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Comment Re:Automation tax (Score 1) 31

That makes it about as accurately named as the chicken tax. Which is on light trucks, not chickens.
Also, the minimum charge just really doesn't make any sense.
I'd rather do something like a capital tax that puts the money collected into a permanent investment fund, where the proceed from that goes towards a UBI.

Comment Automation tax (Score 1) 31

How do you define "automated"? What about stuff worth less than $1? It sounds like a roundabout sales tax more than anything else.
Automation can be everything from an injection mold all the way to a "lights out" factory where there are so few workers inside that they just turn the lights off to save money.
It might be closer to having some sort of infrastructure/capital tax as a better measure - shift from payroll more towards capital investment. Something like rather than paying 15.3% for FICA, start dropping that to 14% or less, making employment cheaper, while taxing the value of factories and such, as a sort of side measure of the amount of automation. Start at 1% or so. Basically, I'd concentrate on making social security solvent (not slowly going broke), so don't drop FICA taxes while slowly ramping up the capital taxes until that happens. After that, find a balance.
I acknowledge that even that would be complicated as all get out, of course.

Comment Re:I wished I had enthusiasm for this... (Score 1) 88

1. Energy requirements to keep a car sized object airborne is totally handleable. I mean, just about every commercial jet is a lot bigger than a car.
2. Noise pollution - can be handled

The real problems is, as you mentioned, training, as you'd need a pilot's license for it, and that development has continued for both planes and cars - such that a hybrid between the two is going to be very lousy at both. It's not going to be crash resistant like a car, nor fly as well as a dedicated plane. The engineering for that is too much at odds with each other.

That said, have you seen the development stuff for drone taxis? Basically, there are places looking to sell flying taxi services using upscaled quadcopters.

Comment Re:I wished I had enthusiasm for this... (Score 1) 88

We actually passed break even a number of years ago, so "never going to get more out than you put in" is already proven false.

Now we need sustainability, and a much better than break-even such that we can generate more electricity, enough to justify the plant.

I'm still not convinced that it wouldn't end up being like the scifi back in the '50s or so where the power plant ended up being on Antarctica and shipping power to the entire world because, well, it's a system that scales UP well, down not so much, so the practical plant design ended up being darn near terawatts.

Comment Re:This means ... (Score 1) 44

I think that it might help with the problem of "searched for X product, researched it, and purchased it last week, now get inundated with ads for said product, even though it's a durable good like a vacuum that one isn't going to need again any time soon."

With enough intelligence, they might figure out that maybe they should show me other stuff for 3 years or so. That said, my vacuum has lasted over 10 years, and I'm a bit different in that I insist on a bagged vacuum. But that's something that AI might be able to figure out.

Comment Re:This was addressed (Score 4, Informative) 244

Strangely silent? I'm assuming you're referring to MSN, not MSM.
Childhood obesity plagues NY. Will new bill targeting false, predatory food ads curb it?
Antibiotic exposure before age two linked to childhood obesity
This is stuff within the last week on childhood obesity. I trimmed some duplicates. Go further back, there's articles on India launching a fight against it.

On autism - I'm seeing articles on how it's commonly overlooked in girls, how the Scottish government is failing, having a 3 year waitlist for a non-verbal child to be assessed, a rock singer paid to have it done sooner, etc...
This Is The Evidence-Backed Reason Why Autism Rates Are Rising, published 3 days ago.

But this increase doesn’t mean that autism is growing faster than what should be expected. Instead, experts explain that increased awareness, wider research, and clearer diagnostic criteria are likely responsible for the increase—along with adults who are receiving diagnoses later in life.

So they're saying it's not due to diagnosis method, but improved screening, IE more kids getting tested.
Childhood diabetes:
Childhood diabetes rates are rising globally. How does Europe compare?

Doesn't seem to be "strangely silent", but more a "steady stream of articles on the subjects"

Comment Re:This was addressed (Score 1) 244

Uh, the development of diabetes is actually linked with bad cases of COVID at this point.

http://health.clevelandclinic...

"Within a year of recovering from a COVID-19 infection, people were about 40% more likely to develop diabetes"

Now, this is complex stuff, so it's always possible that people on the edge of developing diabetes are more vulnerable to getting sick from COVID, but COVID causing it is also possible at this point...

Comment Re:Next: Iocane Powder (Score 5, Informative) 42

While it isn't covered in lower level biology classes much, antivenom treatments were actually the first antibody treatments available. It's only recently that we've used antibody treatments for diseases such as COVID.
Basically, an antibody is simply a protein that binds to a target protein and has a marker on it basically saying "eat me!" Ideally, said antibody will bind to the target protein in such a way as to disable it. IE a viral particle with an antibody on it being unable to inject its payload because the "tube" is blocked.
Venom is mostly made up of a number of nasty proteins. Having antibodies that attach and neutralize the venom plus marking it for cleanup helps.

Comment Re:up 24% in Europe (Score 3, Informative) 180

Do you have a citation on this? Last I'd heard, fuel was a rounding error in the operation of a nuclear plant.
I can easily see reprocessed uranium fuel being twice as expensive as fresh though.

And talking about 'reprocessing thorium' makes me think you haven't studied the issue. You breed thorium, not reprocess it.
Any thorium reactor is going to have processing involved. It is part of the design.

Comment Re:Why so many? (Score 1) 186

Why not? Amazon does free delivery, Walmart does with a minimum order, and I don't see Costco still being under that amount with 2 carts of anything. Looking, Costco isn't deep on delivery yet, though they have it.
All the stores I shop at do delivery.
Or you can do what I've done. Shop at store, order delivery off the app.

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