> It is also possible to terraform Venus, although much more difficult than for Mars.

We are facing an existential crisis in the form of climate warming on Earth that we are unable to address properly. The thing is, terraforming Earth is the easiest thing to do: we already live on it, it's already liveable. Mars, Venus or any other body in the solar system is magnitudes harder to transform on almost every aspect.

So unless humanity demonstrates it can tackle the easiest terraforming endeavour that be, anything else is firmly in the science fiction realm.

Geoengineering of Earth is remarkably easy. The reason it’s not already being done is political, not technical or even necessarily economic. For less than NASA’s budget, it’s possible to do things like stratospheric solar radiation management. See: Mount Pinatubo. Some places (Florida, etc) have already made laws prohibiting it.

As far as being science fiction… obviously? Terraforming Venus is a very long term project. It’s scientifically possible but hasn’t already been done. I guess I don’t understand what “science fiction” is supposed to mean. Like, Jules Verne writing about long distance underwater submarines? Trips to the Moon launched from Florida?

Exactly. I used to be a lifelong fan of anything space. But right now it is limited to people conducting actual science to get a better understanding of our universe. All the dick-swinging billionaires and geopolitical vanity projects of going to the Moon and Mars are utter follies. Every billion spent there, a waste of money that could be better spent. And I am not even talking about outer atmosphere ultra-rich people tourism in literal penis rockets. Utter pollution and waste. Let's wait to colonize other planets until after we get our own house in order.

I really doubt your veracity about this. It’s literally illegal for billionaires to geoengineer the Earth to stop global warming (at least in several states). Doubtless you would also object to that as well. In which case it’s not actually about solving Earth’s problems but about not liking those who are doing it.

Billionaires could trivially fund uncontroversial projects like planting trees or solar electrification, especially in the developing world, both of which would help stop global warming. But I'm not holding my breath waiting for Elon or Larry to start doing either of those things, or anything else that would actually help mitigate or reverse climate change.

There are a lot of complaints about the environmental consequences of data centers. Musk is investing heavily in putting data centers in space.

Which is, it should be said, also a dumb idea and a waste of money.

Which has also been said for every one of his enormously successful businesses.

Musk could spend 10 or even 100 billion on more down to Earth efforts without affecting his quality of life in the slightest. Instead he's promoting a self-serving idea, one that relies entirely on his own rocket-company infrastructure.

Putting data centers in space is also a dumb idea due to the difficulty of dissipating heat, solar radiation, maintenance challenges and more.

I don’t understand this. Elon thought of a way to virtually eliminate the land, heat, water, and energy impacts of datacenters, and because it makes his companies money instead of being non-profit, this is bad?

Maybe I do get it. It’s not about the actual impact. It’s entirely about performing. Profit (which is literally just a measure of whether the return on something is greater than the inputs) is somehow evil, but losing money on something (ie it costs more in inputs than its outputs) is good.

> Elon thought of a way to virtually eliminate the land, heat, water, and energy impacts of datacenters

He has yet to do any of this. He had an idea that plenty of others have had, and have mostly dismissed due to concerns with feasibility. Granted, orbital DCs could one day be feasible with enough investment; I will not pretend that it is impossible. But for him to pretend that it is a solution for today's problems is at best the folly of a wealthy idiot and at worst a cynical attempt to juice the value of SpaceX before its IPO.

Elon has been called an idiot for every single one of his ventures. Again and again and again.

Maybe he'll fail this time. Maybe he'll figure it out.

But I like the fact that he is trying rather than spending his money on mansions and yachts.

> But I like the fact that he is trying rather than spending his money on mansions and yachts.

Don't worry, he's doing that, too. And I'd dispute that he's trying; I've seen the SpaceX S-1, and it's looking like he took a successful business and rolled some failures into it to move money around. Everything is just a vehicle to make him wealthier; I don't believe anything he says in regards to helping humanity with his ventures.

I wish I was as "dumb" as Musk is. Long before Musk, I fantasized that if I was a billionaire, I would blow it all on a mission to Mars. Musk is living the dream. I bought shares in his companies just to share in the dream a bit!

Yes, I don't care about these selfish sociopath billionaires, and certainly wouldn't want them to geoengineer Earth. Perhaps pay their due tax to society would be a better idea. Fixing Earth might include having a system where people don't get to be billionaires and soon trillionaires that dominate the planet.

Parts of that article are just downright terrible.

First, the criticism of Electron is moot. Yes it's not sleek, but it's sufficient. This app is not supposed to be used heavily on a daily basis. Run it once to setup your drive, run it a few months later for a firmware upgrade or a quick health check and that's all. And when you had a taste of the absolute UX monsters some hardware vendors can produce on the software side, really an Electron app feels nice.

But it gets more ridiculous. Embedded fonts? God forbid companies enforce their own design guidelines in their software. Translations? Fuck non-English speakers. User guide with screenshots? The audacity.

While your point is valid, it makes an even stronger case that it should be easy to uninstall

Software should be at least as easy to uninstall as it is to install, so yes.

Please tell me you're a Microsoft customer.

Being efficient in watering golf courses in the desert in certainly nice, but maybe it's time to question having over 50 golf courses in the desert with an impending massive water shortage.

That's definitely questionable, but a drop in the bucket. Irrigation for all the farms in the desert is using vastly more water.

This might depend on the country for EU. In France especially if you're an adult, getting an appointment for a diagnosis is either extremely long (public health sector delays regularly exceed one year), very expensive (over a 100€ out-of-pocket) or downright impossible (if you're in a big city you're fine, some places don't have anyone available at all). Sometimes it's a combination of those (yay).

And then if you're getting medicated, another whole world of fun begins (restricted prescriptions, shortages, etc)

You're talking about Paris here, not France. Even 'big' cities like Rennes or Nantes I never had to wait more than a week or two, and in the small city I live in I usually get appointments within a week (but I'm in a high QOL area so we might have a large concentration of specialists), and never out of pocket. But yes, in some areas you will have to drive up to two hours before finding a specialist.

Hey this is not my experience. Getting an appointment for my daughter - in France - was a few weeks wait. But also the whole diagnostic was around 500€, barely touched by the Sécurité Sociale and totally reimbursed by the insurance (mutuelle). This was in a minor city.

> over a 100€ out-of-pocket

My understanding is that you typically pay something like this in the US for a specialist visit even if you have insurance, especially if you haven't already paid the year's deductibles.

Fellow ADHDer here, I'm not a smoker but long before I was diagnosed, lyrics from a song of my favorite band/artist hit me particularly hard. It was Drag by Joey Cape/Lagwagon, a song about the struggles of smoking. Here's the part, especially the last two lines.

  The drag on the next one
  Is something I can look forward to
  Something to slow the synapse
  Something to do with my hands

I'm lucky enough to be properly medicated now and to have been shielded from smoking by a combination of favorable family environment, a great pediatrist back then and great prevention efforts in school, because if not I'm pretty sure I would have been a heavy smoker. The need for mental peace and focus was just too strong.

This was my first thought. Why TP-Link, why now? Looks like another extortion scheme from POTUS.

Our first terraforming goal should be the Earth, not the Moon, not Mars.

I.e. we're all threatened by the climate catastrophe and if we're not able to fix the planet we're the most fit to inhabit, the rest is just absolute lunacy.

He didn't need to own Twitter for this, so even if you give Musk some slack about his God-awful opinions, his (real and hypothetical) achievements are still not a good reason at all to stay on X.

They also need an outlet for all the garbage they generate, hence the transformation of Sora into a shitty social network.

Well no. French person here. While this verdict is a great victory for democracy in itself, a lot of problems around it are still not solved.

- Prosecuting white-collar crime still takes ages and takes over a decade, long after the resulting sentences have a real impact

- People like Nicolas Sarkozy have powerful media relays (most of the TV/newspaper owners in France are friends of him or at least sympathetic) and they can smear the judgment, smear the judges in the media with impunity

- His allies are currently in power, he was invited for a short discussion by president Macron and got a visit in prison from the minister of justice Darmanin, which reeks of favoritism

So the road ahead is still long, and I'm not even talking about current political climate which is horrendous.

Although, as you note, it could always be better… it is still impressive that your system seems to be overcoming 2 and 3.

compared to most countries you are still doing great!