Lots of interesting findings for such a short time on the job. For one, this answers the question of how Mars could be seismically active without tectonic activity. But the magnetometer readings raise another mystery. Why is the field stronger on the surface than orbital readings would suggest. It would be nice to have a couple dozen of these probes arrayed around the planet to provide a global coordinated picture of all this activity. In particular this would make it a lot easier to tease out details like how much water there is under the surface, and where.

Yeah, and we also have a record number of people on food stamps; the Job Quality Index has been sliding for over a decade; half the population can't afford a $500 emergency; 80 million people are uninsured or under-insured; real wages have been stagnant for decades, while costs have gone WAY UP for education, child care, health care, and housing.

Ironically, although a majority say "the economy is good"; almost as many people also say "the economy isn't working well for me."

That's funny, because Bernie has been beating Trump in head-to-head polls ever since 2016. And yeah, everybody knows he's a socialist. The problem is, Republicans have been crying wolf about socialism for so long -- calling Obama a socialist, for example -- that they've essentially made that word meaningless.

Think of the top ten or fifteen most successful nations, including the USA. With the exception of China, every single one of them is a mixed-market social democracy -- including the USA. The most visible difference between us and them (say, US vs. EU) is that our government is about 25~30% of our economy, whereas their governments are about 35~50% of their economies. If we were to enact the most sweeping and consequential aspect of Sanders's policy proposals, Medicare For All, it would put us at the low end of that 35~50% scale.

At the same time, despite a 4% increase in FICA (excluding the first $29k of income), with all premiums, copays, and deductibles gone, it would leave several thousand dollars more in the pockets of the average family each year. So it would be a great relief to vast masses of people.

To visualize this change, consider that the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") constrained health insurance companies by requiring that they spend at least 80% of revenue on actual health care instead of overhead (administration, advertising, profits). By comparison, Medicare's overhead costs are more like 3~5%, which means we can save roughly 15% overall on health care. So if health care currently costs $3 trillion per year (it's probably much more) and we can save 15%, that's $450B -- every year! Talk about "economic stimulus"... imagine what that much cash in the hands of consumers would do for the GDP.

Good analogy, but I think the explanation is much simpler: that latest batch of edibles from the "dispensary" turned out to be way more potent than expected. That could explain the elaborate glossolalia... or so I've heard, obviously I wouldn't know from direct experience. ;-)

It's nice to see some work being done on "land" that disappeared after the last ice age. Obviously these aren't the first results from that period, but most of our knowledge of that time comes from sites many miles inland of the ancient shorelines. It will be interesting to see if they find anything different or surprising.

Based on rumors and hints from the recent Shanghai Gigafactory event, Tesla intends to design a "hot hatch" in a new design facility in China. No guidance yet on whether those vehicles will be sold in Europe, but Elon also said they plan to open a design center in Berlin, so maybe they've got special plans for that market.

True. And I would add that just because GM is building a new EV plant does not mean they're going to catch up with Tesla anytime soon. They are making some of the right moves -- such as partnering with LG to build a dedicated battery factory -- but it will be at least a year or two before they start producing cars from these facilities. Meanwhile, Tesla keeps moving the goal posts. By the time GM figures out how to build a 250-mile EV at a profitable margin, Tesla will be selling 400-mile EVs for a similar price.

Then there's a problem of cannibalizing their ICE vehicle sales as they ramp up EV sales. There may be a "valley of no profits" to cross before they achieve viability in the EV market. I suspect that several of the legacy OEMs will not survive that transition.

Thanks for all the laughs. Enjoy the bleedin' choir invisible...

Great idea, which is why it'll probably never happen. OTOH, it might be possible to approximate that kind of functionality with management tools like HootSuite or Tweet Deck. The problem would be visibility from within the various target platforms. Seems like you'd need a "meta-app" to see everything, unless FB and the others choose to play nice and cooperate.

Came here to say the same thing. The image sensor chips are getting ridiculously hi-def these days, so there should be plenty of capacity to get a decent picture from a virtual frame, the same way they do with digital zoom and anti-shake. Of course, some people may still want a portrait-mode for video calls, but that could be handled in software too.

LOL, yeah, but I wish I hadn't seen II and III. ;-)

Good catch. Apparently that movie made such a shallow impression on me that I don't remember the order. Looking back, I suspect I probably skipped TFA entirely until after Rogue One had come out, then went back to have a look at it later.

I had already given up on the entire Star Wars saga after seeing The Phantom Menace. Years later, a friend talked me into watching Attack Of The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith, and it only reinforced my original impression. Then Rogue One came out, and I was very pleasantly surprised... enough so that I decided to give The Force Awakens a try when that came out. But TFA gave me that sinking feeling again, just like TPM had years before. Except for Solo (which was "ok") I haven't bothered to watch any of the others. The fan reviews have been savagely brutal, and I'm just not interested anymore. Star Wars is dead to me, killed by the usual suspects in Hollywood (commercialism, political correctness, etc..).

I doubt they'll follow that route, since they pretty much already have all the toys they want, and actually setting up a whole new branch would involve the kind of turf wars you mentioned, It's better for everybody if they just play along with Trump's tremendous idea for as long as he's paying attention, and then quietly let it wither. IIRC the military folks were never enthusiastic about this idea, it's all Trump. They'll set up a "Space Force" office somewhere and staff it with people from Space Command, invite the president for a ribbon cutting, and that will be the end of it.

Yes, but good luck getting your hands on one of those. Since they're such a good bargain, you'd think they'd be selling like hotcakes, but they're just not. Neither car has sold even a thousand units in the USA yet this year, and that's not because nobody wants them, they're just not being made available. Either they're not being produced in high enough volume, or the bulk of production is going to other markets like EU and China.

I would love to see those two in particular ramp up sales, and they have the best chance to keep Tesla on it's toes, and offering more competitive pricing. My suspicion is that, like the Chevy Bolt, they can't produce them at a profit for that price, and that's why you can't actually buy one.