Had a friend who used to put his super-workstation laptop in his backpack. It would randomly turn itself back on and get HOT in there at times, like firestarter hot.

Battery lore has been cargo-cult woo since the NiMH days… most of it feels like manufacturers saying “oh, I’m sorry you didn’t get our advertised life, you must have done something wrong.”

I don’t know why private companies don’t fund their own shit rather than steal from taxpayerS through NASA.

It’s not that they can’t fund their own: it’s “why would they, when they can use their wealth and influence to get it funded by taxpayers?” https://youtu.be/kTlhIQeBWHI?t=20

There’s all kinds of power and influence of people through the press is a very traditional kind of indirect power for people to wield. When I talk about money as power it definitely includes the power to influence how people think and vote and act without putting an actual gun to their heads. Twitter is the new TV and TV was the new radio and the radio was the new newspaper… All kinds of wealthy and powerful people in the past sought control of the press, not only for their own desires, but also as a bargaining chip with other people with power: “do this for me and I’ll make you look good on my platform…”

for some reason people STILL treat him with credulity.

They WANT to believe.

just about enriching himself. Of course that’s a big part of it.

Can’t make the big changes without big $$$ to make things happen.

Unfortunately, he looks like a delusional moron with the life experience and grasp on reality of a suburban 14 year old. So, a couple of good ideas in there, but absolute disconnect from the realpolitik necessary to effect true change.

a system to eliminate, not support and elevate the poor here

If you look at human population growth and resource consumption over the past 500 years, the curve can’t continue - we’ll need thousands of Earths within the next 1000 years, and Warp drive just isn’t ready yet.

If “being poor” means living like the bottom 20% of the U.S., then, yes, the poor must be eliminated somehow. Pesky thing about the poor, they still have children, often at higher than replacement rates. It’s good for happiness from relative circumstances: lots of people “born poor” can work their way into a better condition for them and their children, but it’s an unsustainable model. Just like capitalism in general.

That’s not money, that’s power. Money quits being money somewhere around a million dollars a year-ish, call it 100M lump sum. Above that, more money isn’t an abstract thing you buy goods, services and real-estate with, it’s power: the power to command other people to do your bidding.

Hugo Drax had it all figured out in Moonraker. We just need a higher natural resources per capita ratio, then it all works out easily.

It’s so sad, because we could make really great shitbox econo cars now. China, Japan and India are doing it, meanwhile in the U.S. we’re needing side-step assistance to climb into our tower-viewing position $80K+ ROADMASTER trucks and SUVs.

. I just don’t understand why they need all that.

Power sells, they can give that insane 0-60 sprint for very low cost, so it gets people to buy their product instead of a 6 liter V8.

AI is not actual intelligence. However, it can produce results better than a significant number of professionally employed people…

I am reminded of when word processors came out and “administrative assistant” dwindled as a role in mid-level professional organizations, most people - even increasingly medical doctors these days - do their own typing. The whole “typing pool” concept has pretty well dried up.