I’m glad my concerns about these suits were overblown! They look like a big improvement over status quo.

Pretty confused about why SpaceX released this - it’s a vague, whiney, entitled message, even if they’re right!

Parts of the regulatory process are clunky, and the goals of an environmental assessment don’t always align with the goals of SpaceX - that’s the point. I’d be concerned if the company was happy with the process.

I don’t want to write an essay right now. I know it’s messy, and the process needs to improve. I just wish SpaceX had brought receipts before starting…whatever they just started.

Wasn’t expecting such beautiful shots at midnight in the desert!

This is probably going to be so boring, but I won’t be able to look away.

Thanks, the stories I’ve read have made it hard to piece together this timeline.

This makes a lot of sense! I’m going to give it another shot with these insights in mind. I think if I frame it as a future-facing tool like you describe I’ll avoid a lot of my previous mistakes.

Thanks for explaining :)

This is really helpful, thanks!

I think I need more practice with knowing when to create a node. In the past, every single entry would look like this:

I went to [Alice] birthday party and met [Bob]. We talked about [clouds].

And that got very cumbersome. I like your suggestion of using back links to create a better summary document.

Got it, I see what you mean. Thanks for this!

I keep failing to make Zettelkasten and org-roam work for me. Do you use a single knowledge base for your whole life, with millions of tags and pages? Or should I be making separate directories for each project? Is the “daily journal” the best place to put everything, with well tagged entries?

You don’t have to answer all of those!

This is how I feel. This is a wonderful moment where a switch to Dragon is easy and safe. Starliner is probably fine, but Dragon is clearly safer right now. Who cares about ISS scheduling changes and modified Starliner certification requirements?

I just checked prediction markets and they seem to think Starliner has a 20-30% chance. I think that’s way too high.

Interesting, thanks for explaining. I agree with the aspiration but maybe not the practicality?

In a perfect world elections would be about hard policy discussions, but in 2024 policy barely matters. Campaigns don’t even release real platforms any more. The first party to take the emotion out of politics would lose horribly, because so many voters respond to it.

Personally, I also like when people acknowledge that policy discussions impact real people. I think there’s an important role for displayed genuine emotion in rational discussion.

I also don’t think that what we’re discussing is relevant to Gus Walz. We have every reason to believe that was a genuine and beautiful apolitical moment.

I don’t think I understand. Are you suggesting that it’s impossible to prepare a speech about something you care deeply about?

Or are you saying that people only cry the first time they tell an emotional story?

I’m sure there are people with those experiences, and maybe you’re one of them. If it helps, I can attest that there are “well rehearsed” stories that I’ve told dozens of times, and I still cry during each telling.

NieR: Automata

For some reason this New Scientist cartoon lives in my head. Maybe because it challenges the way I think about the future? Or maybe it’s just cute.

Original source, by Tom Gauld

Thanks so much for doing this! I almost forgot to enter.

No worries! I had actually decided not to buy the bundle because the separate VR listing on Steam confused me, so your comment was very helpful.

For those curious like me, the VR version will be a free add on:

We’re integrating VR mode into Escape Simulator! This means every owner of Escape Simulator will automatically receive the ES:VR version for FREE.

Thanks! I wasn’t aware of the async option, but it sounds useful. I’m a weirdo who likes playing boardgames against AI, so maybe I’ll read some reviews.

Thanks for this! Do you know if many of these are viable as single player experiences?

I wonder how predictable the thrust reduction is. I would have thought they could account for this in software, but maybe there’s too much uncertainty. Or perhaps ground tests showed the seal can fail in dangerous ways.

If NASA defers to its fallback plan, flying on Dragon, it may spell the end of the Starliner program. During the development and testing of Starliner, the company has already lost $1.6 billion. Reflying a crew test flight mission, which likely would be necessary should Starliner return autonomously, would cost much more.

Through this lens, I get why they’re taking their time with the decision.

I was firmly in the “nothing is actually wrong and the media coverage is silly” camp, so this report is pretty shocking.

If there are real engineering reasons (as opposed to anxious bureaucrat ones) that Dragon needs to rescue them, this seems like one of the bigger crises in the modern era?

Will wait for more details, but clearly I was wrong about media coverage!