Agreed. At least they could have kept the graphics going - they didn't even have to have the commentary (although it would have been nice).

To be newsworthy it has to have some novelty factor. In the early days of SpaceX, any of their launches were novel. Likewise, early ULA launches were novel and deserved coverage.

Falcon 9 launches are no longer novel so they don't get as much coverage. The next half dozen Falcon Heavy launches will have novelty so they'll probably get a lot of coverage but eventually they'll be like the Falcon 9 and ULA's Delta IV Heavy. The reason the Delta IV isn't "font-and-center" is that it's an established launch vehicle with a pretty solid record, it's expected to succeed and, frankly, it's not particularly newsworthy.

In most cases they expel propellant to generate thrust in the same way that a chemical rocket does, but electrical systems use different propellants and different methods to do the expelling. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

The "Starliner" spacesuit, developed by Boeing. https://www.boeing.com/feature...

Yeah, surely for a forward-thinking developer "deprecated" has pretty much the same effect on your decision-making as "removed".

Without getting into the metric debate, how hard is it to at least add the metric value in parentheses after the US units? Doing so means you're suddenly catering for the whole world rather than a small fraction.

If fake news is not against the rules, then the rules are flawed. There's no way the deliberate spreading of misinformation should be a permitted activity.

Doing astronomy public outreach I deal with a lot of people who are angry about the Pluto situation. It's possible that you are the angriest of them all. Are you okay?

Another Kiwi here in general agreement with you.

On one hand Dotcom's last business plan was literally to steal revenue from websites like mine - the websites that feed my children. For that I wish a slow painful punishment on him.

On the other hand I love my country and seeing our government and police roll over and behave like American thug cops was very disturbing.

I honestly can't decide which is worse - Dotcom winning or the American bullies winning. It's a no-win situation from my perspective.

Then why do you think your current experience with weather is relevant to the climate debate?

I think you're partially right. This kind of person is never going to succeed in business - his best hope is to get a job where other people manage his time. However that doesn't mean the entire program must fail. There will be some people who can't/won't make a UBI work but perhaps there may be enough who can/will that it provides a net benefit to society.

Whatever the eventual outcome, it's worth researching to see if some form of UBI ends up working well enough to be useful.

Sure you can. That's exactly what my kids' school does. It works fine.

Actually scientists would love artificial gravity as it would solve all sorts of problems for them. What's preventing this from happening is that the engineers haven't been able to come up with a practical, economic way to create a centrifugal module.

But maybe that's just because they haven't consulted you yet. You should contact NASA and let them know you have the answers.

"Musk can't build a rocket"
Later... "Okay but he can't build a cheap rocket"
Later... "Okay but he can't make them reusable"
Later... "Okay but he needs the military and they'll never use him"
etc etc

"Electric cars will never work"
Later... "Okay but they'll never have the performance of petrol cars"
Later... "Okay but car manufacturers will never embrace them"
Later... "Okay but Musk isn't a car manufacturer"
Later... "Okay but they'll never have a range of more than 100 km"
Later... "Okay but there's no practical way to charge them quickly enough"
Later... "Okay but they'll never be able to mass-produce them"
etc etc