Good point. I also find it to be an odd turn of phrase considering we spent those decades paying 70k a year or whatever to take care of them in prison. I'm going to have to start saying that my debt to society has been paid whenever I've just cost the taxpayers a great deal of money.

I'd like to see it tested in mars equivalent dust. I assume that the higher speed will correspond with more wear from sand blasting.

Maybe require that additional votes be different? Then they wouldn't be able to tell which was legit.

I was under the impression that most of the constellation would be at such an unusually low orbit that there wouldn't be much to collide with. How crowded are the planned orbit shells?

I was skeptical, but I'm happy with the decision. I can't cite anything for this, but I swear it rewrites your mind and body to be a more perfect parent. My own theory is that there are some kind of pheromones in baby breath that trigger something. If you have kids and spend a lot of time with them, you will be near certain to be glad you did. The biggest physical change I noticed besides some short term weight gain was a drastic improvement in my reflexes. I was happy without kids. I think what convinced me in the end to have kids is that my wife and I don't have a lot of friends or younger family members around. If I still wanted to have a family when I get older I'm going to need to make some.

I think you've got that backwards. If there were no Neanderthal genes on the x chromosome, then only men would have Neanderthal genes.

Doesn't seem to be. I edited out all the lines with Photoshop, and what remained looked identical.

I always wonder more about the airborne stuff. Blankets, carpets, clothing, furniture. In a sun beam you can see all the little fibers floating around. I bet I inhale and swallow way more plastic every year than I eat, but I never see it mentioned.

Anyone capable of sending such a thing would have more than one home, plenty of time to respond, and likely some kind of automated military hub every X light years as an early response force. We certainly would if we could.

You seem to have a good grasp of this. Do you have any thoughts on the effects this will have?

If China is discounting their goods, and consumers are paying for the tariff as taxes, then there is additional strain on China's ability to compete, which might bring back industry here, but more likely to Mexico, which is now getting the same treatment.

US taxpayers are basically now paying a more efficient form of taxes, since it's a tax on behavior we want to reduce, and it's largely offloaded from the consumer by the Chinese price reduction.

On the other hand, I only like tariffs to offset anti-competitive tactics. Given a little time, government will get hooked on the revenue source and US manufacturers will get soft from having hobbled competition.

I think you see it pretty well. I share your concern about US industry getting soft, but overall I think bringing back industry is a worthwhile endeavor. The jobs are good. The ability to resist supply shocks (for example an embargo, such as when China cuts rare earth access) is important for national independence. The government will be hooked on one revenue source or another, and this is probably one of the better choices.

The US has been in denial of anti-competitive tactics. This has been a problem from day #1 with China. We always get promises of otherwise, and we always get the same anti-competitive tactics, and until recently we do nothing about it.

Mexico is other problems. Getting Mexico to care about the problems has been difficult. Perhaps this will get them to care.