You say that, but I like to take a moment and savor that extra-orange chip so I can prepare myself to revel in the additional flavor when I stuff it into my fat face. Now I’m going to be occasionally pleasantly surprised when I get an extra one while being mostly disappointed when I don’t get them or, even worse, eat those blessed chips with a bunch of their inferior ilk and waste the experience altogether.

Apparently it’s surprisingly hard to not vote for Asian Jim.

So, if I said “I’d like a burger, but not too much ketchup or mustard,” would you put a little mustard on it, or no mustard at all? When I see “no excessive capitalization or grammatical errors”, I assume they don’t want excessive amounts of either, while you’re saying they don’t want excessive capitalization and no grammatical errors at all. Seems an odd interpretation, linguistically.

You are correct. That was a hypothetical comment that is absurd now as the ones about not making a Dyson shell sometime in the future if civilization doesn’t collapse first.

Well, given that the earth only utilizes about 1 billionth of the sun’s energy, so I think we could have both with just a little effort.

So Chris Columbus gets back to Spain and says, “And the whole point of this is to build a city on the west coast that will be populated by over 12 million people,” at which point he is laughed out of court.

LA would have been a ridiculous idea to the Europeans when America was first discovered, and no one would have said it was feasible at the time, yet there it is, just another achievement built on the successes of thousands of years of civilization. I don’t see why a Dyson swarm or other megasteuctures would be any different.

They aren’t in orbit, and they aren’t in orbit around a star, so not really part of a Dyson swarm (and also technically don’t add to the energy available to our civilization), but I still approve of your solar panels. You could argue that the ISS or the few solar orbit satellites we have are the start of a Dyson swarm even if they don’t add to our energy pool.

Best reason, and a legitimate reason to not listen to anything. What exactly is the point of consuming art you don’t enjoy?

Yes, and it doesn’t actually matter. The anti-particle will then at some point hit a regular particle of the same type and release energy instead, leaving the universe with more energy which came from the black hole and the destroyed particle.

I was there a year ago. It was nice enough, not nearly as worrisome as I thought it would be. Yes, I stayed in the tourist areas, no I didn’t wander into the rural areas, no I didn’t try to start shit in clubs, yes I saw armed military on patrol. There were a lot of people trying to live their lives despite the serious crime in the region.

There are absolutely terrible things happening there and I would love for them to get better. I can say the same thing about the US. At least Mexico isn’t waging war on my country, trade or otherwise.

I’m sorry, I misread your statement. I think we’re on the same page.

Yeah, the good news is no one has ever suffered permanent damage from verbal abuse, so no problems, right?

And why is physical violence no-tolerance (except when it isn’t) but verbal violence is a-okay?

I’m not saying physical violence is okay, and I never have. In fact, I generally go the other direction, saying that physical violence should be a last resort for solving problems, and that those who use it clearly don’t have better tools to solve their problems. And know which groups is known for not having a lot of experience solving problems? Kids. That’s why we have adults supervising them. And training those kids that verbal violence is okay, and a great way to harass your peers, is, to put it bluntly, pretty fucking stupid. And some of those kids learn that a suspension isn’t that big a deal to some of the kids they bully, which is a hell of a lot better lesson than the adults around them were teaching them.

Most of my immediate family are on Android and use Signal. I’m happier this way.

What exactly is the threshold you’re waiting for on this escape plan?

Both distillation and reverse osmosis should get rid of microplastics. Reverse osmosis should get rid of mercury in any form, while it would depend on other chemical properties (evaporation rate, temperature source water is heated to, etc.) on whether distillation would remove chemicals like mercury.

Some further reading.

You aren’t wrong, either, but if you start doing the numbers for how much forest per person we need, there isn’t enough land. It is carbon neutral, though.

And do the same for solar and batteries, so we can stop using fossil fuels for electricity ASAP.

That really is the greatest risk for some of thses features. It’s easy to get complacent when something works well, and then you’re in trouble when it doesn’t.

It didn’t so much as pull as get stiffer to turn out of the lane. Again, that doesn’t happen if your signals are on, so it’s a good reminder to use your signals, too.

Like I said, relying on these assists as replacements for proper driving isn’t something I would recommend. You should still be shoulder checking and using your mirrors. My wife’s vehicle has blind spot detection, which turns on an amber light by the mirror. If you’re changing lanes, it’s an obvious indicator that it may not be safe. A more thorough shoulder check can identify if the vehicle is actually at risk for collision. For example, if you just passed a vehicle and are pulling away, the detection light may still be on, but you aren’t at risk of collision. Alternatively, if I thought the lane was clear and decide to change lanes, the light may be on due to a speeding driver who is approaching to pass me in the adjacent lane. The light will be on even though he isn’t in the way yet, and changing lanes could result in an accident. Or maybe someone has been sitting in your blind spot for a few minutes and you decide to change lanes. A quick mirror check indicates you’re safe, but that amber light says maybe not. If your shoulder check doesn’t catch the problem, you probably haven’t done it well enough.

Again, can be good assistance tools, I don’t think they’re good enough to be replacements yet.

I rented a Hyundai Elantra. Yes, the wheel will move under your hand. Yes, it has hand detection, which is probably trivial to spoof. When I used it, winter had just ended and lines on the road weren’t always clear, so it would occasionally disable itself. Trying to change lanes without signals isn’t terrible, but certainly won’t happen by accident.

I would by no means rely on this, or recommend relying on it, just like I wouldn’t recommend relying on blind spot detection, but they can be handy aids to improve your overall driving, and can help catch your mistakes.