The DMCA was implemented by elected lawmakers.

Those lawmakers have not been removed from office, with new law makers installed with a mandate to remove DMCA.

Therefore, the market has voted (with votes, rather than dollars) for the DMCA.

I'm not sure what the benefit of that would be over the very large mega-yachts the super-rich currently use - they're mobile, so they get the benefits of going to places around the world in luxury, plus being able to move out of the way of bad weather, etc.

I suppose the possible sheer _scale_ of a floating city has an appeal as a display of wealth to some.

Not likely. One of the large costs with any of these missions is launch. With SpaceX pushing re-usable systems, and about to drop their prices a great deal in about 3 years, it will make missions like this possible.
In addition, keep in mind that Musk is now looking at building a satellite factory. Once he starts that, he will be after all sat manufacturing to make them cheap. While this is an airship, the guts will be satellite based.

This actually makes sense for an interesting science mission. Not sure if it makes sense for humans to go there, but loads of science can be done from above.

First off, B&W already has a reactor that could be up within 5 years. They are nervous about demand. What is needed is a guaranteed number of reactor buys (say 10 ) to get them moving again.

BUT, what is really needed is to focus on gen IV reactors esp. using thorium. They can burn up the old waste.

Now, with the last congress, I would have agreed with you. And IMHO, this coming CONgress is going to be a major fuck-up. HOWEVER, the GOP supports nukes. In addition, so does O. As such, I think that we will see an energy bill that will push new reactors.

Actually, Audi, GM, Ford, BMW, etc are all going to push FC cars. They are doing the EVs currently because California as well as Tesla forces the issue. But, other than nissan, all of the major car companies have said that the battery is dead and that FC are the way to the future.

That is why Gen 3 is so very important. When it comes out at say 35K and the owners have access to the Super Chargers AND Tesla is building out the new battery exchange mechanism, well, at that point, I think that the FCs makers will look foolish since relatively few cars will be sold while Tesla (and hopefully nissan) will be backed up.

BTW, I have issues with Nissan. The leaf is a POS. In fact, IMHO, all of the EVs are poorly designed except for Tesla. The leaf does not deal with heating/cooling of the batteries. The range SUX.

Mass production- of graphene powder. Cambridge Nanosystems' process makes flakes of graphene in the 200-800 nm diameter range; cf. this interview with their chief scientist. It's still a valuable material with many potential uses; that interview talks about composite materials and conductive inks. However, it's a very different product with different applications from a large-scale monolayer sheet.

That was the original quote from beelsebob. He made it Europe vs. US, not me.

Look at the original discussion. It was about European vs. American rockets. It was not Ariane vs. F9.

While what you wrote is 100% accurate (as pertains to the efficiency), economics and regulations play major parts in deciding winners.
H2 is a disaster. BUT, if oil companies, along with all of the top 10 major car companies push it, it is POSSIBLE for them to win.
Now, with that said, I think that when Tesla releases Gen 3, I believe that it is all over. I think that the majority of buyers will INSIST on cars to be built like a tesla. And sales will slide for the top 10 companies.

FH is not really vaporware. It consists of 3 cores, which are fully flight tested. These are tied together via plumbing that is software controlled. Well, that part is fully tested as well. Remember those 6-12x where spacex announced louder than normal testing? Those were FH testing. What remains to test can only be tested in flight, which is the side separation. OTOH, explosive bolts are well known and tested. Iow, slim chance of issue there. What is holding back FH testing is that spacex is focused on stage recovery, along with dragon2 and that Kennedy needs to be modified for FH.

so, u can claim that it is vaporware, but, Russia, Europe, China, japan, american, and Indian launch groups say that it is close enough to reality that they can not compete. And I will trust their opinion, over yours.

He can also punish the company with lose of subsidies, contracts, etc.
And Boeing has recommended Ariane at times.

No, it was canceled and restarted because it was awarded wrong based on the stated criteria. Airbus out and out lost the contract based on what was the stated criteria. However, Airbus had other side offerings that was considered but should not have been.
Had the procurement officer done things correctly, then Boeing NEVER would have had a second chance at it, even had airbus won it.

This case has nothing in common with the other.

Ariane is NOT ahead and that is what has them scared.
The only way for Ariane 5 to be profitable is by launching 2 sats at once. The smaller sat is now much cheaper to fly on the current F9. When FH comes out this summer, it will be capable of launch multiple sats in 1 launch that will costs less than what Ariane 5 charges for just 1 of the 2 sats.

Keep in mind that Ariane gets an annual subsidy to do 5-7 launches / year. And this year, because SpaceX ate into their meal, Europe had to double it. If SpaceX successfully returns a first stage, I have no doubt that they will be offering much lower costs to future launches, which will guarantee that Ariane loses all commercial space. At that point, to remain viable, it will take several billion euros / year of subsidies to keep them afloat.

Oh, I am a believer in converting our coal into methane (great point energy). As you said, we can not have a monoculture. As it is, it was the fact that we allowed coal to grow to 60% of our electricity that is leaving America in its current situation.
BUT, if we allow coal to go to methane, and add nukes, and other AE, etc, well, that makes good sense.