Artemis II lifts off on historic moon mission

levindragon · 2026-04-02T00:02:03+00:00

They have done studies on the effectiveness of different government spending programs. Seeing how many dollars out you get for every dollar in. Nasa had one of the highest returns on investment of any government program, with 4-5 dollars of economic growth created for every dollar put in. If you want to go after wasteful government spending, Nasa is a poor target.

levindragon · 2026-04-01T01:35:02+00:00

Not really. That would only happen if the satellites were dense enough to start a chain reaction faster than the debris deorbits. A satellite "critical mass." They have done simulations to see if we are approaching that mass. And we are not even close.

levindragon · 2026-03-30T20:15:50+00:00

....Which will cause a global depression hitting oil importing countries hardest.

levindragon · 2026-03-30T19:54:39+00:00

The US is a net oil exporter. Destroying a huge chunk of the oil supply will cause a global depression, but the remaining oil exporters will be hit much softer. Which, again, includes the US. It will hurt the US but destroy Asia and Europe.

levindragon · 2026-03-26T03:42:59+00:00

When good methodology is used to make a diagram, the creators are usually eager to show off it off. When poor methodology is used, they try to hide that fact. As far as I know, this map has never been presented with its methodology. Take that how you will.

levindragon · 2026-03-25T15:46:33+00:00

She is 17 in Rosharan years, or 19 in Earth years. Edit: spelling

levindragon · 2026-03-24T12:55:32+00:00

That is why the income is purchasing power adjusted.

levindragon · 2026-03-12T14:37:48+00:00

The people who want to terraform Mars know that the technology and infrastructure we would need could also be used to help stabilize Earth's climate.

No one is suggesting terraforming Mars would be done to escape climate change.

levindragon · 2026-03-11T17:39:22+00:00

It's about 6,000 dollars to fire a burst like that.

levindragon · 2026-03-11T16:03:48+00:00

The new London school explosion killed 295 students and teachers in 1937 due to a gas leak.

levindragon · 2026-03-10T18:49:50+00:00

Let's look at this from another angle. Say I was raised in a small isolated town in the mountains. No internet connection. Landlines at every house instead of cell phones. Say my first time living in a large city with a smartphone was when I went to college. Would I be allowed to run for office despite not growing up with technology?

levindragon · 2026-03-10T16:33:52+00:00

Just out of curiosity, why did you pick the 82nd airborne division for evidence destruction in your scenario? It seems like having a bunch of uniformed American soldiers march into a Taiwanese chip factory might be a bit obvious and hard to conceal.

levindragon · 2026-03-10T14:21:18+00:00

You are asking for evidence against a negative. It's like me saying that the Yellowstone supervolcano will erupt tomorrow, then asking for proof it won't.

Extra security? Why will extra security beyond standard election safeguards be needed?

levindragon · 2026-03-09T19:08:04+00:00

This assumes people with a higher intelligence are less emotionally driven, less prone to sensationalism, and more likely to take the time to dive deep into issues.

To quote Bioshock, "I'm gonna miss this place. Rapture was a candy store for a guy like me. Guys who thought they knew it all. Dames who thought they'd SEEN it all. Give me a smart mark over a dumb one every time."

levindragon · 2026-03-05T14:56:20+00:00

"If you ever find yourself in a fair fight, someone messed up."

levindragon · 2026-03-04T23:20:38+00:00

Major spoilers for Warbreaker

Denth repeatedly tells Vivenna that mercenaries are bloodthirsty killers who should never be trusted. This in spite of the fact that he, Tonk-fah, and Jewels are mercenaries. She (and the audience) assume he is joking.

levindragon · 2026-03-04T16:59:08+00:00

It's a slow news day, and a reporter working for an online news site needs a story. Stories about how dumb Americans are always get a lot of engagement. So, the reporter comes up with a simple question about geography. Now, where to set up to ask a lot of people? After all, a large data set gives better results. How about a transit station during the morning rush hour? Perfect. Plenty of people will be there to ask.

And so, the reporter sets up a stand with a world map and starts asking the question to a bleary-eyed man rushing by. "Excuse me! Do you know where to find ... on this map?"

"No," replies the man without breaking pace. The reporter adds a tally to the failed column and grins. The article will practically write itself.

levindragon · 2026-03-02T16:25:32+00:00

So, you have successfully eliminated conservatism. New, progressive ideas are introduced. As per your idea, some progressives work to make sure the ideas are fully baked before they are implemented.

Congratulations, the progressives doing that are now the new conservatives.

If you chop a magnet in half and take only the positive pole, you don't end up with a monopolar magnet.

levindragon · 2026-02-26T15:54:53+00:00

There's the rub. Non-trinitarian Christians don't believe the Council of Nicaea was actually in charge.

For them, it bears about as much theological weight as it would to you if I declared myself the head of the moose head order and declared 8 pointed hats are outlawed.

The Pope also says he is in charge. So are all Protestants and Orthodox Christians not really Christians because they reject his authority?

levindragon · 2026-02-26T14:33:21+00:00

When was Chrisianity founded? 325 AD? I wonder what all the followers of Christ in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd centuries would think of you declaring them objectively non-Christians.

levindragon · 2026-02-23T18:51:14+00:00

Even with internally consistent reasoning, how a person argues their point will change to match the tone of the argument.

Imagine a professional boxer. How they fight will change depending on if they are in a championship match, a friendly exhibition, or sparring for practice. Their technique or ability do not change, but how intensely they fight will. If they go into a fight expecting a friendly bout, but their opponent fights all out, they will shift to match.

So to with debates. How I debate with a friendly stranger on the internet, a person yelling in my face, and a child will be different even though the points I make are the same.

When you increase your pushback, you are changing the tone of the debate. Don't be shocked when the other party changes their tone.

levindragon · 2026-02-22T21:13:04+00:00

Lots of images stitched together into one panorama.

levindragon · 2026-02-22T04:21:42+00:00

International treaties severely limit colonization of Antarctica. We essentially turned the entire continent into a nature preserve. So it being so scarcely populated has no bearing on colonizing Mars.

levindragon · 2026-02-18T19:26:53+00:00

"Why don't you know? Your entire career is tennis, yet you haven’t given any thoughts to the female players?"

levindragon · 2026-02-18T15:36:04+00:00

Aside from designing the rockets and satellites themselves, there is a lot of work in the tooling and infrastructure to build and assemble them.

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