blisterpeanuts

Were houses that much bigger in the 1970s, though? Families definitely were bigger, so there were more people per square meter. I think overall, it's a sociological change, not a financial one. People are just less into hosting parties; too much hassle of cleaning up & preparing food, too many online distractions, etc.

This is a charming idea and I am inspired to try it. We just need more face time (vs. Facetime) in our lives.

I would think that in 1600 years, it would be more like Edward Gibbon CC or such.

Inviting friends over for dinner is the ONLY way I can get my wife and daughter to clear their stuff from the common areas.

A party with 10 guests is even better.

All three of us are hoarders, to an extent, but I alone am able to go into a cleaning frenzy approximately once or twice a year and get rid of mega-junk. Unfortunately, they don't seem able to do so.

So, I consider dinners still to be a useful tradition, though perhaps the motivations have shifted a bit.

I think the '90s was a missed opportunity. The U.S. was (mostly) at peace, had a lot of tax revenue flowing in, and should have built a safer replacement for the Space Shuttle.

Instead, we continued to rely on a flawed, expensive, and dangerous system to build and supply the ISS. Then, we tragically lost another Shuttle and crew in early 2000s.

Typically, tunneling involves abandoning the tunneling machine underground because it's too difficult and expensive to retrieve. The Boring Company's innovation was to find a way to retrieve the machine inexpensively, thus significantly reducing the cost of tunneling.

They also operate the machines remotely, so that humans are not risking their lives underground.

Tunnels are a good thing. They cut across a city without paving over more greenery. They will reduce surface traffic.

Me too. It's certainly newsworthy. I guess not much interest in space travel around here.

About half of SpaceX revenue is Starlink subscriptions. Starlink is the one profitable division; the rest of the company operates at a loss, including xAI.

It can wade through about 2.5 feet of water.

What's unreliable about the Model Y, other than some fit-and-finish issues? Does it have battery failures or mechanical/electronic problems?

Most MY and M3 owners I have talked to rave about their cars and have very high customer loyalty.

You speak for all Canadians? Because I know a lot of Canadians (and I'm from there, myself) who are quite disenchanted with the Liberal Party.

Pre-Trump, I had a paid online subscription to Guardian for a time, because it was so well written and informative.

After 2016, however, they seemed to adopt a firm anti-MAGA stance which I found to be biased and off-putting. Their highly critical stance against Israel after the Hamas attacks of October 2023 was the last straw.

Then, they withdrew from the X platform and now they might as well not exist, as far as I'm concerned. I think that was a mistake, given their significant following on X, but I guess they felt they don't need it.