Backpacking? Sure, 20%. Military? More like 33%, and up to 40% being a "normal" load on a soldier. So 39 Kg is not too bad, as long as they are not carrying much (and ideally nothing) more.

"You know, data centers want to run even when it is dark."

Do they though? If we're talking about an AI data center. supplying Agents and Chat, for business use primarily, aren't the heaviest usage hours going to be during the day?

Solar power may be just the thing to supply the lions share of power when it is needed -- during daylight hours. Of course there will be some level of usage 24/7, but solar may be a better fit to provide the bulk of AI data center power than people realize.

There is no problem with cattle in Texas. Someone got all bent because the size of the herds in Texas is the lowest it's been in many years. Size as in number of cows. The size OF the cows, however, has been going up, every year, for many years. Same amount of beef being delivered: fewer cows but bigger cows.

So no actual problem.

Oh, I miss access to pseudoephedrine - that used to be my "nuclear option" for tackling my occasional acute but pretty severe allergy attacks. Take that, crash (couldn't do much else - it really knocked me out) and wake up the next morning more or less functional again.

Now it's 2-3 days of total misery, stretched out to a week of not being able to sleep well. None of the current stable of antihistamines does a damn thing for me.

"The consumer is completely unprotected when using investment accounts at any and all of the stock/option/futures brokerages including Goldman Saks, Ameritrade, Merril Lynch, Fidelity, Robinhood, Wells Fargo Advisors..."

Um, no. The consumer is protected against brokerages failing to the tune of $1/2 million per customer, including up to $250,000 in cash in the account. SPIC. Look it up.

Which is TWICE the protection of FDIC, covering banks.

Yes, the market can be irrational for long periods of time. None of the QC stocks I invested in are close to making any money yet. And I invested in several, each with different approaches to making QC work. Iâ(TM)ve been working in hardware and software development for decades, and I believe that the breakthrough in QC is coming much sooner than later, based on the progress Iâ(TM)m seeing. So I put some of my money where my mouth is. By 2030, I estimate, one or more of the companies will be making money hand over fist, and Iâ(TM)ll reap the benefits. I could be wrong. Time will tell.

Pretty sure Nvidia is working on the OS - agnostic to types of quantum bits and able to tie multiple kinds together to solve problems as a gestalt. I agree - interesting times.

I do one 'better' (hah! see what I did there.) I disagree with you and I've invested in several QC companies instead. One is down about 20% overall, one is up over 75%, and one is up over 130%. And I'm not cashing any of them in for quite a long time - I believe they will go 5-10x over time. I'm pretty sure I'll come out just fine without betting against you on Kalshi. Quit the bush leagues - get into the real Market.

But above all, they must be discrete about these allegations.

So the AI tool runs about $5K / month. $60 K / year.

Senior developer makes, say, $150 K / year. But that's just the salary itself. Add in benefits, 401K / profit sharing, Social Security and Medicare taxes (for the company), facilities, office equipment, IT infrastructure, admin support (payroll, marketing and sales, corporate overhead, etc., etc.) - that adds another 1.5 to 2 x the salary to the cost.

So now we're at $375-450 K - that's the real cost of *1* senior developer. Making him/her 10% more efficient is worth $45 K / year. 50% more efficient? 100%? for "only" $60 K more? That's a no brainer.

Basically it has become the business engine for their clients. All their processes run through it. To switch would be massive upheaval and expense.

Kudos to the Blue Origin folks. That was solid gold Hollywood level pyrotechnics!

Two thumbs way up!

The mushroom cloud was a nice touch too - nothing says high drama like a nice mushroom cloud.

My grandkids would both be yelling - "Ooh! Do it again!"

[what is everybody looking at me like that for? too soon?]

He was also being, IMHO, extra cute with the amount of gold he 'requisitioned': 303 bars, 1 kg each, comes out to 666.6 pounds of gold. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

So basically what you are saying is that the Mythbusters could have gotten at least as good a result, if not better result, by only having dimples on the car at the point of air flow separation? Like a ring of dimples around the whole car just in front of the front doors? And a second ring around the max curve of the grill area? [Just a 'for instance' - I have no idea if those are the correct areas. IINALAFE].

That's nothing new. In my day we did it with the "Magic 8-Ball". Occasionally it hallucinated, but most of the time it was dead on.