The tunnel is actually plausible. Tunnel boring can be done for about $10,000 per foot. So a 20 mile stretch from San Jose to Palo Alto, with a tube in each direction, would cost roughly $2B, which is affordable. For a 10% ROI, it would need to generate about $600k per day in tolls. If the toll was $10 each way, that would be 30,000 round trips. Since it could draw traffic from both US-101 and I-280, that is plausible.
Flying cars for mass transportation, with existing tech, are a fantasy.
So do I. But I rarely buy them anymore, because they often cost more than a used paper book. I think that what is killing ebooks is Amazon's "More Buying Choices" tab. Plus, if I buy a paper book, I can resell it when I am done, or at least donate it to Goodwill for someone else to read.
Why does any of this run redmondware in the first place?
Because DoD runs software projects the same way the British Army fought the Battle of the Somme. If you want to throw 200 programmers at a project, the only way to recruit that many bodies in a hurry is to go with Windows.
And yet, the EU is still in talks to have them join. Unbelievable.
Turkey's application to join the EU has not yet been formally rejected, but there are no "talks". Turkey is preparing to reinstate the death penalty, and the EU has already said that will result in their accession being formally rejected.
... Jim Web, left the race rather than take part in that sham.
Jim Webb didn't leave the race because of his "high principles". He left race because he had 1% if the vote.
Years ago, Webb actively campaigned to have women kicked out of the service academies. He resigned as Reagan's Secretary of the Navy because he wanted more money to buy even more weapons that we didn't need. And this guy expected to be elected by Democratic primary voters? He was in the wrong party.
All wells drilled off Florida's east coast have been dry. There have been successful wells south of Florida, in the strait, and to the west in the Gulf of Mexico.
But Florida is a swing state, and it would be a political disaster to drill there. Instead, he can push drilling off the coast of Massachusetts, where he has nothing to lose, or in Alaska, which is so red that drilling is actually popular there. Alaska residents get an annual royalty check from their state government.
I doubt if any of these people really rent on Airbnb, because people "stealing stuff" and even "trashing the place" are NOT that big of a problem. That rarely happens, and when it does, the replacements/repairs are easily affordable.
A FAR bigger problem is undeserved bad reviews. A one-star or two-star review can cut your bookings in half and cost thousands of dollars over the following months.
I have rented to black people several times, and have never had a problem. They were friendly and quite tolerant of little problems that cropped up.
In my experience, the absolute worst guests are French people. They complain about everything, and act like entitled jerks. I have had French guests leave bad reviews because of rainy weather, or heavy traffic from the airport, as if that was my fault. I guess they feel they are getting even for what happened at Waterloo.
Note to French people: America had nothing to do with Waterloo. That was the British.
Offshore drilling is dying. It is not because of regulation or marine sanctuaries. It is because of fracking. Offshore drilling is hecka expensive, with huge liabilities if something goes wrong. Deepwater Horizon ended up costing $62 Billion. It is way cheaper to park a fracking rig in a North Dakota wheatfield.
So once again, Trump is pushing policies that make no difference in the real world. He isn't going to revive coal mining. He isn't going to revive offshore drilling.
I stopped reading your post when I got to the part about picking tobacco in Canada. Then I did a Google search, and found out about the Ontario tobacco belt. So tobacco really is grown in Canada. I did not know that.
There is no labor shortage in the United States. Given high enough pay and benefits, all jobs will be filled by legal workers.
America's unemployment rate is at 4.7%, which is already about as low as NAIRU unemployment can go. There are 11 million illegal workers. There is no way all those jobs could be filled with legal workers. That is not realistic at all.
If picking fruit paid more and had more benefits than programming, I would have no problem picking fruit on the side.
Would you have any problem with the four hour commute from your desk in the city to a broccoli field in Modesto?
... forced, child, or illegal labor
You are lumping together unrelated things. Forced and child labor are harmful to the laborer. Hiring an illegal worker benefits that worker. I have no problem with hard-working Mexicans coming here and making a better life for themselves. It is the laws that try to prevent that which are immoral, not the employers who skirt those laws. Just because something is illegal, that doesn't make it wrong.
Basic income will never happen, at least not in the foreseeable future. It would require politically infeasible tax increases. It would require politically infeasible reductions in existing entitlement programs. Many people angry about inequality voted for Donald Trump.
Anyway, nobody is trying to promote LA traffic as "working fine" and an example for others to emulate. The OP was doing exactly that with Tokyo's trains, which are actually far worse for the average commuter.
Commuters in LA who use public transit have an average commute of about 50 minutes, which is almost the same as the average Tokyo commute.
I helped my neighbors build their house. The framing (equivalent to what this robot does) took 3 days. The other parts (foundation, wiring, plumbing, flooring, roofing, ducting, painting, fixtures, finishing, etc, etc) took 6 months.
I know it doesn't account for all of it, but I've lost many female co-workers to motherhood and their decision to stay at home with their children.
But that has nothing to do with "tech". If that was the reason, then women would be more likely quit non-tech jobs as well. TFA doesn't address that... because it is crap journalism written to push an agenda rather than present facts.
In the broader economy, the progress of women from entry level jobs (where they represent 53%) to mid-level (37%) to senior (26%) is often referred to as a "leaky pipeline", with women more likely to quit at every level and in all industries. Is it worse in tech? I dunno. Some tech-specific numbers would be interesting.
... honor both the letter and the spirit of their contracts.
TFA says nothing about "contracts". This is about "relationships". Grohmann sold his company, pocketed Musk's check... and then expected to continue to run the company and call the shots as if he was still the boss. It doesn't work that way.
They are not just complaining about lack of funding, but also about the UN Outer Space Treaty, which tries to make the Universe into a Marxist-Leninist Paradise. The US should have never signed the treaty, and should withdraw. It is becoming clear that the future development in space will be by private enterprise.
The biggest stumbling block I see that will likely always require doctor participation is in prescribing controlled substances. We require extra credentials for that because of that abuse potential.
I don't see any reason, even in theory, why "extra credentials" should have any effect on abuse.
Many other countries have far fewer drugs that require prescriptions, and some have a hierarchy of prescription drugs, with some requiring only the approval of a pharmacist or nurse, rather than a doctor. The upside to this system is lower costs and more accessible treatment. The downside is... nothing.
Yeah, my next doctor is going to be someone who didn't go to medical school.
In many other countries, when you go to see "the doctor" you are actually seeing a nurse or PA. You are only referred to an actual MD if your problem is non-routine. This leads to faster and more affordable healthcare and MEASURABLY BETTER HEALTH OUTCOMES.
So would you be better off if your next "doctor" is someone who didn't go to medical school? Apparently, yes.
There is no such thing as "proof" except in mathematics, but there is plenty of evidence that housing people is cheaper than the police and emergency services needed to deal with street people.
Homelessness is a deeply intractable problem. Most homeless people have many other problems, including mental illness, substance abuse, joblessness, etc. But there is evidence that dealing with "housing first", and getting them into permanent shelter, makes dealing with the other issues easier.
I am skeptical that this big project, concentrating all the problems in one place, is better than something like rent vouchers, and it is going to run into a wall of NIMBYism. Would you want 1600 homeless families moving into YOUR neighborhood? And their kids flooding into YOUR local school?
Slashdot Mirror
The tunnel is actually plausible. Tunnel boring can be done for about $10,000 per foot. So a 20 mile stretch from San Jose to Palo Alto, with a tube in each direction, would cost roughly $2B, which is affordable. For a 10% ROI, it would need to generate about $600k per day in tolls. If the toll was $10 each way, that would be 30,000 round trips. Since it could draw traffic from both US-101 and I-280, that is plausible.
Flying cars for mass transportation, with existing tech, are a fantasy.
I haven't tried, but I expect that taping them to the underside of the toilet would make them awfully hard to read.
A handheld mirror helps. After a few hours practice, you can read backwards with ease.
I am now by 900 books at home and it starts to cover literally whole walls
That can be a good thing. If the people in the neighboring room are loud, a wall covered in bookshelves can block the noise very effectively.
I happen to like eBooks very much.
So do I. But I rarely buy them anymore, because they often cost more than a used paper book. I think that what is killing ebooks is Amazon's "More Buying Choices" tab. Plus, if I buy a paper book, I can resell it when I am done, or at least donate it to Goodwill for someone else to read.
Why does any of this run redmondware in the first place?
Because DoD runs software projects the same way the British Army fought the Battle of the Somme. If you want to throw 200 programmers at a project, the only way to recruit that many bodies in a hurry is to go with Windows.
And yet, the EU is still in talks to have them join. Unbelievable.
Turkey's application to join the EU has not yet been formally rejected, but there are no "talks". Turkey is preparing to reinstate the death penalty, and the EU has already said that will result in their accession being formally rejected.
... Jim Web, left the race rather than take part in that sham.
Jim Webb didn't leave the race because of his "high principles". He left race because he had 1% if the vote.
Years ago, Webb actively campaigned to have women kicked out of the service academies. He resigned as Reagan's Secretary of the Navy because he wanted more money to buy even more weapons that we didn't need. And this guy expected to be elected by Democratic primary voters? He was in the wrong party.
Is there oil off the coast of Mar-a-Lago?
All wells drilled off Florida's east coast have been dry. There have been successful wells south of Florida, in the strait, and to the west in the Gulf of Mexico.
But Florida is a swing state, and it would be a political disaster to drill there. Instead, he can push drilling off the coast of Massachusetts, where he has nothing to lose, or in Alaska, which is so red that drilling is actually popular there. Alaska residents get an annual royalty check from their state government.
I doubt if any of these people really rent on Airbnb, because people "stealing stuff" and even "trashing the place" are NOT that big of a problem. That rarely happens, and when it does, the replacements/repairs are easily affordable.
A FAR bigger problem is undeserved bad reviews. A one-star or two-star review can cut your bookings in half and cost thousands of dollars over the following months.
I have rented to black people several times, and have never had a problem. They were friendly and quite tolerant of little problems that cropped up.
In my experience, the absolute worst guests are French people. They complain about everything, and act like entitled jerks. I have had French guests leave bad reviews because of rainy weather, or heavy traffic from the airport, as if that was my fault. I guess they feel they are getting even for what happened at Waterloo.
Note to French people: America had nothing to do with Waterloo. That was the British.
Offshore drilling is dying.
It is not because of regulation or marine sanctuaries.
It is because of fracking.
Offshore drilling is hecka expensive, with huge liabilities if something goes wrong.
Deepwater Horizon ended up costing $62 Billion.
It is way cheaper to park a fracking rig in a North Dakota wheatfield.
So once again, Trump is pushing policies that make no difference in the real world.
He isn't going to revive coal mining.
He isn't going to revive offshore drilling.
I stopped reading your post when I got to the part about picking tobacco in Canada. Then I did a Google search, and found out about the Ontario tobacco belt. So tobacco really is grown in Canada. I did not know that.
There is no labor shortage in the United States. Given high enough pay and benefits, all jobs will be filled by legal workers.
America's unemployment rate is at 4.7%, which is already about as low as NAIRU unemployment can go. There are 11 million illegal workers. There is no way all those jobs could be filled with legal workers. That is not realistic at all.
If picking fruit paid more and had more benefits than programming, I would have no problem picking fruit on the side.
Would you have any problem with the four hour commute from your desk in the city to a broccoli field in Modesto?
... forced, child, or illegal labor
You are lumping together unrelated things. Forced and child labor are harmful to the laborer. Hiring an illegal worker benefits that worker. I have no problem with hard-working Mexicans coming here and making a better life for themselves. It is the laws that try to prevent that which are immoral, not the employers who skirt those laws. Just because something is illegal, that doesn't make it wrong.
Either you pay the kids to do useful work ...
Doing a subsidized job that a robot could do better is not "useful work".
How about the kids stay in school or apprentice in a useful trade instead?
Basic income will never be enough.
Basic income will never happen, at least not in the foreseeable future.
It would require politically infeasible tax increases.
It would require politically infeasible reductions in existing entitlement programs.
Many people angry about inequality voted for Donald Trump.
Not really fair to compare "America" with "Tokyo". What about LA and Tokyo?
The average commute in LA is 29 minutes. Tokyo is much worse.
Anyway, nobody is trying to promote LA traffic as "working fine" and an example for others to emulate. The OP was doing exactly that with Tokyo's trains, which are actually far worse for the average commuter.
Commuters in LA who use public transit have an average commute of about 50 minutes, which is almost the same as the average Tokyo commute.
I helped my neighbors build their house. The framing (equivalent to what this robot does) took 3 days. The other parts (foundation, wiring, plumbing, flooring, roofing, ducting, painting, fixtures, finishing, etc, etc) took 6 months.
And Americans spend far more time than that commuting less distances in their cars daily.
No they don't. The average commute in America is 25 minutes each way. That is less than half the average commute in Tokyo.
Trains work fine in Tokyo
Workers in Tokyo spend an average of 2 hours per day commuting.
Not many of them would call that "working fine".
I know it doesn't account for all of it, but I've lost many female co-workers to motherhood and their decision to stay at home with their children.
But that has nothing to do with "tech". If that was the reason, then women would be more likely quit non-tech jobs as well. TFA doesn't address that ... because it is crap journalism written to push an agenda rather than present facts.
In the broader economy, the progress of women from entry level jobs (where they represent 53%) to mid-level (37%) to senior (26%) is often referred to as a "leaky pipeline", with women more likely to quit at every level and in all industries. Is it worse in tech? I dunno. Some tech-specific numbers would be interesting.
... honor both the letter and the spirit of their contracts.
TFA says nothing about "contracts". This is about "relationships". Grohmann sold his company, pocketed Musk's check ... and then expected to continue to run the company and call the shots as if he was still the boss. It doesn't work that way.
They are not just complaining about lack of funding, but also about the UN Outer Space Treaty, which tries to make the Universe into a Marxist-Leninist Paradise. The US should have never signed the treaty, and should withdraw. It is becoming clear that the future development in space will be by private enterprise.
The biggest stumbling block I see that will likely always require doctor participation is in prescribing controlled substances. We require extra credentials for that because of that abuse potential.
I don't see any reason, even in theory, why "extra credentials" should have any effect on abuse.
Many other countries have far fewer drugs that require prescriptions, and some have a hierarchy of prescription drugs, with some requiring only the approval of a pharmacist or nurse, rather than a doctor. The upside to this system is lower costs and more accessible treatment. The downside is ... nothing.
Yeah, my next doctor is going to be someone who didn't go to medical school.
In many other countries, when you go to see "the doctor" you are actually seeing a nurse or PA. You are only referred to an actual MD if your problem is non-routine. This leads to faster and more affordable healthcare and MEASURABLY BETTER HEALTH OUTCOMES.
So would you be better off if your next "doctor" is someone who didn't go to medical school? Apparently, yes.
There are a lot more people below the age of one with bank accounts than over 117. All of my kids had ESAs the month they were born.
Prove it, or shut the fuck up.
There is no such thing as "proof" except in mathematics, but there is plenty of evidence that housing people is cheaper than the police and emergency services needed to deal with street people.
Homelessness is a deeply intractable problem. Most homeless people have many other problems, including mental illness, substance abuse, joblessness, etc. But there is evidence that dealing with "housing first", and getting them into permanent shelter, makes dealing with the other issues easier.
I am skeptical that this big project, concentrating all the problems in one place, is better than something like rent vouchers, and it is going to run into a wall of NIMBYism. Would you want 1600 homeless families moving into YOUR neighborhood? And their kids flooding into YOUR local school?