1 angry person with $800 in CRISPR and AI

1 angry person with $800 in pangolin cages and time

1 company with a billion chickens and a drive to cut biosafety costs

  >The U.S. did one test shot

"Nine were for the purpose of developing an ultra-low fission thermonuclear explosive for use in nuclear excavation projects and one each was for the development of special emplacement techniques and for a small diameter, ultra-low tritium producing explosive for hydrocarbon applications such as Rio Blanco."

[0] Table 1 on page 7 (PDF page 11) https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/408695

  >It seems quaint now,

So even if you only care about carbon emissions, it can still make sense to skip the stop even if it causes slightly more total fuel burn.

  >In my dreams, my ultra-advanced car would open the windows when braking to get two benefits in one.

https://www.fastlanecars.com/blog/wing-windows-history-and-c...

https://www.ccjdigital.com/trucks/article/15749837/the-story...

You could quickly flip it open with a servo when braking, controlled by a differential thermostat so it only pulls in air when the outside isn't too much hotter than inside. I think you actually want a negative thermostat offset, because even if it's a couple degrees warmer you still get moving air.

Compared to rolling down the window you don't get the loud buffeting sound, it acts as a really good aero-brake, and it pulls in huge amounts of air. There's the downside that it will preferentially pull in air around intersections, where traffic pollution tends to peak due to braking and accelerating (EVs help but there's still brake and tire dust).

Love this honestly. It has definite "shitty project" potential...

https://www.airbus.com/en/newsroom/stories/2026-07-extending...

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/923529

On some surfaces they use a SpaceX-designed coating called Low Reflectivity Black, which is the least specular space-rated paint by a factor of 5.[1]

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNc5yCYth5E#t=2430s

[1] https://starlink.com/public-files/BrightnessMitigationBestPr...

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20100039645/downloads/20...

Check out the interview with Dr Bernie Cohen, who did a lot of the early epidemiological work. The interviewer is rather woo, but the professor is as hard-nose a scientist as you could hope for. It makes a good pair because it let him correct misconceptions.

Long story short, Dr Cohen became unpopular after his data showed home radon levels to be negatively correlated with lung cancer risk. The more radon, the lower your risk of lung cancer.

Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhkBLhw-8pk

Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuUFiUoynPo

https://ttu-ir.tdl.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/f8ca865b-1...

  > And to the extent that the censorship was justified, yes, at the very least we were legally in a properly declared war.

"You might say it's different since we were at war, but this ignores how the threat model and immediacy is very different in the UAE vs here in the (geographically well protected/isolated) US."

In the UAE these laws are (equally) "proper" and "legal," so I don't see how the presence or absence of a formal declaration of war makes any difference here, or meaningfully responds to my point above.

  >In most of the world such photos would be deemed of public interest and shared 

You might say it's different since we were at war, but this ignores how the threat model and immediacy is very different in the UAE vs here in the (geographically well protected/isolated) US.

Battle damage assessment, especially if it's timely, is critical information in any conflict. This is especially true for modern drone-based / hybrid asymmetrical conflict.

[0] https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2001/spring/m...

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Censorship

That study is interesting because they used SEM to image the plastic afterward, and you can see how the plastic surface has literally been torn up on a microscopic level simply by touching hot water.

Plastic has a low-energy surface, which means it doesn't take much energy to tear it apart. Even Brownian motion is enough, which is pretty wild.

If you need to filter "one and done" (like pumping air into a hospital operating room), that's where you need HEPA. Most home air purifiers mix the clean air back into the same room, so MERV is closer to the ideal sweet spot.

It's also important to buy reputable brands of MERV filter, ideally ones which have a large number of folds (surface area) like the 3M 1900 MPR. In recent testing about half of filter brands scored well below their claimed MERV rating:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKAVek1YaSQ

Positive pressure systems are great, love 'em, but there's a quantitative mismatch in this case. Above ~1 ACH your HVAC costs will go through the roof (even with heat/humidity recovery), but for effective filtration you need 6-8 ACH to catch the larger dust before your lungs do.

I too would like such a "shy" air purifier, but manufacturers always seem to go the other way: when occupancy is detected they increase the fan speed.

Best option IMO is just to get an air purifier with a good CADR-to-decibel ratio and then (again) size it correctly. A surprisingly good option is something called the Airfanta 3 Pro, which is basically like those wildfire filter boxes except it uses PC fans.