them.”'

Also, UW Madison has *at least* one professor (Erik Olin Wright) who studies the "scientific" ideas of Stalin. A mass murderer by *any* standard. Probably the most prolific mass murderer in history.

Scary to me that a Firefly poster would be considered the "worrying" document.

What is *truly* offensive to me:

We're talking about a quote from a mainstream sci-fi series. A quote. . . posted on the door of a theater professor's door.

Yet, no one would blink twice about Mao Tse Tung quotes/posters (which I've seen, not to mention occasionally repeated by Government officials), Che posters (which are common place in academia), or Holocaust deniers (Google it, these roaches are present at several American academic institutes). There are also a fair number of "academic" North Korea lovers, a locale with ongoing state-sponsored mass murdering.

Yeah, that Firefly poster is totally something to panic about. But ululation of mass murdering communist/fascist goons? Totally fine in the name of free speech.

I'd think that Holocaust deniers, or Che-lovers, or Kim Jong-Il lovers are *far* more likely to cause psychological harm and terror.