Space: For the 1st time ever, 8 spacecraft are docked to the International Space Station
This is one of those, ‘We really are living in the future’ milestones that it’s easy to miss because it’s getting routine.
The International Space Station has eight docking ports, and all of them are in use.
This is incredible. Jensen went from being the poorest person I’ve ever heard of, to the richest man I’d never heard of.
CBS News: Trump administration moves to roll back fuel economy standards set under Biden
If finalized, the plan would relax fuel economy standards by setting the industry average for light-duty vehicles at roughly 34.5 miles per gallon through the 2031 model year, lower than the 50 miles per gallon outlined by a Biden-era rule.
For fifty years, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) set fuel economy standards that car companies had to meet. It was a type of magical thinking. The NHTSA would issue a new fuel economy standard, and like Captain Picard on Star Trek, say, “Make it so.”
The NHTSA didn’t have to worry about physics, they just had to wish for it. The engineering teams had to figure out how to pull another rabbit out of the same old hat. The rabbits were getting smaller and harder to find.
A few days ago, this symbol showed up on the dashboard of my new Tacoma. I added the red circle to highlight the symbol of interest. The symbol is cryptic and persistent, so the dashboard photo was taken so I could look it up.
What is it trying to tell me?
It looks a little like a teepee or a campfire, so probably something about native Americans.
Pew Research: Americans’ Social Media Use 2025
Polls like this are interesting because social media keeps changing, and most of use don’t want to join everything to figure out which ones are worthwhile.
Elon Musk’s zeal for truth reveals the online frauds aiming to divide us
Believe it or not, that is actually Sparky in disguise.
SPACE: Will Europe’s flagship space science missions survive NASA’s budget cuts?
Flagship European space science missions conducted in collaboration with NASA face a possible combined funding shortfall of nearly $2 billion due to budget cuts put forward by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump. The European Space Agency hopes its member states will come to the rescue.
Europe’s flagship space science missions may be worthwhile, but they aren’t ours, so why are we funding them? It’s only about twenty bucks per American taxpayer, but do that for 10,000 other foreign agencies and projects, and it starts to add up.
WSJ: Old Age Will Be Different in the Robotic Age
WSJ: Old Age Will Be Different in the Robotic Age
Machines could soon help elders get out of bed, bathe them, even provide them with emotional support.
I always figured this problem would be solved by the Japanese inventing competent Elder-bots, the Chinese making cheap knock-offs and an American start-up company offering free robots that tended to the feeble as it harvested confidential medical information to defraud Medicaid. That won’t happen.
WSJ: Why Every Family Needs a Code Word
WSJ: Why Every Family Needs a Code Word
If you receive a call from someone who sounds just like your grandson and says he needs money or a gift card, the best thing to do is hang up and call your grandson. But if the voice is so convincing that you can’t bear to do that, ask for your family code word.
This happened to my mother. She got a call from somebody who identified himself as her grandson, and needed money to get out of jail. The same thing has happened to the elderly parents of several of my friends.
I was about to buy my sixth Keurig, when I wised up. The ‘descale’ light means the coffee maker is getting ready to shit the bed.
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