Germans have noticed a collapse in insect populations in biological reserves for a while.
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.science.org%2Fcontent%2Farticle%2Fgermany-s-insects-are-disappearing

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.m.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FDecline_in_insect_populations

Metabolic syndrome?
Type 2 diabetes?
Sperm counts in men?
Overall fertility?

Seems like the labcoats need to gather up some mice and see what happens when you feed half a microplastics-free American diet.

I think weed and other pesticides are the most likely cause. Round-up Ready crops get sprayed with tons of the stuff because they are resistant, but how much do they absorb and pass on to us?

Warning, some graphic images at the end
https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.esi.utexas.edu%2Ftalk%2Fsilent-spring-ii%2F

Can't wait until the sky is darkened with 100s or thousands of penis shaped mylar balloons stolen from the hands of bachelorette parties everywhere.

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gog.com%2Fgame%2Fkerbal_space_program

Also, there are lots of Amateur Astronomers out there with good equipment, in the dark, and experience identifying things. And yet I haven't heard of any reputable sightings by them.

I've had my UAP moment myself, for about 10s, as a big bright light shined down on me when I had my telescope out one night. When it finally went overhead, I could only then hear the jet engines. The landing headlight and glide path aligned perfectly over my location that night so that the plane's wingtips were washed out, and the noise didn't reach me until the jet was really close.

I've frequently driven back from dark sky sights and watched as Venus rose/set. With her near the horizon she can eerily "follow" you as you drive around, and if there are light clouds, look like it is accelerating very quickly.

Amateur astronomers can take good images of ISS flying overhead, I'm sure if there was a UAP nearby they'd have dozens of high quality photos on astrobin within hours!

This whole Loeb debacle just kicks dirt in the face of every serious researcher, including SETI researchers like Jill Tarter (inspiration for the Contact movie). If Loeb does get funding, hopefully it isn't stolen from real scientists. I guess if he builds his telescope network, we'll at least have lots of cameras tracking more meteor fireballs. https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffireballs.ndc.nasa.gov%2F

Pickens was done by 2010? There was a few years of stagnation on wind power growth but since then it has steadily increased.

https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FWind_power_in_Texas

There's a reason his name is 1 letter off from IBM.

We caught an employee plagiarising an article for our company, and when we finally harangued HR into doing a check, he had completely faked his resume. Nothing on it was true.

So, HR ain't going to do shit about this.

Ask Toyota, or more precisely, the people harmed by their sudden acceleration bug. Bitflips are real, and when you have millions of devices out on the market with life or death control systems, they must be accounted for in fault recovery systems.

With systems being on longer and longer, RAM loaded data will be more likely to suffer from this. How often do we restart PCs now? Tablets? Once a week/once a month for me. What about all those embedded systems we now have to interact with?

SteamOS + Linux was supposed to be that, right?

Just like with pumped hydro, you use cheap power when it is available, and sell back when the price is high. So the float between the two can be decent enough even 80-90% efficiencies has you making money.

Perhaps this could be done in those areas that did mountain top removal for coal mining? It would help a little to restore some jobs to these rural areas. Also there would be a little poetry in moving the mining spoils back to the top of the mountains.

Another similar venture plans to use electric train locomotives to push heavy loads uphill to charge, and provide energy on the way down.

The real question is if this would be cheaper in the longer term, as fast as battery technology is evolving. My money is that bulk storage will end up using fluid batteries at scale because building a large-ass tank farm is way cheaper than expanding a building full of lithium batteries.

My problem with Last Jedi is that with 2 minutes of editing they could have a much more sensible scene. Holdo should have dressed down the pilot, not Leia. Maybe have Leia stand there listening as she rips his ass, and then after he leaves says "I like him".

Instead Holdo just appears from nowhere dressed like a prom queen. W T F ? Where was she when the rest of the command staff got obliterated? Fixing her face in the Admiral's bathroom? Sure, the Mon Calimari cruisers used to be cruise lines, but shit the general staff should n't dress like it still is one. Or maybe the bad guys attacked during Rebel Prom Night?

The hyperdrive kamikaze had a couple of things going for it

1. They weren't expecting it. They were focused on the fleeing ships.

2. They were close.

3. The cruiser had the time to turn and active drives.

The move wasn't her original choice. She only initiated it when it was clear they were not buying that the cruiser was continuing on its own.

It could easily be technobabbled against for future engagements.

1. A small ship attempting this would be splattered against the shields.
2. You would have to be incredibly close else you would completely miss. Evasive maneuvers would be trivial to do.
3. You have to be aligned with your target, which means time spent turning, and getting hammered by their heavy weapons.

Why? Well, reducing the sentence of a random prisoner was the red herring. The real reason he hacked the prison records was to extend the sentences of certain prisoners. Who's going to believe a prisoner in 6 years who says he should be getting out when the computer says he should be doing 20 to life?