Still live here. For the last 40 years. And haven't ever seen a rat.
Now mice is a different story. Dont often see them running around but dang it, by the amount of mouse shite in my parked RV over winter, there are a ton of them. They poop EVERYWHERE.
I went to college with a guy who said he was going to build a submarine. I thought it was a bit out there, but he was a driven guy.
40 years later I had a random call from his brother and asked about his sub dream. Turns out he not only built one, he built an entire company and his company has been building the SportSub for over 30 years now. Several hundred of them exist.
100% agree. As a former airline employee at a major airline, I've given up flying altogether. I've heard the 'but driving to the airport is more dangerous than flying' argument a zillion times. That's not the point. The point is that flying has become incredibly intrusive and uncomfortable and the fact that in addition to being treated like cattle, having to endure the security theatre, the indignity of being rushed around only to sit and wait, cancels/delays, rude people and or belligerent or mentally disturbed flyers, ug... it's just not fun anymore.
THEN add on the fact that there's a one in a million chance your plane may open up and accidentally cast you into the abyss and I say, just give me a car, my snacks, my music, my full seat, and the ability to stop and use the washroom when I want and Im good to drive across the country. Flying bites.
> I've heard the 'but driving to the airport is more dangerous than flying' argument a zillion times. That's not the point.
That's not YOUR point. The head of this thread (although to be fair, didn't SAY, but implied) he was swapping planes for safety. And that he's still flying, just on a different plane model, seems to reinforce that it was THEIR point.
Am 62 and have a large Meccano set in storage. All metal pieces, no plastic, and no "kits", just booklets of projects you could build from a simple cart to a huge gantry crane. Looks like the 'new' Meccano is basically an assembly kit for a pre-designed model. Pish posh lol.
Fascinated by that toy growing up, I credit it to a large part with having a very good grasp of basic engineering. Levers, pulleys, wheels, axles, gear ratios, bracing, structural integrity, load dynamics... all learned by doing while still in elementary school. There aren't many toys that can teach those skills on a screen, not like building and testing actual equipment.
I will pass it on down to one of my grandkids some day and hope they grow up loving engineering and creating mechanical dreams like I did.
Judging by the number of silly youtubes of bozos driving their Teslas while pretending to sleep, there's definitely a slight extra danger factor for a car that advertises as 'full self driving' but doesn't.
Well, to be fair, the 'high demand' was at a much lower price, and it was also four years ago, when money was flowing much faster and interest rates were rock bottom. Things have tightened up economically a great deal since then. Not that it will matter to most CT buyers as its a halo vehicle - bought far more by "look at me" wealthy car buyers than practical replacement for a Ford F350 diesel tow vehicle.
On the flip side, Im quite impressed that Musk has actually delivered any at all. I fully expected him to say the truck was not buildable, but he has defied the odds and actually built them. Well, 10 of them that we know of anyway. He gets full credit for tenacity and giving his detractors the middle finger, which seems to be his superpower.
I do think the CT will remain controversial - and quite rare. Which will be just fine for most of its tech bro owners. They didnt just want an electric truck or they would have already gone out and bought a Rivian, the Lightning or even a Hummer. They want a shiny stainless steel gadgety CyberTruck. Because that's what tech bros like. To each his own.
Btw, the only feature that actually surprised me was the 240v outlet in the truck bed. Didnt think it would have that. Other features like 4 wheel steering were already available from Mazda and Honda's in the 1980's although they never considered a desirable feature due to the added complexity and cost. And I will say the rear view camera being on the center screen seems like a significant BACKWARD step for safety compared to an actual rear view mirror - taking something that works perfectly well and changing it to something thats actually viewed down and inside the cabin instead of in your line of forward sight seems highly questionable. But thats the CT for ya - make it techy because its cooler even if its less safe.
I like the design. Not quite sure how they figure its going to reduce THAT much space as the video seems to show a single motor WITH controller and inverter being removed and four new motors replacing it, but nothing else. Isn't the ultimate version of this just in-wheel motors, as per Aptera's design? No CV joints, no transmission needed.
I guess it does distribute placement of components but in essence it seems to be a fancier version of a CV joint. Very cool, but I dont see the ground breaking revolution in drive systems.
My personal result was quitting 10 years on reddit and giving up my worthless but substantial karma.
The next result is that I noticed I became less argumentative in real life and tend to keep my opinions to myself more, all in all much appreciated by those I love. And my mental health is better.
The next result is that in going back occasionally to scroll through reddit it seems MUCH more obvious to me that almost every post is designed to incite anger, controversy or judgment. It didnt feel nearly that obvious before.
And there are some clear indications that bots are running rampant. Especially r/AITA (Am I The Asshole) where EVERY post is now almost exactly the same length, written about some situation that is quite stupid or rage inducing that its hard to believe that anyone would bother to respond. But they do. Im guessing they have an intern pounding away at ChatGPT for 10 minutes to create the next 100 AITA's
Lastly, Ive migrated to tildes.com, and much smaller community where I was/am startled to see that people can communicate politely even when they disagree and rage baiting does not exist. Its not nearly as busy as reddit was and the topics are far more limited but the quality is miles above the poor posts that now permeate reddit.
Ah. Its nice to know my worst nightmare has already been in a video game from 25 years ago. I guess I'll just go outside and stare at squirrels for awhile.
I don't see anything credible there about nation-states currently engaging in this research. I think generally it does not appear to be a productive line of research.
Preventing a database from existing isn't gonna stop people with that capability. If they can make the targeted virus, they can forcefully obtain enough genetic samples from their targets to determine the information they need to do so.
The idea that a small technical road block will protect society from horrors is misguided.
Like it wasn't great for people that were identified in government registers as being in groups that the Nazis targeted, but they would have made up targets just the same of there were no government registers.
