You're right. Nicely summarized.

I loved that show.

I never have mod points when i need them.

A lot of talent gets wasted in America.

The media doesn't talk about it much, but many rock formations that are almost certainly stromatalite fossils have been found. Here is one example. You can find many more with Google. The stromatalite-like formations are why NASA keeps sending rovers to dry lake beds. https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hindawi.com%2Fjourna...

Your description of the Economist's point of view is right on.

I run a 122 seat digital planetarium in a non-profit science and art museum. Anyone who runs a planetarium has looked at the Las Vegas project with skepticism. For a lot of different reasons, it's very difficult for a planetarium to be profitable. The first planetarium was a subsidized educational facility. The subsidy was viewed as worthwhile because increasing light levels in cities made it harder to teach to children about the sky. This remains true today; they continue to require subsidies. There are what I call zombie planetariums where they open once a week a show the one ten thousand dollar movie they own. The people managing those have just given up. They are just treading water until the facility falls down around them. Roofs leak, seats wear out, HVAC wears out, projection equipment becomes obsolete. A planetarium facility has to be about 1/3 re-capitalized every ten years.

The Las Vegas folks have set themselves up out beyond the bleeding edge of dome/planetarium tech. They don't mention planetarium shows as being a central part of their strategy. You can take it from me, SPACE is why people go to see things in domes. There are a fair number of full dome movies made every year, but few of them are particularly popular or good. (There are some gems that I use portions of with school groups.)

The Las Vegas dome has a huge number of pixels, which is cool, but there is no program material with that many pixels. There aren't any production tools that allow a movie maker to film or view that much material in a comprehensive way. (That's a problem today for well financed pros at current resolutions.) The only thing that has led me to believe that LV has a commercial chance is that they claim they will be able to charge hundreds of thousands of dollars per hour for advertising on the outside of the dome. If that's true, they should have just built the outside of the dome, because they will never make a fraction of that inside any time soon. Unless they have planetarium shows. If they do that, they will be able to fill seats. But they may not be able to charge enough per seat to make real money inside. The technology they have inside the dome will require maintenance that will be expensive, even if operated efficiently by experts. And they need marketing (critical and difficult in the planetarium environment for reasons too numerous to list), housekeeping galore, ticket sellers, ticket takers, security, restrooms, inside exhibits. They have set themselves a very difficult task. Even in entertainment oriented Las Vegas.

I agree. I know a doctor and two nurses who grudgingly had to stop working because of long covid. They aren't lazy. They are miserable and frustrated. I work with a guy with long covid and is much less effective at physical tasks. Other employers would lay him off. He still adds value but we have to work around his heart and lung issues.

Correct.

Agreed. The nerds were funny without being caricatures.

I like your use of the word "sage". Very appropriate.

Streetlights?

I agree. It hadn't occurred to me that viruses might be competing in the body, though it probably should have.

Natural selection favors traits that lead to greater reproductive success. Since natural selection drives evolution, it is difficult to understand how evolution could create or have any bearing on the post death experience.

Thank you for encompassing my rage so eloquently.