Airlines are going to have a procedure to deal with a lithium fire in-flight. If a device is potentially damaged and inaccessible, those procedures might not apply. When you're 10km in the air, bet safe than sorry.

The goalpost for “AGI” will keep moving. As sub-AGI systems keep improving, the definition of “AGI” will shift toward including more biological and emotional traits — things meant to pull at heartstrings and reaffirm human uniqueness. “It’s not really AGI until it can smell grandma’s apple pie,” that sort of thing.

For practical purposes, though, we’re almost there. Most of the components are already on the bench; now it’s just a matter of figuring out how to assemble them. A few more years, give or take.

Bragging rights, maybe? Although Timeline_of_first_orbital_launches_by_country hasn't been updated yet, it seems that now there are 11 nations and 5 private companies that have achieved orbit. That's a pretty exclusive list, and Virgin is now on it. Even if their launch mode is questionable, good on 'em.

Isreal was the eighth country in the world to achieve orbit with their Shavit 2 launch system, in 1988. Their space program is by no means huge, or ambitious, but it is scrappy and built in-house. Interestingly, they launch their satellites into low retrograde orbits, for reasons of geography and politics. It's worth a short wiki dive if you're into space stuff, or watch a Scott Manley video about it.

I should note that the charlatan from TFA was not mentioned anywhere.

You could simply ignore the whole comments section, which may be the wisest move. But for those brave enough to read below the fold, how can you actually ignore a comment? Unlike a video, article or link, which may discarded based on title, headline or thumbnail, a short comment must be wholly consumed to be evaluated. Once read, it will have some effect on one's thought patterns, however minuscule. Browsing a thousand tiny nuggets of rudeness, negativity and hate, over and over and over, will eventually reinforce the idea that the world is a wretched place, shaped by the worst and pettiest possible ideas. In such a place, why not take that little dopamine rush granted by a wicked insult or sick burn? And thus, the cycle continues. So yeah, bring on the filters.

Anyone tried this stuff? How does it taste? Is the texture even comparable to meat that came from critter?

"When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure."

Eventually workers will clue in, and start producing low-effort work to increase metrics, ultimately lowering SNR and decreasing real productivity.

Perhaps the problem in this scenario is less about who has a megaphone, and more about the imagined need to use one to 'communicate' with neighbours. The idea that a volume knob somehow makes one voice more valid than another might be as dangerous as censorship...

Why does Microsoft feel that they need to do this?

Is it sour grapes leftover from the browser wars?
Is it perhaps the spirit of three-way collaboration, with Apple, Google & Microsoft code in the same product?
Or is this thing phoning home with a clickstream, and they're just salivating over all that user data?

Perhaps it's my suspicious nature, but it seems that anything they need to push this hard can't be a good deal for users.

It's unfortunate, but I think any new platform these days is going to have a toxicity problem. If a platform identifies itself as 'refuge' for 'freedom of speech', its first batch of users is going to be those who were unwelcome on existing platforms, due as much to bad behaviour as to point of view. I haven't signed up, but Parler seems to be walking a very fine line. To one side, they risk becoming the thing they tried to get away from, censored oppressively for corporate control. To the other side, they risk becoming a degenerate cesspool like Voat.

We, as a civilized society, might need to confront the idea that unabashed freedom of speech, as applied to internet platforms, might ultimately degrade into a toxic pit of hatred, circle-jerks and misinformation. :(

Wait, are we talking about the one whose name is the combination of a profession involving livestock and a homonym for resting on one's knees?

I see where you're coming from, man. The old Cherokees were solid vehicles before marketing idiots turned SUVs into yuppie fashion accessories. Although I don't know of anyone who does the type of converison you're talking about, I can sure see the advantage of it. If you look at it strictly from a fuel effieciency versus money issue, it probably doesn't make sense. However, I think there's a lot of potential for hybrid conversions for performance reasons as well. If the system was set up right, after everything the internal combustion was putting out, there'd still be another 50-100 horses coming out of the electric. Even if the conversion added another few hundred pounds, I think the power to weight ratio would work out better. It's too bad these douchebag Prius things are giving hybrid a bad name among 'car people', because there's real potential for hybrid technology as a horsepower boost as well as a planet saver.