Moon dust can be accelerated into orbit without the production costs.

It was on this very site that some scientists determined that the reason for Europe's warm climate was NOT the currents. Europe gets it's warm climate from the Rocky Mountains. When the jet stream crosses the mountains coriolis effects cause it to curl south over the Atlantic before returning north. The estimate was that the Gulf Stream contributed about 10% warming to coastal areas.

But it is a binary proposition. As you say we do not know what is the viral load required for infection. What we do know is that masks in order to work must meet the viral load threshold. That makes the effectiveness binary. There are so many ways for masks to fail that statistically they cannot meet the viral load threshold and that is why they are not effective. How many people achieve an effective seal around their face? How many people wear gloves when handling the mask after wearing? How many people don't cover their nose? How many people have beards? One of the most cogent points from the Cochrane analysis is that even for health professionals masks were not effective. If nurse and doctors can't wear masks correctly what chance does the general public have? None.

We have a definitive study done with scientific rigor. MASKS DO NOT WORK! The story begins with "Masks work". Clearly what is wrong here is the biased author of this story. To refute actual scientific analysis he offers an anecdote from Kansas? Ridiculous. Let us examine his anecdote from the view of impartial science. No doubt the rates per Kansas county he quotes is cases per 100,000. This number is only significant if the sample size is at least 100,000. Even then some statisticians would argue that less than 200,000 is questionable. How many counties in Kansas have populations greater than 100,000? That would be 5. So the rate per 100,000 for the other 100 counties in Kansas is not significant. It is random noise! Even worse it is outright distortion! 60 counties in Kansas have populations less than 5,000. I will leave it to our knowledgeable and rational slashdotters to calculate what even one case does to a rate per 100,000 in a sample that size.

This assumes that taxes and deficit spending are 'Free'.

Say it slowly. Eee-none-cee-ay-shun. I don't think the problem is sound production or sound systems. I hear the problem as modern speakers who lack the ability to Enunciate. Compare modern video with any old movie where the actors Enunciate.

Should'a could'a are the operative words here. That number is based on ideal driving and charging conditions and ideal manufacturing. Were all your battery cells made perfectly? Did you always drive at 65F? Did you always charge only to 70% capacity. How often did you resort to rapid charge? Did you resist the fun of rapid acceleration? Did you make sure not to drive below 40% range? The only believable number from any car company is "What is the warranty?" 100,000 is their number and that is what the real world reports are revealing for all EV's.

300,000 miles for an electric car? Yeah if you keep replacing the battery. But that was just my point a used car is not worth replacing the batteries! All lithium batteries age out to about 70% performance until they suddenly die. That die off is around 100,000 miles. Whereas most gas cars are still going at 200,000 miles. It will never make economic sense to invest in new batteries for used cars.

Color me skeptical. 10 years ago we bought a Nissan Leaf. It has 60,000 miles on it and it has scrapped itself. I know everyone is thinking right now, "Oh Jeeez another unlucky battery guy". Well it isn't the battery. We just took it to our dealer because the heat stopped working. We live in Seattle the heat is critical. Without defrost etc the car is not drivable most of the year. The ptc heater has failed. When the ptc heater fails it also fries some portion of the dc to dc junction box. Total bill to repair "Drum Roll Please!" $6,977.14. Nissan will accept no responsibility for any of this. The reality is that electric cars have a life span of less than 100,000 miles. It's all about the batteries. Our car is getting expected battery life. If a major repair bill arises like ours the car is not worth the investment. When we bought the car the hope was that batteries would get less expensive over time. Well that sort of happened. Batteries are now more capable and higher capacity. But, they also no longer fit our car. So replacement cost is about $10,000. Just what they were when we bought this car. In hind sight it is now obvious that investing such a large sum of money in a car that +10 years old doesn't make sense. You can always buy a used newer car for less than the battery replacement. That newer model will have unworn upholstery, better range, better features, better safety. All for the same price as replacing the battery. I believe this will be true for every electric car. Really!? We are going to save the planet by scrapping expensive cars every 100,000 miles?

Market regulatory schemes are inherently corrupt. They create rules that exclude entry and favor the politically connected.

Canada has a tightly regulated system and it is in jeopardy so what the world needs is more regulation?

Who are you people who think the US is dependent upon OPEC? Jeez that was so 1990's. Just google it people. Friedman just loves to double down on failed policies. It didn't work the last time we did it so he recommends "let's do it again!".

Testing does no good without contact tracing and subsequent isolation of contacts. Testing just confirms that it is too late. The US has failed miserably at contact and isolation. Here in Washington state our governor Jay Inslee has completely botched contact tracing and the isolation procedures are a complete farce. After the nations strictest lock down and high mask wearing compliance this state is losing the fight because he can't manage to put together contact tracing.

We agree one hundred percent. My point is that blaming the lack of American social discipline on Trump or 'conservative thinking' is ridiculous. Mask wearing hasn't worked for my home in Seattle or in San Francisco. Both very liberal progressive cities. And by the way the Dutch only recommended masks for closed areas because they basically said 'It can't hurt' not because they thought it would be effective.

There was a story the other day about the Dutch response to Covid. Their team of Scientists looked at the actual data and their conclusion was that wearing masks made no difference. So stop with this mask orthodoxy that if you don't wear a mask you are some redneck thumb dragger Trumpite. It is unscientific. There is no data behind the mask orthodoxy.