Then you're going to be gobsmacked by how they can reconstruct a person's physical appearance from just their skull bones.

Back to the topic at hand, it's not that difficult to theorize about reproducing the voice's tonal characteristics. A person's voice is influenced by their skull shape, jaw size, sinus cavities, muscle structure, neck length, etc. With millions of examples to match voice intonation to physical appearance, they can make a reasonable approximation of a person's voice tonal sound.

What they would have problems with is regional accents. A person growing up in NYC, Dallas, LA, Atlanta, and Bangor, ME will have different accents that would be harder to replicate.

I agree. Tire composition will change the particulate matter for the study and general drivability and price for the average consumer.

The study used tires with a 500 treadwear grade, which is a high-longevity, durable tire designed to last five times longer than a baseline reference tire (rated at 100) under government-controlled testing conditions. This generally translates to a long-lasting, reliable tire, often yielding 50,000 to 75,000+ miles depending on driving habits, vehicle type, and maintenance.

This tire may or may not be similar to what the average driver has on their vehicle, but it was the baseline for this study, as described in the abstract. Drivers in Michigan, California, and Texas might prefer different tire compositions, but something was needed for the baseline. As more studies are completed, a more detailed picture might emerge.

Two statements which are both incorrect. Yes, EVs are about 20% heavier and generate about 20% more tire particulate matter (PM), but the difference changes based on urban vs rural vs highway driving. Also engine torque, brake pad composition, braking styles, and road dust change the equation. And when you add in the small amount of engine particulate matter (even the best tuned ICE engines still emit some PM) the final conclusion was EVs are better in most cases.

If you want to see the different conditions, Emission Factors (EF), and road conditions, read this study.

TL;DR When all emission factors are considered, EVs typically produce less particulate matter

Actually, it is not exactly the same in all 50 states for multi-lane roads. In the linked article it states that the Waymo vehicle was filmed breezing through the opposite lane of traffic. The laws vary on opposing traffic depending on the state.

For a multi-lane road with only a turn lane separating the opposing traffic, Texas law requires opposing traffic to stop. Texas school bus laws

But for Washington state, Missouri, South Carolina, and a few others, a turn lane is enough separation to allow opposing traffic to continue with caution.
Washington school bus laws
Missouri school bus laws

So, not only does the Waymo vehicle need to identify the school bus, and whether the lights are flashing and sign extended, but it has to determine if the separation between the lanes of traffic is a turn lane or a physical barrier. Having a vehicle with three lanes of traffic between the bus and the vehicle might be difficult for the self-driving algorithm to parse, not forgetting all the other traffic laws that vary from state to state. (Right turn on red? Left turn on red onto a one way? U-turn at any unmarked intersection?)

Based on my own driving experience, many drivers around me get the opposing traffic stop/don't stop depending on intervening lanes rules incorrect.

Agreed. Plus, don't you assume the Nikon DSLR and GoPro cameras also had lithium batteries?

Plus the Artemis II Orion spacecraft utilizes four EaglePicher 120-volt lithium-ion batteries (two main, two backup) for critical power, managing communications, navigation, propulsion, and thermal control. Light weight lithium batteries are already used in many places on the spacecraft.

Perhaps, but it is a 2019 Kia so it probably qualifies as a modern car. I can leave my car sitting for up to four weeks at a Park&Fly and it starts normally when I return. Having a dead battery after not driving them for just a few weeks is not normal. You could just have a weak battery but because most parts stores will test your battery for free, I assumed you already checked this. That left an unexplained power drain as the most likely option, typically referred to as a "parasitic power drain".

If you've already tested the battery and unexplained power drains then our suggestions are just guesses with limited information to base them on. Good luck with your problem.

Both of my cars can be left parked for four weeks without noticeable battery loss. Two things you can do that might be easier than keeping a charged jump starter in the trunk.

1. Find the parasitic power drain in your vehicle. Some hard-wired dash cams and other aftermarket accessories drain power even if the car is turned off. To find the circuit draining your battery, turn off the car and connect an Amp meter inline with the battery. Start pulling and inserting the car's fuses until you find which circuit is draining power when the car is off. If the device is something you normally want powered during short non-use, you can install a low voltage cut off device that will disconnect the device if the battery drops to a low value. https://www.newegg.com/p/2A6-0...

2. Install a battery cut off switch on the battery. If you know you will not be driving for a while, open the hood and twist the switch to off. No more dead battery.

Hmm... To agree with that we would need to eliminate things done from instinct rather than conscience thought. A dog turning in circles to prepare a sleeping area probably doesn't rise to the level of tool use. Hitting a bone with a rock to get to the marrow probably isn't tool use. Keeping one particular rock that fits your hand shape to save you time searching for a nearby suitable one moves into the gray zone of tool use. Tying a rock to a stick to get more impact force is definitely a tool.

If I find an unusually strong stick that I use to hit berry bushes so only the ripe fruit falls off, is that a tool? I didn't shape or modify it, but I did use it in a non-traditional way to achieve a specific result. Separating instinct, handy resources, and planned outcome optimization can get murky.

When trying to break something, any heavy object becomes a "hammer".

All those features can be found in the free software PDFgear. https://www.pdfgear.com/

There are plenty of other software packages that do the same thing, in fact Firefox allows you to edit, add, fill, and comment on PDF documents then save them. Acrobat Reader enjoys the name recognition of Adobe, but they are not the only software package that many people use.

That is not completely true. The laws themselves are just a collection of facts and therefor cannot be copyrighted. They can, however, require following a specific industry code like building codes, electrical codes, fire codes, and heating/plumbing codes that are industry standards.

For example, purchasing the National Electric Code book for 2026 costs about $169, but normally is only needed by licensed electricians and electrical companies. Private individuals can get free online access to the code for their own use or to verify contractor compliance. Some local jurisdictions or states might have standardized on previous versions (2023 version, etc) but will probably update their laws soon.

For example, the NEC 2026 clarifies allowing 10 Amp breakers with 16 AWG wires for exclusive LED lighting circuits. 16 AWG wire is so much smaller and easier to install that this might quickly become the new standard for lighting in new homes. Allowing builders to implement new features like this in the NEC 2026 is why many state laws just require following the current or newest NEC code in the law for building codes.

The other problem is finding stars with planets whose plane of rotation lines up with us. If the planets rotate on a plane that does not cross in front of their sun from our viewpoint, studying the sun's variability won't reveal any data about their planets.

The other complication is the time it takes for the planet to rotate around the sun. It might take years before that planet crosses its sun's position again. In our solar system the three planets near the Goldilocks Zone take 225 days (Venus), 365 days (Earth), and 687 days (Mars). I imagine you can guess the orbit length by how long their sun's light diminishes during the first observation, but waiting almost two years for a second look, and getting the window correct, will take a lot of observations and waiting. Imagine studying a sun for six months just to see if we are lucky enough to be inline with the systems plane of rotation takes a lot of patience.

Waiting two years, then locking the telescope on a sun for two months to get the passing planet's data sounds like plenty of time playing Solitaire.

Agreed. If the cause was pulsed RF radiation it would have been detected years before this. The RF spectrum around an embassy is probably one of the most studied and analyzed environments outside an active war zone. Suggesting that a secretive pulsed RF signal was transmitted toward the embassy without being detected is just imaginative speculation. Extremely sensitive spectrum analyzers are recording continuously inside and outside the embassies.

Past analysis has extensively studied the RF spectrum around the embassies. They are looking for external signals transmitted toward the embassy as well as unknown signals radiating outward from it. They are looking for small spy transmitters sending intelligence out of the embassy. It is really feasible that a high-powered external signal would escape detection?

An analogy would be dozens of embassy agents wearing IR goggles, scouring the inside and outside for the embassy looking for faint glows of anonymous heat signatures of electronics, while at the same time failing to notice the huge flame thrower and spot light aimed toward the embassy walls. Something that easy to detect would have been caught immediately.

Agreed. I use Thunderbird with POP to my ISP with a 30-day retention on the server. I can check recent email through the web interface on vacation and still download the messages when I get home.

This does not allow me to use the mail account as a data repository while traveling but that is not what I use my email account for. I have important emails in Thunderbird going back to my college courses in 1998 that have outlived four email providers.

I would suggest installing Thunderbird to connect to a Gmail account just to have a local backup of all your important email. Even if you only sync to your Gmail account once a year, you will still have a local copy of your important historical email. Allowing 10GB-ish of local storage for a secure backup of your mail seems like a small concession to me.

I found the quote attributed to a park ranger at Yosemite NP back in the 80s.

https://www.schneier.com/blog/...

This was actually a quirk that could be used to find who was selling your email address. Giving different vendors variations of JohnDoe, John.Doe, J.ohndoe, Joh.n.D.o.e, etc helped you determine who valued your information more than your privacy.

Another option was to use the Plus addressing. By adding a "+" and a label (folder) you could direct the email into a specific folder and also track who you gave that address. JohnDoe+Walmart, JohnDoe+TacoBell, JohnDoe+Sheraton will all arrive in your inbox and if a matching label is found, it will be applied.