Yes I'm one of them! I don't see any contradiction there. Like I said an efficient EV shouldn't need full dash screens, always-on data, always-on navigation.

You're lucky then. Because in a lot of jurisdictions in North America, the used market is barely there. Looking for a used car for a college student recently in a western US state and there was nothing under $20k. Cash for Clunkers really destroyed the American used market, honestly.

Where I live used vehicle prices 80% of new cost often.

And how is the US government and companies different from everything you just described? The trump administration is perfectly happy to do all those same things you ascribe to the CCP. There really is no "good" side anymore.

Regardless of the effects of subsidization, Chinese companies (even after many disappear from over supply) have tremendous knowledge and experience now making EVs and batteries which will place them a huge advantage over American companies. It's unreal that the US government seems to want American companies to be at a disadvantage globally, and just complain about how they are treated so unfairly.

Indeed the biggest turn off for me for any electric vehicle and most ICE vehicles now is the need for lots of computers, stupid large screens, and always-on data connections. Do not want any of that. There's no reason an efficient EV can't operate without all that intrusive technology. I don't want or need a big screen. I don't want to have to use GPS navigation for every drive (and to condition the battery for fast charge, Kia).

Good luck with that. By the time they are actually in mass production I'd be very surprised if they sell for less than $50k. They definitely won't hit their original goal of $20k. Not even close.

Wait what? The Falcon 9 has an impressive track record for recovery and reuse. Turn around time is about two weeks and the cost to refurbish the rocket is far less than building a new one. They have been so successful that other companies and countries are now following suit and moving in that direction.

Starship, on the other hand... that remains to be seen.

What? Tesla FSD works best in an urban and suburban environment where the roads are well mapped. It very much can pull out of your driveway, go down the street, enter a multi-lane road, handle stop lights, turning lanes, etc. It can enter a freeway on its own, and take an exit. Seriously, it is good. Not perfect obviously, and has glaring flaws. I would think FSD would perform the most poorly in rural areas where road markings are lacking and the maps are not as precise. The 8-Bit Guy posted a complete video a while back on youtube showing an entire journey with FSD from his house in the suburbs to a downtown destination (Dallas I think) where FSD did everything including backing out of the driveway. Funny that trolls have said his video is faked.

As for inclement weather, yes there are limitations. Tesla's lack of LiDAR, or any other kind of non-optical sensor such as RADAR, is a glaring omission that limits what FSD can do under such circumstances.

I always thought the quickest way, and also one of the more robust options, to achieve a space station was to use inflatable modules. Bigalow tested a couple of modules out and I thought it went rather well. They had plans to attach a module to the ISS at one time. But even still it was expensive work, and the pandemic killed them, unfortunately. But I understand the technology demonstration missions were quite successful.

The cynic in me feels like now that we've past the ten thousandth satellite in just the StarLink constellation with thousands more planned to launch in the next couple of years, that Kessler syndrome will start well before 2030.

Its deeply part of their culture to be hostile to their users

Sounds like a lot of open source projects including Gnome and Firefox. So it's not just a Microsoft thing. Android and macOS are also user hostile on many ways. Or at least extremely patronizing.

Also the notion of a reconfigurable ship, not unlike the shop on the Hail Mary Project. Configured one way for acceleration phase, then another way for centripedal gravity, and then back to acceleration (deceleration) for arrival. Heinlein thought a lot of it out!

Me too. Classic story. And they spend a lot of time on the idea of grinding up rocks to make powder and then adding cow dung to get it grow things. Of course they have an artificial atmosphere on Ganymede also, and a "heat dome" to keep the heat in. Fantastic story. Juvenile Fictions, but hard sci fi at the same time.

As fun as the Martian is, and as scientifically accurate it is supposed to be, growing potatoes in Martian soil is one thing that definitely was an artistic liberty. All of the Martian soil we've looked at so far has been highly toxic to humans and plants. Even just physical exposure would be poisonous, to say nothing of trying to grow plants.

Moon soil, near as we can tell, is not toxic in the same chemical way. However it's still incredibly hazardous to human health, in some ways more than Martian soil. Without an atmosphere to weather the soil particles, Moon dust is incredibly sharp and jagged. It definitely is harmful to human lungs, much like asbestos is. Further, experiments in growing plants in real lunar regolith, showed they began having problems and became stunted, partly because the particles physically damaged the roots.

Maybe the experiment authors should retry their experiment with 100% asbestos and get back to us. Otherwise all they've shown is that you can add organic matter to earth sand and grow things.

If you can't partition on the device itself, you could just have two shields, one for Google-blessed DRM content, and one for a fully non-Google experience.

Yes that's what creates the market liquidity that we all depend on. As long as they buy back their positions or sell their contracts, the system actually works quite well. Speculators speculate, but everyone else with real interest hedges. Unfortunately hedging isn't possible without speculators providing liquidity.

Easy to say and I partly share the sentiment. But the futures market allows me to hedge prices on commodities I produce and sell. Liquidity is essential to fair price discovery.