The "Nerds" part.

Yeah, but your T-16 wasn't running a full multitasking OS, network stack, X-windows, a word processor, and a web browser.
Even if you got the targeting computer upgrade it had only shitty low-res vector graphics.

That 8MB machine was comparable in function to modern PCs with 1000X the memory.

Those observations are somewhat out of date. Modern (ie 2026) frontier models have a lot more "knowledge" than their weights.

e.g. When I asked Claude about its own memory, it used a "product self-knowledge skill" which includes looking at its own SKILL.md file.
I believe Qwen 3.5 has similar capability, but of course you need to have it configured.

Ask Claude? He says:

Hey Editor, did you miss the lesson about tides in school? :-)

Yeah, Bytes vs bits. But who measures RAM in bits?
I remember too 8MB being the minimum, but upgraded to 12MB so it was possible to do something else while the kernel was compiling.
How did we get to the point where 8000MB is considered a bare minimum?

The majority of automated speeding tickets in all AU states for which i found data was in the "0-9km/h" over the limit category.
They state there is a 2-3km/h threshold to allow for measurement errors. (though the machines now are extremely accurate)
Anecdotal reports are consistent with this.

Whats your reasoning coward?

They? Gloating is unseemly. Nobody though Trump would start a war.
Certainly back in 2016, a small consolation over his win was that a new war less likely than under Clinton, who was something of a Hawk.

But back in the old days, when the US was a democracy, they would have needed support from Congress to start a major war.

I have to stop you there. The RS-25 rockets on the SLS were indeed being re-used, after they flew on the Shuttle. They were designed for re-use, and incredibly expensive. So it is something of a "crime" to dump them in the ocean. But yes, NASA's attempts to save money by re-using the Shuttle orbiter and boosters were ultimately a failure.

The billions spent on the SLS program since the end of the shuttle program have an opportunity cost. And it was apparent a while back that the SLS was a dead end, and the cost as unsustainable as the Apollo program. Rockets like Starship and New Glenn are the future. Falcon and Falcon heavy are the present.
The Artemis 2 mission could have been done using Falcon Heavy at a fraction of the cost. Or wait a bit and use Starship. We'll be waiting for Starship lunar lander anyway.
 

Pardon? Have you not seen the barge landings? SpaceX have chosen a "return to launch site" profile for Starship booster, as the most economical, but it is not a requirement. And it won't stop them putting 100-200 ton to LEO. Full re-use of the upper stage might be a long way off, but just re-using the booster is a huge gain.

SpaceX

If I worked at SpaceX I would be cheering every minute of this. Science and technical issues aside the Artemis mission proved that there is political and social interest in such an endeavor to the extent that it gets funded to the ludicrous scale this one did.

They proved there is a market.

So if you come up with a usable vehicle system at 1/10th the operational cost of what people are actually paying for that is as close to a guaranteed win in a business plan it is possible to get. I wish I had stock in that company.

Seems reasonable. In Australia you get a ticket for a momentary 2mph over. And the fine can be over us$200, depending on state. It is higher in the states with the most financial problems.

This is plausible, but the first I've heard of it. Citation? Normal TLI is not far short of escape velocity. A bit like Starship being not quite LEO.
My sources said if not for the gravity assist they would go past, and take a few more days to return to earth.

Though I'd still quibble than in a 3-body sense, they are not leaving orbit. We'll need to wait for a Mars Mission for that.

Well, by "spaceship" I meant designed for human occupancy, so excluding all the science probes, including those that have left solar orbit.
I guess I should have counted the Tesla :-) So long and thanks for all the fish.

I can expect some random science reporter to make this mistake, but bugger me, a senior NASA executive?
It shows politics are far more important than any knowledge of science at NASA today.

Not only is Orion not leaving Earth Orbit (where the fuck do they think the moon is?) , it is not even entering lunar orbit. Orion's apogee has been pushed up for one orbit, but it's perigee is right down here.

There is one spaceship that really did leave Earth orbit, the lunar module "Snoopy" from Apollo 10:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

"Capacity" is extremely important for generating headlines. Less so for generating electricity.

But the numbers for actual generation of electricity from renewables are still impressive. Globally is is around 34%. Not bad!
I'll take a real 34% over a hyped 50% any day. The growth in solar over the last ten years has been amazing. And now be are building the batteries needed to push the numbers higher.