There are systems available to stabilize and/or boost commercial satellites which have expended their on-board fuel, but of course Congress would never allow NASA to use them since none of their REAL constituents in the MIC would make enough money. Besides, Hubble data insists that the universe is more than 6,000 years old so there's no real interest in Congress to maintain it in orbit.

If the grotesquely wealthy upper class which rules us really wanted to do something good for society they'd fund the mission themselves out of the change from their couch cushions, but by and large they're all just blah-blah-blah.

Indeed, and the purity of the CO2 used in this prototype system is exceptional. I've read elsewhere that the process for purification they developed is a novel technology which they will almost certainly use for this and other processes, and which will quickly spread throughout Chinese industry. That's apparently how Chinese industry works, one company develops something in a technology cluster, it spreads throughout that cluster, and then throughout the entire country. This author calls it an "open source economy".

https://kdwalmsley.substack.co...

Economists and governments have known for centuries about Knowledge Spillover. This is what happens when we put large numbers of people and companies in the same geographic area, working in the same or adjacent industries. In these industrial clusters, innovation happens fast, because when one company does something that is revolutionary, the knowledge is quickly shared.

Silicon Valley is one of the best examples in the United States of this, where new technologies and applications are discovered every day, and companies are always suing each other over who really developed what. And it’s of course impossible to prevent customers from comparing what different suppliers are doing, or to stop employees from talking to their neighbors and friends, or quitting one company to start work at another and take his experience with him.

The same dynamics that built Silicon Valley were put into action here, but at orders of magnitude higher, and everywhere. When China was developing, just 30 years ago, their industrial planners built hundreds of clusters across China, in every single industry. These clusters share resources and logistics and supply chains, and universities were built to supply engineering and research talent.

Not coincidentally this was when much of Congress was replaced with lawyers employed by the financial industry. It's been downhill since then.

Of course, no one is pretending that it won't. There is one way to definitively figure out what works, that's to do it. While in the US that requires 10 years of committees, studies, VC soliciting, government subsidies and financial industry butt kissing in China they can say, "We've got this idea, and this is why we think we can make it work" and they're off to the races.

The groups "countries without any oil" and "countries with resources to work on new energy solutions" have four overlaps: Taiwan, Japan, South Korea (all in thrall to the US and Wall Street/banksters) and China. Of course the latter is where this (and most of the rest) research is being done.

It's unimpressive for an Amazon facility anyway, about 1/4 of one of their medium-sized Fulfillment Centers. Wonder if 229,000 sq ft will be worth installing solar on the roof, all of their FCs over a million square feet get them.

After 80 years computers may have arrived at the intelligence level of a cockroach now. That may sound like an insult, until you consider that it took Ma Nature over three billion years to get to that point.

Then your dog isn't too bright. Not to be mean, but some are smarter than others, just like every type of animal. I've had some very intelligent dogs who learn remarkable things, and others who were nice animals but of only average canine intelligence. Of course I could say the same thing about chickens, some are smarter than others.

On the other hand, it might be just an issue with the owner . . . :-)

I've been surprised to find that the long-believed correspondence between brain size and intelligence really doesn't exist. This was demonstrated to us by, of all things, hummingbirds. With a brain smaller than a pea they can recognize us, tell us when the feeder needs refilling, sit with us as we have breakfast or lunch on the patio, complain when we prune plants which have flowers they like (even if the plant isn't flowering at the time), and tease the dogs. The males also flirt with my wife, although for some reason most male birds seem to do that.

Unfortunately those same people are still allowed to vote.

Was at a party one time where some skinhead was showing off his new racist head tat. Someone asked why he got it on his head and he said, "When I have kids I can grow my hair and they'll never see it.

Someone nearby started laughing uproariously and said, "You idiot, both your grandfathers and you father were all bald by the time they were 40!"

If I need something a foot tall the wander around the house and trip over, well, I already have a dog.

Not sure what they were thinking, Alpamayo is one of the most dangerous climbs in the Andes. Beautiful mountains, but the death toll of the Cordillera Blanca is appalling. A single 1970 avalanche covered the entire town of Yungay and killed an estimated 20,000 people, while earlier avalanches have wiped out multiple other towns.

I wouldn't fuck them with YOUR dick, much less mine.

Really? Covering up the Gaza genocide is a leftist position now? Supporting the Iraq war was leftist? Burying stories about Dow, ADM and Monsanto was leftist? Pretending that no one could predict the Mortgage Meltdown or the Dot Bomb so no one should be prosecuted was leftist? Etc. etc. etc.

Yeesh, I'd hate to see what it takes to qualify as 'right wing' in your book.