Favorites October 13th 2024
One great description, "Like parallel parking a Skyscraper". If you're wondering why they're catching the Starship booster instead of using landing gear, it's because they add extra weight, which reduces payload capacity at approximately a 5:1 ratio. The tower itself is like a giant set of landing gear, and by leaving it on the ground, they can carry more payload. The difference between the bs coming out of Tesla and the huge successes of SpaceX are enough to give you some cognitive dissonance. Some people say that everything at SpaceX is actually run by the COO? Anyway, SpaceX already holds the crown for lowest cost per KG to low earth orbit by far with the Falcon9 and Falcon Heavy. Starship being reusable could bring the cost down another order of magnitude.
The amazing technology of the elevator allows more people to have both a view of the beach and also live close to it.
Of course, Fred Armisen would be willing to pass judgement.
Longer Reads
• A thread debunking a letter from climate scientists opposed to permitting reform. (src)(cached)
Flotsam and Jetsam
– Some people worry that high speed rail will be bad for the communities it goes through. In Japan the viaduct under their HSR has tons of nice shops. (src)(cached)
– If FEMA is out of money, that's because Republicans want it that way. (src)(cached)
– Check out a graph of number of US drone strikes by year. Before opening it, try to picture what you expect it to look like. (src)(cached)
– Great article by Noah Smith on why everyone might be wrong about how AI will affect labor income (src)
– Energy prices have been falling or flat since the 1960s in real terms. They've only gone up in nominal terms. (src)(cached)
– 90% of Floridians believe climate change is real, but only a minority would be willing to pay an extra $10 a month in taxes to strengthen infrastructure against climate hazards. (src)(cached)
– Former CEO of Cruise outlines what he thinks you should be looking for to judge a robotaxi company's progress. Surprise, Tesla seems pretty far away by these real-world capability measurements. Musk thinks they'll be deploying soon in CA, but that seems crazy unlikely given the reporting requirements in CA. (src)(cached)
– A new paper argues that the spike in temperatures in 2023 were caused by an unusual El Nino / La Nina combo rather than by the SO2 Emission drop. We'll find out this winter if that's true or not. (src)(cached)
– The claim that Norway's wealth tax lowered tax revenue seems to be false, and based on made up data. (src)(cached)
– Bus lanes are also used by emergency vehicles. It was a marketing misstep to not name them "Police and Fire Hero lanes" which can then also be used by buses. (src)(cached)
– Of manufacturers that make both EVs and ICE cars, Jaguar has by far the highest ratio of EVs to other cars in Q3 2024. Someone is buying a lot of Jaguar I-Paces? (src)
– US Homebuilding has been speeding up the last few quarters, and rents have stayed flat. Relatedly, the only 5 metro areas with median rent over $2000 are all in California. (src)(cached)