And this right here is the greatest obstacle to long-term change in the current administration's policies on Palestine - because instead of taking a win, the left shouts "look at this bitch eating crackers!" Not to mention your sprinkle of conspiratorial thinking here.
It's clear to anyone who follows the issue but the Biden administration has been moving further and further from Bibi. Not fast enough, but the protests and campaigns are working. The right wing is clearly terrified of them - look at how overwhelmingly they feel a need to put negative coverage on it. But the actual Gaza supporters are the ones shouting loudest that it's a waste of time?? A self-fulfilling prophecy.
Politically it's no-win. Morally it's also no-win; things will be worse for Gaza with Trump in the White House. But people like you are here to tell their allies to give up. Cool.
The problem with flying cars is that it's doubling down on the same faux "freedom" ideal that the car lies about personifying.
Even setting aside the safety/technology concerns, if we actually could have flying cars, the result would rapidly be a society where you MUST have your flying car to function. We'd get the Jetsons and it would be horrible. People would be even more isolated ant antisocial in their lives. People would be even more dependent on big box megastore corporate overlords because local industry would be dead instantly.
And anyone who couldn't afford or didn't want to be in a flying car? Too fucking bad, because the sky congestion would still be real and the only way to avoid it would be to ensure everyone's points of conflict were WELL spread out. The faster a free-moving vehicle goes, the more space it needs clear around it to function safely, after all. They'd definitely adjust zoning and building codes to make sure the flying cars weren't running into each other, causing huge, massive sprawl. No city would be able to afford the infrastructure costs of the ever-expanding road system -- they already can't, after all -- so they'd do the logical thing and get rid of asphalt connection entirely. Fly or be offroad. And once those land connections were dead, nothing would inhibit the spread-cycle anymore.
Any way I imagine it it would be fucking horrible.
At least for North America, it's really more a story about the housing crisis and fake-rural suburban sprawl than anything.
Sure, you'll get those doe-eyed types -- usually wealthy folks -- that talk about wanting to quietly live out in the countryside with no one and nothing anywhere near to them. But most people don't want to move somewhere so inconvenient, at least not if they have to actually face the disadvantages of it (like unpaved roads, no municipal sewer/water, unreliable internet/electric, long trips to highway big box stores for even the most basic necessities, etc).
When push comes to shove, most want to live in an actual town. Maybe not a huge metropolis, but a place where you have knowable neighbors, convenient shops, basic city services, restaurants and bars, and all those things. A place where you don't have to fight through a 30 minute highway commute just to get a loaf of bread.
But they can't. We have vanishingly few functional towns. Instead, we mostly have massive cities with tons of amenities but which you can't afford to live in, vast sprawling "suburbs" and "exurbs" of said cities that are completely parasitically dependent on their host city to function and aren't places in their own right, "small towns" which are just weird little growths off of an interstate offramp with no meaningful local industry of their own.
When your choice is an unaffordable metropolis, a "small town" which is nothing but national chains huddled around a place a major road crosses a highway, or the inconvenient but affordable "exurbs"/countryside, the comparison gets bad. It's all just a byproduct of our incredibly bad housing policy -- policies that favor national builders spawning whole subdevelopments out of thin air over local infill, policies that make it nearly impossible to build modest density/mixed used places, policies that care more about the financial products the housing underwrites than actually homes. Policies that rob people of choice and instead push them to all live a weird, unnatural way that violates thousands, tens of thousands of years of human development.
These advantages you see in office commutes... aren't advantages of office commutes. They're advantages of good urban living. And the idea that you wouldn't live in a city if not for a job forcing you has such intense American energy I bet it drives a lifted Ford F150 covered in bad eagle decals.
~60% efficiency, I believe? Not far off from pumped hydro in terms of overall efficiency.
The extraordinary cheapness of solar energy has actually made some real green hydrogen commercially viable in the US, especially in conjunction with IRA subsidies. It's hard to overstate how huge the inflation reduction act has been at promoting transition and renewable technology. The hopeful new tech developments in the field of green hydrogen would be "peaker" electrolyzers -- current economics make it pretty hard to have a viable electrolysis plant without having it operate at very high utilization rates. Truthfully, the issue is more one of financing than technology, though tech developments could change that picture. Far better to run electrolyzers than curtail a renewable generation source and I have no doubt this will be a major transition industry.
The bigger issue is that there are no remotely viable hydrogen aircraft. Theoretically, maybe one day, but maintaining liquid hydrogen tanks is impractical even for automobiles. It makes even less sense in the goddamn sky. Revolutionary new tech would need to happen before this was a viable option for airlines. So this kind of plant is probably smarter to be producing e.g., ammonia, especially since some major shipping companies have already signed contracts to build ammonia-fuel cargo ships so the demand will definitely exist.
Unfortunately, there's no carbon-free alternative to flying in the near future. Which is why the best approach is to minimize flying. The EU way is the right way; pick busy flight corridors and focus on them for high speed rail.
Now look at the top 3 US flight corridors. Last I looked, it was LA-Las Vegas, Hawai'i-Ohahu, and Atlanta-Orlando. Brightline is currently deploying high speed rail service for that first route. Flawed as hell service, but service nevertheless. The second is probably always going to be stuck to flight (but also, less tourism to the islands would benefit them tremendously either way). The third has huge potential to be built out into a rail corridor (Brightline Florida already has plans to expand to Jacksonville and an Atlanta-Savannah Amtrak route is already in development -- would not be hard to close that gap).
Even without accidental site leaks, the infrastructure itself leaks terribly. Residential fossil gas systems are constantly venting tiny amounts of methane from throughout the system, with occasional major issues that can go days or weeks without notice until a sniffer van or something like it catches it. This happened at my house just recently -- my gas was fully capped off the week I moved in, but a guy showed up now several years later from the utility and said he was there for a detected leak and he had to remove the meter and re-cap everything. The whole time trying to convince me that gas stoves are better than my undeniably-superior induction one.
For all I know it was venting at a decent clip this whole time. Nothing I could really do about it. It's not like I was checking the meter what with my no service, and as far as the guy could tell the leak was from before the meter anyway.
And it'll get worse as the systems are used less. A smaller subscriber base means these companies will inevitably cut repair and maintenance budgets, leading to more leaks. More methane. The only safe and sensible thing to to have public takeovers on them and then immediately start working to decommission.
Propane's a different thing. It's just trading in bottles. Those bottles will keep being available for a long time and are, frankly, not a major emissions source. Still one we should get rid of, but it's not a low-hanging fruit. Propane is also still one of the more climate-friendly refrigerants, so it's definitely sticking around.
As far as people in situations like that relying on fossil gas distribution infrastructure... one way or another they're going to be left holding the bag.
Electrified appliances are almost universally better for consumers both in quality and economics. Electrification and gas-free new construction will keep happening. Keep accelerating.
The infrastructure of gas is already built. It costs a lot to maintain it even as poorly as they do. As fewer ratepayers are using the system, the remaining ratepayers have to pay a larger and larger share of that cost -- making the gas even more expensive and an even worse choice for consumers. Inevitably, the poorest folks who cannot afford to replace their appliances but also cannot afford to keep using gas will be left behind. That's the reality of the privatized system we have.
I feel bad for all the people who are going to get fucked, especially since for many it was bogus that they were saddled with fossil gas in the first place (e.g., bribes to builders/subdevelopment managers).
Google loves to have entirely ai-driven moderation which makes decisions that are impossible to appeal. They are certain that one AI team lead is more valuable than 20 customer service agents. Meanwhile, YouTube shorts is still a pipeline to Nazidom and death by electrical fire.
Might be the worst customer service in the tech industry, though that's a highly competitive title.
They also don't offer replacement parts (even major parts like the charging case) for their headphones. So I guess they're intended to be a disposable product. Evil shit.
If you've ever had an entirely positive interaction with Google customer service... you'd probably be the first.
The reality is, there are meaningful cultural differences between even relatively nearby geographic groups of Japan -- though it is hard to deny an appearance that they are shrinking. The goal of all this "one culture one language one people" stuff is a soft genocide of these diverse groups to make administration of the state simpler by eliminating sources of friction.
The same shit happens in every authoritarian state. China, Russia, Hungary. No one thinks there was only ever a single ethnic group in North Korea, but that's likely the reality of what remains there today. It's an impulse of right/conservative thinking -- to view those outside of your tribe as enemies and diversity as a threat to your way of life.
Police and private security throng every entrance but one. Steel barriers line the streets. Students pack up belongings in their cars and leave for home - classes are cancelled, and exam plans are up in the air....
Literally makes more sense to fill the fields with solar panels and just do electrolysis to make hydrogen/ammonia. It nearly makes more sense to do the same with DAC plants to "make up" for regular old jet fuel.
If we actually care about aviation emissions, there's a solution: less aviation. Best way to do it: intercity high-speed rail. Bonus points, it will make for a more comfortable, pleasant, affordable world in the process. Let's start with LA to Vegas... oh wait. So since trains in Hawai'i probably don't make the most sense, the next target is Atlanta-Orlando... and go figure, there's currently an Amtrak route being built to Savannah and Brightlight already has plans to connect to Jacksonville, so finishing that route wouldn't be terribly hard either...
We try sooooo hard to come up with these techno-wizard solutions that we lose track of how simple and straightforward the actual problems are.
The dumbest thing is that some of the best greenfield urbanism in the country is in Florida (places like Seaside, which may be failing on their promise but are at least trying to do the right thing). They're building first-class high-speed rail (no, Brightline isn't really private -- they function only because of vast support from the FL government). They have huge solar buildouts that are certain to continue scaling up simply by market forces. All things that, on paper, could look like they were totally climate-motivated even though they really are business-oriented.
And yeah, they also have things running opposite to all of this. Florida IS objectively the worst urban/transportation design in the country. They're committing to use more fossil fuels for literally no reason other than Desantis's war on woke. They're forcing/subsidizing insurance companies in order to keep vulnerable people living in places that won't even exist in the coming years/decades.
Even still, they have tons of things that could be part of a "climate action plan" which are just activities they are already doing. They could be real schmucks here and take the money without changing any behavior. They're refusing to do so for entirely partisan reasons.
And the truth is, Desantis is (politically) right to do so. Once that transition money started coming in, it will built constituencies for renewable projects and emissions-reducing operations. It will motivate people and money to do the right thing, and in so doing create more inertia for doing the right thing. As the actual people of Florida experienced tiny, visible improvements to their lives motivated by this money, they'd become more open to the idea of doing more of it -- weakening the power of the anti-science authoritarian right that currently run roughshod on the state. To a dictator, any loss of power is an injustice that must be avoided at all costs.
The further irony is that most of the red states where people make a big deal over this shit overwhelmingly run electric. Running fossil gas infrastructure was something that largely was only done in the rich and progressive places, originally. Even in those red states a lot of the places that have gas are a little urban areas that lean comparably or entirely blue.
Republicans care deeply about their right to keep their gas stoves irrespective of the fact that they didn't have them in the first place.
The main force fueling all this handkerchief wringing is obviously just lobbyists for the gas industry though. I'm sure that goes without saying but I'm going to say it anyway.
One note for anyone getting ready to switch to a heat pump water heater themselves: the fuckers are pretty loud. Make sure it's somewhere where the noise won't bother you when it's installed.
Newer models are getting quieter but the damn things are almost as loud as a small, modern window air conditioning unit when running.
Mine was installed right in the dead center of my house. Works great but I have to close several doors to not hear it at night (and I have it set up to mostly run overnight, though in someone else's situation it might be possible to have it run while everyone is out of the house at work or some such instead).
Extreme energy use for pretty low deltas on temperature. Best possible efficiency is 100%, far less than the 2.5+ cop a heat pump unit will get you. If it's at all manageable, get the heat pump.
Frankly, their inefficiency means the emissions they cause are still pretty bad unless you know your energy source is more renewable than most.
But they don't need venting, which is nice. They do take a big fat electrical connection though - the one I installed was two 2 pole 40a breakers - hopefully you have at least 200A service. Mostly they work as intended.
Musk told workers that Tesla "will continue to build out some new Supercharger locations, where critical, and finish those currently under construction."
Sounds to me like the plan is to finish what is already under contract and do no more. I sure am glad the US authorities committed to that north american charger standard... what's even the status on getting a full specification for it including third-party development at this point anyway?
I can't pull a quote for the new vehicle development team's situation because Tesla basically just keeps making the Model 3 with barely even incremental improvements to it, and even that one has totally inconsistent build quality vehicle to vehicle. Unless someone thinks the Cybertruck is going to save them -- hah.
I don't think the wacky was the probable, nor was the juxtaposition of the incredible darkness of the plot against that wackiness. Any of those elements could work and well -- it's honestly Waititi's specialty (that's exactly what made Jojo Rabbit and Hunt for the Wilderpeople so great -- that they were attacking deeply, deeply dark themes under a safe and protective umbrella of silliness).
What made Love and Thunder fail is just that it wasn't made very well. The writing was kind of poor and it didn't tie into much of a greater story. You can never save a movie from bad writing and it just had vaguely bad writing. Always feels like the writing is the first cost these projects try and trim when it should be the only one they never do.
And worse, 2 of the great actors of my lifetime were totally squandered.
In my opinion, the audience was never convinced that Portman's character was actually suffering and addicted to the hammer, which made the sacrifice of what she was doing totally uncompelling. She's capable of playing that role, but instead they turned who should've been the hero into a total sidekick.
I was also entirely unconvinced that Bale's character was... wrong. They literally had to make the plot about him gathering a bunch of children to murder in order to convince us to dislike him. His backstory was so convincing that his revenge felt like a quest to root for. He performed the character well enough to make you sympathize with him, yet they just had him kick a puppy to make his heel turn. Weak.
On the one hand, Project 2025 is deeply terrifying. It's a recipe book for full-blown authoritarian fascism in the US. And its stance towards climate may actually herald in an ending of this phase of human civilization because of how monumentally, mindblowingly stupid and evil its contributors are.
On the other hand, Trump would never do what he was told. He would never be organized or deliberate enough to carry it out. He'd just keep tweeting all day and being completely, psychotically capricious. So at least I know that particular cake is unlikely to be baked.
The really obnoxious thing about all this stuff is that Biden's record on climate is excellent. It stands on its own, even before comparisons to the pure anti-science madness of Trump. Which progressives mostly don't even know about, and even the ones who have a vague idea he's done something often hand wave it all as insufficient or misguided without bothering to know even the most basics of basics about the policies.
Climate is an existential threat and it would be hard to come up with any more effective policy for addressing it within the American system than the IRA and other actions Biden has somehow managed to get through a majority climate-hostile Senate. It's been excellent. Get out and vote for more of it or else we may all be doomed.
Biden withheld bomb shipment to Israel out of fear it could be used in Rafah (abcnews.go.com)
Here's what one of the first flying cars looked like and what the modern version has become (www.infoterkiniviral.com)
When it comes to new transportation ideas, the thought of flying cars is one of the most interesting
Forcing workers back to the office could be terrible for the environment (www.motherjones.com)
Can corn ethanol really help decarbonize US air travel? (www.canarymedia.com)
New documents show oil executives promoted natural gas as green — but knew it wasn’t | It's the first evidence of an oil company acknowledging that gas wasn't as climate-friendly as promised. (grist.org)
Local woman convinced that misogyny is no longer a problem thanks to man shouting "Not All Men" every time she talks (chaser.com.au)
I'd watch it (lemmy.world)
What Happens When a Romance Writer Gets Locked Out of Google Docs (archive.ph)
The governor of Kansas vetoed four anti-abortion measures. Republicans rammed them through anyway. (www.motherjones.com)
Biden calls U.S. ally Japan 'xenophobic,' along with China and Russia (www.nbcnews.com)
Columbia University community 'shattered' after police raid (www.bbc.com)
Police and private security throng every entrance but one. Steel barriers line the streets. Students pack up belongings in their cars and leave for home - classes are cancelled, and exam plans are up in the air....
Analysis: Trump explains his militaristic plan to deport 15-20 million people | CNN Politics (www.cnn.com)
A US push to use ethanol as aviation fuel raises major climate concerns (www.technologyreview.com)
Archived copy of the article: archive.today
Florida Says No to Federal Funding Aimed at Greenhouse Gas Emissions (insideclimatenews.org)
Water Heaters Use Lots of Energy. The D.O.E. Wants to Change That. The Biden administration is tightening efficiency rules for water heaters, stoves and other appliances (www.nytimes.com)
Washington Post coverage for comparison
Tesla to lay off everyone working on Superchargers, new vehicles (arstechnica.com)
hmmm (lemmy.world)
Chris Hemsworth Takes Blame for ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ Failure: ‘I Got Caught Up in the Improv and the Wackiness’ and ‘Became a Parody of Myself’ (variety.com)
Trump will dismantle key US weather and science agency, climate experts fear (www.theguardian.com)