Well, at least they'll continue marketing their devices as energy-efficient. They will probably quickly discover, however, that it's a lot cheaper and easier to put outstanding energy efficiency figures on the box and in the marketing materials than it is to actually make the devices efficient. Truth in advertising laws mean they probably can't just flat out lie about efficiency (well, assuming Trump doesn't shut down the FTC department tasked with enforcing truth in advertising laws -- or hasn't already done so), but they can certainly measure creatively.

Yes, that's what it will do, make their new appliances less efficient by enabling device manufacturers to quote misleading energy consumption figures. Energy Star doesn't make the appliances more efficient, but it provides trustworthy assertions about appliance energy efficiency, based on careful testing.

Absolutely. They've been educated to look for the Energy Star efficiency ratings.

That's obviously very important, but you aren't seriously arguing that the US hasn't played the pre-eminent role in technology development and productization for most of the last century, are you? Also, for the particular example you mention, it should be pointed out that mRNA vaccine technology was developed primarily in the US, based on research funded by the US NIH, and also that your "three out of four top COVID vaccines" characterization is misleading [*]. Though it should also be pointed out that most of the key mRNA researchers were not native-born Americans, but were attracted to live and work in the US by the high standard of living and top-notch research institutions available here. You know, the situation Trump is destroying.

The free world needs Europe to step up and do both basic research and engineering and productization, because the US is apparently going to focus on monster trucks from here on out.

[*] The two top two mRNA-based vaccines were from a US company (Moderna) and a US/German collaboration (Pfizer/BioNTech). Third place was definitely the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine which was purely European. I'm not sure which you picked as fourth place. By WHO approval, it would have to be the Jansen vaccine, which was a US/Netherlands collaboration. By doses delivered it would be the Sinovac vaccine, which neither the US nor Europe had any role in.

Insurance isn't really relevant. Insurance is for people who can't prove their ability to pay in the event they're liable. I don't know for sure that Google self-insures the Waymo vehicles, but I'd be very surprised if they don't. I know Google self-insures healthcare for its employees, for example, paying an insurance company to handle the paperwork, but covering actual costs rather than paying premiums. It's typical for large corporation to self-insure medical coverage, vehicle fleet insurance, building insurance, etc. It saves money, on average.

Bullshit. Oh, I have no doubt that they had some DEI programs and that they were a bit over the top... pretty much all of corporate America did that for a few years, but you're massively exaggerating.

How did he force companies to adopt those programs? Specifically, what did he do? Did he threaten to sue them? Bar them from working for the government? Take away security clearances?

(Hint: He didn't do any of those things.)

The DEI wave in corporate America during the Biden administration was real, but it didn't happen at the behest of the president. Oh, he approved and was supportive, but didn't make it happen. Companies did it mostly because of Trump. It was Trump's first term that created the backlash that massively empowered the whole woke movement, and companies implemented DEI programs partly because execs cooped up in their houses during COVID went nuts but mostly because they were convinced that their customers and employees wanted it.

Note that the woke movement predated Trump's presidency. It was still moderately weak when he entered office, but then he spent four years shoveling fuel onto it. He's doing that again now, but I think it's mostly burned itself out and won't come back. But if anyone can restore it, Donald Trump is the man for the job. Except that his tariffs are going to make Americans and American companies too poor to spend money on DEI frivolity, so... yay, you win?

All true, but those European advantages do not seem to generate the kind of innovation and economic productivity that the American system does. With the US actively pushing all of the best and brightest away, Europe has a golden opportunity to demonstrate that it can generate the same sort of entrepreneurial and productive activity -- but I doubt it will succeed unless it becomes significantly more business-friendly.

While the evidence of his status as a samurai may be ambiguous, there's no evidence whatsoever that he was a member of an ancient and shadowy cult of assassins. If you're going to complain, shouldn't you complain more about that part?

Obviously, people don't complain about that because it would ruin the game. But somehow stretching history from "might have been a black samurai" to "was a black samurai" is a problem?

Equally obviously, that's not the case either. What's really going on is that people who had no idea Yasuke existed and were looking for apparent DEI to get angry about got angry about it and you're trying to pretend their anger wasn't as dumb as it was.

I see no evidence that vaccine denialism is correlated with genetics... or even intelligence. I think it's better characterized as a "memetic disease" than a genetic disease, as in a disease that is conveyed through memes (the information analogue of "genes", not pictures on the Internet). The vulnerable are those who have received and accepted a meme-complex of various conspiracy theories that all rest on skepticism of educated elites.

Children of anti-vaxxers are likely to get these memes from their parents, but this isn't really like the way they get genes from their parents, because while children can't reject inherited genes (yet), they can and often do reject "inherited" memes.

I think it is true that allowing lots of kids to die will ultimately convince many vaccine deniers and their children of the net benefits of vaccination, but I don't think we should just shrug and accept that as the only way.

Against measles? Well, I suppose they could live in complete isolation...

Nah, the autism thing isn't taking any time at all. He -- and everyone else -- already knows the conclusion. The only reason he pushed it out until September was to allow him to at least pretend the conclusion wasn't foregone. Well, probably also so his buddy David Geier, noted anti-vaxxer who was once prosecuted for practicing medicine without a license, can collect a government paycheck for a while. But in due course they'll publish the astonishing conclusion that vaccines cause autism. Without any real support, of course.

That one actually wouldn't be a problem, depending on what you mean by "low". Sun-synchronous orbits are 600-800 km up, so round-trip latency to Earth would only be about 5 ms. That would be to a ground station directly below the satellite, of course, which wouldn't normally be the case. Still, the space part of the comm hop would always be only a few milliseconds.

Power generation and cooling would be extremely difficult, though. Radiation hardening of the chips seems like it would also be a big problem. You couldn't use the older, slower chips that are used in most satellites, because the whole point would be high performance.

Apples and oranges. Tesla's camera-only, no-local-knowledge system is vastly inferior to the other self-driving systems out there. Compare instead with Waymo, which has an outstanding safety record.

Depends on what you consider "a ton of money". Competent electricians make a healthy middle-class living, low six figures in most of the country. I have a couple of friends who are electricians, and they do just fine. It's not software engineer money or dentist money, but it's a solid income.

The guys pulling wire usually aren't electricians, they're helpers or maybe apprentices. Actual electricians cost more like $60-$80 per hour, sometimes more. Don't believe me? Hire one to do some electrical work in your house.

Obviously.

Obviously they're not paying for training but funding expanded access to training. Establishment of new training programs, outreach to underserved candidate populations, etc. Generally, grants of this sort attract matching money from government and other private individuals, too. It's seed money, not subsidized tuition.

They absolutely do not. That would be giving away the goose that lays the golden eggs. It's vastly more profitable to keep the data and to sell advertising as a service, which is what Google's advertising business model is. Advertisers say "I'd like to present this ad to likely buyers" and Google says "Okay, we'll do that for you, and you'll pay us a fee for every click. We'll figure out how to target your ad appropriately because we have data and expertise that you do not."