• 181 Posts
  • 906 Comments
Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: January 2nd, 2024

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  • First of all, fuck capitalism. Its the origin of this problem.

    Second of all, until we can abolish capitalism, it will remain the case that labor is treated a commodity and wages are therefore subject to supply and demand.

    Third, most jobs in USA pay sub-poverty wages. Its wage slavery. Salaries need to increase.

    Therefore, policymakers looking out for the economic interests of the working class should do everything they can to create labor scarcity, including shutting down all immigration (decrease supply), abolition of taxation on small businesses (increase demand), and direct government subsidies for nationalized large businesses to achieve economies of scale in strategic sectors (increase demand).






  • Rods from God deliver the energy of about 12 tons of TNT.

    For comparison:

    The British used 12 ton “Tallboy” bombs, carried by Lancaster bombers, in WWII against submarine pens.

    The “Little Boy” nuke delivered the energy of 15,000 tons of TNT.

    Some modern ICBMs carry 10 warheads, each of which delivers the energy of 475,000 tons of TNT.

    One benefit of dropping a tungsten telephone pole from orbit is that there’s no good way to stop it, because its just a chunk of metal moving very fast. Hitting it with a missile might scratch the paint, but won’t significantly alter its course.

    The main drawback is the expense of getting them into orbit. Falcon 9 can lift 2 of them if the poles are cut in half to fit under the fairing, at a cost of about $70 million. That does not include rocket engines, fuel, and targeting computers needed to get those 2 tungsten rods out of space and onto target.









  • Its about time! There’s nothing a permanent space station orbiting the moon can do, that a fleet of rotating Starship-class vehicles can’t do better.

    Forcing lunar landers to rendezvous with the station before attempting a landing just wastes fuel.

    Forcing a cargo ship to rendezvous with the station also wastes fuel - if a lander needs to top off its tanks before attempting a landing, why not dock it directly to the cargo ship? And then return that cargo ship to Earth to be refilled and reused again and again as a temporary supply depot.

    Hopefully they’ll fully cancel the Senate Lunch System program soon too!










  • When people talk about “smart thermostats” in this context, they’re saying they want the utility company to be able to set the temperature in your house in exchange for pennies off your electric bill.

    By reducing the delta between peak and baseline energy demand, the utility can sell the power generating facilities that only run & earn income on the hottest/coldest days but which are a constant expense even when they’re not running (i.e. most of the time).

    The plan is to make poor people uncomfortable on the hottest and coldest days in order to lower everyone else’s electric bills.