Librarians have a list of books in print: if someone asks for one that isn't in print, they can say "it's out of print if it exists", and/or "it hasn't been printed yet", ditto.. Followed by "did chatgpt tell you about it? If it did, you need to tell it to not to tell you fibs". (:-))

Speaking as someone who lives closer to the pole, it's still a nuisance. They've tried to sell it by linking it to helping farming, saving power, or saying it's for the children.

Here's a hint: Farmers, especially dairy farmers, hate the changes. Power savings are theoretical at best. Oh and if you really want to help the children install sidewalks and pay for crossing guards.

Yeah yeah and they'll magically get everything to work NEXT launch. I mean they're only several years behind the predictions of the GREAT ELON.

Remind me again of what their cost to launch stuff is again, because it isn't anywhere near the predicted price. Keep making stuff up though, I mean it's great. In case you haven't figured it out, the reason he doesn't want to go back to the moon and instead head straight to Mars is because he's looking to kick the Starship can down the road.

I get it, he's trying to cover his own backside, but if we're going to test building permanent structures for human habitation and start trying to build things we should probably start on the moon. One of the absolutes (so far) we've learned about space is that it isn't IF something will break in a way we didn't plan, but WHEN something will break in a way we didn't plan. Testing stuff closer to home means it's easier (not easy) to try and get it fixed, and there you go, learned an unexpected failure mode. Oh and if you can't fix it, you might actually have an out for the people involved because the moon is far closer than Mars. I have a gut feeling that trying to bootstrap basic production is going to present a lot of challenges we will discover along the way.

Just sayin'

You mean when he's not blowing up taxpayer dollars or falling years behind program schedules? He's part of the reason we're so far behind, because if SpaceX doesn't distract him with a shiny object he feels like he can make decisions about things he knows NOTHING about overall.

That being said, move fast and break stuff has failed hard enough that in the 1970's or 1980's if the SpaceX program engineers had worked for NASA they would've been frog marched to a congressional oversight committee hearing to explain being ridiculously over budget and to explain why the program goals weren't being met by their team.

I don't mind SpaceX but none of the Saturn V rockets went kablooey and when NASA pissed away money we'd have a modicum of oversight not a PR joke. Start dragging these people, including Elon, in for hearings to demand answers on why they're so far behind.

Dang shame Ronnie Reagan ripped solar panels off the White House, and canceled many early solar projects, to appease some campaign donors/friends.

One of my former girlfriends had family friend whose sister was devastatingly sick with a kidney ailment that required a transplant, I don't recall the disease. She spent years, over a decade, in treatment with her parents monitoring for the slightest problem because it could cascade to death. They didn't want to do dialysis for some reason, not a doctor, and honestly it's been so long I've forgotten much that I was told. I don't even know if she ever received a kidney.

However the most ghoulish form of "transplant tourism" would be the kind where the state is using prisoners for "stock" to transplant, killing them in the process. I have little doubt the sociopaths at the top would pay for what they see as "parts" to replace so they can extend their life.

Just because you can take a test doesn't mean you are remotely ready for college. I've seen plenty of people who were trained to take a test that are so unprepared for college it isn't even a joke. One of the most devastating things we've done to high schoolers is teaching to the test instead of teaching them critical thinking. Of course teaching critical thinking is more difficult, and a classical education can be ruinously destructive to the status quo. As George Carlin noted in his "I used to be Irish Catholic" skit:

It was nice, like I say a lot of classroom freedom. In fact, there was so much freedom that by eighth grade many of us had lost the faith... cause they made questioners out of us and they really didn't have any answers, you know. They'd fall back on "Well, it's a mystery..." "Oh, thank you, Father... Mystery, I don't, what's he talking about? Mystery"

In fact your statement is the perfect example of how ruinously destructive the Republican educational ideal is for the next generation.

The Trump administration and Chamber of Commerce achieve their first goal: Scaring the workers who dared think they had a right to get paid for their labor.

Those peons got the idea during Covid that they could dare ask for raises. Worse yet they even demanded better working conditions. The most horrifying was that they started demanding a work and life balance improvement. To put them back in their place has been the goal of the Chamber for years, and now maybe Jamie Dimon will get his wish that more companies will force workers back into the office to prop up the banks commercial real estate holdings.

I would say we probably should consider that some of the more ghoulish, in terms of philosophy, Western billionaires probably aren't any better - likely even traveling to other countries with lax laws for that purpose.

We're talking about people who openly deride others for being poor and consider empathy a weakness. Tell me you really believe it's a stretch that they would just consider healthy poor people as nothing more than resources to be harvested to improve their own life, or extend their life. Their less than polite predecessors weren't much better considering workers organic machines to be used and discarded when they died or were injured.

Woot! WIN (for employers) which was the point.

This is also about the poor state of testing in general. I've run into plenty of people who can take tests that are ill-prepared for college life. That's only gotten worse with the declining quality of legacy admissions and the lack of independence afforded most children today.

Yeah, we canceled ours because other places caught up and ship to store (or from store) is convenient enough and free.

Why pay for Prime when I don't need to worry about stuff next day anyway.

That applies to you, but not to a fair number of people. I married my Canadian girlfriend, and let me say that more than a few people in her family, or friends from school, are severely insulted (that's the polite way of talking about it) by the 51st state rhetoric. The tariffs were an even bigger problem, but then the insult of Canada not paying for defense... pure red hot anger.

More than a few wanted Trudeau (later Carney) to flat out cut off the US from electricity and oil in response.

Also designed to prevent customs and ports from getting backed up due to small orders.

Joe or Jane Public ordering a couple cases of Chianti from the EU that costs about $500 shipped probably don't need a tariff. After all if they went to the EU, bought it, and put it in checked baggage, they wouldn't pay a penny in tariff / customs fees. Similar for balsamic vinegar, because most times it will be less than $800.

The people this hurts are regular people, as not everyone can necessarily fly to the EU (or similar) to pick up certain items.

What's worse is the company could've used AI to replace the most useless person in the company: The CEO.