Another option could be methane fuel cells after various problems are resolved

Given that gas lines already run to millions of homes, fuel cells could be a viable option once they are mass production ready. Or maybe it would make more sense to convert gas power plants from turbines to fuel cells. Hopefully someone with relevant knowledge can comment on the fuel cell approach.

I had some very mind altering drugs during a surgical procedure. Afterwards I realized my perception of reality was completely distorted, but seemed real at the time. It occurred to me that all we do when we travel is move to a place where our sensory organs can sense another environment. We can virtually travel using telecommunications technology. What if an advanced civilization had a technology to virtually transport themselves anywhere in the universe, or alter our perception of reality so that we think we have an awareness of something that isn't physically present, at least according to our current measurement abilities?

UFOs don't make any sense to me. A sufficiently advanced civilization may be able to redefine reality (especially ours) to whatever purpose suits them, including transport. UFOs are so old school.

My 2 cents - It's a nice looking car. The dashboard appears to have physical buttons. It has a hatchback. Once you have a hatchback, you won't want a sedan if you only have one car. I long as I can shut off the "V8" sounds or change them (other than at low speed to protect pedestrians), I would consider the non-Banshee models since I don't want the eRupt system. My guess is there are far more people like me who would be interested in buying the EV Charger than the number of people who want a Hellcat. If they designed it so that I can turn off the features the Hellcat community might want, they can sell to both markets.

I won't criticize Dodge for making a polymorphic platform since so much of a car purchase decision is subjective at these price points.

Speaking of outdated equipment, this Twitter thread about outdated tires looks legitimate:

This is a Russian Grad launch truck with really old tires

Chernobyl is a Soviet era relic.

I wonder if the Russian solders have had the thought, "We are fighting to restore a system that produced this?"

My understanding is that we need a pan-corona virus vaccine, but unlike OWS, there is no large scale effort to make one. Turns out there are some people who have natural pan-corona virus immunity, so there is a natural model for making one. One off vaccines are not the best way to resolve the problem of C19. From here we get into public policy...

Very informative discussion about C19; the basis of my reply.

I had not thought about the fact that the radiator on the back of the main mirror is black, so I was curious about the physics. Here's more detail on black body radiation

I have been able to WFH since the start of the pandemic. I don't miss going to the office, especially the commute even though mine is only 20 minutes. I'm also more productive at home. But, there is no question that the office provide opportunities for chance conversations that can be extremely important. I can go back to the office 2x per week and do so even though I don't really have to. There are compelling reasons - The value of chance conversations I would not otherwise have and some of the stores I need to visit on a weekly basis that are close to the office. The office complex also has a gym.

But as much as managers "want people back in the office" today, I wonder what will happen once the office leases expire. The question of WFH productivity will be factored in with leasing a lot of office space companies really don't need anymore. Once the leases come up for renewal, we shall see how insistent managers are about returning to the office, at least on a large scale.

I'm guessing that companies will scale down their offices and make them much nicer for fewer people. They will also try to locate them near amenities such as public transport, parks, stores, etc. This sounds good but it's also important to note that it runs the risk of creating a corporate caste system. We shall see.

This is is a problem I have heard about from people in the ag business and medical research. It's not very well known by the general public. I'm wondering when it will become a malnutrition public policy issue. Taking vitamins will not cover the deficit since the way nutrients are absorbed from foods is different (likely healthier) than from pills.

That's what was interesting about her comment - The other brands required more maintenance even during the short time the rental companies keep a fleet. Not sure what that means for long term ownership, but it's probably better if there are fewer problems during the first year or two of owning the car.

True, I'm probably in the minority. My preference for a HUD comes from performance driving on a track. You never look at anything on the dash when driving on the track. Looking at the dash for some reason while driving is a distraction. While this doesn't seem as critical during regular driving, I think having a HUD is an ergonomic safety feature since it helps you focus on road situations, especially when using nav. It's great for that.

Anecdotal story: Rented a car. I asked the rep at the agency which cars in their fleet (mix of Japanese, American and Korean) were the most reliable. She said Hyundai.

Between the Ioniq 5 and a Model Y, I would get the Ioniq since it offers a HUD and top down view. Why Tesla doesn't offer these two features is a mystery to me. They are must haves once you own a car that has them.

It's the cloud, so you get to pay for Request Units (RUs). Customers would probably see a large exfiltration of data appear in their bills, or in any alerts they might have set up. This would especially be the case if large numbers of mods were being done.

The above depends on a number of factors, but my guess is this would be the first warning a customer would get that would indicate a problem.

A old friend of mine is a climate scientist (Ph.D. in mathematics and weather modeling.) He spent many a year at some of the advanced arctic and antarctic research bases doing climate research.

He left the field some years ago over the politics in the scientific community: too much infighting and not enough science. That's a problem throughout the scientific community, really. The less your proposed research is perceived to fit in with the prevailing ideas the more other scientists will try to stymie your work, and the less your chances of gaining any funding.

His comment to me once was that climate science is an inexact science, that there is an incredible amount of noise in the system, and thus it's very difficult to achieve a theoretical basis that has any significant predictive ability.

That's not how it's portrayed in the media though, they tend to speak in absolutes. Not that American science reporters have ever done anything but an abysmal job informing the public. It's more sensationalism and the art of manipulation than actual reporting. I remember watching some Fox News program where a panel was discussing how untrustworthy scientists are because they're always changing things (thereby evincing a complete lack of understanding of the iterative nature of scientific research, that it is a process of continual refinement) and the token black guy says "I think it's important to just pick a study that supports what you believe" and everyone else just nodded and smiled.

Dafuq?

I think that was why Google's G+ social network had to go. It was connecting too many ordinary citizens with actual scientists and other highly-educated people, allowing them to completely bypass mainstream media on important issues such as climate change. What also impressed me was how many of those researchers and professional people of all stripes were more than willing to answer questions from lay people and answer them in understandable terms. I will never forgive Google for terminating that platform, and doing so with the lame excuse of "we had a security problem." They did us a disservice by doing so.

That presented a problem for those in power however. People began to perceive the difference between official narratives and what the people doing the actual research were saying. I often wonder how different the pandemic response would have been had G+ still been in full operation.

They correctly point out nothing in that context: the West wasn't "allowed" to industrialize and pollute (as if China or anyone else could have stopped that process) it just did what it wanted within its own territories, as did everyone else. The West just figured out how to do it over a century before anyone else, and China and India are simply playing off of the West's initial advantage. One could argue, however, that China, India and other regional powers are being "allowed" to pollute because both were enabled by Western corporatism and its willingness to sell out its own citizenry and shift its manufacturing base to the third-world.

The elephant in the room here is not actually that human civilization and concomitant industrialization cause pollution. No, in fact it is overpopulation, and that is the sole province of the third world. Not that I see many willing to talk about that: no, it's always the United States that is the source of all the world's ills, even when that's just not the case. Were it not for the flood of illegal aliens crossing our southern border, the U.S. would be in a population decline (as is much of Europe.)

That said, you are absolutely correct about poorer nations having little vision of the future, other than trying to achieve a high-energy, high-resource-utilization Western lifestyle for as many of their citizens as possible, even if the collapse of human civilization is brought that much closer.