"Anti-smoking laws have reduced smoking, for example."
Why is that desirable? Smoking makes you look sexy and cool.
Evolutionary pressure is a good thing. Cull the least smart and self-restrained.
As with most bullies, Trump only picks fights with countries (and people, companies, institutions, etc...) he thinks he can easily push around (or will bribe him to go away) -- he miscalculated, and/or was lead astray by Netanyahu, with Iran. He also doesn't respect those who cave easily.
LAPD ending deal with company operating license plate-reading cameras (July 11,2026).
The Los Angeles Police Department is ending its agreement with Flock Safety, a company that operates surveillance cameras throughout the city.
LAPD announced that it will allow its agreement with the company to expire Saturday, ending the department's three-year relationship with the security firm - at least for now.
"This contract is not being renewed because of serious concerns around civil liberties and civil rights issues, particularly around privacy and the data that is being collected from these cameras," said Dean Gialamas, LAPD's chief information officer. "The LAPD had to make a difficult decision, in this case discontinuing using Flock services until we can get those data, privacy, security and sharing concerns ironed out through a contractual relationship."
LAPD says the department does not use Flock's cameras to help U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
And in Michigan, Flock cameras coming down in Westland; councilmember says contract not renewed
"We have received confirmation from the Westland Police Chief that he has decided not to bring the Flock camera contract before City Council for a vote," she said in her post. "It was clear Council was deeply divided on the issue."
She added that the current Flock cameras placed around the city will remain so, until the contract expires within the next month, before coming down afterward.
Sampey said that it is an example of city officials listening to residents, many of whom voiced concern about the cameras.
The FCC approved the satellite,
I hate how this Administration always frames things like this. At least they didn't throw in "freedom" or "patriot".
Why on earth would you need to shoot someone for... driving away???
Are you a psychopath. Evading arrest doesn't carry the death penalty in law.
Well... If you're an ICE agent it's because the driver, "weaponized his vehicle" (said w/o any body cam footage) -- or, as Uncle Jimbo on South Park would say, "My God! It's coming right for us!"
Also, this is not about a Brown professor, it's about Brown students.
This can only get unintentionally funnier.
Someone will report this story to Stephen Miller and the Trump administration, but spell it "brown" and the whole school gets deported.
A new report from the Aerospace Corporation helps elucidate why satellite companies are optimizing for Starship. It’s big and reusable, and once operational, it could cut the cost of launching a kilogram of payload into orbit by an order of magnitude from the Falcon 9. This means costs could come down from a few thousand dollars per kilogram to a few hundred.
Karen Jones, a space economist and lead author of the paper, said her research supports some of those optimistic cost projections. She outlines three scenarios, two of which assume an initial launch cost of $100 million for each fully reusable Starship and Super Heavy booster, with marginal costs of 20 or 35 percent. This is in line with the marginal costs of the smaller, partially reusable Falcon 9, which SpaceX can launch for as little as $15 million per flight on a dedicated Starlink mission.
This would bring the per-kilogram launch cost for a fully loaded Starship down to $133 to $233 after 10 reuse cycles. A more optimistic scenario with a $50 million initial launch cost and 20 percent marginal cost would reduce payload costs to $67 per kilogram for a Starship/Super Heavy launch at full capacity after nine use cycles. That’s less than it costs to fill the gas tanks of most SUVs. If SpaceX can make these more optimistic ambitions a reality, it would validate a claim made by Elon Musk in 2022 that a Starship flight could eventually cost as little as $10 million.
“I actually thought I would basically disprove that [claim], and on my first try, I got to $67 per kilogram after nine use cycles,” Jones told Ars. “It’s based upon some significant assumptions in the paper, but it’s not something that’s completely crazy. It certainly wouldn’t be something they’d reach on the first few times, on their first model; but over time, and with a learning curve, why not? I think it’s possible.
“These [Wall Street] analyst dweebs just have no clue what daily orbital access at under $100/kg means.”
— veteran aerospace engineer Will Collier
Lawmakers Probe Growing Use of Chinese AI Models In US Companies
You use a Chinese AI Language Model and an hour later you want to use it again.
It's a reason I have grown more and more favorable to some sort of compulsory voting like Australia does but I don't think it would fly over here.
I'd be in favor of that, but could easily see it challenged on 1st Amendment grounds - though I'd counter by proposing a "None" option on the ballot, so at least you participated. If voting was mandatory, it should also be a national holiday or people should otherwise be allowed time off from work to vote, as well as early in-person voting, and voting my mail would definitely have to be allowed, postmarked by election day. You have to provide various opportunities to vote if it's required...
I'll add that my personal feeling is that if you don't vote/participate, you don't get to complain.
"Oh what wouldn't I give to be spat at in the face..." -- a prisoner in "Life of Brian"
