sunstone

Without humans sending great gobs of CO2 into the atmosphere the climate at this point would be starting to tip into another ice age. So, yes, all scientifically aware humans agree that the current cause of climate change is human induced. It can be argued though that warming is better than freezing. Personally, I expect say 100 years from now when warming is on the wane we'll start burning fossil fuels just to avoid an ice age. But in the mean time CO2 is a bad thing. The golden mean is what we are seeking.

Cybertruck was not love at first sight for me. But after 24 hrs I signed up because of the value. 4x4, adjustable suspension, locking bed, 240v, pneumatic air and much more for $50k. Plus the usual no gas bill and very low maintenance. It's a deal.

In 2020 the Netherlands bought more ebikes than pedal bikes for the first time. They also paid on average $2000 for their ebikes compared with $1000 for their pedal bikes. So in terms of dollars (or Euros) the market in the Netherlands is now 66% ebikes.

What people in the Netherlands found was that an ebike would allow them to do errands up to a distance of about 15km whereas with a pedal bike the distance was more like 5km before they would take their car.

My experience is similar. Ebikes in practice are more like a smaller car than they are like a bigger bike, when the roads or bike paths are suitable.

On the other hand productivity in the developing world has been spiking markedly.

I would trade my dishwasher for Google.

Between the steam engine and the telegraph it's fair to say it was the biggest step change over a hundred years in the history of humans so far.

If it's a tiny tiny football field.

Pretty sure it has nothing to do with Starlink.

If it's safe to ship tons of LNG on big ships there's almost certainly a way to ship batteries safely. It might take a few 'incidents' though before best practise becomes clear.

The Smart.

One data point. I have had difficult to control plaque for at least two decades. According to my dentist others have continuing problems with cavities. I don't.

For the past three years I've used an Oral B electric toothbrush without any improvement.

And then last January I made two changes that have made a huge change in my plaque situation (verified by my hygenist of three years).

First I upgraded my electric toothbrush to the Oral B 4000, which has noticeably more power, at Christmas. And second I changed my brushing technique. Instead of brushing flat against my teeth I now brush the gum line at my teeth and rotate the brush head to a 45 degree angle down at the gums. I then move the tooth brush back and forth over sections of teeth. Typically side or front though the backs if the front teeth require a slightly different approach.

After these changes my hygenist noticed a big improvement in my gums. I also reduced my flossing but when I do floss now theres very little pain, bleeding or swelling unlike before.

Your mileage may very but if you have plaque problems you might save on hygenists.

With the steam engine.

The quote is,"Wilson said in reference to ants "Karl Marx was right, socialism works, it is just that he had the wrong species". Which seems a bit odd as Karl Marx was a communist and not a socialist, as far as I know. It's unlikely that Wilson was confused about this two terms so I expect it's just and honest mistake that's been continually repeated with out any one going back to the origininal sources.

Not surprisingly Wilson's comment of "Great idea, wrong species." was about communism for which it was very apt (communism doesn't scale for humans), not socialism. Socialism works well in more than a few very successful countries around the world.

One of the giants. "Consilience" is one of his books that's well worth reading. Small book, small words, short sentences and huge ideas.