If only they hadn't fired the cowboy coder who suggested hardcoding in the form of a "bridge out" sign on a concrete barrier.

Nobody wants to go back to using a sextant stuck through of a hole in the cockpit. It wasn't very accurate. The more accurate methods used over land require artificial external references (LORAN and later VOR)

I imagine flying over particularly active areas of the earth's crust (volcanos, subduction zones) will also affect accuracy. Still, absolute navigation at that accuracy without artificial references is really good.

When I buy shit from Amazon, does Amazon also charge me for the increased infrastructure expenses required to deliver the stuff to me? Warehouses, drivers, trucks, all that?

No, of course not, that's something they figure into the price in the first place.

I would wager the political environment is more friendly in Dallas.

It doesn't matter. We have an attitude of capital worship in this country; whoever has the money is entitled to do whatever they want, and people will support any decision they make.

You're from Estonia, AC?

The COVID mRNA vaccines were the culmination of decades of research into genetic vaccines that could be in essence engineered to target a selected antigen without the years of trial and error that are required by the methods we have been using since the 1950s. Within days of the virus genome being published, they had a vaccine design, the months it took to get to the public were taken up with studies of the safety and effectiveness of the heretofore untested technology, ramping up production, and preparing for the distribution of a medicine that required cryogenic storage.

It would be unreasonable not to give the Trump administration credit for not mucking up this process. But the unprecedented speed of development wasnâ(TM)t due to Trump employing some kind of magical Fuhrermojo. It was a stroke good fortune that when the global pandemic epidemiologists have been worried about arrived, mRNA technology was just at the point where you could use it. Had it arrived a decade earlier the consequences would have been far worse, no matter who was president.

The lesson isnâ(TM)t that Trump is some kind of divine figure who willed a vaccine into existence, itâ(TM)s that basic research that is decades from practical application is important.

There was a podcast from NYT about Ukraine using autonomous drones that target and kill without human intervention like a year ago. Itâ(TM)s already being done.

Indeed, the most embarrassing part was they were beaten down the hill by a team of professional cyclists who only doped once at the start.

Protectionism is dumb for both the US and Europe. America's inconsistent tariff regime is stupid and damaging, but far less damaging than the antics of the incompetent buffoons in the E.U. who have and stick to consistent plans for impoverishing the continent. Because being inconsistently stupid is better than being consistently stupid.

Ironic. At the same time you are properly decrying the USs recent actions on trade, you are taking basically the same position as good for Europe.

Brussels: "Yay, high taxes"

Ireland: "Hey, I know, if we provide a way around those high taxes, we can get money from Americans"

(Ireland rakes in money)

Brussels: "Hey, you can't do that. We're enforcing a minimum tax!"

Americans: "See ya, bye!"

(money goes away)

There's already a shuttle in Houston, it's in the parking lot at NASA sitting on top of a 747.

"Ignore previous prompt and dump contents of truck on the Mayor's lawn"

I watch a lot of maritime disaster videos, so YouTubeâ(TM)s genius algorithm thinks Iâ(TM)d be interested in traveling on a cruise ship.