The workloads are too high. Nobody running life-critical operations should be working 60+ hour weeks and overnight shifts. We've known for decades how these practices increase errors. One effective answer is to dilute the workload by hiring more people. But this slows the race to lower costs, so it isn't done. We need to spend more on people.

Around age 4, I learned how to flake spear points from a local flint deposit. That, string and Elmer's glue from mom & dad's repair goodies got me into the spear biz. Band-Aids were in demand.

A couple years later, I'd made arrows and single curve bows from pine branches and bowstring from braided water rushes. Flint knapping scaled down well to arrowheads and string+glue still worked.

Then I read about atlatls, and found new interest in my spears. Finally, I discovered slings, and there was no going back. I got good enough that in later life, I had no trouble crediting scientific studies that proposed early humans brought down a great range of game species with slings.

Alaska was a great place to be a kid.

I doubt we'll be pinched by tungsten shortages. The fusion application isn't going to come on for at least two decades. Smaller apps will be met by known reserves.

That said, it is a cool material. Looking for aluminum bars at Alan Steel (CA) years back, I was stunned when I tried (and failed) to pick up a 12" long by 6"diameter piece of what turned out to be tungsten misfiled in the aluminum section. Density, thy name is tungsten.

Here I've been thinking it's a hardware problem, like some sort of mechanical intermittent. Maybe not.

I do have 3 CVD gem brilliants (blue, pink, colorless, 2ct. each) that a local jeweler is putting into a 30th anniversary piece for my wife. That makes me grin in anticipation of the surprise gift - my kind of bling.

2025: - set up new facility for mfg of CVD diamond tech products - replaced awful old carpets at home with bamboo wood floors - lost 42 lbs (thanks, tirzepatide) - secured $ for a new CVD diamond system, build starts in January - road trip to see friends & family, some for first time in a decade

Wishing happiness, love, accomplishment and adventure to all!

For example, humans clearly have a window for learning their native language. It just happens, and it's nearly magical. But humans can learn non-native languages after that window slams shut. We vary in our ability to do that, but if it matters, most can pick up useful conversational and reading skills.

I agree it's a matter of research. I think we've barely begun to scratch the surface of what's possible.

IMHO, our understanding of autism, specifically, and neural development of the brain, in general, is rudimentary at best. It's too soon to conclude it's incurable.

Not an expert in the issues presented, but I see increasing numbers of single-point process failures, like what happened to Paris, being designed into our civilization.

But then he said - we close at 5pm, and there are no gates. OK, we can take a hint.

We drove to Hilo and bought cheap tennis and flashlights, then scurried back down Chain of Craters after 6. As the sky darkened, we walked towards the steam column. The rocks beneath our feet showed incandescent glows deep in the cracks, and we started to smell burned rubber from our cheap tennis. Eventually, we came to the lava outfall.

We watched nearly an hour as a river of molten rock cascaded into the ocean. We used our water bottles on our shoe soles, turning back when we ran dry.

I now understand that we were stupid - apparently the park loses a few tourists to shelf collapse each year - but we lived, and the memory is a treasure. Thank you, Mr. Ranger.

And yes, it's like being on a different planet - like being on our own, maybe 4 billion years ago.