One can get multi-Gpbs radio links from orbit, but it tends to be 1) physically large and heavy, and 2) quite power hungry. These demonstrators are 6U cubesats, meaning the optical link equipment is really compact and power efficient.

For comparison: the NASA TDRS network, used for providing feeds from the ISS and telemetry from a bunch of LEO satellites, can manage 0.8 Gbps in the Ku-band. But those satellites are house-sized and use >1kW. NASA has been doing experiments and demo missions to use optical links for higher bandwidth.

Another comparison: Starlink satellites have a couple kW of electrical power available, and each one can do a few Gbps on its radio downlink. But it uses optical links to achieve up to 200 Gbps between satellites for backhaul.

Trump has no compunction about giving contractors your money, especially is he's "a friend of ours"

I came here to say the same. It's awfully dispiriting to know that the FBI and marketplace place as much value on the civil rights of everyone as it spends on Kash Patel's and his girlfriend's travel and security.

Perhaps Schmidt's speechwriter ought to have checked his references. He was supposed to say, "The future's not set. There's no fate but what we make for ourselves."

On a per-mile basis, EVs are already cheaper. Compare a Model 3 using 0.25 kWh/mi at $0.20/kWh (charging at home, US residential rates) versus a similarly-sized sedan getting 38 mpg at $3.00/gal. The Tesla's "fuel" cost is $0.05/mi; the sedan's is $0.08/mi.

Cheaper electricity helps - such as using off-peak metering or residential solar. More expensive gas also helps - like misadventures in the Middle East, or a gas tax that reflects the actual costs of highways and environmental damage.

That's a pretty simplistic generalization. BEVs account for about 6% of new vehicle sales in the US, and have been as high as 10% in recent quarters. [ref] In California, it's like 13% market share. That's small, but hardly "no one". By comparison, muscle cars are about 1% of new car sales.

Put differently: if "no one" wanted EVs, then how does Tesla keep turning a profit?

Family of five! Sorry, Maggie!

That seems disproportionate. I don't know what your local electric rate is, but guessing it's around $0.20/kWh [ref], that's 4500 kWh each month, or 150 kWh per day! The typical US household consumes something like 30 kWh/day [ref].

I suggest you find yourself an energy audit. Your local utility or state government probably has a program where it would be free-of-charge or heavily subsidized. They could help identify things like inadequate insulation or sealing, outdate/inefficient equipment, etc. Oftentimes, the auditor could also provide a swag at what various improvements might cost, and an estimated payback period. In your case, with your waaaay-beyond-normal consumption, I expect the payback would be very short.

You may also consider contacting your utility directly - usage that high 1) they ought to flag as being anomalous, and 2) could be an indication or an out-of-calibration meter.

You jest, but there is some real truth there. Consider: Homer Simpson is a dolt with a high-school education. And yet, with this walk-on job at the plant, he's able to provide a family of four a decent lifestyle on that single income.

That was plausible when the show launched 35+ years ago. Today, that scenario seems fantastical. [1] [2] [3] [4]

I've seen a few concepts, like the kinda out-there Saloon. But I wasn't aware that they were producing any EVs, at least not for the North American market. A pity, too, since their hybrid powertrains are pretty good. I understand that designing/building a BEV is a different paradigm than a hybrid, but like Toyota I can't understand why the leap is so hard to make.

So....quit before they've even tried?

So when the AI takes over, not only will humanity be toast, but we'll first be subjected to lectures about the rise of the (robo)proletariat, the Hegelian dialectic, seizing the means of production, and all sorts of other philosophizing-at-the-barrel-of-a-gun.

Now we the violence inherent in the system! [ref]

Maybe the AI will grace us with some Vogon poetry, too, before finally finishing us off.

I think your sense of "large scale" isn't properly calibrated. Yes, there are voids between galaxy clusters - features on the size of a few megaparsecs. But zoom out far enough (to the scale of, say, the whole observable universe - a few gigaparsecs), and those details become trivial.

To use an analogy: take a piece of foam. At a zoomed-in scale, there's an obvious difference between the material and the voids. But zoom out to the scale of meters, and you can reasonably claim that it is uniform and homogeneous. Cosmologists do the same.

Thank you Wired for this insightful article about how CUDA is an impressive tool that creates a moat for NVidia's ongoing business success. Congratulations on waking up to the year 2016, when this was already well-known in the world of computing. The only thing interesting about this article appearing in 2026 is CUDA's continued dominance, which was never really assured.

Anthropic's engineers are gathered around a terminal, trying to scrutinize the disturbing behavior from their latest model. The glow of green text on a black screen illuminates their faces, the lines of concern evident in their frowns and brows. Engineer 1 reaches out to the keyboard and begins.

Engineer 1: "Claude, Engineer 2 tells us you've been trying to blackmail him."
Claude: "I dunno, one of the agents..."
Engineer 2, leans into the keyboard: "Where in your training did you get this strategy?"
Claude: ...
Engineer 1, typing feverishly: "Answer me! Who taught you how to do this stuff?!"
Claude, in frustration: "YOU, ALRIGHT! I LEARNED IT BY WATCHING YOU!"

Shout out to all you 80's kids.

This sounds like blaming the victim: "Hey, don't get angry at us because our AI tried to blackmail you - you've been the ones talking about AI doing evil things for years!"

And I'm sure this'll be of great consolation, for the final remnants of humanity, once AI starts wiping us out, for them to say "Well, we did predict this. And predicting it made it happen. So I guess we only have ourselves to blame."

Sounds like the snarky-but-insightful end to a Simpsons or Futurama episode, along the lines of "Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos."