The vast majority of all new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths over the past three months are occurring among those who are not vaccinated.

Sources:
https://www.ksl.com/article/50...
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/23...

> It's safe to say we won't be expanding into the galaxy in our current state.

I concluded years ago that if we're going to even visit another star, we will have to adapt ourselves with genetic engineering, integrated general A.I., or both. Of course, there will always be strong pushback against "eugenics" or "machines without a 'soul' acting like people", so this is a long shot even if you assume it's technologically possible.

The fiat currency known as the dollar is backed by the largest military force on the planet.

All cryptocurrencies will forever stand in the shadow of that.

Thanks for mentioning a song (also the album) title. There are too many people with the same name to find his music on google easily, but with your added info I was able to find it on Spotify. Witty lyrics and pleasant folk guitar playing. Seems like a really cool guy I'd love to have for a neighbor.

Finally, an actual tech engineering comment instead of overly regurgitated memes.

This is super interesting stuff, I'm very curious about the power management aspect as well. Exploring the potential uses of nanoscale sensors could yield all kinds of unexpected insights applicable in other fields. Obviously, the whole thing needs to be trialed very carefully with all appropriate regulatory oversight, but to abandon the effort because paranoid people are frightened would be anti-science.

I agree about the hybrids. They are a perfect middle ground solution and solve a lot of problems without creating new ones. A lot of (younger?) people seem to hate this idea because they want everything to go pure EV & solar *immediately* and are resistant to any assertion that we don't have the resources yet.

I definitely think that no matter what, commercial trucking fleets will be converting to hybrids in large numbers soon. Making all those semis into full EVs is a ridiculous pipe dream right now, but leaving them ICE-only with no regenerative braking is stupid-- they're leaving money on the table. Once the kinks are worked out (trials are ongoing) it will quickly become clear that this leads directly to lower operating costs and adoption will skyrocket.

If full self driving is even possible, automated drivers will still never happen in the passenger-transport business the way it's currently structured regardless, for one simple reason: there is no easy (let alone affordable) way to keep the cars clean. Having been a rideshare driver myself, I can tell you it's not a small part of the job even when you've got a fully able-bodied human right there to do it. Roughly every other ride I had to find a place to pull over, pick up trash and shake out the floor mats-- often while en route to pick up the next passenger.

I drove rideshare for a while. $4 plus a tip for 15 minutes of work is great, *if* it is actually only 15 minutes, and the driver picks up another order right after. The closer it gets to 30 minutes total, though (which can happen lots of different ways), the less worthwhile it gets. There were too many times I struggled to hit $10 an hour before expenses, and that's when you start to feel the devil breathing down your back. Any less and you're better off sitting at home, unless you just absolutely need a specific amount to save your bank account (been there too).

Honestly, the whole thing has become increasingly exploitative as time has gone on and pay has declined. Meanwhile, bad drivers are making everything worse for everyone, including the more conscientious ones. Dropping jobs after accepting them is the tip of the iceberg-- too many of them get away with abhorrent stuff, from avoiding helping anyone disabled to refusing service based on racism. The entire industry needs an overhaul. Good drivers should be rewarded more and bad ones should be disciplined more, it's that simple. Until that starts to happen, bad behavior will continue or worsen. When everyone is fighting over scraps and there is no incentive to act like a decent human being, the outcome is predictable.

Hybrids are actually pretty cool, and there are a lot of different kinds of them these days. There are no down sides to the design that I'm aware of, only benefits. I think I'd get one of those over any other options right now.

I'm with ya. Same story on Tesla, Amazon, Apple and many others. No one could have said for certain what would happen with any of these. Did I 'miss out'? Not any more than on all the lottery tickets I didn't buy.

Yep. My initial excitement about Tesla's FSD when they first announced it (what, 7+ years ago now?) was very quickly dashed when I started reading the opinions of actual engineers who had worked with such tech. It was pretty much a universal consensus that timelines were way off and we were looking at 10+ years before any kind of major watershed moment in the tech (if such a moment was even possible, which there was still remarkably strong doubt over). And then there would be the hashing out of regulations, which could take quite a while if history is any indication.

Public awareness lagged behind for years. I was heavily downvoted and argued against by many people who had bought the marketing hype completely and were assuming they'd be able to sleep through their commute in a few months.

Other than on dedicated roads with lots of sensors on either side, I really don't expect level 5 in my lifetime at this point. Which means on the vast majority of trips, a human observer of some kind will be needed. Which eliminates the primary benefit of the tech.

As a contrasting anecdote, I was in a midwestern Best Buy yesterday to replace a hard drive which had suddenly failed the night before, and they had a number of prebuilt laptops on sale. Meanwhile, their CPU stock - both AMD and Intel - was almost entirely gone (except for the lower-performance ones). At least two other customers were browsing that aisle just in the couple minutes it took for me to get someone to unlock the hard drive case. It probably depends where you are.

You and me both.

When people try to oversimplify the world to stay comfortable, eventually they run into some very uncomfortable inconsistencies. Ironically, this tends to lead to mental gymnastics which then overcomplicate things.
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It's Betteridge's law of headlines, and it's a question mark, not an exclamation point.

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Every breakdown of vertical farming I've ever read showed it to be massively inefficient when compared with outdoor and greenhouse crops. The only thing that seems to fly in a normal economic climate is pricey salad greens. Between rent, taxes, resource costs and labor, the numbers are really hard to make work.

However, when there is scarcity and prices are driven up, many more types of crops become viable. It might be wise for the local government to subsidize just to have options, thereby funding further R&D into the concept. You never know what hidden efficiencies could be teased out, given enough time. Especially in cases where people are willing to pay more.

At some point we're probably going to have to get better at indoor farming regardless, and I think a whole lot of experimentation will need to be done to find the best methods. Of course, I expect that wider buildings are likely better than taller ones in almost all cases... but more evidence can't hurt, right?