Mostly true but not entirely. For the moment at least there are still applications such as airplanes where fossil fuels have no reasonable alternative. But yes, a large number of things that we currently power by burning long-dead dinosaurs could just as well work with other sources of energy.

And yeah, I think the whole world looks at the Middle East and is thinking: If you all so much want to kill each other, why don't we just step back and let you?

Some born with golden spoon in mouth boy is learning the expensive way that no, money can NOT buy everything. The laws of physics don't care how rich you are or how much money you throw at them. :-)

Obviously, sooner or later we will want to do things that require our physical presence. And be it because the ping time to Mars really, really sucks.

Robots are way easier to engineer for space than humans, even though space is so unforgiving that that's not trivial, either. The same is true for other planets. Building a robot that works well in 0.2g or 5g is an engineering challenge but doable even with today's tech. Humans... not so much.

But let's be honest here: We want to go out there. The same way humans have found their way to the most remote places and most isolated islands on planet Earth, expansion is deeply within our nature.

So, robots for exploration to prepare for more detailed human exploration to prepare for human expansion.

And maybe, along the way we can solve the problem that any spaceship fast and big enough to achieve acceptable interplanetary travel times (let's not even talk about interstellar) with useful payloads is also a weapon of mass destruction on a scale that makes nukes seem like firecrackers.

Has What If? already done a segment on "what happens is SpaceX's Starship slams into Earth at 0.1c" ?

Won't happen, at least not with my books.

There is a reason writing the last one took two years. Many of its passages have very carefully considered wordings. Intentional ambiguities. Alliterations. Words chosen because the other term for the same thing is too similar to another thing that occurs in the same paragraph. Names picked with intention, by the sound of them (harsher or softer, for example).

I've used AI extensively in many fields. Including translations. It's pretty good for normal texts like newspaper articles or Wikipedia or something. But for a book, where the emotional impact of things matter, where you can't just substitute one words for a synonym and get the same effect - no, I don't think so.

This is one area where even I with a general positive attitude to AI want a human translator with whom I can discuss these things and where I can get a feeling of "did she understand this part of the book and why it's described this way?".

China calling Elon. Come in, Elon! :)

It's weird how the Pedophile Trash always want to argue the definition. Sex trafficking of minors means pedophilia, you disgusting subhuman worthless kidraper.

REPUBLICANS demanded the date, and Trump promised to veto the law without it. Shut up and shoot yourself you Lying Treasonous America Hating Klan Shitbag Retardican.

This is false, you Lying Klan Fuckface. REPUBLICANS insisted on the timer and Trump promised to veto unless the timer was in the law. This is very clear from the record, just as clear as the fact that every one of you America-Hating Retarded Repukelikan Klan Shitbags is incapable of honesty.

The Pro-Lie Nazi Republicans are incapable of being honest. It's that simple. Every one of them is a disgusting, inhuman malignant sociopath.

If they want to win, the people need to see and experience the true impact of the laws passed by the Republicans.

That has been happening. More importantly, people need to see that Democrats are willing to stand up and fight rather than just rolling over for every nasty thing the Republicans are doing.

The Democrats are just terrible at strategy. Really, really bad.

In the sense that the elder Democratic Party leadership kept trying to play by the rules while the Republicans proved they are dishonest sociopathic fucks incapable of fair and honest behavior, you are correct. What we are seeing right now is that the younger Democratic leadership are taking charge and not playing along with Republican dishonesty any more. And again, part of the Democratic Party regaining support is proving by action that they are willing to fight.

Add to that, government shutdowns are just stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. The laws have already been passed, and now we just have to write the check to pay for what was already done. And trying to use it as a tool to force Republicans - many of whom would be happy if the government were shutdown forever - to negotiate? Not going to work.

Democrats negotiated and the party consensus is that Schumer "caved" last March during the prior budget negotiations. And what happened right after March? Republicans promptly RENEGED ON THE AGREEMENTS anyways, first canceling many promised policy votes and then using "rescission" to remove approved funding from various programs. The Republicans proved that they cannot be trusted.

So now the Democrats are actually fighting. And they're making it clear that this time, they're not just going to cave. And the proof that it's actually working? Look at Tuesday's election results.

EVERY open governor's race went Democrat, and not only that, all three beat the polling predictions by a pretty big margin.

California voted to redistrict and say "Fuck Texas" by an almost 2/3 majority.

Pennsylvania retained all 3 Democratic supreme court members by double-digit margins.

Dear Retarded MAGA Fuckwit and Likely Pedophile:

Why aren't the victims naming the people who victimized them? Because they are scared for their safety since many of the offenders are in powerful positions, like Treasonous Pedophilic Sack of Criminal Shit Donald Judas Trump.

Oh, and BTW, was Epstein accused of pedophilia? The official charges were: sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. Read that again and again until you understand it, you Dishonest Fucking Lying Pedophile.

You're talking facts to a MAGA garbage-cultist. He'll just run around making his false claims again and pretending that nobody responded to him. It's what those inbred fucking white-supremacist klan retards do.

It needs just one. This is why Ku Klux Klan Member Mike Johnson is holding the House out of session and refusing to seat Adelita Grijalva (for over 40 days now!) despite her election being fully certified. She will be signature #218.

Keep in mind that when there were GOP members available (Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine) after special elections he RUSHED to get them sworn in even before the full vote counting had finished.

Klan Member Mike Johnson needs to be removed from office and prosecuted for all of his corruption.

It goes Way beyond parasocial into the realm of madness.

GOP/"MAGA" is a cult. A white-supremacist, bigoted, horrific, dangerous cult.

They think that if they just idolize their "glorious leader" hard enough, somehow all their misogynistic, racist, bigoted wishes will come true. Remember what they were saying the last time Trump and his America-hating GOP flunkies shut the government down: "He's not hurting the people he's supposed to be hurting."

They literally voted for him in hopes of harming others. Every member of the dangerous MAGA cult is a malevolent sociopath.

bah.

Let me know when they start making *autographic* 120 film again. I have the camera, and am dying to shoot a roll!

The last rolls were apparently made in 1932. The cameras had a flap that could flip up and allow writing directly onto the film with a stylus. When you see handwriting on an old picture print, it was likely shot on autographic.

[and, yes, in fact my autographic camera *does* have bellows!]