Sure, StarLink is a business venture to support SpaceX activities. I'll grant you that. But I'm a StarLink customer, and a happy one at that. I came from a legacy satellite internet service that offered 10Mbit down, 100GB soft cap, and latency around 750ms. I now get 200Mbit down (and sometimes close to 300), no cap, and 75ms latency. A WISP put up a tower two months after we set up our StarLink system, and still does not offer the performance that StarLink does in our area but it happy to charge the same price. (100Mbit for $139Cdn)

Do not discount what StarLink is bringing to rural areas just because "it's not fibre". StarLink is not for those who have access to better alternatives. It's for those of us who don't have access to anything else, and likely won't see it for many years, and we're very happy to have it. There are some areas of the southeast US (and a few other smaller spots) that are congested, but there are a lot more of us, a silent majority you might say, that are far better off than before StarLink.

Thanks for bringing CuriousityStream to my attention. I, too, despise what Discovery and TLC have become. Finally this year we'll be moving off Xplorenet satellite and onto something much better so I'm looking for worthwhile streaming services.

This data is being collected locally as well, and is used when the farmer plans for next year. GPS, satellite imagery, drones, yield data, input rates, soil test data...it's all used when they sit down with their agronomy dealers to maximize production per dollar of inputs. Maybe equipment manufacturers might use it, but the farmers already have it, and are making good use of it.

Indee,. Dan's episodes have evolved to a more "epic" mini-series style. Multi-hour podcasts do take time, but the wait is definitely worth it. In light of this, he does try to release an occasional Addendum/Blitz episode to fill the gaps occasionally. The Addendums are a separate podcast feed, though.

And it's not really because I'm worried about somebody spying on me, as I realize as a user of a smartphone, it's happening anyway (to some extent). But I have come to understand that there's some things I just don't need technology to do for me. I can pick up my phone or sit at a computer and order something. I can get up and turn on some music. The house has a programmable thermostat to turn the heat up and down and teenagers I can tell to turn the lights off when they go to bed.

And it was William's use of air power to overfly Harold's armies that proved decisive!

Thanks for catching that stupid typo, though. Didn't catch that in Preview even!

I believe you're thinking of the U-2, which was shot down twice. On 1 May, 1960, over the Soviet Union, and 14 October, 1062, over Cuba.

No SR-71s were ever lost to enemy fire, although they were certainly shot at. The North Vietnamese shot over 800 missiles at it, without scoring a hit.

We do the same in our household. Our broadband is a satellite connection with a 100GB cap. Streaming is usually out of the question. So put in an order for whatever discs we want, wait a few days, then enjoy!

I'm not the AC above, but I'm in a similar situation. I'm paying almost $100Cdn/month for 75GB from a satellite connection. It is my only choice for fixed internet in a rural area of western Canada. I'm six miles from a DSL connection.

I do intend just to turn off automatic updates on my older iMac, though, so not too concerned.

Back in my day, when we hung onions from our belts, because it was the style of the time, we didn't need these images and pictures to get a message across. If we wanted to ask if anyone wanted to go out for drinks, we used ASCII text, and we were glad!

In the case of a cardiac emergency a BLS ambulance can do a lot, as can CPR-trained bystanders. Early high performance CPR and early defibrillation (assuming a shockable rhythm) are crucial. A patient without circulation can be dead in ten minutes from the onset of the emergency so getting them to the hospital is not the priority. CPR and defibrilation is, no matter where that occurs. It is really difficult to do good compressions in a moving ambulance unless it's equipped with the mobile automatic machine which is unlikely in a BLS truck.

I read the article (gasp! Shocking, I know) and recognise there are certainly important use cases for texting 911. But I work in EMS on a volunteer basis and I would think that in most cases voice calls would work far better, especially in medical situations. There can be a lot of helpful information that can be transferred in a more timely manner that way. Symptoms, time of onset, if situation changes during time of response, number of patients. Working in a rural area it can also be challenging to get an accurate location. In some situations, the 911 operators will also guide the caller in providing early care, such as CPR in a cardiac patient. So yeah, if one is physically able, and it's safe to do, take the time to talk to 911. They know what questions to ask and they will pass that information to the responding agencies so they know what to expect on arrival. Doing the same thing by text would only slow things down.

I agree completely. I watch a fair bit of retro programming (mostly series from the 70s and 80s). Remember when the show itself was 49 minutes long? And the theme song itself was a whole 90 seconds? The cable/satellite companies seem to believe we'll blindly keep paying for LESS content. Yeah, right.

Just a little info here from an xplorenet user (indirectly). SaskTel resells xplorenet's "4G" satellite service to rural customers. It has been a bit better than the previous version we were on before. The introductory program was free hardware and installation and 5Mb/30GB for $55/month for a year. After the year the price went to $85/month. Recently they reworked the packages and we moved to 5Mb/40GB for the same money. One can also go to 10Mb speeds for more $$ or less monthly transfer amounts. With these plans there is no throttling. Theoretically if one goes over their cap, you pay more for whatever you use. I haven't tested this yet, though.

There are important use-cases for wearing a watch and perhaps even an analog one, at that. I'm involved in the EMS field. Taking a pulse requires a watch, not to mention recording times of procedures and treatments.