I think they also have an EMP effect that can damage ship/sat electronics.
But, like the internet, a sub is a series of tubes. You have a big horizontal tube that the people and the engine lives in, and you have vertical ones where the things that blow up cities live.
I mean, there are optional smaller horizontal tubes, but I feel like if you’re going to launch a sub into space it really ought to be one of the big ones. Maybe it’s just a Freudian thing.
Not all states support recalls. California kind of goes all in on the democracy thing with the ease of introducing ballot initiatives and recalls and such. It’s mostly fine, but it can also result in pretty stupid plays like this.
Those incidents really disturbed me. I’m glad they’re doing this.
I’m still really worried about where things are heading, to the point that my partner and I are looking at golden visa programs in anticipation of having to leave the US permanently.
Did you leave Kahn and his followers out on purpose? They basically got transported. Maybe it’s an edge case, but I would consider being exiled to a planet and not being allowed to leave as a kind of incarnation.
I am someone who believes that multilevel selection is a primary driver of evolutionary dynamics and works at levels ranging from the organism to the ecosystem (at various levels of effectiveness). Kropotkin is nice philosophically, although he is read about far more often than he is read. That’s entirely reasonable, because his theories provide a foundation for lines of investigation we still pursue today but are obviously outdated, as are the ideas of everyone whose work predated discoveries like genes.
If you want a more modern view on the evolutionary benefits of cooperation, I would suggest starting with Harvard biology professor EO Wilson, who specialized in ants and ended up concluding that humans were in fact a eusocial species - unique among primates and one of very few on earth. He invented the field (or at least added additional formalization to the study) of sociobiology - the evolution of social behaviors. It’s the same category as ants and bees. For an anthropological and cross-cultural perspective I’d suggest Graeber. For a mathematical and economic perspective, I’d start with Sam Bowles. For the foundations of pro-social behavior in primates, I’d recommend Frans de Waal.
I’d be happy to try to answer any questions on the subject.
I understand the sentiment, but the reason is that most voters don’t have the bandwidth to even really learn about their federal representatives, much less their local politicians. Having a letter next to your name is probably the least amount of relevant information you can convey. It’s basically one bit in a two party system.
It takes a lot of time and effort to be an informed voter. When ballots arrive, I can spend hours on sites researching the legislation and candidates, and even then most of what you’ll find are press release types of statements with generic phrasing. You end up learning to hear dog whistles and using those, unless the candidate/initiative is big enough that it gets attention in the local press.
At this point, if someone is running as a Republican, I am going to assume that they’re a supporter of the LGBT-phobic, misogynistic agenda embraced by the national party. It is the party of Trump now, and they take a firm stand against everything I agree with. I appreciate the signal, even if it is a single bit of information, just in case I can’t find anything on the candidate.
Honestly, I grew up watching the original series and it was extremely formative. I can’t say that I’d never have become a scientist without it, but it did help shape my concept of myself and the way I relate to the world, and how I’d like the world to be. In fact, when next generation launched, I originally didn’t like it because I was such a fan of TOS.
However, looking at it objectively, I think that TOS holds mostly nostalgia value. I wouldn’t recommend starting there unless you have a thing for campy TV and mid century modern design themes. If you’re interested in seeing what all the fuss is about, I’d start with the second or third season of TNG or one of the later series like DS9. TNG takes about a season or two before the writers and actors start to figure it out.
If you’re really more modern-oriented, you could start with the JJ Abrams movies, which are modern action movies in the ST universe.
The main thing is this: you can start pretty much anywhere. There will be backstories or call backs that might slip past you or inside jokes that you miss, but it’s more important imo to get on board with the franchise by starting with the stuff you find enjoyable, rather than getting turned off by elements that are dated or don’t resonate. Once you have that context, you can move back and forth between all the series and movies and enjoy them more.
Think of it like Discworld. It’s a series of novels written such that you can jump in anywhere and read them forward, backward, or sideways. It’s not like Lord of the Rings where you really can’t just start with the last book because there’s a single story being told in multiple parts.
I’m going to take a slightly different approach, although I generally agree with all of the advice here.
Establish an emergency fund. If you’ve been living paycheck to paycheck and do not have a significant amount of money in accessible savings, you’re taking a risk of not being able to handle something like a car repair or unemployment. Withdrawing funds from tax-advantaged retirement accounts can take time and incur significant financial penalties. The rule of thumb is to figure out what you spend in a month, and plan on an emergency fund that can carry you through 6 months of zero income. Some people do less, some do more, and if you’re really thinking about it you can figure out what expenses you can cut in order to make those savings go further.
Putting money into a matched 401k is a no-brainer, and going with an index fund or retirement date fund is the easiest way to go. However, realistically examine the expected savings by the time you plan to retire. This tells you how much you’ll be able to draw down and for how long. I’m going off of memory here, but I think the consensus safe draw down rate is 4% per year. That means $1M in retirement savings will give you about $40k per year to live on (not including things like social security). Depending on where and how you live, this might be sufficient. You’d have to plan for it though, which is my point.
There are plenty of retirement calculators online to help with this. You enter your age, when you want to retire, the amount you’re saving, and it will tell you what your savings will be when you’re 65 (or whatever) and how long it will last at different draw down rates. Some will let you estimate things like rate of return too. Be realistic.
Realize that the closer you get to retirement, the more conservative your investments should be. To paint with a very broad brush, low risk=low reward, high risk=high reward. The further you are from retirement, the longer you have to recover from a downturn. Look at the retirement date targeted funds - they move over time from a more speculative set of investments to a more reliable one. What I’m saying here is that you’ll read things about being able to plan around a 10% rate of return. That’s the average for a stock based portfolio, and it can swing around quite a bit. Individual stocks have a higher risk than an s&p index fund, and the index fund will have a higher risk than a conservative, income-oriented fund. Remember that when you’re using those retirement planning web sites.
Even in downtown San Jose you’re talking about seven figures for an ancient craftsman with outdated electric and plumbing. Willow Glen, Los Gatos, Cupertino, you’re pushing $2M.
If you’re willing to commute from way up in the east bay, you can do a bit better, you’re right, but if you’re commuting to a South Bay company you’re paying for it in travel time and stress.
And tbh, I was stationed for a bit near Dublin. I can’t swear to what the prices are like now, but man, now that I’m out of that line of work I’d choose to live in East SJ or the peninsula instead.
But those are super reasonable prices, I will happily admit, and if you work in SF the commute might be worth it. We just need much more mass transit.
From the Bay Area, $1.5M will get you a two bed one bath or three bed 1.5 bath home built in 1925 or so. You can buy in a lower end neighborhood for a little less or a higher end one for a bit more, but the standard is going to be a craftsman home from 1906 with a driveway if you’re lucky.
I think the graphic also used a 20% down payment and a slightly over 6% mortgage in the calculation.
I just want to retire and move someplace cheap, like NYC or London.